January had disappeared in a blink of an eye, between the missions. A small part of Trip was worried about what he’d left behind and what he’d missed in Atlantis while he was gone, but a bigger part of him was grateful for the chance to get back to work at what he did best. He couldn’t decide, in the end, if he should call the mission a success. They’d found what they were looking for, but people got taken in the process. It couldn’t count as a win until everyone was back and everyone was safe.
His injuries would keep him sidelined for a bit longer, unless he agreed to some sort of magical cure-all, so he’d been watching the training exercises instead of joining in himself, doing as much as he could without aggravating his broken collar bone.
That was where he was headed when he got in the elevator with Daisy -- probably with a brief check-up on the way. “Fancy meeting you there,” he joked, like he hadn’t known she’d been right there from the start.
After a rough few days tracking and rescuing their missing agents, Daisy was glad to have a little downtime. She gotten off easy in the fight to save their people, with only a few scrapes to show for it and hadn’t wasted anytime in getting back to her regular schedule of dividing her time between technology and training. It was the latter she was head to when Trip stepped into her elevator and she couldn’t help grinning. They’d both been busy with their respective missions for a lot of the month and it felt like it had been weeks since she’d spent any real time with him.
“Hey, you,” she greeted him. “Still on the DL?” She hadn’t liked seeing him banged up, but she knew these were the risks they ran in their line of work and she was just glad it hadn’t been worse.
Trip sighed and wrinkled his nose. “Yeaaaaah, for now.” He didn’t plan on staying on the injured list for long -- though he was aware that he didn’t have much choice in the matter, in the end. He wasn’t good at sitting still, no matter the circumstances.
He understood. If he threw himself back into the field, he could hurt himself worse and compromise the entire team -- the entire mission. That didn’t mean he wasn’t restless, however. After what COS had done, he was champing at the bit. He wanted to get back at them for what they’d done. He wanted to put an end to their entire organization. “Got a few more weeks of rest ahead of me, unless I accept some sort of magical healing.” He hadn’t decided how he felt about that just yet.
Daisy nodded. She’d gotten off lucky in her own fight with COS, but having super powers helped. She hadn’t needed to get that close to the agents when she was using her powers and she’d let most of the rest of the team take the lead while she and Clarice worked to get their people out.
“The magic thing can feel pretty weird, but it definitely has its perks,” she admitted. Coupon wouldn’t be here now if it hadn’t been for some of those healers. She couldn’t help but be grateful.
“Yeah, I can imagine,” he commented. He nearly shrugged a shoulder before he remembered how much that would hurt. “I think it’s… a matter of not knowing how it works. But maybe I’ll have to throw caution to the wind and just trust that they know what’s up.” That was easier said than done, of course, but after seeing how short-handed the base was for a few days, Trip was giving it more thought than he might’ve otherwise.
He stepped over to her and put his good arm around her shoulder. “I’m glad you came back all in one piece.”
“I can vouch for Lissa,” Daisy offered. She’d known the moroi healer in Breck before coming to Atlantis and she’d seen the amazing things she could do. Plus, she was just about the nicest person Daisy knew. “I mean, if that helps.”
She looked over at Trip with a smile, leaning in just a little to give him a sort of sideways hug. “That makes two of us,” she commented. She might have said something else if the elevator hadn’t jolted all of a sudden before coming to a complete stop.
“Uh oh,” was what came out instead as the regular lights went out and the emergency ones came on to offer a lot less light than normal.
Trip’s eyes darted first up towards the lights, and then to the panel of buttons on the wall. “That’s not good.” He stepped away from Daisy to hit the emergency call button. Surely someone already knew the elevator had stopped, but they might not know anyone was in it at the time.
“Hope you’re not hungry,” he said as he looked over his shoulder at Daisy. “Although I can’t imagine this’ll take too long. It’s Atlantis, for fuck’s sake.” Right? There was a lot going on, but it couldn’t take too long for a tech to figure out what was wrong.
Daisy had her phone out, firing off text messages to a couple of the techs from her department. She had a good team and she was sure they’d have it fixed quickly. She hoped they would, anyway. With Atlantis, you never knew when something was mechanical or magical.
“Guess you’re stuck with me for a little longer,” she teased him.
“Oh no,” Trip retorted, pushing out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout. In truth, if he had to be stuck with anyone, he was glad it was her. “How will I survive such torture? It’s just the worst, having to look at your face.” He could only keep his pout going for a moment longer before a smile was fighting to break through. “Totally the worst.”
