Evening Ladies and Gentleman! This is a short companion piece to accompany R.J. North's Solace Series. We get to see a little bit more into the life of our favorite mad doctor, written by yours truly. I'll also be putting a poll on my page regarding a possible Taylor Malone story, since there's a lot to the character you guys actually don't know. You can chose between it being a full story, a series of short stories, or no story at all. Be sure to vote! Though I warn you my schedule is hella crazy, like you don't even know, so updates will be slower and less regular than Solace. Also it will not overlap very much and will be behind in the timeline. Alright that's all! Have a good read!
Taylor and Jamie sat almost awkwardly across from eachother at the table, both on the mend from the recent attacks, though Taylor was still visibly banged up from the incident that took place almost two months ago. Her tiny arm in a sling from a dislocated elbow. Taylor had been attacked during the HYDRA uprising and of course caused hell for them. It was a cool story, maybe sometime she'll tell it to you bro. Jamie of course had contacted her, but only after the cool stuff had already happened and Taylor looked like a total badass. After Taylor chose to remain with SHEILD Jamie decided it was time for the two most important people in her life to meet, though if you ask her she might deny Taylor being one of those people.
"So...swanky place.." Taylor said to clear the silence.
"It's a bit too modern for my taste," Jamie admitted.
"You would say that." Taylor said rolling her eyes at her, fingers drumming in her usual nervous air.
"Of course I would," Jamie said. "I'm more of the farm, country living kind of girl. Or small apartment, historical district type."
Taylor made a distressed gagging noise. "But...wifi..." She said in horror.
"Wifi can be practically anywhere the house is, Tay," Jamie chuckled.
"Oh ye of tiny brains. Seriously wifi is shitty in the middle of nowhere no matter how good the service. Besides...I don't think I can sleep without the sound of the city anymore. Silence scares me more than noise now." Taylor shrugged, she had lived all of her known life in the city, she didn't know anything else.
"I getcha," Jamie told her, nodding her head absentmindedly. She lifted her hand to check the simple watch on her wrist. "They should've been here five minutes ago. It's not like Steve to be late."
"...They...as in people...I agreed to meet the boy toy." Taylor said eyes narrowing. "But only because I basically know him through you. But who is this third party?"
"Just Sam," Jamie clarified. "I've talked about him enough and he's curious to meet you too."
"But I haven't had a chance to book him!...And how curious. What have you told him. Did you blow my cover?!" Taylor said her high strung attitude surfacing. Taylor liked having a plan, Taylor always had a plan and so she was the only one allowed to break said plan.
"You don't need to," Jamie sighed, an added effect of an eye roll. "And no, I didn't blow anything. He helped during the battle, he knows you helped find Sitwell for us, and helped me find Steve and Nat so he knows your smart."
Taylor's cheek colored with a soft pink, obviously more humble than her her loud mouth made her out to be. "I...Of course I'm smart. God that word is so mundane to describe me. And HYDRA is so 20th century, had to get them out of my space." She scoffed looking away. "It's not like I'm a good guy or some shit." She could feel the mortification overwhelm her as it once again washed over. She had helped the very people she claimed to hate with a passion. The very symbol of her oppression!
"Aw, see? You both use the word "Shit"a lot!" Jamie chuckled, checking her watch once more.
"What? Why is that adorable?" Taylor glared.
"Because you'll get along," Jamie said. "You need more friends."
"I need no one!" Taylor said in complaint. It was true, she took care of herself just fine. She didn't need anyone. She never had anyone really, not until Jamie.
The elevator dinged and the two could faintly hear two pairs of footsteps making their way towards them, a casual, non relevant conversation being muttered between to two males. Jamie smiles, rising from her seat on the couch to turn and greet her two friend and colleagues.
"Hey Jamie, sorry we're late...Tony." Steve muttered, that being enough explanation as he hugged her.
