"What is with the radio?" Ray muttered.
Sara groaned. If he turned on the station for lonely hearts again, her fantasy of strangling him might become less than fantastical. Her pit madness was long gone, but this particular 'road trip' brought back familiar impulses. The whole situation was fucked. No Waverider, no Ava, Hank chasing them across the country. The cherry on top of it all was having to pretend to be the happy-go-lucky Barnes family on vacation in their trusty RV.
"-and that's no weather report," came a smooth radio voice. "Lucky for you, you're not alone, 'cause you've got DJ Z to guide you past those bad vibes."
"DJ Z?" Ray brightened, his hand already on the knob to turn up the volume. "That sounds like Zari!"
Sara could kiss her. Perfect timing, as always.
"Right now, the beat on the street is to lay low. But while you park it, here's—oh."
There was a click over the radio, then Zari continued. "Looks like we have a guest caller. What's your name?"
"Daisy."
Ray tilted his head as if trying to figure out if they had a Daisy on their team at some point. Which… fair. They had a long roster of teammates, current and former. Never a Daisy on it, but the name rang a bell.
"And what would you like to say to our eclectic listeners at home?"
"Just wanted to say that you're right. We aren't alone. I mean, I just saw some news today that ruined my vibe, but my friend did me a favor, and now I'm keepin' on my high."
"Wow." Genuine shock bled through Zari's radio persona. "I, uh, yeah. Thank you for calling, Daisy. Let's leave everyone with a reminder to re-evaluate, take a chill pill, and see if those ruined vibes can turn into a high."
She met Ray's eyes in silence. For once, the back of the RV was silent too. Because what the hell was that supposed to mean? Typical 70s music started playing. Nobody cared. She took a breath. "John?"
"No idea, love," came the gruff reply from the rear of the RV.
"Are you guys okay?" Sara asked, hurrying out of the car. After the truth bug caused her to snap at Mona, it took some time to track the girl down and get her back from the bar she had run off to. Well, time plus one stupid, emotionally vulnerable heart-to-heart. But of course, her team managed to get themselves caught by the time she got back to them.
Nate blew out a breath, throwing his hands in the air. "Yes? No. I don't know." He shrugged hopelessly. "First time in my adult life I told my dad I love him. Years of therapy couldn't even get me to do that."
She raised an eyebrow, looking between Nate and his dad in their stupid matching State Trooper uniforms. Hank looked at least moderately sheepish, so she'd consider that a win. At least the truth bug managed to repair a relationship in exchange for the one it almost ruined.
Oh, by the way, I love you so big," he said, smiling at her. "And I love you so big," he said to Ray. He started to say it again to John, but Hank cut him off.
"Look, I don't always agree with you, but if Nathaniel trusts you, so do I." Hank looked down. She wondered if it physically hurt him to say that. "And… I see you wiped Nixon's disastrous speech and your own involvement from the record. Just get him back where he needs to be." The lingering 'we'll call it even' went unspoken.
Sara gave a very captain-like nod.
She let out a very un-captain-like, "What the fuck, Zari?" once the rest of the crew had dispersed, leaving Rip's old office empty save for the two of them.
"What?" Zari raised her hands defensively. "I risked everything to get that message to you guys. If I'd been caught, we would've never figured out what Hank was up to, I'd be arrested by the bureau, and, oh yeah! You'd be arrested too."
Recoiling, Sara took stock of herself. She deliberately relaxed her fingers from their death grip on the desk. "Sorry. Yes, Z, you did a good job." She really hoped it didn't come out with the bite she belatedly realized was rife within the word choice.
Z pursed her lips, brows raised expectantly, waiting for the-
"… But," Sara started.
She gave a resigned nod and sank into one of the armchairs. One arm motioned lazily for Sara to continue, so she did.
"Look, this is gonna sound bad, but I need you to promise me to keep what I'm about to say between you and me. Got it?"
"Okay…" Zari drawled, sitting up straighter. "Yeah. Lay it on me, Captain."
From the locked drawer in Rip's desk—her desk—Sara pulled a dusty file. With shaking hands, she opened it, a familiar face greeting her. Daisy. She knew the name sounded familiar. But it had been years since she last saw hide or tail of the woman, and even that wasn't direct. Three years later, Sara thought that was it. One night and one odd revelation that would never come to anything.
She passed the file to Zari before she could change her mind and keep Daisy her little secret forever.
"The fuck?" Zari flipped through it quickly. "This is from the Pentagon."
"Yup."
"About what? Project Insight? The hell is that?" She frowned and skimmed the rest of the summary. "Attempted launch 1976… Shot down by an unknown group who were first spotted in 1973 infiltrating a redacted agency base?
