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During a mission in the Andes the Time Bureau showed up and as much fun as it was for Sara to see Gary scream at the sight of the aberration, the avalanche that followed was not as fun. Sara watched as the rest of her team made it into the Waverider with help from Mick and his gun, but she was too far to make it in time. She also saw all the Time Agents use their temporal wrist bands to get back to the Bureau, all except one. Agent Sharpe was struggling to make her tech work and they both were running out of time so she pushed Agent Sharpe into the nearest opening on the side of the mountain. It turned out to be a cave.
"How do you manage to mess up every single operation? Your incompetence is astounding!"
Agent Sharpe had been going off for a solid fifteen minutes. Sara has been mostly listening but there are things to be done and both of them being useless balls of rage wasn't going to help the situation. While Agent Sharpe worked through her anger, Sara went about exploring their shelter. There were dry leaves and bits of wood scattered all over the cave so she could make a fire. Her team was looking for her but the snow made that difficult and before they left the Waverider Gideon warned them about an incoming storm. It is likely that they could be trapped for days in the cave.
Sara had already made a fire by the time Agent Sharpe had finished her rant. She had even managed to gather leaves into a pile near the fire so they didn't have to sleep on the ground.
Agent Sharpe was out of breath and more annoyed than she cared to admit at the fact that Sara Lance didn't seem to care about her anger. She finally took notice of what the other woman was doing and was about to start another rant when curiosity got the better of her. Sara was sitting on a pile of leaves with three buttons in her hand.
"Why do you have buttons?"
"They're not buttons. They're supplies."
Sara picked one up and put it on the floor next to her then took a stick from the fire and poked it. The "button" expanded into a backpack.
"What is that? Where did you get it? The Bureau doesn't have any information on it. How did you get it?"
Sara was amused by the questions and while part of her didn't want to answer simply because Agent Sharpe has been yelling at her for months now, she answered her anyway, "Ray made them a while back. They use the same tech as the Atom suit but can be activated with a heat source."
As she talked she opened the pack and started taking out things, a cup, some canned food, and a blanket. There were more things in the pack but Sara didn't take them out. She got up and went to the cave opening that was now covered by snow and scooped some into the cup before setting the cup on the open flame.
"Come, sit. You must be tired and cold. The Andes is no place for a suit."
"You're wearing a suit too."
"My suit is made of leather and has a lining so it's warmer than it looks, but it's still cold."
Reluctantly Agent Sharpe made her way to sit next to Sara. The fire felt good and Sara being very close helped too. Ava was surprised when Sara handed her the blanket.
"What about you? You said you were cold too."
"I am but I can handle it. Nanda Parbat is cold in the winters and part of training involves getting left naked in the forest and surviving for six days. After that, the cold never bothered me too much."
Agent Sharpe knew that Sara had trained with the League of Assassins, but she didn't know what that training consisted of. She herself was highly skilled and trained in science and in combat but she would be hard pressed to find someone at the Bureau who had any survivalist skills. She looked at Sara with a bit more respect than before.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Instead of answering Agent Sharpe wemt a different way, "How long will we be here?"
Sara explained about the storm. Ava explained that the storm would make it harder for the Bureau to find them so they really might be stuck there for days. With a heavy sigh Sara got up and started to make a new pile of leaves on the other side of the fire.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm tired and seeing as how we are stuck here I am going to try to sleep."
Her voice sounded different. Ava looked at her then. Really looked at her. She was favoring her left side and she did look tired. Gone was that spark that challenged her at every turn. Something was off with Captain Lance and again curiosity got the best of her.
"Are you okay?"
"Are you kidding?"
"What?"
"Nothing. Help yourself to food and water." With that Sara lay down, turned her back on Agent Sharpe and closed her eyes.
Ava was confused and a little miffed at her, but she decided not to yell anymore that day. Then it finally clicked. Her team had messed up the Legend's mission. Then after having saved her life, instead of thanking her Ava yelled at Captain Lance. Ava liked to argue or spar both physically and mentally but what she had done wasn't sparing it was more of an attack.
Agent Sharpe was trying to figure out a way to move forward with this situation and the best way was to apologize.
"Sara, I'm sorry and I should have said it earlier, but thank you. Thanks for saving me and for the fire and blanket."
She wasn't sure if Sara heard her or if she was already asleep, but these few days were going to be unbearable if she didn't start changing her attitude.
The truth was that Sara made her feel a lot of things that she hasn't felt since she joined the Bureau and while the feelings are exciting they are mostly not.
