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“Quickly guys let’s get them to the infirmary,” Sara barked as the team carried an unconscious Ray and Nate onto the Waverider. Both men were hit by some mystical powder. “I hexed them” is what the witch who threw it at them had said, right before Mick burnt her without hesitation.
It was supposed to be a simple anachronism but without their resident warlock as backup the team had gotten more than they bargained for.
Now back on the ship, Gideon confirmed strong and solid life signs from both men and assured Captain Lance and the rest of the team that they would both wake up in due time.
Sara and Zari kept watch for about an hour or so until Gideon reminded them it would still be several more hours until either doctors Palmer or Heywood woke. The two women soon departed to get some rest themselves.
Nate was the first to stir a while later. His head was throbbing and the light hurt his eyes. Slightly disorientated he got up and stretched his legs. The first thing he noticed was that he seemed a little taller, but paid it no mind, thinking his headache was just messing with his sense of balance. Slowly the events of the day returned to him. “Ray,” Nate recalled his best friend was also caught up in the attack. Turning his eyes landed directly the other man lying there. “What the?” Nate’s eyes went wide.
The other man lying there looked exactly like him. ‘Was it Charlie?’ Nate immediately thought followed by ‘where was Ray?’
Moving closing, Nate paused as the other body began to stir.
Ray opened his eyes, he had to blink a few times to clear his vision, and the headache he had was terrible. Finding his feet, he stood up and looked across the room towards the other figure. “Geez Charlie,” Ray was clearly shocked for a moment. “I don’t know if that’s some sort of weird get-well thing but I have to say seeing myself when I wake up is a little creepy.” Ray ran his hand down his still tired face. “Wait when did you get your powers back?” He frowned. “And how’d I end up here?”
“I’m not Charlie, you’re Charlie,” Nate rolled his eyes. Really was she trying to play one of her games at a time like this?
“I’m Ray,” Ray replied, clearly confused.
“Then why do you look like me?” a scoff escaped Nate.
“You look like me,” Ray retorted. “But more importantly if you’re not Charlie, then who are you?”
Annoyed now, Nate stormed up to the mirror on the wall. “I’m Nate you jackas-” he stopped as his eyes landed on the glass. “Ray!” he shouted towards the reflection.
Nate then looked down at his hands, arms, body, touching random spots. “Oh god, oh god, oh god,” he kept repeating. Several moments went by before Nate regained some sort of composure. He then looked over at the other man. “Wait,” he stared at him hard. “Ray is that really you?”
“Well yeah, who else would it be?” Ray barely got the words out before Nate dragged him towards the mirror. Ray’s eyes landed on his own reflection. “Why do I look like Nate?” He waved his arms around and followed their movement in the mirror.
“Because,” Nate swallowed hard. “I think we switched bodies.”
“So you’re Nate?” Ray concluded, slowly catching on.
“Yeah buddy it’s me,” Nate nodded.
Ray suddenly crashed into him, wrapping his arms around Nate in a big bear hug. “Oh thank god you’re alright. Well maybe not alright but alive.”
Nate couldn’t help but smirk at Ray’s gesture. “Yeah Ray, I’m glad you’re okay to, all things considered.” He couldn’t help but embrace the other man’s hug, feeling a slight tinge against his heart.
“I guess we need to figure out what happened?” Ray suggested as they pulled apart.
Nate nodded in agreement.
The team had been investigating stories of a plastic surgeon sweeping the East Coast by storm in 2007, with the ability to make any of her patient’s cosmetic needs come true. Turns out this ‘doctor’ was nothing more than a witch using transfiguration spells to change the appearance of anyone who could afford to pay.
Nate wasn’t even supposed to be there but he mentioned some sort of audit and review going on at the Bureau which meant he’d rather be anywhere else.
During their investigation, the team got caught out. Nate and Ray remembered the witch revealing herself before attacking them all. She managed to hit both Nate and Ray with something and now it turns out she switched their bodies.
“If the witch hexed us to swap bodies then perhaps Constantine can undo it?” Nate suggested.
