Fic: Captains’ Touch (1sentence, Legends of Tomorrow)
Fandom: Legends of Tomorrow
Pairing: Sara Lance/Rip Hunter
Theme set: Alpha
Title: Captains’ Touch
Rating: PG-13 for canon typical references to brainwashing, torture, assault, death, etc.
Warning[s]: Unbetaed, full of run-on sentences, and going to be jossed within about 24 hours. Spoilers through 2x12 but nothing else (maybe 2x13 but I try to avoid spoilers) but the story goes much further.
Notes: Mainly Sara/Rip, though some could be considered Sara/Rip/Gideon, plus a couple references to Oliver/Felicity along with past Rip/Miranda and Sara/Oliver. Also I’m not kidding about those run-on sentences, like ruining my command of grammar run-on sentences.
#38 - Gift
When they finally have a moment, Gideon assures Sara that Captain Hunter considered her the natural choice to take over if anything happened to him, and that he had been aware of her research into Damien Darhk and had - at least until New York - trusted her to use her own judgement; apparently Rip had told Gideon that Sara deserved to hope a little longer.
#44 - Heaven
She doesn’t want to but she really needs some items from Rip’s quarters so she goes to retrieve them, promising that she won’t make a habit of going in there while he’s gone; among his things she finds a picture of him - younger and much more innocent than she’s ever known him - with his wife and son; and oh how she misses him, but if he is dead she hopes he’s finally with them.
#05 - Potatoes
Discussing the screenplay over lunch, George tells him that a lot of his ideas would work better in an older fantasy setting, which he likes the idea of doing in space and time but isn’t sure how Phil’s going to pull it off.
#16 - Weakness
There’s a lot she doesn’t know how to do as captain, but she can offer to train Ray to fight without the suit if it’s that important to him, she’s pretty sure Rip would have put her in charge of doing that anyway.
#32 - Confusion
It takes a while for her to get used to people calling her Captain, especially from Gideon; Captain Lance is easier, it may mean her father too but it doesn’t confuse her or sting the way it does to think of anyone but Rip as captain of the Waverider.
#24 - Taste
He’s not exactly happy with most of his casting choices, but they’re student actors so he grits his teeth and accepts that his villains just aren’t intimidating enough and his heroes don’t match the ones in his head; but the worst is Sandra, the hero of his story should be more than this.
#07 - Chocolate
When she misses Kendra she eats junk food with Ray, when she misses Len she drinks with Mick, it used to be that she and Rip would stay up together reading or plotting missions when one or both of them was missing their family (so a lot of nights); now when she misses Rip she has Gideon play some his favorite music as she and the AI miss their captain.
#46 - Sun
She can see how Oliver and Felicity’s glances are always drawn to each other but never quite meet - Oliver looking for the light that’s brought him home so many times, Felicity either trying figure out if he’s okay or reassure herself that he is - and something about it reminds her, with no small amount of her own longing and regret, that Rip is still missing.
#09 - Telephone
The movie is the only thing that feels important, maybe ever the only thing that feels real; and in a thought that only makes sense when he’s incredibly high, he thinks that the movie is a way of calling out to someone to find him and show him his real purpose.
#25 - Devotion
She never had much in the way of faith or religion, but now every ‘night’ as she goes to bed she asks Gideon if anything has changed in her family’s timeline, and if there are any signs of Rip, and it feels a little like prayer.
#04 - Pain
It takes a lot to make her forget the hatred she feels at the sight of Damien Darhk or Malcolm Merlyn much less both of them together; but Rip, suddenly and unexpectedly just there, is far more important their either of the villains.
#49 - Hair
The more the blonde (Sara, not Sandra) calls Phil Rip the more it feels just a little familiar to him, and the more she talks about her view of Rip Hunter the more Phil is pretty sure she loves him as much as he had imagined.
#18 - Speed
She tells herself not to dwell on the end of the fight when she lost track of him and he was taken by the evil speedster, that won’t help her find him; but she does remember how she felt in that moment she thought he was himself again and she lets that feeling of hope (more than hope) motivate her.
