"It's good to have you back, Captain," Nate told Sara as they all stood in the MedBay.

Callie had been resting beside the bed that Wally was sitting in, having told the rest of the team that Wally and Ray had worse injuries than her for Gideon to heal. The rest of them had tried to force the girl into the chair once Wally had woken up, but she had refused and since she threatened the assassin card, they all left her to it. Besides, they knew Sara would force her into the seat as soon as she came through.

"Yeah, because evil you is a pain in the ass to fight," Zari admitted, everyone letting a small smile grace their face at the truth behind her words. They all knew Sara had been holding back on them, but they hadn't realised how insane her fighting abilities were - especially when she had demonic powers on her side.

Callie moved towards Sara, the blonde noticing the slight limp in her step from where she had refused to fight back against the possessed Sara. The Captain's eyes furrowed as she shot her wife a concerned glance but she had no time to ask her about it as Wally was already firing off with his list of questions he had formed in his head since waking up.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around this mess," Wally noted, confused on everything that had just happened in the space of less than 12 hours. Callie turned to look at him, smiling gently at his furrowed eyebrows. "Why would Mallus want to show me Jesse?"

Nate nodded in agreement, raising his hand as he pointed to Wally in agreement. They had all seen some pretty strange hallucinations from the possessed Sara, but it didn't really make sense as to WHY Mallus had even shown them to begin with. "Or me my grandpa?"

"I don't know," Sara admitted, her hand lacing itself with Callie's subconsciously as they all tried to figure out what exactly his play was. "Mallus was trying to recruit me to his side, and using my darkest fears. Maybe that's just what he does, he looks into our hearts, and broadcasts our deepest secrets."

They all looked at each other in a mix of despair and understanding as they tried to all figure out what they truly had been afraid of.

"Huh, that's terrifying," Zari broke the silence, sharing a nod of agreement with Callie at the thought of it. She was right - it was truly terrifying that the demon was about to find out their darkest fears and play them out against them. Callie was beginning to think that they were underestimating this all-mighty demon and that said a lot since they knew fine well what he was capable of.

"Oh I wanna know this, what did he show you?" Ray asked, changing the slight tone of the room as he turned to look at Callie who was the only one to not have shared what the demon had forced her to see. Ava and John had figured it out as soon as they saw she was refusing to fight back, but the rest of the team hadn't been there to witness it.

"Yeah," Nate chimed in, his eyes twinkling slightly as he thought about them getting to hear more information about the usually cut off Callie Merlyn. "What's the big bad ex-assassin afraid of?"

Even Sara turned to look at the girl, herself not aware of what Mallus had shown her when she was possessed by him. She had seen what everyone else had been shown, but it was as if she had gone completely blank when fighting Callie. She assumed it was a part of her brain trying to protect her but the thought still concerned her.

"I assume it was something to do with... your time in.... you know," Ray started to say before he realised how insensitive it was for him to have brought up Callie's 3 year prison that was Earth-X. They all knew it was something that she didn't particularly want to ever speak about minus when she had told them about her scars from the other Earth, but it was the one thing everyone thought of when they said about her biggest fear.

"Actually, no. I don't really understand why but he showed me normal Sara, but I knew it wasn't MY Sara and I think that must be my biggest fear - losing you but also not losing you," Callie told them all, addressing Sara in the second half of her admission. The whole team all nodded, slightly surprised it wasn't Earth-X itself but they assumed her fear came from seeing Earth-X Sara die along with more variations of her friends.

"Deep," Amaya said, not even having anything comforting to tell the girl.

"Okay. You up," Zari said, slapping Wally's shoulder slightly as she encouraged him to his feet. "I need your speed to re-couple the mainframe, and it's probably best we let Gideon do some work on our joint favourite part-time assassin."

"Ah, music to my ears," Wally said as he jumped to his feet and with a whoosh Callie found herself now sitting in the chair. She frowned slightly at the boy but turned into a smile as he winked playfully at her. "Oh, although, I was really digging the silver hair."