"No problem," Jamie said, wrapping her arm around his waist, but turned so they were simply standing next to each other so he could face Taylor. "We can make do with conversation fillers," she said. "Anyway, Steve, Sam, this is Dr. Taylor Malone."
Taylor was less enthusiastic about the greeting, but stood none the less, trying to keep the scowl off her face as she stared at her confiscated DNA scanner Jamie took from her purse. Her hand ached from the device missing from it's rightful place.
Steve smiled at the woman taking her uninjured hand and shaking in gently. "Taylor, feels like I already know you, to be honest. Thanks for being a good friend to Ja-"
"Yeah yeah, Capsicle now give me a hair sample!" Taylor rolled her eyes. She eyed the blond locks with a passion, just imagining the information it held. She could see what Jamie liked in him. He had that classic boy next look to him, dimples and all. But he looked a little too...Taylor couldn't put her finger on it. Too good? Is there such a thing as being too good? Taylor had no clue but she sure as hell knew he had a look that screamed a life to hand his ass to him.
"No, what the hell did I tell you, Taylor!" Jamie scolded.
"Hey my paranoia is what helped you find Mr. Star Spangled Tight Ass!"
"T-Tight wha-" Steve said his face red.
"Ignore her," Jamie sighed pinching the bridge of her nose.
Sam chuckled, shaking his head amused by the conversation."Nice to finally put a face to the name," Sam said, offering his own hand with his added iconic smirk gracing his lips. Taylor was more hesitant with him her eyes peering suspiciously at him before giving his hand a quick and firm handshake. She did her best to gather information with just her eyes, totally old fashion! Obviously military from the confident but relaxed way he held himself, but remaining tight coiled at his core. He was lankier than boy wonder over there so that's good, his muscle mass concentrated in his shoulders and back. He had a strong jaw and soft look to his brown eyes.
"So...you're the bird guy." Taylor said, once again no control over her rude big mouth. "I'd know more, but Jamie decided to surprise me. And not in a fun, free alcohol way."
"Jamie's a bit stingy about the alcohol," Sam said. "Never has any in the fridge. But yeah, I'm one of the bird guys, though I'm the one with the actual wings. But you can just call me Sam, if you'd like."
"Call me Wonderful, Amazing, The Great Taylor Malone, Technological Marvel, or just plain Goddess if you prefer." Taylor said with a shrug.
"Or just Taylor or Dr. Malone is fine too," Jamie added in for her.
"Fuck you too you little Shit." Taylor said as Steve showed a bit of physical distress at her language. Even Jamie didn't swear that much. "Anyway, I guess it's not...that bad to meet you...or something like that." Taylor said before turning away to sit down, assuming she had done a good enough job at socializing. She had greeted and introduced so she didn't feel the need to further this conversation.
"Cool, because I've been wanting to meet you," Sam said. "I've heard so much from Jamie already."
"...Whatever she said wasn't true!" Taylor said in a panic. She could imagine all the things her best friend had told these...these...mortals!
"Insane? Weird? Rude with a worse mouth than me?" Jamie chuckled as she stated the facts. She sat down, patting the seat on the couch next to her to indicate for the guys to sit back and relax as well.
"Okay that part's on point, but anything else is a sure as fire fabrication." Taylor said, pushing Jamie away from her absentmindedly.
"A technical genius with two doctorates and an unbelievably both fashion sense that totally works for her," Jamie went on, with better thing this time.
"...Who are you and what have you done with Jamie?" Taylor said looking at the woman.
"Just because I wouldn't wear your stuff doesn't mean it doesn't look great on you," Jamie stated.
"Not many people can pull off my choices."
"And you do look good," Sam muttered, his eyes casually looking her over. It wasn't in a perverse way, however, More as in just looking to see what she was wearing and to get a feel of the style the two were talking about.
"Finally someone says something!" Taylor said. "Seriously Jamie I've been with you for half an hour and you didn't say anything. Thank you Sam for having common sense!" Taylor scoffed.
"Yeah, how rude, Jamie!" Sam chuckled.
