Chapter Text
After an amazing night, Nora and Ray were asleep in their bed. Nora woke up and stared at Ray. He was still asleep and she softly pressed a kiss to his chest, trying to wake him up. He didn’t respond. Teasingly, Nora went upwards, until she reached his mouth. Ray moaned. Nora went back down, the same way she went up, repeating her actions.
“Hi, good morning,” Nora heard Ray’s sleepy voice. Nora looked at him with a naughty smile. “This is a great way to wake up.”
Nora moved her body and wrapped her arms around his neck then pressed a kiss to his lips. Because of her firm grip on his neck, he turned them around. Now Nora wasn’t on top anymore, but Ray was.
“You’re in a good mood this morning,” Nora laughed. Nora didn’t even get a response, just a growl and she simply kissed him.
Before anything further could happen, the pair got interrupted by Gideon’s alarm. Nora and Ray looked at each other and sighed. Without having to communicate, they got up, put on their clothes and walked toward the bridge. Sara already stood there, Charlie walked in in her pajamas, followed by Zari a couple seconds later. Nora wanted to make a comment about it but decided to stay quiet. She would talk about it with Zari one day.
“Gideon, what do you have for us?” Sara asked the AI.
The AI appeared. “A change in the timeline in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, 1871. Right before the fire starts in the city.”
The team looked at each other, all having no clue which fire Gideon was talking about.
“Due to the enormous draught multiple fires broke out, following each other. There were the fires in Chicago, Holland and Peshtigo. Approximately a third of the inhabitants lost their homes and the dead count in estimated between the 1200 and 2500 people, making in the deadliest fire in the American history.”
The team looked startled. This was serious and they all had to pay attention.
Eventually Sara distanced herself away from the group, getting everyone’s attention. “Alright everyone, I want everyone to watch each other’s backs and don’t leave anyone alone. I don’t want to lose anyone in the fire. Please, be careful everyone.”
The team nodded and they walked to the fabrication room in silence. Even Mick and Charlie didn’t dare to make a remark.
After Ray and Nora changed into mission gear, they took a short moment for themselves, before all hell broke loose. Ray pulled his girlfriend in a comforting hug and kissed her crown, calming Nora instantly. “I love you.”
Nora pulled back a little and she kissed him. “I love you too.”
They walked back towards the bridge hand in hand. Time to put their game face on.
XXX
Arriving in 1871, the team divided themselves into two groups, Nora went with Zari and Ray went with Charlie and John, while Mick and Sara stayed behind on the ship for quarterback. The fire had started already and trying to find their magical creature, Ray, Charlie and John carefully tried to walk closer to the fire. They knew that John’s magic could save them, but they were still careful.
They were searching for the creature, yet they kept on hitting dead ends. John also couldn’t help track it down with his magic, making it even more difficult. They walked around for what felt like hours, but no one could actually tell for how long they had walked around. It was hard to tell time with all the chaos the fires had created.
Suddenly they heard a hard bang and crying afterwards. The surrounding areas had become so dangerous, that everyone had fled already.
Ray eventually found a small girl, he estimated that she was two years old, sitting in a tiny alley between two buildings. Without hesitation, Ray ran towards her and using all his strength he pushed away the wooden beam, which was lying on top of her.. When the girl was freed, he carefully lifted her on his chest. He looked her over the girl had bleeding scratches or red marks all over, which most certainly would turn into bruises.
“Ray, you can’t take her to the Waverider. Sara will kill you, literally!” Charlie yelled at Ray.
Ray didn’t listen to Charlie and pulled the girl a little closer to his chest. Somehow the girl stayed calm, something Ray admired. She barely knew him, yet she already trusted him. “I can’t leave her here all alone on the street, she’s too badly injured.”
John observed the area and came to the conclusion that it didn’t look good. “Sorry to interrupt your squabbling, but if we’d like to get out of here alive, then we have to move right now!”
