When Lisa had first suggested Sara have a baby shower the blonde had accused her of only wanting an excuse to barge into the apartment with a bunch of balloons. So let the record show that although it wasn't her reason for insisting on the shower Lisa still did exactly that when entering the apartment of Sara's mother.
"We're here," Sara called throughout the apartment as she and her balloon wielding friend entered, the shower wouldn't be starting for another few hours but they had come to help get everything ready.
"I'm in the kitchen," Dinah called back, her apartment was really more of a condo and so it had a full kitchen and living room.
Lisa set her bouquet of balloons down on the floor along with the other bags she and Sara had brought before she followed Sara through the apartment and into the kitchen. They found Dinah bent over a cake as she frosted it, they had discussed simply buying a cake but ultimately they had just decided to bake one instead. Anyway, Dinah put down her butter knife when she saw her daughter enter and went to give her a hug.
"Hi honey," she greeted as Sara hugged her back before releasing her.
"Hi mom, this is Lisa, Leonard's sister." Sara introduced and with a polite smile Lisa held out her hand.
"Hi," she said and she was taken by surprise when, instead of accepting her offered hand, Dinah went in for a hug.
Sara couldn't help but snicker at Lisa's obvious surprise at her mother's actions, or smile at how despite the shock Lisa didn't tense up like she knew Leonard might have.
When Dinah released Lisa she didn't seem to notice the girl's surprise, and if she did she didn't say anything.
"Ok, I'm working on the cake, Laurel is bringing brownies, the fruit is in the fridge and so is the cheese, I have crackers in the cabinet. You girls brought decorations right?" She asked and Lisa nodded while Sara answered.
"Yeah, they're in the living room." She replied,
"Good, why don't you two start setting them up while I finish with the cake?" Dinah suggested and so with a nod from Sara the two headed back to the living room and began going through the plastic bags of decorations that they had brought with them.
"So what's Lenny doing today?" Lisa asked as they started sorting through the bags.
"Well I asked him to put the crib and the changing table together, let's just hope he can manage that." She half joked; although she's sure that a man who instinctively cases every building he comes across can mange to properly assemble two pieces of baby furniture.
Lisa snorted out a laugh at the image of her brother sitting in the spare bedroom of his apartment, trying to piece together a crib and a changing table. To be honest, she also thought he would be able to do it without a problem, considering it was him who had put her childhood playhouse together as well as her bed when she outgrew the crib as a toddler. He's the one who disassembled her crib; assembling one should be no problem for him.
Sara and Lisa really should reevaluate the amount of faith that they put into their favorite ex-convict.
So far the girls had been gone for an hour and Len had finally managed to get the box to the crib open. Granted, he didn't start immediately they left, but he had still been trying to open the stupid box for a full ten minutes. Sure cutting the tape on it was easy, and actually prying the front flap open hadn't taken him the whole ten minutes. But pulling just one stupid piece out had been nearly impossible! Once he finally got the first piece out the others came progressively easier, and then he was left staring at five large pieces. Two were the head and footboards, two were the bars, and the fifth was the metal rack like thing that the mattress would go on top of. He sighed at the sight of it, breaking things is something he can do, but building them? What's he supposed to do if something falls apart while he's holding something else in place?
"It's a crib Snart, figure it out." He mumbled to himself before stripping off his jacket and setting to work.
"Oh my god mom you didn't," Sara groaned in feigned annoyance when her mother entered the living room with one of those centerpieces that is made out of rolled up diapers stacked into a tower almost like a tier cake.
"What?" Dinah asked, "I think it's cute," she defended and Lisa laughed,
"I agree," she said, resulting in Sara sending her a death glare that let her know that she wasn't being helpful in the least. "What?" The brunette asked, "you said no cheesy party games, you didn't say anything about cheesy decorations." She defended and Sara rolled her eyes.
"I hate you both," she grumbled sarcastically while continuing her task of placing the plastic blue and pink utensils into their designated cups.
"You just don't know how to decorate," Dinah mocked as she glanced over everything else in the room.
The girls hadn't gone overboard on decorations, not to say that Lisa didn't try, but they still had a fairly decent amount. They had the balloons of course, which Lisa had strung up throughout the living room. They had gotten paper plates that were either blue with pink question marks or vice versa and they had put up twisted pink and blue streamers over the windows. They had gotten some flowers and put out bowls with popcorn and chips and stuff like that. In the corner they had some little party favors set up on a tray on top of a folding table. Overall the living room looked very nice and ready for the party.
"Looks good," Dinah finally commented, "Well the chicken and the lasagna are in the oven so by the time everyone gets here and settles in they'll be ready." She reported,
"What? I thought we were just doing pizza?" Sara questioned and her mother simply smirked at her.
"Sweetie the only reason we were doing pizza is because it's easier," She mocked,
"Well it is," Sara pointed out,
"I know, and I don't care." Dinah replied before looking to her daughter's friend, who was being very quiet. "What do you think Lisa?" She asked, snapping the younger woman to attention.
