Sandstorm {Discontinued}{Rewritten}

25. Welcome to the USSR

The four people stood at the center of the galley, silently staring down at the patch of sand that now lay in the middle of the room. 
Jax glanced around at the other three occupants in the room. “Alright, I’ll say it. What are we gonna do about this?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Stein said quickly, like it should have been obvious. When the others glanced at him, each with a frown, and he saw that it was not, in fact, obvious, he explained further. “We weren’t meant to see what we saw. I believe that the most humane thing we can do is to pretend we didn’t.”

Deserey nodded slowly, letting out a deep breath. “Right,” she muttered. “Humane…Got it.” Rip and Jax nodded in agreement as well, just as Gideon’s voice rang out overhead.

“Sir, Mr. Rory and Mr. Snart have returned to the Waverider,” the AI informed.

“Uh, yes,” Rip said awkwardly. “Thank you, Gideon.”

Deserey waved her hand, commanding the sand back into the bag on her hip. Once every last spec had been removed from the floor, she closed her bag, steeling herself. Honestly, she had never been a very good actor, so she was sure she’d eventually crack and spill everything to Leonard. But she was willing to try, at the very least, to pretend she hadn’t seen anything in order to spare him from the embarrassment.

“So,” she said slowly, adjusting the bag on her hip. “Can we just time jump the rest of the way to Russia, now? I think that’s enough cooling off, don’t you?”

Rip pointed at her, as if to silently say, excellent point. He glanced at the ceiling. “Gideon.”

The ship lurched, sending all four occupants of the galley tumbling to the floor in a tangled heap. Deserey sat up, rubbing her head where she had hit it against the floor. Rip groaned as he got to his feet, looking a bit agitated. “I meant once we got to the bridge and strapped in…” he sighed.

“Yup, you were right,” Jax grumbled, clambering to his feet. “Definitely not something you wanna stand up for…”

“Not that I mind getting swept off my feet by a lovely lady,” Deserey said, as she and Stein got to their feet as well. “Robotic or otherwise.”

“Well, I suppose we had better go meet the others on the bridge,” Stein said, looking ready for business. The other three nodded and followed him out of the room. Unfortunately, the awkwardness concerning Leonard Snart was not over yet.

As soon as they entered the bridge, Deserey heard the thief's voice. “—I asked for the new time line, Gideon,” he was saying. He sounded rather pissy too, like whatever he was looking at was fairly irritating, and Deserey felt guilty at the fact that she already had a pretty good idea of what he was looking at.

“This is the new time line,” Gideon said calmly, like she were explaining something complicated to a child. “Two days from when you left him, your father will be arrested trying to sell the Maximilian Emerald to an under cover police officer.”

“Stupid son of bitch,” Leonard hissed under his breath. Deserey wasn’t sure whether he was talking about his father or himself. Either way it was quite alarming…

She shared a look with the three she was walking with, as they each gathered around the console at the center of the room. A silent message passed through the group: remember, pretend you don’t know.

Leonard was standing at the front of the room, glaring at the monitor on the wall, his arms folded in front of him so that his elbow was resting in the palm of one hand and chin in the palm of the other. He was alone, so Deserey guessed that he must have ditched Mick somewhere before coming here.