IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE END - PLEASE READ!
Jamie 'Phoenix' Snow was tired of running, it seemed as though she had been running since the moment she could walk, each step taken with a glance over the shoulder to make sure no one else was trying to kill her. She didn't have a permanent home, she didn't have permanent friends that she could go out with on a Friday night, hell she didn't even had a permanent job.
Instead she had safe houses scattered around the world under different names, she had acquaintances to help her get what she needed, and she sort of had a job. If you count killing people, stealing information, or basically committing treason a job. Instead of her wardrobe being filled with shoes and handbags like a normal woman of twenty-nine it was filled with guns, grenades and computer tech for any situation she was thrown into.
Five years ago she thought she could leave it all behind, she thought she could finally wash off all the blood on her hands and fall into a semblance of normality. She came to America with no-one knowing who she was, no one knowing the horrors she'd committed since she was eight years old. She met a guy, Clint, in a cafe in Washington, DC and started on the rockiest relationship known to anyone but for her it was probably one of the best things that had ever happened, the arguments followed by the rough as fuck make-up sex giving her a small sliver of normality.
But that's all it was, a sliver. Before long the relationship crumbled, the jealousy from both her and Clint became too unbearable and they each set out in new ways to make the other hurt. The lies and the secrets became the big elephant in the room, they'd learned to ignore it whilst they were just dating but after Clint put a ring on her finger through his jealousy the two of them couldn't avoid it anymore. He kept lying about his business trips and expecting her to ignore his injuries and she kept lying about who she really was.
She couldn't tell him she'd killed nearly 1000 people, tortured at least 300, stolen files from every corporation that exists and sold them to the highest bidder, a mixture of stolen and accidentally on purpose set off 5 nuclear bombs. If she had there was a good chance he would have gotten her arrested and she's be stuck in a jail cell for the rest of her life and he'd move on to someone less volatile and could handle his secrets.
Instead the relationship ended the way any does when secrets and lies are involved as well as two very volatile people. An argument , punches being thrown (mostly from her) and a slamming door were the catalyst in the end. Jamie remembers staring at the door for at least ten minutes, the vision of Clint walking out of it, slamming it behind him for the first time ever playing through her head like a movie on repeat. She'd soon snapped out of it and packed all of her stuff making sure to leave nothing but her ring on a table and a black eye forming on Clint's face.
She'd immediately left Washington, calling one her acquaintances and told him to find her a job. Things had gone to shit and she needed, no craved, the normality of things she knew to help her deal with the recent changes. So she went on more missions, she killed more people and she stole more valuable information. Until everything went to shit.
Now she was hiding out in New York, working in a small cafe under a assumed name that she'd plucked out of fresh air and got one of the people she knew to create fake documents for. Her eyesight forever flicking over her shoulder waiting for the next person to come gunning for her.
Jamie had started to lose count of how many corporations were after her now, all she knew was each of them wanted the valuable information she had and none of them cared if they had to pry it from her dead hands. She was living on borrowed time and could do nothing more but ride out the storm and hoped to fucking hell she came out alive on the other side.
A sigh leaves her lips as she glances in the mirror by the door one last time, making sure her newly dyed blonde hair looked presentable as well as her uniform before grabbing her leather jacket slipping it over her arms. Grabbing her keys from the small table near the door she heads out, shutting and locking the door behind her.
As she walks the three blocks to the cafe her eyes flick over every person she passes on the street, trying to spot anyone that could try to kill her. She reaches the cafe without incident and heads inside the small Victorian building, a small smile gracing her lips as she stands next to her boss Vicky.
"You okay child?" Vicky asks, a aged hand resting on Jamie's shoulder comfortingly
"I'm fine Vicky" Jamie smiles hoping it and her English accent fools the old lady "Just a lot praying on my mind"
"If you're sure"
Jamie nods and with one more regarding look Vicky turns back to the customer at the counter allowing Jamie to head through the back and into the small staff room. She slips off her leather jacket and grabs her pinafore tying it around her waist and smoothing it down over her black knee length skirt.
She liked Vicky, she was one of those old lady's who acted like a grandmother to everyone, always wanted to make sure everyone was okay and nothing was bothering them. Jamie had never had that before and the first time Vicky did it she wanted to scream and run. But after being here for three weeks she was starting to come to terms with the sentiment, it wasn't so strange anymore but it was still something she wasn't used to and doubted she ever would be.
