It had been a little while since the situation involving the Skrulls, and Flynn was definitely glad to be back on Earth. Things weren't exactly the best, but he did make good on the little promise he had made to himself on the Skrull ship with regards to going back home to Seattle. He also made good on the thought of dragging Bonnie along with him, whether she really wanted to or not. They currently were at the base of the Space Needle though,
"...So, how have you been Bonnie?" he asked her.
"Oh, you know, vacations are famously relaxing," Bonnie joked. It had taken a bit of persuasion from Flynn to get her to come on this trip. She tended to just throw herself more and more into her work, especially the more stressful things became. She wasn't any closer to finding answers about the mysterious voice she had heard or how she hadn't died at the hands of the Black Order. Most of her time was spent in the lab, trying to help out some of the new inhumans who were struggling with their powers since the terrigen bomb earlier that year.
"Come on, Seattle in summer is not that bad, actually though spring and fall are the better seasons, most of the time not too warm, not too cold. Though summertime is when the city gets the most tourists, a lot of people like to visit here... It's been a while since I've been back here sadly..." Bonnie rolled her eyes slightly.
"I never said I didn't like Seattle. The cherry blossoms at the university were really pretty. Although, I'm beginning to think your rain is false advertising. I'll have to report you all to the Better Business Bureau for that." "Hey listen, Washington State, at least Western Washington State has effectively two seasons and two seasons only. The wet season and the dry season. We are currently in the around 3-4 month period that is the dry season. Wet season is the rest of the year." She giggled a little bit.
"Yes, because wet and dry are vast improvement on fall, winter, spring, and summer," Bonnie teased him.
"Can you even tell what time of year it is here based on the trees?" She had grown up in Washington D.C., where there were drastic and visual changes between each of the seasons. Just based on the trees and the flowers, you could tell what time of year it was.
"Nope not really. That is why it is called the Evergreen State, since most of the damn trees look the same year round... Anyway want to go up to the top of the Space Needle or do you want to go into the center house or something like that?" "Oh, we are totally going to the top of this thing, and then I'm going to buy a dorky keychain with my name on it," Bonnie declared.
"There's actually a restaurant and stuff up there, not just a look out thing, and the gift shop is at the base," he said with a bit of a laugh, before taking her hand and leading her into the base of the Space Needle.
"How much do you want to bet you have to either make a reservation ten years in advance or steal someone's kidney to get a reservation?" Bonnie asked, as she went inside with Flynn. The Space Needle was pretty much the most iconic and recognizable feature of Seattle, so she did feel more or less obligated to go on up it. Maybe she'd get Flynn to take a nice picture of her at the top, so she could update her LinkedIn profile picture.
"...Well here's a surprise for you, since you've never really been in this city or whatever, I decided to try and get a reservation so you could try the food, all honesty I've never been up to the restaurant either, so new experience for both of us since I managed to get the reservation," he said to her.
Bonnie raised an eyebrow.
"If you killed someone who had a reservation, and that's how you did this, I'm going to be really angry that you didn't call me to help clean up the crime scene," she told him with a slight smirk.
"Wow you really think the worst of me don't you?" he said with a bit of a laugh heading over for the elevator that would take them to the top. Since the elevator was mostly windows at least they'd be able to see themselves go up into the needle.
"Oh, don't worry, I think the worst of everyone," she said, giggling a bit. It really was a beautiful view, being able to see everything as they went up into the Space Needle. It was a good thing she wasn't afraid of heights.
"Well, glad to see I'm not the only one then," he said with a laugh, as they eventually reached the top. He stepped up and eventually they ended up getting seated at a table in the restaurant.
"One of the best views in the city, helps that the thing rotates so you don't look at the same thing constantly... The scenery changes." Bonnie couldn't help but wonder if anyone ever got motion sick up at the top of the Space Needle while eating - the idea of drunk couples stumbling about and complaining that the restaurant was spinning too fast was definitely amusing to her.
"So, what kind of food do you recommend in order to get the authentic Seattle experience?" Bonnie asked, glancing at the menu.
"Anything you want really, this place little high end for what I've ever had before honestly, I've never been to this restaurant so never really had too much thought about the food here... So guess just about anything would work." "Hmm... I'd ask if you were paying, but I'm pretty sure I make more money than you do," she teased gently. She had a PhD and she had been working at SHIELD longer than he had, it was pretty much a no-brainer that she had a higher salary.
