Author's Note: If I'm being honest... I don't really know what happened with this ship. One second I'm watching all passively and the next I'm like HOLY HECK I REALLY REALLY REALLY SHIP THEM.

To clarify- I will still always love Zari 1.0 with Nate. But Zari 2.0 and Constantine is just... kind of shipping gold, honestly.

So, of course, I had to write a fanfiction about them :)

He should have protected her. It was the only thing on his mind. As her backup, her partner, her boyfriend, he should have been the one who had her back. But instead, he'd gotten wrapped up in trying out a new wind hex (Zari had an affinity for wind, even the non-magical type) and the next thing he knew he was turning around and she was... gone. John, now on his own, was just barely able to make a harrowing escape from their foes and get back to the Waverider.

It had now been 23 hours since Zari had gone missing, been taken, whatever-the-heck had happened back in that old pub. The Team's moral was seeing a steady decline.

Sara took action.

"We are the Legends," she lectured, pacing back and forth in front of them as she spoke. "There is almost nothing that we do better than finding missing things."

"We do bar fights better," Mick grumbled from his seat in the corner. It was rare that he joined a Team Meeting, but Sara had seen this one as mandatory. In truth, the only person not there was Behrad, who was off-ship visiting his parents.

John was a little relieved about that. Behrad may have been chill incarnate, but he loved his sister more than probably anyone else in the world. If he knew she'd been taken there was no telling how he'd react.

They would have to call him in eventually. He deserved to know about Zari's... situation. And besides that, they had no idea how all of this would end. It would be good to have him around, just in case Zari...

John shuddered and was recalled into the conversation by Sara saying his name, her eyes settled on him intensely. "Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "What was that?"

Ava sighed and crossed her arms. "Honestly, John, I'd think you'd be paying a bit more attention considering that Zari is your girlfriend," she said.

John grit his teeth and resisted the urge to yell that he wasn't paying attention because Zari was his girlfriend. He settled on a sarcastic, "Right, right, sorry. I'll do better next time."

Ava pursed her lips, displeased by his clearly insincere reply, and Sara cut in. "I was just asking whether you had any sort of spell that could help us to find Zari," she repeated.

John stood up. He'd had enough of this. "Yeah, I've got a great ol' find-a-person spell lying around that I haven't been using for 20-something hours, instead choosing to stand here and get absolutely nothing done with you lot."

"I'm just covering our bases," Sara replied patiently. "There's no point in brainstorming new ideas until we've tried everything we know first."

"Hey, man," Nate spoke up, patting John on the shoulder in a gesture he didn't really appreciate. "Zari's tough. If anyone can handle getting kidnapped, it's her."

John's jaw tightened. He knew that Zari was tough, but Nate was wrong. Zari didn't have superpowers, save for an amulet that could be easily taken by any assailant. She wasn't a trained assassin. She was strong, sure; emotionally, mentally... but not physically. No. Physically, Zari was used to custom pillows and designer jeans and two hours primping every morning. She couldn't possibly be prepared for the strain being kidnapped (and possible worse) took on your body.

At that thought, John felt that same shudder travel through him again. Sara, perceptive as ever, caught the involuntary reaction and her eyes softened. "Look, why don't you take a break?" she suggested. "We've all been up for way too long and we're going to have to start taking shifts so that we don't all crash. Go rest for a bit, John, and we'll call you if we find anything."

"Yeah, sure," John snapped. "The woman I love has been missing for over a day and I'm just gonna go take a nap. Not a chance, love."

He did, however, turn to leave the room. While it was doubtful that he had managed to forget some sort of spell or potion to help them find Zari, it was still possible. So John gathered all of the spell books he had brought on the ship and started searching.

The hours slipped by. John wasn't interrupted until a light knock came from his doorframe and he glanced up to find Sara standing there.

"How's it going?" she asked, sticking her hands in her pockets and strolling inside.

John glanced at the clock. It had now been almost 27 hours since they'd last seen Zari, but Sara barely looked frazzled. Her face was miraculously clear of exhaustion, which he supposed came with being an assassin who could stay awake for days on end with barely a lapse in judgement.

John was like that too, but only to a certain extent. Besides that, the worry gnawing away at him was rapidly speeding up his deterioration process. His gaze was continuously blurring and the dust from the old tomes spread around him had given him the beginnings of a migraine.

"John?" Sara asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Hm?" John replied, blinking a few times. "Uh, fine, love, it's..." He shook his head. "Sorry. No. I haven't found anything. No change."

Sara let out a sigh and sat down on the edge of his desk, crossing her arms thoughtfully over her chest. "And you said that you didn't see anyone specific take her?" she confirmed.

John nodded soberly. "I was facing the door," he said. "If anyone had taken her out I woulda seen it." He rubbed at his face. "I should have seen it."

