The day before had felt like such a long day, so when Octavia’s head hit the pillow, she passed out in record time. She kicked off her shoes but hadn’t even bothered to change out of her t-shirt and jeans. She’d been spending time at her office or at the gym lately, and even though there wasn’t anything major going on other than the normal day-to-day parts of her job, she’d kept up her normal training hours that sometimes went into overtime.
At the sound of her alarm going off at a bright and early hour, Octavia groaned and slapped the snooze button with her hand. She rolled over in bed and tried to will herself awake, but her body wasn’t having any of it. The alarm went off again several minutes later, and she finally sat up and turned off the alarm. Sitting up in bed, she was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes when she saw a red rose on her bedside table.
“The hell?” She mumbled and reached over to pick up the rose. There wasn’t a note or anything else there with it, so she had no idea who’d left it there for her. Octavia wasn’t exactly the ‘give roses’ kind of girl, so she figured this was either some random Atlantis gift or someone thought they were being cute.
As she started to place the rose back on her nightstand, she felt a sharp prick of her finger. Octavia winced a little and dropped the rose on the bed next to her. Blood started to pool a bit at the prick site, but before she could do anything about it, Octavia felt her body start to feel heavy. The feeling of intense sleep took over, and she fell back onto the bed with the rose laying there next to her.
~ Three hours later ~
Atlantis had turned into a paradise of meat. Everywhere Cappie went, someone was making jerky. One guy was even making Biltong. Cappie had bought a bag, promptly inhaled the whole lot and gone back for more. With his second bag in hand so he could pick at it as he walked, he headed for Octavia’s apartment. He’d been meaning to call by to see her for a while. He hadn’t exactly had much time since coming back to Atlantis, what with Abe giving him all the best (!) jobs around the bar, and he was starting to feel a bit guilty for not making more time for O. That, of course, was on top of the guilt he already felt for upping and leaving her just when she could have done with a friend. He hoped a little gift of biltong might help assuage some of that.
When he arrived outside Octavia’s apartment, he knocked on the door, waited a few minutes then, when he got no answer, knocked again. There were no signs of life from inside so he guessed, feeling a little disappointed, she wasn’t in. He pulled out his device and brought up O’s contact information. It wasn’t unusual for her to be up early and out at the gym, or some other fresh hell, but he was pretty sure it was her day off today so he wasn’t going to give up on finding her.
Pressing dial on her contact listing, he lifted the device to his ear, waiting for her to answer. Over the sound of ringing coming from his device, he could hear another tone filtering out from inside the apartment. He frowned. It was unusual for O not to have her device on her - she kept it with her in case Becker or one of the others at the base needed to contact her in an emergency.
“Octavia?” he called, cancelling the call from his device and leaning in closer to the apartment door. Again, there was no reply so, a little furtively, he tried the door. It was locked.
“Dammit,” he breathed, still frowning.
Looking down at his device again, he typed a message on the network and pressed send. It read, ‘Has anyone seen Octavia? Her device is at her apartment but she’s not answering. I’m almost certain she’s not just avoiding me.’
He guessed, for the time being, there wasn’t much else he could do so he headed out into the communal area of the floor and slumped down into a chair, waiting to see if anyone replied. If she was out, someone must have seen her and if she was in, and just in the shower or something, she’d see the post sooner or later and tell him he was an idiot for being worried. Either way, everything would be fine. He hoped.
A little while later, after receiving a message from Becker to say he was on his way back, Cappie stood up and wandered back over towards Octavia’s apartment door. Just for good measure, he knocked again and listened to the silence from within, leaning his shoulder against the wall to wait.
The last thing Becker needed was to have Octavia out of commision. He knew the ex-look-a-like had really thrown her but from what he could tell Lucian Bole was nothing like Lincoln and the differences between the two was striking.
Seeing Cappie’s message he headed back towards the flat where he found Cappie leaning against the wall.
“Still no answer?” He asked as he opened the door holding it open for Cappie.
“No, nothing,” Cappie replied, following Becker into the apartment. He only really knew the other guy through Octavia and bumping into him now and then around the apartment and he’d certainly never been as pleased to see him before as he was now. If anyone could help him find O, Becker was the man.
Without waiting for further invitation, Cappie crossed to Octavia’s bedroom door, knocked, paused just a moment then tried the handle. He figured he’d already seen her naked so it made sense for him to be the one to risk bursting in on her.
Unlike the apartment door, the bedroom door wasn’t locked and it swung open when Cappie pushed. Immediately, he saw that Octavia was lying on her bed, not with her head on the pillow, as she would if she were sleeping, but slumped widthways across the mattress, the covers pushed back messily as though she’d been in the process of getting up. Next to her, there lay a red rose. The whole scene screamed out that there was something very wrong.
