Under the Stars
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the canon characters in this story. They belong to TNT and any other creators and owners of this amazing franchise. Unfortunately… Also, I listened to Under the Stars from my favorite movie ever The Lion King while writing this! So, there you go. How's that for inspiration?
"Quit whining!" Eve calls over her shoulder at her new husband as they continue on their current path, darkness begins to settle in around them like a blanket.
"Why do you like hiking? Hiking is terrible!" Flynn speaks up behind her, struggling to climb over a larger rock as he starts to pant from what the Librarian would call over-exertion.
"Hiking is not terrible, Flynn," Eve tells him as she stops to wait for him to catch up, wondering why he has to complain every single time they go hiking together.
Surely, he was used to it by now with being the Librarian for thirteen years now; Eve is definitely sure Flynn has had to scale his fair share of peaks, mountains, and hills.
"Besides, I told you this is one of the best camping spots I know of. My dad and I used to come here every summer if he had leave from the military," the blonde ex-NATO colonel reminds, taking Flynn's hand in her own to help him up the small incline, wiping a thin line of sweat from her brow with the other hand at the same time.
"Yeah, but…. Why couldn't you go hiking with Stone since he actually likes this kind of thing?" Flynn pants, stopping once he gets up the small incline and places his hands on his knees while doubling over. "I mean, not that I don't love the sentimentality this place shares with you and you father, and not that I don't love spending time with you…. But, I don't particularly love hiking, Eve," the brown-haired Librarian begins to ramble before Eve pinches his lips between her thumb and index finger to keep Flynn quiet.
"Did I marry Jacob Stone?" Eve inquires, looking Flynn directly in his eyes as the moon starts to appear as the sky constantly darkens around them.
"No," Flynn murmurs around Eve's fingers as she still has his lips pressed between her thumb and index finger.
"All right, then. I married you, Flynn Carsen," Eve warmly says, leaning forward to where her forehead is resting against Flynn's. "And I wanted to share this place with you and no one else. So, learn to have a bit of fun just being outside with me when we don't have a mission, Librarian. Give hiking a chance. For me," she adds in, pressing their lips together as she gives him a passionate kiss on the lips to serve as encouragement.
When they pull apart, Flynn's head is spinning as per usual. A kiss from Eve never ceases to make him feel a sudden warmth and feeling of love that shoots from his head to his toes. A kiss with Eve always feels like it could go on for hours….
"I'm sorry, Eve. I know that you are right about me needing to just enjoy any time I get to spend with you," Flynn begins, starting to walk side by side with his wife of one month. "Besides, I guess hiking isn't that bad compared to something like fighting a vampire or having to outrun a horde of like, I dunno, evil werewolves brought forth by Apep and Anubis," the Librarian smirks, and Eve can see his standard joking face even in the darkness that continues to fall and envelope the couple like a thick blanket.
"Clearly. We need to get your ideas of fun and entertainment in the right order, Librarian," Eve jokes, readjusting her backpack before entwining her fingers on one hand with Flynn's as they walk down the hill. "Now, come on. The site's just past that ridge."
"Well, lead on then, my Guardian," Flynn smiles, just pleased that he can spend uninterrupted time with his Eve, as their LITs and Jenkins assured them they could take care of any threat or mystery in the Clippings Book that may or may not come up.
Well, mostly Jacob and Ezekiel assured their Guardian that they would all be fine if a new mission came up. Jacob had told Eve that he wouldn't let Ezekiel get into anything stupid or that the young Australian thief couldn't get himself back out of; in addition to that, the cowboy had promised he wouldn't let any harm come to Cassandra, as she was still taking a bit of time to recover from her surgery she had after the run-in with the vampires at the health spa. And Ezekiel had been very eager- almost too eager- to suggest that Jake Stone could serve as their temporary Guardian, as he had the most fighting skills and was the most likely to die instead of losing another member of their team. And, that had severely creeped Jacob out, as it would creep anyone out to hear that, so the art historian went into one of his favorite rooms filled with old literature and read a bit of Confucius' teachings until Ezekiel inevitably found him an hour later. Thanks for that, Jenkins!
About twenty minutes later, Flynn and Eve reach what Eve has deemed their campsite for the evening, only to find that the sun has completely gone down and that the night is now pitch black as the moon has gone behind a cover of thick clouds.
