"I'm telling you," Mona insisted to Zari as they walked through the corridors of the Waverider, "they're totally in love. You saw how protective they were of each other back there."

Zari rolled her eyes. "Mona, you really need to stop pushing this. Don't you have anything better to do?"

Mona stopped walking and turned to fully face her skeptical teammate. "Zari, I'm the ship's unofficial official romance expert. I know what I'm talking about."

"Do you, though?"

"They're in love. Or at least very strongly in like."

"That's not a thing," Zari deadpanned.

Mona crossed her arms. "First of all, it is. Second, I know something's going on, and it seems like it has been for a long time."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"It's obvious."

"Not to me."

Mona thought for a moment, then grabbed Zari's hand. "I'll show you. Come on."

She pulled her into the nearest large room, which happened to be the library. No one else was inside. Mona called out to the ceiling, "Gideon?"

"Yes, Miss Wu?" Gideon's voice replied.

"Remember those clips of Snart and Captain Lance that you showed us?" Mona asked.

"Of course."

Mona looked back at Zari and grinned, then asked, "Do you have any more we didn't get to see?"

"Oh, I have much more footage than what you've seen. Captain Hunter kept careful records of everything that happened on board his ship, the vast majority of which are currently categorized as publicly available to those with access to the ship's files."

"Perfect," Mona said. "Can you show us another video then?"

"Yes, Miss Wu."

Zari raised an eyebrow as Gideon began to turn on the nearest screen. "Is this really a good idea? They could walk in and see…"

"Shh," Mona hushed her, pointing at the screen. "Just watch."

Zari gave up protesting and stared at the video footage that appeared.

The video started with footage of the cargo bay. Sara was alone, and from the look on her face, she was very angry about something. She threw knives at the opposite wall, one after the other, as if trying to take out her rage on it. When she finally ran out of knives, she grunted in frustration, and then walked over to pull the knives out of where they were stuck. After this, she returned to her original position and began throwing them again.

Leonard Snart entered the cargo bay. He watched silently for two throws, then drawled, "So, what did the wall do to you?"

Sara stopped throwing, but she didn't look back to acknowledge him. "Nothing."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Blowing off steam." She launched a knife forcefully at the opposite wall, then prepared to throw another.

"Because you killed some guys at a bank?"

Sara froze and looked as if she'd been caught in a trap. She slowly turned around to face Leonard. "How did you…"

Leonard held his hands up. "Calm down, assassin. I'm a thief, not a stalker. I heard you and Rip discussing it when we all got back on the ship. You weren't exactly whispering."

Sara lowered her gaze to the floor. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay. Don't." Leonard took a step forward. "But I'm not sure if cutting that wall open is going to help."

Sara looked up with a mix of curiosity and confusion on her face. "Why? Got something better in mind?"

"Sort of." He walked up until he was within arm's reach of her. "You're upset, right? You just want to let all that anger out of your system. That wall's one thing, but if you really want to start a fight…" He seemed to just barely hesitate before finishing, "…you can fight me."

Sara balked. "What? Why would I do that?"

"I saw the way you almost stabbed that guy in Savage's cult. Whatever's bothering you, it's not gone yet. Personally, I'm not the hot-headed type, but I've seen Mick like this plenty of times. He usually calms down on his own, but once in a while, he needs a little help, so I let him go a few rounds with me until he tires out. I'm sure the team would prefer not to live on a ship with an enraged assassin – myself included – so if using that energy on somebody who can actually fight back is what it takes to get you back in control of yourself, I'm giving you that chance."

She shook her head and sighed. "No…no, you don't get it."

"Think I can't handle it? I'm no League of Assassins alum, but I know how to fight."

"I could kill you."

"You could've killed me a hundred times by now if you wanted to. You haven't. And I'm willing to bet that you and your vigilante friends have sparred together before without killing each other. I think I can trust you to blow off a little steam without ending my life."

"Leonard, you don't…maybe we do need to talk about it." She took a step back from him, then explained, "It's called bloodlust. I've had it since I came back from the dead. It's like an urge to kill. It never fully goes away, but there are times when it's especially strong. I gave into it at the bank. I didn't have to kill those people, but the bloodlust took over." She waved a knife in the air. "And now I'm throwing knives at the wall because even though I managed to hold it in tonight, I still don't feel one hundred percent back to normal, so I have to do something violent until that urge finally finishes calming down."

Leonard stared at her blankly for a moment, then said simply, "Oh."

"Oh?" Sara repeated, almost laughing. "That's all you've got to say? I just confessed to being an out-of-control killing machine."

"That's not what I heard," he said. "You know yourself and your limits, and you're trying to do better. Doesn't sound like an out-of-control killing machine to me. Anyway, my offer still stands."

Sara took two more steps back, consciously measuring the distance between them with her eyes. "No. You don't understand. I'm dangerous."

Leonard smirked flirtatiously. "Oh, I know."

"No, I mean I'm actually dangerous right now. Bloodlust makes me want to kill – not just hurt, kill – people who are close to me. It's already made me attack enough of my other friends. If I fight you before I'm fully back in control, I'll be feeding it what it wants, and that'll only make it stronger." She noticed a subtle change in his facial expression as its usual coldness softened slightly. "What?"

"Nothing."

"Not nothing. What was that look?"

"What look?"

"You're wearing it right now. Don't play dumb." The two of them held eye contact for a silent moment. Sara didn't look away but broke the silence with a realization, "It's because I just said we're friends, isn't it?"

