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Sara’s favourite flowers are daisies because they are so alive and pure and one of the only things that have remained constant throughout everything.
When she was younger her father would always bring her mother a bunch of flowers home each week. The week her mother found out she was pregnant with Sara, it was daisies. So her mother always said that daisies reminded her of Sara and her love for her daughter. For Sara, they represented motherly love, family time and always being safe.
After the Gambit, Sara didn’t think she would see the yellow and white flowers ever again. So when she found a small patch of them in a large field of wild flowers near Nanda Parbat, Sara was so excited to tell Nyssa. She explained the significance of them and what they mean to her. A few days later Sara found the entire field burnt down. The message clear, Nyssa’s love for her doesn’t exempt Sara from the Leagues first teachings, her past self is dead, the Sara Lance who loved and trusted foolishly was long gone. In her place is Ta-er al-Safar, warrior, assassin, the league was no place for flowers. Sara began to dislike daisies, they reminded her too much of what had once been, they represented the cruel truth that is life.
Even on that retched island there were a couple of small plants. When she first saw them, Sara let out a harsh laugh, of course daisies would find a way to torment her on a remote island in the middle of the god-damn North China sea. Sara had lit those ones alight before she left the island. She truly resented daisies.
When Sara returned to Starling City, one of the first things she did was track down Laurel to see how she was and what she was doing. After following her sister in the shadows for a few weeks, Sara could predict her whereabouts pretty accurately. One day Laurel visited Sara’s grave to talk to her little sisters’ tombstone, that was the day Sara nearly ran from the shadows to her sister. But she didn’t, she couldn’t cause Laurel anymore pain. So instead, Sara watched as Laurel left a bunch of daisies next to her headstone, stood up and left. Maybe daisies shouldn’t get all of the blame for the past few years, Sara decided.
The next time Sara sees daisies its in 1970, Leonard, Mick and her all just got kicked out of the bar for fighting. Mick stumbles down the road, Leonard still holds a beer in his hand and Sara walks between the two crooks, the only two of her new teammates who understand her the best. Sara notices the daisies growing in twos and threes along the side of the road, Mick bends down to pluck one from the soil, placing it behind her ear.
“A pretty flower for a badass lady” he tells her, slurring more syllables then Sara thought possible. Sara, smiles, they haven’t known each other for long, but Sara knows Mick’s intentions are good, he would never try anything with her. He respects her and is now well aware of what Sara’s role on the team is, to kill those against her. They continue to walk until Leonard nudges her shoulder,
“You didn’t have to take it you know,” he tells her,
“I know, but he’s drunk and it seems rude to remove a flower that was placed in my hair” she shrugs her shoulders, nodding towards Mick who is now singing something about being all by himself.
Leonard smiles at her, “besides” she says “I have a thing about daisies.”
Leonard didn’t know what to expect from the small woman who was supposedly a heartless assassin, but this was not it. Bar fights, yes, smashing men's faces in, definitely, but walking down the road in the 1970’s with a daisy behind her ear, not so much. So, he stores that little bit of information, perhaps he can use it to his advantage at a later stage. And Sara realises that maybe daisies can once again represent happiness, they don’t have to be a reminder of what she has lost and gone through. Instead, they can be about friendships, new beginnings, and the future.
After the initial mission to the 1970s Sara find daisies in her room randomly. She knows that they are from Leonard, she hasn’t told anyone else, Mick doesn’t remember, and the crook remembers everything that she tells him. And Leonard knows that Sara knows that its him, how could she not. But neither of them mention it, because then Leonard would have to admit that a smile meets his lips every time Sara picks up a daisy from her bedroom, where he left it a few moments earlier. And Sara would have to admit that Leonard has a subtle type of beauty and charm that is mirrored in the small flowers that he brings her.
So it continues, their little dance around each other, both enjoying what they have created, believing that they have all of the time in the world. They are time travellers after all, besides they both enjoy the simple things in life, simple things like a bunch of daisies should be appreciated. Fucked up pasts teach you to enjoy what you can, and they don’t need anything more at the moment. They have all of the time in the world to be more, right?
And just like that, they don’t have any more time. The oculus blows up, and with it any chance of a future together. Sara’s world shatters as she watches the Oculus explode from the Waverider, but she doesn’t let any tears fall, because none of her teammates would understand. When she gets back to her room, Sara holds the last daisies that he gave her close to her chest. Later she goes to Gideon and gets her to put the daisies in a kind of stasis, that prevents the flowers from withering, letting Sara keep the small flowers in a vase by her bedside for as long as she wants.
Sara is right, no one, not even Mick understands why Sara is obsessed with the tiny flowers at her bedside. Now, Sara realises, now daisies represent an unfulfilled promise of the future, that could never happen. Sara keeps the daisies next to her bedside always, sometimes accompanied by things such as a book, knife or glass of alcohol, always there.
When, months later, Leonard is returned to them by Barry Allen because of some kind of accident and ‘time righting itself’ the flowers he gave her are still there. He notices them the moment he steps into her quarters, and he smiles, because they were never just flowers or a small gesture, they were a promise to Sara that they would have a future together. Them being there means one thing, Sara still wants a future with him. They waste no time becoming acquainted or re-acquainted with each other, now they know that tomorrow isn’t a guarantee, even on a time-travelling-dimension-jumping-history-altering ship.
Months pass, Leonard and Sara have no reason to hide their relationship from the team. They sleep in the same room, sit next to each other at mealtimes and train together. But they aren’t one of those couples who are attached to each other, they are their own individuals, capable of being apart but happier together. Even though Sara has her daisies in stasis. Leonard continues to give her them randomly, and the team still isn’t quite sure what they mean. Daisies are a promise Sara finally concludes, to love always, to support always and to never leave each other, not again.