A Little Too Much Togetherness—#2

"Okay, you stealth ninja assassin. You can get us out of this, right?" Felicity raised her arm and rattled the handcuffs that bound them together.

"I can try," Sara replied. "But my ego's a little bruised."

"I know, right? They got close enough to handcuff you and lived to tell the tale. They're totally bragging to all their little mercenary friends right now."

"That's not helping."

"What would help?" Felicity asked.

"You could say 'assassin' again," said Sara as she inspected the handcuffs.

"Um . . . why?"

Sara shrugged. "Because when you say it, I don't hate it. You never say it with a shudder. You say 'assassin' the way most people say 'astronaut.'"

"Well, to be fair, most astronauts aren't in the business of killing people. Though there was that one astronaut who murdered her boyfriend. I wonder if she was space-crazy . . ." Felicity shook her head. "But most astronauts and even most assassins don't kill people in order to save their families and entire cities. Plus, you're my friend, which is way better than being an astronaut."

"Yeah, it is," Sara said with a smile. "I don't suppose you have any bobby pins lurking in that fancy updo of yours."

"Nope," she answered. "My hair is a slave to my will. I don't need bobby pins. But I do have—" Felicity reached her free hand behind her back. "A safety pin."

Sara took it from her. "I think I can make this work." She bent back the arm of the pin and set to work on the handcuffs. "You know, Nyssa and I were handcuffed together once."

Felicity made a choking sound.

"Not in the fun way," Sara explained, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "We were infiltrating a human trafficking ring in Thailand, and we got in a little over our heads."

"Wow. You? In over your head? I never would've guessed."

Sara grinned into the darkness.

"How'd you get out of it?" Felicity asked.

"Nyssa. She dislocated her thumb and slid the cuff off." She could hear Felicity gag. "Hey, you wanted to know."

Sara worked in silence for a few more minutes. Then the lock clicked free and the cuffs snapped open.

"Yay," said Felicity, rubbing her left wrist. "I need my safety pin back."

"I bent it up pretty good."

"No!" the other woman wailed. "I need it. I can't leave this room without it."

"It's a safety pin, Felicity," Sara replied. "A broken one. I'll buy you a box of shiny new ones."

"It's the only one I have on me, and it's the only thing holding this dress together."

"What?"

"This is your fault," Felicity said. "You're the one who stole this dress from the back of Laurel's closet instead of letting me go home and change into something that actually fits."

"I told you, there was no time—"

"So this dress is totally backless, and it's made for someone taller. Without that safety pin, everyone's going to get a free show."

"I'll walk right behind you," Sara offered.

"Then you'll get a free show," Felicity muttered.

"Better me than Ollie, right?"

"Oh my God."

Sara shrugged out of her leather jacket. "Come on. Hold it together in the back, and you can put on my jacket."

Felicity eyed the black leather. "That's not going to cover everything I need it to."

"Really?"

"Backless. For a taller person," Felicity said through gritted teeth.

Sara choked off a laugh that turned into a cough. Felicity accepted the jacket and tied it around her waist.

"If anyone asks," she said, her blue eyes flashing, "I had a wardrobe malfunction, which is the truth. We'll just leave the handcuffs part out of it."