Chapter Text
"You did what?!" Rip demanded of Courtney, unable to believe that she had been able to land herself in such a predicament, and only a few days into the assignment.
"It's not really that big of a deal," the teenager insisted, sure she could see the problem here clear as day, but Rip was overreacting just a little bit.
"And in her defense, the teacher is a little nuts." Jax said; the team was currently docked in early 2017, their own present, to retrieve a misplaced temporal object. This object turned out to be, for whatever reason, a high school football trophy. So Rip had sent the crew's two teenagers undercover at the local high school in order to obtain the trophy, and their best chance to make that move would be in a few days during the homecoming game. So in the meantime they were mapping out a plan, learning the patterns of the school, and trying to blend in in the process.
But right now it was hard to tell what had Rip angrier; the fact that Courtney had failed her history test, or that the teacher wanted a conference with her parents over the low grade.
"Seriously," Courtney agreed but Rip's glare didn't lessen; in fact it may even have intensified.
"I do not care about your anyone else's opinion on the teacher, what I care about is the problem that we are now facing." He scolded and then, as if on cue, Sara walked in on the conversation.
"What happened?" She asked curiously and so Rip turned to answer her, but upon laying eyes on her the wheels started spinning in his head.
"I never noticed how alike you and Miss Whitmore appear, Miss Lance." He said and so Sara raised her eyebrow at him. While it's true that she and Courtney are both blonde with blue eyes and fair skin, the resemblance pretty much ends there. Sara has more freckles than Courtney, is obviously older, and is an inch or two shorter.
"Um…" She trailed off, really having no idea how to respond to Rip.
"In fact, I believe you may be able to pass for her mother." He said, naturally Sara's eyes went wide at the comment. She finally looked past Rip and to Courtney, who looked as though she wanted nothing more than to disappear, and then to Jax who looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh. She then looked back at Rip, who was meeting her gaze expectantly.
"You do realize I'm only fifteen years older than her?" She asked but his face hardly faltered. Yes Sara was just barely old enough to plausibly be Courtney's mother, but she was old enough. Realizing that Rip already had his mind made up about this, Sara directed her eye back to Courtney. "What did you do?" She demanded.
"Miss Whitmore," Rip began, cutting Courtney off before she could even try and defend herself. "Has failed her first history exam and her teacher has requested a meeting with one of her parents." He continued and despite the circumstances Sara couldn't help but chuckle.
"Seriously?" She asked, suddenly very amused. "You failed a history test? You're a time traveler!" She mocked.
"Exactly," Courtney finally defended, "Turns out the books have different facts than what actually happened." She claimed but Rip ignored her and turned to Sara.
"Yes so you will be going down to the school at three o'clock tomorrow to meet with her teacher. We're only going to be here for a few more days so you can say whatever you need to satisfy her. Just try not to cause any damage to the timeline." Rip explained and Sara smirked.
"In our own present?" She asked, knowing that this was where the team had the most leeway with their actions. "Please, not even this crew could manage that." She assured him before taking her leave; Rip most likely doubting her words.
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"You have to do what tomorrow?" Leonard questioned, he and Sara were currently lying in bed and he had asked her how she would feel about a quick trip to Central City in the morning, as there were currently right next-door in Keystone, and she had responded by telling him about her last minute mission.
"You heard me," she chuckled in response, "I have to go to a parent teacher conference because Courtney failed her history test."
"So… we have a kid now?" He joked and with a laugh Sara playfully smacked him in the chest.
"Yeah, our time-traveling daughter failed her HISTORY test." She stressed but Len only shrugged.
"Half the places she's been are altered timelines, it's not her fault the test didn't specify what timeline we're currently in." He defended and Sara laughed.
"I'll be sure to tell that to the teacher," she mocked, "Now go to sleep." She said, rolling over and facing away from her boyfriend as if to prove the point that this conversation was over. She could feel him rolling his eyes, but eventually he too rolled over and they both drifted off to sleep, neither of them pointing out that, albeit jokingly, they had just acknowledged a child between them.
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The next afternoon found Sara at Keystone high school. She approached the building to find it locked, which she thought was odd. But then again, she had heard hat high schools across the country had cracked down a lot on safety since she had been a student, so maybe it wasn't that odd. Pressing her face to the door she could see a secretary siting at a desk, meeting her stare dead on but yet acting like she didn't see her. Only when Sara began knocking on the door did the woman get up and come open it, however she remained planted firmly in the doorway, practically forcing Sara to remain out in the cold of the January afternoon.
"Can I help you?" She asked in a cold and nasally voice, her glasses down on the tip of her nose and eyes peering over their rims.
"I'm here for a parent teacher conference with my daughter's history teacher," Sara replied, though she said it more like a question than an answer. The secretary looked her over once and then twice, whether she was trying to determine her age or if she could be carrying weapons Sara had no idea. But regardless she finally stepped aside and allowed the blonde inside.
"You have to sign in at the office," she informed her in the same rude voice; as if this was something Sara should've somehow already done.