#28 - Sickness
Mick scoffs (though nobody pays attention) and Amaya stays silent (though nobody really asks her) as most of the crew discusses that Rip will be fine as long as they get to him in time; Sara decides not to tell them that for all she knows of torture and pain, Malcolm and Damien surely know more, the rest of them don’t need to feel as sick as she does.
#47 - Moon
All she’s been able to think for the past week is that he was in the clutches of two of the most evil men she’s ever known (and their presumably equally psychotic speedster) so she drinks in sight of him standing in front of her; alive, apparently healthy, more Rip than Phil...and yet, still so, so wrong.
#03 - Soft
He’s seen her break before, at various times in just about every way a person can break, and yet some part of him is still surprised that she’s so breakable under his hands; or maybe he just never considered that his hands would break her.
#10 - Ears
There are so many things she wants to call out to him, that she knows him and knows that the real him is still in there and that she won’t give up on him, but the words die in her recently crushed throat; she will save him, until then what she really wants to say isn’t for the person he is now.
#37 - Technology
Gideon assures her that Captain Hunter’s personality can be restored, the ship has a record of his brain scans from before and in time he’ll be Rip again; but Sara and Gideon agree that even if they find him before he does anything else his heart will be broken by what he’s done so they’ll have to act carefully and soon.
#43 - Sky
Looking up at the leaden morning sky he dispassionately welcomes death, whether it comes from the wounds he’s already taken or from Sara Lance as she steps into his view; he doesn’t understand why she doesn’t kill him, instead insisting on saving his life - somehow he thinks he used to have an answer why a person might do that.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
His mind is a dark and twisted place as they try and find the missing parts of him to put in place, but Sara doesn’t judge, she doesn’t want to think about what her mind would look like and it hasn’t been messed with so cleanly as his was.
#30 - Star
To varying degrees most of the crew is uncertain about leaving her alone to wait for Rip to wake up (what if they’re wrong about him being himself again when he does?) but Sara’s certain they shouldn’t overwhelm him when he comes around; as she waits for him she finds herself thinking of Oliver and how hard he had fought to guide her out of the darkness when he hadn’t really found his own way ether.
#11 - Name
The first real word out of his mouth is “Sara?” as soon as his eyes land on her, a thousand meanings contained in her name, many of them revolving around the theme of I know what I did and I’m sorry, so sorry, I’ll never stop being sorry, I’m an idiot and a monster, of course you mean the world to me, not that that means anything right now, because all I am is sorrow and pain.
#13 - Death
Rip tells them, slowly and brokenly, that Captain Steel, like Dr. Midnight, is dead and all but the one part of the Spear is now held by the Legion; for a second Sara worries she’s going to have to hold Nate and Amaya back but they’re both smart enough to know there’s no good in it, Rip’s the idiot probably hoping they’d want revenge.
#22 - Jealousy
It stings a little that Mick is the one most able to get through Rip’s self-imposed exile in the brig, but when Sara’s tries to go down there he won’t even look at her and she isn’t sure breaking past his walls is the right thing to do yet - though Mick tells her she’ll probably have to.
#33 - Fear
He scurries away from her as soon as she enters the room, she doesn’t leave but speaks as one might to a frightened animal, “Rip, it’s okay, you’re not going to hurt me just by being in the same room;” he’s not sure how to make her understand, she may not made of glass, but he is, broken shards of glass barely held together and anyone who comes near him is likely to get caught on the edges.
#17 - Tears
Mick was right, Sara isn’t going to solve this with her fists the way he would, what she does is hit Rip every terrible way she’d been unmade - Anthony, Ra’s, the Pit, the bloodlust, the Dominators - and when she’s done he looks at her with fresh tears and the old wonder and asks how she survives it; “I hold on to the people who told me I wasn’t a monster,” she tells him; “and I’m telling you that you aren’t one either.”
#20 - Freedom
He agrees to come out and join them for a meeting talking about how to protect their part of the Spear from the Legion, but he keeps to the edge of the conversation; it gives him the chance to observe that while he once made them a team, without him they became a family and he doesn’t think he’s part of it, he certainly doesn’t deserve to be.
#15 - Touch
She lays a hand on his shoulder to call him away from the charts and maps he’s been poring over for hours, and she thinks there’s a second where he responds to her touch as if it’s welcome before he tenses ad springs away from her.