Leonard turned his face away from her guiltily, then tried to return to his original icy expression.

Sara smiled amusedly. "Seriously? That's what broke the classic Captain Cold scowl?"

"No."

"Aw," Sara teased, "it totally was. That's adorable."

"Shut up. No, it isn't."

Sara laughed, but her tone became more sarcastic than entertained. "Well, congratulations, buddy. You just became friends with a homicidal monster." She turned around and threw the knife in her hand. It landed in the wall beside the others.

Leonard's face softened again, but this time, there was a trace of concern that hadn't been there before. Something about what she'd just said clearly bothered him. "Don't say that," he said, his voice lower and gentler than before.

"Why not? It's true. If I can't stop myself from killing people whenever this thing inside me demands it, then what better description is there for me?" She looked back at him and seemed surprised to see the sympathetic look on his face. "And what's it to you, anyway? Why do you care what I call myself? You barely even know me."

"I know enough."

"You really don't."

"Sara…" He started to take a step toward her. She moved another step back to keep the same distance.

"No. Stop." She held up her hand, signaling him not to come closer. "Until I get this out of my system, I don't trust myself to be close to anybody. I barely held it together during the fight with Savage and the funeral. If I even lay a finger on you, that could bring it back to the surface and make me kill you, and if I killed a friend – because we are friends – I would never forgive myself. Ever. So just…don't come near me. Please."

Leonard stood there a moment. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't know what. "Okay," he finally said, still speaking gently. "I won't." He slowly backed away until he reached the back wall of the cargo bay. "Is this far enough?" he asked, his usual snarky drawl returning.

Sara stared at him in confusion. "For what?"

"You said you didn't trust yourself close to me. I'd say we've got at least eight feet between us right now, give or take a few inches. Is this far enough for you not to get a sudden urge to assassinate me?"

"I guess, but…why are you staying?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

"I…No. No, I don't," she said, sounding a little surprised at her own answer. "But…why do you want to stay?"

Leonard shrugged and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. "Doesn't seem like the best time for you to be alone." When she continued to look confused, he added, "What? If I'm not going to fight you, I've got to do something."

"But what are you doing? Watching me throw knives?"

Leonard leaned his back against the wall behind him and allowed his face to break into a very small half-smile. "You said we're friends. This is what friends do, right?" He grew emotionless again, at least in his tone and appearance. "Don't worry, I won't move until you say it's safe. Now go on, show that wall who's boss."

She stared at him for a moment, studying him. "You're full of surprises, Leonard Snart."

"Why, thank you," he returned with a playful smirk.

She quickly looked away from him, but not without subtly smiling back.

"Gideon, pause," Mona commanded. The frame on the screen froze. She walked up to it and pointed at Sara's face. "Do you see that, Z?"

Zari stared at the image. "See what? Sara smiling?"

"Smiling because of Snart. Cute, right?"

"You can smile for reasons other than being into someone," Zari pointed out.

Mona thought for a moment. "Okay, I guess that's fair. But how do you explain this? Gideon, rewind." The footage rapidly played backward until Mona said, "Stop! There it is." The video stopped on the image of Snart smirking as he called Sara dangerous. "You cannot tell me that's not a flirty look."

Zari studied the screen. "Well…sure. It looks like it. But I still think you're jumping to conclusions with the whole 'they're in love' thing."

Mona sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Zari, come on. I know you're not that oblivious." Her face brightened suddenly. "I know! You just need more proof! Hey, Gideon? Fast forward until they're talking again."

Gideon obeyed and the footage ran speedily through several more rounds of Sara throwing knives at the wall, retrieving them, and then throwing them again. Finally, she finished her final round and the footage played at its normal speed. Sara stretched her arms, then turned around to see that Leonard hadn't moved. She pulled the knives out of the wall, put them away in one of the many weapons cases in the room, and then walked over until she was standing right in front of him, looking down at where he was seated on the floor. He raised his eyes to meet hers. "Is my life in danger?" he asked.

"Not at the moment," she said. She moved closer and sat down on the floor next to him. After sitting in silence for a few seconds, she smiled and said, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." He turned to her and added seriously, "And I mean that. I plan on keeping Raymond terrified of me for as long as possible. Don't ruin that for me."

Sara rolled her eyes. "Okay, Leonard. Your secret's safe with me." She scooted an inch closer to him, still not quite close enough to touch him. All the same, he seemed surprised at how close she was and watched her with curiosity. Sara's expression grew serious again and she paused, then said, "By the way, I meant to tell you…Jax told me what you did today."

Leonard looked away from her, but he said nothing.

Sara leaned over to get just a little bit closer to him. "I'm sorry about your dad," she said solemnly.

He glanced back at her for a moment before looking away again. "You don't have to say that."

"But I want to. And I am."

Leonard leaned his head back against the wall behind him and sighed. "I guess time just really hates my family. Should've seen that coming." He turned his head to face Sara. "Time travel. You think it'll make everything easier, and then before you know it, your teammate's dead, you're on an immortal psychopath's hit list, and you can't even stop your dad from turning into a piece of crap."

"And then you end up sitting on the floor of a spaceship spilling your guts to an assassin with bloodlust problems," Sara deadpanned.

Leonard chuckled wryly. "Yeah, that about sums it up." He quickly added, "Not that I mind it. Talking to you, I mean. You're…" He studied her with his eyes as he tried to decide how to finish that sentence, but he seemed to get sidetracked because no words came.

