Chapter Text
Time is a fickle mistress. Leonard never gave that saying very much thought until now. Traipsing through time with a rag-tag band of misfits presented a unique set of challenges. From one week to the next, they often caused more chaos than they helped to stop.
In some cases, the team had to delay the next phase of their plan because they had to smooth out the ripples they inadvertently made in time. It wasn’t that the group was woefully ill-equipped for the job. Frankly, Rip Hunter chose his team well despite his blatantly disrespectful reasoning. Each member of the team brought an essential skill set. Unfortunately, they hadn’t mastered working together as a team just yet.
Part of the conflict was because there was no true leader. No one really trusted Rip to lead the team after he lied to everyone in the beginning. Their mission wasn’t sanctioned. They were time fugitives with a high-tech mode of transportation. As they recently learned, the Time Masters would most assuredly kill them if given the opportunity. The only way out of this debacle was through it. They needed a true leader for any chance at success against Vandal Savage and the Time Masters.
Raymond was a brilliant scientist and successful business executive but he was little help in the seedier matters. His milquetoast appearance was bound to give him away every time.
Sara and Kendra were both great in a fight. They were warriors after all. Unfortunately, they could become unhinged at exactly the wrong moment and blow the whole operation.
Mick was perhaps the best criminal he knew. He was loyal to Leonard in a way that only Lisa had been previously. The man was always calm under pressure. However, Mick was…insane. Leonard cared deeply for his friend and partner in crime but there was just no other way to describe the big lug.
Jax was too young and Professor Stein was too old. Moreover, Leonard just didn’t think it was a good idea to pass the responsibility of leading the team on to an entity that became a dual personality person during fights (see: Kendra and Sara).
Len was the obvious choice for team leader. He was a natural born killer but he wasn’t insane. He could navigate the seedy underbelly of the criminal world as well as he could navigate the tedious soirees hosted by the rich and famous. Moreover, he was perhaps the most trusted person on Hunter’s ship. He enjoyed the irony of that. Perhaps it was his truce with the Flash or more likely, it was his complete honesty. Len was going to steal stuff and on occasion kill people that needed killing. There was no hero in him and he wasn’t asking anyone else to be a hero.
Alas, Rip wasn’t willing to see reason since it was his stolen time ship after all. Len would just have to wait for a mutiny to rise up amongst the crew. It was already brewing even without his intervention. Well, it wasn’t completely without his intervention.
Len might have purposefully left Rip to his own devices on this particular mission. The man claimed to know so much and to be the best person to lead this team. Len was going to let him prove or disprove it all on his own. The team was casing a museum for a heist the following night while Leonard went to a different museum to do a little reconnaissance of his own. Currently, they were in Central City—2024.
Leonard was incredibly interested in the De Leon collection. It was a collection of four watercolor paintings depicting the different stages of the human lifespan in juxtaposition with the four seasons. The paintings were haunting and soulful. More importantly, the collection was worth an obscene amount of money.
Leonard learned from Gideon that the collection was to be stolen tonight on its last full day in Central City. He couldn’t help but to think it was a bit of serendipity that he was here today. If the collection was supposed to be stolen on exactly this date…it couldn’t matter too much who did the stealing. Could it?
He was idly looking at a completely unrelated painting when he felt someone’s eyes on him. It wasn’t the first time he’d gotten that feeling this afternoon. Leonard knew security couldn’t have divined his intentions. Furthermore, he made sure that he wasn’t wanted by the police at this particular point in time. His criminal status was always something he asked Gideon to check on when they landed during his approximate lifespan. Leonard really couldn’t afford to get arrested for a crime he hadn’t done yet or had already done sometime in the past. Being arrested and stranded in a time where he already existed could be problematic to say the least.
Leonard casually walked upstairs to the second floor of the museum. He could make a quick escape if necessary. Leonard had already scouted the fire exit that one of the security guards was using to sneak in smoke breaks.
Moreover, the second floor would also give him a better vantage point to figure out who had been watching him. The second floor wasn’t as crowded because the paintings on this floor belonged to the museum thus they were always in residence. There were several groups of schoolchildren on the main floor. It seemed that they too were here to see the De Leon collection before it left their fair city. He leaned against the chrome banister and looked out onto the masses on the main floor.
He frowned deeply and his eyebrows furrowed when no one immediately caught his attention. Len was certain that he was being watched by someone. He was always hyper vigilant of his surroundings. It was a skill that came in handy in his line of work and growing up in the house with an abusive psychopath like Lewis Snart.
Len started to relax because if it was security they would have already made a move on him. Perhaps he just caught someone’s eye. It was known to happen on occasion. Leonard did cut a striking figure.
