Fic: A Time For Great Things Epilogue
FANDOM: Legends of Tomorrow
Category: Fixit, Romance, Adventure
Pairing: Len/Sara
Eight years later, great things are still ahead for Len, Sara and their "family" of heroes and time travelers. But Len still doesn't quite believe he's deserving of the small things that make life worth living.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: If you’ve read my other stories, you know I like to reach forward and backward between them. This epilogue is set after the events in “To Be Dad Again,” and I do suggest reading that first.
This story and “The Waiting Room” series have both been nominated in the CaptainCanary Fan Fiction and Visual Arts Awards 2016. I am so honored by those nominations.
---
Eight Years Later
Rip and the brain trust were still poring over equations when Joy started sucking on her hand, a sure sign she’d need to be fed soon. Len gave Mick a nod on his way off the bridge, humming a soft lullaby as he made his way to the Medbay. When he got there, he fell silent at the sight before him.
Sara was asleep on the large birthing bed that had temporarily replaced the regular Medbay beds. Mickey lay along her right side, his head pillowed on her shoulder. Laurel was on her left, one arm flung across her mother’s body to grasp her brother’s hand.
Len felt a lump rise in his throat. He’d seen this before, back on the Ridge, but at the time he hadn’t really believed it could ever come true.
But here it was, just as he’d been shown all those years ago. The woman he loved. Their children. His family.
He closed his eyes and took in a deep, shaky breath. Joy let out a gurgle of complaint.
It was enough to wake Sara, whose assassin’s training hadn’t been dulled by time or motherhood. “Stop that,” she said quietly.
He raised an eyebrow. “Stop what?”
“You know what. The ‘I don’t deserve any of this’ face,” she answered, holding her arms out for Joy. “You do.”
“So you keep telling me,” he said in a low voice, helping Sara to settle the baby at her breast without disturbing the other children.
“Someday you’ll believe me when I tell you,” she said with a slight smile as he toed off his shoes.
“Someday might be this week,” he replied, leaning in for a kiss before picking Laurel up so he could move into her spot. He stretched out next to Sara while Laurel sprawled over him in her sleep, as if he was the most comfortable pillow in the world.
“Rip said yes?” Sara asked as he slipped his arm around her shoulders, laying his hand on Mickey’s curls.
Len smiled, remembering the stunned look on the former Time Master’s face as the team laid out the plan to rescue his family from 2166. “He argued a bit at first. You know, protect the timeline, the universe would implode, the usual technobabble. But eventually he said yes. I don’t think he’d have ever believed us if Gideon hadn’t chimed in.”
“So, when do we go?”
“They were still working that out when I came down here. Gideon, any update?”
“Our calculations are complete, Mr. Lance,” the AI replied. “The mission must proceed three days from today.”
“Three days? Guess that leaves me out of it,” Sara said with a sigh, chafing as always at the idea of being benched, even if there was a very good reason for it. “I don’t suppose Future Me shows up for the ride?”
Len knew the answer to that after analyzing the vision over and over again, both on his own and through Gideon’s directed dreaming. But he only said, “You know I can’t tell you.”
She snorted. “Listen to you, Mr. Defender of the Timeline. Hard to believe you’re the guy who tried to change his own history just a few days after we boarded the Waverider.”
Len smirked. “Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t succeed,” he said. “We wouldn’t be here right now if I had.”
Sara wrinkled her brow thoughtfully. “You know, we could have destroyed the timeline so many times. But all the things that happened to us, to all of us… They all led us here.” She paused, then said softly, “It’s almost as if something was guiding us along.”
He considered that for a moment. “Time wants to happen,” he said. “I was pissed over the Time Bastards pulling our strings. But maybe someone was pulling theirs.”
Joy gave a little sigh as she finished nursing and unlatched. Sara yawned widely as she rearranged her gown and resettled the baby.
“You should get some sleep while you can,” he murmured. “She’ll be awake again in an hour.”
“I calculate 90 minutes,” Gideon interjected.
“That’s longer than Mickey and Laurel put together. I guess the third time is the charm,” Sara said with a little smile. “Do you have to go back to the bridge?”
He shook his head. “I could use a nap too. All that walking around the ship was exhausting.” She snorted as he gave her a wink. “But Gideon, I want to go through that vision again. Would you…?”
“Direct your dreaming again? Of course, Mr. Lance.”
“That won’t be much of a nap,” Sara observed.
He chuckled. “No rest for the wicked.”
“Formerly wicked,” Sara corrected, tilting her head back for another kiss. “I love you.”
He hummed into the kiss and smiled at her when they parted. “I love you.”
She nestled against him once more and was asleep in a few minutes, postpartum hormones doing their usual work. Len closed his eyes and traced circles on Laurel’s back, thinking about time and visions and… heroes, and still not quite believing he could be counted as one of them.