After a beat, Sara raised her eyebrows expectantly. "I'm what, Leonard?"

"I don't know," he finally answered. "You're just…you."

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment."

"You should."

"Okay, then. Thanks." She stood up and looked down at him from her full height. "It's late. I'm going to get some sleep. You should too. I'm sure Rip's got a lot in store for us tomorrow."

Leonard shrugged nonchalantly. "Probably."

Sara gave him a small smile. "Thanks for staying. I mean that. And don't worry, I won't tell Ray." She turned around and walked out the door. "See you later, Leonard."

He smiled as he watched her go, though Sara was too far away to see it. "Goodnight, Sara," he said quietly.

As the clip ended, Mona turned to Zari, beaming with excitement. "That. Was. Adorable!" she exclaimed. "Don't you think so?"

Zari sighed. "Mona, you really need to find a new book to read."

"That's irrelevant. Was it cute or not?"

Zari hesitated, then finally gave in. "Okay, yeah, it was a little cute."

Mona pumped her fist. "Yes! Told you!"

Zari held up a hand to pause her celebration. "But one cute interaction does not equal madly in love, okay?"

Mona grinned mischievously. "One doesn't. But how about…more than one?" Zari facepalmed as she realized what was about to happen. "Gideon?" Mona asked. "Those clips? Keep them coming. We've got plenty of time."


Leonard sat in the parlor, positioned sideways on a chair while reading the next chapter of Around the World in Eighty Days. John Constantine strolled around the corner, spotted him, and hopped up the steps into the room. "Ah, there you are," he greeted him. "I was wondering where you'd gone off to."

Great, Leonard thought. I finally get a minute to myself and the last person I want to talk to right now shows up. He kept his eyes glued to the page and made no motion to acknowledge John.

John did not take the hint. He took a step closer and noted the book's title and author. "Jules Verne, eh? Classic." He glanced at the book again, then asked, "Looks old. Is that a first edition?"

"No," Leonard answered, giving up on ignoring the magician. He still didn't take his eyes off the page. "What do you want, Constantine?"

John leaned back casually against the captain's desk. "Oh, not much. Just thought we ought to have a little chat."

"Is that so?" Leonard drawled sarcastically. Mick's words from earlier about John and Sara echoed through his mind. He tried to push them back down but was unsuccessful, much to his irritation. On the outside, though, he managed to remain completely composed.

"It is," Constantine replied, completely unaware of Leonard's inner thoughts. "There's something I'm trying to make sense of. When Tabitha and her new friend had us in the dark dimension, they had a chance to kill us, but they said they needed us alive for some reason. Now, I would guess that their plan involves restoring Tabitha's power as much as possible. She's stronger in the dark dimension, but if she wants to get back to full strength, she'll probably be looking for a way to use the instability of the timeline as a power source." He gestured to Snart. "You've actually been inside the timeline. Isn't that right, love?"

Leonard cringed at that final word, but finally looked up from his book. "Apparently."

"Then can you think of any reason why keeping us alive would help them draw power from it? At first, I thought they were just interested in keeping hostages to blackmail the other Legends, or something of that nature, but I can't shake the feeling that it goes deeper than that. You didn't see anything in the timeline itself that could give us a clue, did you?"

"No."

John sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot." He smirked and leaned even farther back against the desk. "So…got any plans tonight?"

Why is he still here? Leonard wondered. I answered his question. Can't he just leave? "Aside from being on a time traveling spaceship?" he replied coolly, trying to mask his annoyance with John's continued presence.

"Ha, good one." John stepped away from the desk and moved closer to Leonard. "Just thought we might get a little better acquainted. Maybe get drinks, or something a little more…" He trailed off, watching Leonard's face carefully for a reaction.

Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Are you hitting on me, Constantine?"

John chuckled. "That's what I get for trying to be subtle."

Well, this is ironic, Leonard thought. "I wouldn't call that subtle," he said dryly.

"Look," John said, ignoring his criticism, "the truth is I think you're a fine-looking bloke, and I'm willing to bet three years of isolation in the timeline didn't result in you getting into any relationship commitments."

"It did not," Snart replied. He hesitated to ask the next question in his mind but decided to go ahead and take the plunge. "What about Sara?"

"Oh," John said with a knowing look. "You heard about that, did you?"

Sounds like Mick wasn't lying, Leonard thought. "I did," he said.

"Don't worry, mate," John explained. "That was a one-time thing, nearly two years ago now. We just got a little carried away while locked in a mental asylum in the past."

"I didn't ask for details," Leonard muttered under his breath.

"But we're just friends," John continued, apparently not hearing his comment. "We go way back. Nothing else is going on between us these days. I assure you," he added with a flourish of his hand, "I am very available."

And he is also badly misreading this conversation, Leonard thought, feeling more amused than he wanted to admit.

"So, handsome," John said, "now that we're on the same page, what do you think?"

I think I have zero interest in being with a guy who slept with the woman I love, Leonard thought. Or, frankly, anyone as weird as John Constantine. "I think I'm flattered," he said, "but I'll have to pass." He added with a wry smirk, "Nothing personal. I'm just not into guys who carry around amputated human body parts."

John stared at him blankly for a moment, then crossed his arms and huffed. "Someone told you about the foot, didn't they?"

"Multiple people told me about the foot. And the book covered in human skin. And the jar of eyeballs."

"Those aren't all human eyeballs."

