Chapter 00:
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The sound of the dripping ceiling had become the norm for Courtney. She laid on her cot in the middle of the room and stared up at the harsh lighting. She sighed and looked over to the wall. It was covered in what looked like millions of black tally counts.
"This is patient 352." A voice came from the hallway, "Don't let her small stature confuse you. Don't ever give into her, understand?"
A newbie. Courtney thought and smirked to herself. How do I mess around with this one? Her mind went over a thousand different ways she could make the new hire feel right at home.
"How long has she been a patient here?" The new hire asked curiously.
"9,997 days." Courtney answered the man. She sat up in her cot and smiled devilishly at him, "Almost 27 years to be exact. My birthday is coming up tomorrow, I hope you brought me something."
"I-uh-I-" The man tumbled over his words as Courtney sauntered over to the bars separating the two of them. "Get back patient!" He snapped, whacking his baton against the bars.
"Oooooo, A tough one. Good hire there Murphy." She looked to the other man standing there with his arms crossed. Her sarcasm was nothing new to him, after all, he had been putting up with it for a quarter of a century and then some.
"And you'll be here another 9000 with an attitude like that." Murphy quipped back at her.
"Good, another 9000 days to spend annoying you and Newb here."
"So where are we suppose to put this live feed?" The newbie asked, looking at the wall across from her cell.
Courtney's interest peaked, with an eyebrow raised she asked the question on her mind, "What live feed?"
"Oh, looks like she's going to play nice all of a sudden." Murphy laughed, "If you must know we are going to send a live feed of you to S.H.I.E.L.D as a tease to what they're missing out on." He explained in a way that left more questions than answers.
"I guess we won't get much private time anymore then." Courtney joked, making a hand-job motion to Murphy, making the Newbie laugh loudly. "Just make sure you get my good side." She sighed and turned on her heel and walked over to the small window and stared outside.
"She puts this jokester front up Bautista but she really sits at that window everyday hoping someone will come and rescue her." Murphy's tone of voice was suddenly serious and sharp as if it cut into Courtney.
"It's like she's Rapunzel." Bautista laughed.
"And you two are my ugly dragons guarding me." Courtney added, soliciting a whack on the bars from Murphy with his baton.
She listened at the technicians came out and installed the cameras across the hall and inside her cell. Instead of joking around with them she decided to stay silent and stare out her window until the sun went down. Tomorrow she would be the big 30 but it would be just like any other day.
Courtney walked over to her record player they allowed her to keep and grabbed the only record she was ever given to listen to The Beatles Greatest Hits. She swayed back and forth to the tune of Girl and sang along to the words.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, a highly coded feed link was sent to an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D with the tag line "She's So Heavy". "Sir, you might want to come and take a look at this…" The agent mumbled over the earpiece once the link was open. He paused the introduction so that the others could come and look at it.
Once one of the men in charge came into the room along with three other members they began to play the video,
Is there anybody going to listen to my story?
All about the girl who came to stay…
She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry,
still you don't regret a single day,
a girl.
The screen suddenly went black then flashed over to the live feed of Courtney in her cell. Another email came in after and read out, 'On her 10,000th night, the feed will die and so will she. Follow the clues and you might just save her life.'
"Is that the HYDRA symbol Sir?" The man asked, pointing at the emblem on the screen.
"It sure is. Let's get the Avengers in here."
"No, not all of them. I know who we need for this." A voice came from the hallway. It was Agent Coulson. "Call the Captain and Falcon. Hawkeye as well." He ordered and the man rushed over to the phone to begin calling them all in.
"Sir, who is she?" The other agent asked.
Coulson stared at the screen and observed the woman sitting in her cot looking at her record player, "I don't know. But if she wasn't important, HYDRA wouldn't have kept her alive for 27 years."
"Maybe she has some sort of super powers…" Another agent mumbled.
"Or maybe she's a nobody and they're trying to find a way to infiltrate us." Another, more serious, Agent added.
"Only one way to find out." Coulson said calmly, keeping his eyes on the screen.
"Sir, there on their way. Falcon suggested another new Avenger that might be able to help as well. He insisted on bringing him for this job."
The clocked clicked past midnight in Courtney's cell, "Happy Birthday to me…" She whispered. In the dark she crawled over to the wall and took out a black sharpie from her pocket and put another tally on the wall.
"9,998."
She turned back to look at the window, staring at the moonlight shining through the bars and onto the cold cement floor.