“May I share something with you, Mr. Lance?”
He opened his eyes at Gideon’s soft question, to see he wasn’t in the Medbay any longer. Nor was he on that London battlefield as he’d expected before drifting off to sleep.
This was Jurgen’s Ridge. He was sitting on that black rock slope, the multicolored stream of images before him.
But this time, he wasn’t alone. Gideon was sitting with him, not just the disembodied head he knew so well, but a rather solid-looking full-body avatar.
“This is a surprise, Gideon,” he said. As many times as she’d directed his dreaming since the Ridge, she’d never actually appeared in one of those dreams before. Nor had she ever taken him here. “What’s the occasion?”
An AI couldn’t possibly feel embarrassment, but somehow Gideon managed to convey just that impression, drawing her knees up and hugging them to her chest. “I have a confession to make.”
He raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly for her to continue.
“I expressed doubt when Captain Hunter first recruited you and Mr. Rory in 2016.”
He chuckled. “You weren’t the only one.”
An image rose up from the stream before them: His much younger self on a rooftop at night, brushing past Rip with a look of derision. “Hero ain’t on my resume.”
Gideon nodded in acknowledgement as the image faded. “But without you and Mr. Rory, our mission to stop Vandal Savage would never have succeeded.”
She paused, tilting her head. “I owe you an apology.”
“Hmmm.” He thought for a moment, then asked, “Do you know the expression ‘actions speak louder than words,’ Gideon?”
She nodded. “I do, Mr. Lance. Although the expression is not logical. Actions cannot speak.”
He smiled. “Guess the Time Masters didn’t program you for idioms. They’re not supposed to be taken literally. It means what you do can mean much more than anything you say. In this case… you made it possible for the team to get me back from Jurgen’s Ridge. And you helped save my sanity once I was back.
“You don’t owe me anything, Gideon. If anything, I owe you. So if I never said it before, thank you.”
She inclined her head toward him. “You are welcome, Mr. Lance.”
“I’ve gotta ask, though,” he said. “Why now, after all these years?”
“Because of what Mrs. Lance said, that you don’t feel you deserve what you have,” Gideon answered.
“Guys like me don’t get happy endings,” he replied.
Another image rose up before them. “I’m a criminal. And a liar. And I hurt people. And I rob them.” He cringed a little inside at the memory of how he’d betrayed Barry’s trust that night.
“Is that really how you still see yourself?” Gideon asked. When he shrugged in response, she said, “But Mr. Lance… that’s not you anymore.”
Another series of images rose up from the stream.
“Sara, don’t do it.”
“Time to choose a side, I guess…. Chosen.”
“You were protecting us. And that doesn’t make you a murderer, that makes you a part of this team.”
The sound of breaking ice, followed by a scream of pain.
Gideon asked, “When you sacrificed your hand, were you trying to save Mr. Rory or the team?”
He sighed. “Everyone.”
She nodded, as if she’d expected that answer. “And you did save all their lives. Not just then, but again and again.”
A single gunshot. “You killed him!”
Echoes of gunfire, an order to go. “Not without Jax!”
“There are no strings on me.”
The last of the images sank back into the stream. Gideon shifted to face him. “The old Leonard Snart may not have deserved the life you have now, but you haven’t been that man since you heard Sara Lance talk about changing your own fates.”
He laughed softly, remembering Sara’s smile and shining eyes. “For better or for worse. I think I fell for her right at that moment.”
“Yes. That’s why I chose that moment for the picture in Mrs. Lance’s locket.” Gideon reached out and laid a hand on his arm. It was surprisingly warm. “No matter what Leonard Snart did before the Waverider, Leonard Lance has done… and will do… great things. For now, focus on the small things. I understand they are what make life worth living.”
She raised her hand toward his temple. He caught it and asked, “Thought we were going to go over that vision?”
He had the feeling that if Gideon could smile, she would. “You’ve learnt all you can from it already. It’s time to just let it happen.”
He nodded and released her hand so she could lay it against his temple as he closed his eyes.
Time wants to happen, Rip had told them so many times. And yes, perhaps it wanted to happen in mysterious ways. But despite all the trials, right now he could say that time had been pretty good to him.
He decided to trust to time as Gideon sent his subconscious into sweet new dreams of what the future might hold.
--
CLOSING NOTE: This is the end of this particular story, but not the end of this particular universe. I still have to reunite Len & Lisa, and Rip’s family still needs rescuing!
Many many many thanks to Jael for all her input throughout this story and the other installments of “The Waiting Room.” And my thanks to all of you who have been kind enough to leave kudos and comments. They truly do mean a lot to me, and some of these stories have been directly inspired by those comments. So please, keep them coming!
