A/N: Hi, all! ObsidianJade here, bringing you my newest bits for Eleventh Hour. Minutes in Hours is a series of loosely or non-connected one-shots, drabbles, and vignettes, that I have decided are too short, too plotless, too... well, anything, really, to stand on their own as stories.

All of them will have at least a light flavoring of Hood/Rachel, whether friendly or romantic in nature. Updates will be sporadic at best, as with anything I do. Ratings should stay in the PG - PG-13 range.

Final Author's Note: If you haven't yet, please visit the Eleventh Hour Resurrection Campaign at planet (dash) hood (dot) net, Forums The Show, or follow the link in my profile (once I've posted it...)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Eleventh Hour. If I did, we wouldn't need the Resurrection Campaign!!!

DEDICATION: To everyone at the EHRC, particularly Nikki, for making pH possible.

AN UNEXPECTED PROPOSAL

"...And only the good die young, woo ho ho..."

Glancing back over her shoulder, Rachel forced the twitching half-smile off her lips and shook her head at Felix.

"Tone it down a little, Agent Lee. We're supposed to be professionals."

Walking beside her, Hood chuckled softly. "Oh, cut him a break, Rachel. There's no one to hear him but us. And I like Billy Joel."

Her eyes flickering, Rachel surveyed the rolling, grass-covered hay fields to their either side. The only person within eyesight was a lone farmer, hundreds of yards away in the center of the field. The cacophonous clanking rising from the hay mower being dragged along behind the well-worn tractor was almost enough to drown out Felix's quiet singing, even from a few feet away.

Resisting the urge to chuckle, Rachel sighed and shook her head in acquiescence. Felix's singing wasn't bad to listen to, but this song had always resonated oddly with her.

Grinning, Felix plugged his earbuds back in, and picked the song up from the beginning. The three of them walked on for a moment, and it wasn't until she felt her ears start heating did Rachel realize Hood had been staring at her the entire time.

"What?" she demanded, self-conscious.

"You... had this very odd expression on your face, that's all."

"It's..." the word 'nothing' almost escaped her, but Hood would never believe it. Grimacing, she settled on the truth. "It used to be a running joke, that I must be very good, because I would always die Young."

Bewilderment blinked across Hood's face, quickly followed by understanding and amusement. "What, no plans to settle down, marry, change your name?"

Rachel snorted and kept walking. "No. For one thing, who would marry me?"

Without really stopping to think about it, Hood answered, "I would."

Precisely what he'd said didn't quite process until it occurred to him that Felix had stopped singing and Rachel had stopped walking, both in favor of staring at him with astounded looks on their faces.

"What?" He visibly rewound his statements, then shook his head slightly. "It's not like I was proposing to her. I just answered her question."

"Sounded like a proposal to me, Doc," Felix chimed in.

"It was not a proposal. If I got down on one knee and said 'Rachel Young, would you do me the honor of being my wife,' that would be a proposal. Simply saying I would marry her is not a proposal."

"Sure," Rachel answered, fighting down the blush that had crawled up her face at Hood's absent remark. "Hood, do me a favor. Don't propose to me, okay?"

"Sure," he answered, trying to recall exactly when he'd stepped into a parallel universe. "Uh, why not?"

Already walking away, her ponytail bouncing with her irregular strides, Rachel tossed a smile over her shoulder at him. "Because I'd have to say yes."

End