"Bird Brain might just be okay." Taylor murmured.
"Told you," Jamie muttered, her eyes rolling once more.
"Still need to research and get DNA before he's allowed within 3 feet of me."
"Take as much as you want," Sam offered, holding his hands up as to surrender. "As long as that means I might get a hug at some point."
"He likes hugs," Jamie clarified.
"...Wait what?...You mean I don't have to take if forcibly?" Taylor blinked as she looked at him. "Normally hugs take up to 3 months of contact...I might make an exception...I'll hug you next time we meet if you clear." She had no clue why she just offered that! Give him the potential to stab her in the back both figuratively and literally?! Hell. To. The. NO!
"He's clear," she muttered, picking up a magazine off of the table before leaning back into Steve's side subconsciously. "Just take my word for it, for once."
"...Jamie I love you but let me do my thing. I'm pretty sure it's the only reason the invisible demons haven't eaten my face yet..."
"There aren't invisible demons," Jamie assured her, flipping through the TV Guide magazine to see what was on that night.
"...Says the muggle..." Taylor said narrowing her eyes as she looked around the room.
"Uh, I'm lost...she's insulting us...and that's good?" Steve asked looking at Jamie.
"Yeah, it's kind of her way of showing affection," Jamie clarified as best she could. "Or, sort of. Don't take it personally."
Taylor reaches out behind Jamie to pluck a blond hair from Steve's innocent little head. Jamie reacted as if she had done it several times before, swatting the woman's hand to drop the hair. "No, bad Taylor. What have I told you?"
"Ow! I'm injured! You have to be nice to me it's best friend law! And I need it!"Taylor complained falling against her side, putting all her weight on her.
"No, you don't!" Jamie scolded. "It's rude! Think of how Steve feels!"
"Uh, she can have some if she wants...?" Steve said. It would be polite to give DNA to your best friends best friend right? What was the etiquette? Though to be honest it make him uncomfortable, a rock forming in his stomach at the thought of being plucked and prodded at.
"No, Taylor, and that's final," Jamie said, giving the woman a pointed look since she knew Steve was too polite to decline. Taylor didn't like that look. That look made her feel things, things like the actual human emotion of shame.
Taylor slowly gave her friend the finger, a promptly moved on. She could always pluck the DNA off of Jamie again. "Fine...but you're buying me booze later. I am injured...you have to be nice to me."
"You're not supposed to mix the pain meds with alcohol," Jamie reminded her.
"Yeah but here me out, I want to do it anyway. I'm a doctor, I know what I'm doing." Taylor said slowly.
"No, and that's final," Jamie reiterated.
"I didn't think you were that kind of doctor," Sam thought outloud.
"I'm not." Taylor said. "But it's two more doctorates than you losers have. So still more qualified." She said head plopping down in Jamie's lap.
"Don't make me order Dr. Simmons to watch you again," Jamie threatened.
"No! She's boring! She made me play Scrabble for two hours! I could feel my brain cells and fun molecules dying!"
"I like scrabble," Jamie said. "I used to play it with my brother for longer than that."
"She wouldn't accept smexy as a word though. She was so nit picky." Taylor grumbled.
"Bitch, that's not a word," Jamie scolded, playfully swatting Taylor's head with the magazine.
"Hey how about you get that stick out of your ass and just accept it. It's a combination of sexy and smart. Which is me." Taylor said.
"Yes it is," Sam muttered before he realized that it came out of his mouth. He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, glancing anywhere but at Taylor.
Taylor blinked as she stared at him. What was happening right now? She looked around confused. He was...agreeing with her? But...no one ever agreed with her. They just rolled their eyes and told her to shut up. Which she never did. "It is?" Her voice squeaked unexpectedly. What was happening?
