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In the weeks following the Oculus, the term ‘Leonard Snart’ becomes the teams personal ‘Voldemort’. Nobody in the team will say his name, only allude to the crook turned hero, the man who’s no longer anything bar a memory.
It starts with Ray one night at dinner in the week following the battle at the Oculus and the defeat of Savage,
“Is there anyone back in 2016 that we need to notify of Leonards’ death?” he asks completely oblivious. Mick sucks in a breath, it’s the first time that anyone has acknowledged his partners demise with words since that day.
“His sister” is all he says, Ray nods.
“I’m sure we can manage to find some time to go back for a quick visit,” he allows. The team returns to their meals in silence.
“Seriously?” Sara asks incredulously, looking at Ray.
“Sara–” Mick tries to calm her.
“No Mick. I wont just sit here like everything is fine,” she turns from Mick to Ray. “Can you take your head out of your arse for one second and pretend that telling Leonards sister that he is gone isn’t some inconvenience to you?”
“Sara, I didn’t mean–” Ray tries to back track. “Leonard was–”
“No Ray.” Sara cuts him off, “you don’t get to act as though you and he were close. He saved your life, even after you and everyone else on this ship treated him like shit ever since we got here. You don’t get to pretend that you knew him.” As Sara says this she rises from her seat to glare at Ray. When he is suitably red-faced and ashamed, she leaves the table, only stopping once she is in the doorway.
“You never called him Leonard when he was alive, you don’t suddenly get to now that he is gone.” She tells Ray, not turning to look at him or any of the team.
“You don’t have the right to.”
So, Ray decides that Sara is right, it’s best to call the thief Snart, and if he can help it, Ray just wont say his name at all.
And soon enough nobody says his name, not even behind closed doors, not even Gideon.
For Ray, its because he feels responsible for the Oculus.
For Stein, its because he feels guilty for constantly diminishing his intelligence.
For Rip, it’s a painful reminder that he killed a person, a legend, that was meant to live.
Jax feels bad for never seeing him as anything other than a thief.
Mick won’t say his partners name because he wasn’t a partner, he was a brother.
Sara feels guilty for leaving him, sadness in that they don’t get to have a future, anger that the universe took away their maybe.
And Kendra. Kendra looks at the team, and what they have become since the Oculus and she decides that its not her place to say his name. So, she too, vows to be silent.
Leonard Snart is dead. But the memories of him aren’t. And for some reason that doesn’t feel right.
So the team silently agrees to not mention him, or the stories involving him, or his eventual demise.
And just like that. Leonard Snarts’ name is no longer uttered upon the ship, it lingers in the air like a ghost. His room lays untouched and dormant, only occasionally disturbed by Sara sitting on his bed, imagining a life where she had said yes to his maybe.
Leonard Snart has become the ships’ ghost, always hanging over group discussions, always present in times of celebration, always remembered in the slight mannerisms unintentionally picked up by each of his teammates.
Perhaps, one day, the team will be strong enough to say his name aloud again, but today is not that day, for they still mourn the thief in moments of silence and it is still too painful. One day, they each silently hope, one day maybe it won’t be this painful and then, they will be able to share memories and stories of him without wanting to beg the heavens for forgiveness. Maybe, one day that can be true, but today is not that day, for Leonard Snart meant too much to merely move on. His ghost will be present for a long time to come. Leonard Snart will not be mentioned today.