"Hey," Barry greeted late one afternoon when Sara and Len came into S.T.A.R. Labs, Sara carrying their daughter's car seat along with her.
It had been about three weeks since Aurora was born and so far Lisa was the only member of the team to have seen her since she was in the hospital. They had all heard about the engagement, which Barry ended up losing twenty bucks on because he bet Caitlin that it would take Len a lot longer than a week after the baby came to ask Sara to marry him.
"Hey," Sara said with a big smile, clearly happy to be out of the apartment.
"What are you guys doing here?" Caitlin asked, a happy smile lighting up her face as she laid eye on the baby.
"Well I was coming down bring Lisa the jacket she left at our place," Len began, tossing his little sister the garment that she had left behind last night when she was over for dinner. "And Sara decided today would be as good of a day as any to bring the baby down here." He continued and Sara shrugged despite the mocking tone in his voice. He knew very well that she just wanted to get out of the apartment and so when he got off the phone with Lisa and informed her that he needed to bring his sister her coat, she didn't hesitate to load Aurora into her car seat and join him.
"Well I will never say no to a chance to see that cutie," Cisco joked, earning laughs from most of his friends as he went over and bent down to get a look at the sleeping baby in the car seat.
"Yeah sorry Cisco, she kind of has a habit of falling asleep in the car." Sara said but Cisco merely straightened up and shrugged, he was still happy to have gotten to see the baby at all.
Sara and Len stayed at S.T.A.R. Labs for a little while; with Aurora sound asleep it gave Sara a much-needed opportunity to catch up with her friends and their activities. Sure Lisa had been passing along some information; such as what meta-human was currently on the loose and Cisco's latest creations. But she liked being able to talk with Cisco about the new weapons that some meta-humans were using, and with Caitlin just about anything else. Eventually Wally, Iris, and Joe showed up as well, as they normally do towards the end of the day, if only to check in. Iris immediately began cooing over the sleeping baby, who's car seat was perched on top of Sara's desk with Len sitting in the chair keeping an eye on her while Sara stood right on the other side.
"Oh my god, she's gotten so big already!" The journalist gushed as her father peered over her shoulder with just as much excitement evident on his face as there was on hers. Wally was glancing over her other shoulder, and Len smirked because the eyebrow that he raised at her said it all; he still thought Aurora was pretty damn tiny.
Speaking of Aurora, it was only a few minutes later that she opened her eyes and began to fuss, leading to Iris blushing with embarrassment.
"Oh, did I wake her?" She asked as Sara smirked as Leonard stood up and took the baby out of her car seat and proceeded to bounce her gently as a means of calming her.
"No, she's been asleep for almost two hours, she needed to get up." Sara said just as the baby started to cry louder in Leonard's arms.
"Hey Sara," he called over his daughter's wails, "I think she's hungry." He said, nine times out of ten Aurora would want to eat after she woke up from her nap and although he had hoped this time would be the exception there was no such luck.
"Ok," Sara said, making her way around the desk and taking Aurora from him. He felt bad for her really, today was the first day she had really left the apartment (two quick trips to the grocery store didn't count in his opinion) and still she couldn't even have a conversation with her friend. But, at the same time, she's the one who refuses to use baby formula so her options are pretty limited at the moment.
Anyway, once Sara had Aurora, Len handed her the cloth that they kept behind their daughter's head almost like a pillow in the car seat so that she could use it for any spit up. He then started to pull out the desk chair for her to sit down but she was already walking away.
"Where are you going?" He called after her, prompting her to turn back around just as she reached the doorway.
"Bathroom," She replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Len rolled his eyes at her.
"We're all adults here," he said before casting a glance over at Cisco, "Well most of us," he amended, earing a look of protest from his sister's boyfriend but no words accompanied it. "Just stay in here," he instructed and Sara looked around the room hesitantly.
"Does anybody care?" She asked and was answered with a mix of headshakes and various voices claiming "no".
Once Aurora had been fed she decided that she did not want to be put down, she didn't care who had her, but she wanted to be held. Sara gave her to Iris to hold and after awhile of talking with her friend she noticed Wally once again peering awkwardly over his sister's shoulder at the baby.
"You want to hold her?" She asked, her teasing smirk quickly turning amused when the kid looked at though she had just suggested one of the worst things that a person could.
