Matchmaking Mishaps
What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.
CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.
Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.
[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)
CHAPTER 9!
Plan G- Going AWOL.
Dana folded her arms in on her stomach, staring nervously down at the feet. By her side, Carter kept his gaze focused on the road, lips firmly pressed together into a tight line. It had to be them asked to collect some new tech in Reefside, almost four hours out of Mariner Bay. They'd been driving for almost two hours in silence, the radio being the only noise.
At first, Dana had decided to read a textbook, but after a while she grew bored of that. They weren't exactly on speaking terms after the flowers, which didn't exactly seem right seeing as Carter was completely innocent in the whole thing- it was just her pride that had taken a hit. It hurt her more than it should probably have that he wasn't interested in her, she'd quite plainly been told she wasn't his type.
A loud clunk came from the engine, making Dana sit bolt upright at a startling speed that even Carter looked away from the road momentarily to her.
"Rock." He answered, "Did it wake you?"
"I wasn't asleep." She croaked, voice gravelly from not speaking for so long, "Daydreaming."
"Look..." He pulled into a different lane, dropped his speed until he could pull off the highway and came to a stop. He twisted in his seat to face her and switched the engine off as he did so. "I'm sorry about-"
Dana shook her head, "Forget it, lets just go."
"No, I don't want anything awkward between us. I swear, if I'd known what Ryan was up to I wouldn't have let him-"
"I'm sorry it was your name he put on there."
"He shouldn't have put you in that situation either. And-"
"Look, seriously Carter, its fine." She bluntly stated, "Can we just go? I don't feel so great."
"It's not fine seeing as we literally haven't spoken since getting in the Rover."
"Okay look, truthfully. My ego took a bruise, I'll get over it so please can we just get this done so we can go and I can go back to moping in my room. Thank you." She turned away from him and stared out the window at the cars on the highway.
Carter stared at the back of her head for a moment before sighing and turned back to the wheel. He turned the key, yet the engine didn't come on, instead it spluttered and shuttered. "The hell?" He muttered trying again with the same result.
Dana slowly looked over her shoulder back at him, "What?"
"I think the Rover just died..." He ripped off his seat belt and clambered out of the vehicle and stormed over to the bonnet. He lifted it up and was instantly hit the face with a cloud of smoke. He spluttered, waving away the dirty mist and looked in. "It looks like someone took a whack at rewiring it!"
Dana arrived by his side, also peering into the engine even though she had no idea what any of it meant. "Should we call Angela? How bad is it?"
"Pretty bad." He rolled his jumper sleeves up, "We're gonna be here a while."
"You know how to fix it?"
"Ish. I've repaired it before but not when a nut job rearranged everything. Did you bring your cell?"
"It's dead."
"Mine too." He leaned in to take a closer look. "I don't remember us passing a station."
"There's a toolbox in the back." She disappeared out of his view and reemerged a minute later with a big, red, metallic box that rattled when she placed it down. "I'll let everyone know and walk that way and see if I can find a station. You had to pull of the road didn't you?"
"You're saying this is my fault?" He stuck his head up and met her gaze which was almost enough to cut him in half, "I didn't mess the car up."
"No, but you had to pull off the highway onto a dirt track and now we've broken down here!" She started to walk the direction they would've been heading, lifting her morpher up to her mouth.
"Well I didn't expect us to break down! It isn't my fault! Just because you're in a bad mood!"
"Oh so its my fault?!" She shouted back as she continued to storm off without turning around. "Of course it must be! Get it fixed before I get back!"
FIVE HOURS EARLIER
Ryan snuck into the loading bay, intent on setting up his latest scheme. He hoped this one would help fix all that went wrong with his flower idea. He opened up the bonnet of the Rover and looked thoughtfully at the components. This lasted about half a minute before he began rearranging the wires.
"Hmmm...that can go there...move that...take that out...and now it looks pretty!" He nodded, pleased with his work, and closed the hood.
PRESENT TIME
It was almost two hours- in the hot, burning sun working non-stop over a wreck of an engine- before Dana returned. Carter stuck his oil covered face up as he heard her voice, seeing that she was on the phone to someone with a paper bag in her spare arm. He could only just make out part of her conversation.
"Look, I'm sorry Lance but I can't avoid it. I'm on some side road and the car has broken down- No, I was really looking forward to dinner- Hello?" She groaned, "Damn signal." Dana pocketed her phone as she reached the Rover.
"I thought you said it was dead?" Carter took the water bottle she handed him from the bag and Dana moved back to the passenger door, placing the bag down on her seat and rifled through it's contents.
