Ava stared wide-eyed at Sara, John, and Charlie, then sank down into the chair behind her desk. "Let me get this straight," she said slowly as she processed her thoughts. "Tabitha got pulled out of the timeline just before her death, attacked the Legends in 1606, can harness the energy of the rifts for power, and is now running loose somewhere in history."
Charlie nodded. "That about sums it up."
Ava sighed. "Well, I guess it could be worse."
"It could be," John added, "and you've got Nora to thank for the fact that it isn't."
Sara pulled out a plastic bag filled with the splintered remains of Tabitha's broken staff and placed it on Ava's desk. "Nora broke her staff," she explained. "Without it, she'll have a hard time harnessing the rifts' power."
Ava picked up the bag gingerly and examined its contents. "That's good news. I'll have Gary stash this in the Time Bureau vault. We wouldn't want it falling into the wrong hands." She looked back up at Sara. "I trust Ray relayed my message to you. Tabitha couldn't have been one of the ones to alter the timeline because she was dead until it got damaged, but maybe someone else did it because they wanted to save her. Did you pick up on any clues as to who might have done this?"
Sara shifted her weight nervously. She glanced at John, then Charlie, then back at Ava. "I…uh…we need to talk about that, Director Sharpe."
Ava sat up straighter. "Yes? What about it?"
Sara inched forward toward Ava's desk. "It wasn't what you think," she said. "There were no criminals trying to wreck time by pulling it apart."
Ava eyed Sara curiously. "How do you know? Did you find something out?"
"Not exactly," Sara replied. She paused for a moment, then forced herself to take the plunge. "I know because…I did it."
An uncomfortable silence fell suddenly on the room. Ava's jaw dropped, but she closed it quickly. She rose from her chair and walked silently around the corner of her desk until she stood directly in front of Sara. She crossed her arms and looked at her with a mixture of confusion and disappointment. "Explain," she said sternly.
"I messed with the timeline," Sara reiterated, "and I created the rifts."
"For the record," Charlie piped up from the back of the room, "it wasn't all her. We all did it. Technically, it wasn't even her idea."
"Yeah," Constantine agreed. "Really, it all started when our resident shapeshifter got drunk in Tibet."
"Oi!" Charlie exclaimed, slapping his arm. "No need to get that specific."
"The team did work together to do what we did," Sara admitted, "but I made the final decision to go through with it, so if you're going to blame anyone, it should be me. But I didn't know that the rifts would be created, and it was definitely for a good reason, so if you would just let me explain, I'm sure you'd understand."
Ava looked down at the ground for a moment, then addressed John and Charlie. "Will you two please take the remains of Tabitha's staff to Gary's desk?" she asked. "I'd like to speak with Captain Lance alone."
Charlie hesitated and said to Sara, "Are you sure you don't…"
Sara continued to face Ava. "Take the staff, Charlie. You and John can go ahead to Heyworld when you're done delivering it to Gary."
Charlie and John shared uneasy glances, then obediently took the bag containing the staff's pieces and exited the office. Ava leaned back against her desk, her eyes still fixed on Sara. "You altered the fabric of time itself," she stated. "Why?"
"Just let me explain."
"That's what I'm doing now."
Sara took a step backward, hoping the space between her and Ava would alleviate some of the tension. "Did Rip ever tell you about the original team?" she asked. Ava nodded silently. "On our mission against Vandal Savage, we lost someone. For years, I believed he was dead. We all did. But, a little while ago, we found out that he wasn't…technically."
Ava arched an eyebrow quizzically. "Technically?"
"He was stuck in the timeline," Sara explained. "We found a way to pull him out. I knew there was a risk, but I didn't know that the rifts would happen. I just…I don't leave people behind. You know that."
Ava's posture relaxed a little, but she still seemed very concerned. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked. "The Time Bureau's job – my job – is to protect the timeline. You altered time itself. Didn't you think I'd want to know, just so the Bureau could be prepared?"