Sam opened his mouth to reply, but Jamie beat him to it. "Yeah, yeah. Sam thinks you're hot, you think he's cute. We get it. I'm hungry. Want to order Chinese food?" She asked, standing up from her seat after pushing Taylor's head off her lap. "Come on, Steve. Help me find the number of that place we ordered from last time." She grabbed his arm, and pulled him along with her to leave the other two alone.
"Go get laid already." Taylor yelled face red as she sat up, looking at the ground. She felt that rock in her stomach grow about twenty pounds.
"Oh thank God you think they need to too," Sam chuckled with an exaggerated sigh of relief.
"Are you kidding? I've been working that angle since like, day one. They both have a stick up their ass they need to get surgically removed." Taylor sighed with a roll of her eyes as she settled back into the couch. "So,...you jumped back into the game..." Talking about the line of duty. "Just like that? No hesitation?" She said, that fact confusing her.
"They needed my help," Sam said with a shrug. "There wasn't much thought to it. But what about you? You're not a soldier, but you jumped in and helped anyways? I mean, you dislocated your elbow somehow…"
"What the hell is with that somehow? Is it that odd of an injury? I got pushed down onto a desk by some jerk!"
"Because…" Sam pressed.
"...I stopped him from telling people where you guys where...or tried. Cause you know...desk thing. Didn't pan out well for me." Taylor wiggled her arm. "...shut up." She didn't like talking about it. She wasn't a good guy, she simply acted without thinking and it just so happened to be the right thing.
Sam just smirked and chuckled. "Must make testing things hard. Maybe a risk to lose your job?"
"Yeah oh gee. I might lose my status as indentured servant? Ohh so depressing" Taylor said waving her arm as if scared.
"Forced?" Sam question.
"New's flash Sam, not everyone chooses to enlist into SHIELD, sometimes, if you pose a big enough threat, they force you to draft in order to smother you." Taylor said glaring at him. She felt old bitterness rise in her throat as she thought of it. Honestly if you asked her when she was a teen if she wanted to work for something like SHEILD she would have been hella excited too. But it was the fact the choice was taken from her, blackmailed out of her to avoid federal prison after what her asshole of an ex did to her, that pissed her off. She didn't like being told what to do...
"Recruited, not enlist!" Jamie yelled from the kitchen.
"Well, I'm sure you didn't hate it as much as you say you did," Sam said. "Why else risk your life, why else stay after HYDRA?"
"I hate a lot of things, and being forced and threatened to take part in something is one of them. I just happen to like something more to keep me here." Taylor said her cheeks coloring darkly as she presses her back into the couch, shrinking in on herself shyly.
Sam glanced over his shoulder towards the kitchen, where his eyes landed on Jamie sitting on the counter, conversing with Steve about who knows what. He turned back, nodding his head. "Jamie. She's why you stay? But why? I mean, she's great and all, but what makes you that devoted."
"...Familiarity..." Taylor said looking away. She was pissed she was talking, not knowing why she was talking, even reluctantly as she was. People did wonder, what did Jamie offer her that would cause Taylor to risk life and limb constantly for her? That level of devotion and sacrifice didn't come with simple friendship. And that's because it wasn't just a friendship, not to Taylor.
"I don't get it," he admitted.
"You're not supposed too. No one does. But I'll tell you familiarity is a luxury I grew up without and Jamie brought that back to me and I'm not strong enough to let it go. Even if I should." Taylor muttered. "Happy life stories aren't very common anymore. Some of us don't have happy beginnings, or endings."
"I don't know, maybe you're just not looking in the right places," Sam said, a small smile gracing his lips.
"Well Mr. Know-it-all, when you find one share it with me, then maybe I'll start being all sunshine and all that shit." Taylor scoffed at him.
"I most definitely will," he told her with a chuckle.
"...why do I feel like there is a double meaning there. You have to be nice to me. I'm fucking injured, dick face!" Taylor glared at him, throwing a pillow at his head.
Sam laughed, a very loud free laugh. "No, I don't!"
"Just because I have only one arm does not mean I can't make your life miserable! I am very good at that!" Taylor said trying to hit him again but ran out of pillows and threw a magazine.
