I'm so happy we're all excited for Blake, Victoria, and the stupid location headers.

Chapter 159: Bourbon & Jaws Part Two

"Fifth" Date, Manhattan - 14:19 PM

Merida had to help Blake over the fence. It was going great until he called it bonding time for them so she dropped him the rest of the way. Once he cussed her out and got back on his feet, they ran to the side-door where the henchman Merida fired at lays. She crouches beside him and takes his gun, keys, and keycard which she assumes will open their nearest door.

"You just had to do this in broad daylight?" Merida asks rhetorically with a smile.

"You shot this guy in broad daylight," Blake says, gesturing to the man on the ground. "Or, excuse me, 'knocked out.'" He added dramatic air quotes with his hands.

"To prove a point on how easy it is."

"You have training and experience, combined with inherited perfect aim."

"Your point?"

"That was my point."

"I prefer a straight fight than all this sneaking around. The quicker we do this, the quicker we could go home. Keep a lookout."

"I think you shot the lookout."

"I shouldn't have helped you climb the fence."

Blake grins at her like a child. "Thank you, Agent Mer."

Merida rolls her eyes as she kneels to tighten the laces on her sneakers while Blake stands next to her. She bites a hair elastic on her wrist to tie up her hair. It's a losing battle since her hair is so long with unruly curls that it keeps escaping its restraints. She can't imagine the situation being worse once they get inside.

"You could do a lot of things in that position," Blake says, continue to look around to scope the scene.

Merida frowns at him since she's still kneeling. She knows what he's thinking. "Like what?"

"Tie my shoes, ask me to marry you - what were you thinking?"

Merida's face drops as she breaks eye contact. Her face burns as she returns to trying to tie her hair. She can somehow hear Blake grinning, looking at her. It's the deafening sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

"I would've said yes to any of that, by the way," Blake says, kneeling beside her. "Here, let me."

Blake bunches Merida's hair and does his best attempt at a ponytail. It sits near the top of her head, making her curls fall like a willow tree's tendrils. Some curls pop out but it's not noticeable. She figures he knows how to do that since he grew up as the middle child of four sisters and has a handful of nieces.

"Thanks," Merida mutters awkwardly as she stands back up to slide the keycard on the door pad. "I look like a cheerleader now."

"Guess you did become Angela. I think we're too late and we haven't even gone inside."

"Oh no." Merida smiles, shaking her head from side-to-side so the curls follow.

The door pops open and Merida catches it, slipping inside with Blake following who closes it silently behind him. Upon entry, they didn't expect this sight to be inside. Walls and rows of endless shelving up to the ceilings with wide aisles between, each shelf filled with giant shipping containment units. Full of drugs? Possibly. But why would drugs be stored like that? International buyer?

Merida has her guard up, bow out as she walks ahead of Blake. They haven't come across anyone yet. Every time they were to approach a new t-section of shelves, Merida would point her bow in each direction before she took another step, lowering it when nobody would be there. The only sound they could hear is ventilation and it sounds like it's sloshing from below, oddly. Basement flood?

"Maybe your lead was a hoax?" Merida questions, stopping and standing beside Blake.

"Tell that to the unconscious guy outside," Blake responds. "Maybe he was just a guy going for a walk. Did you put a wire on me?"

"I put two while you were properly climbing the fence with my aid, don't worry about them. It's for an inevitable debriefing later and I don't want to take notes. You're the journalist and the undercover fed. It's your job. That's why you're here."

"I thought this was a date."

"You were on a date with the fence outside."

"For fuck's sake I wasn't groping the fence." He tries to sound mad but his lips want to fight against the urge to smile. It doesn't help that Merida's grinning at him.

"You noticed the wire?"

"I have four sisters who planted shit on me all the time. Stickers, cheap false lashes, flowers. Dude outside had it easier."

"Dude outside had a keycard on him."

"Because he had to get back inside somehow to do whatever shifty shit he was up to."

"Exactly."

Merida continues walking but stops when she hears a noise. She shoves Blake ahead of her, hiding them behind one of the shelves. Merida peeks over the top of a containment unit, grateful that this place resembles a full warehouse.

"Agent Mer," Blake says.

Merida shushes him, which she would later realize as a mistake.

Her stomach drops and the floor disappears beneath her feet. For a moment, her brain freezes as she looks down. Trap door. Fuck this. Merida instinctively drops her bow and grabs his hand so she'd have a free hand to grab onto something and hold them up. It's a long way down. She should've slipped her bow down her arm like a purse so she'd still have it on her.

As the drop begins, she spots a pulley system right where they're falling. She grabs onto it but then feels something clamp onto her ankles. As they slide, her hand starts to burn so she lets go. Luckily, the ankles are secure for her and Blake so they're dangling upside down, back-to-back, far up from who knows where. Her vision's still adjusting while her mind's scrambling for a plan.

Her poncho falls over her face due to her new position. Worst part of this whole mission. She hears small splashes. Those were her arrows. She hopes her quiver isn't empty. She hears rushed voices from below. Angry men arming up and yelling at each other.

"You good?" Merida asks Blake.

"I guess?" Blake responds, clearly unsure. Merida can't blame him. At least he's not losing his shit.

"What part of your SHIELD training had this?" Blake asks.

"Funny," Merida states as she feels the blood rushing down to her face.

Her poncho is still over her face and she rolls her eyes at all that's underneath now being exposed. The one time her flat-chested self wasn't wearing a bra. Fuck this "Fifth Date." Though Blake's missing out.

"I was about to ask you what deleted scene in Jaws this was," Merida says to lighten the mood. "Maybe the porn parody version?"

Blake laughs a little through his nerves that Merida can feel along her back. It'll help her piece together a new plan. Merida and Blake have an intimate friendship that was built on plainspoken conversations and sharp wit they both enjoy in shared languages. She likes Blake, she really does. It scares her that it's real. Being with him has expectations that she doesn't understand or isn't sure if she's completing. It's not just thinking about him or texting him, it's being by his side.

Even if that means hanging upside down above a live shark tank. Not a basement flood. At least that explains the sloshing sound.

She's seen a lot of weird shit on the field but the shark takes the cake … and her bow.