"Miss Fable?" Fox looked up at her name. The smiling chemist beckoned her over. She stood and put the packet of aspirin she'd been pretending to read back on the shelf, making her way to the cash register. The Chemist held out the little bottle of pills that was her lifeline. "Here you go!" her voice was cheery, and Fox forced a smile as she shoved the pill bottle deep into her jacket pocket.

"Do I pay now?" she asked, and the Chemist nodded merrily. She was wearing a locket and a gold wedding ring. She seemed like she had a good life. Fox's smile grew slightly more grimace like. She got out her credit card. A pin machine was held out to her, and Fox frowned. "Is there any way I can sign for this?"

"No, I'm afraid. We have a new 'no paper' policy. Everything's online now. Makes for less time." The woman explained. Fox almost growled at her. She reluctantly pulled off one of her thick gloves off, and quickly punched in the numbers on the touch screen. Before she could pull her hand back, the woman grabbed it off her, and she felt the familiar zap. She groaned, her head flashing with pain, as a vision of the woman's life flashed across her mind.

"I can't do this anymore Mary!" a black haired man shouted at the chemist, Mary.

"You can't?" Mary screamed. She looked a little older, and she had a few grey hairs. "You're the one cheating on me! What about our family?" the locket swung wildly as she gestured to the two crying children at the table.

The vision ended with another flash. She looked up regretfully at the anxious chemist, who was fluttering over her. "Are you okay, Miss Fable? Y-your eyes-" Fox straightened and almost sprinted away.

"I'm fine, Mary. You look out for yourself." She called back to her, already halfway to the exit. The cold winter air hit her with a slap. She paused at the corner of the street, looking back at the chemist. As always, she was faced with awful decision whether or not to say something. If the cheating had already begun, maybe she could help, but otherwise….

No. She had learnt already to keep these things to herself. Learnt the hard way.

Poor Mary. And poor Jeremy, and Georgia and Antonio and all the others that kept her awake all night.

Fox started her way back to her tiny apartment. There was no use dwelling on the countless hopeless souls she couldn't stop seeing. It was dark, and it had taken her half an hour to get to the 24 hour chemist on a bus. She cast a quick look forward on her way home. There didn't seem to be any bad things happening on the way, so she continued without fear.

Fox Fable had the terrible gift of foresight – precognition – and her particular gift worked on those she had touched, skin to skin. After touching them, she would occasionally see flashes of the future in store for those people. Those visions were not always very long, flashes of events and things to come.

Sometimes she had long visions, visions of things that had, or would affect many people. Those were the ones that took a lot out of her, sometimes leaving her comatose for a few hours. Her own destiny was harder to see, major events were not something she caught glimpses of often. Little things, such as running out of milk on Monday, or buying the wrong brand of whiskey were easily avoided. And she could avoid them. If she remembered.

Changing destiny was always something to be careful with. Seeing that Jessica was going to commit suicide in three weeks, and stopping her was all well and good, but then the threat of someone finding out how she had known, or in saving her, she was subjecting Jessica to her life of daily terror. People's fate could be changed. Jessica could come to her senses, and in a sudden burst of clarity, throw away the blades. Then she would go on to write a book about self-help.

Of course real life was rarely that fantastic. Fox knew.

Jessica had actually committed suicide, and Fox had gone to the funeral. Jessica had been an old flat-mate, and her family had had a history of depression. After the funeral, her mother had left her father, and Jessica's family had been torn apart. Not that Jessica knew. Fox did. And Fox carried that with her. It was too late to take action. If only she could go back in time instead.

Jessica hadn't been the only death she'd seen. There was Gordon with a carcrash that had claimed him and his wife, Brytni and her heroin overdose, Julie who slept with her twin's boyfriend and was then killed by her, Stephen who had shot his neighbour then shot himself, Joshua had died from hypothermia, alone in the DC streets, Delia had a slow and painful death from leukaemia, Dr Walsh had jumped from the top of the hospital after he couldn't save his son, Theresa had tried to save her little sister from a house fire, and died afterwards from smoke inhalation.

There were many more. Some still living, some dead or dying, according to what she could see. She did what she could for the 63 people she was stuck with.

It would be 62 in a month. She was going to miss Kaye.

She had brought Delia her favourite flowers, and had a drink with her. Delia had been too out of it on meds to know, but Fox knew. She had raced over town to save a little boy and his mother from being shot in a hold up at a grocery store. She had stopped a divorce of a random man she had touched on a bus, she helped an old man finally build his model ship before he died, she had written a fake reference letter for a homeless woman who would have otherwise died in the streets.

She had done the best she could with what she had. There was still so many that she had lost, so many she had failed. It was that, along with the random visions that kept her up at night.

