Chapter Text
They all knew it was coming.
It was an inevitable situation really, they may be the new time masters but the entire team still has a life that they left behind somewhere in history. For most of the team that place is 2016, the only exceptions are Rip and Amaya and neither of them had much to leave behind. They needed to stop somewhere safe after a few rough missions to make repairs on the Waverider, and 2016 was selected as the perfect location.
They went to Star City, with it's abundance of abandoned warehouses and factories in the Glades there would be no problem hiding the time ship. However with most members of the team hailing from Central City, Rip knew when choosing Star City as their hiding place that he might lose a few extra hands for a few days. Jax felt bad about leaving for part of the time they were making repairs, as he has sort of become the Waverider's unofficial mechanic. With everyone else except for Stein staying in the city they managed to assure him that they would be fine. Mick had no one back home to see, and Leonard called Lisa but turns out she was actually near Star City for a heist, so she said it would be easier for her to simply come to him in a few days. Kendra and Carter are all the family that each other really has, and although Courtney has a life in 2016 she it isn't the time period she left to join this mission, that's still another two and a half years down the line. Then there's the obvious fact that Sara and Ray are both from this time and place.
With most of the world still believing that Ray had died nearly two years ago now, he didn't have anyone outside of Team Arrow that he wanted to see. The same could be said for Sara, considering just about her entire family is a part of Team Arrow.
But there in lies the problem, as she doesn't exactly have the best track record with family reunions. But she hadn't seen anyone in her family since Laurel's death, and so she couldn't really bring herself to spend a little over a week in Star City and not at least tell her father she would be in town. The first day she stayed with the team the entire time, fixing up the ship and figuring out exactly how long they were going to be in town. On the second day she went to the old clock tower looking for Sin, but instead found a boy who couldn't be much older than nine.
She barely even had time to question the child's presence in the clock tower before he noticed her, and with a look of total fear on his face he began to look around wildly as if looking for an escape route.
"Calm down," Sara said gently, showing the boy her hands to show that she had no weapons. Well actually she had two knives on her, a record low, but he didn't need to know that. "I was just looking for someone who use to come up here," she explained but just at that moment the sound of footsteps coming up the stair behind her sounded, and she turned around to see the very surprised face of Sin.
"Hey," she said when she saw the goth girl.
"Hey," Sin replied before rushing forward and giving the blonde a hug.
Sara reciprocated the hug immediately, remembering that she had never exactly told Sin she had come back to life. She hadn't meant to neglect it, but after her soul was restored all she wanted was to get out of the city and figure out her life on her own; but that isn't exactly how things worked out.
"I thought you were dead," Sin all but sobbed against her shoulder.
"I was," Sara confirmed and at that Sin pulled back with a puzzled expression on her face.
Sara explained everything to Sin, from the Lazarus pit to being recruited by Rip and defeating Savage. Sin then introduced her properly to the little boy, Danny, who was amusing himself over in the corner of the clock tower with a deck of cards.
"Found him outside a few weeks ago, had a black eye and some other bruises. He wouldn't tell me where he came from so he just hasn't left." She said with a slight shrug, "I wasn't going to force him so I guess I just took a page out of your book," she explained and Sara beamed at the words before sparring a glance over her shoulder at Danny, still contently building his house of cards.
"He seems like a good kid," she commented and Sin nodded,
"He's kind of a pain," she teased the boy and Sara chuckled,
"Yeah, well so were you." She mocked and at that Sin cracked a genuine smile before her face fell again.
"So uh… not to pry but, what's with the rock on your finger?" She asked which had Sara glancing down at her wedding ring.
"I uh… I got married." She confessed and judging by the way Sin's eyebrows shot up to her hairline she hadn't expected that to be the actual answer.
"Nyssa?" She asked, knowing all about Sara past relationship with the heir to the demon's head.
But the blonde shook her head, and began to explain all about her husband and the accident that was their marriage. She explained how they had initially tried to get it annulled, but it was going to take far too long and so they decided that they would just wait until the present caught up with their wedding date, at which point they would move forward with getting their marriage annulled as though they had only been married a few days.
"Ok, but what's with the ring?" Sin repeated her initial question once her friend had said everything she had to say. Sara quirked an eyebrow at the question, believing that she had already answered it. "I mean I get it, you got drunk and got married, and getting out of it was going to take to long. But if it really means nothing, why do you wear the ring?" She clarified and for the first time since she arrived, Sara appeared to be at a loss for an answer.
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Meanwhile, Leonard was having a similar conversation with his own little sister and wasn't doing much better than his wife. In fact, he was probably doing worse. Lisa had been far past the point of annoyed when Lenny disappeared in January and showed back up in May. She hadn't been in town the night he left, but when she returned to their usual hideout she found a note from him lying on the dust-coated counter. It was a short note, simply saying that he and Mick had left town on a job and didn't know when they'd be back; one of those things that could last anywhere between a few days and a few weeks. The date on it had told her that it had already been sitting there for two weeks, and so Lisa hadn't really expected that her brother and his best friend would be gone much longer. She stayed for a week but they didn't return, then she left for another and when she came back she still found herself alone in the hideout. After that she tried not to leave for more than four nights at a time, and with each passing night the distance she traveled from Central City became less and less. Before she knew it, she wasn't leaving the city at all and by April she hardly ever left the hideout. Throughout all this time she had tried every way she knew of contacting Len when he was away, but he wasn't answering anything. It wasn't until late April when some woman kidnapped her and held her as leverage against the Legend's team that she finally got her answers as to where the hell Lenny and Mick had been. Of course at the time they had both been removed from the timeline and so she barely knew who Lenny was and had no clue whatsoever about Mick.
