You Promised

I wake up on the table sweating with my breathing irregular. I try to calm down as I hear a voice calling for me.

"Croft?" I frown recognizing that voice.

"Snart?"

I hear the door open as I move my gaze to it. I let out a breath of relief as I see that blue vest again. I allow myself to sob slightly as he makes his way towards me.

"Hey, heyheyhey. It's okay, the team is here, we're getting you out."

"You're really here?"

"I promised, didn't I?" He smiles cheekily while pulling my restrains off as I chuckle with a sniffle. He helps me off the table but doesn't move away from me.

"Yep...we had to save your ass again.....you really keep putting this team in danger." He says in annoyance as I look up at him confused.

"....what?" 

"You're a liability. Everybody around you dies, no wonder your parents left you."

"Wha..I-"

"You are damaged." He goes on caressing my cheek.

"Useless..." His hand moves to my neck as he applies pressure on it. I gasps trying to push his hand off.

"S..Snart--" I push agaisnt his shoulder while holding his wrist.

"Dead weight....Do us all a favor and stop fighting it." His eyes turn black, with black kinda like ectoplasma coming out of them as I lose consciousness.

...

Back in the lab the scientists keep their experiment going. Savage looks at Lara, trapped

"Her vitals are correct so far, considering what she is reliving."

"But is it working?" 

"It is.....but slowly."

"Then make it work faster."

"I can't, Sir. That could be way too dangerous. Cause irreparable damage to her brain."

"I said...do it." Savage demanded threateningly as the scientist obliged making Lara's uncounscious body frown in pain and jolt even more.

...

Back on the Waverider, Rip, Sarah and Snart had made a plan. Snart went to talk to Sarah after she talked alone with Rip.

"Impressive how many weapons you can fit in that outfit..." He starts making his presence known before Sarah throw him Ray's armor in a small green box. "....and how much stupidity Raymond can squeeze into this one."

"The plan is to save him too, not just Stein, Lara and your partner." She reminds him before going back to her knives.

"Oh, I'm gonna save Raymond, all right, so I can beat some sense into him. And what about you?" He then asks 

"What about me?" Sarah says neutrally.

"Clearly I'm not the only one with a side mission. What did Rip keep you after class to talk about?" He asks her already knowing the answer.

"He just wanted to go over a few details of the plan." She lies but Snart isn't fooled.

"He wants you to take out the old man, doesn't he? It's the obvious play. It's also heartless."

"The plan is to save Stein." Sarah turns to face him. "And if, for whatever reasons, we can't, Rip showed me what will happen to my home in 2016, to our families. If Stein breaks, the damage is irreversible." She states matter of fact before preparing her weapons again.

"Been on a lot of heists, and even when things got rough, I never took out one of my own." Snart tells taking a few steps around to face her again, leaning on the case full of steal blades.

"Really?" She asks looking at him. "Because if I recall, that's the specific reason why Lara never joined you in the first place."

"You girls are braiding each others hair now? Talking about boys?" He mocks but Sarah doesn't stop.

"She didn't trust you, that's right?" She tells him as he only looks away for a second. "Yes. She told me. And maybe if you weren't an ass all the time and got the guts to ask her out like a normal person maybe you wouldn't be so grumpy all the time." 

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on.You guys like each other. It's obvious for everyone except you too." 

"You mean I should make it more obvious for her?" He defends as she sounded like he was responsible.

"Your constant flirting doesn't count, it's just how you are. You need to do it differently with her if you actually like her more than a friend."

"Hmm..." He acknowledges her advice thoughtfully. "If we ever get her back alive." He says gloomily.

"We WILL, get her back alive. All of them...let's hope. And for the record, this isn't a bank heist." She points going back to their previous subject.

"First, he left my partner twisting in the wind. Leaving also Lara at Savage's mercy. Now he's gonna have ice old silver-top....We're all just pawns, Sarah. Come on, I'm the crook, you're the assassin--"

"He's not just asking me to kill." She cuts him off. "He's asking me to save the future. And if, for whatever reason, we can't save Stein, then I'm gonna do what needs to be done." She ends the discussion, loading her gun.

...

I wake up gasping for air, trashing against my restrains. I calm down a bit and hear a dark chuckles beside me. I look to my right and see Savage with an evil smirk as I sigh. I gulp saliva before speaking up.

"You are a creep." I try to look strong but in reality I'm feeling myself weakening. I'm sweating, and feel the dark circles under my eyes with smudge mascara from all the crying mixt with the dirt I collected from all the time I've spent in this place. He only laughs in response.

"I know what you think."

"You don't... trust me."

"Oh trust me..." He rests his hands against the table I'm on to speak to me closer. "You still think this....team...of yours, is coming to save you...but you're wrong. They won't come for you. You're not important to the Garib, or any of them...you are too much of a problem for them. You really think they would risk it all for you? Think twice about it..." He says with a smile before walking away as I start to lose hope.

...

Snart and Sarah make their way inside the Prison and stop in an empty corridor. Sarah gets out of the white sheet as she speaks up.

"All right, this duct should take us to solitary. We get to Stein--"

"Yeah, I'm not going." Snart stops her ranting as he takes his hat off.

"That's the plan." She gives him a frown of confusion.

"That's Rip's plan. My priorities are Mick and Lara." He tells her determinate.

"Fine. Forget it. So much for your code, crook." She says walking away not waiting any longer.