He was about to continue his walk-thru of the museum when he felt eyes on him once again. He spun around ready for a fight but stopped short seeing a little boy standing in front of him in a Flash t-shirt, denim jeans, blue parka and a Flash bookbag.
The little boy had bright blue eyes and an unruly mop of chocolate brown hair. Judging by his height, he couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old. The boy was practically beaming up at Len. The boy rushed him before Leonard had time to think or move out of the way.
Len blinked in shock as the little boy hugged his waist. Obviously, the kid was confused. He needed to get the hell out of here before this kid brought unwanted attention to him. Someone would come looking for their little lost sheep eventually.
“Uncle Lenny! What are you doing here? Are you gonna steal somethin’ cool?” The question was whispered quietly.
Len’s mouth gaped open for a moment. He pried the boy’s arms off him gently and took a knee in front of him. “I think you’ve got the wrong person, kid. Maybe you should get back to your class. Your teacher will be missing you. Wouldn’t want you to get in trouble.”
The boy blinked at Len for a moment and asked, “Why do you look young?”
Leonard actually laughed at that. At 43 years old, no one would call him young anymore—well, Professor Stein was an exception but the man was ancient in his own right. Although, technically Kendra had them all beat by several lifetimes.
The boy brought his hand up to show that he was now holding Len’s wallet. He opened it and giggled at the fake name on the driver’s license.
Leonard was briefly shocked. He hadn’t felt a bit of movement when the kid picked his pocket. Len was grudgingly impressed. He smirked. “Who taught you that?”
“You did, Uncle Lenny.” The boy pouted for a moment. He didn’t understand why his uncle was pretending that he didn’t know him. This wasn’t the first time he stumbled across his uncle in the middle of a job.
He ruffled the boy’s hair to make him smile again. “What’s your name, kid?”
The boy proudly puffed out his chest. “Leo S. Ramon!”
Len almost lost his footing but a wide grin spread across his face. He could assume that Lisa’s pregnancy had been a resounding success. Now that he could accept who this little boy really was, he could see some of Lisa’s more prominent features. Sure Leo had Cisco’s complexion but those wide eyes and mischievous smile were all his little sister. He asked, “How old are you, kid? Seven?”
Leo looked terribly offended. He shook his head. “I’m 8! Why are you acting so weird? It’s like that time when Uncle Barry ran too fast and ended up here by accident.” He might have been eight years old but he had a criminal mastermind and a genius for parents. He was well acquainted with logic and circumstances out of the ordinary. The light bulb went off in his head. He whispered, “Oh! Are you on a mission from the past?”
Len chuckled as he slowly got his feet. “No. Everyone else is on a mission. I’m taking a little me time.”
Leo grinned. “Cool! Can I help?”
“Help do what?’ asked Leonard coyly. He wasn’t sure that telling the kid that he was casing the joint was the responsible thing to do.
“You’re gonna steal something, right? I know the perfect one. It’s my favorite. Come on!” Leo raced across the floor not bothering to wait around to see if his uncle would follow him.
Leonard smiled wryly and walked behind the kid as he weaved through the sparse crowd. He stifled a chuckle when he saw the picture Leo called his favorite. It was a portrait of Captain Cold and the Flash surrounded by a massive wall of fire. The two men stood back to back in their disguises while they saved the city.
“This is your favorite?” asked Len, his eyebrow rose skeptically.
Leo nodded eagerly. “Cause it’s my two favorite uncles.” He frowned and said, “Don’t tell Uncle Mick or Uncle Jax.”
Len smirked. “Your secret is safe with me.” He had so many questions he wanted to ask little Leo about his time. However, he had learned enough these last few weeks about having too much foreknowledge. Len listened distractedly as his nephew prattled on about the painting and why the Flash was awesome. He was glad to hear that his sister was still happy with Cisco.
Leo grabbed Len’s hand and pulled hard. “I’m hungry.”
“Yeah? Don’t they feed you little monsters on field trips?” asked Len. However, amusement tinged his words.
He nodded. “My class is at lunch right now but I came to hang out with you. My teacher won’t even notice I’m gone until she does a head count after lunch. She’s not really good at keeping up with me.”
Len couldn’t hold back the laugh. Yeah, Leo was most definitely a Snart. They were notorious for vanishing into thin air. “Let’s get lunch. I’m buying. I noticed a decent restaurant across the street on my way in. But after lunch I’m taking you home.”
“Or you could take me on the time ship. That would be an awesome field trip…this one was boring. Everyone just talked about how pretty all the pictures were. No one cared about the pressure sensors behind the frames or the obvious hole in the security guard’s patrol.”
Len raised an eyebrow and chuckled. At least no matter what happened in the future Lisa was raising his nephew the right way.