Callie laughed as the rest of them chuckled, sending Sara a smirk before she made one of her famous off-hand comments. "Yeah, that was kind hot."
______

"You know, it's nice to not be the one on a murderous rage for once," Callie joked, smiling at Sara as the blonde finished getting dressed into her pyjamas. Sara rolled her eyes dramatically, letting out a slight chuckle at the irony of it all before turning back around to face Callie with a playful glare.

She sighed deeply as she hopped into their bed beside Callie, leaning over and pulling the Merlyn into her arms. Callie huffed in content before she turned around so their faces were looking directly at each other, allowing her to examine the slight green specks she saw in Sara's blue eyes.

"What's on your mind?" Sara asked, noticing the slight look of concern deep down in Callie's eyes. The girl searched her face for a moment before she replied, hoping that Sara wouldn't take what she was about to say the wrong way.

"Do you think we'll ever get a normal life?" Callie asked, before noticing the slight confusion that spread across Sara's face and she rushed to clarify what she meant. "I just mean like, obviously we travel through time which isn't exactly normal but like just us and the team getting to solve small problems in time without someone trying to murder us every day? Do you think we'll ever get that?"

Sara wasn't sure what to tell her wife. She knew exactly what Callie meant, but she just didn't have the answer to their question. She wished she could tell Callie that this would be their last big foe they would face, but she also knew how unlikely that was. Even without the time travel and superpowers, Oliver had been continued trying to get murdered ever since he came back from the island and Sara knew it was naive to expect that wouldn't be the same case for them.

"I don't know," she admitted finally, her eyes searching Callie's to try and figure out how to ease the woman's concerns. "I don't know if we were ever really destined for that life."

Callie nodded as she brushed some of Sara's hair out of her face, smiling softly at her wife as she leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her nose. She didn't want to give up their life on the Waverider or their team. She only wished that once they'd finally defeated this Mallus demon that they'd finally be allowed to just relax with their team.

"So," Sara said, changing the slightly somber mood Callie's question had created. Callie raised an eyebrow in peaked interest as she noticed the sly grin that spread across her wife's face. "You loved the silver hair huh?"

Callie smacked her shoulder as the blonde erupted into laughter, rolling her eyes as the youngest Lance teased her for her earlier remark.

"Shut up, Lance."

—————

Callie hadn't exactly been aware that Ava and Sara had fallen out, but it became increasingly obvious by the foul mood Sara seemed to be in the days following. The girl had been rather snappy with the rest of the team and even wasn't as cheerful with Callie when they spoke. Gideon informed her that it seemed from their conversation that Sara didn't want Ava to be placed in harms way when she wasn't a part of the team and felt that their friendship was only going to end with Ava getting hurt. Sara, of course, was therefore pushing Ava away in an attempt to end their friendship.

Callie herself couldn't help but feel a little bit responsible for their fallout, especially after she had brought up to Sara that death seemed to follow them both wherever they went. It was no doubt in her mind that she had somehow influenced Sara into thinking she was helping Ava more by cutting her out of her life.

When Sara decided she needed a break, Callie was the first to nominate herself to remain on the ship instead of going with her wife. She was more than aware that Sara loved her company but she knew that they needed their time apart now more than ever. Convincing the rest of them that Sara was fine, she gladly handed over the mantle of interim Captain to Amaya at the orders of Sara herself. Callie might have been her wife, but they all knew that she was much too hot-headed to be a rational leader in any given situation.

"Hey, I know you might hate this but is there any chance you'd be willing to work with Zari on helping train Mick to use the Fire Totem? I know you aren't a totem bearer but I know you've gone through a lot of rigorous training routines in your life," Amaya asked Callie as she passed the girl in the corridor. Callie nodded, taking a bite of her bagel before giving a fake salute to Amaya.

Sure, it wasn't the best job to be stuck with but Callie much preferred staying on the ship and away from the action as much as humanely possible. Since Gary had just dropped in to tell Sara that Ava was missing and Nate had just informed Amaya her granddaughter had been injured back in 2018, she was pretty glad to be on the B Team for this one.