"Doesn't make it better."

"Bollocks." John dropped his arms and offered Leonard a friendly look. "No hard feelings, mate. Just thought I'd ask." He added, "Of course, if you change your mind, my door's always open."

"That's really not information you should share with a thief," Leonard pointed out.

"Maybe," John replied with a flirtatious wink, "but I'll take the risk." He then laughed and added, "I'm just messing with you, mate." He moved closer and reached out as if about to touch Leonard, but he stopped after a cold glare from Leonard changed his mind. He pulled his hand back and used it to fix his hair instead. "Er…right. I'll see you around, then." He turned to leave and strolled out of the parlor.

Finally, Leonard thought as soon as he was gone. He leaned back in the chair again and picked up where he left off in his book.


Charlie cracked the library's door open and poked her head in through the opening. "Oi, thought I heard something in here," she said, noticing Zari and Mona. They turned around to face her and she stepped fully inside, closing the door behind her. "What's going on?"

"Remember those video clips we all watched when we were figuring out that Snart wasn't dead?" Mona asked.

"Yeah."

"Well," Mona said with a grin, "it turns out there were a lot more than what we saw."

Charlie looked at the screen, which was still paused on a frame of footage. "So…?"

"I'm using them to prove to Zari that Snart and the Captain are super into each other," Mona finished.

Charlie cackled. "Ha! Really? That's what you're up to? You really are crazy about any kind of love story rubbish, aren't you?"

"See?" Zari said, looking at Mona while gesturing toward Charlie's reaction. "I told you this was a weird idea."

"What? No!" Charlie quickly corrected her. "It's a brilliant idea. This is just the kind of lighthearted insanity I need to cool down after all that drama with the dark dimension."

Zari arched her eyebrows in surprise. "Say what?"

"You two wait a minute," Charlie said, pointing one finger at each of them. "I'm getting popcorn."

"Popcorn?" Zari repeated in disbelief.

"What else?" Charlie replied, already halfway out the door.

It wasn't long before Charlie had returned with a heaping bowl of popcorn, which she placed on the table. "Help yourself, Z," she said, stuffing a handful into her mouth while her other hand pulled over a chair. She sat down and propped her feet up against the table, a few inches to the side of the popcorn bowl. "Now then," she told Mona, "where were we?"

"We were just about to start another video," Mona answered. She grabbed some popcorn for herself, then asked, "Gideon, could you keep playing the next clip, please?"

Zari sighed and, giving up on resisting, pulled up another chair beside Charlie. As she reached for the popcorn bowl, Gideon began playing the next video.

On the screen before them, they saw Leonard Snart watching television in the parlor. He was seated alone. The room was otherwise empty. After a moment, Sara stepped inside and walked silently over until she was standing right behind him. She lightly tapped his shoulder and said, "Hi, Leonard."

Leonard looked back at her suddenly, clearly surprised by her unexpected entrance. "You trying to give me a heart attack, assassin?"

"Why?" she teased. "Did I scare you?"

"No," he replied. "But don't sneak up on me like that. You're lucky I could tell it was your voice."

"And what would've happened if you couldn't?"

"I probably would've reacted a lot less peacefully."

Sara smiled and rested her hand on his shoulder, this time patting it gently a couple times before removing it. Leonard didn't make any visible effort to resist. If anything, he seemed to like it, relaxing his shoulders ever so slightly while she touched him. "Good thing I used my voice then, isn't it?" she said.

"Yeah, good thing." His face broke into a playful smirk as he continued to look at her. "I'd feel pretty bad if I messed up that face."

"Aw, you do care." She stepped aside and pulled up a chair next to him, then looked forward at the screen. "What are you watching?" Before he could respond, she recognized it. "Shark Week? How are you watching Shark Week in the temporal zone?"

Leonard shrugged. "Gideon's cable works everywhere, apparently."

"How?"

"Don't ask me. I'm as surprised as you."

"Fair enough." Sara crossed her legs and sat back comfortably in her chair. "I wasn't expecting you to be a shark guy. I was thinking more along the lines of penguins and polar bears."

"You don't know everything about me," Leonard replied, throwing a sideways glance her way.

"I guess I don't." Sara watched the screen for a moment before adding, "You know, I loved sharks when I was a kid. They were one of my favorite animals."

Leonard looked at her curiously. "Really?"

"Yeah," she said, turning her face toward him. "I had this stuffed shark. It was one of my favorite toys. I never got rid of it. It's still at my dad's house somewhere." Her casual expression suddenly clouded as if she'd just remembered something she'd rather forget. She stopped talking and looked away.

Leonard did not look away. "Sara? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She waited a few moments until it became clear that he wasn't going to stop looking at her unless he got an answer. "I just remembered," she said, "when I died, my sister said…she said she couldn't stop hugging that stuffed shark. It's not a big deal. Forget I said anything."

He stared at her solemnly, his eyes full of sympathy. Without looking away, he reached for the remote and muted the TV. "I didn't know you had a sister," he said. He leaned in toward her, giving her his full attention. "Older or younger?"

"Older," Sara replied. By the look on her face, she seemed a little confused about where this conversation was going.

"What's her name?"

"Why do you want to know, crook?"

"You brought her up."

Sara hesitated, then finally gave in, smiling as she said her sister's name. "It's Laurel."

"Laurel Lance?"

"Yeah."

He nodded approvingly. "Are you two close?"