…

Her apartment was cold. The heating didn't work, not for lack of trying to fix it. She couldn't be afford to hire someone to fix it. Her job at the tiny bookshop didn't make much. Just enough to pay for the rent, booze and medication. She kicked the door closed, heading for the fridge. There was nothing inside but a bottle of beer and half a sandwich. She could see mould growing on the cheese. She shut the fridge again, and headed for her bedroom. Her alarm clock flashed 1:00 am at her. She sighed, throwing the pills on the bed. Her head throbbed once, and then she was thrown into a vision.

Men in black uniforms, with serious weaponry surrounded the front of her apartment building. A man with a square jaw and short black hair held up three fingers, as the last finger fell, they swarmed into the building.

Fox lay in her bed, purple hair tangled about her head. A whiskey bottle was cradled in her arms, like an adult teddy bear. The door banged open, and she was suddenly surrounded by the men in black. She stirred, drowsy because of the sleeping pills and the alcohol. She was grabbed and pulled upright. She tried to fight, but was quickly subdued. She was thrown into a waiting van, and driven away.

Fox gasped, holding a hand to her head, eyes scrunched shut, as she struggled to remember any little details she had missed. Her eyes flew open and she glanced at the little clock. It read 1:02 now. In the vision it had read 1:36 am.

She had 34 minutes.

She ran around her room, and started throwing things into a backpack. She shoved all of her hair up under a black cap, and pulled up her hood. She ran to the bathroom, and opened the top of her toilet, pulling out her hidden money cache. She shoved it the bottom of the backpack, and opened the window. She climbed out, and made her way down the fire escape to the back alley. Close to the bottom, her head pounded again, and she saw the same vision, but with the short haired man swearing in frustration and shattering her whiskey bottle against the wall. She released her tight grip on the ladder, and started running down the alley. She would hide in the bookshop across the road.

She opened the door to the shop with the key the owner - Eddy - had given her. Eddy would die at 53 of a heart attack, but before that, he'd marry a pretty woman called Grace. She slipped quietly around the counter, and crouched down, pulling a moth-eaten blanket around her. She kept the blanket here so she could sleep here during the day.

There was a gap between the desk and the bottom of the window, and she looked at her apartment block. She checked her watch, it was 1:33. Two vans pulled up outside, and the men got out. The only man without a helmet, the short haired one, held up his hand, and they stormed inside. She held her breath.

Who were they?

The logo on the vans was hard to make out, but she eventually made it out. S.H.I.E.L.D. with an eagle with its wings outstretched. What the hell is S.H.I.E.L.D?

Fox decided she didn't want to know, and had just started to get up, when the wailing of police sirens froze her in her place. The black uniformed men filtered out of the building, and got back in the van. The short haired man walked over to the cop who had gotten out of the car, and spoke to him. Then he gestured up at the apartment building, and held out a piece of paper. She felt a sickening drop in her stomach, as the cop nodded, and started talk into his walkie-talkie. He climbed back into the police car.

The short haired man paused as he walked to the front of the van. He turned slowly, and seemed to look right into Fox's eyes. She choked, and scrambled away from the window. She turned and sprinted for the back door, looking behind her to see the man start to walk for the shop.

She jumped the fence, and ran as hard as she could. She didn't stop until she reached a main street. She panted, then her head panged,

Antonio opened the door to his deli, frowning as he found it already unlocked. He must've forgotten to lock it the night before. He shrugged. He had emptied the till anyway.

Fox looked around wildly. The deli was open! She knew he emptied the till on Wednesday nights, so it was still open. He had been to Antonio's deli before. She could wait there until morning. It was too dangerous to be out in the open now. A police car drove past, and she shrunk back. Turning in the direction of the Deli, she started for the safe haven.

…

She woke up to the beeping of her watch. She had miraculously slept without visions. It was 9:00, and she had to leave before Antonio came. She stopped at the display of food. She groaned. She didn't know when she'd be able to get food.

Fox walked down the street, concealed in the big pack of people heading to wherever they were going. She ducked into an internet café, and ordered a coffee, and opened two tabs on the computer,

S.H.I.E.L.D., Washington, DC

Fox Fable, Washington DC

On the S.H.I.E.L.D. tab, it had very little information, just a bunch of conspiracy theory pages, and some weird error pages. She found an address of their so called headquarters. It was right there in DC. She frowned, and her hazel eyes flickered over to the tab about her.

She sucked in a startled breath.

'WANTED: FOX FABLE. PLEASE CONTACT DC POLICE ABOUT WHEREABOUTS.'

Then her head throbbed and she was sucked into another vision.

