Word Count: 2948
Space Address: 3A - Sunshine
Warnings: Government stalking; hospital room
May 2011
Theodora "Teddy" Williams yawned broadly and rubbed her face despite the glare of the morning sun. It was a crazy shift that night at the hospital and she had been pulled in every direction. It was times like these where she wished she could clone herself.
Or turn invisible…
Whoever was following her must've been new at their job– or just bad at it. She didn't like being followed, so she pulled out her phone and texted her best friend Ida.
Hey, boo, can I call you?
Seconds later, her phone rang. Teddy answered.
"What's up, Sunshine?" Ida asked.
"I'm being followed," said Teddy. "Not sure by who, but they're suits."
"Well, I'm still at work, maybe you could come to me and stay at my place until they lose interest."
"Miss Williams!"
"Shit." Teddy dug her wasp spray out of her bag and whirled around to face the suits.
"I know my rights!" she shouted. "I have not done anything to warrant an arrest and under the Mutant Protection Act of 1995, I do not have to go anywhere I don't want to unless I use my powers offensively—"
"We're not here to arrest you, Miss Williams."
"That sounds suspicious," said Ida.
"What are you here for?" Teddy asked.
The suit smiled. "My name is Agent Phil Coulson, I'm with SHIELD."
"Agent Phil Coulson," Teddy repeated to Ida.
"Oh, I know Phil! Yeah, he's one of the good ones. I'd trust him."
Teddy relaxed slightly at this. Slightly.
"Okay, Phil," she said. "What do you want?"
"We need your help with a special assignment," said Phil.
"You do realize I'm a nurse, right?" she said.
"A nurse with Mutant powers, who is also working on her thesis about the Mutant Gene and modern superhumans," said Phil. "You also won an award for your essay on Captain America when you were in high school."
"Ida, I'm gonna call you back," said Teddy.
"Okay, stay safe. Love you."
"Love you, too." Teddy pocketed her phone and crossed her arms. "Okay, what is this about?"
"Top secret, but if you'll come with me, I'll explain more."
"That doesn't sound promising," she said.
"If it will make you feel better, it can just be you and me in the car."
That did make her feel a bit better, and if she needed to, she could just kick the front windshield out and escape. Not to mention she was four inches taller than this agent. So, against all training, she followed Phil to his car.
"Listen," she said. "Can we make a food stop? I just got off a fifteen-hour shift and I'm starving."
"Sure," said Phil. "I'm actually peckish myself."
When they got their McDonald's, Teddy asked once more what this whole thing was about.
"You know Captain America?"
"I know of him," she said.
Phil beamed like a small child on a gift-giving holiday. "We found him."
Teddy sat up. "What?!"
"We found him," Phil repeated. "He's been frozen for sixty-six years."
"So, what do you need me for?" Teddy asked.
"Well, we need qualified personnel to thaw him properly," said Phil. "You have experience with healing superhumans, and we want to make sure we do this right."
"Plus, if he wakes up, you need someone who can restrain him," Teddy concluded.
"Exactly," said Phil. "Are you in?"
"How much you paying?"
"Fifty dollars an hour," said Phil. "Plus a bonus if he survives."
Teddy choked on her soda.
"Is that okay?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah!"
"Great," said Phil as he pulled into the parking garage. "Here's your badge, you're in the system, and you can make your final decision after seeing him."
Teddy nodded and got out of the car as soon as it was parked. Phil led her to an elevator and they were quiet as they made their way down to wherever the hospital ward was.
"What are the X-Men like?" Phil blurted.
Teddy smiled. "You a fan?"
"Just a little," Phil admitted. "I mean, I saw it on TV when Mystique saved the president. I have a few of the comic books, too, and some trading cards."
Now didn't feel like a good time to set the record straight that being a Mutant wasn't as glamorous as it looked on the outside. Sure things were better now. Well… better for some and only if you had desirable powers. Teddy was one of the lucky ones power-wise, but that didn't exempt her from prejudices and having to disclose if she was a Mutant or not on job applications.
"The X-Men are pretty cool," she said at last. "I loved learning at the school. If it weren't for them I wouldn't be the nurse I am today."
"Do you have an X-Men name?"
"Of course I do, it's something they assign you when you're accepted."
"What is it?"
"Menhit," said Teddy. "After the Nubian war goddess."
"And you don't fight?"
"I told them if they made me I would join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants," she said. "So they let me remain a nurse."
They stopped in front of a door where Phil swiped his badge and punched in a password that he promised to disclose to her if she accepted the job.
"How are you with cold?" he asked.
"I can withstand temperatures up to negative twenty degrees celsius in nothing but a bikini," said Teddy.
"Great, but the bikini won't be necessary."
They passed a single, empty hospital bed and entered a heavy metal door that was opened by another passcode and badge scan. The cold startled Teddy as they entered a freezer.
"Whoa…" she breathed.
On a pedestal in a solid block of ice a couple feet thick was Captain America.
