Chapter Text
“You two have got a funny idea of romantic.”
Sully’s words about them had replayed several times in Elena’s mind during their trip. They’d spent days aboard that boat, waiting patiently to reach civilization again. During their time on the boat, the lingering tension had been impossible to miss. It was a small boat, where privacy wasn’t a luxury afforded to any of them. All the privacy one could find was in the solace of ones own mind, away from the sun beating down upon them, and the saltwater splashing down on them.
Nate and she had almost kissed. Just two days earlier, when they left her at the docks, Elena would have thought that impossible, ridiculous, even. She would sooner punch Nate than kiss him. And she had in fact punched him, only to find that he was surprisingly apologetic about it all, and very eager to get her the hell out of there. After a day or so of traumatic experiences, a kidnapping, both of them saving each other in turn, and spending a lot of time talking to him, kissing Nate hadn’t seemed like such a bad idea after all.
If only Sully wasn’t there as a third wheel. Nate and Sully had taken turns steering the boat as the other one tired, sitting down to talk with Elena or laying down for a nap as they saw fit. Talking with each other became inevitable, but both Nate and she had remained silent on any near kisses. Sully, for his part, didn’t say anything either. He seemed more eager to find out how he’d unload all the gold once they reached shore. A practical mind if nothing else.
“Wait, is that land? I’m not seeing things, right?” Elena asked.
“Sure is, darlin’. Heatstroke haven’t gotten you yet,” Sully chuckled from behind the wheel.
“A few more days and it might have.”
Seeing civilization again felt better than Elena could have imagined. They’d spent days with the course set for Costa Rica, after a short, but ultimately fruitless argument over where they’d go. Elena had originally suggested they go to Panama, as this weird adventure had begun right off the coast of Panama originally, but Nate seemed to heavily resist the idea, without specifying why. Sully had remained silent, but the look he gave Elena indicated that she should just drop it, and so she did. After all, it was more logical than taking the long trip to the United States, where arriving with a boat full of gold would raise quite a few eyebrows.
And so here they were, nearing a medium-sized Costa Rican town according to the GPS installed in the boat, with the sun slowly rising in the horizon. Elena needed this, she thought to herself. She needed to see a town, and some different faces than Nate and Sully’s. Not that they had bad faces, but one could only take so much of the same people after days on end. But more than anything, she needed to get out of the salty sea breeze and scorching sun, and preferably into a shower. At that point, she was all but ready to give up her share of the gold for an air-conditioned hotel room, fresh water, a warm shower to rinse all the dirt, grime, and sweat away, and a bed.
They pulled into an open space on the docks no long after. Once there, Sully turned around and spoke to Nate and Elena.
“You two try to find us a goddamn hotel nearby, while I stay here to watch over the goods and try to find out where we can sell it off — and make sure it has some goddamn air-conditioning!” Sully ordered, ushering her and Nate off the boat.
As they looked for a hotel, Elena started to lag behind, feeling increasingly tired after days with little food and water. “Are you okay? You don’t look too good.” Nate asked, his brows furrowed.
“I’ll be okay, I just need to get out of this sun and drink some fresh water, don’t worry about it.” Elena responded, giving him a weak smile.
“Okay, but just stop if you need to. Shouldn’t be too long until we find a hotel,” Nate encouraged her.
After a few minutes, Nate spotted a sign belonging to a hotel. “Look, there’s a hotel right there,” Nate said, as he turned around to see Elena nearly collapsing. “Oh crap, oh crap, I’ve got you, we’re nearly there, Elena,” he said as he closed the short distance to her and grabbed her before she collapsed fully, putting one of her arms around his shoulder. “Come on, just a short little walk, we can get there” he encouraged, while helping her along.
“Thank you,” Elena muttered, almost wordlessly.
After that, Elena didn’t really catch what happened. Somehow, Nate had helped her into the hotel lobby and gotten her some water and a protein bar, before getting three hotel rooms — after confirming that they all had functioning air-condition. Somehow, he had done all that in fairly fluent Spanish. She’d have to ask him about that some other time, but it was pretty impressive for a treasure hunter, or an “acquirer of rare antiquities”, as someone he knew apparently had described his profession as. Once again, she was snapped out of her thoughts, as Nate approached her.
“Feeling better?” he asked as he sat down beside her on the reception couch.
“Yeah, thanks again for taking care of me,” Elena replied with a slight smile on her face.
“Yeah, no problem. By the way, reception said that the first room is ready right now, want to head up there?”
“Sure, think I need to lay down a bit,” Elena replied, yawning even at the thought of some sleep.
“Alright, I’ll follow you up there.”
A short walk and some stairs later, they were on the third floor, where Elena’s room was.
“Here we are, and here you have your key,” Nate said, as he handed over the key to Elena.
“What about you, what are you going to do until your room is ready? If you want, you could wait in here with me?” Elena suggested to him, as she opened the door and stepped slightly inside.
“Eh, I think I’ll go check on Sully, let him know that we found a hotel for us and check if he’s found any leads on selling the gold,” Nate replied quickly, while leaning on the doorframe.