“He’s in New Orleans with strict instructions not to be disturbed. But I think he’s back in a few hours or a day tops,” Ray remembered Sara’s warning about not pissing off the warlock.
“Okay,” Nate nodded his head. “So we just need to lay low for a bit and avoid everyone we can until John can fix this.”
Ray frowned. “Shouldn’t we tell the others?”
“They will probably think we’re insane Ray,” Nate had a good point. “And even if they do believe us Zari would give us hell.” Another good point.
“Okay,” Ray agreed. “A day in each other’s bodies, we can do this.”
Just as they’d agreed on a plan they heard movement outside the infirmary.
“Well look who’s up and walking around,” Sara’s voice greeted them, as the rest of the team joined seconds later.
Zari checked out their life signs which were reporting that they were back to normal.
“So how are you feeling Ray?” Sara asked.
Nate stood there silent, until Ray elbowed him in the side. “Oh right that’s me. I’m good Sara thank you for asking,” he tried his best to offer an innocent Ray smile.
“And you Nate?” Sara turned to the second man.
“Hunky dory,” Ray beamed. “Um I mean yeah cool, sweet, fine,” he tried to sound more like Nate.
Sara debriefed them and then left the two men alone, ordering them to eat, clean up and then get some more rest.
Together the pair hung out in the library. They were convinced it was their safest option until their resident magic user returned.
Nate was trying to make sense of his jumbled research notes tucked away in a drawer since he’d left for the bureau. If they were going to be stuck in the library he may as well do something productive.
After an hour or so went by the two men were considerably hungry so Ray offered to go get them something to eat. When the silence finally got to him, Nate suddenly realized Ray still hadn’t returned. The other man had gone to get snacks twenty minutes ago. He was worried that Ray would let their secret slip to someone, then the team would get involved and the whole situation would end up with Sara lecturing them which Nate was really hoping to avoid. For someone so small Sara managed to come across as way too scary.
Panicked Nate leapt out of his chair, intent to go hunt Ray down. He stopped when he heard someone approach.
“I didn’t know you were uncircumcised Nate,” Ray re-entered the library, hold a tray of food.
“What?!” Nate spat totally caught off guard. “Why did you feel the need to check out my penis Ray?”
“Well I had to pee,” Ray frowned, “You had to pee, no I had to pee.” It all just sounded so weird. “Body swap doesn’t mean that normal bodily functions cease.” Ray had gone to the bathroom before making them something to eat.
Nate pinched the bridge of his nose. “You could have at least asked. I mean how would you like it if I said I wanted to go look at your dick?”
Before Ray could even reply a voice from the doorway cut them both off.
“Seriously you two,” it was Charlie. “Firstly, if you’re going to start shacking up then congrats but honestly mate,” she cocked a brow towards Nate (who was currently in Ray’s body). “Your flirting needs some serious work.” She had obviously missed most the conversation and only heard Nate’s last comment.
Shaking her head, Charlie soon continued on her way leaving the two men alone.
“If it helps, I’m circumcised,” Ray offered.
“Why would that help Ray?!” Nate threw up his hands in annoyance.
“What’s with the shouting?” Zari pipped up from the entry. “And I didn’t even know you could shout Ray.”
Nate frowned, right he was in Ray’s body. “Stressful day.”
“Well I know just the thing that will help with that,” Zari smiled. Both men remained silent. “A ship-wide diagnostic scan.” She grabbed Ray’s arm. “And you’re lucky enough to help me.”
“He can’t,” Ray interjected. It wouldn’t even take Zari one minute to realize something was up as Nate wouldn’t be able to access the ship’s security mainframe.
“Why not?” Zari was sporting a resting bitch face.
“Because he has to help me with a thing,” geez Ray is that the best you can do?
“Your thing will have to wait,” Ava silently showed up, she paused realising how awkward that sentence sounded. “I need you back at work. Don’t worry Gideon has already given me a rundown of your physical condition following the attack, nothing but desk duty for the rest of the week.”
“Work?” Ray replied. Oh no the bureau. Right he was in Nate’s body. “Um I…”
“Great story,” Ava grabbed him and lead him into a portal back to the bureau.