Jamie chuckled,crossing her arms as she watched the two in the living room. "I think they'll be good for eachother. Or, at least Taylor," Jamie said.
"...Really? Cause Taylor is...a lot," Steve said, trying to be polite. "I like her! Don't get me wrong. She is very sweet when she wants to be but...yeah."
"She's good. And you're right, she's a lot to handle, but that's because she has a hard time trusting people. She trusts me for some reason, and that kind of mellows her out a bit. Sam will be good for her to be friends with."
"Why does she trust you? Why only you?" Steve asked. "Not that you're not trustworthy but, all you did was talk to her once. Other people talked to her before she she snubs them."
"Honestly, I don't know. Maybe it's because," she started to say, pausing to think about it. "Maybe because I didn't look at her differently, or tell her to change. Treated her like a person, with respect and capable of doing her job."
"...You acted like she was in place." Steve said eyebrows furrowed. "That she wasn't...I don't know. Maybe as out of place as she makes herself out to be." He shrugged. "I don't know. That's just my theory." He smiles and hugs her. "Either way she made the perfect choice for a friend."
"You're just saying that because you're my guy," Jamie chuckled, resting her head on his chest.
"I never said I wasn't bias!" Steve chuckled a bit.
"...so you guys gonna screw or something?" Taylor asked leaning against the door frame with a raised eyebrow. "Cause that is like, hella unsanitary."
Jamie sighed and pulled back, looking up at Steve who was so close she could feel his breathe on her face. "...Why am I friends with her again?" She asked Steve.
"Because I'm fucking amazing!" Taylor protested as she got a drink out for herself, trying hard to pop the tab on her Dr Pepper one handed.
"Yeah I have no clue." Steve muttered with a roll of his eyes. "And I thought you had better taste!" He put a hand on his chest as an example, while joking.
And I'm sure you taste great, Jamie thought with a smirk. She chucked and pushed him back so she could hop off the counter. "Okay, Chinese food!"
"Chicken egg rolls! Not pork!" Taylor said glaring at the girl.
"Ew! Seriously, why the hell are we friends?"
"Hey! I got a dislocated elbow for you. Show some gratitude and get me my chicken egg rolls!"
"Oh stop playing the pity card. You're hardly defenseless!"
"Oh I'm sorry! I don't have superpowers! Let me just wish the bad guys away! That would work!"
"No bad guys here, Idiot!"
"I'm looking at one! Pork egg roll eating one!"
"Damn chicken!"
"Fucking pork!"
"Yes! I'll order them now!"
"JARVIS block any outgoing calls from Solace's phone! I'm making the order!"
"JARVIS doesn't take orders from nonresidents," Jamie stated.
"He does once I promise a deep clean of his system! Even machines can be bribed,believe me, I've done it!"
"Mr. Stark has informed me I am no longer allowed to accept such an offer, Ms. Malone."
"...I know you did not just call me Ms. I am a Doctor!" Taylor said turning her rant onto the poor machine. "I worked hard for my degrees!"
"I apologize, Dr. Malone."
"...So um...they're pretty close huh?" Steve said to Sam awkwardly.
"It's kind of like watching a comedy," Sam chuckled.
"Yeah, but with crazy people." Steve nodded slowly.
"Got that right…"
"Who the fuck you calling crazy Mr. Star Spangled Tight Ass?!"
"Oh, leave his ass alone!" Jamie groaned.
"He does have a very nice one." Taylor said peeking over the counter to get a look at it.
Jamie smacked the back of her head for looking. She glared, giving her a flared warning look not to overstep her bounds.
"Hey...I'm allowed to tell you when you found a good catch..."
"Taylor," she warned in a growl.
"Shhhhhhhh," Taylor said petting her face slowly. "Just...shhhhh it's okay. Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur."
"I'll just order that food." Steve said rubbing the back of his neck with a red embarrassed blush as he pulls out his phone.