#39 - Smile
She smiles encouragingly at him when he appears on the bridge wearing his old coat, you don’t have to be a trained observer to see he still doesn’t look much like his old self, and even if she knows the coat is armor at this point, she hopes it’s a step towards him feeling like himself again.
#48 - Waves
It’s a good thing the Legion of Doom seem to be taking some downtime since Sara and Rip spend hours loudly debating through the ship as they each try to convince the other to be the captain, she might have given it up early on but it’s the first time he’s consistently been within five feet of her without acting terrified that some lingering programming will make him hurt her again.
#12 - Sensual
When Gideon tells him the Legion have boarded the ship looking for the final piece of the Spear, his first reaction is fear for himself - he can’t fall back under their control, they’ve changed him too much already - but that feeling is eventually replaced by terror for the others if he hides the way he wants to.
#45 - Hell
“You can go back to hiding in here and hating yourself tomorrow,” she says as she hands his gun for the first time, “or yesterday considering how much Time is being rewritten out there, but today you’re going to come fight with us and get the bastards who really deserve it.”
#06 - Rain
Watching Sara duel Darhk among the time storm, Rip really wishes he’d thrown caution to the wind back in New York and maybe they could have avoided ending up in this mess, but he’s definitely not going to stop her killing the villain now, in fact he’s trying to help her end it.
#26 - Forever
He’s prepared for it to be over when the Reverse Flash grabs him - in fact, better dead than taken again - but Amaya finally manages to shoot Thawne with the anti-speedster boot, Nate tackles him away while Mick gleefully roasts the man in yellow; Ray and Sara each reach a hand to help Rip back to his feet and Ray tells him, “We’ve always got your back, Rip.”
#21 - Life
The truth is there’s something they all want if they were to pick up the Spear (a father, a sister, a partner, a friend, a hero, a wife and son, a fiancé, a lover), but when Mick asks “What do we do, Captain?” Sara steps forward ahead of Rip and carefully picks it up; they have a mess from this to fix before they destroy it but at least they all know to be careful.
#41 - Completion
For tonight he sits next to her as they watch over their healing crewmates and for tonight he doesn’t pull away when she leans further into him for support; he’s still quite sure he doesn’t deserve her faith and trust but for tonight as they slowly hold each other he tries to believe he’ll find a way to be worthy of it.
#27 - Blood
“I know Captain Hunter would understand a man doing anything to save his son,” Malcolm offers by way of justifying his actions, and while Rip flinches noticeably at another idea he’s not so different from their enemies, Sara shakes her head; Malcolm’s children may be heroes, but Sara knows exactly what kind of father he is.
#31 - Home
2017 still hasn’t invented a prison likely to hold Malcolm Merlyn for long, but they all need to go home for a while, and Sara insists that Rip is coming with them; she notes that he seems rather unimpressed with Oliver but looks star-struck around Felicity (considering Felicity’s tech fits so neatly into Gideon’s systems, the reason isn’t hard to guess).
#42 - Clouds
She finds that while she and Ray had gotten absorbed catching up with the rest of Team Arrow, Rip has occupied himself playing with JJ; rather than his Time Master look that would be considering what to do about the time aberration currently playing with building blocks, he wore his dad look that both loved kids and missed his own in equal measure.
#01 - Comfort
Maybe she’s making sure he doesn’t fall apart left on his own, maybe it comforts her to easily see that he’s safe, maybe it’s practical that she can help him to bed before he works himself to complete exhaustion (she doesn’t need Gideon to tell her he’s still sleeping poorly), but they’re back to spending most of their nights together in the library, trying to heal themselves while they work to fix the rest of time.
#29 - Melody
Gideon won’t stop calling Rip Captain, but for everyone else it’s just a nickname now, Sara’s in command and the only one who doesn’t seem entirely happy with that is her; maybe one day they’ll change it again but for now Rip supports her unwaveringly and loves her as quietly as someone so undeserving can.
#23 - Hands
Rip’s hands still shake a little when he tries to hold a weapon so Sara leaves him in charge of the ship while they go out to find the newest time aberration; she can tell he wants to protest taking command even briefly so she makes a point to walk out discussing strategy with Jax before Rip can reply.
