Sara opened the sliding glass door caring two glasses of iced tea, spring had turned to summer and they were taking full advantage of the sun. Sara walked passed Ava's rose bushes in their curved pots on the deck. Red, yellow, and pink, they were Ava's pride and joy. Her sweet peas climbed the back fence with white flowers and her flower garden was in bloom. Ava herself was over in her vegetable patch to the right. Sitting on her hands and knees, she pulled at the weeds and harvested some of her tomatoes and carrots. Dressed in jeans and a green flannel, rolled up to her elbows, she looked more at ease than Sara had seen in a while.
"Hey," Sara said, standing over Ava, letting her toes curl into the grass.
"Hey," Ava said, sitting back and pulling her gloved hands from the dirt.
"You want to take a break?" Sara asked, offering her one of the glasses.
Ava looked at the red and white swirled straw and lemon wedge perched on the edge of the glass. Her mouth watered as she saw the moisture collecting on the side of the cool tan drink dripping off of Sara's fingers.
"Sure," she said, pulling off her gloves and setting them on the ground next to her.
Ava got up and met Sara on the lawn. She reached for her drink, but Sara pulled it back, with a teasing smile. Sara's eyes sparkled, and she leaned forward pressing up against Ava. With bare feet and Ava in boots, she was a good six inches above her, but Sara still raised an eyebrow, expecting her to lean down.
Ava wrapped her arms around her lifting Sara up and pressing her kissing her, as wrapped Sara legs around Ava's waist. The ice in the glasses clinks and probably spilled over as Ava slipped her tongue into Sara's mouth.
Sara moaned, her lips vibrating, sending a tangled down Ava's spine. The cold ice falling over their joint hands made her pull away. She set Sara down but, kept her flush against her front. Sara pressed her lips under Ava's chin for one last kiss, before she handed Ava her glass. Sara shook out her hand, the droplets of water flying everywhere. Then gave up, knowing her hand would be sticky until she could wash it later. She didn't want to pull away from Ava.
"How was your day?" Ava asked. She took a sip of the iced tea enjoying the more bitter taste rather than that of the sweet sugar she knew had been poured into Sara's glass.
"Good, better now that I'm with you," Sara said, gleaming up at her. "Got any good greens for dinner?"
"Um, Yes," Ava said, stepping back and looking back to her garden. "The tomatoes and green beans are ready, but I think the cabbage…"
Ava froze, dropping her glass. The tea spilling down the front of Sara's sort overalls.
"What is it?" Sara asked, switching to alert mode, pushing Ava behind her and following Ava's line of sight to the cabbage. Ignoring the feeling of the drink dripping down her legs.
"There's a, there's a snake!" Ava stammered, pointing to where the black and yellow snake was slithering between the heads of cabbage.
Sara quickly looked back at Ava, noting the fear across her face and the alarm in her voice. She had never seen Ava so fearful of anything, much less a harmless garter snake.
"Stay here," Sara said, taking a step forward. "I'll get it,"
"No," Ava said, grabbing onto the strap of Sara overalls and pulling her back. "What if it bites you?"
"Ava," she said, catching her girlfriend's attention by cupping her face. "I know you're scared, but it's just a garter sneak. It won't bite me. I'll just catch it…"
"And put it where?" Ava asked, still frazzled, she had not taken her eyes off the snake which had paused between the vegetables.
"I'll open a portal and send it into the woods somewhere far, far away," Sara reassured her, feeling Ava grip tighten on her arms.
Ava slowly nodded.
"Okay, I'm going to need you to release me, babe," Sara teased, Ava had a firm grip on her arms holding her in place.
"Yeah, okay," Ava said, with her eyes still glued to the snake, but she let go of Sara. Peeling her hands off of Sara's sweat sticky skin.
Sara gave Ava's hand a reassuring squeeze and pressed her own glass into Ava's palm. She slowly stocked towards the animal being slow as to not spook it, despite Ava squeal of fear. Sara looked back at Ava, her mouth was tense and she took quick uneven breaths. Sara looked back at the snake. She was in range and crouched down, feeling more like a cat than the canary.
She pounced, catching the snake by the head, along with a handful of dirt. When she rose up Ava quickly open a portal to her left and Sara stepped through, setting the snake on the ground. The animals flew off, slithering away, it was unharmed and probably just as scared of Sara as Ava was of it.
As the portal closed, Sara stepped back into the garden and watched as Ava let out a huge sigh. She set the glass on to the ground and bent over and placing her hands on her knees. Sara moved over to her rubbing soothing circles into Ava's back.
"Babe it's okay," Sara reassured her. "It's gone and it's never coming back."
Ava straightened up and pressed out her flannel, something Sara had seen her do many times before.
"I'm okay," Ava said, in a confident voice. Sara gave her a half smile and captured Ava's chin, pulling her down to kiss her.
"I didn't know you were afraid of snakes," Sara said softly, grabbing a hold of her collar.
"Yeah, well they're slimy, they bite, and can turn your blood to tar," Ava rambled.
"Well, I will make sure no snake ever enters your garden ever again," Sara said, wrapping her arms around Ava.
"Thank you," Ava said, kissing her again. "You wouldn't happen to have any more of that iced tea, would you?"
"Only so long as you don't spill it all over me," Sara laughed and Ava pinched her sides causing her to bend over with laughter.
"Only if you can stop leaving sticky hand prints all over my kitchen," Ava replied, laughing with her and ticking her sides.
"Okay okay, I won't," Sara said, breathing heavily, but still giggling.
A few days later Sara was eating lunch on the Waverider, as she took a bite of her salad she listened to Gary talk.
"And then the snake got loose and crawled into the vents!" Gary explained with wide eyes and elaborated hand gestures.
Zari threw back her head in a burst of laughter and Sara couldn't help but chuckle.
"It's not funny!" Gary insisted. "Everything was chaos, we had to shut down the air conditioning.
"It's only May, it couldn't have been that bad," Zari said.
"I'm sure it was very scary, Gary," Ray said, with true sympathy.
"Well then Gary, my boy, how did you handle the beast?" Constantine asked, putting his arm around Gary's shoulders.
"I went straight to Director Sharpe."
"Ava caught the snake?" Sara asked, in disbelief. "I mean, you didn't have to do it or anything?"
Zari and Ray shot her a confused look, as Gary picked up his story.
"No, she just rolled her eyes and told me that if I wanted to be taken seriously as her second in command then I had to handle it myself. So, I got Mona to help me. Now, Mr. Slinky lives in a very nice tank on Mona's desk and we get to be cubicle buddies!" Gary finished looking proud.
Zari smirked, taking a bite of her cereal. "I bet Ava just loves that."
"She did threaten to shoot him if he ever escaped, but we got a secure tank and a camera to monitor him," Gary said, picking up his phone and pulling up the feed.
"Aww he's adorable," Charlie said. "Can we get one?"
"Oh, that'd be perfect," Ray said. "With no pet hair. My allergies wouldn't flare up."
"We're not getting a snake," Sara said, spoiling they're fun. "Do you really want to feed it a mouse every week?"
"Axel," Mick said, staring off into the distance.
The gang dropped their heads as they all know how important Axel was to Mick. The thought of feeding the snake hit home, and they knew they could never do it.
Sara took another bite of her salad, happy that the issue was settled. She was surprised that Ava had Gary handle the snake. Sara assumed that she had just wanted to remain calm around her employees, but she was jealous that Ava hadn't called her to help out. Although Mona and Gary were very capable, she wanted to sweep in and rescue Ava. Sara guessed that she would just have to wait until the next time Slinky got out or they found another visitor in their garden.