She still suffered nightmares from that.
New scars had appeared rapidly over her body, trailing up and down her skin and in her minds eye the world seemed to grow darker and darker. Lenny, practically a stranger to her, had told her that she didn't need to remember him. She just needed to know that he was coming for her, the past her, and that when he saved the world his infant self would be returned to the hospital and he'd make sure to protect her to the best of his ability throughout her life. Looking back the days following this conversation didn't make any sense, as they were spent with clear memories of him and the new scars had vanished overnight. She figured that must mean his infant self was returned to the proper place in time, so when he came home for a few days in May she had been still very irritated by his antics, but happy to see him nonetheless.
Now though, to meet up with him months later in Star City only to discover that he drunkenly married one of his teammates and stayed committed to it, she was more than a little ticked off. She wasn't upset that he had gotten married mind you, just the fact that he had gotten married and not bothered to send word to her or hell even stop and introduce her to the girl was what had her annoyed.
"So let me get this straight," she said once her brother appeared to be done explaining. "You got drunk with one of your teammates, the two of you accidently got married, and now you're sharing a room but aside from the whole married thing the two of you are just friends?" She asked skeptically, she wasn't even going to ask about the sleeping arrangement in that room because frankly there are some things a sister just never wants to know.
"Yes," Len answered simply, "I just thought I'd tell you." He said and she scoffed,
"I want to meet her," she said bluntly and of course Leonard rolled his eyes at the request, if it could even be called that.
"Lisa," he drawled out but she shook her head.
"No, Lenny, I'm meeting her." She said matter-of-factly. "We might not have had a great family growing up," she began and all Len had to do to make her reconsider her words was shoot her a sarcastic look. "Ok, we had grandpa for awhile." She amended; knowing as well as he did that while Lewis was around that was far from a good thing. "But that's exactly my point, you're my big brother and if you got married then technically it makes this girl my sister. I don't want to never meet my sister." She pleaded and Len let out a sigh, knowing just by the big doe eyes that Lisa was giving he had already lost this argument.
"You're only saying that because you always wanted a sister," he finally tried for a rebuttal but there was no bite to it, which Lisa heard and smiled in satisfaction at the knowledge that her victory was in the bag.
"And I want to meet her before the two of you disappear again," she said, selecting her words carefully to inflict as much guilt that she could onto Lenny.
He winced slightly at her word choice, and the reminder that ever after all these years he is still putty in Lisa's hands when she wants something.
"Remember that after another year and a half I am divorcing her, or getting an annulment if we can get it approved, she won't be your sister after that." He said and she only shrugged, not caring about the threat in the least.
"That's still a year and a half I would have a sister I didn't know." She remarked and Len sighed,
"She's visiting her family right now," He conceded, "I'll talk to her tonight about it."
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"We need to talk," Sara immediately said the moment Leonard opened the door to their bedroom that night, walking in when she was in the middle of nervously pacing around the small space.
"That we do," he agreed whilst closing the door, although judging by her current activity of walking all up and down their room, this wasn't going to be one of their best talks. "My sister wants to meet you," he spit out but at nearly the exact same time she said what was on her mind.
"I want a divorce." She said it so finally, like they had known what they were doing when they got married and this was something that could break his heart, and somewhere deep inside him, it did.
"What?" He asked,
"What?" She echoed, having registered what it was that he said.
"Sara, we're not legally married in the present yet. We'd have to jump to 2018 and stay there, not to mention find a way to explain having no records from the past year and a half." He reminded her but it only seemed to fuel her stress and so she picked up her pacing once again.
"Well, we're both smart people, we can fake a few records and bills. And so what if we have to stay there? It's not like we were planning on being here!" She exclaimed, gesturing wildly around her as though trying to find a physical representation of their current time period.
"Sara-" he tried but she cut him off.
"No I, I can't do this anymore. I'm done, I just, I want to go, I want to get a divorce and have this whole thing over with!" She exclaimed before, much to Len's concern, she began frantically gathering up her pillow and her blankets.
"Sara-" he tried again but again he received no response and she simply continued on with her rant.
"I'm just, I think maybe I'll camp out in Courtney's room tonight, or Kendra's. You know, if anyone on this ship is going to share a room, it should be her and Carter and-" this time it was Len who cut her off.
As she tried to walk past him he placed two hands firmly on her shoulders and stopped her, backing her up a step to stand in front of him and his firm gaze effectively silencing her.
"You want a divorce now?" He asked, "Fine, but even with time jumping it's going to take time, time during which we'll still be stuck with each other. So before you go marching out of your own room to sleep on somebody's metal floor, why don't you tell me why this is so important all of a sudden." He suggested and so Sara took a deep breath to calm herself and gather her thoughts, which really were scattered all over the place at the moment.
"When we decided to stay married," she started, "We agreed that nothing was going to change between us. But now we're sleeping together, and wearing stupid wedding rings when our marriage was never supposed to mean anything, and-" she was cut off, though not by words. Instead it was through the action of Leonard slipping off his wedding ring and placing it over on the desk.
"I did buy those rings as a joke," he reminded her, "Neither of us has to wear them, and this is your room, you can kick me out and I'll go crash with Mick." He said and she almost looked like she wanted to argue, but abruptly shut her mouth with no words to say.
Len didn't say anything either, just gave her a smile before turning and leaving the room so that he could call Lisa and try and explain to her, without jeopardizing Sara's dignity, that her meeting Sara might have to wait.