"So, you want me to safely thaw him and get him back to full health assuming he's alive in there?"
"Yes," said Phil. "We'll also need you to keep this a secret."
"Yeah, sure." Teddy had full intentions of telling Ida and her Momma all about this.
"Can you start right away?"
"Sure," said Teddy. "I'll just need to get someone to feed my cat and bring me spare scrubs and my laptop. I have finals coming up, and while I am taking online courses this semester, I would very much like to keep up with my studying. This is going to be a very long waiting game, Phil."
"Of course, Miss Williams," said Phil. He rocked on the balls of his feet. "What are the chances of him being alive?"
"If my theory is correct?" she studied the block of ice. "Eighty percent chance."
"So you'll take the job?"
"Of course."
They left the freezer and it didn't take long for the paperwork to be read and signed. Teddy would need to remain on site for the duration of the assignment and Ida agreed to watch the cat.
Despite her exhaustion, Teddy spent all night doing research on thawing meat and eventually came across the solution. Literally. She was given a team of people to work with and they went about constructing a giant vat full of a brine and antifreeze solution followed by a saline bath. She would also need a heart-lung machine, oxygen canisters, monitoring equipment, and lots and lots of drugs.
"Alright, Captain," said Teddy as the block of ice was lowered into the water. "Let's bring you into the twenty-first century."
It was tough work keeping the man's core temperature around 28-29°F, as she and her team spent hours in the tank.
As soon as he was thawed, Teddy set up the initial monitoring equipment and searched for a pulse.
"Oh, my God," she said and looked at everyone. "He's still alive. Alright, team, let's go. Let's get the cardiopulmonary bypass going. You two, get the saline bath ready. This is the homestretch, everything we do will be the difference between a funeral and Frankenstein."
She carried Captain Rogers to the saline bath herself. Now, they just had to bring his core temperature from below freezing to normal. Before that process, she injected him with drugs to keep his heart rate slow. It would be bad if he regained consciousness before oxygen had a chance to re-enter all his limbs. It was in the bath they were finally able to remove the suit. The bath was probably about as long as the thawing process.
Once they got Captain Rogers in the hospital bed and hooked him up to the monitoring equipment, Teddy released the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
"Okay, Captain Rogers," she said brushing his hair back. "You're going to be alright. I know when you wake up things are going to be scary, but I'll make sure you get through this, okay? Now, I'm gonna go take a break, but I'll just be in the other room. These machines will alert me if you're in trouble."
"Oh, my gosh…"
Teddy turned and gave Phil a smile.
"Can't believe he's actually here, huh?" she said.
"No, I can't," said Phil looking ready to faint then and there.
"Phil, can you keep an eye on him?" Teddy asked. "I've been at this for a really long time and I seriously need some coffee."
"Oh, of course," Phil gushed. "You can count on me, Miss Williams."
"If it looks like he's stirring or uncomfortable, press this button and it'll shoot him up with some drugs," said Teddy, holding up the button. "Don't worry about giving him too much, I set up a regulator. If he's anything like me, there's enough in him to tranquilize an elephant."
"Don't you worry, I will not leave his side."
"Phil, you'll have to leave his side eventually," said Teddy.
"I know."
Teddy left the room and stopped dead when she saw the new people in the hallway.
"So, that's the guy my dad went on about," said Tony Stark. "To think that he spent all that time looking for him and he really was alive out there. Not sure if he'd jump for joy or keel over from guilt."
Teddy squealed.
"Yeah, I get that reaction a lot."
She brushed past him to pick up the petite, brown-skinned girl with the honey curls.
"Ooh! Ida!" she shouted. "I didn't know you were gonna be here."
"I texted you," said Ida, returning the hug.
"Oh, girl, I haven't been at my phone for… like thirty hours," said Teddy. "I am figuratively dying for a latte right now."
"Ask and ye shall receive," said Ida, holding up a large cup of coffee.
"Yes!" Teddy took it and had a long swig and sighed. "Oh, I love you."
"I love you, too," Ida replied, most definitely smiling on the inside.
Tony Stark cleared his throat.
"Oh, right," said Ida. "Teddy, this is Tony Stark and my boss, Pepper Potts."
"Hello," said Pepper. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, too," said Teddy, shaking her hand. "And you, too, Tony."
"You don't seem like the usual type for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," Tony commented.
Teddy looked down at her pink polka dot scrubs and smiled. "Probably because I'm not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. I'm a student and I work as a nurse. Wait a sec, this area is supposed to be restricted, how did y'all get here?"
"I let myself in," said Tony.
"He does that," said Ida.
Teddy shrugged. Fair enough.
"I think I've seen enough," said Tony. "Teddy… is that short for anything?"
"Theodora."
"Teddy it is," he said. "Would you like to join us for lunch?"
"I thought you said you were too busy for lunch," said Pepper.
"Yeah, well, building Stark Tower is making me work up an appetite."
"There's actually a diner near here that has good-sized portions," said Teddy. "And it's close enough that if anything happens to Captain Rogers, I can run back here. Phil! Can you watch Captain Rogers while I grab a bite with my friends?"
