Light Up Every Room (DCTV, Kara/Mick)

[rivulet027]

Title: Light Up Every Room
Fandom: DCTV
Pairing: Kara/Mick, background Winn/Hartley, background Len/Mick
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with DC. It's not my toy box and I'm merely playing. I also own nothing to do with Peter Pan, Shakespeare, Doctor Who are Star Wars. Title is a line from Jasmine Thompson's song "Old Friends" which you can find here.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Kara calls Mick after a confrontation with her world's version of Captain Cold and Heatwave.
A/N: Written for the DCRarepair exchange for nirejski. This starts shortly after the Invasion crossover and runs through the Legends of Tomorrow Episode Turncoat and Supergirl Episode Luthors. Mick's past is a big part of the fic, both with losing his family, losing Len, and being Kronos. He talks about how difficult this is for him. He's also grieving and depressed, thinking about suicide is touched upon more than once. There is also a bit of kid fic towards the end. If that's going to bother you please don't read. Thanks.


Light Up Every Room:

Mick doesn’t know how to be alone, he isn’t used to it. It’s part of the reason he stays with the Legends, he doesn’t want to be alone. He’s tried to do alone, after the fire that broke up him and Len, but every day hurt and he wasn’t in a good place when he and Len got back together. He was slowly building himself towards healthy when Len had been wooed by tales of time travel and he found himself alone, again. He thought if he surrounded himself with the last crew he and Len ran with he wouldn’t be alone, but he is.

It seems he played his part of their little con too well, better to be underestimated than planned for, but now he’s not sure they see him at all, except when they anticipate he’ll annoy them. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go. He could try and fit back into the life Len was building for them in Central, but would he really be able to slip back into that life after having been Kronos? Would the Time Masters, that are still out there, let him go back to his life or expect him to go back to being Kronos?

Doesn’t he belong on a time ship?

Rip carefully taught Jax about the Waverider, but there are things about time travel the crew just doesn’t know, there are things they overlook. There are opponents they don’t know how to anticipate. He can use his past as Kronos and a criminal to help them, but he’s not a hero, he’s never going to be a hero, and they know it. They resent him for it. They resent him more when he reminds them that they’re not always heroes either. Len used to like when he simplified things or reigned him in when his plans or schemes were getting too elaborate. Mick’s not sure how to be needed when they don’t want him for his common sense.

He feels like he’s bidding his time until one of their schemes goes wrong and he follows Len into death. He’s starting not to care. He tried to ask Rip to take time to go see his shrink, but the words stuck in his throat and Rip hadn’t understood him, he’s not sure how to ask Sara, he’s not sure she wouldn’t just take him back to what should be their present and leave him. As much as he feels he doesn’t belong with this crew, he also can’t stand the idea that they would ditch him.

So he stays stuck. He takes gold trinkets he thinks Lisa would like and gathers other odds and ends he thinks would’ve struck Len’s fancy. Sometimes he snags things for the members of the team Len was putting together. He picks up different projects for himself, things to keep his hands busy. He’s been collecting car parts, but it’s slow and he doesn’t know what he wants to build yet.

He’s sorting through a box when Gideon opens his door and Sara is standing there. He stops what he’s doing and stares at her, the only one with free access to his room is Ray, and he only has that if Mick is in his room. He and Gideon will need to have a talk.

“What?” he demands.

“Kara wants to talk to you,” she frowns, then starts looking around his room.

“Gideon?” he prompts.

“I can patch her through,” Gideon reassures. At least someone understands him.

He makes a shooing motion at Sara. She rolls her eyes before telling him, “Don’t say anything embarrassing.”

“I’ll be a good boy,” the words roll off his tongue and Mick somehow manages not to wince at them. Sara doesn’t know the correct response and Rip had refused to use it, had actively pushed Mick not to want to say that when responding to a request or getting ready for a mission. Sometimes still, the words are just there, a haunting reminder of how easy it would be to be Kronos again.

Sara pauses to frown at him.

“Um, he might have to say embarrassing things,” Kara say, breaking up the sudden tension in Sara’s look. “Sorry.”

“Hi,” Mick ventures.

“Hi,” Kara echoes back, the smile evident in her tone. “I have a problem I’m pretty sure you can help me with.”

Sara leans in his doorway, her annoyance evident in the tense way she’s holding herself. Mick glares, but addresses Kara. “What’s the problem?”

“How do I defeat you?” Kara asks. “Well, you teamed up with a Leonard and Lisa Snart? And Cisco, who Barry couldn’t find because he married Lisa and took her last name so he looked for Cisco Ramon when he was here, but not Cisco Snart. He built them really shiny guns to fight me with.”

Mick laughs.

“Mick,” Sara hisses. “This isn’t funny.”

“It is. Len would be having so much fun trying to figure out how to fight her.”

“I think you’re right,” Kara agrees laughing.

Mick leans back in his chair and regards Sara. She crosses her arms.

“Sara?” Kara asks.

“Yes?”

“Could you give us some privacy?” she requests. “I may have to ask some personal questions.”

Sara gives him a clipped nod and a glare, before she says her goodbyes to Kara. Micks sighs, resigning himself to helping, as the door closes behind her. “What do you want to know?”

“I’m sorry,” she tells him, sounding sad.

“For what?”

“He’s the person you lost, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Mick sighs, setting his box aside and rubs his hand over his head. “Probably have to figure out the differences between yours and mine first. What’s his relationship to Central City?”

“From what we could find he seems to divide his time between National City, Central City, and occasionally Keystone.”

“I’m originally from Keystone. I’m not as protective of it as Len is of Central. What’s his connection to National?”

“His family moved to National City when he was three, his mom inherited a house here,” Kara tells him. “His dad moved them back to Central after his mom died.”

“Does he own property in National?”

Kara tells him to hang on a moment. He can her hear ask someone a question, but it’s muffled. She then tells him. “Winn says he currently owns the house his mom inherited.”

“Then he’ll be protective of National City,” Mick tells her.

“So if someone was threatening the city,” Kara ventures slowly, “I might have an ally?”

“Depends on the threat and how you’re responding to it.”

“That’s fair,” Kara comments. “Anything else that might help me not get frozen in place or my cape nearly singed again?”

Mick laughs, feeling himself relax minutely when Kara laughs too and admits that it was comical. He considers if he should talk to her for a moment, she sounds sincere. It’s difficult to tell because he’s only talking to her and can’t see her body language, but she seems as eager to be a hero as the Flash. He signs and concedes, “Promise me something first?”

“What?” she asks hesitantly.

Smart. Mick smiles, then frowns as he wonders if what he’s asking will reveal too much. It might be that this Len doesn’t have the same background as his, but they both ended up criminals so the chances are good. “If he’s suddenly working with his dad get Len out of there. If his dad shows up find any reason, even a stupid one, to lock him up. Lewis will break the law, there will be reasons.”

“He’s in prison. Hank and Alex were going to try and talk to him,” Kara informs him.

“Don’t, whatever you do don’t get Lewis involved.”

“Are you okay?” she asks.

He almost says he isn’t, but he doesn’t know her enough.

“This is about you getting information, not about feelings,” he reminds.

Hesitantly Kara agrees, though there’s concern in her tone. Mick isn’t sure what to do with that. She promises not to let Lewis get involved with Len.

Mick nods to himself, satisfied, before he tells her, “Len likes diamonds, a challenge, and he never could resist trying to crack a bank’s new security system. That last one though, he’d plan for a while.”

“He was counting down seconds when I stopped him earlier,” she admits. “Then they pulled out their guns.”

“Fighting you was fun, fighting you with Snart…” he trails off and shakes his head, if he muses on it too long he’ll end up morose. He leans back in his chair and changes the subject, “Don’t send someone into infiltrate his crew.”

“Got it, we won’t,” she says.