Category: Fixit, Romance, Adventure
Pairing: Len/Sara
Eight years later, great things are still ahead for Len, Sara and their "family" of heroes and time travelers. But Len still doesn't quite believe he's deserving of the small things that make life worth living.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: If you’ve read my other stories, you know I like to reach forward and backward between them. This epilogue is set after the events in “To Be Dad Again,” and I do suggest reading that first.
This story and “The Waiting Room” series have both been nominated in the CaptainCanary Fan Fiction and Visual Arts Awards 2016. I am so honored by those nominations.
---
Eight Years Later
Rip and the brain trust were still poring over equations when Joy started sucking on her hand, a sure sign she’d need to be fed soon. Len gave Mick a nod on his way off the bridge, humming a soft lullaby as he made his way to the Medbay. When he got there, he fell silent at the sight before him.
Sara was asleep on the large birthing bed that had temporarily replaced the regular Medbay beds. Mickey lay along her right side, his head pillowed on her shoulder. Laurel was on her left, one arm flung across her mother’s body to grasp her brother’s hand.
Len felt a lump rise in his throat. He’d seen this before, back on the Ridge, but at the time he hadn’t really believed it could ever come true.
But here it was, just as he’d been shown all those years ago. The woman he loved. Their children. His family.
He closed his eyes and took in a deep, shaky breath. Joy let out a gurgle of complaint.
It was enough to wake Sara, whose assassin’s training hadn’t been dulled by time or motherhood. “Stop that,” she said quietly.
He raised an eyebrow. “Stop what?”
“You know what. The ‘I don’t deserve any of this’ face,” she answered, holding her arms out for Joy. “You do.”
“So you keep telling me,” he said in a low voice, helping Sara to settle the baby at her breast without disturbing the other children.
“Someday you’ll believe me when I tell you,” she said with a slight smile as he toed off his shoes.
“Someday might be this week,” he replied, leaning in for a kiss before picking Laurel up so he could move into her spot. He stretched out next to Sara while Laurel sprawled over him in her sleep, as if he was the most comfortable pillow in the world.
“Rip said yes?” Sara asked as he slipped his arm around her shoulders, laying his hand on Mickey’s curls.
Len smiled, remembering the stunned look on the former Time Master’s face as the team laid out the plan to rescue his family from 2166. “He argued a bit at first. You know, protect the timeline, the universe would implode, the usual technobabble. But eventually he said yes. I don’t think he’d have ever believed us if Gideon hadn’t chimed in.”
“So, when do we go?”
“They were still working that out when I came down here. Gideon, any update?”
“Our calculations are complete, Mr. Lance,” the AI replied. “The mission must proceed three days from today.”
“Three days? Guess that leaves me out of it,” Sara said with a sigh, chafing as always at the idea of being benched, even if there was a very good reason for it. “I don’t suppose Future Me shows up for the ride?”
Len knew the answer to that after analyzing the vision over and over again, both on his own and through Gideon’s directed dreaming. But he only said, “You know I can’t tell you.”
She snorted. “Listen to you, Mr. Defender of the Timeline. Hard to believe you’re the guy who tried to change his own history just a few days after we boarded the Waverider.”
Len smirked. “Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t succeed,” he said. “We wouldn’t be here right now if I had.”
Sara wrinkled her brow thoughtfully. “You know, we could have destroyed the timeline so many times. But all the things that happened to us, to all of us… They all led us here.” She paused, then said softly, “It’s almost as if something was guiding us along.”
He considered that for a moment. “Time wants to happen,” he said. “I was pissed over the Time Bastards pulling our strings. But maybe someone was pulling theirs.”
Joy gave a little sigh as she finished nursing and unlatched. Sara yawned widely as she rearranged her gown and resettled the baby.
“You should get some sleep while you can,” he murmured. “She’ll be awake again in an hour.”
“I calculate 90 minutes,” Gideon interjected.
“That’s longer than Mickey and Laurel put together. I guess the third time is the charm,” Sara said with a little smile. “Do you have to go back to the bridge?”
He shook his head. “I could use a nap too. All that walking around the ship was exhausting.” She snorted as he gave her a wink. “But Gideon, I want to go through that vision again. Would you…?”
“Direct your dreaming again? Of course, Mr. Lance.”
“That won’t be much of a nap,” Sara observed.
He chuckled. “No rest for the wicked.”
“Formerly wicked,” Sara corrected, tilting her head back for another kiss. “I love you.”
He hummed into the kiss and smiled at her when they parted. “I love you.”
She nestled against him once more and was asleep in a few minutes, postpartum hormones doing their usual work. Len closed his eyes and traced circles on Laurel’s back, thinking about time and visions and… heroes, and still not quite believing he could be counted as one of them.