“O,” Cappie gasped, rushing over to her and taking her by the shoulders to give her a gentle but definite shake. She didn’t respond - not even the slightest flicker. She was completely out cold. Still, she was breathing and that was something.
“What is this?” he asked, the concern and panic clear in his voice as he looked round for Becker. “We’ve gotta do something.”
Becker followed him into the room but hid his panic, although his voice was laced with worry. “She fell asleep the other day in my office in a weird position, this looks different.” He walked over and felt her pulse just to be sure, relief washed over him. Whatever this was, she was likely going to be okay.
“Let’s get her to medical,” he answered getting ready to scoop her up. “Warn McCoy and tell him to get in touch with the magical healing people.” Becker didn’t know if that had happened already, he was too focused on Octavia.
Cappie was glad when Becker stepped in, all calm and militaryish, checking Octavia’s pulse to confirm what he had already suspected - she was alive and looked unharmed, just unconscious.
Cappie pulled out his device. He didn’t normally like following orders but he wasn’t about to quibble over who was in charge when O’s life was potentially hanging in the balance. However, before he had chance to bring up the Medical Team’s contact information, a post on the network caught his eye.
“Wait,” he said, indicating for Becker to leave Octavia where she was. “There’s a post on the network… that new woman, Regina Mills…”
Quickly, he skim read the text then, more slowly, read it again.
“Fuck.”
He looked up at Becker before glancing down at O. Suddenly, this whole situation had got supremely awkward.
“Apparently it’s some kind of a sleeping curse; you know, like in Sleeping Beauty. It’s Atlantis bullshit,” he explained, sounding somewhere between exasperated and embarrassed.
“The only known way to wake someone from a sleeping curse is with True Love's Kiss,” he read out loud. “I recommend that the Prince Charming's or close family members of those still affected pucker up and give it a try…” He trailed off.
He paused and looked up, his eyes once again flickering back and forth between Becker’s face and O’s sleeping form. Internally cringing, he ventured, “Do you think one of us should maybe...have a go?”
Becker paused with Octavia in his arms. He watched Cappie carefully his frown deepening as the bloke went on about fucking fairy tale crap. He somewhat remembered similar things happening before and he wasn’t too pleased to know it was happening again.
It was a good thing he was putting Octavia’s sleeping body back on the bed when he heard Cappie suggest one of them have a go, if she wasn’t already there he might have dropped her at the thought.
“What?”
Cappie gave a little shrug in response to Becker’s question.
“It’s better than just doing nothing,” he said in explanation of his rational. “What’s the worst that could happen? She stays asleep and we’re in no worse a situation than we’re in right now.” He paused, clearing his throat a little awkwardly.
“So, do you want to go first or should I?”
Becker didn’t say it but he sure could think of a lot of worse situations. A lot worse. He frowned as Cappie asked who should go first.
The weight of the question was extremely uncomfortable, but he knew Cappie was right, it was better to do something rather than nothing.
“I will.” He finally determined. “Wouldn’t want to end up with anymore puppies.” His voice laced with sarcasm.
Cappie rolled his eyes, disguising the little twinge of disappointment and jealousy he felt at the prospect of watching Becker kiss O. It wasn’t like he liked her... but he did like the weird, comfortable intimacy between them, which had only grown after they’d slept together, and he realised he felt quite possessive of that relationship he had with her.
“Whatever; you love those puppies,” he quipped, tucking his device away in his pocket before folding his arms over his chest.
“I guess just go for it then,” he prompted, raising his eyebrows. “I mean, I think we’ve got to assume her consent when the alternative is that she stays in a magic coma for ever and ever.”
He couldn’t argue it he did love the little monsters, he just wasn’t going to say that out loud. Instead, he looked down at Octavia and took a deep breath before bending down and lightly pressing his lips to hers. He didn’t know how long he was supposed to kiss her for, or if it’d even work.
Very slowly he ended the kiss and stood up straight clearing his throat. “Blake?”
It was vague, but as she started to come out of her heavy sleep fog, she was sure she remembered dreaming about a huge dragon, witches, and a castle surrounded by thorns. None of it made sense, and as her eyes slowly blinked open she barely remembered any of it. What she did remember was quickly out the door when her vision cleared enough so that she saw both Becker standing above her and then Cappie not far behind him.
Her lips tingled a bit, and she licked them in confusion as she stared at the two guys there in her room standing next to her on the bed. Had someone just kissed her?