"Yes, of course."
"Great," said Teddy with a sunny smile. "Just let me go change."
Twenty minutes later, Teddy was freshly showered and wearing her paisley scrubs in the back of the car being driven by Happy Hogan, Tony's bodyguard.
"So, what made you decide to thaw Captain America?" Tony asked.
"Is this a trick question?" Teddy asked. "He's Captain America, he broke down social barriers in the military! He spoke against Japanese Internment Camps and segregation. Isn't that the kind of person you want to keep alive?"
Her phone buzzed with a text from Ida.
Tony is bitter about CA. I don't know a lot, but to me it seems like Howard preferred CA to Tony.
Teddy exchanged a look with her friend. Yikes. That could lead to a messy meeting.
"Plus," Teddy continued, "I would be able to see if my thesis is correct. That the super soldier serum was really something that activated the Mutant gene. It might also prove that Bruce Banner didn't botch his own serum and that he actually activated a Mutant gene within himself."
"Thus proving that super soldiers are a variation of Mutant," Tony concluded.
"It would make sense wouldn't it?" Teddy asked. "Why the serum might make some people sick and turn others into a superhuman-slash-monster? Most of the time, the Mutant gene is activated under extreme amounts of pressure."
"Vita-Rays and Gamma Rays."
"Exactly."
"And is Cap a Mutant?"
"I don't know," said Teddy. "I don't have the right equipment and really that's something I would prefer to get verbal permission to test for."
Teddy didn't realize how hungry she was until they were sitting in a booth at the diner. She was starting to get the shakes so she ordered some toast right away.
"Can you put that thing away?" Pepper sighed.
"Just one moment," said Tony, not looking up from his tablet. "I'm actually very interested in our new friend, Miss Williams."
"You could just ask," said Teddy.
"Double-Major at NYU," he read. "Bio-organic chemistry, nuclear physics, with a minor in Mechanical Engineering, plus you're a registered nurse. Impressive resumé."
"My dad always said I'd have to do twice the work to get half of what everyone else got," Teddy replied.
"And what is it you want to do?"
"I want to create affordable prosthetics that do what they need to do," she said.
"You know I have a hard time believing you're twenty-seven," he said. "You hardly look eighteen."
"That would be the rapid regeneration of my cells," said Teddy. "I would have to be awake for three more days before I start to look haggard. Why do I feel like this is an interview?"
"One more question."
"Just one?"
"If you were as rich as me, what would you spend frivolous money on?"
"Easy," said Teddy. "I would give our waitress three hundred bucks to give that dude in the back corner milk with ice cubes in it and offer an extra hundred for her to not say who sent it."
"Why?"
"Because when I went to get coffee from the cafeteria he told me that the bathrooms needed to be cleaned better."
"Ice milk it is," said Tony, grinning.
"Tony you are not sending anyone ice milk," said Pepper sternly.
"Too late, already on the brain," said Tony already hailing down Phyllis, their waitress.
Teddy and Tony fought to keep their laughter quiet as the agent flipped his lid over getting ice milk. Honestly, Teddy didn't think she'd like Tony as much as she did, but he was actually a pretty cool dude. When she saw him on TV she thought she'd be annoyed with him at best.
"I see here you're a Mutant," said Tony. "What are your powers?"
"Well, it says in my file that I exhibit superhuman properties," said Teddy. "Actually, since Mutanism is the next stage in the evolutionary trend, many Mutants have enhanced strength and accelerated healing."
"I know I do," said Ida. "But it's more like twice as fast and one-and-a-half times stronger."
"However, my first power is gravity manipulation."
"And what exactly is that?"
Teddy looked around to make sure they had no witnesses and wiggled her fingers, feeling the pull. Her chocolate milk floated out of her cup, keeping together in a ball.
"That is impressive," said Tony. "Can you move it around?"
"Only if you want chocolate milk in your lap."
"When she was thirteen, she figured out she could manipulate gravity to bring things closer," said Ida. "Doing so excessively potentially upsets the surrounding gravity and next thing you know your bed is on the ceiling and you're nearly breaking through the floor."
Teddy grinned sheepishly.
When the check came, she got a text from Phil that she needed to return so he could get back to work.
"We can drive you," said Pepper.
"Nah, I'd rather run," said Teddy. "The fresh air will do me good. Bye, Ida. Love you."
"Love you, too," Ida replied, giving her a giant hug. "Text me, okay?"
"I will. Bye, Pepper. Bye, Tony. Nice meeting you two."
"Nice meeting you, Teddy," said Tony.
Teddy nodded and left the diner, easily taking off into a run. The cool wind caressed her face and faces blurred as she pushed herself faster. She screeched to a halt outside S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ and let herself in. She pushed Phil out of the room and set up in the chair beside Steve with her laptop so she could work on her thesis.
"I hope you don't mind music," she said as she found an oldies playlist on Spotify. "I always work to music."