“Who were you going to send?”

“Uh, we were still considering that option. Anything else?”

“Can you flirt with puns?”

“Puns?”

“He’ll like you more if you use some or set one up for him to throw in your face.”

Kara laughs, “I can’t decide if that’s fun or a bit horrible.”

“Good cheesy?” Mick suggests.

“Maybe.”

“Lisa likes gold, skating, and intelligent, attractive people. I like fire, fixing things with my hands, and Len.”

“Any idea of what else I can expect from them?”

“Your powers are different than Red’s,” he reminds.

“Winn is analyzing their guns. I’m…we’re more looking for an idea of where they might show up next.”

“Why? You want to play again?” he deflects as he looks forlornly down at the box he’s no longer holding in his lap. He grips his hands into fists a few times, before he admits. “Red might be more reliable.”

Kara remains quiet for a long moment before she asks, “Mick?”

He considers asking her if she has Time Masters in her world, at least he could try and spare another world’s version of himself some pain. He shakes his head, “My memory got fucked with. Things are jumbled. I think one of our early jobs was…Piper, we hit Piper’s parents um Rathaway. You got Rathaways?”

“Piper Rathaway?” she attempts to clarify.

“Hartley Rathaway. We stole a painting from his parents. Fire and Ice.”

“You didn’t,” she laughs and groans at the same time.

“It was a good time.”

She groans again.

“What?”

“I’m supposed to save a painting bought by…they’re homophobes who kicked out their own kid.”

“Still talking to me?” he checks

“Yes, sorry.” she sighs in frustration.

“Kara?”

“Yes?”

“Being a villain is more fun,” he attempts to tease, not sure if she’ll catch on.

“It is…” she starts to huff, then laughs. “I still have to stop them from stealing.”

“Your choice.” he shakes his head, “It’s their loss, Piper’s awesome.”

“Why are you calling him Piper?”

Mick frowns. Hartley’s probably not Piper, probably not one of the crew Len was working on bringing together. “Yeah, that’s right, you and yours didn’t have the accelerator explosion.”

“We didn’t,” she confirms. “Barry couldn’t even find a Harrison Wells here.”

“He wouldn’t be Piper on your world,” Mick tells her.

“Do you think he’d be willing to help us?”

Mick considers telling her to leave Hartley alone, but it’s not his call. “Up to him.”

“Good point,” she agrees. “Anything else that might help?”

“Call Red,” he advises. “He and his will probably remember things I don’t.”

“Mick, who hurt you?” she inquires and he can’t take the concern in her voice.

“No feelings,” he reminds.

She sighs and agrees. They say their goodbyes and he thinks that’s the end of it. She calls back days later to tell him that Hartley is working with Len, that he has powers. Barry has already confirmed that his powers match their Pied Piper’s.

“How’d he get powers?”

“He said there was an accident in Gotham, but we don’t have too many details,” Kara explains.

“You have a Gotham?” Mick shakes his head, laughing as he considers it. “That probably means you have a bat infestation too.”

She laughs, “That shouldn’t be so funny. Why do you say infestation? Just how many vigilantes does your Gotham have?”

“I don’t keep track, not my city,” he tells her, not wanting to get into the extra confusion having been Kronos adds to what he thinks his universe’s Gotham should look like. He shakes his head and changes the subject, “How’s Quinn?”

“You know Harley Quinn?”

Mick drops into his chair and leans back; grinning and wistful. If he could guarantee that former Time Masters wouldn’t come looking to turn him into their attack dog he could see losing himself in Gotham, maybe he could even taunt a bat-kid into…Mick runs a hand down his face and forces himself not to finish that thought. He sighs and tells Kara, “She’s fun.”

“I’ll take your word for that,” she says slowly.

“Oh Skirt, you don’t get to have enough fun, do you?” he teases.

“I suspect your type of fun isn’t mine,” she teases back.

He agrees, then asks, “How’d you figure out he was working with Snart?”

“We talked to him about his parents, thought he was willing to help us and it turned out that played right into their plan.”

“Don’t sound so upset, Skirt. They have to outsmart you if it’s going to be any fun.”

“I’m not upset about me. Hartley was flirting with Winn. I think they agreed to go on a date. It’s one thing to find ways to fight me it’s another to hurt my friend to get close to us.”

“Winn’s smart, huh?” Mick asks.

“Yes he is,” Kara confirms with a questioning tone.

“Hartley likes them pretty and smart, so your friend must be both,” Mick points out. “Tell him to enjoy his date.”

“He betrayed us!”

“No,” Mick contradicts. “Snart plans, he plans everything out minutely with contingencies and even has an idea what he’ll have to do if it comes to the point we have to throw away the plan. Piper like chess. They wouldn’t show their hand, made that move, unless they thought Winn could keep up. Piper wouldn’t have asked him on a date if he didn’t want one.”

“So you’re saying that part was sincere,” she ventures.

“If he’s anything like the Piper I know, then yes, but it’s up to Winn.”

“Thanks.”

Mick smiles, he can’t remember the last time someone thanked him. “Welcome.”

“Any ideas on how I can lure them out?” she continues.

“Why do you want to do that?”

“Barry said they had terms; that Snart wouldn’t kill anyone, wouldn’t kidnap or hurt his family or friends.”

“We did, but Len agreed to that after getting Red’s identity,” Mick tells her. “Are you prepared to let him have that?”

“I…” she hesitates only briefly before telling him. “If it meant no one would die. Mick, did you know who Barry was before we all teamed up?”

“Wasn’t part of the agreement, learned a lot of secret identities that day.”

“Would you be willing to come here and help us?”

“Nice of you to ask,” he manages as he frowns, trying to figure out how to phrase what’s wrong with that idea. “Wouldn’t want to create problems for your universe’s Rory.”

“Yeah,” she agrees with a sigh, “That probably wasn’t the best idea. It just feels weird talking to you and not seeing you.”

“It does?” he asks cautiously. He’d rather see her, it’d be easier to know how to respond if he could see her, but that would go both ways. Does she think he’s been lying to her?

“I don’t want to ask a question that might hurt you,” she explains. “It’d be easier to tell if we could see each other.”

Mick nods to himself, that makes sense. Kara does seem considerate of his feelings, not that he wants to talk about them with her. “Gideon?”

“I could try and interface with them,” Gideon offers.

Mick pushes out of his chair to grab the tablet on nearby work table as he tells Kara, “Not sure how things will work on your end.”

“I think we…” Kara starts, but stops when they’re suddenly looking at each other. She smiles. “Hi.”

Micks nods and drops back down into his chair, holding the tablet out so he can take her in. “Who got the painting?”

She starts to blush, smiling in her embarrassment as she tells him, “I think you already know the answer to that.”

“Can’t win them all Skirt.”

“No one got hurt,” she admits.

“See fun,” he offers.

She shakes her head.

“Tell me about them?”

He misses them. They’re not his, but they’re similar enough, and maybe it’ll hurt less to have lost if he hears about a different version of them still together and having Snart’s flavor of fun.

“You’re actually an artist,” she tells him.

“I’m a criminal.” Former bounty hunter, former attack dog, constant disappointment, but she doesn’t need to know that.

“He’s that too, but he also makes those gunpowder pictures.”

“Gunpowder?”

“Draws it in gun powder and then lights it on fire and you get a picture out of it,” she offers. “I’m not sure how it works, totally, but it looks really cool.”

Mick thinks he should be jealous, other him has something legit, something worth keeping that isn’t just the people he surrounds himself with. “Good for him.”

Kara’s watching him, eyes looking him over slowly, concern on her face. “Mick, why did you tell me to call you?”

He considers telling her for a moment, takes her in the way she just took him in and sighs. “Look, Skirt, I had a good reason, but I don’t know you enough yet to tell you.”