“Oh, okay…” Elena replied, almost sounding disappointed.
“Oh, and speaking of the gold, want to meet back up at the boat in a few hours? Would be nice to get a picture of the three of us with it before we sell it,” Nate said, not picking up on Elena’s slight disappointment.
“Yeah, sure, that’d be nice. At least we’d have some documentation of this trip, even though we probably can’t show it to anyone.” Elena laughed.
“Hah, yeah. I’m good for another story you know, it’s the one thing I do well.” Nate laughed with her.
“I can imagine,” Elena said with a smile.
“Oh, by the way, you should probably have this on you around here. Better safe than sorry.” Nate handed her a 9mm gun.
“Thanks, good thinking.” Elena accepted the gun, and quickly checked that the safety was on.
“Relax, I wouldn’t have given you a loaded gun with the safety off.”
“Better safe than sorry, right?”
“Right,” Nate chuckled, his hand scratching the back of his neck. “Anyway, I’ll see you later?”
“See you, cowboy.”
As soon as Nate was out of sight, Elena closed the door, and made sure to lock it. As much as she knew she needed a shower, she didn’t care right now. She just wanted to lie down in bed and sleep. If she had her way, she could have slept for days, but a nap would have to do for now. While she laid there, trying to get comfortable Elena couldn’t get Nate out of her mind. A part of her almost felt disappointed that Nate wanted to go check on Sully rather than staying with her. It was a perfectly reasonable decision by him, and he probably just didn’t want to wait around while she slept, but the unreasonable part of her mind wanted him there.
She wanted him to kiss her. To actually go through with it this time, now that Sully wasn’t around to interrupt them. Strangely enough, this treasure hunter, who no doubt was involved in some criminal activity based on his proficiency with a gun, had earned her trust. And Elena couldn’t deny that he was handsome, and definitely charming. If her camera hadn’t ended up destroyed at the bottom of a ravine, he would have made for a natural on camera with her.
But Nate would have to wait. For now, she needed some rest.
***
“Hey there sunshine, feeling any better?” Sully asked as Elena approached the docks, where Sully had now unloaded the boxes of gold.
“Yeah, I feel a lot better now. Incredible what a bed can do for you.”” Elena replied quickly, before continuing: “Have you found out anything regarding the gold?”
“Yes, Nate and I managed to get in touch with a contact of mine in the area who’s going to look into some leads for us. Some rich collectors or other. With any luck, we’ll be rid of this in a few days.”
“Speaking of Nate, where is he?” Elena asked.
“Oh, he’s off getting a goddamn camera or something. Seems like he wanted to document the three of us with the treasure. First all those logbooks of his, now he wants to take pictures. Think your camerawork might’ve inspired him.” Sully chuckled.
“Maybe, but this time I won’t be holding the camera.”
“Look who’s out of bed,” they heard. The turned their heads and saw Nate approaching.
“Well, I couldn’t miss us documenting this now, could I?” Elena replied.
“And I found just the tool for the job.” Nate said, holding out the camera he had bought.
“Yeah, you’re a tool alright,” Sully joked.
“Ha-ha, very funny.”
After a few minutes, they found a stranger who could take the picture for them. They ended up with Elena sitting on one of the crates filled with gold, with Nate, who for some reason decided to hold a shotgun for the picture stood on one side, while Sully, cigar in hand, stood on the other side, all three grinning widely. The three of them all agreed that the picture turned very well, or at least as well as three tired adventurers in desperate need of showers and some sleep could look in a picture.
***
A few hours later, with the gold locked away in a nearby storage, and the owner paid a handsome sum to keep quiet about it for a few days, the three of them made their way back to the hotel. Elena already had her key and walked straight to her room after wishing Nate and Sully a good night, while Nate and Sully got their keys from reception.
As Nate finally crashed down on his bed after a quick shower, his mind was still racing. Yet it wasn’t hung up on the gold, or their crazy day. Instead, it lingered on Elena, the beautiful, blonde reporter that had completely blown him away in the previous days with her wit and abilities. When he met her, he couldn’t deny that she was pretty. Pretty, but somewhat nervous around him, and outright shell-shocked once they were attacked by pirates. He hadn’t thought much of it when he and Sully ditched her at the docks, aiming to finish the mission by themselves, without a camera documenting everything.
But then she’d found him and punched him straight in the face for his troubles. And slowly, but surely, Elena had come into her own as they spent more and more time on the island. Nate had grown to genuinely like and care for her, in ways that surprised him. The fear he had felt for her when Navarro took her away had cemented it for Nate – he didn’t just enjoy her as her friend, or her unlikely companion on that crazy island. She was bold, brave, funny, and so, so beautiful. And he genuinely liked her.
But Nate knew that Elena was way too good for him. There was no way in hell a thief like himself had shot with a girl like her, with a professional career, a life to return to. But even if he knew that they didn’t make sense together, Nate couldn’t get Elena out of his head. He knew there was some attraction there. After all, they had almost kissed before Sully had to ruin the moment. But most likely, she only gotten caught up in the moment and would think differently once the adrenaline had worn off.
But that had to be an issue for another day. For now, Nate needed some sleep.