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There was a spider in her lab.
In and for itself, that wouldn’t have been much of a problem. She was used to spiders, almost something sort of friend with them, seeing how so many lived next door to her. She wasn’t afraid of most of them either.
But this was a big one – a familiar one.
“Chuuuuuck!”
Nothing helped more in a dire situation than having the support of a beloved co-worker after all.
He came running through her lab’s door only moments later, safety glasses in his hand.
“What is it, Donna, dear?”
She just pointed at the wall and its recurring occupant quietly.
“Oh, hell no.”
Charles seldom swore, but they had been in this situation far too often by now for the two of them not to slowly but surely get annoyed by it.
“Is that one of Flagg’s spy spiders I spy?” He said it with a rise of the eyebrow and a critical glance at the spider in question.
Donna couldn’t help it, she snorted.
“Okay, that was awful but true, and you get a lab point for that.”
“Allow me to get another one and aah–” He was already standing on the tip of his toes, an empty big glass vessel from her workbench already in his hand.
“Come here, spidey spidey.”
Donna chuckled and watched as Charles stretched his arm out some more.
“Aaaaaaa–”
Both Charles and Donna gave a jump at the sudden shout.
“ –ha!”
They turned around in unison to stare at–
Flagg.
“I knew you weren’t actually supportive of my spiders! I betcha don’t approve of my plans for the new big terrarium either! But now I have proof–” He held up his phone. “And I will go to the zoo administration in the morning! What? Did you think you’d just get away with trying to hurt Amelia?”
Flagg marched toward the wall, pushing a baffled aside Charles as he did, and held out a gloved hand for the spider to climb on. To Donna and Charles’s surprise, the spider immediately started crawling toward him.
“There we go. Hello, my dear.” Flagg held up the spider at eye level to inspect it more closely. “You better be glad that she is unharmed, y’know?”
“What the hell, Flagg?” Donna just stared at him, however more angry than perplexed by now. “You let a poisonous spider escape that you blame us for wanting to catch- and bring back to you?”
“Now, listen here, Miss Parker–”
“No, Sam, you are going to take that spider and get it back to where it belongs. And then you’ll stop ‘accidentally’ letting them escape. God knows we’re busy enough as it is trying to work, but do you know what would happen if Amelia or one of her friends would have fallen into one of our chemical solutions, for example?” She stared at him firmly. “Do you want your spy spiders to dissolve? I don’t want that for them, Chuck doesn’t want that for them–” Charles nodded. “And I’m sure you don’t want that for them either.”
Flagg was silent. But just for a moment.
Then he pointed at Donna with his spider-free hand.
“This isn’t over yet, Miss Parker.”
Flagg turned around sharply to leave the room, when suddenly, Charles felt something on his leg.
“Oh good god.”
He said it so quietly that not only Donna looked into his direction immediately, but Flagg paused and turned around, as well.
A long brown snake, a jararaca, was currently making its way up his pants leg.
“Flagg, this has gone too far. Take it back. Now.”
But Flagg didn’t move.
“Do you want me to die at this animal’s whim?” Charles’s voice was starting to sound somewhat high-pitched. He wasn’t entirely sure how venomous the snake was, but he knew that it belonged to those that they were considering to be at least somewhat dangerous.
“Don’t move, Chuck!” Donna suddenly instructed him, coming toward him from the supply shelves at the side of the room. She wore thick protective gloves, a determined expression and quickly took hold of the jararaca.
Then she marched toward the door, quickly.
“Flagg, move!”
Flagg... moved?
“Door.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now let’s hurry to get this one back behind glass again, asap.”
Charles walked toward the door and stared after them, Donna giving Flagg short and sharp instructions on what to do to help get the animal back to its terrarium safely and quickly.
He remained standing in the doorframe for several minutes, trying to regain his composure. He wasn’t certain but perhaps he could have died, and all of that only because Flagg was hell-bent on ‘proving’ that everyone (and especially the lab team, for some reason) was against his plans for a new terrarium by documenting situations – that he had created himself – that allegedly showed them treating his animals badly.