"I think I'll get the lobster. It sounds fancy. What about you?" "Hey! And I am actually paying for it, I'm the one dragging you around Seattle, I might as well," he said with a slight laugh,
"And not sure..." when someone came over to take their orders, he just picked something at random (everything on the menu looked like good food to him) and said nothing else really to Bonnie for a moment, just looking out the window.
"No way, I'm paying for the food!" Bonnie argued. She ordered her lobster when the time came, before also asking for a bottle of white wine. She wasn't much into red wine, preferring the sweeter, fruitier taste of white wine - basically, she was all about dessert wine.
"It's the least I can do after you butchered someone for this reservation." "Wow you are so nice, but nope I am paying for it whether you want me to or not." Bonnie wasn't one to back down from a challenge.
"Fine then," she, her tongue poking out slightly from behind her teeth as she smirked. She quickly scanned around the room, before spotting what she assumed to be a lesbian couple at another table. She flagged down a waiter.
"Excuse me? I'd like to pay their bill," she said, gesturing towards the couple. When the waiter left, she looked at Flynn as if to say
your move.
"Wow so kind, but hey, at least you're helping someone else out," he said to her with a shake of his head.
"I like to win, Frederick," Bonnie said seriously, locking eyes with him.
"Don't call me Frederick... There is a reason why I prefer people calling me by my last name, since that is so formal, and long and kind of a dumb name that I kind of hate." "Oh, sorry, I was just saying it for dramatic effect - Flynn it is then," Bonnie apologized, her face flushing a bit.
"Don't worry about it Bonnie, honestly. It's fine," he said with a slight laugh, before looking directly at her,
"So... How have you been since the whole... Skrull thing..." he decided to ask her. She had answered the question not too long ago, but he figured he'd say the somewhat pressing question in her head.
Bonnie was quiet for a moment, as the events of the skrull invasion came back to mind - particularly what she had done to the skrull posing as Flynn. She didn't like reflecting back on everything that had happened. She wanted to look forward. It was easier that way to pretend that none of it had happened, and even though it did happen, it was all over now so it didn't matter.
"I'm fine. Everyone keeps acting like I'm going to fall apart, but I'm not." "I figured, just wanted to hear it, reassurance is a good thing, and believe it or not I didn't think that you were going to fall apart... And I'm glad that you aren't. Just wanted to ask and hear that." She relaxed slightly. As much as she knew the importance of mental health, some habits were hard to break. She was more into getting work done than talking about her feelings - which made it all the more ironic when considering how heavily she relied on her own intuition.
"I appreciate that - what about you?" she asked.
"I mean... I ended up on a spaceship a long way from Earth... I'm not entirely sure what to think about the whole thing, but I'm fine... Pretty sure of that anyway," he said with a bit of a shrug.
"Did anyone 'accidentally' open the airlock?" Bonnie joked, referencing when their team mate Oliver had exposed them all to the terrigen mists on the Moon. They were really lucky that they had been in the specially terraformed area where the Inhumans lived, as otherwise the lack of oxygen would have been a gigantic problem. She made a mental note to see about quizzing the team on spaceship etiquette.
"No thankfully," he said, laughing a bit now.
"Just there I had no idea if we were going to be able to get back to Earth. Especially since didn't know where in the solar system we were, or even if we were in the solar system..." "...Hey, you know it's okay if you were scared, right?" Bonnie said, before extending her hand across the table.
"Yeah, I'm going to admit that one, I was... A little bit," he responded, taking her hand in his now.
"I don't blame you, Freddie," Bonnie said softly. She rubbed the back of his hand gently with her thumb.
"If you ever want to talk about this stuff, I'm here for you." "Yeah, I know," he said with a bit of a smile,
"And I'm grateful for that..." "And it's definitely not because you have amazing abs," Bonnie then teased.
"Hahaha very funny Bonnie," he said with a bit of a laugh,
"I will say... Want to know the one thing that was going through my head while stuck there though?" "Sure," Bonnie answered, not really sure what to expect.
"...Getting back to you," he said, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box and set it onto the table, pushing it slightly towards her.
"The only concern I had, was getting back home, not for myself, but for you." It wasn't the first time someone had proposed to Bonnie. James had asked her to marry him when they reached a scenic vista on a hike. She still remembered every detail of that day. But right now, Bonnie wasn't thinking about what could have been - she wasn't dwelling on the past. She was thinking about her future. Her heart was pounding, as she opened up the box and saw the ring inside of it.
"Oh, Freddie..." "You don't have to say yes now... Or ever if you don't want to... Just know that you are probably the only reason I didn't go down the mental path of there was no point in trying to get back, that we were out numbered... Trying to get back to you was the only thing that really kept me going..." Bonnie's eyes were watering. She wiped one with her finger, succeeding in smudging her mascara slightly.