Ray didn’t even look at Charlie anymore and ran towards the Waverider with the young girl in his arms, leaving John and Charlie behind. Charlie shook her head, watching Ray ran away and followed him together with John shortly after back to the Waverider.
XXX
Zari and Nora walked towards the complete other side as Ray, Charlie and John, yet they also walked into the fires. The fires only got bigger and bigger, but Zari and Nora didn’t want to go back until Sara specifically ordered them to.
Suddenly Nora felt that no one was walking beside her anymore and she scanned her surroundings as quickly as possible. Where did Zari go? The fires gotten even closer, until she was completely surrounded and couldn’t find a way out. Without even noticing her breathing accelerated and the adrenaline streamed through her body. Ze only has one goal: survive. She felt her magic stream through her veins and was about to use it, when someone grabbed her hand and she is being pulled out of the fire. Her legs started running and after running on for about half a mile through the heat, they stopped and Nora finally has the time to see who her savior was. He was a young man, whose eyes looked kind.
“Zari, where is she? Where is Zari?”
“Your friend? She has been saved already and she told that she had to go back to her family?” The young man could tell her. Nora was relieved and sighed. “My name is Dob.”
“Nora,” she swiftly introduced herself. “But I really have to go back to my family, which way did my friend go?” Nora was shown the way and quickly walked back towards the ship. Why did Zari walk away and leave her alone?
XXX
When Ray, Charlie and John arrived on the Waverider, Ray carried the girl as fast as humanly possible to the med bay. He heard someone call his name, but he didn’t care and just let it slip. Het put her in one of the two beds and let Gideon do her work. During these nerve-wracking minutes in which Gideon tried to save the little girl, Ray nervously stood really close to her. He clearly felt responsible for what happened to the girl.
“Doctor Palmer?” Gideon interrupted Ray’s worrying. Ray studied the screen which held the medical data of the young girl. “I have tried to repair most of her internal damage, right now she needs rest to heal, so I placed her in a medically induced coma.”
Ray nodded and grabbed one of the chairs standing nearby and put in next to the girl’s bed. He would stay here, to protect the girl, but perhaps even more important: to protect his heart.
XXX
In the same time, Nora arrived on the Waverider and she immediately saw Zari. Nora shot her an angry look and Zari’s face turned to e face full of regret.
“I’m so sorry for leaving you alone, but Sara ordered me to come back as soon as possible and I lost you and then I saw you were being saved already, so I went back as soon as I could.”
Nora’s angry look disappeared and she nodded understandingly. “The man who saved me told the same story. It’s okay.”
Zari sighed relieved. “Can I hug you? I know you’re not a hugger, but I feel like this is a hug kind of thing.”
Nora laughed and wrapped her arms around Zari. “The longer I live with the Legends, the easier the hugging gets.”
“A relationship with Ray Palmer will also have something to do with that.”
The two women looked at each other and started laughing. After they were done laughing, they walked further onto the Waverider, after which Nora would go looking for Ray.
XXX
A tiny hand on his shoulder let Ray wake up. When he opened his eyes, he looked straight into a pair of happy – but if you looked better you saw afraid – blue eyes.
“Hi,” Ray greeted the girl, “you don’t have to be afraid, my name is Ray and I saved you from the fire.” The girl seemed to understand and nodded. “What’s your name?”
“Jane,” The girl answered and sat up straight, making her dark blonde locks fall playfully along her face. “Miss Jane Winterbottom.”
Ray held out his hand, which the girl took. “Mr. Ray Palmer. It is so nice to meet you, miss Jane Winterbottom.”
Jane smiled and there reigned a silence. Ray used the silence to observe the girl really thoroughly. Ze wore typical nineteenth-century clothing, which were stained with soot and torn because of the fire. She also had some smudge still on her face and her – what Ray guessed lighter blonde – hair, discolored and became a darker color.