"Anytime, assassin."

...

The crook made his way further in the basement until he finally found the said laboratory. After he checked the area quickly from his spot, he laid his eyes on her. He froze for a moment as a feeling of fear went through him before he saw her chest rising up and down slowly.

As soon as he put his hand down on her wrist, intending to uncuff her from the table, she jerked awake out of breath, hyperventilating with wide eyes.

"Hey,hey,hey. It's okay, it's me. You're fine, you're fine." He kept whispering comforting words with a hand on her left cheek until she calmed down and let her head fall back dawn out of exhaustion.
"Imma get you out of here, okay ?" She just closed her eyes nodding a little as he started to untie her, he was finishing doing so as she started sobbing.

"You lied to me." She cried. "You promised you would be there." He looked at her with guilt, not imagining what horrible things Savage made her suffer from. "You promised." Her voice cracked.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. You can kick my ass later, alright? Come on, let's go." He told her as he helped her sitting as her right arm was around his shoulders.
"Hey, look at me. I'm getting us out of here. Do you trust me?" He asked as she nods with urgency, trying to hold back more tears. He gave her a sweet, tender kiss on the forehead before he got her up on her feet.

"How romantic." They heard a voice from the door, turning their eyes towards the voice , seeing none other than Savage, gun in hand. Snart takes a protective stand in front of Lara in response.
"Except neither of you are leaving this place, at least not alive."

"The only thing I know is that I made you a promise. So if you don't wanna die today, I suggest you get out of my way." He told him menacingly.

"And what do you think you are saving exactly? I mean look at her!" He says pointing his hand towards Lara as Leonard checks her and sees her broken figure.

"She's stronger than you think." He only responds as Savage chuckles.

"Well sorry to break it to you but, you're not saving anyone. Not today, not ever." He replies pointing the gun towards Snart. The movement was so fast Lara barely had time to think as she held her hand up, moving forward, screaming in protest. 

"NOOOO!!!!"

And as she screamed with all the strength she could contain, a wave of purple power flew out of her and threw Savage against the wall opposite them, knocking him out. Her and Snart looked at Savage's uncounscious body in shock.

"How the hell did you do that?"

"I don't know." She said out of breath as she started to sway but Leonard got her before she fell.

"Okay, let's get out of here. We will talk about this later."

"Sounds good to me." She replied as they made their way out of the building.

...

As soon as we returned to the Waverider, Snart carried me all the way to the Medbay. Sure I was too tired to walk by myself but I wasn't tired enough to not be my stubborn self.

"You know I can walk, right?" I told Leonard tiredly, my voice cracked because of all the yelling I did.

"I don't think so, but you sure can act like a whiny toddler."

"Hey! That's offensive!" I whined giving a weak slap to his shoulder before he sat me down on the Medbay chair. I sighed in exasperation while Gideon scanned me. "So...Do I need therapy?.......Drugs?"

"You might need a muzzle, that's for sure." Snart says with his arms crossed as I gave him a death glare.

"Physically, your body is mostly weak from the treatment the scientists gave you. I suggest you take a lot of sleep and rest for a full recovery. Sorry to disappoint Miss Croft, but I can't allow you on the field for at least a few days....perhaps a week." The A.I. informs as I groan with my head falling backwards, which only made Leonard smile in amusement.

"Fine...." I sigh in defeat. The moment I sit up, intending to get up, Snart is at my side helping. "I can do it myself."

"I know you can, doesn't mean you have to." He said before proposing his hand out as I just looked at it. "Come on, don't make me beg." He rolled his eyes. I took hold of his hand finally as he helped me stand up.

He led me to my room as I was just complaining about how hungry I was. I kept letting my body go limp to stop our trajectory but he just kept pushing my body gently forward. I let myself fall on my bed as I sighed with tiredness, closing my eyes for a second before turning my gaze towards Snart. He was casually leaning against the wall on the side of the bed, looking at me with a way I couldn't described.

"What is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I frown at him. He hesitated before he spoke, looking at his shoes.

"We almost lost you back there..."

"Yeah, well.....I'm a tough cookie." I smile joking but he only looks.....guilty?

"If I hadn't got there in time-"

"You didn't." I stop him, quickly standing up to stand in front of him. I put my hand on his forearm before continuing. "You saved me....again....It's more embarrassing than anything, actually." I chuckled expecting him to give me one of his famous smirks but he barely smiled at my attempt of humor.

"I know what you are doing." He says looking at me seriously as my smile fades away. "Look, I understand that....it must be hard for you and you just wanna forget it, not think about it. And I don't want to make you relive it but...you need to talk about it."

"Leonard Snart saying I should talk about my feelings, how ironic." 

"I'm serious, Croft."

"......I know." I say with a soft smile.

"At least to one person. Stein or Gideon, hell even Raymond, just...we are a team. You can talk to us. Giving what you went through no one will judge you or think lesser about you. You're the strongest person on this ship in my opinion, physically and mentally." He tells me which makes a genuine big smile appear on my face.

"I'm pretty sure Kendra is the strongest but-"

"You could kick her ass anytime." He cuts me off with certitude and that famous smirk.

"Thanks." I smile amused.

He backs off from the wall, uncrossing his arms probably intending to leave the room but I interrupt him as I throw my arms around his neck, holding him tightly. He probably didn't expect it since it took him a second to hug me back.