She frowns.

“You know you get a crinkle…”

“Stupid crinkle,” she grumbles.

Mick smiles. She smiles back, before asking him what he wants to know. She tells him about her sister, growing up on Earth, and trying to fit in at her new job. He asks questions, keeps the conversation mostly about her, not sure what to add.

The next time she calls he points to his eyebrows. She huffs. Mick grins. “What’d he’d do?”

“He wouldn’t…he didn’t do all that…he didn’t rob a bank and steal a painting just to get my attention so I’d agree to let him and his crew help me take down Cadmus, did he?”

Mick leans back in his chair and bites his lip to keep from laughing. He wants to hear all about this.

“He’s not a vigilante. I already have one of those.”

“Nemesis?” Mick offers.

“Can I have more than one? And team-ups with your nemesis happen?”

“He was supposed to be The Flash’s,” Mick says. “Everyone else here had ways we were replaceable, but…”

She gives him a moment to find his words, when he looks away, she asks, “How do you know that?”

“When I was Kronos I had to know a lot of thing. The Time Masters didn’t want all of us to be mindless so some of us had to understand how things worked.”

“Kronos?”

“The Time Masters made me one of their bounty hunters,” Mick manages.

Kara tilts her head. “The Legends let them?”

“They didn’t know. I got left behind. I…I don’t really remember what happened. They said I betrayed them to Time Pirates, all I remember is that I had to get out, that I wasn’t wanted as part of the crew so I needed an out.”

“And they just abandoned you?” Kara frowns.

“I’m not a good man Kara and we were being controlled by the Oculus. The Time Masters wanted one of us isolated so they could send a familiar face against the team.”

“How did they do that?”

“Memory manipulation,” he manages. He knows there are other things they did, other terms to use, but he’s not sure he can use them now. He’s not sure he’s really able to talk about this, yet. He looks away from her. “They tried to take Len away, but they couldn’t, so they twisted it all so that I hate him. I only just started to realize I didn’t when he died.”

He risk looking at her then. She’s not looking at him with sympathy or pity. She got understanding on her face and he isn’t sure what to do with that. She wets her lips. He shakes his head. She pauses.

“What’s Cadmus?” he asks. They both clearly need a change in subject.

She gives a frustrated huff and launches into an explanation. Mick frowns as he listens, trying to decide why Len would want to target them.

“They kill someone in his crew?” Mick asks.

“In a bar with the Medusa virus,” Kara tells him. “It was just before Barry and Cisco asked for my help.”

“If he’s got the right intel, his plans are amazing,” Mick tries.

“So you think I should, team up with him on this?” she asks, before shaking her head. “We’d have to find them first.”

“Tell him that’s part of the problem.”

Kara bites her lip, then asks, “How did you two meet?”

“In juvie. He was just this punk kid, but he could talk. He always had these wild schemes, but he could make them sound reasonable. He decided I was going to be his friend and I needed someone who could fill in the words when I didn’t have them.”

“Fill in the words?” she asks.

Mick opens his mouth, then closes it frowning. She offers him a smile, then spins in place holding the tablet she’s using so he can see they’re the only two in the room. He huffs out a breath and decides that maybe if he tells her in a non-linear way it won’t hurt as badly. “The crew and I had to save our past selves. They think I lost my parents when I was 19, which is bullshit.”

“You were nine here,” Kara says cautiously.

Mick closes his eyes and nods. “I was still a mess from what the Time Master had done to me and I knew that wasn’t the first fire, but at that point I treated it like it was. I only really remembered later. Should’ve known, they didn’t press charges on the first one.”

“That was an accident. You were lucky to get out alive.”

He blows out a breath. “I had trouble talking after, still do, sometimes.”

“Mick?”

He sighs and forces himself to look at her then. “So much therapy Skirt, so much.”

“And after the Time Masters, after losing,” she hesitates for only a moment, “losing Len, did you?”

“Therapy? There hasn’t been time.”

“You’re on a time ship.”

“Irony of time travel?” he shrugs. “You have to stop it with the crinkle or I’ll start thinking you care. I slept for a long time.”

“How long?”

“From the forties until Nate realized we were all in trouble and got Robin Hood to fund finding the Waverider,” he tells her. A few more questions and he’s telling her how Nate and Amaya joined the team.

She tells him about Guardian and how she wishes she knew who he was. “I don’t know what powers he has, but I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“Why are you worried about that?”

“What?” she shakes her head, “Why wouldn’t I worry about that?”

“He’s making the decision to go out there. If he gets hurt that’s on him. If you team-up, if he’s becomes your partner, then you worry.”

“It doesn’t work like that for me,” she admits.

“Len’s the same way when he’s running a job,” Mick admits. “Tell me you at least eat.”

“I have to or I get sick. Winn figured that out before he knew about my past and would keep extra snacks in his desk.”

“Tell me about him.”

Kara starts calling him every day. Sometimes she asks questions about his past, how he’s doing now and other times she shares the things that are going on in her life.

“Wait, why did you decide not to date James?”

She huffs at him, hands gesturing how flustered the question is make her. He sits back and crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows. She groans and covers her face. “I panicked, okay? It wasn’t going to work. We both wanted it to work, but it wasn’t going to and at least we can be friends.”

“That’s crap.”

“I had to say goodbye to him, after only having kissed him once. I thought I was going to die saving the world. I said my goodbyes to him and I realized I didn’t ever want to have to do that again. I tried to ignore it, but then I kept having to cancel every date we set up. Then I saw him with my cousin. I knew they were best friends, but it took seeing them together to realize that James is already family to Clark and if we didn’t work out,” she pauses to shake her head, then sighs. “I started thinking about all the ways I might accidentally hurt him. I can mostly control my super strength, but…”

He gives her a moment to finish, but she shrugs at him and looks down.

“It’s still crap.”

She opens her mouth to protest, then seems to realize he doesn’t mean that her reasoning is crap. She nods. “It is.”

He frowns.

“What?”

He shrugs.

“No, you’re doing that thing where you want to say something, but you haven’t figured out a nice way to say it.”

“Feel special. I don’t always try that for people,” he deflects.

“Ask,” she tells him.

“He’s got a life, built a good one and you’re just starting out, just got your fancy new job. Did you do the ‘I don’t think I’m good enough’, thing?”

She shakes her head. “I told him I need to concentrate on being Kara, that I spent all last year figuring out how to be Supergirl, but it’s just, it’s a lot. Being Supergirl and trying to figure out my career, trying to add a relationship to that was starting to feel overwhelming.”

“You did what was right for you?”

“I think so,” she nods.

“And now that you’re figuring out your job?”

“Ugh, no,” she groans. “I’m still trying to figure out how to tell Mon-El not to be interested.”

She wrinkles her nose and sighs.

“Tell him if he touches you you’ll break his arms,” Mick teases.

“I’m not trying to be mean. He’s new here. He doesn’t know how things work, but he’s just such a dudebro about things.”

“Be clear,” he tells her. “Be blunt.”

“I’m not blunt.”

“Then let me tell him,” he smirks.

“Oh? And what are you going to tell Mon-El?” Kara asks, laughter in her tone.

Mick leans in, before intoning, “Buddy, I’ve got a shot-gun, a shovel, and five acres.”

Kara laughs. “That’s horrible. Bullets don’t do anything.”

“Really?” he challenges.

“No, we are not even going to continue this line of discussion,” she laughs, shaking her head.

“Another time then. How are Winn and Hartley?”

Those two are apparently sappy as all hell, but it’s entertaining when Kara talks about them. Mick finds he’s actually looking forward to hearing about them when she calls him next.

“What the hell happened to your head?” Kara greets sounding murderous.

Mick frowns. “What happened to you?”

“Your head.”