Charles considered writing the man a letter and telling him that what he really needed for his plans to get approved was an actual financial plan, crucial but lacking in Flagg’s requests so far. Maybe then they’d finally get some peace in the lab once again. At least for a while.
Donna returned after a few minutes, shaking somewhat, and Charles took one glance at her before pulling her into a hug.
“It almost bit me when I put it back.”
Deadly or venomous or not – Charles considered going to Flagg right this instant and telling him off for today and all the other incidents over the course of the last few months. But Donna was still in his arms and had just rested her head against his chest. He could very badly leave her now. Weren’t he so concerned for her (and the rest of the team’s) workplace safety due to Flagg continuing to breach it, the thought of letting go would never even have occurred to him.
Donna started laughing shakily, making his attention return to the present situation.
“Chuck?” She looked up at him but didn’t let go of him as she kept talking. “You do realize that you owe me another dinner now? That should certainly count as the two lab points I was still missing.”
Charles just nodded softly and slowly ran a hand over her hair as she leaned her head back against his chest, shaking it lightly.
He would have asked her out on another date soon anyway, silly lab points or not. They had only been an excuse for the first time she had wanted to be able to ask him out on a date anyway.
He remained quiet as he looked at her with a fondness that had long been going beyond words already. Donna...
She was clever enough to take it up with anyone at the zoo, including Hawkeye when he was feeling extremely witty, tough and strong-minded enough to take it up even with the nuisance Flagg, a splendid conversation partner, including when they were discussing classics, and the unquestioned champion of the science section’s bi-weekly Friday evening trivia quiz game. Add to that her charming personality and endearing sense of humor and–
“Donna, please marry me.”
He had said it quietly, under his breath, but the moment the words escaped his mouth he knew that he meant it, wants this, from the bottom of his heart.
The next second, he began to lose his nerves. Donna let go of him and moved a step back, looking him into the eyes with an intensity that made him gulp nervously.
Had he really just proposed to her?
“Chuck, we’ve been on... what. Ten dates so far?” Her voice was soft, but...
Charles felt like he was mere seconds from running away. And two more seconds from realizing that it would be pointless, as they both knew the zoo better than their own lab coat pockets.
In the end, he let out a deep sigh and looked away for a moment, before moving to place his hands on her arms and dropping them again the next instant.
When their gazes met, he suddenly calmed down enough to tell her what he had been thinking about for weeks already. On the one hand, ten dates seemed like very little to him, as well, but they had known each other for five years already, worked together, gone on weekend trips together... He was sure she was the one for him. He took another steadying breath and smiled at her.
“What can I say?” He took hold of one of her hands. “I love you.”
If red lories were red, Donna’s cheeks turned redder after his confession.
She moved to hide her face behind her hands but Charles wouldn’t have any of it.
“Donna? Donna, dear, please – talk to me?”
When she moved her hands down again slowly, Charles saw that there were tears running down her cheeks. Charles stared at her in shock for a second. Had he just ruined the best thing he had in his life? How was he going to fix this? What–
“Charles, calm down.”
And Donna was laughing despite the tears that were still running down her face. “It’s alright.”
“Alright?” Charles kept staring at her, unsure of what to do next.
How was this alright? He had accidentally proposed to the woman he loved and she had started to cry and now she was laughing and–
“Charles!”
She suddenly closed the distance between them and held him tightly.
“Does it calm you if I tell you I’ll say ‘yes’ if you just give me a little more time?” She paused when she noticed that he had stopped breathing. “I’m not going to say ‘no’, alright? I just need a little more time. But I’d... I’d love to marry you, Charles.”
She looked up and smiled at him, bright as the sun that he secretly liked to compare her to.
“Oh.”
She chuckled quietly and stood on her tippy toes to kiss him gently on the nose.
“I love you, Charles.”
And, realizing his unfounded worries, he simply knew that she wouldn’t say ‘no’, no matter when he would ask her again.
He put his arms around her and rested his forehead against hers.
“And I love you. Donna.” His voice was nearly inaudible, he said her name so softly.
Then, he smiled at her, almost grinning.
“Our future grandchildren won’t hear that spiders and snakes were involved in this proposal.”
Donna just grinned back at him and couldn’t suppress a chuckle.
“Oh, they absolutely will.”