********************
“Come on Ray,” Zari started for the lab, after Ava had dragged away the real Ray.
Nate frowned. “What?”
“Weren’t you listening we have to run diagnostics on the ship. Well actually I have to run them but I figured you’d be down to help,” she explained.
Nate knew nothing about that sort of thing. “Not right now, I have a headache.”
“Aw is it because lover-boy just left?” Zari teased.
“Excuse me?” Nate snapped his head sideways to stare at her.
“We both know you like him Ray,” Zari was being sincere.
“Ray…I…what?” Nate’s head was spinning.
Zari rolled her eyes. “You like Nate, it’s kind of obvious. Everyone on the ship can tell.”
Nate couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Ray liked him? “Really?”
“But what that pretty little head of yours seems to have overlooked is the fact that Nate likes you too,” Zari deadpanned.
‘How did she know?’ Nate hadn’t told anyone about his feelings for Ray. After Amaya, he didn’t want to run the risk of getting hurt again. But now he was learning that Ray had feelings for him. This was a game changer. He hadn’t been attracted to a guy in years. But well Ray was Ray. “Ah…” Nate couldn’t form words at this point in time.
“Come on you big lug, I’ll do all the work and you can just keep me company,” Zari linked their arms together and escorted him out of the library. “And don’t worry about Nora, most of us have always been on team Rate.”
“Rate?” Nate frowned.
“It’s that or Nay,” Zari shrugged. “Or we could go with Constantine’s suggestion Palmwood but that’s just gross.”
That last one actually did make Nate laugh a little bit.
********************
Ray found himself sitting at Nate’s desk. He had to complete an organisational wide policy review. He wasn’t even sure what a policy review entailed. All he knew is that Ava dumped a stack of files on his desk and asked him to go over them all.
Sighing, Ray grabbed the first one. A uniform policy? He furrowed his brow. Why on Earth did the bureau need a fifteen-page policy if everyone wore the same thing? He skimmed through the pile until he found the R&D and ICT related documents, finally something he could manage. His plan was to work on those for the day, hopefully avoid anything else and then get back to the ship to Nate and if they were lucky Constantine would also be back by then.
Thankfully only Gary bugged Ray throughout the day with some coffee. It was clear he wanted ‘Nate’ to hang with him for a while but Ray couldn’t chance it if even Gary figured out something was up so he sent the other man away.
Finally, the long day was at an end. Ray had progressed with a fair few files, at least he hoped he’d done whatever was required of him correctly when Ava showed up.
“Heading home?” She asked.
“Actually I was going to head on over to the Waverider,” Ray answered.
“No doubt to see Ray,” Mona chimed in. Of course she had to be pushing her food trolley past Nate’s office at that exact moment.
“Mona!” Ava snapped.
The younger girl just shrugged her shoulders. “Fine, the rest of you can remain blind to the fact that those two are star crossed.” She continued on to the containment cells, mumbling something about love.
“Right well I am also heading to the ship so I guess I’ll see you there unless Sara and I are otherwise occupied,” Ava smiled.
“Okay will do,” Ray smiled. “If I don’t see you have a good night…boss,” he remembered to add the last part in.
Ava paused at the door on her way out. “She’s not wrong.”
Ray cocked a brow, “Excuse me?”
“Mona,” Ava continued. “It’s obvious you like Ray so why don’t you just tell him already?”
“It is?” Ray nearly swallowed his tongue.
“Don’t try being cute and oblivious, that’s Ray’s thing and he is so much better at it than you,” Ava shook her head. “At least think about telling him how you feel.” With that she closed the door behind her.
With what felt like a truck load of information hitting him in the head and heart, Ray sat back down. “Nate likes me?” He sat there dumbfounded for ten or so minutes until Nate texted him to see where he was and when he was heading back to the ship.
Nate’s text pulled Ray out of his daze. He decided he’d done enough for the day and used a spare time courier to return to the Waverider. As soon as he stepped foot onto the ship, Ray heard Gideon’s voice directing all crew to the bridge. It sounded important so he beelined in that direction.