The same counted for Jane, she also used this silence, but not only to observe Ray. She observed in what kind of room she was and what was in the room. The room was full of stuff she had never seen in her very short life. It was also very bright here, why was it so bright? She heard a weird female voice too and she searched for the female who belonged to that voice, yet she couldn’t find her.
Jane had fallen – thanks to her exhaustion – asleep a couple minutes later, leaving Ray alone again. “Gideon?” The AI started, letting Ray talk further. “Where in the timeline could I place Jane, making the tiniest alteration?”
There was a painful silence. “I’m sorry doctor Palmer, but you can’t place miss Winterbottom back in the timeline, otherwise you will cause catastrophic damage to the timeline.”
“Why?”
“Miss Winterbottom was supposed to die.”
XXX
When Gideon had told Nora that Ray was in the med bay, but that he wasn’t injured – something Nora found odd, because why would he be in the med bay when everyone else was in the kitchen – walked Nora calmly walked towards Ray in the med bay. Once she arrived, she knocked on the closed door and within seconds she heard someone rumble and the doors opened. Ray appeared in the door opening and before Nora could walk into the room, Ray directed her outside the room.
“Ray, what’s going on?” She asked surprised. Ray let Gideon close the doors into the med bay and moved, making the two standing against each other. “Ray, who’s in there?”
Ray took a deep breath and shuffled uncomfortably on his feet. “In there is Jane, a young girl I saved in 1871. I wanted to place her right back where I got her, but I asked Gideon and in the original timeline, the girl was supposed to die.”
Nora didn’t know what to do with this particular piece of information and was completely perplex.
Ray stayed calm and talked further, not letting Nora influence his emotions. “Gideon told me that if I placed her back in the timeline, the damage will be catastrophic, so I guess that means that she has to stay here and I think I and I hope we have to take care of her.
Nora stayed quiet, she seemed to be thinking. Ray knew her well enough to keep his mouth shut, she would come with what is bothering her as long as he wouldn’t say anything. Suddenly Nora angrily hit Ray on his chest. “Ray, I don’t want to have kids right now!” The fierce look in her eyes told Ray enough to know to stay silent. “Maybe not ever!”
That hurt Ray. He always wanted to have kids and had always imagined a little family with Nora. She would be an amazing mom, yet she didn’t know that.
As a tidal wave of emotions, Nora started crying and sought support at the wall. “I can’t raise kids. I-.”
“Ray?” The fighting was interrupted by Jane who entered the hallway.
“Oh my god,” Nora was shocked. Ray shifted his attention from Nora to Jane and held out his hand, which Jane took. He turned around, hoping to introduce Jane to Nora, but then he saw that Nora was gone. He wanted to follow Nora – he knows for a fact that she had gone to the library, cause she always did that if she needed some time to think of some time for herself – but he was stopped by the sound of the damn alarm. Somehow he still didn’t know why the alarm always went off when he was busy with something.
With Jane holding his hand, they walked towards the bridge where the rest of the team including Nora, already gathered. Everyone was silent for a moment and stared at them, but mostly at Jane, making Jane feeling uncomfortable and she tried to hide behind his legs.
Sara cleared her throat and everyone’s attention immediately shifted to Sara. “Alright everybody, the timeline still isn’t fixed. Gideon, what can you tell me about what went wrong?”
Gideon showed a photograph of a man and the whole team studied the photograph. Nora recognized the man, before Gideon could tell who the man was. “That’s Dob.”
Surprised by her answer, the whole team – except Zari, who also knew the man – glared at her.
“You know him, Nora?” Sara expressed the surprise of the entire team.
Nora straightened her back. “He was the one who saved me from the fire, without him I might have been burned.”
“Miss Darhk is right. His actual name is Robert Douglass, nicknamed Dob. He is the one you are after,” Gideon caught up op her. Nora, clearly startled by the situation, panickily searched for Ray’s eyes. Ray’s calm eyes had a soothing effect on her and Nora felt herself calm down.