"So, this is it!" Eve happily begins to say, setting her backpack down and beginning to get out the supplies needed in order to put up a tent. "The exact spot where my dad and I would come and camp out when I was younger and he got any type of leave from the military," the anti-terrorist colonel continues to explain, a smile on her face the entire time as she thinks of all the fond memories she had of this area with her father. "Now, as is custom for my family, the newest camper gets to pitch the tent," she practically bursts out laughing, handing the poles and what will be a tent to Flynn as she sets up a place for where their fire will go to help keep them warm and hopefully keep wild animals away.
"Wha—Eve—It's a tent—And I'm not really—" Flynn starts to stutter, looking at the tent poles and fabric in his hands as he thinks of this as one of the hardest challenges he has had to overcome.
Sure, he could outrun a pack of werewolves; he could fight Apep, Prospero, and the Serpent Brotherhood no problem. But, setting up a tent is one of his greatest fails and something he had hoped he would never have to do again after the one time he tried to go on his elementary school's camping trip for "graduating" fifth graders that were moving to the middle school in the fall to start sixth grade. So, yeah. He had much rather hoped that he could be tasked with doing, well, anything else to set up their campsite. Setting up a tent really isn't his fondest memory.
"Flynn, put up the tent before it gets completely dark and we end up getting it put up at sunrise," Eve states, already beginning to build a rock circle to contain the fire she plans on building them. "Besides, I learned how to put up a tent when I was three and hold the record in the Baird family for the fastest time at one minute and thirty seconds.
Whether or not this is actually possible, Flynn does not ask, as he is currently wrapped about seven ways in the giant tent with both his legs tied to one part or another of the tent and his left index finger is trapped under a tent pole. The Head Librarian decides to just shut his mouth and get to work on the tent, hopefully to get it up before Eve can get the fire ready.
In reality, the opposite happens. Eve gets the fire roaring a full ten minutes before Flynn gets the tent up, and the moon briefly comes out, allowing Flynn to place the last stake in the ground.
"There! Nothing to it!" Flynn happily cheers, thoroughly impressed that he got the tent up finally. "What was my time?" he asks expectantly, hoping that he can beat one of the other records Eve's family has for putting up a tent.
"Twenty minutes," Eve smirks, coming to sit on the inside of the tent, just inside of the front flap.
"Twenty minutes?!" Flynn asks in that shocked tone of his that makes him sound overly loud and mad like he did when he found out that the Library had sent Ezekiel Jones a golden invitation.
"Yes, Flynn," Eve laughs, and Flynn moves to sit down on the inside of the tent with her, dragging a sleeping bag and blanket inside with him. "You didn't actually think you were fast, did you?" she jokes, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I kinda did, yeah," Flynn mutters under his breath, but deep down he is aware of the fact that he did seem to get stuck and hung up quite a bit on the tent materials while trying to construct what would be their sleeping quarters for the night. "Well, not really," he admits shortly after, brown eyes locking onto Eve's crystal blue ones before he presses a kiss, soft and slow, to Eve's lips, loving the feeling of her lips on his own.
Eve kisses back, cupping one of Flynn's cheeks in her hand as she strokes over his recently shaven jaw with the other hand.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when everything goes terribly wrong for the Guardian and her Librarian.
Rain comes pouring down from the thick layer of clouds, immediately snuffing the fire out that Eve worked so hard to build for them.
"Well, so much for a fire," Eve deadpans as she scoots backwards in the tent after the Librarian and Guardian break their kiss when a sudden crash of thunder makes both of them jump.
"Yes, well, at least we're dry inside the tent," Flynn remarks, wrapping one arm around Eve's shoulder as they sit there watching the rain come pouring down together from the shelter of the tent that Flynn managed to put up.
And then, almost as if Mother Nature has plans to ruin the couple's camping getaway weekend, the wind and rain combine forces to take the stakes out of the ground, effectively making the tent blow into the air around Flynn and Eve. They are completely drenched in rainwater in approximately five seconds.
"You were saying?" Eve remarks with a slight smile on her face, finding the whole experience interesting to say the least.
"Fantastic," Flynn remarks as he grabs his jacket, only to find that it is soaking wet as well. "Shall we run back to the car?" the Librarian asks with a smile on his face as he grabs the backpack filled with money, extra food in case they couldn't catch any fish, and plenty of bottled water.
"We shall," Eve agrees, and soon, both Flynn and Eve are rushing through the trees, each one feeling as if he or she is flying as the ground blurs below their feet.