#36 - Market
He’d give just about anything to go back to a time when he could honestly say he never thought he’d hurt her, but the best he can offer is that he’ll never stop trying to make up for the fact that he did.
#40 - Innocence
Sara can’t remember the last time she loved gently, but as she savors watching Rip reclaiming parts of himself, that he no longer recoils when any of them come near him even if he rarely initiates physical contact with her, that he can look at her again without turning away in shame, how Miss Lance gradually gives way once again to Sara with all the meaning he doesn’t seem to hide anymore, she concludes there’s nothing so wrong with an innocent love story.
#19 - Wind
They’ve grown so accustomed to Rip keeping quite during meetings that it takes them a while to notice that he left early on, ready to turn himself over to the time pirates in exchange for Sara; if they’d asked he wouldn’t have been able to tell them if he was giving up or trusting that once free Sara would figure out how to save them both.
#02 - Kiss
She ordered him to follow her into the office with full pissed-off-captain voice and took a long time to turn to face him, but when she did it was to spin around, throw her arms around him and kiss him; when it was eventually done she whispered, “You have to stop trying to get yourself killed, Rip, I can’t...I can’t lose you again.”
#14 - Sex
Several kisses and a few anguished confessions of love later he asks what the next step was for them; she doesn’t really think about her first flirty response, that he knows she’s not the take it slow type, but then does think that he probably is that type, so adds that after everything they’ve been through slow might be the smart move.
#50 - Supernova
It surprises them that no one else is surprised that they’re together; Amaya doesn’t exactly approve but they had expected a bit more commotion than Nate and Ray debating which sci-fi captain and first officer this made them.
#08 - Happiness
Consumed with happiness that she walked away from the fight unscathed, Rip takes her head in his hands and peppers her face with kisses; she realizes before he does that it’s the first time he’s touched her throat without hesitation since 1776 and she holds his hands there to drive the past further away.
#35 - Bonds
One of the team will signal in a moment that it’s time to make a move on their target, but for now Rip and Sara dance smiling and close like the new lovers they are and trust the others to tell them when it’s time to get back to work.
Pairing: Sara Lance/Rip Hunter
Theme set: Alpha
Title: Captains’ Touch
Rating: PG-13 for canon typical references to brainwashing, torture, assault, death, etc.
Warning[s]: Unbetaed, full of run-on sentences, and going to be jossed within about 24 hours. Spoilers through 2x12 but nothing else (maybe 2x13 but I try to avoid spoilers) but the story goes much further.
Notes: Mainly Sara/Rip, though some could be considered Sara/Rip/Gideon, plus a couple references to Oliver/Felicity along with past Rip/Miranda and Sara/Oliver. Also I’m not kidding about those run-on sentences, like ruining my command of grammar run-on sentences.
#38 - Gift
When they finally have a moment, Gideon assures Sara that Captain Hunter considered her the natural choice to take over if anything happened to him, and that he had been aware of her research into Damien Darhk and had - at least until New York - trusted her to use her own judgement; apparently Rip had told Gideon that Sara deserved to hope a little longer.
#44 - Heaven
She doesn’t want to but she really needs some items from Rip’s quarters so she goes to retrieve them, promising that she won’t make a habit of going in there while he’s gone; among his things she finds a picture of him - younger and much more innocent than she’s ever known him - with his wife and son; and oh how she misses him, but if he is dead she hopes he’s finally with them.
#05 - Potatoes
Discussing the screenplay over lunch, George tells him that a lot of his ideas would work better in an older fantasy setting, which he likes the idea of doing in space and time but isn’t sure how Phil’s going to pull it off.
#16 - Weakness
There’s a lot she doesn’t know how to do as captain, but she can offer to train Ray to fight without the suit if it’s that important to him, she’s pretty sure Rip would have put her in charge of doing that anyway.
#32 - Confusion
It takes a while for her to get used to people calling her Captain, especially from Gideon; Captain Lance is easier, it may mean her father too but it doesn’t confuse her or sting the way it does to think of anyone but Rip as captain of the Waverider.