"Okay, you said to wait until after your second lunch. This is your fourth. Amaya wants me to teach you how to use your totem, so let's get cracking," Zari announced as Callie entered the room, sending the girl an apologetic smile as she collapsed on to one of the couches in the lab. Both of the team members looked at her confused, not aware that she was joining them.

"I'm here to help, wherever needed." Callie informed them, raising a finger as she shut her eyes and got comfortable on the couch. "Although I am due a much needed nap so feel free to not need me."

Mick nodded in agreement with her, liking her new found attitude since she had came back from the other Earth. She was a lot more calm around the team and he respected her untameable energy.

"If I wanted to learn, I would've gone to school," Mick grunted, casting her a slight side look as he continued to move around the lab. Zari's eyebrow twitched as she turned to snap at the man before taking a deep breath and rising to her feet.

"Okay. Be patient, be kind, abstain from negative thoughts," she mumbled under her breath before composing herself and turning back around to look at the eating Mick. Callie had her eyes closed from her spot on the couch but Zari knew that the assassin was listening to every word spoken. "Sorry, blood-sugar thing. Fasting."

"Fasting?" Mick asked, although the unenthusiastic tone that came from his mouth made Callie snort from the corner of the room. Zari sent her a quick look before turning back to the man in front of her that was about to drive her insane for the rest of the day.

"Yeah, I'm not eating."

"Trying to lose some fat, huh?" He asked, causing Zari to look at him in distain. She had thought he would know the reason as to why she was fasting after her being on the ship for so long.

"No, I love my body," Zari noted before Callie interrupted her from her listening in spot on the couch.

"As you should, it's cracking," Callie informed her, her eyes still closed and her body still. Mick and Zari looked over in slight confusion before Zari continued her explanation after sending a brief thank you towards the assassin. 

"I'm trying to observe Ramadan," Zari finished, watching Mick's confusion spread across his face.

"So observe it on a full stomach," Mick informed her, reaching out his tray of burgers towards the girl as a peace offering. Callie opened an eyelid from where she sat, jumping to her feet and snatching one of the burgers while ignoring the look Zari shot her. 

"Is this bacon?" Zari asked offended as she turned the burger bun to reveal the grilled meat stuck to the bread.

"You Jewish?"

"I don't even know what... I can't," Zari breathed, dropping the burger and walking away with a deep sigh. Callie turned to look at Mick with disapproval written all over her face as she thought about how rude the man could be to them all sometimes.

"Come on, Mick," Callie huffed, rolling her eyes as the man went back to eating the burgers without a care in the world. Feeling bad for having tried to take a nap instead of helping Zari, she knew that they both were going to have their hands full showing the man how to work with the totem.

_____

"Okay, now concentrate on the target," Zari told Mick, pointing at the teddy bear that they had stolen from Ray's room. Callie didn't agree with wrecking something that was obviously important to the man so she had gone ahead and gotten Gideon to fabricate a replica of it and switch them around. "It's about focus and precision."

"Like I need help lighting things on fire," Mick snidely replied as he looked at the teddy bear across the room. Callie could see Zari's patience almost snap again but the woman took a deep breath before speaking.

"Okay. One... Two..." Zari started, before realising what Mick was doing. The man was crunching on an apple as she spoke, causing her voice to rise in annoyance. "Rory, could you focus on something other than your stomach for a second?"

Callie was starting to wish she hadn't chose to stay on the B Team for the first time in her life. She had managed to put up with everyone on the team when they argued but these two were really testing her last nerve, not to mention she was slightly worried about how long Sara, Gary and Ray were taking to try and find the missing Ava Sharpe.

"Whatever," Mick said, before firing up and throwing a fireball straight over Callie's head towards the bear. The bear caught on fire, and funnily enough, so did the entire bench it rested on. Callie growled almost in annoyance as she sprayed it down with a fire extinguisher.