“Alright, considering that both Nora and Zari have already met him, I want the two of you to stay here. Zari, you quarterback and Nora, you watch over Jane.”
Nora’s eyes enlarged when she heard that. Now she had to watch over the exact girl she and Ray had been fighting over a couple minutes ago? She didn’t even know how to deal with children, let even a two year old girl who had just gone through a traumatic experience and had just lost her parents. “But,” she wanted to protest but Sara wasn’t listening anymore and walked off the bridge. The rest of the team following their leaders example, leaving Ray, Nora and Jane alone.
“I’m so sorry,” Ray apologized, even if he didn’t know what he exactly was apologizing for.
Nora shook her head. “Just go. I’ll try to make the best out of this crappy situation. You have to go.”
Ray pressed a kiss on Nora’s lips and carefully took her hand. When they parted ways, their fingers touched as long as possible. Ray finally also leaving the bridge, leaving Nora and Jane alone.
Nora awkwardly stood in front of Jane. “Hi, I’m Nora.”
Jane didn’t look at her and before Nora had noticed, she exuberantly started running in circles through the bridge. It was like she could feel that everyone was gone and she didn’t need to behave herself anymore. Not understanding why Jane did that, Nora followed her with her eyes. Nora decided to just let her run, as long as she kept herself busy, Nora wouldn’t have to entertain her. Nora sat down on the stairs leading to Sara’s office, where she could see most of the bridge and could see Jane.
After Jane had ran around for a couple of minutes, she ran towards the stairs and launched herself onto Nora. Nora stopped paying attention after Jane had been running for a minute and heard a bang. Jane had fallen on the stairs and started crying. As fast as possible Nora turned towards Jane and saw she had a head lac, which must have happened during her fall.
Without giving it a second thought, she ordered Jane to sit still and the magic streamed through her hands. In no time the wound was healed. Nora awkwardly tried to put her arm around Jane, to offer her comfort, but before she could do that, Jane crawled already in her lap. Jane put her head on Nora’s chest, for a while they just sat there. Nora breathed relieved, despite the fall she had managed to calm Jane down and stopped her crying.
“Mommy?” Jane broke the silence.
Nora freaked out and looked at Jane. “Sweetie, I’m not you mother. I’m not capable of being anyone’s mother. Please, don’t sweetie.”
The little girl kept her mouth shut. It seemed that she had to process what Nora had just told her.
“Mommy, dwink?” Jane’s puppy eyes appeared.
Nora wanted to defend herself again that she wasn’t and couldn’t be her mother, but decided to just let it slide for now. “A drink?” Nora asked and Jane nodded. “I most certainly could use one right about now.” She stood up and wanted to walk towards the galley, when she heard Jane.
“Mommy, carry!”
Nora turned towards Jane and looked at her. Jane stood on the elevation towards Sara’s office and Nora leaned towards her, their heads on the same height. “Jane, sweetie, I’m not your mother, so stop calling me that!” There was a silence and the duo broke of their staring contest, until Nroa broke their silence. “Why do you insist on calling me mommy?”
“You’re my mommy.”
Nora didn’t know how to react on this information, so she just lifted Jane. When she had lifted Jane, she didn’t know how to carry Jane. It wasn’t until she realized that one time she went to the zoo with her parents, before everything had gone downhill, and she had seen a mother carry her child on her hip. She moved Jane towards her hip, and immediately the carrying became less heavy.
Together they walked towards the galley and Nora placed the girl on the countertop, but not before Nora explained to her multiple times that she had to sit still. Nora opened the fridge and searched for something a two year old could drink, until Nora realized that she had no clue what a two year old could drink.
“Miss Darhk, if I may advise you,” Gideon butted in.
Nora gratefully looked up. “I’d love to Gideon, I’m a little out of my element here.”
“Since she is a toddler, I’d recommend you give her apple juice.”
Nora glanced at Jane, but she showed no look of recognition. Nora grabbed the apple juice from the fridge and poured Jane a cup. She handed her the cup and Jane began to drink greedily. She must’ve been parched.