"No, that's uh, that's ok." He stuttered out,
"Come on, you can sit down and hold her." The blonde continued to encourage but Wally was every bit as stubborn on his point and continued to shake his head.
"Wally, you'll be fine." Iris promised her brother but as expected he didn't appear to believe her. "Come on," She continued to prompt,
"No way," Wally insisted, "When that kid can hold it's own head up, come and talk to me. But for now, I'm not touching it." He deadpanned and as if to defend him Aurora chose that exact moment to start fussing and so Sara took her back from Iris.
"Fair enough," she said to Wally, although really she looked as though if Aurora weren't crying she would've kept arguing.
Three months later and things had fallen into some semblance of a routine in the Snart/Lance apartment. Sara was back at work part time and so when she was gone Len was home with Aurora and vise versa. There were times where Len had a job during Sara's work hours, but they were yet to run into an incident of that during a time where Dinah wasn't free and so Len could usually drop his daughter off with her grandmother on his way. Anyway, today was a Sunday and so Sara wasn't at work while Len didn't have any appointments. They hadn't put much thought into any sort of plans for the day, as Aurora had been up pretty much all night crying and she still wasn't getting much better.
They had tried just about everything that they could think of in order to calm her down but so far nothing was working. At first they had simply thought she was crying so much because they moved her into her crib for the first time last night and she was probably just scared and missing the bassinette. They had let her go for a few hours before Len finally grew fed up and went to check on her. Taking her out of the crib did nothing, giving her to Sara to feed her helped a little and allowed them to get her to sleep, but after an hour or so she was back at it again. This time Sara went into the nursery and reached only one hand into the crib to rub comforting circles on her daughter's belly. When it finally calmed her enough for her to go back to sleep Sara left and that was that until morning.
But now it was nearing three in the afternoon and Aurora hadn't wanted to be put down all day. She had been ok in the morning, lying on her blanket on the floor while her parents played with her. With the weather getting nicer they decided that taking her out somewhere within walking distance might not be a bad idea and so they tried assembling the stroller, but around that time was when she started crying.
"Oh what's wrong? What's wrong baby?" Sara asked in a baby voice as she lifted Aurora out of her little swing but it had almost no effect. She started rocking her daughter and Len handed her the pacifier, but Aurora wouldn't take it.
"She just ate," Len observed, knowing that it wasn't like Aurora to have much of a problem literally five minutes after eating.
"Her diaper smells fine," Sara declared after lifting the baby up in a way so that she could make a guess on the diaper. "Shh, shh, I know." Sara cooed as she faced Aurora outwards and pressed her cheek against her head. She began pacing around the apartment, putting an extra sway to her hips as so to rock her baby, but it hardly did anything.
"Maybe she has gas?" Leonard suggested but Sara shook her head.
"She burped after she ate," She reminded him and he shrugged, so she decided it was worth a shot and shifted Aurora as so to burp her. But after more than a few minutes it was painfully obvious that this wasn't working.
At this point Len got up and took his daughter from Sara, he then proceeded to try putting her down in various places but that only made her screech louder.
"Thank god the neighbors are away this week," he found himself muttering under his breath, the last thing that he needed was those people pounding on the walls.
"Why don't we change her diaper?" Sara suggested,
"I thought you said it smelt fine?" Len questioned but Sara only shrugged.
"Maybe we put it on weird and it's bothering her or something, I don't know what else could be doing this to her!" She exclaimed, gesturing to the screaming baby for emphasis and so Len conceded to her point.
Sure enough Aurora's diaper was just fine, but they changed it anyway because they couldn't think of anything else but it still did nothing. She continued crying for another hour until Sara finally gave up trying to keep her on her schedule and fed her, and that shut her up. Once she had eaten she was calm for a few minutes before she started fussing again, and Sara and Leonard both knew that if they didn't figure out her problem fast they would be dealing with yet another meltdown. So it was at this point that Leonard decided to test out Aurora's reaction to a trick that sure as hell never worked on Lisa as a child, it only ever annoyed her. Thankfully she took the pacifier this time and once she had that he tried singing to her, which much to his surprise actually put her to sleep.
"You're a terrible songwriter," Sara mocked after Len put Aurora in her crib and flopped down next to her on the living room couch. He snickered at this, he doesn't really remember any lullabies so he had quite literally just singing about wanting his daughter to calm down, but it worked.
"What do you think got into her?" He asked but Sara simply waved off his obvious concern.