#24 - Taste
He’s not exactly happy with most of his casting choices, but they’re student actors so he grits his teeth and accepts that his villains just aren’t intimidating enough and his heroes don’t match the ones in his head; but the worst is Sandra, the hero of his story should be more than this.
#07 - Chocolate
When she misses Kendra she eats junk food with Ray, when she misses Len she drinks with Mick, it used to be that she and Rip would stay up together reading or plotting missions when one or both of them was missing their family (so a lot of nights); now when she misses Rip she has Gideon play some his favorite music as she and the AI miss their captain.
#46 - Sun
She can see how Oliver and Felicity’s glances are always drawn to each other but never quite meet - Oliver looking for the light that’s brought him home so many times, Felicity either trying figure out if he’s okay or reassure herself that he is - and something about it reminds her, with no small amount of her own longing and regret, that Rip is still missing.
#09 - Telephone
The movie is the only thing that feels important, maybe ever the only thing that feels real; and in a thought that only makes sense when he’s incredibly high, he thinks that the movie is a way of calling out to someone to find him and show him his real purpose.
#25 - Devotion
She never had much in the way of faith or religion, but now every ‘night’ as she goes to bed she asks Gideon if anything has changed in her family’s timeline, and if there are any signs of Rip, and it feels a little like prayer.
#04 - Pain
It takes a lot to make her forget the hatred she feels at the sight of Damien Darhk or Malcolm Merlyn much less both of them together; but Rip, suddenly and unexpectedly just there, is far more important their either of the villains.
#49 - Hair
The more the blonde (Sara, not Sandra) calls Phil Rip the more it feels just a little familiar to him, and the more she talks about her view of Rip Hunter the more Phil is pretty sure she loves him as much as he had imagined.
#18 - Speed
She tells herself not to dwell on the end of the fight when she lost track of him and he was taken by the evil speedster, that won’t help her find him; but she does remember how she felt in that moment she thought he was himself again and she lets that feeling of hope (more than hope) motivate her.
#28 - Sickness
Mick scoffs (though nobody pays attention) and Amaya stays silent (though nobody really asks her) as most of the crew discusses that Rip will be fine as long as they get to him in time; Sara decides not to tell them that for all she knows of torture and pain, Malcolm and Damien surely know more, the rest of them don’t need to feel as sick as she does.
#47 - Moon
All she’s been able to think for the past week is that he was in the clutches of two of the most evil men she’s ever known (and their presumably equally psychotic speedster) so she drinks in sight of him standing in front of her; alive, apparently healthy, more Rip than Phil...and yet, still so, so wrong.
#03 - Soft
He’s seen her break before, at various times in just about every way a person can break, and yet some part of him is still surprised that she’s so breakable under his hands; or maybe he just never considered that his hands would break her.
#10 - Ears
There are so many things she wants to call out to him, that she knows him and knows that the real him is still in there and that she won’t give up on him, but the words die in her recently crushed throat; she will save him, until then what she really wants to say isn’t for the person he is now.
#37 - Technology
Gideon assures her that Captain Hunter’s personality can be restored, the ship has a record of his brain scans from before and in time he’ll be Rip again; but Sara and Gideon agree that even if they find him before he does anything else his heart will be broken by what he’s done so they’ll have to act carefully and soon.
#43 - Sky
Looking up at the leaden morning sky he dispassionately welcomes death, whether it comes from the wounds he’s already taken or from Sara Lance as she steps into his view; he doesn’t understand why she doesn’t kill him, instead insisting on saving his life - somehow he thinks he used to have an answer why a person might do that.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
His mind is a dark and twisted place as they try and find the missing parts of him to put in place, but Sara doesn’t judge, she doesn’t want to think about what her mind would look like and it hasn’t been messed with so cleanly as his was.
#30 - Star
To varying degrees most of the crew is uncertain about leaving her alone to wait for Rip to wake up (what if they’re wrong about him being himself again when he does?) but Sara’s certain they shouldn’t overwhelm him when he comes around; as she waits for him she finds herself thinking of Oliver and how hard he had fought to guide her out of the darkness when he hadn’t really found his own way ether.