"Well," Sara answered calmly, "I wasn't really thinking about that. It was all kind of a rush…"
"You could have just sent me a text, Captain Lance. Or anyone else at the Bureau if you didn't want to talk to me."
"It wasn't personal," Sara immediately said. Except that I didn't want you to think I'm a screw up, she mentally added, though she didn't dare say so out loud.
"Well, that's good to know," Ava muttered. She spoke again at her normal volume, "I understand that you wanted to save your teammate. Really, I do. You've always put your teammates' needs first. That's why, if you had just let me know, I wouldn't have gotten in the way. I might've even helped you find a safer way to do it. But now…" She sighed. "…now, the Bureau's in chaos and the timeline's never been in worse shape. Plus, apparently, we've got Tabitha back from the dead. Do you see why we could've used a warning?"
"Now I do," Sara conceded, "but that wasn't really the priority in the moment."
"Then you could've told me right after," Ava said, her voice gradually becoming more emotional although she tried to resist it. "You could've reported that something may have been displaced from the timeline. At least then we wouldn't have had to waste time and resources looking for the culprit. How could you not at least think about that?"
Sara clenched her fists. "How could I not think about the Time Bureau?" she asked, the emotion in her own voice rising well above the level of Ava's. "I'd literally just found out that my friend – one of the best friends I've ever had, by the way – was alive after three years of believing he was dead. And then, I saw a way to maybe, just maybe, bring him back to reality where he belongs. So, no, I didn't think about the Time Bureau. I didn't think about the potential consequences to the timeline. I didn't think about anything other than saving him because, how could I? How could I think of anything besides him in that moment?"
Ava dropped her arms to her sides, surprised at Sara's sudden outburst. "Captain Lance," she said gently, "please calm down. I'm just trying to understand. This is a lot for me to process."
Sara closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again. "I know. I know it's a lot. If you want to arrest me for screwing with time, go right ahead, but I'm not sorry about saving my friend's life and I don't regret taking that risk to do it."
Ava shook her head. "Captain Lance, I'm not going to arrest you."
Sara let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Director Sharpe."
"You did what you had to do for your friend," Ava continued. "I'd have to be a pretty terrible person to be angry about that. I just…I just wish it had happened differently. I wish you would have told me." She looked away wistfully. "We used to talk about everything. And now you won't tell me anything, not even something this important. It's hard."
Sara was surprised at this sudden display of vulnerability. "Yeah," she agreed. "It is hard. Harder than I thought."
"Same here." Ava looked down at the floor again for a moment, then straightened up and addressed Sara again, this time with a slightly friendlier, though still professional, tone. "I'll call off the investigation," she said. "You and the rest of the Legends are off the hook. That being said, this is a very unexpected development for the Time Bureau. There are going to be a lot of implications to work through. Can I count on you cooperating from here on out?"
Sara's expression softened into a small smile. This was the first time Ava had talked to her with such an amicable tone since their breakup. It felt good. "Yes," she said, trying not to sound too eager. "Yes, you can. You absolutely can."
"Good." Ava took a step away from her desk in the direction of the door. "In that case, I'm about to hit my lunch break. Since we need to talk anyway, would you mind joining me?"
Sara stiffened. "Joining you…for lunch?"
"As colleagues," Ava immediately clarified. "I need to know what you know, and I have a feeling you want to know what I know. Strictly professional." She paused, then added uneasily, "Of course, if you're uncomfortable…"
"No," Sara interrupted. "Not at all. I'd…I'd like that."
"Excellent." Ava led Sara out of her office and through the Time Bureau toward the exit.
"Okay," Zari said, running through her mental checklist as she stood in the Waverider's bridge, "we've reached 1950. Gideon's given us a radius of where to expect the anachronism and rift to be. It's not that large of an area. I think we should leave someone on the ship in case something goes wrong."
"Didn't help last time," Mick pointed out.