"We are. Well, we are now. Things got a little complicated between us for a while, but that's over." She glanced at the screen, still playing muted footage. "Don't you want to watch your show?"

"It's Shark Week. I can miss a few minutes." He smirked at his own joke, then spoke again, "Tell me about her."

"Why?"

"Because you're a very interesting person, and if your sister's half as interesting as you, then she's someone I'd like to know more about." When he didn't get an immediate response, he switched tactics. "Tell you what: I'll trade you. If you tell me about your sister, I'll tell you about mine."

Sara raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You have a sister?"

"I do. And the only other person on this ship who knows that is Mick, so I'm offering to let you in on some top-secret information here. I hope you appreciate that."

She rolled her eyes at his exaggeration, but ultimately accepted. "Well, now you've got me curious, so I'll bite. But you have to go first."

"Deal." He shifted in his seat and looked away just long enough to think about where to start. "Her name is Lisa. She's younger than me. I took care of her while she was growing up because our dad was…well, you know." He stopped talking for a moment, then redirected the conversation away from his father. "She's fun. Really fun. Loves anything bright and sparkling, which fits her personality perfectly. Definitely the extrovert of the family. And she's almost as good a thief as me. Almost."

"She sounds pretty cool," Sara commented.

Leonard nodded. "Yeah, she is." He pointed at Sara. "Your turn."

Sara thought for a moment, then answered, "All right, well, to start off…Laurel's a lawyer. She's always been the studious, well-behaved sister. I was always the rebel who got into trouble. And then Laurel would get me out of it." She smiled fondly. "There's this saying all our friends have about her."

"What is it?"

"Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world."

Leonard smirked amusedly. "That's adorable," he drawled.

"Well, it's true." She added self-deprecatingly, "Laurel's the one who pushes herself to excel through law school and looks out for everyone who needs her. I'm the one who gets myself shipwrecked and then becomes a professional murderer."

Leonard frowned. "You've really got to stop calling yourself that."

"Hey, it's my life. I'll describe it however I want. But the bottom line is, Laurel's the good Lance sister. I'm the…well, let's just say I'm the messy one."

He looked down thoughtfully, then back up at her face. "I wouldn't say that. You seem like a good person to me, and believe me, I know what bad looks like."

"Leonard, listen," she said, holding up her hand to stop him from arguing further. "You don't know how good Laurel is, or how hard I've made things for her. I stole her boyfriend, then I let her believe I was dead. I even got shot and died in front of her. I've probably caused as much trauma to my sister as any of the crazy supervillains we run into on a regular basis just by how messed up my life is. And yet, for some reason, she still stands by me and cares about me because that's the kind of beautiful, loving, good person she is. She even encouraged me to join this mission as a way to get a fresh start. I did what I had to do to survive, but she didn't deserve to be hurt by my actions in the way she was. You might put on a big show about being a 'bad guy,'" she added with large, sarcastic air quotes, "but at least you haven't hurt your sister like I have."

Leonard's face suddenly clouded. He dropped his eyes to the floor and turned away from her. He didn't say anything for a beat, then muttered, "Depends how you look at it."

Sara's brow furrowed. She leaned in toward him. "What do you mean?"

He looked up from the floor, but he continued to face straight forward, avoiding eye contact. "My sister has a scar. It's right here." He traced a small line near his collar where Lisa's scar was. "She got it from my dad. At the time, I was gone. In juvie." He sighed and shook his head. "I was supposed to protect her. If I hadn't been stupid and gotten myself caught, he wouldn't have…done that."

"That's not your fault," Sara assured him. "You didn't give her the scar."

"But I would've stopped him if I'd been there," he argued. "And I would've been there if my plan hadn't been so careless. She was too little to fight back against our dad on her own, and I knew it, but I decided to take a risk anyway. She has that scar because of me. End of story." He finally held eye contact with Sara again and added coldly, "And I'm not saying any of this because I want you to feel sorry for me. I don't want any pity, and I definitely don't want you to start making excuses for me. Got it?"

Sara didn't seem at all affected by his attempt to sound aloof. She leaned in even closer and placed her hand on his arm comfortingly. He seemed a little surprised by the gesture, but not upset. "Lisa's lucky to call you her brother," she said, "and I'm not just saying that out of pity. I can tell you really care about her."

Leonard glanced down at where her hand still rested on his arm. His face revealed the tiniest hint of a smile. "You too," he said. "About Laurel." He looked up at her face again with a hopeful expression. "When we're done with this whole saving-the-world thing, maybe I can take you to meet Lisa."

Sara grinned. "I'd be honored." She removed her hand from Leonard's arm and joked, "Then we can get together and gossip about how much of a dork you are."

Leonard teased her back, "Watch it, Canary. I could do the same thing with your sister." He added more earnestly, "Seriously, though, you should meet Lisa. You'd like her, and I know she'd really like you."

"You think so?"

"Oh, absolutely. You two would be friends for sure."

"You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"

Leonard didn't reply right away. "Maybe a little," he admitted quietly. He continued more confidently, "I put a lot of thought into everything, Sara. You know that. But the point is, when you meet her, she will definitely like you."

"What makes you so sure, Leonard?"

Leonard stared at her for a moment before answering with a half-smile that seemed a little more genuine than the previous ones, "What's not to like?"

"Wow," Charlie said, her mouth full of popcorn. "Gideon, pause." Gideon obeyed. Charlie pointed straight forward at the screen. "You see that look on his face? That's hot."

