"Aha!" Chimney exclaimed. "It is a real thing. Okay, so we have to move our hands in this kind of motion and ring the bells...nine times."
"Nine in total? Or nine for each of us?" Buck asked.
"It's unclear. I think maybe we should all do it just to make sure we lift the curse completely."
"I'm going to scream," Mariana muttered.
"Well, is it actually a curse?" Hen pointed out. "I know we called it that but technically, I think it's a jinx."
"What's the difference?"
"Well, I feel like a curse implies that a person put a hex on you and a jinx is more like a general angering of the gods."
"Alright, I got it," Buck announced. "How to appease the gods."
"What happens if I touch the windows? Just...what happens?" Mariana asked her father. He shot her an unamused look and she shrugged innocently.
"Okay wait," Chimney replied. "Is a hex and a curse the same thing?"
"By that you mean totally made up and not real?" Eddie sighed. "Yes."
"What more proof do you need, Eddie? We are trapped in a death box. Thousands of volts of electricity coursing through every nook and cranny. Any one of us could literally get fried like that!"
"Or we just don't touch any doors or windows until help arrives and nobody gets fried. With or without a curse, jinx, whatever." Bobby, ever the mediator, attempted to calm Chimney down.
"All I can find is some kind of human or animal sacrifice. I-I'm not really down with that," Buck stammered out.
"Do you guys not hear yourselves right now?" Eddie exclaimed.
"Oh, don't get started, Edmundo Diaz," his wife snapped.
"It's like the universe is screaming at you and you refuse to listen!" Buck retorted.
"The universe does not scream." Another breaker blew and a screech of firing electricity rippled through the line.
"Clearly, there are forces at work here," Chimney said. "Forces beyond my control and your control-"
"That's it. That's the difference between you and I. I don't worry about things I can't control."
Mariana turned in her seat to send him an incredulous look. "Since, uh, when?"
"Sure, you can say you don't worry about things you can't control, but can you at least acknowledge that something is controlling the things you can't control?" Buck questioned.
"Like what? Gremlins? Boogeyman? Santa Muerte?" He dodged his wife's well aimed flying ponytail holder and grinned. "Look, we've had a crappy day. It happens. But it didn't happen because of a curse or a hex or because someone said the word qu-"
"Hey! Hey! Don't!" Bobby shouted just as Mariana reached behind to clamp a hand down over Eddie's mouth. He licked her hand and she grimaced, wiping it on his neck in retaliation.
"C'mon Bobby," Eddie chuckled. "You really can't believe in all of this."
"You know, Cap, you have been pretty silent today about all this jinx stuff," Hen accused.
"Yeah, suspiciously silent," Chimney added.
"Yeah, Cap! Where do you stand? Jinx or no jinx?" Buck joined in on the fun. Bobby looked to Mariana for support but she merely regarded him with narrowed, inquisitive eyes.
"Aren't we all a little superstitious?" he answered diplomatically. People don't like to walk under ladders, some buildings don't have a thirteenth floor, we bless people when they sneeze. Some of us even wear a good luck charm around our necks."
"Uh-uh, that's not the same thing," Eddie defended himself but Mariana high fived Bobby and blew Eddie a mischievous kiss.
"To you. But wearing that medal reminds you of your son, helps you feel better about the day. So if Chimney wants to ring some bells so he can feel better, what's wrong with that?"
"You never actually answered the question, though, Cap." Hen would not let him go unscathed.
Before Bobby could create another crafty reply, the honk of an incoming fire truck distracted them.
"Ah, and help has arrived! Look at that...and help is stopping to take pictures of us in our own engine. Great."
"Hey!" Mariana shouted, catching the attention of the crew taking photos of them. "Next person who takes a photo and doesn't get this fucking live wire off of my truck will personally get my foot up their ass. Got it?"
She settled back into her chair and looked over to find the entire team staring at her. The brunette shrugged and rested her head back against the leather headrest. "I'm hungry."
/
After finally being able to get some Jimmy John's and an hour inspecting the truck later, Mariana found herself exhausted but unable to sleep thanks to a racing mind. She instead curled up in a seat next to Buck and read the book she had slowly but surely been getting through.
Only a few pages in and a cough distracted her, drawing her attention to her husband walking up the steps towards them. He passed by her with the quick brush of his hand against her shoulder and she hummed out a sigh at the familiar touch.
"Thought you were hitting the bunks," Bobby said in greeting.
"Couldn't sleep," he explained, heading to the fridge to grab some water.
"Maybe that curse is getting to you too."
"Or maybe I just couldn't sleep."
"Yeah, welcome to the club," Chimney mumbled.
"Am I interrupting book club?" Eddie asked, coming to stand behind Mariana. She put her bookmark back in her book and tossed it onto the table before leaning back against him as he massaged the knot in her neck that always somehow appeared during shift.
"Medical, babies, women, parenting," Hen listed off.
"I was wondering why Buck had a book in his hand, but now it all makes sense." His jest was met with laughs from the team and a sly smile from Buck.
"Eddie, what would you say Mari's love language is?" Buck asked.
Eddie scratched the back of his neck and avoided eye contact with his wife before he mumbled out, "I dunno."
"You don't know your wife's love language?" Hen exclaimed.
"Traitor," Eddie whispered in the direction of his best friend.
"Oh, come on," Hen continued. "Do you at least know what her favorite color is?"
"Yeah, it's, uh, purple."
"...it's blue, sweetheart."
"Baby's not here yet," Chimney exclaimed as he tossed his book down. "This is good."
"Listen, we don't need you guys injecting yourselves into our love life," Mariana drawled out. "We're perfectly fine."
"When was the last time you went on a date?" Chimney asked. Mariana opened her mouth to reply and then shut it, a look of perplexed confusion flooding across her features. She looked up at her husband for help and he sighed, running a hand over his face.
"Well, before the pandemic, we took the boys to see Avengers!" she finally answered. "There. A date."
"Oh, Mari, no," Hen tsked. "When was the last time you two had a date? Flowers and canales and the whole nine yards?"
"Uh...maybe a year and a half ago?" she tried. "We're pretty busy and lowkey people."
"Eddie, c'mon. You don't wine and dine your wife?" Chimney booed.
"Hey, once that baby comes, you'll understand how busy it is to be a parent, Han," she warned. The bell rang before anyone could say more and Mariana for once was grateful to hear it. The last thing she wanted to hear was criticism of her marriage when she felt it was doing fine.
Bobby looked at Eddie whose face held such a guilty expression that he could see that the younger man clearly didn't agree with his wife's assessment of their marriage.