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Ray was in a rare somber mood as he stood between a dresser and the bed, examining the items in the drawers and choosing which small items to remove, fold up neatly, and put in the open suitcase sitting on the bed.
The closet door was also opened, but he hadn’t taken much out of it yet. In addition, a toy chest also sat open, some of the stuffed animals removed from it and set on the bed near the suitcase.
“Ray…do you have to look so sad about it? It’s just for a little while,” Len’s voice was soft as he stood there leaning against the doorframe.
“You don’t know that. Zoom’s shown no indication that he’s going to give up anytime soon and nobody has any idea how to stop him,” Ray said, folding a small pink and white shirt and putting it in the suitcase with the others.
“Which is why I want you and the kids safe, Ray. Keystone isn’t that far away, either, so we won’t be that far apart,” Len reassured, reaching up to push his wire-rimmed glasses up his nose a little further. They were always sliding down, especially after he’d been wearing them for a while.
“And what about you? I worry enough when you go to those stupid press conferences out in the open like that, now I’m not even going to be in the same city. What if something happens?” Ray asks, putting a folded pair of shorts with a flower and bee pattern on them in the suitcase.
“Honey...even if you were here, if something happened there wouldn’t be anything you could do…” Len said, trying to keep his tone gentle but...it was the truth and they needed to face that reality. Both of them.
“No, but...at least I’d be here. I could get to you sooner if something...if he...if you…”
“Raymond…” Len pushed away from the doorway and went over to his husband, putting his arms around him and holding him close, taking the little yellow skirt out of his hand and laying it on the bed for a moment.
Hands empty, Ray wrapped his arms around his husband and held him tightly, gripping the back of Len’s suspenders.
“I don’t want to leave you here alone, Len…” Ray whispered into his husband’s shoulder.
“Babe, I’m not alone. I’ve got staff and my bodyguards and Lisa…” he would have sent her away too, but she’d laughed in his face when he’d suggested it so he was pretty sure that was a no-go, and all the methods he’d thought of to force her to leave would be kidnapping and apparently that’s illegal. Not to mention he feared her wrath more than Zoom’s if he should ever try such a thing.
“None of them can do anything against Zoom if he wants to target you. He’s too fast, he could kidnap or kill you before anyone even realized what happened,” Ray insisted. “Besides, what does this say to the public, sending me and the kids away while you’re telling everyone else not to be scared, not to panic?”
“It tells them that I love my husband and my children and I’m taking the threat seriously,” Len said, although he knew it wouldn’t be as simple as that to the citizens of Central City. Ray was right, they’d call him a hypocrite and accuse him of being scared and useless at keeping the city safe. It might hurt his chances of getting reelected, too, when it came time for that.
But, honestly...Len didn’t care. Well, that’s not true. He cared, he really did. He worried about the citizens and he wanted to keep them safe and he was doing his best, but he would always care more about his own family that anyone else. As a politician and a public figure, that meant his priorities were skewed. As Mayor his first duty was supposed to be to the citizens of Central City and he wasn’t supposed to give his own family special or preferential treatment. But, it’s not like he was using secret intelligence to his own advantage to keep his family safe before anyone else. He was working on the same knowledge everyone else had. Zoom was dangerous and so far all attempts to stop him had failed. He wasn’t the only person to send family away to a place where Zoom wasn’t terrorizing the citizenry.
Still, it sent a message of weakness. But, he wasn’t going to put things like a reelection campaign, his public image and reputation, etc. above the safety and well-being of his family on the priority scale. He just was not going to do that.
Zoom had destroyed entire buildings, sometimes in order to kidnap a single person. What happened when he thought it was time to kidnap the mayor’s children because he didn’t like Len’s rhetoric toward him? Because he didn’t appreciate Len trying to undermine his attempts to strike fear and instill a sense of helplessness in the citizens of Central City?
What if he thought kidnapping the mayor’s husband and dangling him off a rooftop by his neck before dropping him to his death was a good punishment for uppity Mayor Snart to learn his place?
Sending Ray and the kids to Keystone wasn’t going to eliminate that possibility. Every effort would be made to keep their location, even their departure, a secret but...it wasn’t always possible to keep secrets indefinitely, and sometimes not at all. Especially if you were a public figure. But, it was a chance.
“You know that isn’t what they’ll say,” Ray said, quietly, probably thinking of everything Len had just thought of, and possibly more.
“Think of the kids, Ray. What if Zoom decides he’s had enough of my talk and levels their school so that he can take them?” Len knew it was a low blow to bring that up right now, but it was also a big reason he was sending them away so...it was relevant.
Right now, he couldn’t afford for Ray to push that thought away. They couldn’t afford it. He knew how tempting it was, that was why he’d put off sending them for so long. The thought would enter his head but it was so horrible and terrifying that he would push it away as soon as it threatened to fully form.
But, they couldn’t do that indefinitely.
“God, Len…” Ray said, pulling away and putting a hand to his mouth, turning away from his husband and looking at the bed, at a little plush rabbit toy with grey fur. It was Lecy’s, but she often shared it with Josh. Their babies, six and four respectively.
“I know. I’m sorry, but…” he wasn’t sure there was an adequate apology for the bald terms in which he’d spoken a moment ago, especially since he would do it again if he had to do over. This was that important.
“Yeah…” Ray whispered, because he understood even if he didn’t like it. Even if he was still a little sick just at the images Len’s words had painted for him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought it before, but...it was different, to hear it said out loud. Just thinking it meant that he could push it away, but it was somehow more real once said out loud.
“I wish I could go with you, but I can’t. You know I can’t.” Len turned Ray to him again and pulled him into another embrace.
