OF MOON AND STARS | LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

[XVI] RECOVERY

Maya stumbled backwards, away from Jax. She tried to hide the fact that she was gasping for breath, but she didn't do a very good job. The hallway felt hot, too hot for her to bear. She felt like she was suffocating, choking on the new information that had been fed to her. The air seemed to be thinning around her as she attempted to pull it into her desperate lungs. The world was spinning and blurring before her eyes, but she managed to speak.  

"I uh, need some air. Is it ok if I duck outside for a minute?" 

Jax nodded, sensing her distress, and decided to keep the night's events to himself for the time being to spare his friend. Instead he left to find the rest of his team and alert them to the fact that Maya was now up and awake. 

Maya moved as quickly as she could through the hall, grimacing with every step but forcing herself to keep going. She needed to get out of the confines of the ship so she could breathe. Her time in Central City after the particle accelerator explosion had made her particularly sensitive to small, closed off spaces, and now that discomfort was flooding back into her. 

She tried to process Jefferson's words, but it was like trying to outrun The Flash; her thoughts were racing too far ahead for her too catch up. She was reeling, from her injuries and from the recounting of the incident she had no recollection of. The last thing she remembered was overwhelming power and then a blinding light that reminded her on the one Rip had used to knock her out. It didn't seem possible that she could completely forget something like what Jax had described, and yet, there she was as clueless as ever.      

When Maya made it to the bay door, she inhaled deeply, savoring the fresh air as she sunk to the ground, her back against the wall and her feet dangling out over the grass. She might not have remembered lighting up like a Christmas tree, but she did remember starting a catastrophic earthquake, and she didn't trust herself to touch the ground again just yet. 

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, consumed by her thoughts, she realized she wasn't alone anymore. Leonard had sat down across from her so quietly she hadn't seen him until she shifted uncomfortably on the hard floor.  

"You look like crap." He said finally, raising a questioning brow as he glanced at her.

Despite everything, she laughed. "Always the charmer, aren't you."

He shrugged, the flicker of a grin settling on his lips. "Yeah well, there was never much time to practice in between being the master criminal in Central City and trying to keep you and Mr. Golden Boy from ruining my meticulously laid out plans."

Maya rolled her eyes, "If you want me to apologize for keeping you from stealing people's hard earned money I'm afraid you'll be sorely disappointed." 

"Oh, I don't need any kind of apology. I pulled off plenty more heists that you weren't around to stop. You and Allen were more like those flies that are always buzzing around your head, you can't kill 'em but they sure as hell are annoying."

Maya placed her hand over her heart, "I'm touched you think that highly of us."

He scoffed and turned back to the view out of the open hatch. "I'm just glad to know someone had a worse day than me."

Maya groaned as a fresh stab of pain shot through her. "I think my whole week has been worse than everyone's."

Snart laughed humorlessly. "Not Carter, that's for sure."

She furrowed her brows, confused. "Why? What happened to Carter?"

He glanced back at her and the realization struck him that she didn't actually know yet. He decided to be blunt about it. "He's dead. Savage killed him two nights ago."

Maya drew in a sharp breath, almost choking. She hadn't particularly liked Carter, but she certainly hadn't wanted him to die. Especially not when she was unconscious in the med-bay. Maybe she could have saved him, but she hadn't been there. She clenched her jaw and gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain she felt as she stood; she was done being useless.