"Uh, can we maybe not sexualize our teammates?" Zari asked.

"You're shagging one of them," Charlie pointed out as she reached for another handful of popcorn.

"Not the point." Zari turned to Mona and added reluctantly, "But I do see a little of what you mean, though. Just a little."

Mona gave her a thumbs-up. "Progress!"

"I'm still on the fence, though," Zari insisted, "and I really don't want them to walk in here and see us doing this."

"Wasn't it your idea to watch it before?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah," Zari admitted, "but that was when we all didn't know who Snart was and thought he was dead. He could walk in here any second, and that would be super awkward."

"I don't care if we get caught," Charlie said. "Let's do another one."

"Cool," Mona said. "You heard her, Gideon! Roll it!"


Leonard finished one chapter and turned the page to the next, still sitting in the parlor. He heard a sound and looked up, then was surprised to see Sara standing in the doorway. Unlike John's appearance, he considered this a pleasant surprise. He set his book down and looked up at her. "Anything I can do for you, Captain Lance?" he asked.

She leaned sideways against the doorway and squinted at the book as she slowly recognized it. "Is that the book I gave you?"

"Sure is."

"Wow. That's a throwback. Are you still reading it?"

"Yeah. I didn't exactly have time to finish it before not-dying."

"Makes sense," she said with a nod. She glanced behind her, then back at him. "Are you waiting for Mick?"

"I'm not waiting for anybody," Leonard replied, "and Mick gave me very specific instructions not to enter our room until he informs me that Garima is gone."

Sara smiled amusedly. "You're following instructions from Mick now? Never saw that coming."

"Very funny," Leonard deadpanned. "In this case, I think I'd rather do what he says than walk in on whatever they're up to."

"Yeah, that's probably the right decision." She thought for a moment, then changed the subject. "If you've got a minute…do you want to play cards?"

Leonard straightened up and smirked challengingly at her. "I think you mean, do I want to beat you at cards? And the answer is always yes."

Sara rolled her eyes and laughed. "Yeah, right." She smiled at him and said, "We can play in my room. Is that cool?"

"Absolutely." He stood up and walked over to her. "Let's do this."

He followed her out of the parlor, through the corridors of the Waverider, and into her room. As nice as Sara's room had been on their first mission, Leonard liked it even more now. From the photos on the wall to the furniture choices, everything was just so Sara. She sat on her bed and patted a spot on beside her, inviting him to sit down. He joined her and pulled the box of cards out of his jacket pocket, then shuffled them and began dividing them up. "So…is this about what happened with Ava?" he asked as he placed the rest of the deck between them.

"Why do you always assume it's about something?" Sara asked as she picked up a card from the deck to start the game. "Can't I just play cards with you for fun?"

"Not when you've got that look on your face."

"What look on my face?"

"The 'we need to talk' look. Right there." He pointed at her face, then looked back down at his cards as he took his turn. "If it's not about that, then what is it about?"

Sara picked up a card and leaned back against her pillows as she selected which of her cards she wanted to remove. "Fine, you win. I do want to talk about something."

"Okay. Let's talk."

She set down a card in the discard pile. "You know how Ray wanted to run all those extra tests on you?"

"Like I'm some kind of guinea pig for his experiments? Yeah, that's not happening."

"That's what I heard," Sara said slowly, trying to ease her way into her request. "The thing is, we might actually need you to go through with them. There's some stuff we want to know."

Leonard looked up from his cards and arched his eyebrows in confusion. "Why? I'm alive and everything feels normal. What's left to figure out?"

"What's left," Sara explained, "is that Ray found more temporal energy in your body than should be physically possible. And Director Sharpe has this theory…"

Leonard stiffened. "Director Sharpe has a theory about me," he stated, thinking through the words as he spoke them.

"Yeah." She lowered her eyes back into her cards. "She thinks there's a chance that you might still have some kind of connection to the timeline, like you were never fully separated from it when we pulled you out. I didn't think it made sense at first, but it would explain Ray's findings."

Leonard gave Sara a skeptical look. "It doesn't make sense at all. How can I be part of the timeline and still be living through time? That's ridiculous. Ava doesn't know what she's talking about."

Sara noticed some tension in Leonard's voice as he mentioned Ava. "You know, she's just trying to help. We're on the same team."

"Then she shouldn't have talked to you like that," he replied. "And she shouldn't be telling us what to do. You can tell that to her, and all her Time Master friends."

Sara groaned. "Leonard, she's not a Time Master."

"She shows up on your ship trying to control us and make us do our jobs the way she wants them done. Sounds a lot like a Time Master to me."

"Didn't you encourage me to come clean to her about saving you?" Sara pointed out. "You can't think she's that bad."

"I encouraged you to do what you think is right," he clarified. "I also said not to let someone else run your life, which is exactly what she's trying to do. And now you're telling me that she wants to study me and control me too. Just like a Time Master."

Sara paused a moment, then looked up to hold eye contact with him as she asked, "Would I date a Time Master, Leonard?"

Leonard froze. He stared back at her, but he didn't speak.

Sara didn't back down. "That's what this is about, isn't it?" She set her cards down and sat up straight. Leonard dropped his gaze back into his cards. "Leonard, look at me." He did. "Is that what this is about?" she said, a little more gently than before. "You can tell me."

He thought carefully before answering in a low voice, "I said I wasn't expecting anything from you. I still don't. What else do you want me to say?"