“Ah, let’s not talk about the stowaway speedster using me as a punching bag, let’s talk about the fact I got to tackle Capone,” he tries, knowing it’s not going to work.

Kara huffs.

“You thinking about using the speedster as a punching bag? I’d like that taped and slowed down so I can enjoy.”

She disappears, but he hears her calling for her sister. Kara comes back onto the screen. “What did Gideon say?”

“About?”

“Your head.”

“I got a thick skull?” he tries.

She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms. “What did your teammates say?”

“Uh, Amaya gave me booze?”

“Amaya gave you booze for what?” Alex asks as she comes into the room and then leans in to look over Kara’s shoulder. Alex winces.

Mick sighs and runs a hand down his face. He knows he should’ve had Gideon take care of the bruising, but he really doesn’t like sitting in her med chair anymore, not after the Time Masters or being held in stasis.

“Mick, who did that to you?” Alex asks, eyes narrowing.

“No, don’t you get all protective too,” he shakes his head. He knows he’s friends with Kara, but he’s barely interacted with Alex.

“You get one of us you get us both,” Alex tells him in a tone that he realizes means he should be resigned to the fact.

“He said it was someone with Barry’s powers,” Kara tells her, eyes darting over him.

“Your concern is making me feel all warm inside. Stop, it’s awful,” he attempts to deflect. It does the trick they stop looking at him in concern and instead look at each other. Mick sighs. “Look, the Time Masters made me tougher, stronger. I can handle a punch from speedster.”

“Didn’t you have armor?” Kara asks.

“I’m worried about a concussion,” Alex adds.

He somehow manages to convince them that Gideon doesn’t need to fix him up, though Alex insists on calling him periodically throughout the night until she’s determined that he’s okay. Len’s hallucination seems to approve.

He’s wonders if that’s his life now, that the only time he’ll feel like himself will be when he’s talking to a hallucination of his dead partner or Kara.

“Other you can cook!” Kara tells him happily as she’s pulling apart a cinnamon roll. “He made all this food for a big holiday get together and sent me home with some. Can you cook?”

He misses cooking, but when they remember to put his name on their stupid chore wheel it’s only for cleaning. He gets her talking about her favorite foods, figuring that with her high metabolism it’s a fun topic for both of them. He’s right.

Before they decide to hang up she tells him. “I think Len suspects something, knows I’m talking to someone that knows them. Do you want me to tell them about you?”

Mick isn’t sure how to answer that. He’s not sure he can take talking to a Len from another dimension and talking to one the his head is providing. He’s also not sure that Len wouldn’t take one look at him and decide he needs off the Waverider.

“I don’t think it’d help,” he finally manages.

“Other you just,” she pauses and sighs looking down at her plate of food before looking back up at him. “I know you’ve been through a lot. I’m just worried about you.”

“Thought you called to talk about food.”

“Not feelings?” she teases.

He manages a small smile. She shakes her head at him and tells him to take care of himself before saying goodnight.

He manages to convince her that Mon-El not making a good superhero isn’t a reflection on her teaching style.

“A partner should listen to you. If you told him to make sure you had back-up and your crew knew where you were that’s what he should’ve done before trying to follow you.”

She laughs at his suggestion that Mon-El try being a supervillain. Both of them conclude that they don’t think that’d work for him.

He lets her talk through her frustration after she finds out James is Guardian.

“I just don’t know why I’m so angry about this,” she finishes with a sigh. “I’m worried about him getting hurt, terrified. It’s not that I don’t trust Winn’s suit, but I just don’t want him sacrificing himself to save everyone.”

“Like you were willing to do a few months ago?”

Kara collapses in a chair, “I don’t want him giving me a goodbye speech. I’ve said goodbye to too many people I love already.”

Mick agrees, he knows that feeling, he hates that feeling. He regards her for a moment, then offers. “Maybe it’s not about protecting you. Maybe it’s about being your partner in a different way or maybe it’s about him.”

“I just really miss being his friend. We’re drifting apart, we have been, and I miss him.”

Mick calls her after his painful lecture from Stein about how he’ll have to process his emotions if he wants to stop hallucinating. There’s something bothering him about Stein’s words that he can’t put his finger on yet. He hasn’t hallucinated since the brain surgery, but that’s not what’s worrying him. He tries to tell Kara about Nate and Ray having to be saved by George Lucas believing in himself. It sounds a little too believe in fairies for Tinker Bell to him, but the words won’t come. Mick gives her a frustrated sigh.

“Rough day?”

He rubs a hand over his face and grimaces at her. She tells him about work, the ebb and flow of her voice soothing him until he can tell her about the mission, about gaining and then loosing Rip. After they hang up he records a message for her, just in case any Time Masters find him before he can tell her why he wanted her to call.

A week later, her time, he asks, “Did you have a good Earth birthday?”

She groans, “Does beating up White Martians count?”

“Oh, it could.”

She laughs and starts to tell him about it.

He’s just finished introducing her to Axel and is starting to tell her about befriending George Washington when he realizes what Stein said that he should’ve caught. He feels a chill run through him at the realization.

“Kara, I-I have to go,” he barely manages to stutter out. He needs to leave. He can’t leave. He can’t stay. He’s suddenly so very cold.

“Mick? What’s wrong? What just happened?”

He’d rather die than be Kronos again.

“Mick can you take a deep breath for me.”

He thinks he’s got it figured out, but there’s something he’s missing. He needs to bounce his ideas off the only person who could ever read him, except that person is...

“Len, I need Len,” he manages to tell her.

“I can do that,” she reassures.

It takes a while for them to get Len. Kara doesn’t let him hang up. She keeps him talking about George Washington and she asks questions about Axel. She thinks the rat is cute. They’re trying to come up with elaborate and ridiculous tricks he might be able to train Axel to do when the door opens and he watches himself walk into the room Kara is in followed by Len.

Len closes the distance between the door and the tablet Kara has set on a desk quickly. He leans over her shoulder to peer at him. “You look like shit.”

“You stole Alex’s wallet?” he challenges back.

Alex raises her eyebrows. “Nice play, waiting until I’m stressed about getting you here and not paying attention.

“It seemed like the best opportunity,” Len shrugs as he pulls her wallet out and opens it.

“Give it back Snart,” Alex tells him.

“Winn’s is more fun,” Len complains as he hands it over.

“You have Winn’s wallet?” Kara frowns.

“Mine,” Len challenges as he pulls it out and holds it up.

Kara crosses her arms and glowers. Len hands it to her. She opens it and frowns as she pulls out a piece of paper and a gift card.

“Chess move he’s thinking about trying the next time Hartley asks him to play and restaurant he’s thinking Hartley might like, but wants a second opinion on. I have to return it with an answer to both.”

“They’ve been doing this for over a month,” other him tells her.

Kara hands Winn’s wallet back. Len pockets it and then takes her chair when she offers it. He leans in towards the screen. “You’re not wearing suspenders.”

“My Snart died, didn’t see the point.”

“Suspenders?” Kara asks.

Len turns and indicates she should lean in before he whispers something at her. She starts turning a satisfying shade of red. Len smirks as he turns to look at him.

“Let’s make this easy,” other him decides. “For now, you’re Mick and I’m Rory.”

Mick nods.

“Now, who thinks they can get away with fucking with you?” Len drawls.

“Former Time Masters,” Mick informs him as he worries he’ll have to explain the whole thing.

“Alex explained on the way over, but what she didn’t explain is why you think they’re trying again?”

“I shouldn’t have been avoiding the medbay,” Mick admits eye’s tracking Kara as she paces in the background. “Gideon found a device in my head. I had the professor remove it. It’d been there for months.”

Rory glances back at Kara, then towards Mick, before offering up the seat he’s using. She thanks him then drops down in it before pointing out, “Professor Stien’s not a medical doctor.”