Checking she has her pad and pen in one of the pockets she turns and plasters on another fake smile whilst heading out into the main area and straight over to the tables in her section. To say it was a small cafe it could get quite full, more often then not they were so busy that you could hardly move, people were crammed into every table, some even stood up just to get out of the cold. But Jamie loved it, it allowed her to escape her demons, keeping them at bay whilst she took peoples orders, smiled and wished them a good day/night.
She smiles politely at a middle aged man before walking over to the window, placing the order on the spinner and waiting for Tony the chef to hand her an order for another table in her section.
"You alright Chicka?" Tony asks as he hands over the meal
"Fine T, couldn't sleep" she shrugs "A lot on my mind"
"You need to rest Chicka, it's not good for you all that stress"
"Find me a good man and I'll soon get rid of it all" Jamie jokes earning a belly laugh from the chef.
She winks at the chef before grabbing the hot plate and turning on her heel heads off to hand it to her customer, once depositing the food at the right table and checking they didn't need anything else. She turns and looks around her section, her eyes land on one of the tables in the back to see it's previous unoccupied status was now filled by a singular man.
Walking over her eyes settle over him to see he was quite young, maybe early to late twenties, blonde hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders and one of those faces that could make a girl wet their knickers with a simple look. His eyes lift from the menu as she comes to a stop near the edge, she sends him a small smile to which he returns laying down the menu.
"Ready to order?" she asks slowly, knowing some people still had a problem understanding her accent
"Not yet Ma'am" he replies shocking Jamie with the manners "Could I just get a coffee for now and let you know"
Shaking her head to release the shock she sends him another smile "Sure, would you like cream and sugar?"
"No thank you"
"Okay" she nods "My names Marie, if you need me and I'll be right back with your coffee"
He nods, his eyes doing an assessment of her face before he drops them to the menu again and Jamie turns to grab his coffee. As she's waiting for the pot to boil her eyes flick over at the man again to see him looking around the cafe, his eyes landing on every patron and assessing them, just like she would. Her brow furrows as she wonders if he was here for her but he couldn't be, he seemed like the kind of guy that would rather be in the gym joking around with his friends instead of chasing a woman and trying to kill her.
She takes small calculated steps back to him with his coffee placing it on the wood top next to him and grabs the pad from her pocket, praying he doesn't see the slight shake in her hand as she grabs the pen readying it above the paper.
"You found what you want Sir"
"Steve" he amends "Please call me Steve, sir makes me feel old"
"So Steve, what would you like to eat" she tries again, her own brown eyes doing an assessment of his face. Her brain working to figure out who he is.
"Just a plate of fries please"
"Okay" she cheers "Coming right up"
She couldn't have ran away from the table any faster, pining the order to the spinner she heads into the back room, she folds herself in the middle her hands resting on her knees, her breath leaving her lips in heavy pants as she tries to ignore the unsettled feeling in her gut. She had been doing her job for too long to simply let a innocent face go without worrying, it was how she was trained, worry about the innocent ones that could end up being the one to dig the knife into your back.
"Chicka, your order" Tony calls, his voice carrying back to her
She stands up taking a deep breathe before walking back out into the fray and over to Tony, she grabs the plate from him and walks over to pretty boy, he smiles politely as she hands him his order but Jamie could see it was forced, he was trying to hide something and if the way he quickly flipped over the napkin in front of him as Jamie walked over, it was something to do with her.
Or it could just be your paranoia The little voice inside her head decides to chime.
It could be she murmurs to herself but she highly doubted it, his eyes had begun to fill with a small guilty edge. Forcing a smile on her face she straightens and writes a note of the order to hand to Vicky.
"Will that be all?" she could tell her voice was too forced and by the small flinch from the man in front of her, so did he
"No thank you Marie" he replies, his voice not once betraying his emotions
She nods and turns on her heel and walks over to Vicky handing over the slip, the old lady smiles before Jamie's off again, heading over to another new table in her section which has just been filled by two adults and four children.
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Jamie almost cries out in relief as Vicky shuts the door behind the last customer, the sound of quiet finally filling the small cafe, Vicky chuckles at the younger woman before walking over to the coffee pot pouring two cups. She walks over to the booth where the younger woman is seated, the money from the day's take is piled on top of the wooded counter waiting to be counted, logged and then dropped off at the bank by one of the two women on their way home. The other waitress, a cute sixteen year old that was working after school had already gone home.