"I mean… I still thought we were doing pizza too but… um, chicken sound pretty good." She stuttered out and while the answer seemed to satisfy Dinah the manner in which it came out confused Sara, so when her mother returned to the kitchen she turned her attention to Lisa.
"Are you ok?" She asked, now it was Lisa who seemed confused.
"Huh? Yeah of course, why wouldn't I be?" She asked and Sara shrugged before dropping the issue.
Len was about to go grab his gun and freeze the crib together. Every single time he got two pieces to click together he would move onto the next section, only for the previous one to fall out of place. Needless to say, he hadn't gotten much done. It wasn't until after what he had managed to do fell apart for at least the tenth time did he finally get the bright idea to try lying the headboard flat and installing the sides from above. This went reasonably well considering he did manage to get both sets of bars in this time, but then he faced the challenge of lifting up the footboard and snapping it into place. Amazingly he did in fact manage that and he even managed to get the entire crib back on its feet before realizing he had neglected to put in the metal rack. Upon making this discovery Leonard let out a whole slew of well-earned curse words and it took everything in him not to destroy the poorly assembled crib. He had just finished his rant, and was admittedly still feeling the urge to break something, when he heard a knock coming from the front door. With a sigh he went to answer it, not particularly caring who it was so long as their visit allowed him five seconds away from that blasted crib.
He was regretting this opinion when he opened the door to find a certain S.T.A.R Labs scientist on the other side.
"What are you doing here Ramon?" He questioned and Cisco simply shrugged.
"Caitlin's at the baby shower, Barry went somewhere with Joe and Wally, and Mick's out of town so I figured you must be on your own." He replied and the look that Leonard gave him was one of complete and total disbelief.
"Are you seriously telling me that you got so bored, you've actually resorted to hanging out with me?" He asked and again Cisco shrugged, so he sighed. "Well I hate to disappoint you but I'm spending the day putting together baby furniture," he said.
"Want some help?" Cisco offered and again Len just looked at him in disbelief for a minute or two, before deciding that an extra set of hands, even Ramon's, would be a good thing as it meant he would finish sooner. Besides, he shouldn't have to be the only one to suffer assembling that crib.
"Sure, why not?" He agreed, stepping aside to let Cisco in.
"Wait really?" Cisco asked, not moving from his spot in the hall until Leonard leveled a glare with him. "Really, ok then." He quickly said, realizing that Snart was actually taking him up on his offer to help.
Initially Sara had been secretly worried about having Donna at the baby shower, especially once it was decided they would have it at Dinah's apartment. She was confident that both her mother and soon to be stepmother could behave like adults and be civilized towards each other, but the fact that she hardly knows Donna and therefor isn't really sure what she's like left a nagging feeling in her about the situation. However it was now almost an hour into the party and so far so good, they weren't exactly talking to each other but neither seemed hostile towards the other, and them meeting seemed to have gone well enough so really Sara couldn't ask for more than that. Currently Donna was talking with Thea about the wedding; apparently Sara's pregnancy wasn't the only thing she had been unaware of. Lyla, who Sara had initially been unsure of inviting because they'd never actually met but Laurel assured her would love to come, had brought her daughter who was currently sitting at a table in the corner and coloring with Sin of all people. Sara smirked at the sight, she always knew Sin had a soft spot for kids but given the life she led she hardly got the chance to show it.
"Guess I'll have to visit Star City a little more after the baby comes, have you babysit." Sara remarked from where she now stood behind Sin, causing both Sin and little Sara to look up at her.
Upon seeing the woman she was named after, little Sara suddenly frowned and threw her arms over her picture.
"No!" She all but cried, leading to a very confused older Sara and a very smug Sin.
"She's drawing you a picture and wants it to be a surprise," The Goth informed her friend and so with a smirk Sara nodded.
"Ok, well I'll just be over there talking to Kendra if you need me." She said to little Sara before heading over to the couch where Kendra was alone and nursing a half drunk cup of soda.
"You look like you're having fun," she teased and Kendra laughed.
"I was talking to Felicity but we started talking about Ray and it went into TMI territory," She confessed with a giggle and Sara had to laugh, knowing Felicity she could only imagine that conversation. "So how's Snart?" Kendra asked,
"He's good, his sister's around here somewhere." She said, looking around but noticing that she couldn't see Lisa anywhere. "She might be in the kitchen with my mom," she decided and Kendra nodded. "How's Carter?" She asked and Kendra smiled with an embarrassed blush.
"He's fine," she admitted but Sara raised an eyebrow at her. "He really is, it's just that we've been thinking a lot about things and we've decided to get married." She confessed and a huge smile lit up Sara's face.
"Kendra that's great!" She exclaimed, leaning over and giving her friend a hug.
"Well we're not officially engaged yet, we were talking one night and we decided that we both want to get married after I brought it up and he said he's still going to propose to me." She explained and Sara laughed, that definitely sounded like Carter.
"I'm an engineer, how am I not able to put a changing table together!?" Cisco exclaimed in frustration. He and Len had partially disassembled the crib and put the rack in the bottom, pinching their fingers more than a few times in the process, and then aside from not have the mattress inside that piece of furniture was done. Now they had moved onto the changing table and it wasn't going much better than the crib had.