She finished her coffee, and kept looking at some of the theory pages about S.H.I.E.L.D. then the door of the café jangled. She turned and saw a man in a suit talking to the barrister. The barrister nodded, and pointed right at her. Her eyes widened as she made eye contact with the man in the suit. She scrambled out of her chair, and sprinted for the back exit, only to be met by another suited man. She was pistol whipped, and dropped to the floor.

She jolted up, and gathered her things, shoving the hat back on her head. If they could find her through what she was searching, then she had to leave now.

…

Agent Geld pursed his lips. She had left the tabs open. The SHEILD logo caught his eye, and he minimized the page. Her coffee was still steaming. Sitwell would not be pleased.

She was smarter than they had thought. He turned to his partner. "Contact Sitwell. We haven't got her, but we're closing in." the other man nodded and held up a phone to his ear. Geld stalked out of the dingy café, and surveyed the street. Even with her little gift, she wouldn't get far without help.

…

She kept running, not watching where she was going. She was out of the city and nearing the suburban areas. She sped past a mother and her stroller.

Panting, she rounded the corner to the next street. Up ahead of her, she could see two figures walking – no, limping – down the street. She kept on running. The taller of the two straightened, and readied himself. He stepped into her path and threw her.

Fox was vaguely confused. One second she'd been running for her life, and the next, flying through the air.

She hit the ground with a painful thud. All the air was pushed out of her lungs, and she gasped for breath. She heard an exclamation, and then the man who had thrown her was in her line of vision.

"I am so sorry, miss!" he looked nervous, "I thought you were-" he shook his head, cutting himself off. Fox rolled off her side, and tried to get up. The man offered her a hand, and she accepted, wheezing. "Are you okay?" his eyes were wide, and he reached for her face.

There was a cry from behind him, "Wait, Steve!" Fox tried to move, but then his fingers were on her cheek, and her head throbbed and her eyes rolled back in her skull, and the small zap travelled between them.

"Are you okay, miss?" he was holding her, and her hazel eyes met his brilliant blue. "You fainted."

"Steve! Did you touch her?" the red headed woman limped towards them.

"Yeah." Fox said, her voice croaky. The woman huffed. Steve looked confused.

"That's her! That's the other one they have a nation-wide arrest warrant for." She looked at Fox in suspicion. "The one with the visions."

Then there was the cracks of gunfire, and a distant roaring.

"Fox! Stay down!" His voice crackled in her ear, and Fox growled at him.

"I'll be fine! I don't die today." She got up from the crate she was sheltering behind. She raised the guns in her hands, and shot with accuracy towards the approaching men. "Besides, help's on its way."

"That's not exactly a comfort!" his voice was slightly frantic. "I'm heading for you."

"Don't bother. I'm right near Fate. I'll back her up." A masculine voice said in her ear, and seconds later, a red and gold robot-like suit landed next to her, and began firing.

The scene changed.

"Steve!" Fox shoved him, "What did I tell you! No flowers!"

Steve smiled at her. "c'mon, Fox! I know you only pretend they're stupid, I know you really like them."

Fox narrowed her eyes at him, and he stepped closer to her, holding out the tulips.

The sky was grey, and rain was falling.

"Steve." She shifted in the warm arms that held her. They tightened.

"Mmm." he hummed against her neck. She smiled.

"Nothing." He groaned, and rolled with her, making her squeal slightly. She ended up looking into his eyes, chest to chest.

"You are so annoying." He said, his voice heavy with sleep. She kissed him.

"You love me."

"Yeah."

She exhaled a breath, as she came back to herself. This- this man, he was – well he would be – so much to her. "Are you okay, miss?" Steve was holding her, and her hazel eyes met his brilliant blue. "You fainted." She swallowed.

"You love me."

"Yeah."

She shook her head slightly. "Steve! Did you touch her?" the red headed woman limped towards them.

"Yeah." Fox said, her voice croaky with the emotions racing through her. The woman huffed. Steve looked confused.

"That's her! That's the other one they have a nation-wide arrest warrant for." She looked at Fox in suspicion. "The one with the visions."

Steve stiffened. Fox took the moment to make distance between them. "Look, I'm sorry to have bothered you. I'll be on my way. There are some people-" she stopped herself. For all she knew, they would report her.

"People after you?" Steve said.

"I'm heading for you!"

"Yeah, but I can see them coming." She smirked and tapped her head, "Mostly."

"I think you'd better come with us." The red head said carefully, face blank of any emotion. She held out a hand. Fox looked from it to her face. She grasped it with her gloved hand. She shook once. "I'm Natasha Romanoff. We have a lot to talk about."

Steve was still looking at her with a creased brow. She lowered her own eyes. No attachments. Ever. She would stop this particular line of fate.