“Gideon doesn’t have hands.”

“You let someone who isn’t a neurosurgeon…” Alex cuts herself off. “That’s not the important part, is it?”

“You realized something, when we were talking,” Kara says, concern on her face.

Len turns to study her. “You talking to him explains a lot.”

Kara shrugs helplessly. Rory pats her on the back. Len turns back and looks at him expectantly.

“I brought up what the Time Masters did and he said he’d forgotten. He said the device was a few months old. They all started treating me…it was a few months ago.”

“They’re mean,” Kara provides.

“Whoever wants me wants to get me alone,” he concludes.

“Why would they want you to isolate yourself?” Len asks.

“So they can turn me back into Kronos.” It’s the simplest answer, but doesn’t seem right.

Len and Kara share a frown. Len presses a finger against his mouth as he considers this, then drops his hand and points out, “They could’ve just taken you months ago, when they put the device in and made your crew forget you'd be in danger from them. Why not turn you into Kronos then?”

Mick’s eyes widen. This was why he needed Len, to ask him the questions that would get him to the right answer. “They want me to…”

Mick closes his eyes and forces himself to take a breath before he looks at Kara. She gives him a worried smile.

“I don’t kill kids. I…” Mick takes a slow breath, “The Time Masters sent me to the Phantom Zone to destroy two Kryptonion pods. It was girl and a baby, but I don’t kill kids, so I stashed them and made it look like I’d completed my mission.”

“Your world’s version of me and my cousin,” Kara says. “That’s why you wanted me to call.”

“Can’t trust kids to just anyone,” he explains. “Being in stasis sucks, but there are worse things.”

“Would you be willing to bring them here?” Alex asks. When Kara turns with a questioning look Alex rolls her eyes. “Are you or your cousin going to want any different?”

Kara shakes her head. “I don’t know how we’ll watch them, with both of us being superheros, but I’d want them here.”

“Mick will watch them,” Rory tells her.

Mick sits back, not sure how to take how calm that idea makes him. Kara lights up, then tells him. “At least help us get them set up. You need off that ship and somewhere safe.”

“I’ll tell J’onn,” Alex says before she leaves.

“You should come here,” Len agrees. “How long has it been since you’ve seen your shrink?”

Mick isn’t sure how to answer that. He stills trying to calculate it.

“Mick,” Len pushes, tone full of warning and pain.

“Centuries?” he offers.

“What?” Kara states, the look of anger on her face echoing the rage on Len’s.

“I was in stasis for over seventy of it,” he tries.

“This Rip Hunter ever shows up I’m punching him in the face,” Len decides.

“I’ll help,” Kara scowls.

Rory looks happy at the concept.

“He was trying to save my life,” Mick attempts to temper as Alex comes back in with both Winn and J’onn so they can plan getting the Legends to Earth and to see if Mick needs anymore convincing that he should move.

“As long as I can bring my rat I’m in,” he finally tells them.

Hours later they get a call from the Flash’s team requesting their presence.

“Why do they need Mick?” Nate asks. Mick decides he’s not going to miss it here.

When they get back to Earth Kara and Len are in the middle of attempting to help the Flash’s team figure something out that Mick decides he doesn’t even want to know about. They’ll tell him if they need him, but they seem more worried about getting him to his psychiatrist.

She listens to him and her face starts doing that thing where he knows she’s imagining slapping him upside the head or possibly hurting someone else. She tells him she wants to coordinate with who he’ll be seeing on Earth 38.

“Ah, that world’s version of me sees that world’s version of you,” he tells her.

“I still want to meet her and talk to you at least twice a week.”

Mick shakes his head. “The Time Masters might be able to find you if…”

She crosses her arms and glares up at him. Mick knows better than to argue with her. Thankfully Cisco and a guy he hadn’t met yet, Julian, put together a panic button that will let them know she needs help.

He visits Lisa and gives her the jewelry he’s been collecting for her. He also gives her a box with labeled presents for the other Rogues. When he’s done explaining where he’s going she tells him. “If you need us, we’ll be there.”

Kara and Oliver end up going with him when he goes to get the kids.

“A house in Metropolis was not what I pictured,” Oliver frowns as he starts looking around.

“Only Lisa ever uses this safe house and it’s rare that she comes here,” Mick shrugs.

“How’d you hide them so she wouldn’t notice?”

“Gareth is watching them,” he shrugs. When they both look at him for an explanation he continues. “All time ships come with either Godfrey or Gideon. They call them AI’s, but they’ve made it so that they’re just really smart computers, they still follow orders. I found out how to fix that, how to get him back to be himself. We both didn’t like Godfrey. He decided on Gareth. He’s watching the kids and agreed to only reveal them to me or Kara.”

Kara squeezes his hand. “Thank you.”

He smiles and nods.

“What I want to know is how you hid your time ship in a house,” Oliver says.

“Haircut’s shrinking technology gets popular for a period of time,” Mick explains, then shrugs. “Figured it be useful.”

“Smart,” Oliver nods.

Getting his shrunken time ship out of the house and double checking that the kids are still safely on board in stasis is easy. Saying goodbye to the Waverider crew is more difficult than he thought it would be. Sara isn’t happy he’s leaving, he didn’t expect that. Jax is pissed their memories were repressed and apologizes for being mean. Ray and Amaya insists on, not only hugging him, but reminding him he’d be welcome back. Nate and Stein shake his hand. He’s exhausted by the time they get to Earth 38. Kara insists he goes home with her and he ends up crashing on her couch, even though she offers up half of her bed. Kara takes a sick day at work and the two of them head into the DEO early.

Len and Rory are already there. Rory looks him up and down and tells him. “You look like shit, still. We’re going to have to fix that.”

Mick shrugs and doesn’t say he’s relieved that synthetic future beer may get you drunk, but doesn’t cause you to detox. He’s been drinking less since his hallucination went away.

“We decided I’d get called Rory and he’d get called Mick,” Rory tells everyone once they finish gathering around where Winn is working.

“You could change your last name to mine on your paperwork,” Len suggests. “Really confuse people.”

“You took his name?” Mick asks raising his eyebrows.

Rory shrugs. “Not into hyphenating.”

“We can still differentiate between the two of you in our records if you decide to do that,” Winn cuts in, “but for the sake of getting you paperwork that’s legal without it looking like you stole your own identity, let’s not.”

“How are we doing the legal stuff?” Mick asks.

“I made you his twin,” Winn explains slowly, clearly watching for his reaction.

“You worried we’ll think that’s a bad idea?” Rory asks.

Winn scrunches his nose and nods.

“It’s the easiest solution,” Mick reminds.

“Your paperwork says Michael,” Winn tells him.

“I still go by Mick.”

Winn nods.

“How’s Piper?” Mick asks, ready to change the subject.

Winn’s ears start turning pink and he stutters as he turns away.

“Worked out better than I thought?” Mick asks his new twin.

Rory’s grin is full of teeth. Mick smirks as he drops down into the nearest free chair. Kara is hovering a bit. He pushes a chair near her and she sits. He glances over at Alex who crosses her arms and raises her eyebrows. J’onn is deliberately keeping his posture open as he suggests, “Maybe we should move this to a conference room, somewhere a little more private.”

Mick turns as someone else comes into the room. Kara stands. Alex puts her hands up. “You’re going to be busy solving this, so we thought that we’d ask Guardian to keep an eye on things, but also that he’s to call you if it looks like it’s anything that he might need you for.”

Mick turns to give Kara a look that should convey that James is better looking than she let on. She groans and covers her face. Mick chuckles. She kicks his chair lightly. Len covers his mouth. Rory laughs. “Oh this is going to be fun.”

“I’m missing something,” James says.

Mick turns towards him, raising his eyebrows. “You’re James?”

James nods, “And you’re the other Mick?”