"Why wouldn't I say yes?" "I don't know, doubt in my brain that you are way too good for me? That sort of thing tends to lead to that sort of thinking..." "Freddie, I love you. I can't change the way you see yourself... but I will marry you." "...Wait really?" he said, not being able to help but sound surprised.
"Yes, really," Bonnie answered, giggling a little bit.
"I'm glad..." he said, smiling at this point.
"I should hope so, it'd be a bit concerning if you weren't. So, are you going to put a ring on it? I am a bit old fashioned." Flynn gave her a smile, before he took the ring out of the box and slid it onto her hand,
"I love you Bonnie..." "I love you too, Freddie."
Sparky was currently sitting off in a chair, cradling the little baby in her arms. She couldn't help but smile slightly at little Zarina, though her mind already went with the nickname of Zari to refer to her, who was just sound asleep, for once. Keeping an eye on a newborn was not exactly the easiest thing in the world, given the fact that she liked to wake up several times in the middle of the night. Sparky was relatively tired, but she was happy to have the little girl.
Raynor quietly tiptoed into the nursery, having been off on a special assignment for the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. There had been a lost alien tourist and no one had been able to translate, so they needed Raynor to be their glorified Rosetta stone - a living, breathing, C3PO.
"Aww, is it not the most precious thing in the universe, the love of my life?" Raynor whispered, grinning. He then pretended to be startled.
"Oh, hey Sparks," he joked.
"Didn't see you there." "You know if I wasn't holding her I probably would have zapped you for that comment," she whispered back to him with a bit of an eye roll at him.
"So where were you off to? Leaving me with her by myself, doesn't exactly allow for much sleep you know..." "Director needed me to translate, but I'm here now to relieve you," Raynor offered
"She just fell asleep," she commented, looking at him,
"So try not to wake her up otherwise you'll probably be trying to get her to fall back asleep for a few hours." "I know, Sparks," Raynor said, before gently taking the baby from her.
"Now go get some rest, okay?" "I don't know... Maybe I should stay up a little bit longer, I'm fine," a part of her wasn't too sure about leaving Zari alone at all, even if it was just her leaving the baby with Raynor.
"...Sparks, what aren't you telling me?" Raynor asked, sitting down with Zari.
"It's nothing Ray, it's fine..." "Do you not trust me with Zarina?" Raynor asked, furrowing his eyebrows. She couldn't lie to him. He knew that there was something wrong. He hoped it wasn't what he suspected, as if Sparky didn't trust him with their kid, well, he wouldn't know what to do about that.
"No of course I trust you! Just I don't like leaving her alone or something..." she responded, not too sure what else to say.
"Alright," Raynor said, relaxing.
"Then how about you sleep in the bed in our room, and I'll hold the little princess in the rocking chair we have in there?" "Little princess?" she asked with a bit of an eyebrow raise, before letting out a small sigh,
"Alright, that works..." she added as she got up from the chair she had been sitting in.
"My grandfather's a king, pretty sure that makes her entitled to a title," he said, before kissing baby Zari's head and carrying her off to the master bedroom.
Sparky followed along, before sitting down on the bed, but she wasn't laying down or anything.
"If you say so... So how have you been Ray?" she said, not being able to help but ask that question at least partially.
"Happy, actually. I know, it's a new look on me, isn't it?" he said, sitting down in the rocking chair with the baby.
"It is a bit odd seeing you happy for once... But I'm really glad that you are... I am too... Which is also a bit odd considering everything that's happened in the past year or so..." He raised a bit of an eyebrow.
"How's it odd? We're married, we're together, and we have a little princess to dote on. Everything in our lives is perfect. I don't care what it took to get here - what matters is the destination, Sparks, not the journey," he told her, beaming down at the little baby.
"You say that it doesn't matter how we got here, it's just... My brain keeps going back to the past year and just thinking of how everything has gone... Mainly the whole Skrull thing still sticks out to me, since I didn't know if you were still alive or whatever before I ended up on Asgard..." she said softly, not sure what else to really say on the matter.
He nodded, softening slightly.
"I don't know if this helps... The only time I was in a situation like you were was, well, my father... The Norns said that he would return after Ragnarok and rule in a new age, but... He never came back. As far as I know, he's still dead in my home universe. And here... He doesn't know I'm his son," tears welled up in his eyes as he paused.