Nora opened the fridge again and was about to grab the bottle of wine, until Jane got inside her head. She was responsible for the little girl and she can’t do that when she is tipsy. She put the bottle of wine back in the fridge and grabbed a water bottle.
Nora glanced sideways again and saw she still happily sat on the countertop. She had put her empty glass beside her. Nora lifted her of the countertop and took her hand. Hand in hand they walked towards Ray’s lab. There she sat Jane on the couch and turned on the tv. Nora sat down next to Jane and Jane crawled into Nora’s side. Nora felt awkward and didn’t know what to do now. She wanted to move, but saw that Jane had fallen asleep already within the past seconds. As some sort of primal instinct, Nora stroked over Jane’s spine. She might find this situation difficult, but if she had to be completely honest, this was soothing.
About half an hour later the door into the lab opened and Ray entered the room. As soon as he saw Nora and Jane, an enormous smile appeared on his face.
‘Hey,” Nora greeted her boyfriend.
“Hi beautiful.” Ray took a seat on the handrail next to Nora and Nora hung against him. “How did it go?”
Nora still stroked over Jane’s back and smiled when she thought about the past hours. She looked at Ray for a moment and shifted her attention back to Jane. “It went so much better than I expected. Despite that she has just lost her parents and she has been through more changes than some people go through in their entire life, has she been so sweet and such a good girl.” Nora takes a short break. “When you guys were gone, she first ran out all of her energy and she fell in the end.” Ray got a terrified look on his face, but Nora kept talking. “I healed her wound with her magic and we drank some apple juice and then we moved here and she fell asleep within seconds. She has been so quiet and cooperative.”
Ray kissed her and for a moment, they just sat there with the three of them.
“Nora-,” Ray started. Nora looked at him, but felt someone move in her side. She turned her eyes away from him and focused on Jane.
Jane slowly woke up and opened her eyes. Her eyes got a sparkle when she saw Nora. “Mommy.”
Ashamed Nora looked back at Ray. “I’m so sorry, I tried to tell her, but she kept calling me that and I couldn’t find it in my heart to tell her no.”
Ray put his hand on his shoulder and opened his mouth.
On that exact moment, Sara entered the lab and three sets of eyes gazed at her. “Ray, Nora, I want to talk to you about Jane.”
Nora and Ray nodded understanding.
“Ray, I don’t agree with the way you handled this and how you dealt with history and therefore you’ll get disciplinary measures, otherwise I just won’t be able to afford this towards the Time Bureau. But perhaps the most important: what do you want to do with her?”
Startled by Sara’s loud, angry voice, Jane climbed over Nora and crawled between Ray and Nora on the couch.
Ray stayed quiet, not knowing how to answer. Nora had made her opinion on children very clear that she didn’t want children now and maybe not ever. But he couldn’t deal with leaving the little Jane all be herself.
“We’ll take care of her,” Nora beat him to answer. Nora looked at Ray in love. “She’ll stay here and we’ll adopt her and take care of her as if she is our own child.”
Not knowing how to ever thank her, Ray kissed her. One day he was going to marry this amazing woman and the mother of – from now on – their child.
XXX
When Sara had handled everything with Ray and Nora, the three of them were left alone in Ray’s lab. Ray sat down on the couch and pulled Nora in his lap and Nora pulled Jane in her lap, forming a pile of human bodies. The three of them merged in a group hug and Nora found herself at peace. These were the people she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Jane started yawning and moving after a while.
Nora caressed her face and softly kissed her head, before pulling her a little closer. “Is it nearly bedtime, Jane?”
Jane yawned again, before shaking her head, making Ray and Nora laugh.
“I think that before bed time, it is bath time,” Ray suggested enthusiastically. Jane nodded, matching Ray’s enthusiasm.
Nora glanced from Ray to Jane and back and lifted Jane from her lap and stood up, lifting Jane. “I think it’s bath time, little one.”