Agent Sharp had managed to sleep. The snow was still covering the entrance to the cave. To make matters worse the fire had died down. Sara was still sleeping, and Ava was starting to get hungry. She thought about waking Sara up but quickly discarded the idea. Instead, she got up and tried to rekindle the fire but it was dead. No fire meant no hot food and the cave would get even colder. She looked through the backpack but couldn't find matches or a lighter. She had no option now. She had to wake up Sara. Ava approached the sleeping assassin with caution and called out to her. There was no answer. She called out louder. Still no answer. She was wary of shaking Sara awake because of the whole master assassin thing but she didn't see another option. Ava was ready to reach out, shake Sara awake, and jump back if needed but it wasn't needed. Sara didn't wake up. Ava rolled her onto her back and saw how pale she was. She checked for a pulse. At the feel of a very faint pulse Ava let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. "Shit. Shit! SHIT! Now what do I do?" She was trying to not freak out and failing miserably at it. Ava figured the best thing to do is try to figure out what is wrong with Sara. Gently and with a lot of care she opened Sara's suit to look for injuries. The sight brought tears to her eyes. Sara's torso was purple and bruised. "Internal bleeding. I can't fix that. You need a doctor and medical facilities. We need to get out of this damn cave! Why didn't you tell me?" She knows Sara can't hear or answer, but that doesn't stop her. "Okay. It's okay. I'm getting us out of here and getting you medical attention even if you are too hard headed to tell me when you are injured. Just hang on, I'll get us out of here. I promise." Ava went to try to dig through the snow with her hands but it was too packed down. She took the blanket Sara had given her and pushed the leaves towards Sara to try to make a cocoon. With Sara in her cocoon, Ava then grabbed the cup and went back to the snow wall to start digging. It was cold and it was hard work but the strain kept her warm. She needed to get out and get help for Sara or she was going to die. No. Ava wasn't going to let that happen. With new determination, she kept digging. There was no way of knowing what time it was or how long she had been attempting to dig them out of the cave but progress was slow and time was running out for Sara. Every now and then Ava would go check up on Sara to make sure her condition wasn't getting worse. Her arms were tired and she was so cold but she pushed on. The work had her sweating but the temperature quickly cooled the sweat and left her colder than before. Her arms were begging her to stop but she couldn't. Stopping meant no rescue and they needed to be rescued. Sara needed to be rescued. Ava had to keep going. She just had to.
*****
Sara woke up confused. Last thing she remembered was being in a cave with Agent Sharpe. Now she's on board the Waverider in the med-bay and she is hungry. When Sara attempts to stand up she notices she is pinned by a body. Specifically, the body of one Agent Sharpe. It makes her smile. Sara remembers the apology in the cave. There is no denying the attraction between the two. Sara hasn't made a move because it seems Agent Sharpe has not come to terms with what is happening between them. Sara can wait until then,but right now she needs to get up. She needs food.
Sara moves the hair out of Agent Sharpe's face, strokes her cheek, and calls out to her "Sharpe get up," no response. She tries again "Ava? Are you with me?"
That gets a reaction. Agent Sharpe or rather Ava lifts her head so fast she almost headbuds Sara.
"You're awake!"
Sara doesn't even have a chance to respond. Before she knows it soft lips are on hers and there are firm hands holding onto her so tightly. She has not been surprised kissed in a long time and it makes her forget how to think. It takes her a moment to snap into the kiss but when she does it's worth it.
They both melt into the kiss. It's soft and warm and there are hands everywhere. Sara slowly pulls back and then plants a sweet peck before opening her eyes to look at the woman in front of her.
"Hey" she says while still holding onto Ava.
"Hi" Ava has an adorable blush dusting her cheeks. She opens up her mouth to tell Sara what she feels,what she's figured out while Sara has been unconscious, but she is interrupted before she can begin.
"Ava, I want to talk about this and I want to do it again, a lot. Do you mind if we get some food first and then talk?"
Ava leans in and kisses her again. Hard. This kiss is more intense. It has more emotions behind it and it took both of their breath away until they had to pull back to breathe again. They were looking into each other's eyes when Sara's stomach growled and both women smiled.
"Come on, let's get you some food. I'll fill you in on what you missed,and maybe tonight over dinner we can talk about us?"
"Ava Sharp, did you just ask me out?"
"Don't make it weird."
"I am weird, therefore everything I do has to be weird, but I accept your date offer."