The beach was just on the outskirts of town, and the walk only took about twenty minutes. It wasn't long before Deserey spotted the sand dunes in the distance, before she could hear the salty water splashing against the earth's service. She smiled, the wind sent her dark curls fluttering, as she and Ray stepped onto the beach.

Deserey reached up, tying her hair back with the hair band she'd been wearing around her wrist. Kicking her shoes off for a brief moment, Deserey dug her toes into the sand, letting the little grains wiggle their way in-between her toes. The sand was warm on her skin, reminding her of all those times she had spent burrowing herself on the beach back in her childhood home.

She closed her eyes, letting the wind press up against her face, chilling her skin just enough that she grew cool in the hot summer air but not enough that she froze. For a moment her mind went blank, as a warm feeling emitted from her chest, and, just for a second, she imagined that she was home. At peace. A soft sigh escaped her lips, as she breathed in the fresh air of the beach. Somehow warm and cool at the same time.

Then, suddenly it wasn't so peaceful. She remembered the last time she had been on a beach. The night the Particle Accelerator exploded. She'd been there, trying to rekindle her muse. It had been ages since she'd painted something, and she had been dying to start up again. Except lack of motivation, as always, stood in her way. So, she had gone to the one place that had always given her a sense of solitude.

But that night had quickly turned ugly. A storm began brewing. Lightening had been striking left and white. Rain had poured harder than it ever had before. There'd been a wave of some orange substance, (dark matter she knew now) but it didn't come from the sea. It came from the sky. Deserey had tried to get out, but she hadn't moved quickly enough. The wave had slammed into her, sending her flying across the beach in a violent tumble.

Deserey's eyes snapped open, as the memory came to an abrupt stop. Ray stared at her, frowning slightly. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded meekly. "Yeah. Just...The beach was always my sanctuary growing up... I was on the beach at Central City, when the Particle Accelerator exploded. Guess it kind of ruined it for me." Deserey crouched down, pushing some sand into her bag, but she could still feel Ray watching her closely.

"Why would it ruin it for you?" he wondered, and she felt her heart flip. He always sounded so innocent, so pure. She longed to be so untouched by the darkness...

She shrugged, as she rose to her feet once more. "That night...the Accelerator...it turned me into a freak."

Ray scoffed, making her turn towards him. "You're not a freak," he said, and she was surprised to hear how stern his words sounded. His voice softened with the next sentence though, reverting back to his normal, happy-go-lucky tone. "You're unique. Nothing wrong with that!"

Deserey rolled her eyes. "Unique is just the polite way of saying weird."

"I respectfully disagree. Being different and unique is what sets you apart from other people. It's what makes you cool."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes again. He grinned, which she kind of found annoying. It was like he couldn't go two seconds without smiling about something. Ray pointed at her sand bag. "Why do you carry that around, then? If you think it makes you a freak? You had it, even before the Legends."

Deserey looked down at the bag sitting on her hip, frowning lightly. "I don't know," she admitted. "I guess it just sort of...reminds me of home."

Ray nodded, like that made sense. Though she wasn't sure how he understood any of it, because she didn't really comprehend it herself. "You know," he said, "they say home is where the heart is."

She stared at him for a long moment, watching him grin goofily. It was in this moment, with his dark hair flapping slightly in the wind, and his bright brown eyes shining brightly, that she knew she had been right about him all along. He was Patton through and through. "You're positivity is positively infuriating!"

Ray shrugged. If he was offended by the comment he didn't let on. He just picked up her shoes and wiped the sand off them for her. "I think it feels a lot better than just sitting around grieving all the time, don't you?"

"I...guess so." She wondered if he was saying that because he somehow knew about her issues. Granted she hadn't exactly been very subtle about it as of late, and Sara had told Len. Mick and Rip knew as well. Maybe one of them had told Ray... Or maybe he had figured it out on his own.

But when she met his eyes again, he didn't seem to be thinking about her suicidal tendencies. He had a far away look in his eyes, like he had started day dreaming about something else, too. "Anna use to love the beach, too."

Deserey scrunched her face, titling her head to the side. "Anna?"

"Hm? Oh!" He glanced at her, his eyes widening as he realized what he'd just said. Grinning sheepishly, he explained, "Um, my fiancee."

Deserey nodded, smiling lightly. "I didn't know you had a fiancee." She wondered what sort of woman this Anna had to be in order to fall for a man child like Raymond Palmer. And what had she done to catch his eye?

She had to be selfless no doubt. Probably gorgeous. Loving. Patient. Maybe she loved cheesy romances. Yes, she'd almost have to. Ray no doubt was the sort of guy to leave rose petals and candles every where in an extravagant attempt to be romantic. Deserey wondered when their wedding was. Had Rip pulled him away from his bride just before they were to be wed? Had Anna been the one to convince Ray to go? Deserey couldn't imagine Ray would be the sort of guy to just up and leave a gal before the big day.