“I’m not little anymore, mama,” she said with an angry face.
Ray was standing up, when Nora smiled a little. “I’m sorry sweetie, I won’t call you little anymore.”
Jane seemed to agree with that and stopped protesting and nested even closer in Nora’s chest. She didn’t want to let go of Nora anymore. Nora carried her to the bathroom, Ray following them closely. Without having to say anything, filled Ray the bath with water and Nora started undressing Jane. Nora let Jane do as much as she could do herself, but noticed that it was a little too difficult for Jane, so she helped her. At first, Jane wouldn’t enter the bath, but after Nora explained it was to clean and when Ray conjured some toys from somewhere, she entered without complaining.
Now Nora sat peacefully next to the bath, playing with Jane and washing her with a cloth. She wanted to wash Jane’s hair, until she realized how much she hated that when she was a kid. “Ray?”
“Yeah?”
The look in her eyes was desperate. “Do I really have to wash her hair?”
Ray inspected their situation and tried to think of the best solution. “I would just wash her hair, if you only wash her hair with water, it will only get rattier and the smoke smell will stay in her hair.”
Nora nodded. “You’re right.” Nora grabbed the bottle of two in one shampoo and put it so gentle as possible in her hair. Nora sighed. “This might sting a little, but I’m going to try my best.” Jane just sat completely still and didn’t move; making Nora’s job easier.
While Nora washed Jane’s hair, Ray stood on the other side of the bathroom. He just observed them. This very morning Nora argued that she couldn’t be a mother, yet here she was, washing a young child’s hair and not just any young child; their young child. His heart melted of already simply the sight of them. “Ray, can you get a set of pajama’s for her, please?”
Ray nearly ran towards the fabrication room and fabricated a set of pajama’s for his daughter and a clean set of underwear. When he walked in again, his heart melted. Jane was already out of the bath, wrapped in a gigantic towel. Her hair in all directions and Nora tried to dry her daughter. He just stood in the door opening, observing his girlfriend and their toddler. This was everything he never knew he needed.
“Ray, can you give me the pajama’s?” Nora interrupted. Ray quickly got out of the door opening and handed Nora the pajama’s. Nora helped Jane put her pajama’s on, which she managed to do very smoothly and without the need to yell at anyone. She picked Jane up and glanced at Ray, who now knew that she was going to walk to their bedroom. Luckily after Nora moved out of her own room, which was next to Ray’s room, and was her old room still empty, so that Jane could sleep there now.
Nora and Ray first brought their daughter to their own room and changing into their pajama’s, so they all wore sleep clothes. They unanimously decided that Ray would change first, so that Jane didn’t have to let go of Nora yet. Ray was changed within a minute and rejoined Jane and Nora. Nora wanted to let go of Jane, but Jane thought otherwise. She clamped herself to Nora’s waist. There was no way Nora could change with Jane holding onto her like this.
Nora squatted, so that she and Jane were on the same height. “Jane, you know how you like my hugs?” Jane nodded, “Well, daddy has even better hugs, why don’t you try them out?” Jane had to consider for a minute, until she ran straight into Ray’s arms. Ray hugged her and held her close, while sitting down in an armchair.
Nora took this opportunity to swiftly change out of her regular clothes and put on her pajama. When she was finished, she turned and saw Ray and Jane sitting in the armchair. It might’ve been the cutest sight ever. Ray enjoying the moments with his new daughter and Jane feeling so at ease that she had fallen asleep on Ray’s chest. She quietly walked towards the two and kissed Ray.
“I love you.”
Ray smiled. “I love you too.”
They walked towards Jane’s bedroom and Ray put her in her bed and they tucked her in together. Jane received two kisses on the top of her head, from both her new mother and her new father. Jane smiled in her sleep, melting Ray and Nora’s hearts even further. Without making a noise, Ray and Nora left the bedroom, letting Jane sleep.