"Ok, can you tell me where that is?" She asked, regretting it when the woman responded by rolling her eyes at her apparent ignorance.
"Just around the corner," she replied uncaringly and so with a nod and a fake smile Sara headed off in the direction, feeling the woman's eyes burning holes in her back the entire time.
The office wasn't nearly as bad as the front door, though locating Courtney's classroom was another story entirely. She walked all over the school, but eventually she did find the classroom. She took a moment outside the doorway to brush some loose hair out of her face and compose herself, unaware if the teacher inside would be better or worse than the secretary.
The answer turned out to be a little bit of both.
The teacher wasn't worse in that she was annoying or rude, no she was a very nice person, but the worse part was…
"Sara?" The woman asked in surprise.
That was the worse part, Sara knew this woman.
"Sara Lance?" She asked again, eyes wide as though she had seen ghost, of course she might have thought she had.
"Anna?" Sara blurted in equal shock, "You're Ms. Green?" She continued to question the woman as she approached, not that she believed she wasn't. Green was her maiden name, but it's also a common last name and so she never even thought that Courtney's unfair teacher all the way out in Keystone could possibly be one of her old friends from high school.
But Anna nodded, still looking rather stunned. "I thought you were dead?" She asked and Sara shrugged as she met her halfway into the room.
"I thought you wanted to be a psychiatrist?" She asked and for the first time her old friend gave her a smile, before confusion took over her features.
"Wait…?" She trailed off skeptically, "You're Courtney's mother?" She asked and Sara nodded.
"Stepmother," she decided to say, sure she had been selected for this meeting because Rip believed she looked enough like Courtney and was just old enough to pass as her mother, but none of that matters once the teacher turns out to be someone Sara saw on a daily basis back during the time she supposedly would've been pregnant.
Ms. Green nodded but Sara didn't miss the way her old friend glanced down at her hand, making the blonde grateful she had opted to wear her wedding ring to the meeting to avoid a harsh teacher judging her for being a single parent.
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"I can't believe this!" Courtney exclaimed as she flopped down on her bed with a huff. Sara had returned from her parent teacher conference about an hour ago and teasingly scolded her youngest teammate for not informing her that the homecoming game was a family event by tradition.
Rip, however, overheard this and decided that made getting more of the team near the school in order to grab the trophy all the easier.
"What's the big deal?" Jax questioned from his position on the floor, "The more help we have the better chances at not getting caught." He rationalized but Courtney merely rolled her eyes in annoyance before chucking a pillow at his head.
"You're missing the point," she scolded, "This was supposed to be our mission, but now suddenly we can't handle it and Rip's sending the adults in to babysit us." She whined; had she not been lying flat on her back she might have seen the incredulous look Jax was fixing her with.
"What?" He asked,
"You heard me," she all but snapped as she sat up. "We're just kids to them, kids who need to be watched." She explained but Jax shook his head disbelievingly.
"Man, you don't know what you're talking about." He said, "We're just as much a part of this team as any of them, and we are a team. We help each other." He explained but Courtney seemed far from convinced.
"I've been on a team of adults," she reminded him, "They sent me here because they didn't want to babysit me in the field anymore." She excused but Jax didn't really buy it. He had fought on the mission that led to Courtney's recruitment, and while they hadn't spent an ample amount of time with her team he did know that their reasons for sending her here aren't exactly what she apparently believes.
They asked her to go with the team actually because they were aware she felt this way about them. She wasn't going to come into her own on that team, not with her stepfather as her partner and constantly breathing down her neck. She needed to be on a team where she felt free to make her own choices, and now, Jax could see that it was all coming into question.
"Or maybe they didn't think you needed a babysitter anymore." He suggested but she only huffed. "I'm serious," he continued, "This team isn't exactly the JSA, we're not some well oiled machine. Our chain of command is all tangled up and not even Stein plans on being here for the rest of his life, sooner or later we're each going home, so that doesn't give us the time to care about a difference in age. We're just watching each others backs." He said and Courtney nodded, looking like she understood and was feeling guilty about having accused Rip and the others of trying to belittle her and Jax.
But that wasn't the guilt she felt.
Jax mentioned the JSA, because as far as he's concerned that's where she's from. When she was recruited she had been with her stepfather and a small squad of other heroes on a mission through time. These other heroes were strangers to most of the team, all except for Rip. He knows the truth, but to protect the timeline she has to hide the truth about her first team from the Waverider crew, because it's their future.
The team knows she's from July of 2019, but what they don't know is that the JSA slowly dissipated and broke up way back in the 60's. They don't know that in August of 2018 the JLA will be founded and that was the team Courtney was just being brought onto when they instead decided to send her with Rip hunter's team. When she asked they told her that someone who doesn't know the original team of Legends in 2019 needed to go, to make sure that the threat they were about to face doesn't succeed with their plans. But now she was starting to think all that might just be a load of bull as thus far they hadn't so much as encountered this supposed enemy and she was now, once again, being treated like a child.