"It was. The people at the station let me charge it and gave me some supplies." She tossed him a protein bar and looked sheepish, "I played the Ranger card." She furrowed her brow, "You're gonna dehydrate from the insulation of that pullover alone."
"And what do you suggest?" He placed the bar in his pocket and returned to the Rover's engine, "I didn't bring my change of clothes."
"Take it off." She spoke authoritatively, "It's making you irritable."
"What's making me irritable is we have a small spat and your reaction is to walk away, disappear for hours on end then you come back and act like everything is fine."
Dana met his gaze in shock, "Maybe that's how I deal with things. You throw yourself into things, I take a break."
"I didn't make Ryan-"
"Leave Ryan out of this Carter, he's not the reason I'm mad at you! I'm annoyed about- you know what, I don't have to explain myself to you." She shrugged off her jacket and threw it into the back, "But I'd prefer if you stopped snapping and either worked in silence or were civil-" a sound cut through the air and both stood to attention.
A motorcycle.
"Flag him down." Carter instructed, "They can help."
"Gladly." Dana moved to the side of the road.
"Undo a few buttons and hike up your skirt-"
"What?!" She turned in disgust.
"He's more likely to stop for a pretty, under dressed woman than me, trust me."
"And why should I do that?!" She rolled the waistband of her skirt up a few inches regardless and unbuttoned a couple of her blouse's top buttons.
"Because before Ryan you did, since he's come to the base everything has been different!"
"Stop blaming Ryan!" She shouted, "You're the one whose changed!" They both stopped as the cycle came into view in the horizon.
Dana walked closer to the road, squinting at the driver before making out a Lightspeed jacket. "Joel... Joel! Hey!" She began yelling, waving her arms to get his attention. Joel seemed to notice them, waving at them before quickly putting his hand back on the handle. He wasn't slowing down. "Wha-Joel?!" Dana yelled as he zoomed past. "God dammit!" She swore, kicking dust into the air and groaning loudly in frustration.
Carter smirked at her reaction and ducked his head back to the engine, "Haven't you ever hitch hiked before?"
"There are a lot of things I haven't done before." She snapped as she returned her clothes to their modest state, "I was only allowed to start driving last year, and even then my dad made sure one of the landrovers were following me."
"Why?"
"I don't know; I suppose he thought I'd get in an accident or something. How's the hood looking?"
"I think I got it- almost." He chanced a glance at her. Dana had her back to him, arms folded across her chest suggesting she was angry- very angry. "What do you mean by me being the one whose changed?"
"What are you talking about?" Dana asked, attention being pulled back to the Red.
"You said I was the one who'd changed. I just don't get how I have."
"You have changed. Maybe its just me but that's how it feels." She looked back to the road again, "If you're not finding reasons to not hang out, you're talking weirdly or just making sounds. Before you were so easy to talk to and be around but now it feels like you find it a chore and can't be bothered."
"That's not true."
Dana whipped back around creating a cloud of dust from the speed. "It is true! And it has been for so long now that it's getting so annoying! I thought we were friends Carter!"
"We are friends!" He replied heatedly.
"Then why are you acting like that?" She yelled.
"I'm not acting any different!"
"Yes you are! This is one of the first conversations in weeks where I'm getting full sentences from you! Just tell me what the hell I've done wrong to deserve this!"
"It's-" Carter paused, took a breath, and tried to arange his thoughts. "You haven't done anything. I'm...just going through some stuff that's stressed me out some. I didn't mean for you to feel like that." Carter ran a hand through his hair, sweeping his bangs away from his face.
"Well you know if something's stressing you out, you have a whole team you can talk to. If you close up like how you've been then it'll just cause problems." She calmly told him as she climbed into the drivers seat, "You're not on your own so don't make yourself feel like it. I thought I was someone you talked to-"
"Well not about this." He told her a little too sharply, witnessing the hurt growing across her face. He slammed the bonnet down and made his way around to the back of the car, "It's my problem. Floor the accelerator."
"I could help-"
"No, you really can't Dana. Just push the pedal."
"But-"
"Dana just do it. I don't want to bring you into this crap so forget about it. Now press the pedal."
"Fine!" She slammed her foot down on the accelerator before Carter had time to step away.
A full cloud of thick, black exhaust hit him and as the Rover catapulted forward, he stumbled forward and crashed to the floor, painfully landing in a heap in a pile of dirt. He heard the Rover stop and Dana run over as he forced himself up.
"Are you okay?" She helped him up to his feet with her voice laced in concern.
"Fi-fine. I'm fine."
"Are you sure? I mean-" she stopped as she finally caught a glimpse of his face. A giggle forced itself forward and she attempted to smother it by covering her mouth with her hand but it proved useless.