Sara caught a glimpse of that sad look in his eyes again. She knew she wasn't imagining it now, but she really wished she was. "I want you to listen," she said, still speaking in that gentle, understanding tone. "Ava wanted you to go back to the Time Bureau with her, but I talked her out of it because I know how much you hate people you don't trust touching you and getting close to you. I thought you might be more comfortable if you just worked with Ray. Here's the thing: Ava could be wrong, but if she's right, then what we find out might be the key to saving time and stopping Tabitha. I won't make you do anything you don't want to do, but you need to understand that this isn't just about Ava. It's about potentially saving the whole timeline."

Leonard hesitated for a moment before replied, his voice still low, "This is important to you, isn't?"

"Well, if it ends up saving the timeline, then…yeah, I think it is."

He looked away, thinking for a few seconds, then looked back at Sara. "Okay."

She tilted her head curiously. "Okay?"

"Okay," he repeated, a little more confidently the second time.

"You're not going to fight me on this?"

"Not if it's important to you."

"Leonard, seriously, if you're not okay with it…"

"Sara, just take the win. If it's important to you, I'll do it. But with Raymond, not the Time Master wannabes. And speaking of winning…" he flipped over his cards and smirked proudly. "Gin."

Sara huffed. "I was distracted!"

"You sure were," he gloated.

She glared at him, then swept up all the cards into her hands. "Rematch. Now."

He chuckled, very entertained by her competitiveness. "Challenge accepted, Captain."


"Aw, look at that," Charlie said, eyes still glued to the screen. "He just gave her his jacket even though he's cold too. That's boyfriend material right there."

"Isn't it?" Mona said, placing her hand over her heart dramatically.

Zari looked at Charlie in disbelief. "How are you as into this as Mona is?"

"Because I'm distracting myself from the very depressing knowledge that the woman who forced me to turn into a monster on live TV just reopened the dimension I was imprisoned in," Charlie answered matter-of-factly. Her eyes widened and she pointed forward. "Oh look, they're cuddling for warmth and bonding about death. That's cute." She tossed a piece of popcorn at the screen. "Kiss, you idiots!"

"See?" Mona said smugly. "Even Charlie ships it."

"It's not that I don't ship it," Zari explained. "It's that I don't think Captain Lance and Snart want us digging into their business."

"Maybe not," Charlie admitted, "but it sure is fun to see what the Captain and our newest original were up to back then. Finish this storyline up and then call it a day?"

"Storyline?" Zari repeated questioningly. "You do realize we're literally watching old security footage, right?"

"Sounds good," Mona said, ignoring Zari's comment. "You heard her, Gideon!"

Gideon obediently continued to play the video. On the screen, Sara held on tightly to Leonard's arm as they sat close together on the engine room's floor. The two of them had been stuck in the freezing room for a long time by this point. She was wrapped in his jacket and obviously shivering. Judging by the frosty layer forming on Leonard's face, he wasn't much warmer. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, seemingly trying to take his mind off the cold. When he opened his eyes, he turned to look at Sara and instantly looked worried. "Sara," he whispered. She shivered, but she didn't say a word. His worried look intensified. "Sara? Sara!"

"Mm…Snart?" she said softly.

Leonard reached his opposite hand over and cupped the side of her face, careful not to move the arm she was clinging onto. "Stay with me," he told her firmly, though his voice quivered. It was unclear whether that was because of the freezing temperatures, his emotions, or a combination of both. "You…you have to stay with me. Okay?"

She clung even tighter to his arm. "Too…cold," she murmured. "I…I can't."

"No," he said without hesitating a moment. "You can. I know…I know you can." He watched her shiver again, then wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her close until her head lay against his chest. He held her there tightly, trying to give her what body heat he had. "It's…it's going to be okay," he whispered into her ear as he struggled to keep talking. "You'll…be…okay…"

Sara opened her eyes a little wider and noticed the ice on his face. "You're not okay," she said. "You…you should…your jacket…you need it…"

"No. I…I don't. Captain Cold, remember?" He forced himself to smirk as he made the joke, then wrapped his arms around her just a little bit tighter. "Stay with me, Canary."

Sara lifted her chin up to look him in the eyes. "You're fr…freezing. You could die."

"So could you. Give someone else a…a turn for once."

"N…not funny." She rested her head against his chest again and held onto him the same way he was holding her. When he didn't speak for a while, she whispered his name. "Leonard? You…you okay?" He didn't answer right away. Her eyes widened in horror and she shifted her position so she could look him in the eyes. "Leonard! Say something!"

His eyes were open, but it was clearly taking a lot of energy to keep them that way. "Hey, Sara," he said, eyeing his jacket wrapped around her much smaller body. "That's a…nice look on you."

"Shut up."

"Thought you wanted me t…to say…something."

Sara laughed for a moment before the shivering took over again. She lowered her head to rest it against his chest, clinging tightly to him again. Her eyes slowly started to close as her words trailed off.

Suddenly, the doors of the engine room slid open. There was a faint whirring sound. Although there was no way to see the temperature through the screen, the surprised reaction on Leonard's face indicated that it had stopped dropping. Leonard picked up Sara in his arms and bolted out the door. Gideon's camera switched perspectives to one that was pointed just outside the engine room's exit. Leonard set Sara down on the ground before collapsing himself. He leaned back against the nearest wall, panting as he adjusted to the warm air around him. After a few seconds, he turned to look at Sara, who hadn't moved yet. "No," he whispered fearfully. "No, no, no…" He crawled over to her and checked her pulse, looked a little relieved to discover that it was normal. "Come on, Sara," he pleaded, "I know you're in there. Wake up. Please."

