Legends of Tomorrow: Tales of the Waverider S2

1. The Second Christmas

1. The Second Christmas

(Warning - This part might be difficult to understand if you didn't read the first Christmas in my first Legends of Tomorrow story.)

"Hey Legends, guess what?" Nate rushed into the control room where the majority of the team was hanging out. Sara looked up from sharpening her knife.

"What?" Mick grunted.

Nate showed them a calendar, its page showing a winter wonderland. "It's Christmas today in 2016!"

Sara, rolling her eyes, looked back down at her knife. Mick grumbled and left the room.

"What did I do?" Nate asked, a little fallen.

"We did it last year. No need to make a hassle out of it this time." Sara said sharply.

"I thought you all would love Christmas." Nate mumbled.

"Well we don't." Sara jumped out of her captain chair to her room.

Ray went up and clapped Nate's back reassuringly. "Look, Nate, last year, we had some people who we don't have now. I don't think Sara or anyone wants to bring up any...memories. It's a bit painful, for all of us."

"But that's life Ray." Nate said. "We always lose things, but we keep on living anyway. And what's living without a Christmas celebration?"

Ray sighed. "That's true."

"Look, at least let's get a tree and some candy canes."

"Jax and Professor Stein probably has a tree; they brought one last year. I'll go ask them."

Nate's face brightened up. "You will?"

"I will. But it's a secret at least for now, okay? You go find some candy canes or Christmas food in the kitchen."

"Okay!" He rushed off, but suddenly stopped. "What about presents?"

"We're not doing presents." Ray replied and walked away.

"Okay then." Nate said to himself as he ran to the kitchen. Something was off; none of the team seemed to even like Christmas. What on earth was so painful that they couldn't even think about it?

He turned the corner for the kitchen and started to rummage through the cupboards. Nate knew Mick kept a secret stack of junk food somewhere...

"What are you doing?" A voice startled him from his raid.

"Amaya!" Nate smiled. "Weird question, do you like Christmas?"

She frowned at him as she fiddled with her necklace, but nodded. "Who doesn't?"

"Everyone in this ship." Nate replied, pulling out a cardboard box with the name Heatwave written all over it in red marker.

He opened it to find a lot of expensive alcohol and an entire corner of chocolate and candy. Jackpot, he thought to himself.

"Why doesn't anyone like Christmas here?" Amaya asked, looking at the goodies from Mick's treasure chest.

"Something to do with sad memories. Which I don't understand. They can always make new ones, better ones. Life doesn't end with one Christmas."

"Shut up, Pretty." Mick walked into the kitchen and grabbed his cardboard box away from Nate's fingers. "And find your own snacks."

"Mick, you have to like Christmas." Nate said exasperatedly.

"I like the food. Don't like the cold. Hate the mistletoe." Mick said, opening up a chocolate bar.

Nate sighed. "I give up."

"Good." Mick said as he walked away with his box.

Amaya patted Nate awkwardly as he slumped onto the kitchen table.

"No food, no spirit, no point in celebrating Christmas." He grumbled.

"Come on Nate, it doesn't matter," she said, sitting in front of him, "there's always next year."

He groaned even more. "It's just...I really wanted to celebrate something with everyone. I've never been on a superhero team before. I don't think I've ever been in a team like this before, and I just wanted Christmas to be special."

Amaya bit her lip.

"Nate? I got you a present. It's in my room." She mumbled. There was actually nothing, but Nate was so down she knew she had to do something.

He looked up at her like an excited puppy. Her heart melted a little at his twinkling eyes.

"Do you want to see it?"

He nodded and jumped up from his brooding posture.

It felt like taking a dog for walkies. If Nate had a tail, he would have been wagging it.

They arrived at her room. Underneath her cool demeanor, Amaya was panicking. She had no idea what to give Nate. Quickly, she flicked through her drawers (which were mostly empty), trying to find any sort of JSA memorabilia.

Then something caught her eye. She picked it up gingerly. It would have to do.

"It's a good luck bracelet," she said, tying a thin leather band around Nate's wrist, "and I used to wear it during my time in the JSA."

"Why give it to me?"

"I wore this when I believed in the simple things in life. It kept me rooted, but now, I'm on a space ship, fighting through time. This bracelet kept me in the past but I'm not there anymore."

"It's beautiful." Nate carefully examined the bracelet, looking at the charms decorated with runes.

"I hope this bracelet can keep you rooted too, but not how it helped me. I hope this can help you see you're not alone, and you never will be again."

"Thanks." He smiled weakly at her, his eyes full with emotion. "Sh-shall we see if Ray got the tree yet?"

She nodded and wrapped an arm around him as they walked up to the control room. They walked from the darker corridor to be greeted by a large tree, sparkling delicately.

"Hey, Nate." Ray said, waving his hand. He was wearing a Christmas sweater that had 'I've been a good boy' written in sickly green.

"I'm so glad we didn't chuck the tree." Jax said, gazing up at it proudly.

Sara walked in, chewing on a candy cane. She threw down a bag of them onto the control panel.

"Last year's." She said. Before she could walk away, Ray threw a sweater at her.

"I couldn't find yours." He said quietly.

Sara peeled off an 'Ice, Ice Baby' jumper from her face. Nate swore he saw tears but he couldn't tell as she put the sweater on over her t-shirt.

"Gideon, can you play some Christmas music?" She mumbled. A slow jazz track of Jingle Bells came through the interface.

"Merry Christmas, Legends." Sara said as she took a seat by the control panel. "Oh, and Gideon? Can you tell Mick to get his ass in here and to bring the booze?"

"Of course, Captain Lance."

One by one, everyone took a seat, each taking a couple of candy canes while doing so.

Christmas music continued to play throughout the night in the Waverider.