“May I share something with you, Mr. Lance?”
He opened his eyes at Gideon’s soft question, to see he wasn’t in the Medbay any longer. Nor was he on that London battlefield as he’d expected before drifting off to sleep.
This was Jurgen’s Ridge. He was sitting on that black rock slope, the multicolored stream of images before him.
But this time, he wasn’t alone. Gideon was sitting with him, not just the disembodied head he knew so well, but a rather solid-looking full-body avatar.
“This is a surprise, Gideon,” he said. As many times as she’d directed his dreaming since the Ridge, she’d never actually appeared in one of those dreams before. Nor had she ever taken him here. “What’s the occasion?”
An AI couldn’t possibly feel embarrassment, but somehow Gideon managed to convey just that impression, drawing her knees up and hugging them to her chest. “I have a confession to make.”
He raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly for her to continue.
“I expressed doubt when Captain Hunter first recruited you and Mr. Rory in 2016.”
He chuckled. “You weren’t the only one.”
An image rose up from the stream before them: His much younger self on a rooftop at night, brushing past Rip with a look of derision. “Hero ain’t on my resume.”
Gideon nodded in acknowledgement as the image faded. “But without you and Mr. Rory, our mission to stop Vandal Savage would never have succeeded.”
She paused, tilting her head. “I owe you an apology.”
“Hmmm.” He thought for a moment, then asked, “Do you know the expression ‘actions speak louder than words,’ Gideon?”
She nodded. “I do, Mr. Lance. Although the expression is not logical. Actions cannot speak.”
He smiled. “Guess the Time Masters didn’t program you for idioms. They’re not supposed to be taken literally. It means what you do can mean much more than anything you say. In this case… you made it possible for the team to get me back from Jurgen’s Ridge. And you helped save my sanity once I was back.
“You don’t owe me anything, Gideon. If anything, I owe you. So if I never said it before, thank you.”
She inclined her head toward him. “You are welcome, Mr. Lance.”
“I’ve gotta ask, though,” he said. “Why now, after all these years?”
“Because of what Mrs. Lance said, that you don’t feel you deserve what you have,” Gideon answered.
“Guys like me don’t get happy endings,” he replied.
Another image rose up before them. “I’m a criminal. And a liar. And I hurt people. And I rob them.” He cringed a little inside at the memory of how he’d betrayed Barry’s trust that night.
“Is that really how you still see yourself?” Gideon asked. When he shrugged in response, she said, “But Mr. Lance… that’s not you anymore.”
Another series of images rose up from the stream.
“Sara, don’t do it.”
“Time to choose a side, I guess…. Chosen.”
“You were protecting us. And that doesn’t make you a murderer, that makes you a part of this team.”
The sound of breaking ice, followed by a scream of pain.
Gideon asked, “When you sacrificed your hand, were you trying to save Mr. Rory or the team?”
He sighed. “Everyone.”
She nodded, as if she’d expected that answer. “And you did save all their lives. Not just then, but again and again.”
A single gunshot. “You killed him!”
Echoes of gunfire, an order to go. “Not without Jax!”
“There are no strings on me.”
The last of the images sank back into the stream. Gideon shifted to face him. “The old Leonard Snart may not have deserved the life you have now, but you haven’t been that man since you heard Sara Lance talk about changing your own fates.”
He laughed softly, remembering Sara’s smile and shining eyes. “For better or for worse. I think I fell for her right at that moment.”
“Yes. That’s why I chose that moment for the picture in Mrs. Lance’s locket.” Gideon reached out and laid a hand on his arm. It was surprisingly warm. “No matter what Leonard Snart did before the Waverider, Leonard Lance has done… and will do… great things. For now, focus on the small things. I understand they are what make life worth living.”
She raised her hand toward his temple. He caught it and asked, “Thought we were going to go over that vision?”
He had the feeling that if Gideon could smile, she would. “You’ve learnt all you can from it already. It’s time to just let it happen.”
He nodded and released her hand so she could lay it against his temple as he closed his eyes.
Time wants to happen, Rip had told them so many times. And yes, perhaps it wanted to happen in mysterious ways. But despite all the trials, right now he could say that time had been pretty good to him.
He decided to trust to time as Gideon sent his subconscious into sweet new dreams of what the future might hold.
--
CLOSING NOTE: This is the end of this particular story, but not the end of this particular universe. I still have to reunite Len & Lisa, and Rip’s family still needs rescuing!
Many many many thanks to Jael for all her input throughout this story and the other installments of “The Waiting Room.” And my thanks to all of you who have been kind enough to leave kudos and comments. They truly do mean a lot to me, and some of these stories have been directly inspired by those comments. So please, keep them coming!