Sara's eyelids fluttered open. She gasped, then rolled sideways to sit up against the wall. "I'm okay," she assured him repeatedly. "I'm fine. I'm okay."

Leonard stared at her in a mixture of awe and concern. "Do you need to go to the med bay? I could take you…"

"No, I don't need that," she replied, catching her breath. "Just let me have a minute to warm up. I'm already feeling better." She looked down at her clothes, then back at him. "You can take your jacket back now."

"Not if you're still cold."

"I'm not. Take it." She shrugged it off her shoulders, then pulled the rest of it off and handed it to him.

He took the jacket in his hands but didn't put it on right away. Instead, he just stared at it as if he had just had a massive realization. Eventually, he turned his head to look back at Sara, his expression unchanged. He didn't voice his thoughts, but from the look on his face, there was definitely a storm of emotions of some kind going on in his mind.

She raised her eyebrows questioningly. "You good?"

He blinked himself out of his thoughts. "Yeah…yeah, I'm all right." He finally put the jacket back on.

Ray and a woman Charlie recognized from the Old Western photo ran onto the scene. "Snart! Sara!" the woman exclaimed, seeing them. "We were so worried about you. Are you okay?"

Sara and Leonard exchanged glances. Then, Sara pushed herself to her feet and stood up. "We're okay, but I don't know how much longer we would've lasted. Thanks for getting it open."

"Attention," Gideon's voice echoed through the space around them. "Someone is attempting to board the ship through the cargo bay door."

Leonard jumped to his feet. "Someone? Who? Mick and the others?"

"Or time pirates?" Sara added without missing a beat.

"One way to find out," Ray answered. "Let's go." All four of them hurried out of the area to investigate.

Gideon turned off the screen. Mona, Zari, and Charlie all stared at each other silently for a few moments. None of them knew what to say. Mona eventually broke the silence. "So…are we all on the same page now?"

Zari answered with only a little bit of reluctance, "I...I guess we are."

"Definitely," Charlie said. "He's crazy about her. It was all over his face. And she didn't seem to mind it much either."

"There's just one thing, though," Zari pointed out. "This all happened three years ago. Things aren't going to automatically go back to the way they were that long ago. I mean, Sara just went through a huge breakup. You guys don't really expect them to pick up exactly where they left off, do you?"

"Hm…you've got a point," Charlie conceded. "But there's no harm in finding out as much as we can about what's going on between them. We need a little fun now and then between all the doom and gloom about the timeline."

"Exactly," Mona agreed. "Nothing wrong with figuring out what's going on with Snart."


"What is going on with Snart?" Ava muttered to herself. She sat in her office, tapping her pen anxiously against her desk as she scrolled through the Time Bureau's digital records on her computer. "Who is this guy?"

She heard a knock at the door. Without waiting to be called in, Gary entered. "Hi, Director Sharpe," he greeted her. "How is everything?"

Ava looked up to acknowledge him, then went back to scrolling. "Under the circumstances, fine. What did you want to see me about, Gary?"

Gary walked up to her desk. "Oh, you know, just checking in. The Library of Congress is all cleaned up and the necessary paperwork has been filed."

"Good."

"And, um, there's still no sign of Tabitha. We sent a team to Paul Christian's address, but he was gone without a trace."

"Not so good."

"Yeah. Otherwise, not much news." He paused, waiting for her to say something, but she remained focused on her computer. He cleared his throat. "Director Sharpe?"

She looked up. "Yes, Gary?"

"I was going to ask if you needed anything else from me. You know, reports, meetings, advice about Captain Lance…"

"I don't need advice about Captain Lance," Ava said quickly. Her eyes widened as an idea formed in her head. "Actually, Gary…there might be something you can do for me."

"Oh, great!" Gary replied enthusiastically. "Happy to help. What is it?"

Ava sat up in her chair and folded her hands on the desk in front of her. "Does the name 'Leonard Snart' mean anything to you?"

Gary thought for a moment. "Hm…I thought I heard someone mention him while I was on the Waverider. I haven't met him personally, though."

"Right," Ava said. "I need you to do a very simple job for me. Don't tell the Legends. This is just between us." She leaned forward slightly. "Find out as much as you can about Leonard Snart."

He looked at her curiously. "Why? Who is he? Aside from someone the Legends know, I mean."

"He's someone Captain Lance is hiding things about," Ava answered. "She's been hiding him from me until now and I need to know why. I already searched for him in all our digital records, but he disappeared before Rip founded the Bureau, so there's nothing substantial. Find out everything you can and then tell me. Okay?"

Gary shrugged. "Okay. You're the boss. I just don't see why it has to be a secret."

"Because Captain Lance is keeping secrets," Ava replied. "She doesn't trust me with him, and I don't think he trusts me either. If that's how they want to do this, I'll play their game." She gave Gary a look daring him to disagree. "Do you understand, Gary?"

He nodded obediently. "Yes, Director Sharpe. You can count on me."


A/N: Thank you for all the nice feedback! I'm not going to rely too much on Gideon's security footage flashbacks for the story, but there are a few moments I thought of that I just really wanted to work in, so it'll happen at least a couple more times. The next mission will start soon and it'll be a big one for Snart, so I'm looking forward to writing it. Thanks for reading!