"Actually," Ray countered, "I think that part worked out pretty well. We just weren't expecting, you know, Tabitha."
"Whatever," Zari said, dismissing their comments. "Since it's such a small radius, we should keep the temporal energy gun with us. Also, Ray's been stuck on the ship for two missions in a row. Someone else should stay this time."
Nora raised her hand. "I'll stay."
Ray turned to look at her. "Babe, you love going on missions."
"So do you," she replied. "You still stayed for the last two. If I stay on the ship, I can do research and try to find Tabitha before she finds us."
"Isn't Constantine already doing that?" Nate asked.
"Doesn't mean other people can't help," Nora countered. "Besides, I let her get away last time. It's my responsibility."
Ray shook his head. "It really isn't. Honestly, if anyone should stay, it's Snart."
Leonard looked at him sharply from where he had been silently standing against the wall. "What?"
"You got injured last mission," Ray explained. "I told you I still don't know exactly what happened to you and I won't know until we do more tests. It might not be safe for you to go out into the field yet."
Leonard held up one finger. "First of all," he said, "like I already said, I'm not your lab rat." He added a second finger. "Second, this mission is about my partner. That means you're not kicking me off."
"But…" Ray started to protest.
Nora placed her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "It's okay, Ray," she said. "I really don't mind staying."
"Then it's settled," Zari said decisively. "Nora's staying. The rest of us are going." She tapped a button on the central console. A three-dimension projection appeared showing a geographic area that included Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and several other surrounding buildings. "This is the radius Gideon calculated," Zari explained.
"Cool!" Nate exclaimed as he looked at the famous landmarks in front of him. Then, he corrected himself, "I mean, not cool, if something went wrong. That's a super important area. It contains two out of three branches of the federal government."
"Do we really need a civics lesson now?" Snart asked, rolling his eyes.
"Listen," Nate argued, "this is a big deal. An aberration at any of these sites in 1950 could significantly alter a lot of recent history."
"Nate's right," Ray said. "Do we know which building the anachronism is most likely in?"
"I do!" Mona exclaimed eagerly. All eyes focused on her. "Um…I mean, I have a guess." She pointed at the Library of Congress on the projection. "We're looking for a missing book, right? What better place to hide a book than in the biggest library in the world?"
Mick leaned over to look more closely at the projection. "You think Garima's in there, kid?"
"I think Brigid's Diary is in there," Mona clarified. "Just think about how easy it would be for someone to accidentally shelve it with all the other books. At least, that's my theory."
Zari looked up at the ceiling. "Gideon? Are we on the right track?"
"Miss Wu is correct," Gideon answered. "All records indicate one more book in the Library of Congress's 1950 collection than there ought to be, with no record of how it was acquired."
"Sounds like Brigid's Diary found its way in," Zari summarized. "All right, team. I guess we've got our work cut out for us." She took a step back as if to leave, but she stopped when she noticed everyone except Snart staring at her. "What?"
"Sorry," Nate said, "we're just used to Sara doing the thing."
"What thing?" Zari asked.
"You know what I'm talking about, Z." He imitated Sara's usual stance. "Grab your library cards, Legends, because we are going to…" He moved his fingers behind his ears as if stroking his hair, then turned them into finger guns pointed at Zari. "…check out a book."
Zari rolled her eyes. "Nate, I love you, but that was a little weird."
"That's just because it's Sara's thing," Nate said. "It's less weird when she does it."
"Pretty sure Sara would've come up with something better than that," Snart commented. The other Legends turned to look at him, surprised at his contribution. "What? Can't a guy have an opinion?"
Mona and Mick exchanged knowing glances. Mick turned away before anyone else could notice. Mona smirked mischievously, then did the same.
Zari clapped her hands loudly to get everyone's attention. "Hey! Guys! We have a mission here. Are we going to find the diary or what?"
"I want Garima back," Mick said.
"That's what I thought," Zari said. "Fabrication room in five. Let's do this."