#11 - Name
The first real word out of his mouth is “Sara?” as soon as his eyes land on her, a thousand meanings contained in her name, many of them revolving around the theme of I know what I did and I’m sorry, so sorry, I’ll never stop being sorry, I’m an idiot and a monster, of course you mean the world to me, not that that means anything right now, because all I am is sorrow and pain.
#13 - Death
Rip tells them, slowly and brokenly, that Captain Steel, like Dr. Midnight, is dead and all but the one part of the Spear is now held by the Legion; for a second Sara worries she’s going to have to hold Nate and Amaya back but they’re both smart enough to know there’s no good in it, Rip’s the idiot probably hoping they’d want revenge.
#22 - Jealousy
It stings a little that Mick is the one most able to get through Rip’s self-imposed exile in the brig, but when Sara’s tries to go down there he won’t even look at her and she isn’t sure breaking past his walls is the right thing to do yet - though Mick tells her she’ll probably have to.
#33 - Fear
He scurries away from her as soon as she enters the room, she doesn’t leave but speaks as one might to a frightened animal, “Rip, it’s okay, you’re not going to hurt me just by being in the same room;” he’s not sure how to make her understand, she may not made of glass, but he is, broken shards of glass barely held together and anyone who comes near him is likely to get caught on the edges.
#17 - Tears
Mick was right, Sara isn’t going to solve this with her fists the way he would, what she does is hit Rip every terrible way she’d been unmade - Anthony, Ra’s, the Pit, the bloodlust, the Dominators - and when she’s done he looks at her with fresh tears and the old wonder and asks how she survives it; “I hold on to the people who told me I wasn’t a monster,” she tells him; “and I’m telling you that you aren’t one either.”
#20 - Freedom
He agrees to come out and join them for a meeting talking about how to protect their part of the Spear from the Legion, but he keeps to the edge of the conversation; it gives him the chance to observe that while he once made them a team, without him they became a family and he doesn’t think he’s part of it, he certainly doesn’t deserve to be.
#15 - Touch
She lays a hand on his shoulder to call him away from the charts and maps he’s been poring over for hours, and she thinks there’s a second where he responds to her touch as if it’s welcome before he tenses ad springs away from her.
#39 - Smile
She smiles encouragingly at him when he appears on the bridge wearing his old coat, you don’t have to be a trained observer to see he still doesn’t look much like his old self, and even if she knows the coat is armor at this point, she hopes it’s a step towards him feeling like himself again.
#48 - Waves
It’s a good thing the Legion of Doom seem to be taking some downtime since Sara and Rip spend hours loudly debating through the ship as they each try to convince the other to be the captain, she might have given it up early on but it’s the first time he’s consistently been within five feet of her without acting terrified that some lingering programming will make him hurt her again.
#12 - Sensual
When Gideon tells him the Legion have boarded the ship looking for the final piece of the Spear, his first reaction is fear for himself - he can’t fall back under their control, they’ve changed him too much already - but that feeling is eventually replaced by terror for the others if he hides the way he wants to.
#45 - Hell
“You can go back to hiding in here and hating yourself tomorrow,” she says as she hands his gun for the first time, “or yesterday considering how much Time is being rewritten out there, but today you’re going to come fight with us and get the bastards who really deserve it.”
#06 - Rain
Watching Sara duel Darhk among the time storm, Rip really wishes he’d thrown caution to the wind back in New York and maybe they could have avoided ending up in this mess, but he’s definitely not going to stop her killing the villain now, in fact he’s trying to help her end it.
#26 - Forever
He’s prepared for it to be over when the Reverse Flash grabs him - in fact, better dead than taken again - but Amaya finally manages to shoot Thawne with the anti-speedster boot, Nate tackles him away while Mick gleefully roasts the man in yellow; Ray and Sara each reach a hand to help Rip back to his feet and Ray tells him, “We’ve always got your back, Rip.”
#21 - Life
The truth is there’s something they all want if they were to pick up the Spear (a father, a sister, a partner, a friend, a hero, a wife and son, a fiancé, a lover), but when Mick asks “What do we do, Captain?” Sara steps forward ahead of Rip and carefully picks it up; they have a mess from this to fix before they destroy it but at least they all know to be careful.