“He’ll be Mick, I’ll be Rory,” Rory informs James.

Mick regards James slowly for a moment before he asks, “How do you feel about guys?”

James looks confused for a brief moment before he smiles and shakes his head. “I prefer women, but I’m not opposed.”

“How about a kiss?”

“Mick,” Kara hisses, eyes wide.

“What? He can say no. He’s hot, I just got here, and this is about to be long and drawn out.”

“Tedious,” Len provides.

“That too,” Mick concludes.

James chuckles as he closes the distance between them and leans in. Mick tilts his head back to meet James as he reaches up and wraps a hand around the tie James is wearing. Its brief, both of them aware of their audience, but heated. It’s over far too soon for Mick’s liking and he uses James’ tied to reel him back in. James chuckles against his mouth and kisses him more thoroughly.

“Thanks,” Mick tells him as they part.

“You too,” James says taking a deep breath as he steps back. Winn’s eyes are wide. Kara gapes at the two of them. J’onn is pointedly looking away. Alex is covering her face. Mick reaches up and taps Kara’s chin. She clinks her mouth shut. Len is covering his mouth. Rory is smirking.

Mick stands and turns towards J’onn. “Let’s figure out if you actually feel like I can watch kids.”

They do, feel like he can watch the kids. They’re even going to pay him. Mick lets them know he won’t put up with the government interfering or thinking that they can experiment on or use the two children.

Len and Rory offer him one of their houses. It’s an hour outside of National City and three bedrooms. Rory says he’s in the middle of renovating the kitchen, but that between the two of them they can speed up the process. Kara offers to help. Mick agrees as long as he gets input and gets to help.

They’re debating if the children should be woken up in the DEO or their new home when Superman arrives.

“Sorry,” he offers. “I had a meeting I couldn’t get out of.”

Mick gets introduced and thanked. Mick leans in towards Kara. “Can we introduce him to Haircut?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Do you think they’d get along?”

“I think they’d try to out nice each other.” Mick thinks Superman would win, but that might be because he doesn’t really know the guy yet. He does find himself agreeing when Superman suggests that Eliza Danvers be present when they wake the kids at the house, that way she can examine them, but the younger version of Kara will fill more at ease waking up in a home rather than a government facility.

Thankfully by the time they break for lunch everything else they need to go over are small details and paperwork. Mick gives Superman his new phone number and explains he’d like to talk to Clark’s parents so he can figure out what the baby is going to like to eat.

Mick sees this world’s version of his psychiatrist and is very ready for a nap when Kara meets him at the door. She suggests dinner and shopping for his rat, it helps after having to try and piece together the mess his life became after time travel. Kara keeps up a running commentary on everything they find in the pet store that has him smiling by the time they decide how to best spoil Axel.

Kara works the next day, but Rory and Len pick him up and they explore the house, making decisions about what needs to be fixed up, baby proofed, and what already works. It’s a quarter mile back from the road with a patch of trees hiding it from the road. There are other woods surrounding it and the nearest neighbor is separated from them by a field, they tell him is usually used for corn. There are three bedrooms and a smaller room that’s meant to be an office. They decide to turn the smaller room into a nursery for Kal-El, which frees up one of the bedrooms for guests. They help him put together a three tiered rat habitat. Axel gets set up in a corner of his new bedroom. He runs his idea of having the younger Kara get a dog, when she’s feeling up to going out, by them. They agree with him that it might be good for her to have that extra support, but that ultimately the decision is up to her. They all agree getting her a journal to write in is a good idea. There will probably be things about adjusting to her new reality that she’ll want to work through, but might not want to talk with anyone about.

Getting the house put together becomes a group effort. Kara shows up as often as she can, bringing her sister, Winn, and James along. Mon-El even shows up to help once or twice. Mick decides he doesn’t want to know how many favors Len is calling in, guy always did have a soft spot for kids. Lisa volunteers her husband’s time and Cisco shows up with several idea on how to modernize everything, they mostly nix all of them. Eliza comes into town and gives him her extra car. She also goes over some of Kara’s favorite recipes with him. Martha Kent shows up, husband in tow, to help him baby proof and answer his questions about Clark growing up. He and Lois become fast friends.

“How did you do that?” Clark asks. “Took me forever.”

Lois pats Clark on the chest. “He’s doesn’t beat around the bush. Help me set up this crib for baby you.”

In the middle of all this Alex runs several tests on him to figure out just how much the Time Masters enhances his abilities. He can’t lift as much as Kara or Mon-El, but he’s stronger than the average human. Durability wise he’s also stronger. He still bruises, he’s not invincible, he couldn’t stop a bullet, but if he got into a fight with a Kryptonian it probably wouldn’t kill him. He already knew this, it’s why it took the combined efforts of the Legends to knock him out. Then Alex tells him that he has an increased metabolism as well. Mick groans. “That’s one of the reasons I’m eating all the time and it takes more booze than normal to get anywhere?”

“Thought you weren’t drinking?” Alex tells him wryly.

“I gave up the beer, doesn’t mean I don’t like a good drink every now and again.”

She crosses her arms and raises her eyebrows.

“Probably won’t get much time to, watching two kids,” he reminds her.

“Well, Kara can introduce you to the alien bar she likes to go to, but I think you're right, the kids will keep you busy.”

When it looks like things are settling in and they’ll have to wake the kids soon Mick makes a trip into Gotham. He needs a break from all the therapy and sudden family. It’s easier to find Quinn, convince her of who he is, and introduce her to Ivy, than he thought it would be. He goes back to National City finally feeling ready to settle into his new life.

He comes home to find that not only is the kitchen finished, but that his bedroom is now soundproof as well. He’s in the middle of trying to decide if this is unnecessary or a good idea when he realizes that Cisco, the Earth 38 version, had helped Gareth integrate himself throughout the house.

“You good with helping me raise two brats?” he asks.

“Better than watching them sleep,” Gareth tells him. Mick can live with that. He relaxes further when he realizes his time ship is set up in the basement and can act as a place for the kids to safely hide if anyone that shouldn’t decides to try and play with him. Gareth also helps him turn the universal translator in his old suit into a wrist cuff that looks like a watch.

When they wake up the younger version of Kara: he, Eliza, and Kara greet her. She asks for Kal-El quickly, insists on having him in her arms before she’s willing to listen to any explanations. She asks Kara several rapid questions in Kryptonian before she lets Eliza exam the two of them. Mick attempts to reign in his want to hit her parents, she looks so overwhelmed. Kara gives his hand a comforting squeeze. He squeezes back, steps forwards, and offers to show the younger version her new home. Little Kara looks at all of them slowly before she nods. He’s partway through showing her the first floor when she slides her hand into his. When he shows her the nursery they’ve put together for Kal-El she hands her cousin to him. When he shows her the bedroom they’ve put together for her she hugs him quickly before starting to explore the room.

Len and Rory show up to help with dinner, well Rory shows up to help him cook and Len to charm the younger Kara into tell him how she’s settling in. Eliza doesn’t look like she’s putting down Kal-El soon, but both her and Kara seem to be content keeping him and Rory company in the kitchen while they cook. By the time dinner is ready the younger Kara is nursing a crush on Len, is showing off her newly braided hair to Kara, and is asking if she can change her name.

“You want a different name?” Kara attempts to confirm.

“It’s going to get confusing and I don’t want to be Little Kara.”

“Kid, you can pick out whatever name you want,” Mick encourages.

“What do you want to be called?” Eliza asks.

She wrinkles her nose and looks to her older self for suggestions.

“What did Winn decide on for a last name?” Kara asks.

“Either Jones or Smith,” Mick said. “We thought Danvers, but since the story is that you’re adopted and suddenly found you have two younger siblings they need a different last name.”

“Go with Smith,” Len suggests.

