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“Wait hang on! Mom, you missed my birth?” The now seven-year-old Lori asked looking absolutely betrayed. She was sitting on her bed between her moms; a cupcake with a recently blown-out candle on her bedside table.
“Not by choice!” Ava was quick to defend herself. Every year for her birthday they would wake her up at midnight with a cupcake and a single candle and tell her the crazy stories between when they find out they were going to have her and when she was actually born. The fact that Ava was absent for the moment, a fact that broke her heart, but was previously kept out of their retelling.
“Yeah, she would’ve been there if she wasn’t in prison.” Sara added.
“You were in prison? I mean, I’d believe it if Mama was-”
“-Your grandfather needs to stop telling you those crazy stories of my childhood. I was very well-behaved.” Sara tried to sneak in that lie.
“Actually she was in prison with me. The Legends were arrested for time crimes.”
“What time crimes?”
“You know all those bedtime stories you love? All of them could be argued to be time crimes.” Ava explained.
“So I was born in prison?”
“No. You were born in Central City, you would’ve been born in prison but your mom made a deal to take full responsibility for the crimes, so long as they let everyone else go.” Sara clarified before
“I only planned to really have Mama get out, but I figured there would be some negotiations so I started with the whole team and planned to whittle it down to just Mama.”
“And that worked?”
“That and the fact that if any of us are caught in possession of a time ship or carrier, or stone we all go back to prison with no release date.”
“So that’s why you retired?”
“Well actually we retired before that but it does help ensure we don’t come out of retirement. The other major factor in us not coming out of retirement is you. We don’t want to miss a second of your life.” Ava was trying to explain it as simply as possible.
“So how much of my life did you miss?”
“I was out before you were a week old thanks to a plan your mama came up with.”
“What was the plan?”
“Well, we have run into some pretty terrible people, some of them many different times-” Ava started trying to paint them in the best light.
“I had Barry switch out Mom with one of the clones from the future that was a real jerk.” Sara didn’t have any issues with this. The particular Ava they had left in prison was a cop who was too trigger-happy so she needed to be off the streets.
“So the time police think Mom is still serving her sentence?”
“Yup.” Sara confirmed it.
“Any other questions or do you want us to continue with the story?” Ava asked enjoying how Lori was fully leaning into her.
“Where were we when you did actually meet me?”
“It was in this room. You were crying so hard-”
“You never stopped crying that entire first week, I am shocked you slept at all.” Sara pointed out. “I think deep down you knew something wasn’t right. You missed Mom from the start.”
“So how long were you in prison with me?”
“Most of the pregnancy. Like 6 months of it.”
“I tried to have my plan work a lot sooner but I was ready to get you both out through threats and great crimes.”
“Yeah she almost shivved a guard. She did start to choke one.” Sara clearly thought this was a point of pride.
“That was not okay but it did seem like the only way to get you and your mom out of that situation. Honestly, those 6 months were the second worst time of my life.”
“What was the first?”
“The first week of your life because I knew you were born and I couldn’t see you. I was so happy that you were healthy and fine but god I wanted to see you so bad.” Without words Lori cuddled deeper into Ava.
“Then Kara had a plan.” Sara grinned. “See Mick still had a time currier, which is the whole reason we got stuck in 1925 in the first place. So with Kara as our back up-”
“I actually got to go back and be there for your birth.”
“So you never missed my birth?”
“I did, but I then got to see it.”
“Why is everything with us so complicated?”
“Because Legends can’t do anything simple.” Ava pointed out.
“Which you will discover when everyone comes to your birthday party. Because it is most likely we might have another children’s party where the police come and not just because of Uncle Mick.”
“Which is why we always have a separate party for your school friends.” Ava stressed.
“Is Uncle Mick gonna burn down a building again?”
“Maybe. That is how he breaks a pinata.”
“Or we can stop getting pinatas made by Ray to be a challenge for the Legends to open.”
“No I like watching Uncle Nate go all steel on them! Or like when Aunt Nora made one come to life!”