Lightning crackles through the sky, making the night light up in a way that is surely not how Flynn envisioned his first time camping with his wife and true love. Thunder booms and shakes the sky, and Eve finds herself looking behind her every two seconds to make sure that Flynn is behind her, as this particular bout of thunder reminds her quite a bit of the gunfire she so often heard while she was on missions with her anti-terrorist group in NATO. Fortunately for Colonel Eve Baird- now Eve Carsen- the thunder is just that and not gunfire, and Flynn is doing his best to keep up with her as they scramble through the woods with barely any light to see by.
Once or twice, one half of the couple slips down in the mud, with that person more frequently being Flynn as they continue to run through the forest, hoping that at any moment their rental car will appear in front of them. Flynn actually is the one who spots their rental car, and both Eve and Flynn climb into the car as quickly as possible, both soaked to the bones as they had to run no less than four miles to reach their rental car they had parked at the nearest parking lot. Both Librarian and Guardian begin panting and laughing at the same time, the humor of the situation coupling with the fact that they had just run over four miles in a downpour.
"Well, that was exciting," Flynn quips, his head resting against the passenger side headrest.
"Definitely. I can't believe the weather forecast was completely wrong. It wasn't supposed to rain for another week!" Eve responds, resting her own head on the driver's seat headrest before drinking a little out of her water bottle.
"True, but I think that it made our first camping trip even more exciting," Flynn smiles over at his wife; he was sure he would remember this trip forever.
"You may be right, Librarian. Now, do we want to chance sleeping in the rental car and see if the weather is cleared up by morning?" Eve inquires, casting a glance over at her husband with a hopeful look on her face.
"Eve, I'm not as big of an outdoors person as you. So, let's just head back to the Annex after we call Jenkins, that is," Flynn begins to explain with a light chuckle as he realizes just how many of his long Librarian trips have been where he can sleep in a hotel for most of the trip.
Well, excluding his first ever mission as a Librarian where he slept in the Amazon rainforest for two nights straight. On the ground. With no tent. With a woman who now was either dead or still acted like she hated him. Or both.
"Anyway," Flynn starts again, getting distracted by his own thoughts. "And then we can get cleaned up, start a fire in the fireplace, and then roast s'mores with our LITs in front of said fire. If we can get Jenkins to join us, well, that will just be considered an added bonus to our little stay-cation camping trip," he finishes up, and Eve instantly puts the car into drive as Flynn starts to buckle his seatbelt.
"Sounds good to me," Eve agrees, and they are soon driving down the road to the car rental place where Jenkins has placed their door that was in a spot where no employee dared to go at night: the customer bathroom.
Ooh, scary.
When Eve and Flynn arrive back at the Annex after calling Jenkins to place the door back, they are still both covered in rainwater and mud from the over four miles of running that they had to do. Not to mention, a few stray leaves fall from Flynn's hair and Eve's backpack when they come stumbling into the Annex.
"And where exactly were we, children that we got this messy?" Jenkins questions in his typical serious tone, taking in the appearances of the Librarian and his Guardian.
"We told you we were going camping, Jenkins," Flynn deadpans, making Jenkins scoff under his breath.
"Very well, Mr. Carsen. But, in any future camping endeavors, let's try to not drag mud and rain into my clean Annex, shall we?" the caretaker remarks before walking away to get out a mop and vacuum, all while muttering under his breath about how his Annex is always getting dirty with either nature, blood, or both.
Author's Note: And there is my Evlynn contribution for the fourth day of the shipathon! For all of you who may have read my previous Evlynn stories for the shipathon week, I must apologize to you for not posting yesterday. I am in the middle of writing that story now, and I may have it posted before I go to sleep tonight. We shall see what else I decide to do before I go to sleep in about an hour or so. It probably won't be, but I will try my hardest to get it up ASAP. Thanks for your understanding! Anyway, I may take some days of from the shipathon, such as when I have my two college visits out of state coming up when I will not have my laptop or Wifi, but I will always try to catch back up. Well, that's about all I have to say other than I hoped everyone enjoyed this one-shot, and Happy Fourth of July to my fellow Americans! (Oh, and also Happy Birthday to two of my best friends in the world! Nicole, whose birthday was yesterday, and Anna whose birthday is today.) All right, that's all I have to say for now. Have a good morning, afternoon, or night!