“Smith up to her. Sarah-Jane no,” Rory tells him.

Len makes a considering noise then asks, “What’s your full name?”

“Kara Zor-El,” both of them answer.

“See confusing,” the younger one concludes.

“What about Zora?” Len suggests.

She grins and nods before asking, “Are we changing Kal-El’s name too?”

Kara pulls out her phone and starts looking up names. She pauses. “People actually name their babies after my cousin.”

“Kal could be short for Calvin?” Eliza suggests. “If we change the K to a C.”

Kara tilts her head as she looks at her phone. “When I look up Cal this site suggests Caleb.”

“Caleb,” Zora tries. “What does it mean? What does Zora mean?”

“Zora means dawn,” Kara tells her, “And Caleb means whole-hearted, knowing the adult version that would fit.”

“Can just shorten it to Kal,” Mick shrugs.

Rory nods. “He can decide to change it later.”

“I like Zora.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Len tells her. Zora grins at him. He looks over Kara’s shoulder at the phone. “Suggestions are Caleb, Emmett, Lucas, Cole, Henry, Finn, and Jack. The only one that looks close is Caleb, but Lucas could work.”

“You can’t just come in here and name him Luke,” Rory teases.

Len grins, “I’ll agree to that if we get to introduce Zora to Star Wars.”

“Between you and Winn she’s going to end up a big nerd. Don’t get me started on George Lucas,” Mick complains.

“You met George Lucas?” Len asks.

Mick groans. “It was a whole disappointing believe in yourself Peter Pan bullshit thing.”

“Let eat and worry about that later,” Rory deflects. Mick gives him a grateful look.

Settling Zora and Kal into their new life is a slow process, though Mick thinks he’s lucked out. Kal is an easy going baby. Zora wants to learn everything about her new world with growing enthusiasm. Eliza, Martha, and Jonathon are eager to help him out as grandparents. Martha even agrees to watch Kal when he and Zora go to the local pet rescue.

“Cat or dog?” he asks her.

“Can we look at both?” she asks.

“If we get a cat it’s not allowed in my room,” he reminds. “It might try and eat Axel.”

She nods her understanding and they go to look at cats first. He’s watching her peer into cages when he gets swatted on the back of the head. He turns to glare at a larger black cat with a white tipped tail. The cat just gives him a haughty look in return. Zora laughs. Mick starts to turn towards her and gets hit in the head with a paw again.

“Alright I get it. You’re coming home with us,” Mick tells the asshole cat.

“What’s its name?” Zora asks, going up on her toes to get a better look and being careful not to use her powers in public.

“Ah, Tybalt. Someone here is a Shakespeare nerd.”

Zora peers up at him. “What’s Shakespeare?”

“I’ll explain when we get you a library card tomorrow,” Mick promises.

She nods and tugs him towards the dogs. He’s trying to decide if they need to take some of the treats out of the box, that’s near the entrance, when she zips away from him. “I think I told you to stick near me.”

He tenses as a cage door clangs lightly against the stall, obviously open. He’s reminding himself she’s indestructible when he hears her giggle happily.

“Zora, we talked about you not just opening their cages,” he sighs as he walks over. She’s too busy laughing while getting licked in the face by a larger dog. It’s got black over its eyes with a thin strip of white down the middle extending to its muzzle. Its underbelly is white, but its back is black. It’s also currently wiggling happily as Zora hugs it.

“She’s the best one,” Zora tells him.

“Alright. Come out here so I can tell an employee we want to take her outside.”

“Why are we taking her outside?” she asks as she meets him at the door of the crate.

He squats down so that they’re face to face. He looks around quickly to make sure they’re alone and then asks, “What did I tell you?”

“Not to use my powers and not to reach through the bars to pet them,” she whispers back.

“You scared me,” he tells her.

“I’m sorry.”

“I need you to listen to me when I tell you to do something,” he tells her. “If you need me to explain why then ask.”

She nods, chewing on her bottom lip. “Are we not getting a dog?”

“No, you’re getting a dog. You’re not hurt and we can talk more about this later, when the dog you want isn’t standing there whining at you.”

She grabs him up in a hug, careful of her strength, and he pats her on the back.

“We’re going to take her outside so we can see how well you two play together. Julie here might not like little ones,” he explains as he stands and picks up her card. “Or cats.”

“Does that mean we’re not getting Tybalt?”

“We don’t want to bring an animal home and then have Kal’s crying scare it. She doesn’t have the symbol on her card that says she’s bad with kids or cats, but I’m still going to ask, see if I can get some more of her history.”

“Can I stay with her while you get the employee?” she asks, staring longingly at Julie.

“You have to stay outside the crate and Julie has to stay inside,” he stipulates.

She agrees. When he comes back she’s singing Julie a Kryptonion lullaby while the dog sits just inside the crate, as close as possible without pressing against the bars. Mick’s nearly decides to just fill out the paperwork then and there, but takes the time to watch them walk outside together. Julie only pulls ahead of Zora once when they’re getting to the outdoor play kennels. According to what he can learn her former owners had to move to another city when the wife’s job changed and ended up moving to an apartment, which made her too large to take. They also had a toddler. Julie’s a three year old pit bull mix, they’re not sure with what. They're also helpful when he explains he's dyslexic and help him double-check the paperwork.

After they’ve dropped Tybalt off at home and they've gone to the pet store with Julie to buy her supplies, Mick had already gotten standard cat supplies before they went to the pet rescue, Mick starts dinner. Martha sits at one of the stools at the breakfast bar while Kal plays happily on his activity mat.

“Do you want help? Or a nap?” Martha offers. “Zora looks ready for one.”

“You were nice enough to watch Kal. I’ve got dinner.”

“Why a dog?”

Mick frowns, trying to best think how to answer that. “She’s got a lot to grieve. A friend who is going to be focused on her, always willing to listen, and will be there for her in the middle of the night, was something I thought she needed.”

“Middle of the night?”

“She keeps herself busy during the day, trying not to think about everything she lost, but that’s harder at night. I can sit with her. I can get her a wash cloth to wash her face with, but dog'll be right there, cuddling her.”

Martha raises her eyebrows.

“She let me hold her hand the other night,” Mick explains. “She’s hugged me a few times, but carefully. I think she’s worried about hurting me.”

When Zora wanders in asking if she has time to lay down before dinner Martha suggest they arm wrestle. After she's taken over the cooking he sits down with Zora at the table. She beats him, but it’s clear from her face that even though they told her that she wasn’t going to hurt him, it took seeing that it was harder than she thought to beat him, for it to sink in. Zora gives him a tight hug, thanks him, and heads to her room with Julie for a nap. Mick thanks Martha, she just smiles and nods, as he tries to decide if she’s going to let him go back to cooking his meal.

After Martha is on her way home and the kids are in bed, Kara manages to stop in. He gives her the plate of food they saved for her, puts the dough he’s just finished for cinnamon rolls in the morning in the fridge, and starts in on the dishes.

“I wish I could’ve made it earlier,” she stresses.

“You talk to Zora every day,” he reminds. “And she could see on the TV that you had a burglary to stop.”

“So boring,” Kara complains. “Rather be here.”

Mick turns to smile at her, then asks about her hair. It starts in two French braids that eventually twists into a bun. There are a few strands framing her face. He knows that hair-do, Lisa was obsessed with that hair do for months when she was younger.

“Len is stressed about something,” Kara shrugs as she starts to take it down. “I thought I’d ask again. Rory asked him to do my hair.”

“It relaxes him.”

She nods, “But usually he’ll tell me what’s going on after. He just promised it wasn’t Cadmus. I tried to ask if he was planning a job, but at this point that might be more interesting than everything else I’m doing”

She sighs as she tells him she shouldn’t think like that.