"I said just the target, you idiot!"

"I'm the idiot? You're the one who doesn't eat when you're hungry. Maybe if you did, you wouldn't be such a bitch!" Mick argued back, causing Callie to hit her head against the bench she had just sprayed.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me."

"Well maybe you'll both hear me when I say that a piece of me actually is starting to miss Earth-X, so I swear if you two don't stop arguing for one FREAKING SECOND and listen I might honestly kill you both, and we both know I am more than capable of doing so even with your stupid totems!" Callie yelled, both of them quieting down and turning to face her in shock at her exclamation. She was visibly stressed, and glaring intensely at them both.

Callie took a deep breath before plastering a fake smile on her face as she looked at the duo.

"Okay, let's try this again shall we?" 

____

By the time Zari was able to eat, Callie had well and truly given up. She hadn't spoken to either of them since their sixth failed attempt at getting Mick to hit only the target, and the various burns littered across her arms only proved the point. Gideon had tried to get her to head to the Medbay so that she could soothe them, but Callie had experienced much worse between the League and Earth-X so she told the AI that she would sort it out once Mick had finally got the hang of his totem.

She was aware that the duo had felt the death of Kuasa, but Callie didn't know what to tell them. She hadn't met the water woman but she had been told various times how she had tried to kill the rest of the team - which is why she wasn't sure if it was wrong she felt slightly glad that there was one less person trying to kill them.

"Thought you couldn't eat," Mick spoke up as Zari began to eat, Callie still sitting in a huff in the corner of the kitchen. 

"Yeah, I told Gideon to tell me when sundown would've been if I'd been at home. But I mean, Ramadan is just a stupid 1,400-year-old tradition to you, right? So why am I even talking about it?"

Mick looked over at Callie for help as Amaya continued to cut up her food, refusing to look up at the man who had continuously disrespected her religion repeatedly. Callie rolled her eyes and held up her hands, showing Mick that he was on his own for this one. She was fed up of him disrespecting Zari and her just taking it, but she also didn't want Mick to be let off scot free.

"Well, uh, how about if I help you heat it up?"

Callie and Zari both looked up as Mick managed to create the perfectly sized fireball in his hand in complete control. Callie felt her eyebrow twitch in anger slightly at how he suddenly was able to do it and she assumed that he was probably able to do it this whole time but was just being awkward. The sooner she was able to crawl into her bed and be the little spoon by Sara the better, this babysitting duty was not for her. 

"Try it, it's good for you. You know, I can't stop thinking about Kuasa. I felt her die," Zari announced as she put a plate down in front of Mick. She offered to make Callie a plate, but the assassin was already eating her own avocado and chicken burger that she had convinced Gideon to fabricate for her. 

"Uh, me too. Mind you, she did try to kill us a couple of times," Mick admitted, looking down at the layer of spinach on top of the meal that Zari had just made for them to both eat.

"But she was a totem bearer, and Amaya's granddaughter. And the totems supposedly connect us to something larger," Zari continued, making Callie almost feel like she was missing out on something by not having worn a totem like the rest of the team at this point.

"Yeah, for better or worse."

"You know, I think that's kind of why I still fast. When I was little, my mom tried to get me to do it. And I wouldn't, but she did make me learn how to cook iftar. It's the meal we eat to break the fast. And while she cooked, she would say that Ramadan's not just a time for honoring God, but a time to honor tradition and family. Community. So whenever I fast or cook iftar it... It makes me feel connected to my mom," Zari told them both, more so Mick. Callie felt her heart ache for the girl, knowing the pain of missing family. Her dad was evil and essentially dead to her, her brother was dead and so was her mother.

"I'm hungry," Mick announced, pulling a sandwich out of his pocket.

"Still pork."

"Still good."

"And I, I am still tired so I'm going to sleep," Callie told them both, throwing her plate into the sink as she walked away from them. She knew that Sara would wake her once she was back if anything really bad had happened. But for now, she would rest.

Callie deserved it.