“The kids like Mick and he’s great with them, they’d be alright if they went alone…” Ray said, but his tone was weak as he spoke. It wasn’t really an option.
“Mick would take good care of them,” Len conceded, because it was true. Those kids were just as much his pride and joy as they were Len and Ray’s (and Lisa’s). Not to mention that Mick was surprisingly good with kids in general, anyway. “But, I think it’d be better if they had at least one of us with them, Ray.”
“I know...they’re so young...and this is a big change,” Ray could accept that, because he already knew it, even if he didn’t like it. If one of them could go, then one of them needed to. Despite Len’s reassurances that this was just for a little while they both knew it was indefinite because there was no way to know how long it would take to get rid of Zoom, or if they ever would. It could be days or weeks or even months. Maybe even longer.
If they hadn’t taken care of Zoom by the end of Len’s term as mayor, he might just not bother seeking reelection, go to Keystone to be with Ray and the kids and just move their life there entirely and permanently. He hated to leave the city on its own, and if he were a single man with no kids he’d probably seek reelection and continue to fight, but...he wasn’t a single man with no children anymore. Like it or not, that changed the game, that changed his priorities by a lot.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to decisions like that. Hopefully, they would find a way to get rid of Zoom before any decisions like that had to be made. He had to keep that hope alive, but...he wasn’t sure how long he could do that when he was sending his hopes and dreams away to another town.
There would be phone calls, of course, but visits would be few and far between, if at all, because each one would increase the risk of Zoom finding out about where Ray and the kids were.
After a few more moments, savoring the feeling of having each other in their arms, knowing this would be one of the last times for a while, and...maybe forever if something happened, Ray finally pulled away enough to kiss his husband.
It was slow and deep and they took their time, not parting until they absolutely had to for air and then they rested their foreheads together, eyes closed as they caught their breath and soaked up just being in each other’s presence, the closeness and the intimacy they were going to have to go without for a while.
“Daddy…?”
Ray and Len stepped away from each other, a slow and deliberate movement because it was difficult to step away knowing that they didn’t have much time left for such things. Seeing them be close with each other was nothing new to their kids, though. Neither Len nor Ray had ever hidden their affection for each other, because they knew that one day the kids would be using their relationship as a barometer of normal to gauge what they should look for in a relationship themselves, if they wanted to have relationships. They wanted their kids to know it was okay to be affectionate with your partner.
Len knew what it was like to grow up in an abusive home, and Ray knew what it was like to grow up in an emotionally distant home, and neither were good models to base your relationships on. They knew that from past experience with others.
“Yeah, Punkin?” Len asked, turning around to see their daughter, her large dark pigtails a little wonky from the way she’d been leaning into the back cushions of the couch.
“The movie’s over and Josh wants cocoa,” Lecy replied, holding a blue plush bear by the neck with her arm.
What Josh meant when he said cocoa was actually chocolate milk, not hot chocolate.
“He just had some of that a little while ago,” Len said, not really sure they should give their son more of it. If it were regular milk, it might be a different story but too much chocolate probably wasn’t a good idea.
“Give him some juice,” Ray said, giving Len a kiss on the cheek and fixing his husband’s glasses, which had become a little skewed.
“Can we watch another movie?” Lecy asked, taking a foot out of one of her little house slippers and rubbing it along her calf before putting the slipper back on when she nearly overbalanced.
“I think that’s enough movies for now, honey. Maybe a board game instead?” Len asked, already running through the options. Some were ruled out because they were too difficult for Josh, others because they’d be too easy for Lecy.
“Okay…” Lecy pouted, but walked back to the living room.
Ray smiled and kissed his husband one more time, a more chaste kiss this time. He was glad that Len wanted to spend time with them while he still could.
“Go ahead, baby. I’ll be done packing soon…” Ray said, quietly, giving a soft nuzzle to his husband’s jaw.
“Alright…” Len said, quietly, feeling torn between spending more time with his husband alone and more time just him and the kids. But, he pulled away and headed to the door, because ultimately the kids won out. Of course they did. They were so little and Len knew that right now even if it was just a few weeks he’d miss so much of their growing up because kids this age...they grew so damn fast.
“Raymond…” Len stopped at the doorway to call his husband’s name, half turning to look at him.
Ray had just been getting back to folding that yellow skirt when he heard Len. “Yeah, honey?”
“I love you…” Len said, quietly, his eyes shining with the intensity of how very much he meant that. He’d say it again, he’d say it before Ray and the kids left, and he’d say it every day on the phone while they were apart, but he still felt like he needed to say it right now, too.
Ray’s face softened and he smiled at his husband, “I know, Len. I love you, too. Always,” he assured.
Len smiled back and after another moment of looking at each other, Len turned again and headed out of the room so that he could go see his kids, get Josh his juice and pick out a board game.
Ray sighed softly and turned back to his packing. He really hoped they wouldn’t have to spend as much time apart as it seemed like they would. He understood the decision to send them to stay with Mick in Keystone, and he understood why the kids needed at least one of them to be there. For normalcy, for comfort, to know they weren’t abandoned or being pawned off, to know that even though things were changing there would still be something the same. And the kids did love Mick, he was their favorite uncle.
But, it would be best if they could have both of their parents around, too, and Ray was looking forward to when that could be the case again, even if they hadn’t even left yet.
Still, after their talk and despite the fact the tone of it had been pretty...grim, Ray felt better. After airing all of that worry and hearing Len voice some of those same concerns actually helped quite a bit. So did the confidence with which his husband reassured him, even though Ray knew Len was just as worried as he was.
They could do this. It would be difficult but things would ultimately be alright. They’d get through it and then, hopefully, be able to put this whole ordeal behind them and move forward together with the kids.
With that thought, Ray even smiled a little as he continued packing.