“Nothing wrong with wanting some fun,” he reminds

She makes a considering noises as she finishes her dinner. He puts the plate in the dishwasher and asks if she needs more food. She shakes her head, then tells him. “I’m think of stopping by to see Lena tomorrow. She has to testify against her mother.”

“She could probably use a friend,” he agrees as she gets up and starts drying the dishes he’s washing. He tells her about the pets.

“Going to have to be careful about keeping my bedroom door closed, but that cat took one look at Kal and decided the baby was his human. He won’t leave him. I ended up putting a cat bed near the crib.”

He tells her about Julie as he finishes putting dishes away and she sits as the breakfast bar and starts shredding a paper towel. She’s stressed about something, but she hasn’t brought it up yet. He takes a package of cookies and gets them both glasses of milk.

“Is Julie short for Juliet? Is it a family theme?” she asks.

“Unsure, but I think after introducing Zora to the story she’ll tell people it is.”

“Probably,” Kara agrees. They talk about how James is doing as Guardian, Kara is starting to get more comfortable with him being out there, but she’s not ready to team up yet. “I miss him though. We were really good friends and now we barely see each other.”

“Have you told him?”

“We’re both still…I need to,” she decides. “How’s Winn’s Kryptonian lessons going?”

“Zora likes that he’s mostly got the writing down, but his pronunciations are terrible. I think he’s exaggerating to make her laugh.”

“He would,” Kara smiles, then shakes her head.

“How’s the boss?”

Kara groans. “Interested in my love life all of a sudden?”

Mick gives her a questioning look.

“First he implied that I’m interested in Lena.”

“You two are close,” Mick comments diplomatically.

“Yeah, but she really just needs a friend and…I think we just make better friends,” she explains before she wrinkles her nose and complains. “Then he asked if I ever dated Mike.”

“Well you wouldn’t break him in bed,” Mick teases.

Kara wrinkles her noise and shakes her head, “I wouldn’t hurt him during sex is not a good basis for a relationship.”

Mick agrees as they finish their milk. He starts to take her glass, so he can take both of them to the dishwasher, when he realizes she is unsure of what she’s about to tell him next. He pauses to frown at her. “What’d else did Snapper do?”

“He wanted to know when my disreputable looking boyfriend was going to stop by with Danishes again. Then he said that despite Lena’s many accomplishes and Mike’s clear interest in me, that you’re the better choice.”

“Well, I fed him,” Mick says as he puts the glasses in the dishwasher and then leans against the counter. “You have a crinkle.”

“He’s not wrong,” Kara says slowly. “I know you don’t like talking about feelings, but I feel like I can be all of me, not just an aspect of me, when we’re together and I…”

She seems unsure of what she wants to say next. Mick stills, wondering if they’re at the part where she says she just wants to be friends with him. She sighs out a breath and stares at her hands. He decides to make it easy for her. “My priority is the kids. Being your friend really helped me…”

What else is he supposed to say? He’s not good at this.

“Friend? So you don’t?” she asks. Her tone makes him realize he’s got this wrong. He takes the baby monitor off the counter and pushes it into his back pocket as he makes his way over to her. She turns the stool to look at him. She starts to stay something and stops.

He leans in, both hands resting on the counter so they’re looking at each other when he tells her. “You think too much.”

“I know,” she agrees before he kisses her. Kara wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, pulling him closer as he deepens the kiss. Her dress bunches under his hands as he grips her thighs to lift her off the stool. She light in his hands, floating as he slides his hands up her thighs. They continue kissing as he braces her against the nearest wall and pulls back to take in the way her eyes are wide.

“Just figure out you can use your powers?” he grins. She laughs and kisses him again. He sucks on her bottom lip, kisses his way down her neck, liking the way it makes her arch against him. She starts pulling his shirt off as he turns them towards his bedroom.

She wakes up to Kal’s crying before he does. He blinks sleepily at the time before telling her, “You can get another hour of sleep before you have to get ready for work. I have him.”

He gives her a kiss when she agrees. He gets Kal changed then checks on Zora, she’s sleeping with her arms cuddling her new dog.

“How’d she sleep?” he asks Gareth.

“Woke up once, but went back to sleep when she realized Julie was there.”

He thanks him, then heads into the kitchen to fed Kal and get breakfast ready. Zora is thrilled when she wakes up and realizes that Kara is having breakfast with them before heading into work.

Alex stops by shortly after he’s put Kal down for a nap. He knew she would find out quickly.

“I don’t know if I want to threaten you not to hurt her or tell you well played,” Alex complains.

“Well played?” he questions as he heads to the kitchen so he can make sure Zora and Julie are still playing in the yard.

“You know what I mean. You fed her cinnamon rolls and sent her to work with lunch.”

“Zora asked for cinnamon rolls and Kara has a high metabolism.” Mick tells her grinning.

Alex laughs and shakes her head. “What’s next?”

Mick shrugs. “Kids and I were going to stop by for dinner before she heads to see Lena.”

“How are you at making pie?”

“You got a recipe she likes?”

Alex smirks. “We are calling my mom and getting her recipe.”

Mick smirks back.

Everything seems to be going well, until Lena gets accused of helping her mom and Metallo escape custody. He listens to Kara’s frustration that no one else seems to think Lena is innocent and asks, “Who would frame her?”

“I don’t know,” Kara stresses.

“Ask Len,” Mick tells her. “My first thought would be her mom, but Len might have something different, he might help you find the motive.”

Len agrees that it’s probably the mom and thinks they should look at properties. “Is there something she can’t get into that Lena can?”

Between Len’s suspicion, Kara’s questioning, and Winn realizing that the footage is faked they have Lena out of police custody quickly. Kara cancels dinner with him, she wants to stay with Lena as Supergirl in case her mom stops by. He finds out later they realized that Metallo was unstable and had to find him. They weren’t able to stop him exploding, but they got him a safe distance away from anyone.

Mick and Kara are setting up a time for dinner when Clark stops in. Mick greets him before finishing his call with Kara. When he hangs up Clark asks. “Did you introduce Harley Quinn to Poison Ivy?”

“Not the question I was expecting,” Mick tells him. “What’d they do?”

Clark gives him a puzzled look. “It might be a good thing?”

“Okay.”

“They tied up the Joker and left him on the Batmobile as a present,” Clark tells him.

“Good, I can’t stand that clown. You should call our world and see how they handled the Trickster.”

“You think it might help?”

Mick shrugs. “Can’t hurt.”

Clark agrees and that somehow segues into Clark helping him work on the car he’s finally deciding on. An engine is easier to work on when he’s got Superman lifting it for him. He also enjoys texting Lois shirtless and increasingly greasy pictures of Clark, who hadn’t wanted to risk his suit or his shirt. He takes one last picture of Clark looking at his hands as though he’s not sure how they got so covered in grease. He’s about to send it to Lois and tell Clark to go make his girlfriend happy when Gareth sets off a brief alarm to get his attention.

“Breech from our world about fifteen minutes away from the house. I’m detecting an unknown time ship on the other side,” Gareth informs him.

Clark says something to him, but Mick’s already scrambling to get the kids locked into his time ship. He gives Zora instructions to keep herself and Kal safe and to hide if anyone other than him or Kara tries to get Gareth to open the door. He opens his armory and grabs one of his old blasters.

He’s stepping out of his front door when J’onn lands next to him. Supergirl and Superman fly in next, they’ve got Earth 38’s Captain Cold and Heatwave. He realizes Lisa, Cisco are already there, each holding their guns. Hartley is checking his gloves. A breach opens and the Flash, Green Arrow, Kid-Flash, his world’s Golden Glider and Cisco show up. They’re gathering around him in his yard, both Lisas and Ciscos getting to know one another, when three former Time Masters show up. Mick smirks, he’s not as alone as they’d like, and this is either going to be anticlimactic or fun.