"What?" Carter snapped. He looked down at his clothes- great, covered in ash and dirt.
"Nothing." Dana said taking her hand away with a small smile playing across her lips, "But I'm not a fan of the face paint." She took hold of his hand, tugging him toward the Rover, "C'mon, let's get that cleaned up then head back to the base; Joel can get the tech seeing as he couldn't be bothered to help us."
Carter allowed her to guide him, more surprised at how Dana had quickly gotten over their argument that had lasted a few hours than what had happened to him. He was also surprised that she had decided to take his hand rather than just walking over- she was tactile at times but this seemed out of place given the argument, not that he was complaining.
Dana reached in through the window and withdrew a bottle of water and grabbed a beach towel. She poured some of the water on the towel then reached up to gently wipe Carter's face. Her brow crinkled in concentration and her tongue poked out the side of her mouth slightly which he found amusing.
"It's not that I don't want to tell you what's wrong," Carter started awkwardly, "I just- can't. Its something I need to work out on my own."
She met his gaze and bit her lip nervously before she responded, "Okay... But if you do need help then you know where to find it."
Carter was walking toward his room once they got back when a voice called. "How did it go?"
He looked to see Ryan looking at him with an inquisitive glare. "How did what go?"
"Your outing with Dana, duh."
"We're...better."
Ryan came out of his room, leaning on the wall to watch the elder man, "Better as in 'oh yeah, everything is great and now we're together future-brother' or 'still awkward'."
"I told you Ryan, I don't want you involved so please just stop it. It's neither okay? We're just... Better. If I wanted to date your sister, I would-"
"Liar."
"Ryan, seriously now, butt out." Carter went into his room, leaving Ryan to literally bang his head against the wall.
Why.
Did.
People.
Have.
To.
Be.
Stubborn?!
[A/N]
GREG: Hey guys! Another chapter, another set of awkward fluff for the pair. At least they made up this time right? No awkward tiptoeing avoiding each other which I imagine Carter would struggle with... His height and jumper colour would make him definitely stick out in a crowd and I imagine he's not quite as graceful as Dana when it comes to tiptoeing sneakily.
SAM: Yah I imagine Carter would be a clumsy giant- all those limbs and the long jeans can't help, he wears a trip hazard.
GREG: Now look, by this point you must have noticed a pattern? Let us assure you, Ryan's plans don't go all the way up to 'Z' xD we'd get stuck with titles if we did that.
SAM: Yah we're not gonna pull it along that far- just far enough...
GREG: Even though Greg happily would...
SAM: Greg enjoys the torture.
GREG: It's not torture if the people enjoy it- oh well, this took a dark turn...
SAM: Moving on... *gestures wildly*
GREG: We're sorry about the delay in posting... We've actually got quite a few chapters in Doc Manager ready to be posted- well, author's notes need to be added but yeah. We try to do one chapter written, one posted but one of us procrastinates a lot *cough* Sam * cough* and the other has been slacking with pushing the other *cough* me *cough* and I've been M.I.A a lot with hospital visits, results and then a few weeks holiday... We're working on writing a part a day - every two days and I'm gonna crack the whip on Sam again.
SAM: I see we haven't moved on from the dark turn *pointed side glance* but yes, procrastination is a synonym of me. But I try, for you guys. And maybe Greg.
GREG: Maybe Greg?! Pft, if it wasn't for me you'd still be on 'What Really Happened When Carter Came To Get Cole'! But in all seriousness, I'll get Sam back to a part every twoish days, at the moment she's only twelve hours behind deadlines which is good for her. :P
SAM: Alright they get it- now onto the chapter!
GREG: Oh yeah, the chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed it!
SAM: Yes, tell us what you thought, we love hearing from you! Remember to fave and follow if you haven't already!
GREG: Also,
Little Self Promotion,
We have a one shot album 'Moments That Matter' which we're always accepting requests for. So if you have an idea you would like to see, you can leave it in a review or PM us and we'll get back to you to discuss it!
SAM: Yup, I think that is it...?
GREG: One last thing, we're sorry we don't respond to reviews in Author's notes much now. We do value everything you guys say but because we don't post next chapters as quick as you post, people typically forget what they review. If we see a particular point we want to highlight we do and we pm you to talk about it but it just seems silly with the time gap... We do appreciate everything you say though and take everything into consideration. Thank you to everyone who reviews.
SAM: yup, thanks guys, seriously
GREG: So that's it. Thanks guys!
SAM: We'll catch you posted- ciao!
GREG: Live long and prosper!