“Uhh… What are you guys doing here?” She asked and sat up on her elbows, looking between them. What was it with her waking up in awkward situations lately? Though, considering she was still in her room on her bed, this shouldn’t have been awkward.
“Is this a new Atlantis’ new wake-up call for people who ignore their alarms?”
Damn it. Becker could feel his cheeks getting hot, and he knew he was probably blushing. He cleared his throat again as relief and confusion started to wash over him.
“You decided to sleep awkwardly again.” He answered crossing his arms.
Cappie felt the knot in his stomach tighten as he watched Becker pressing his lips to Octavia’s, then loosen considerably when she blinked blearily awake again. He guessed he didn’t care how she’d woken up, as long as she had.
“We’re your fairy godmothers,” Cappie joked, a relieved smile spreading across his face. “Or is that the wrong fairytale?” He guessed, if she was Sleeping Beauty, that made Becker her prince. And what was he? The fucking horse?
Octavia looked at Becker in confusion again, but this time she noticed… did he look embarrassed? Instinctively, she touched her lips and just blinked. Oh god. What exactly just happened?
She half glared at Cappie. “Let’s leave the Disney metaphors out of this,” she said, not totally understanding the context. She sat up on the bed and finally saw the rose laying there next to her. Frowning, she looked at her finger and saw the small red mark from the earlier thorn prick. Had the rose put her to sleep?
Feeling more awkward with her still sitting on the bed and both of them standing there, Octavia stood up. “Last time I fell asleep in your office,” she said to Becker. ”Falling asleep in my own room is awkward now too?”
“Dwarves,” Becker muttered remembering the right fairytale, or at least he thought he had the right one.
“When you don’t wake up,” he moved his arm around the room. “Missed appointments, work, meetings, workouts, dog walks.” He rattled off awkwardly. “You wouldn’t wake up, and Cappie here got worried and I came to let him in and…” Shrugging as if that answered everything.
“No, dwarves is Snow White,” Cappie corrected Becker. “That was an apple. Finger pricking is Sleeping Beauty.” He paused. “Although I guess the kissing part is all the same.” He glanced pointedly at Octavia. “I guess you just attract the Disney shit, O.”
Cappie sighed, letting his hands fall to his sides. He was still feeling weird about the whole situation and, now that Octavia was awake and seemed fine, he was getting the urge to get out as quickly as possible. Besides, Octavia would probably want some time alone with her True Love.
“Cool. Well, I’m gonna…” He pointed over his shoulder, starting to back towards the door.
Dwarves and finger pricks? Octavia looked down at the mark on her finger and then glared at the red rose still on her bed. Her eyes widened a bit as everything started to make sense. For someone who had never seen any of these movies or read the stories growing up, she had definitely gotten a shitty crash course in them now that she’d been in Atlantis for a while. Now she was going to have to watch this one, and hopefully there wasn’t a litter of puppies at the end of it.
“Fucking Atlantis,” she muttered under her breath. Now she realized why Becker looked so sheepish, but Cappie not being quite himself was a little weird. She was actually a little surprised that Cappie hadn’t been the one to… wake her up all things considered. Well, it probably was that she was surprised Becker was the one to do it more than anything, and she wasn’t sure what that meant or if she was overthinking it.
“Yeah,” she said, clearing her throat. “I’ll talk to you later,” she said to Cappie as he went for the door. He seemed to want to get out of there quickly, and she wasn’t going to stop him. Her eyes drifted over to Becker as they both stood there awkwardly. “Sorry if I missed anything important. Who knew a flower could take me out.” She paused and cleared her throat again. “And thanks. For waking me up.”
Turning his head he nodded to Cappie unsure if he should say something or if he’d just done something to upset him or not, not that his mind was clear enough to understand what was going on it anyways.
He looked back to Octavia and nodded as he could feel the blush coming back up. Reaching back he rubbed the back of his neck clearing his voice, again, as he pulled himself together. “Right. You didn’t miss too much, just a couple little things.” That was mostly true. “And yeah, anytime, did you just-” he thought she’d said make out, not take me out but shook his head.
“Dogs. They need a walk.” With that, he turned around to go find the little shits.
Both of the guys were acting weird and making abrupt exits. She wasn’t sure what Becker nearly said only to cut himself off, but she didn’t really have the chance to ask him when he decided that now was a good time to take out the dogs.
Falling back on the bed, Octavia let out a long sigh. She looked over to see the rose still laying there and glared again before immediately picking it up very carefully so not to get stabbed by one of its thorns again, and tossed it into the trash. The Disney and sleeping curses were combined for this one, and she was ready for Atlantis to knock off that shit anytime now.