"Night ladies" Tony calls as he heads out the back door, heading for home himself
"Night" Vicky and Jamie chorus
Jamie takes a small sip of her coffee, the amber liquid burning her tongue before she sets the cup to the side and pulls one of the stacks closer.
"Soo" Vicky starts "Who was the cute blonde in your section today?"
"Which one" Jamie asks confused, her mind running through the customers she's served
"The one who could be a model and has those manners which belong in the forties"
"Don't know" Jamie shrugs her hands working to count the money "Never seen him before"
"He was cute"
Jamie snorts as Vicky's words settled over her, she was doing it again. The Grandmother thing, this wasn't the first time in the last three weeks that Vicky had tried to set Jamie up on a date, if she remembers correctly it was actually the fifth.
"Not my type Vic" she laughs, her accent thick with tiredness
"Come on Marie, there's been a lawyer, a police officer, a firefighter, and two others and now him and they all aren't your type" she laughs ticking off the men "Just what is your type"
"The bad boys" Jamie smirks earning an eye roll from the older woman
"Should have guessed" Vicky laughs
Jamie joins in as they both turn back to the money in front of them, once counted Vicky bags it and hands it to Jamie, it was her turn to do the run. She didn't mind as it was on her way home, and the guy at the counter did most of it anyway, she just handed it over and said it was the takings from Vicky's cafe. Easy as pie.
Jamie stands from the small table stretching before heading into the back to grab her jacket as well as the bag that's left there for the money runs. She heads back out to see Vicky pulling on her coat, the older woman smiles and hands Jamie the money watching as the younger woman places it in the bag.
They head towards the door with Vicky unlocking it so they can both leave, once outside and the cafe shut up for the day the two part ways.
"Stay safe" Vicky calls over her shoulder "And enjoy your two days off"
"Always do"
Jamie sighs pulling the strap of the bag closer as she walks down the busy street, her eyes drift up to the Stark Tower as she learnt it was called, she could see they had finally started on the restoration, apparently two months ago some sort of Alien Invasion had happened. Jamie didn't know all the details, she didn't even know who was involved, she was yet to read the news about the attack, but looking at the tower and seeing the damage she couldn't help but wonder if she should.
She walks the two blocks to the bank easily and heads inside smiling as she sees it's almost empty and straight over to the counter handing over the money. She watches as the man counts it before banking it, handing Jamie a receipt to hand to Vicky when she she went back to work after her two days off. She walks out the bank and sighs as she looks around the streets, her eyes once again evaluating.
She turns left and begins walking the last two blocks to her apartment, as she's walking past an alley a hand reaches out and grabs her shoulder roughly yanking her inside the alley and into the oncoming darkness. She cries out as her back lands off the wall, his hand gripping her throat, not enough she couldn't talk but enough to keep her in place. Her eyes snap to his before giving her a once over.
He was an average sized man, dressed in all black, a quick glimpse at his hand showed a 9mm with another strapped to his leg. She also notices the hilt of a dagger sticking out of his combat boots. She sighs and shifts her feet getting them into position as she hears two more sets of footsteps close in.
"Hello Phoenix" the one pining her to the wall croons "I believe you have something of ours"
"No idea what you're talking about" she replies smoothly, her eyes flashing
"Don't play games Phoenix" he growls his grip starting to tighten on her throat
Well that's going to leave a mark
"I wasn't" she smirks "I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. I swear on my little black heart"
Her attitude seemed to piss the guy off even more as he growled and slammed her against the wall again, knocking the breath from her lungs. Once she regains breathing she sighs and brings her knee up slamming it into his crotch. As he leans forward grunting, she grabs the wrist holding the gun and bends it back snapping it clean in half. Once the gun is in her hand she turns and fires shots down the alley where the other two men are making them dive behind dumpsters.
"Time to play assholes" she growls
Oh what she wouldn't do for one day of peace.
END NOTE - I love that you are all following and add this to your favorites but would it be too much trouble to ask for a simple five second review. You guys are fellow Avengers lovers like me so please let me know what you think of this story.
Sorry if it sucks but i wrote it on no sleep and I really wanted to get Jamie's POV.
I know there was no Clint in this chapter but he'll show up again, if Jamie saw him she'd run which isn't a good thing. Not yet anyway, the cat and mouse thing will happen soon.
ANYWAY simple question, next chapter should it be in Clint's POV or Jamie's. Let me know people.
And for the next chapter, I WOULD LIKE at least 5 REVIEWS...okay, good.
LEAVE me some love people.