"This isn't your fault," Sara told him firmly. "But... I get it. If this was Ava, I would be freaking out and blaming myself at every turn. It's really hard when it's someone you love, and I'm sorry it had to be Zari."

John was, too, though he didn't reply.

"It just doesn't make any sense," Sara went on. "She was behind you, you guys were fighting, and then you turn around and she's... gone? And you didn't hear a scream or- or see any dust or anything?"

John looked at her blankly and Sara shook her head. "I was just thinking if she was... disintegrated, or something. Then you wouldn't have seen her leave the building." She caught a glimpse of his expression and hurriedly backtracked. "Not that she got disintegrated- that's not what I'm saying. It's just... if you didn't see her leave, the only possibility is that she's still there."

John sat up and their eyes locked, the realization hitting them at the same time.

"She's still there," Sara muttered, before she pushed off the desk and started sprinting for the main room in the Waverider. "Gideon! Call the team!"

It took them under a half hour to reach the Brewing Town Pub that Zari and Constantine had been fighting in the day before. The Legends poured inside, (mostly) metaphorical guns blazing, but quickly faltered when they realized there was no one to fight.

John stared around him. He had been expecting to find the classic kidnapping setup, with Zari tied to a chair and her assailant looming above her. But there wasn't any of that.

He looked around for any out-of-place dust, too, just as a precaution. But there thankfully wasn't any of that, either.

"Zari?" Sara called tentatively into the room.

John walked inside a little further, and his boot made an odd, hollow-sounding thump against the floorboard. The whole Team froze and John slowly looked towards the ground.

"MMMPMPHM!" came a muffled cry... from underneath him.

"Zari," John breathed, and he and Sara dove forward to begin frantically pressing and prying at the floorboard.

John struck a part of it with the heel of his hand and suddenly the entire thing flew up. It would have hit Sara in the face if she hadn't leapt back, staying perfectly balanced on the balls of her feet even with the surprise. In any other situation, John might have complimented her on her reflexes, but right now he had more important things in mind.

Because there, in the surprisingly large cavity under the flooring, was Zari. She had a gag stuffed deep into her mouth, her hands and ankles were bound, and there was blood coating the entire right side of her head, but she was alive.

Before John had even fully thought it through, he was pushing off the ledge and into the cramped space next to her, taking care not to step on her feet. Zari scooted over as best she could, eyes wide, and John quickly pulled the gag from her mouth.

Zari sucked in a deep breath and coughed a few times. "It's a trap," she managed after a second. "They said they'd come back- John, Sara, you guys gotta get out of here he has backup, he's going to kill you-"

"Shhh, shush now, love," John muttered, cupping the non-bloody side of her face and peering into her eyes. She didn't look like she had a concussion, but he was no expert. "We brought the whole Team; it'll be alright."

"Whole Team or not," Sara cut in, glancing distractedly over her shoulder, "we should get out of here sooner rather than later."

John nodded and quickly unbound Zari's wrists. Once her arms were free, she reached forward and started on her ankle ties, but he put his hand on top of hers. "I'll do it," he told her quietly. "Just rest."

When Zari was untied, John reached underneath her and pulled her into his arms. A look of annoyance crossed her face and she looked like she was going to protest before her cheeks drained of color.

"Alright, love?" John asked quietly, not daring to move any further.

"Fine," Zari replied shortly. "Just a little dizzy."

John exchanged a concerned glance with Sara before passing Zari up to her so he could climb out of the whole himself. By the time he'd gotten onto solid flooring again, one of Zari's arms was draped around Sara's shoulders, the other around Charlie.

"Let's go," Sara ordered, and the three women started moving towards the door.

Then, because nothing, it seemed, could ever go right for them, the door was blown backwards. A swarm of thugs poured through the hole, spreading into an aggressive fan formation.

"Wonderful," John muttered, rolling his shoulders a little and preparing himself for a fight. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sara passing Zari fully over to Charlie and holding up her fists.

The fight didn't last very long. It was true that the Legends were outmatched at least 3-to-1, but Mick was right about something: Bar fights were truly what they did best. By the time Ava was smashing a bottle over the last thug's head, John and Charlie had already started moving Zari out of the door.

"Come on, Team!" Sara called, scanning the bar one last time as she brought up the rear and followed her team outside. "To the Waverider!"

The descent-from-battle cry may have been a bit cringy, but in Sara's defense she was riding the post-fight high. John decided to ignore mostly everything that came out of her mouth from that point on.

"John?" Zari mumbled as she was dragged along, barely able to keep up on her own two feet.

"Yeah, love?" John asked absently, nodding at Charlie so that the two of them avoided a root that could end up as a tripping hazard.

"Did I just add to your savior complex by being a damsel?"

John snorted, amused. "You might just have, love. But it's your own fault- getting kidnapped and all."

