Classic New York City Pastimes - Episode One - Baseball

[iam_ironwoman]

[Mets Tickets were not, as Toni had feared, too insanely hard to come by a week off. At least not when you could afford to drop a bit on them, anyway.

She had woken up to one of those blissful Saturdays where nothing went wrong in the lab before she'd finished her second cup of coffee and none of her e-mails was marked urgent, managing to actually be ready to leave long enough before Steve left to squeeze in a couple rounds of pinball.

The ballpark when they arrived was loud and crowded, full of cameras, but wearing worn jeans and a t-shirt, with a ponytail pulled through the back of her baseball cap, Toni seemed to blend into the crowd fine. The sense of anonymity was most of what allowed her to relax.

The seats they ended up with were fairly close to the diamond, a good view of the action in Toni's admittedly uneducated opinion. She turned to Steve as they reached the right row, gesturing him on ahead of her.]

You want the aisle seat or does it matter?

Comments

[iam_ironwoman]

[It's the most awkward and simultaneously most genuine compliment she's heard from someone over the age of twelve. It nets him a delighted smile and small hand squeezing warmly on his wrist.]

It's okay, I know what you meant.

Thank you.

[The next crack of the bat brings her gaze around to the diamond, a shot the crowd cheers for as it goes sailing past one of the outfielders and she joins them with an earsplitting whistle, thumb and forefinger between her lips.]

[themanoutoftime]

[He smiles back at her and manages not to wince at her whistle. Are whistles allowed to be that loud? He claps with everyone else anyway, whooping for the player.]

Do you want anything to eat? I'm gonna go grab something really quick.

[iam_ironwoman]

Yeah sure, grab me a coke and a hotdog? Ketchup and relish. Thanks.

[She gets up to let him slide by to the aisle, whooping as the next hit sends a player sliding into home.]

[themanoutoftime]

[He nods and tries not to block her view as he slides by, hand brushing her hip accidentally. He goes to get their food and only gets kind of lost on his way. He gets back to the seats with way more food than any normal person should have, but he figures he'll eat most of it, so it's fine, right? Right.

He manages to slide back in without making Toni stand again and hands her a drink once he's seated.]

I got you two hot dogs, but only because I didn't want you to get jealous of all my food.

[iam_ironwoman]

[She takes it happily and cracks it open for a sip, laughing as he hands over her two dogs and she takes in the stack he's still got in his lap.]

Jesus man, you eat like a teenager!

[She's so not complaining about the two hot dogs though, seeing as she skipped lunch. She'll probably be hungry enough to finish them both. She digs into the first happily. Eating curtails her cheering but she still winces as one of the home players is tagged out.]

[themanoutoftime]

It's a serum thing. [He's about to take a bite of his own hot dog when the player gets out, so he ends up yelling instead.]

They're ridiculous today.

[iam_ironwoman]

[Toni waves a placating hand at him]

S'only the first inning, they got time to turn it around.

[She's never been the biggest baseball fan but she at least knows that the Mets are having a decent season thus far.]

[themanoutoftime]

I hope you're right. [The game goes on. It's not the most exciting game he's ever seen, but it's still pretty good, and by the fifth inning, the Mets are up by two. Steve's glancing at the jumbotron screen thing when it's suddenly scanning the crowd again. It stops on a couple and a heart shape appears around them.]

What is that?

[iam_ironwoman]

[Toni looks up from the field to the video and snorts as the couple in the frame laugh and the gentleman pulls his companion over for a kiss.]

Oh, it's just this sort of dumb crowd participation thing they do during events.

People have arranged for some super-public proposals at games and it's always been pretty popular to watch, so they started doing this thing where they skim the crowd and find people who look like they're out together, then they frame them up and egg them on to kiss for the camera.

[themanoutoftime]

Oh. [Steve finds that more embarrassing than anything else. Still, he's slightly interested as it scans the crowd again, but not so much when it lands on him. And Toni. And does the heart thing. He's officially turned red. The crowd is 'awww'ing at him. Oh Christ.]

Uh, how do you make it go away?

[iam_ironwoman]

[Oh christ, of all the things to happen. Toni adjusts her sunglasses and waves dismissively at the camera but it just gets a goading 'awww!' out of the crowd and she sighs, throwing up her hands and turning in her seat, tugging Steve closer by the shoulder of his shirt and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.]

There, that'll get em off -

[There's a loud crack as the next pitch is struck and before Toni can finish her sentence she's cut off by an even louder duller crunch and her own shriek of pain. She curls up on herself, breath knocked right out of her, clutching her side where the rouge baseball nailed her right in her barely healed ribs.]

[themanoutoftime]

[One second, Steve's getting kissed on the cheek by Toni, his teammate, and the crowd is making noises at them that he doesn't like, and in the next second, a baseball is hitting Toni in the ribs with a frankly disturbing sound.]

Oh my god. Toni! Are you alright? Toni!

[iam_ironwoman]

Son of a BITCH...

[She pretty much just curls in a ball, wheezing and cursing, as the crowd around them flinches and 'ooohs' in sympathy, the camera wisely moving back to the field and the player tearing off for home seeing as that ball is not coming back...

After a second she manages to sit up straight again, but still with her arm wrapped around her side. It REALLY hurts to breathe now.]

Well. That was fun. And probably televised. Grand.

I think I may need to go home. Or possibly to emergency. One of the two.

[themanoutoftime]

[Oh Christ on a cracker. Steve leans over to try to examine her, forgetting that they're in public and uh, that's not entirely appropriate. He swears under his breath when she sits up again and nods quickly.]

Yes, yes, let's do that. Hospital sounds good, okay. [And he's standing to help her up because holy crap.]

[iam_ironwoman]

[Toni wasn't actually planning on expecting him to leave with her - she'd have made sure Happy gave him a ride home - but it doesn't take her long to realize she will have a hard time even getting to her car, little alone driving herself someplace while she can't focus on much besides breathing and OW.

She accepts his help out of her seat and leans into him to keep stable while they make their way down the aisle.]

Can you drive standard?

[themanoutoftime]

[What kind of person would Steve be if he didn't leave with her? Baseball's not that important. He puts an arm around her while they make their way to her car.]

Of course I can, that's all they had. Might be a little shaky, but it's better than nothing, right?

[iam_ironwoman]

[Toni smiles weakly and tries to remind herself that she can surely fix anything that Cap's shaky driving might break later, fishing into her pocket and tossing him the keys.]

Just be gentle with her, she's a favorite.

[themanoutoftime]

Of course. Don't worry about it.

[He helps her into the car when they get to it and runs around to the driver's side, hopping in to speed off to the hospital.]