"Yeah," Ray nodded slowly, and Deserey frowned when she realized he was shifting uncomfortably. "Kind of. I mean...we were. She died."

Her heart sank. So, there would be no wedding after all. That's why he didn't seem to have any trouble leaving her. Because there was no bride to be. "That's hard..."

"Yeah..."

Deserey felt a pang in her heart. She felt guilty for assuming that he'd never felt loss of any kind. Once more she had just proven how awful she really was...

"She was actually kind of my inspiration for the Atom suit," he said, and it was heart wrenching, how sad his voice sounded. Deserey felt the water filling her lungs again, the way it had that night on the roof, when Rip had gathered them. "I couldn't save her. So, I made a suit, hoping to save someone else." Ray started grinning once more a moment later, like he wasn't just talking about his dead fiance, as if there was nothing wrong with the world. "So far, I think it's worked okay."

Deserey snorted. "Unbelievable."

Ray tilted his head to the side. "What?"

"You."

"Me?"

Deserey nodded, rolling her eyes slightly as she did so. She pointed at him, squinting. "You, Ray Palmer, are living in denial."

He gave her a curious look. "I am? How so?"

She waved her hand around, turning in a circle so that it swept all over their surroundings. "The world ain't so pretty," she told him. "I mean, just look at any history book. Wars and discrimination in every time period. Look at this town. All white washed and seemingly perfect. But just on the small walk we took here I noticed fifteen people giving me dirty looks and nervous glances. No doubt because of my skin. And if they knew my sexual preference they'd probably want to kill me, even more. Look at the future where Rip's from. It's over run by an immortal psychopath. His wife and kid are dead."

Ray nodded slowly, taking in everything that she was saying. He didn't say anything for several minutes. Deserey turned her gaze to the water, watching the waves move back and forth, splashing against the sands surface. "So, you think because I'm positive that I'm naive?" he asked finally.

"That's exactly what I think," Deserey told him. He stared at her skeptically. She scowled back at him.

"The world's not that bad," he reasoned.

She laughed. "The fact that you have to say that proves that it is that bad."

"Okay. Sure, there's a lot that needs to be fixed, and it's probably not going to get fixed in the near future," Ray relented. "But there's good things about the world, too."

Deserey raised her eyebrow at him. "Really?" She already knew that he was planning some big, long, optimistic speech about how the world was all rainbows and sunshine. Deserey had been getting speeches like that her whole life; she had gotten really sick of them...

Ray nodded. "There might be violence and a couple of idiots, but there's still things to be happy about. Friends. Family."

She shook her head. "Friends always leave. Family has never been good for anything but arguing."

"You can always reach out to your friends again. And yeah family fights a lot, but they're usually always there in the end, right?"

"Wrong. The fact of the matter is, the world sucks. People suck. And everything sucks."

Ray shot her a side ways glance, looking curious. "Even your ex-husband and kids?"

She paused for a moment, feeling a jabbing sensation in her gut. Deserey had been trying to avoid all thoughts about them since coming aboard the Waverider. It was just too painful to think about. "They're gone now. Doesn't really matter. Everyone leaves in the end. Or dies. Like your fiance and Rip's family." She knew it was a low blow, but at the time she didn't care. Her negative mood was setting in again, and she didn't really feel like being lectured on why she should be happy. (As if she could help what she felt.) "Besides, thinking positively will only lead to being miserable. Think about it. Optimism leads to getting your hopes up. Getting your hopes up leads to disappointment. Disappointment leads to being miserable. Or you can just accept that everything is awful and be miserable. Either way you're miserable. So, yeah. I'd say optimism is pretty naive."

Ray shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree."

"Guess so."

He looked like he wanted to say more, but before he could the two were interrupted. From across the beach the familiar form of Chronos could be spotted, his thick metal armor and giant metallic gun. Deserey gasped, raising her hands to push up a wall of sand at the time hunter. Considering they were on the beach, the move was quite effective. She slammed him in to the ground, covering half his body in the sand, but not before he managed to get a few shots fired.

Red lasers emitted from his gun, soaring towards Deserey. Her eyes widened, but there was no time to duck. She was hit in the gut, falling to the ground a moment later, groaning in pain.

Finally got this up. So sorry it took so long. I'll try not to let the next update take so long. I was just dealing with mental bs and .... Ugh.

Whatever. 2019. New year. Happier year.

Or I'm just lying to myself but whatever.

Chapter's shorter, because I wanted to get it up since it's been a million years. Hopefully you're still with me... I'm sorry. I suck. Ugh.

Next chapter will finally finish the 50s stuff. Then we'll get into some...other things 😈 Hope you enjoyed.