Zari grumbled something unintelligible and they came around a corner to find the Waverider materializing in front of them. John let out a relieved breath, and he and Charlie hustled Zari up the ramp and into the med bay.

"Don't worry, Mr. Constantine; I took the liberty of preparing myself for a patient in any state imaginable," Gideon chirped as John quickly strapped Zari's wrists to the cuffs dangling from the chair arms. "I will tend to the minor laceration on Miss. Tarazi's temple if you take care of the blood."

"Right," John agreed immediately. He had a general awareness of the Team hovering awkwardly in the background, but didn't fully register them until Ava pressed a damp cloth into his hand.

"I'm sorry," she said in a low voice. "I should have realized how hard all of this was for you and been more sensitive."

He nodded gruffly, accepting her apology. The Team filed out of the med bay, leaving John to pull up a chair and start to wipe at Zari's face as carefully as possible.

"Your hands are shaking," Zari murmured. Whether she was doped up from Gideon or just lethargic from her recent kidnapping, her voice was low and a little slurred. John watched her out of the corner of his eye, wondering if this was what it would be like to see her drunk.

"Your hands are shaking," Zari repeated when he didn't reply, and she squirmed a little to sit up slightly. Her hands fell on top of his and gently pulled them away from her face, leaving most of the blood still splashed across her cheekbone and hairline and the towel stained slightly red.

"I was scared," John admitted bluntly. He glanced up at her from under his eyelashes, not quite feeling ready to look her full in the face. "We couldn't find you for quite awhile, love."

The corner of Zari's mouth tipped up sympathetically and she reached out to comb her fingers through his hair. "How long has it been since you slept?" she asked in her usual 'mother-hen' tone, tsking slightly.

John glanced at a clock at the side of the room and shook his head, the electric numbers blurring slightly before his eyes. "Dunno," he muttered. "Awhile."

Zari let out a long-enduring sigh and began to take her wrist cuff off. John grabbed at it, fixing her with a look. "And what do you think you're doing?"

"Getting out of here," Zari huffed. "So you and I can head back to one of our rooms and you can get some well-needed rest." She pursed her lips and glanced around her. "There is no way I'm sleeping... here. Besides... I'm all sealed up, right, Gidget?"

"You should be perfectly fine, Miss Tarazi," Gideon replied promptly. "That being said, I always recommend a period of time in the med bay-"

"Nonsense," Zari interrupted, tugging her cuff off and slinging her legs over the side of the bed. She held out an arm to John. "Help me to my room, Magic Man?"

John rolled his eyes at the nickname but complied, slipping his arm under hers and giving her something to lean on as they made their way down the hallway.

Once they were safely inside, Zari spent a few minutes in front of her vanity with a wash basin, cleaning up her face and taking off any last dregs of makeup that had managed to survive the day. She didn't even bother to send John out of the room before changing into pajamas, leaving him to struggle between the wish to look and his respect for her privacy.

When Zari, now pajamaed and relatively clean, had turned to face him, she raised her eyebrows. "You're going to sleep in... that?"

John glanced down at himself. He was dressed in his usual outfit of beige trench coat, white collared shirt, red tie, and black slacks. It was true that he wore that same look every day of the week, but he did generally change before getting into bed.

"I.. uh..." he fumbled, caught off-guard.

Zari's eyebrows raised higher. "Do remember that I have already seen you naked," she said bluntly. "Boxers will be a step up in modesty, John."

John was bewildered to find himself blushing at her bluntness. He cleared his throat a few times before finally giving in and shucking off his coat. Zari stepped forward, carefully pulling his tie over his head and undoing the buttons of his shirt. John's lips quirked. "As much as I enjoy doin' the dirty with you, love, I'm thinking tonight isn't the night for that."

"And I would have to agree with you," Zari returned, pushing his shirt gently back from his shoulders. "Getting kidnapped doesn't exactly get you in the mood."

John snorted and undid his belt before stepping out of his pants. Then he followed Zari's example in laying down on her incredibly soft, perfectly balanced mattress. Zari wormed under the covers and John propped his head up on his hand, watching her with an unusually tender expression on his face.

"What?" Zari asked, breaking eye contact.

"Nothing," John said quietly. "I'm just glad you're alright."

Zari leaned forward and captured his mouth in a slow, gentle kiss. John pushed his fingers through her tangled hair, luxuriating in the feeling of her so close to him.

"I will always be alright," Zari told him when she pulled back. "Just as long as I have you to save me."

Author's Note: AHHHH we gotta love those rambling, virtually plot-less kidnapping fics with a physically and emotionally exhausted and worried character *heart eyes*.

Also... I just kind of have a thing about someone cleaning blood off of someone else's face... like does it get more tender than that? I really don't think it does.

I hope you guys enjoyed! I may or may not write more about them... I only have one episode left of Legends to watch from Season 5 and then it'll be awhile until I can get more, but even so I might stay inspired. I guess we'll see :)