Sara sank into the armchair beside her and poured herself a drink, knocking it back in one go. "Alright. I'm ready. Ask away."
"Why do you have this? And why show it to me now? Unless you think it's connected to the Bureau? Is that the redacted agency?"
"Because," Sara leaned across the wooden end table separating their two seats and tapped the picture of Daisy in the file, "I know her. I met her in a bar in 2016."
Zari went still.
"She told me her name was Daisy."
"The woman who called…"
"Mhm." The normally unflappable, disillusioned hacker was, for once, caught by surprise. Shock turned to confusion, which melted into a vague admiration. By force of habit, Sara poured her a drink. They made eye contact as she offered it and realized her mistake. With a shrug, she downed it herself. "Same voice."
A voice she had wanted nothing more than to hear again after she found the file. They had connected then, in 2016, over death and running from some unforgiving past. But they both knew they couldn't last. Sara couldn't drag Daisy into the life of a vigilante, even if she suspected Daisy's hands might not be entirely clean either. But now? Well, she was a time traveler too, wasn't she? She was already in this life without Sara dragging her in.
No. Sara had Ava now. Or… she mostly did. This break not-withstanding.
"Wait… We haven't gone to 1986. When did you get this?"
"Second mission with Rip. We were trying to find more intel on a project Vandal Savage worked on when I found that file."
Zari's lips twisted into a knowing smirk. "And you never told anyone, did you?" She crossed her arms, sitting back. "Look at you, Captain. Breaking the rules."
She cast a playful glare in her direction. "I'll have you know I did a lot of rulebreaking back in the day. But someone had to step up and keep all you idiots alive." Her fingers toyed with the rim of her glass as she sighed. "I didn't want Rip to go after her for breaking time. And then I just… forgot, I guess. Three years is a long time for us, and whatever she did obviously didn't change the timeline enough for anyone to notice."
"Unless… she's hacking time."
Sara couldn't stop the immediate groan from escaping.
"Gideon?" Zari held up the file, pointing to Daisy's photo. "Can you bring up anything you can find on this lady?"
"Of course, Miss Tomaz. I have found two references. She appears in the background of an image taken in 1973 and in the image you are currently holding, from 1976."
Sara sat upright. "Not in 2016?"
"No, Captain Lance. There is no record of Miss Daisy in L.A. in 2016."
She dropped her head into her hands, grabbing at fistfuls of hair. "Zari," she growled, "you better tell me how that's possible before I start thinking I'm losing my mind."
With a hum of a challenge accepted, Zari crossed to the ship's central console and began working her magic. "Definitely possible. Looks like your girl scrubbed everything from Nixon's incident that had contact with a digital system. Broadcasts went down, and sooo many reports of fried floppies. She knows how to hack. You're lucky the government's paranoid enough to keep paper copies around." Another hum. "That explains how she was able to call in. I was broadcasting from the Bureau and high-jacked a frequency. You can't just call in to that."
"Hacker. Great. You two can, like, trace each other, right?"
Zari's glare was withering.
"Assassin, and two years of a bio degree. Not a tech person," she said quickly.
The glare softened to an annoyed eyeroll. "Tracking another hacker is doable, but not for someone like this chick. She's good. No trace in 2016. Not even the fingerprints of a manual scrub. I can't trace her unless I find her in the act or she screws up on her own."
"That, we can make happen." Sara clapped. "Alright Gideon! Scan the timeline again for any time-travelers."
"Non-bureau time-travelers," Zari specified.
"I apologize, Captain, but the Legends are the only current time-travelers who are not operating within the Time Bureau's purview."
Sara twisted in her chair to meet Zari's equally frustrated stare. Zari shook her head and looked up at Gideon's hologram. "Hey Gideon, can you check that again but just for 1973? Even Bureau jumps?"
"Time couriers are beyond my ability to trace, but the timeline shows no aberrations outside of the Legends' activity."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Sara threw up her hands.
"Actually, it might," Zari muttered. She paced back and forth in front of the console. "What if she's from 1973? That would explain why Gideon can't find how she got there."
Sara shook her head and let it fall over the back of the chair, her eyes tracing where metal panels connected on the ceiling. "She was younger in 2016."
"Maybe she's using a time-courier?" A beat. "You could ask Ava?" She let her head loll back to Zari who raised her hands with a quickly added "Just sayin…"
"Fine. I'll think about it." She stood with a sigh. "Let me know if you find anything else. And remember, this-"
"Stays between us. Yup. You got it, Captain."
With a final nod, Sara left it at that. And for the first time in years, she was again plagued by visions of Daisy's haunted eyes and her tender touch.