AN: Fluff with not-very-much point. I really do swear that at some point, there will be serious episode tags…

As long as you know who Beth is, this will probably still make sense even if you haven't read The Path Not Taken. It is, however, probably funnier if you have.

A STOPPED, POWER-LESS ELEVATOR

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'…About four inches to the left, please, Mac…'

He obediently shifted four inches to the left so that the woman sitting on his shoulders could better reach the lock on the trapdoor in the ceiling of the elevator.

(The escape hatches on Phoenix elevators were lockable, both from the inside and the outside. Mac had decided that for the sake of this little experiment/challenge, it should be locked from the outside.)

Beth worked his Swiss Army knife into the lock, face screwing up a little in concentration, before lowering her arms.

'No luck?'

'No, I need something a little thinner…I assume you've got a paperclip?'

He gave a little smirk.

'Never leave home without a couple.' He paused, smirk growing more wry. 'Actually, never get out of bed without one. Or two.'

He lowered his right hand from where it'd been wrapped around her lower right thigh to help her keep her balance, leaving the left on her left leg, and grabbed a paperclip from his pocket and passed it to her. The shift in his shoulders disturbed her balance ever-so-slightly, making her clench her thighs around him briefly.

'Sorry…' He could hear her hands move above his head, re-shaping the paperclip, and then he felt the shift of her weight as she reached her hands above her head to work the paperclip into the lock. A minute later, she made a noise of triumph. 'Got it!'

She pushed the trapdoor open, then put his Swiss Army knife into the pocket of her scrubs and reached up again to grab onto the edge of the opening.

He lifted her up as best as he could to make it a little easier for her to push herself up and out of the elevator, mind already whirring as to how he could get himself out.

Beth wasn't strong enough to pull him up, and it was really physics anyway. She could have super-strength and it probably wouldn't work, him being substantially heavier than her and there not being anything in the correct position on the roof of the elevator for her to prevent herself from slipping anyway.

Once she was safely on the roof, she lay down on it (a wise decision), and he motioned for her to wiggle out of the way, then backed into the furthest corner, ran as fast as he could towards the other side, jumping up and pushing off the railing, and leapt up and grabbed hold of the sides of the trapdoor. He hauled himself up so he could brace his forearms on the outside of the roof, before taking a deep breath and pulling himself up.

Beth got up and offered him a hand to help him stand, and together, they quickly closed the trapdoor (not wanting to risk accidentally falling down it again), using a carefully-placed paperclip to prevent it from locking.

Then, Mac turned his attention to the sealed-shut elevator doors in front of them, thinking-face firmly on.

They were rated to withstand a small nuclear blast.

Getting them open would be no easy feat.

Wordlessly, Beth pulled his Swiss Army knife from her pocket and pressed it back into his hand.

EIGHT MINUTES LATER

'Beth, have you got your hand lotion with you?' She nodded. 'How much is there? More than half the tube?'

She nodded again.

'It's a brand-new tube; I just opened it yesterday.'

She reached into her pocket and handed him the tube, which was just about full.

'Thanks.' Mac was just about to unscrew the lid, when something else seemed to hit him, and he turned back to her. 'How many bobby pins are in your hair?'

'Uh…' Beth's face screwed up in concentration again for a beat, as she recounted how many she'd put in to keep all of her hair off her face (little strands tended to escape no matter how tightly she tied her ponytail or where she positioned it). '…Five.'

'Great!' Mac sounded genuinely excited about that. 'Can I have them?'

She simply nodded, a fond, amused, even indulgent, smile on her face, pulling out her hair tie and slipping it onto her wrist, then starting to pull out the pins.

Mac pulled the right-hand-side elevator door open, a triumphant grin on his face, to reveal Jack, Matty, Bozer and Riley standing on the other side.

Matty pressed a button on the stopwatch she was holding, then looked at it, then back at Mac and Beth.

'26 minutes, 23 seconds. Impressive, Baby Einstein.' She paused, then her smile widened a bit. 'And Lil' Doc.'

Bozer pointed at Mac with a finger-gun.

'You're awesome, bro!' He grinned at Beth. 'Oh, and so are you, of course!'

He held out a fist to each of them for a fist-bump.

Riley, who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, grinned at both of them.

'Nice job, Mr Wizard, Harley Diaz.'

Jack snorted.

'Nah, you're losing your touch, man. 26 minutes? Really? That's slow!' Jack smirked and waggled his eyebrows, taking into account Mac's rumpled shirt (Beth had spent seven minutes sitting on his shoulders, after all) and her loose hair (her bobby pins were still jammed in the elevator's doors). 'Or did you take your time and-'

Jack was cut off with a yelp as Matty pinched him, hard. In the region of his posterior.

(To be fair, that was where she could easily reach.)

Mac shot his partner a look.

Thankfully, Beth missed most of this exchange (she didn't miss the yelp; Jack was loud as ever), since she was in conversation with Riley and Bozer about Stuck in the Middle while tying her hair back up at the same time.

(Apparently, Bozer was a fan of the show, despite being a very much grown man, and was insisting that Disney Channel was entertainment for all ages.)

A few minutes later, as they all headed away from the elevator shaft, Mac and Jack at the rear of the group, Jack leaned over and socked his young partner none-too-gently in the arm.

'You, son, are hopeless.'

Yeah, I know. Jack might well be right.

I was stuck in an elevator with a beautiful and intelligent woman, and I tried to escape…and succeeded. With her help, of course.

In my defence, A, we're at work, and you know Beth takes professionalism very, very seriously. B, timing is everything, and, you know, there's something really nice about taking it slow. Given my romantic history, it's probably not surprising that I've got a newfound appreciation for that.

And honestly, between you and me…I probably am crazy.

AN: Yup, fluff. I warned you! Again, this is heavily inspired by the famous Tiva stuck-in-the-elevator scene from NCIS.