"She didn't eat much when I fed her last night, between that and putting her in the crib I think she's just having an off day." She theorized and Len nodded in hopeful agreement.
But when their daughter woke up absolutely nothing would calm her.
She wasn't hungry, she wasn't wet, she wasn't tired, she was just flat out crying for no apparent reason. Only when Leonard held her against him and she started sucking on his shoulder did she finally seem content.
"Really?" He asked, "This is making you happy?" He asked before turning to Sara who looked just as dumbfounded as he did. "I don't get it, she won't take her pacifier but she'll suck on me?" He asked and as realization dawned on her Sara placed her hands on her hips and a wide smile crossed her face.
"Oh my god," she gasped, causing Len to eye her with extreme skepticism.
"What?" He asked; confused as to what suddenly had her so elated.
"That's why she's been crying all day, she's teething!" She exclaimed and although Len's face didn't change he did realize that her theory made sense. Aurora wouldn't take her pacifier because essentially it's just hallow rubber, there's nothing to bite. But the firm muscle and bone of his shoulder, even through is shirt, is something different.
Sara's smile widened at the revelation, and Len's soon turned to match it. They had actually figured out what was wrong.
"I guess we're going to have to buy some of those rings," he joked and Sara nodded in agreement.
"Oh you look so pretty," Sara gushed as she got Aurora ready for her father and Donna's wedding. Aurora was now just two days past five months old and so far had two little teeth in the center of her bottom gums. She also still appeared to be bald from a distance, but that's only because the short blonde hair that covers her head is so light in color.
Anyway, Sara had her dressed in a sleeveless purple dress with a matching headband that had a rather large purple flower sewn onto it.
"Mommy looks pretty too," Leonard said, coming up behind Sara and putting his arms around her. He swayed her slightly to the side, plating a kiss on the crook of her neck and she swore that her hands needing to remain steady on Aurora's hips to keep her from falling over was the only thing keeping her from melting completely into Len's touch.
"Let mommy go before baby falls," she moaned her warning. To give some context to her worry over Aurora falling, they were currently in a Vegas hotel. More specifically, Aurora was sitting up on top of the hotel room dresser as her mother got her ready and considering she had just barely learned to sit up on her changing table at home Sara was being very cautious to hold her steady so that she wouldn't topple forward and fall to the floor far below.
Len conceded to the warning and slowly trailed his hands off his fiancée, deliberately lingering just long enough to feel her shudder when he sucked lightly at that pulse point on her neck.
"Maybe we can pawn her off on Felicity later," she suggested, half her mind still caught up in the fleeting moment that had just passed.
"Not Laurel?" Leonard asked in surprise, it's not that he wouldn't trust Felicity in watching Aurora, it's just that he had expected Laurel to be Sara's first choice. But still Sara shook her head at his question whilst also lifting their daughter into her arms.
"Felicity grew up here and already knows that Vegas isn't her place, Laurel on the other hand might go out with Ollie after the wedding, especially since they just caught their vigilante hunter." She explained, neither of them was exactly sure how involved with each other Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance were these days but they both got the feeling that they might be heading back to what they used to have.
Sara, despite having once helped Ollie cheat, was hoping they would get back together. She had said it herself long ago; its always Oliver and Laurel. Only after everything that's happened, specifically after knowing that Laurel could've died that night in the prison, can she now see that that's the way it always should be. After Leonard saved Laurel, something she still can't really believe he had done, she asked Ollie what he would say to Laurel if he were to never see her again. He claimed that he would apologize, and knowing him he probably would. But Sara had heard something else in his voice that night, a hint that there was more he would want to say but they were not words meant to be heard by Laurel's sister.
"Sounds like a plan," Len agreed, interrupting Sara's thoughts in the process. He then proceeded to take Aurora from Sara, smile brightly at the little girl as he did. "How does that sound to you?" He asked the baby, "Huh? Would you want to sleep over with your Aunt Felicity tonight?" He asked playfully, gently lifting his daughter up above his head and pulling her back down as he did so, thus making her giggle uncontrollably.
Sara smiled at the image before her. When she first met Leonard Snart she never would've pegged him for a baby person, not that she would've pegged herself for one either. But yet, here they are. The ex crook, the ex assassin, and their daughter. They were the one thing that Sara had given up hope on ever having after the Gambit.
One big, happy, family.