#41 - Completion
For tonight he sits next to her as they watch over their healing crewmates and for tonight he doesn’t pull away when she leans further into him for support; he’s still quite sure he doesn’t deserve her faith and trust but for tonight as they slowly hold each other he tries to believe he’ll find a way to be worthy of it.
#27 - Blood
“I know Captain Hunter would understand a man doing anything to save his son,” Malcolm offers by way of justifying his actions, and while Rip flinches noticeably at another idea he’s not so different from their enemies, Sara shakes her head; Malcolm’s children may be heroes, but Sara knows exactly what kind of father he is.
#31 - Home
2017 still hasn’t invented a prison likely to hold Malcolm Merlyn for long, but they all need to go home for a while, and Sara insists that Rip is coming with them; she notes that he seems rather unimpressed with Oliver but looks star-struck around Felicity (considering Felicity’s tech fits so neatly into Gideon’s systems, the reason isn’t hard to guess).
#42 - Clouds
She finds that while she and Ray had gotten absorbed catching up with the rest of Team Arrow, Rip has occupied himself playing with JJ; rather than his Time Master look that would be considering what to do about the time aberration currently playing with building blocks, he wore his dad look that both loved kids and missed his own in equal measure.
#01 - Comfort
Maybe she’s making sure he doesn’t fall apart left on his own, maybe it comforts her to easily see that he’s safe, maybe it’s practical that she can help him to bed before he works himself to complete exhaustion (she doesn’t need Gideon to tell her he’s still sleeping poorly), but they’re back to spending most of their nights together in the library, trying to heal themselves while they work to fix the rest of time.
#29 - Melody
Gideon won’t stop calling Rip Captain, but for everyone else it’s just a nickname now, Sara’s in command and the only one who doesn’t seem entirely happy with that is her; maybe one day they’ll change it again but for now Rip supports her unwaveringly and loves her as quietly as someone so undeserving can.
#23 - Hands
Rip’s hands still shake a little when he tries to hold a weapon so Sara leaves him in charge of the ship while they go out to find the newest time aberration; she can tell he wants to protest taking command even briefly so she makes a point to walk out discussing strategy with Jax before Rip can reply.
#36 - Market
He’d give just about anything to go back to a time when he could honestly say he never thought he’d hurt her, but the best he can offer is that he’ll never stop trying to make up for the fact that he did.
#40 - Innocence
Sara can’t remember the last time she loved gently, but as she savors watching Rip reclaiming parts of himself, that he no longer recoils when any of them come near him even if he rarely initiates physical contact with her, that he can look at her again without turning away in shame, how Miss Lance gradually gives way once again to Sara with all the meaning he doesn’t seem to hide anymore, she concludes there’s nothing so wrong with an innocent love story.
#19 - Wind
They’ve grown so accustomed to Rip keeping quite during meetings that it takes them a while to notice that he left early on, ready to turn himself over to the time pirates in exchange for Sara; if they’d asked he wouldn’t have been able to tell them if he was giving up or trusting that once free Sara would figure out how to save them both.
#02 - Kiss
She ordered him to follow her into the office with full pissed-off-captain voice and took a long time to turn to face him, but when she did it was to spin around, throw her arms around him and kiss him; when it was eventually done she whispered, “You have to stop trying to get yourself killed, Rip, I can’t...I can’t lose you again.”
#14 - Sex
Several kisses and a few anguished confessions of love later he asks what the next step was for them; she doesn’t really think about her first flirty response, that he knows she’s not the take it slow type, but then does think that he probably is that type, so adds that after everything they’ve been through slow might be the smart move.
#50 - Supernova
It surprises them that no one else is surprised that they’re together; Amaya doesn’t exactly approve but they had expected a bit more commotion than Nate and Ray debating which sci-fi captain and first officer this made them.
#08 - Happiness
Consumed with happiness that she walked away from the fight unscathed, Rip takes her head in his hands and peppers her face with kisses; she realizes before he does that it’s the first time he’s touched her throat without hesitation since 1776 and she holds his hands there to drive the past further away.
#35 - Bonds
One of the team will signal in a moment that it’s time to make a move on their target, but for now Rip and Sara dance smiling and close like the new lovers they are and trust the others to tell them when it’s time to get back to work.