"If it makes you feel any better, Raymond once said I could be an engineer, and I don't know what I'm doing." Leonard commented from where he was seated on the floor and trying to make sense of the instructions. He had thought that the changing table would be less complicated than the crib, but so far they were about the same level of headache.
"It doesn't," Cisco deadpanned, still very annoyed at his inability to figure out the assembly of a simple table.
"So does my sister still follow you around like a shadow?" Leonard asked, suddenly changing the subject and catching Cisco off guard.
"What?" He asked, although he had heard perfectly clear.
"I know Lisa spends as much time at S.T.A.R. Labs as Sara does, so is she still trailing you like a little lost puppy or as she eased up a bit?" He inquired and Cisco thought for a minute, realizing that while Lisa definitely spent her fair share of time not far from him he hadn't really been viewing it as a nuisance.
"She's toned it down, we put her on the payroll last month." He replied and Len nodded, already being well aware of the information. Without stealing Lisa needed to find a job in order to keep her apartment, and so her friend's at S.T.A.R. Labs figured that she spends all her time there anyway and is actually helpful in catching criminals due to her experience as one so they might as well pay her.
"I heard, she came here cheering about it," he said and Cisco chuckled, he could imagine Lisa doing such a thing. "You know she still has a thing for you," Len stated it more than asked.
"I know," Cisco replied, almost nervously.
"How do you feel about that?" Now Len was just torturing Cisco and he knew it, but that only made him enjoy this conversation.
"I uh…" Cisco stuttered and Len rolled his eyes.
"Just do me one favor Ramon; don't waste her time. Either tell her to find someone else, gently, or make a move, also gently, but don't waste her time." He advised and Cisco nodded fearfully. "Good," Len said, finally getting to his feet. "Let's take a break and get some lunch," and with that he walked past Cisco and out of the room as though the conversation had never happened.
Meanwhile at the baby shower lunch had pretty much finished and so Dinah was working on the dishes when Lisa came in.
"I'll do that if you want," she offered,
"Oh no that's ok, I'm just rinsing these trays. If you want to start cutting up pieces of cake that would be great." She instructed,
"Ok," Lisa agreed, moving to the fridge and taking out the cake carefully as so not to drop it. Once she had the cake on the counter she scanned briefly through the drawers until she found a knife and a small spatula and began cutting, placing the finished pieces onto paper plates.
"I really want to thank you, Sara's told me about how much you do for her and Leonard, how you're always around and helping them. I'm sure Sara will never say it but it really means a lot to them," Dinah said and Lisa couldn't help the smile on her face or the swelling in her chest that she felt upon hearing those words.
"I like doing it," she replied, "I mean, Lenny and I didn't exactly have a normal family growing up so now that he's found one, I'm just really happy for him." She admitted, turning to face Dinah and when she did the question she was about to ask on where to put the cake died on her lips when she saw the older woman's confused face.
It was then that Lisa realized her error; Len and Sara hadn't told Dinah about Lewis. She knew Dinah knew Len had a criminal record, but she also knew he'd set his record straight. She didn't know that said record was a result of their father dragging his children on jobs, she didn't know about Lisa's record or their mother leaving or anything.
"I didn't… I thought they told you, look Lenny's going to be a great dad." She quickly decided to say, afraid that maybe with the knowledge that Leonard didn't have a good home life as a child Dinah might suddenly fear for her grandchild's safety.
Of course deep down she knew that probably wasn't what Dinah was thinking, that it was only her knowledge of the full story that was leading her brain to jump to such conclusions.
"Lisa," Dinah said, snapping her out of her stuttering. "You're just as much a part of the family as your brother is, I hope you know that." She said and at first Lisa was taken back slightly, because no, she didn't know that.
"Hey, you guys need any help?" Sara questioned as she walked in,
"Sara, your friend here is under the impression that she isn't a part of the family." Dinah informed her daughter and while Lisa expected Sara to call her mother insane, it was her who was on the receiving end of that line.
"What?" She asked with a slight laugh as she approached the brunette, "Lisa that's crazy, of course you're part of our family." She said and Lisa said nothing, as she had pretty much been rendered speechless.
"I'm going to get a head count of who wants cake," Dinah said, excusing herself from the kitchen and leaving the two girls alone.
"Sara, you had to take Lenny into your life. But you don't-"
"I didn't HAVE to do anything," Sara cut Lisa off. "I didn't have to fall in love with your brother, I didn't have to tell him I was pregnant with his child, I didn't have to move in with him, and I didn't have to introduce him to my mother, who didn't have to accept him. Everything we've done, we've done out of a choice. Leonard has become a part of my family because we chose for him to be, and you're right, no one in that room has to accept and love you like family. But we all want to," she deadpanned and Lisa looked up in surprise at her words. "But now that choice is yours, if you want to be part of this family." She continued and in response Lisa, who nearly had tears in her eyes by now, surged forward and wrapped Sara in a hug.