“Alright everyone,” Sara began until she saw Ray in Nate’s body enter the room. “Nate welcome, I’m sure you’re here to bro out with Ray but we have an emergency at the moment so if you’d like to stay and help out?”
“Um sure,” Ray answered.
“Perfect,” Sara clapped her hands together and started the briefing. “Well we have two dead in Dublin January 22nd 1901. Looks like they were mauled, but by what I don’t know. It’s definitely mystical as Gideon picked it up utilizing one of Zari’s programs.”
“First we need to work out exactly what kind of creature we are dealing with here,” Charlie pipped up.
“Windego,” Constantine made a perfectly timed grand entrance. He paused briefly, staring at the two men like he knew something was wrong. He quickly regained his composure and addressed the Captain, “Terrible man-eating sons of bitches they are.”
“You got all that from staring at a couple of pictures just now?” Zari called bullshit.
Constantine glared. “Fine, Gideon may have sent me the mission report whilst I was making my way back in the jump ship.”
“So Nate what can we expect from this time period? Anything likely to give us trouble?” Sara asked the historian.
All eyes on him, Ray panicked he knew nothing about this time period. “Well um I’d need to look it up and read about it.”
“Oh for the love of god,” Nate cut in. “Not much, in fact everything should be pretty quiet around the city as all public offices, banks, theatres and alike will be closed for the funeral of Queen Victoria. Should make hunting the streets that much easier.”
“Ray?” Sara looked confused. A confused Sara was never a good thing. “How do you know this?”
The two men froze.
“You want to tell them, or should I?” Constantine spoke up.
Busted. Of course the warlock could tell. Both Ray and Nate tried to remain silent.
“Tell me what John,” Sara’s gaze turned to Ray or who she thought was Ray. “What’s going on?” She knew Ray was the least likely to lie to her. “Ray?” she soon sized him up with her ‘take no prisoners’ glare.
A few seconds of silence went by. “Over here,” Ray raised his hand.
“Ray,” Nate hissed.
“Okay will somebody please explain,” Ava spoke up.
“Dreamboat and gorgeous have done the old switch-a-roo,” Constantine spoke up. “Probably through a qi displacement spell. It’s some pretty strong stuff.”
It took a moment but the information slowly began to sink into the rest of the group. “So you’re Nate?” Sara looked at Ray’s body.
“Yes,” Nate nodded.
“Since when?” But Sara was now sure she already knew the answer.
“The surgeon’s office,” the two men answered in unison.
“Oh so you’ve been like this for a day now?” Zari went wide eyed.
The two PhDs nodded.
“But I said,” Zari paused. “Well that’s not good at all.” She’d told Ray to act on his feelings towards Nate but really she had been talking to Nate all along. “Um so a wendigo who wants to go hunt it with me?”
“Me please,” Ava volunteered. Unbeknown to Zari, Ava was in the same position just reversed.
“Mick you’re with us,” Zari called out and the two women grabbed the man and dragged him away. Mick grumbled at the fact that the girls took him away from the bridge before he could make a joke about pretty and haircut finally getting in each other’s pants.
********************
“Just tell me you can fix this?” Sara addressed John. She was less than pleased with the turn of events.
“Sure love,” Constantine smirked. He walked up and whispered into Sara’s ear. Moments later she nodded in understanding. “Now you two Muppets stand here,” he moved Nate and Ray into position. “Keep your eyes closed till I say so.”
Doing as they were told the two men took their place. Constantine and Sara stood beside them. “Ready? On three,” Sara began. “One.”
“This isn’t going to hurt is it?” Nate squeaked.
John began muttering something in Latin.
“Two,” Sara continued.
“Three,” she yelled. One arm raised each, Sara and John smacked Ray and Nate in the back of their heads.
“Ow,” Nate cried out. “What’d you do that for?” He stopped. “My voice,” he sounded more excited and less pissed off. Looking up he saw Ray. “Ray!” They were back in their own bodies. He surged forward and hugged the scientist. “It’s so good to see you.”
“They’ve been in each other’s bodies for the past day yet the instant things are put back in order, they go right back to being inseparable?” John rolled his eyes.