Daisy punched him playfully in the arm - his good one, because she wasn’t mean - and rolled her eyes. “Such a charmer,” she teased him. She had to admit, if there was anyone in Atlantis Daisy actually wanted to be stuck on an elevator with, Trip was probably near the top of the list.
“We could be here a while, got any cards?” she joked. Atlantis could be predictable and there was no guarantee to a quick rescue for them. With Atlantis’ sense of whimsy, they could be literally stuck here all day.
“I’m the most charming.” It probably wasn’t true, but Trip grinned at her. He wouldn’t have been offended -- well, maybe he would have been, a little.
He sighed and shook his head. “Nope. No luck.” He walked back over to her and leaned back against the wall. “I’d say truth or dare, but I think we’d run out of dares real quick here. Two truths and a lie? Or we could just pretend we’re sixteen and this is seven minutes in heaven.” Trip was mostly talking out of his ass, but once the words were out there, he didn’t think that would be that bad of an option. “Or we could play would you rather?”
Daisy couldn’t help laughing at his suggestions. “You better hope this doesn’t turn into seven hours in heaven,” she teased him. Truthfully, she didn’t hate the idea, but it was one thing to share a kiss under some magical mistletoe or during some other Atlantis shenanigans, but seven minutes in heaven with Trip, however good it might feel at the time, could get complicated. She didn’t know if that was something she was ready for. Would You Rather seemed like a safer bet, all around.
“Would you rather read minds or accurately predict the future?” she asked to start them off.
Trip raised an eyebrow at her, but didn’t comment on it. He didn’t want to jinx anything -- not that spending seven hours with her was a bad thing, but at some point, the situation would devolve into less than sexy activities that he didn’t particularly want to share with her. His eyes darted upwards to take in the ceiling of the elevator. Maybe there’d be a way out up before things got too dire.
“Can I tune people out, or am I reading minds all the time?” he asked, though he knew that part of the deal was not finding wiggle room around the options. “You know, I’d probably still take that one even if I couldn’t tune anyone out. Imagine being able to decide exactly how life was gonna turn out. Where’s the fun in that?”
“More fun being surprised.” Daisy nodded. “I feel that.” They lived in a world where either could be a real ability, so it kind of seemed like a good question to start on. She wouldn’t trade her powers for anything at this point, but she couldn’t help thinking being able to predict the future might be nice. Or, you know, maybe not. It hadn’t worked out that great for Robin, but it had kind of helped them save the world, so.
“Your turn,” she prodded, ignoring the raised eyebrow.
“All right, all right. Let me think.”
Trip made a show out of hemming and hawing over what options he’d give her, stroking his chin and pacing a few times before stopping in front of her. “Got it. Would you rather…” Trip’s grin was slow and lazy in an attempt to hide how amusing he found the images in his head. “Be a reverse mermaid or reverse centaur for a day?”
“Would I have any cool powers?” Daisy wondered aloud. She’d always kind of thought mermaids were cool, probably because she’d never actually met one that she knew of and at this point she wasn’t even going to assume they weren’t actually real, but having a fish head didn’t sound nearly as awesome as the tail.
“Probably the centaur,” she decided after a brief moment. “Think I’d look good with a horse head?”
“You’d look good with any sort of head,” the response came quickly, without much thought put in it. When Trip stopped to think about it, he realized it wasn’t quite true. She really wouldn’t have looked good with a fish head -- but then again, not even Thor would. He shook his head a little and continued, hoping to gloss right over his awkwardness, “but I’m kinda partial to the one you have right now. Just sayin’.”
His answer definitely brought a smile to her face, even if she knew it was a line. Maybe not a, hey, I’m trying to get into your pants line, but she knew it wasn’t actually true. Truth or not, it still felt kind of good that it was the first answer that came to mind. “Yeah, me, too. I’m kind of attached to it,” she joked, partly to cover just how much she’d liked what he’d said.
Trip chuckled. “I was gonna say I’d take reverse merman because it’d be cool as hell to swim without worrying about oxygen tanks.”
He leaned against the wall next to her. “Okay, your --” The elevator lurched, and Trip’s attention shifted to the display that told them which floor they were on. “Looks like we’re in business again.” His voice sounded a bit sad to his ears, and he wondered if Daisy would be able to pick up on it. It’d been kind of fun, getting stuck with her. It’d been nice to have some one-on-one time, even if it was short-lived.
They reached the medical floors first. “My stop. We’ll finish this later?” He knew he sounded hopeful, and he was. Before he could embarrass himself further, he waved his good hand and stepped through the doors. “See you around.”