fandomhigh | Summer Games: Wednesday, The Park [morning]

"Good morning!" Anakin yelled into the megaphone from the small platform he had erected in the park. "Students, please listen for your names and find your partner or partners as your name is called: Sidon and Aloy; Jason and Rey; Bobby and Paris; Ahsoka and Uma; Theron and Peridot; Astrid and Norman; Tip, Sabine and Beaker."

Once the students were in place, Anakin held up a sheaf of paper in his hand. "Today, with the help of the proprietors in town, we're conducting a Scavenger Hunt. You have a very long list: You must find 15 of the items from that list and either take a picture or video of yourselves completing the tasks. Whoever completes their 15 in the shortest amount of time will win the coveted, terrifying, singing fish," he said, holding his hand out for it to fly to him. It was still shrieking Sabotage as it flew, but now it also rained confetti on anyone close enough to be in its flight path. As Anakin held it, it treated the entire group to holographic footage of Theron being chased by a Roomba.

You're welcome, Theron.

"Right," Anakin said slowly. "Someone come take this thing from me as quickly as possible. On your marks, get set, go."

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"It absolutely was," Steve agreed vehemently. "One of the men in my squad had family in a camp. He was from Fresno. Just ridiculous."

"You were in the war, then."

Of course he was, he was an able-bodied American man. Very able-bodied, in fact.

Really, wonderfully able-bodied. . . .

"European or Pacific?"

"European," Steve said with a tiny nod. "Most undercover ops in occupied territory that no one remembers these days."

Cristina nodded, sipping her coffee. "My stepdad's parents were in Poland." Specifically, Auschwitz, but even Cristina understood that was a heavy downer to throw into a conversation. "How'd you end up in the 21st century?"

Steve winced sympathetically, guessing what she was alluding to. "This will make the doctor part of you nuts," he warned. "I crashed a plane in the North Atlantic and froze...but didn't die. They found me a few years ago and thawed me out."

Cristina heaved a heavy sigh. "You're right," she said. "That does make the doctor part of me nuts."

She'd heard of people -- well, one person, but her Person -- going down in the water and being revived an incredibly long time later, but that was measured in hours, not decades.

"Please tell me they at least looked into why all your cells didn't explode when the water in them went from liquid to solid?"

And how he wasn't, like, freezer-burned. . . .

"Oh, the doctors have poked and prodded me for the last decade, solid," Steve said, laughing. "I'm their very favorite science experiment."

"Well yeah!" Cristina would love to see Steve's scans. If what he was saying was true, she wanted to see what deep-freeze lung and heart tissue ended up looking like. . . . "You're a medical marvel! Oh, um. That must have been weird for you, though."

Look at her, remembering her bedside manner!

"A little," Steve said with a nod. "So you're not from a time where I'm in the history books. That's kind of nice."

"Nope," Cristina said. "At least, not the ones I've read. I was always more into science than history, though."

"Where I'm from, I'm in a cartoon and an action figure," Steve said a little wryly. "It's better than you don't know that part of me."

"Then I'll stop asking for details," Cristina assured him.

She probably wouldn't have asked for much anyway -- her ex was a veteran, and she knew all too well how hard that kind of thing was for some people to talk about.

Steve gave her a genuine smile. "I really appreciate that."

Memorial Day was still recent enough to have brought back some tough thoughts. "So, are you settling in her okay? I know it's not the most normal place...ever. Anywhere."

"It has a very nice hotel," Cristina said, very diplomatically. "I'm honestly hoping not to settle in too much more than that." She shrugged. "No offense, but I'm supposed to be in Zurich right now."

"Zurich is really nice," Steve agreed. "What were you going to be doing there?"

"Run the cardiothorasic department of a state of the art hospital using holographic imaging systems," Cristina said, on a long sigh. "I probably should have known that was too good to be true."

"That does sound like a lot of fun for you," Steve said encouragingly. "Think they're holding the position? Sometimes time works weirdly here."

"Ha, right? I wish." Cristina totally thought that was hyperbole, yes. "They can probably hold it for a little while -- I know my predecessor pretty well." He'd left her at the altar once upon a time, after all. "But not forever. At some point, he's going to want to get on with his retirement."

"Maybe if you explain the predicament, he'd cut you a break," Steve said hopefully.

"Right. 'Sorry, Burke, but I got kidnapped by a tiny French island off the coast of Baltimore, Maryland. But I got here as fast as I could.'"

"Well, not in that tone," Steve teased, grinning. "But yeah, I can see how that wouldn't sound entirely sane."

"Nothing on this island is sane," Cristina said. "You're from 1945, and you're still one of the most normal people here."

Well, until she found out about the super-serum, anyway.

"Thank you!" Steve said, grinning.

"Your competition is a guy on fire and an anthropomorphic shark. It's not a high bar."

Summer Games: Wednesday, The Park [morning]

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