Sara smirked. “Okay you two break it up, we still have a magical creature to deal with. Ray I’m going to need you to run point with Gideon and back up Zari, Mick and Ava on the ground.”
“And I should probably go call Gary,” Nate pipped up. “He’s tried calling me a bunch of times and if Ava or I don’t check in on him he kind of just freaks out.”
********************
In the end the mission didn’t take more than a couple of hours. Mick ended up roasting the wendigo after it tried to attack Ava.
Everyone was back on the Waverider now. Gideon reported a clear timeline in 1901. Things were sorted.
The group parted ways when Sara gave the all clear.
Nate and Ray found themselves in the lab. Ray was cleaning up his various work benches and Nate helped out best he could. They worked in silence.
Ray was too preoccupied with the knowledge that Nate liked him. What he didn’t realize was that Nate was in the same situation. They liked each other. They just didn’t know the other felt the same way.
Zari entered the lab soon after them. “Now I know our good Captain told us to give you both some space because you’ve had a long couple of days or whatever, but I have to know,” she leant up against a desk close to Ray, looking him in the eye. “What was it like?” Zari asked. It wasn’t everyday people you knew switched bodies. There had been Jax and the professor but they already had their mental link which made them already so aware of each other.
“Being inside Nate?” Ray asked for clarity.
Nate choked on air and dropped the screwdriver in his hand.
“Yeah maybe don’t phrase it quite like that,” Zari explained. “Otherwise it sounds like one of Mick’s novels.”
Ray frowned till realization hit. “Not like that. I was referring to literally being inside Nate.”
“Still not helping Ray,” Nate interrupted as Zari snickered. “Though I have to admit,” Nate soon got the topic back on track. “I did enjoy being taller.”
“And I never realized just how soft and volumized your hair really was,” Ray reached out and patted Nate’s head gently.
“Yeah this just got weird,” Zari pushed away from the desk where she’d been leaning and exited the lab.
Nate was laughing now. “Dude did you do that on purpose?”
Ray shrugged. “I knew if I got a little creepy Z would bail.”
A fake pout covered Nate’s face, “But you still think my hair is super awesome right?”
“The awesomest,” Ray confirmed. “I have thought about running my fingers threw it a few times.” Ray quickly paled when he grasped what he had said. “Um what I meant was…”
“Do it,” Nate cut him off. The historian had also moved within Ray’s reach.
Hesitant at first, Ray slowly reached up with his right hand and let his fingers gently stroke through Nate’s hair.
Nate continued to move closer to Ray. Their chests only inches apart now.
Ray continued until his hand sat at the base of Nate’s head. Mere seconds later their lips met. The kiss was soft as if testing the waters. But when neither man pulled away their kiss deepened. Ray’s other hand landed on Nate’s hip as Nate wrapped both of his arms around Ray’s waist.
Soon their mouths opened more and their tongues met. The kiss continued as the pair moaned into each other’s mouths. Only when their lungs began to burn did they pull apart.
“Wow,” Ray was awestruck as they panted. “Ava was right.”
Nate cocked a brow. “Right about what?”
Knowing he couldn’t back out now Ray took a deep breath and explained. “While we were in each other’s bodies, she kind of let it slip that you liked me and that you should just tell me already. Well actually Mona said it first.”
Nate’s forehead rested against Ray’s chest as he chuckled. “Zari said the same thing to me about how you liked me. Though she thought she was talking to Ray Palmer of course.”
“Maybe we keep this to ourselves for a little while and let them sit and stew,” Ray knew they wouldn’t be able to keep it secret very long, not on this ship.
“Only if you let me take you on an actual date,” Nate replied, followed by a yawn.
It was late, the events of the past couple of days had worn them both out. “Maybe we should get some rest first, you could stay the night in my bed if you are too tired to go home.”
“Raymond did you just proposition me?” a tired Nate smirked.
“For sleeping only,” Ray quickly added. “You’ll have to take me on that date first before any of that other stuff.”
“Deal,” Nate smirked before quickly placing a gentle kiss against the other man’s lips.