"I wish you didn't have to live with that pain - but the scar from it will heal." "I guess if you say so..." she commented, not too sure what else to say. Zari in Raynor's arms would start moving around, waking up now, and she instantly started crying.
"Aaand here's the crying little princess," Raynor cooed, poking Zarina's nose gently.
"Careful, Zarina, if you cry too much you'll end up like Sigyn - married to Uncle Loki!" She seemed to start crying even louder now, and Sparky rolled her eyes slightly,
"I don't think that's really helping Ray..." Sparky commented, she was insanely tired, and now the baby was wide awake and crying again, so this was fun.
"You go to sleep, I've got this, okay Sparks?" Raynor said, perhaps far too overconfident in his own abilities.
"How does the little princess want to hear about the time Uncle Thor dressed as Auntie Thor to get back his hammer and almost got married in the process?" "Ray, not sure she is really old enough to actually understand stories," Sparky said, as Zari kept crying, it was getting really really loud at this point.
"Maybe you should let me try to get her to calm down..." "No, no, no, no, no! I've got this, really, and you're beyond exhausted!" Raynor insisted.
"She's also screaming..." she pointed out as little Zari was still crying and bright red in the face now from her screaming. Sparky really wanted to try and get her to stop crying herself, despite Raynor's insistence that he could do it, which was something she was seriously doubting.
"She can't scream forever," Raynor said, now bouncing Zari up and down gently.
"Shhh, princess, shh." "You'd be surprised... She maybe small but she can go on for a while..." "And I'll be here for her, no matter what. Go sleep, please, Sparks." "Are you sure you'll be okay with her?" Raynor nodded.
"Cross my heart and hope to die." "...Don't say that sort of thing..." she responded, as Zari was starting to quiet down again now.
He winced slightly, realizing his mistake.
"Sorry. How about I pinky promise instead - that's a thing Midgardians do, right?" "I haven't done that sort of thing since the third grade," she said with a bit of a laugh. Zari was instead of flat out crying now was just sort of looking at Raynor with rather wide eyes, as if she was sort of expecting Raynor to do something now.
"Then there's precedent," Raynor argued, giggling a bit at Zarina's face.
"Our baby looks like she's high on MGH," Raynor commented, referring to one of the nastier street drugs - Mutant Growth Hormone.
"You are so nice to her Ray..." she said, shaking her head. Zari didn't seem to appreciate the comment either, as she reached up and more or less punched Raynor in the nose. It was more or less just her poking his nose with the amount of force she used, but it still did cause Sparky to laugh a bit.
Raynor raised an eyebrow.
"Little princess wants to learn to punch daddy?" "I mean I tend to zap you with electricity when you bug me or whatever, so is that really surprising?" Zari seemed to find the whole thing hilarious and was giggling a bit.
"Domestic abuse, yay," Raynor said, rolling his eyes.
"Not sure that's a good look on you, Sparks. If you aren't careful, you might be canceled." "So mean..." she responded, shaking her head slightly.
"You're the one hurting me!" "You also left me by myself for while..." she muttered, Zari was currently bored clearly and looked like she might cry again since they weren't paying attention to her.
"Do you mean when I was almost killed and put into a coma?" Raynor asked, a bit incredulous that Sparky was blaming him for that. If she was really upset about that, maybe she would've preferred it if he had actually died.
"Sorry.. That wasn't your fault at all, it's just... I didn't know what I would have done if I had lost you... What would have happened if you hadn't survived, what would have happened? I don't know, and that thought scared me... A lot..." she said, trying hard now not to really cry.
"Hey, hey, Sparks - you're stronger than you give yourself credit for. You would've been fine," he said, before kissing Sparky's forehead softly.
"You don't know that," she responded. Sparky didn't really have the best relationship with her family, so she didn't really have anyone else aside from her friends or whatever with the SHIELD team, so she really really wasn't sure how things would have gone if Raynor had died and she would have ended up taking care of Zari all on her own. Truthfully she also really didn't even really want to think about it.
"And you don't know otherwise," he pointed out.
"Thinking about the what if's... That isn't going to help you feel better." "Yeah yeah yeah I know that. It'll probably drive me crazy just thinking about that sort of thing so I shouldn't. I get it." "Exactly," he said, before kissing Sparky's forehead again.
"We're going to be okay, Sparks. We'll all be fine." Sparky was half asleep at this point, insanely tired as Zari had finally somewhat relaxed again and she was starting to fall asleep again.
"Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm asleep Ray, okay?" she said quietly, before she laid down on the bed entirely and fell sound asleep really quickly.
