So here's chapter 4 for my avid readers.
Everything belongs to Marvel except for my OC.
Hope you guys enjoy!
OOO
Chapter 4
Conditions
When Rose woke up she regretted the choice immediately.
On the verge of consciousness and dreaming she had hoped that she had been doing just that – dreaming, and she would wake up in her own bed in her crappy apartment with her alarm about to go off any second for her to go to work. Unfortunately, as she cracked one eye open, an overly loud groan escaped her.
No terrible damask wallpaper coming into her line of vision.
No haphazard clutter of clothes on her bedroom floor, strewn all over the place from the journey between the door and climbing into bed. Instead, her eyes were practically assaulted by the stark whiteness that seemed to blind her of the medical bay of the Helicarrier.
Yeah, Helicarrier. That's what they called it. Sounded like something straight out of a comic book.
And as if waking up wasn't bad enough, the remaining drugs in her system made her movements sluggish. Her hollow stomach churned and dredges of morphine laced through her veins like road blocked rush hour traffic.
Or maybe it was the shock wearing off.
Rose groaned again, flipping the sheet to the side and swinging her legs over the bed. She steadied herself by wiggling her toes, pointedly ignoring the petal blue bruises that had flowered overnight on her knees.
As she tried to get to a bathroom two nurses shooed her back into bed and tried to persuade her to use a bed pan. Once Rose had turned a frightening shade of red from embarrassment they eventually lead her to a private room where she could have a quick wash in the sink of the adjoined bathroom and get changed into fresh clothes. Her trousers had been washed but her top had been replaced with a nondescript grey shirt that bore the SHIELD insignia. She dressed herself and sat plucking at the material on the edge of the bed, swinging her legs with her ankles crossed until another nurse arrived at the door, closely followed by a black clad agent.
"Are you feeling any better this morning?" the nurse asked politely. Rose shrugged in reply, not wanting to be rude but in all honesty, she didn't know how she was feeling. Hunger and tiredness wasn't a good combination at any time. Throw the morning after an assault into the mix and the outcome just got worse.
"I'm fine, I guess. Hungry." She eventually mumbled. Rose caught the eye of the agent behind the nurse who was faffing around with typical medical equipment for blood pressure, temperature and the like. The agent glanced in the nurse's direction a little too hastily and a little too conspicuously and Rose wondered if SHIELD took in CIA rejects.
"I'm just going to run a few tests to make sure we didn't miss anything from last night." The nurse threw Rose a comforting look which she in turn responded accordingly. She didn't like hospitals, and had good reason to, so she remained silent and let the woman do her job.
The rip of Velcro snapped Rose from her daydream of emerald eyes.
"That cut on your neck looks painful."
Rose lifted an absentminded hand to her throat, feeling along the shallow wound inflicted by the switchblade from the night before. The nurse was setting aside the equipment after completing the tests. Rose had somehow managed to zone out, which increased the agent's scrutinising gaze on her as she took in the flush of blood racing down her arm from the band being removed.
"No, it's ok."
"The skin around it looks inflamed. Did someone see to it when you came in? I'll get some antiseptic and a bandage. We don't want it to get infected now, do we?"
The nurse turned on her heel without giving Rose a chance to speak. The agent stepped aside to let the nurse pass him, his jack booted footsteps heavy and echoing.
"So are you here to babysit me, or what?" Rose asked, forcing her hand into her lap rather than at her neck. She could still feel the hotness of the skin beneath her fingertips. Maybe the drugs had some part of her brain still sedated. Everything felt fuzzy around the edges, like a lens peering through steam.
"I'm here to take you to your debriefing once you've been cleared by the medical team."
"Team? Debriefing? Wow. How come I'm getting so much attention?"
"You're not."
Rose raised an eyebrow. "You jealous?"
"No. Standard protocol is'all."
The agent went silent. Rose looked at him, trying to decipher a name from his uniform somewhere but the man remained as anonymous as his nondescript black attire. In another setting he could be a security guard or a Black Ops soldier or a seriously intense personal trainer.
The nurse came back carrying a small metal tray filled with miniature bottles that reminded Rose of the mini shampoos and body lotions you'd find in a hotel suite. It took a number of seconds for the nurse to clean Rose's neck with a wipe that made her ultra-sensitive to every pulse that coursed up and down her veins and air prickle against her skin. Then a thin layer of gauze was a little too roughly applied before a rectangular band aid secured it in place.
"Thanks," Rose said thickly as the nurse stepped back to admire her handiwork. Having someone else's hands round her neck had brought on cold shivers of claustrophobia Rose was able to shake off after the nurse turned her back.
"She's fine now." The nurse addressed the agent who abruptly shifted from leaning in the door frame to standing straight. Rose sniggered and turned her head, hair falling across her face to hide her laugh.
"She just needs a good meal and a few days' rest. You lot had better not be planning to get her all worked up in there. After events such as these," Rose looked up to see the nurse vaguely waving her hands. "Many people become extremely fragile. So no unnecessary stress."
She pointed an accusing at the agent's chest before collecting the utensils, flashing Rose a polite smile and departing the small room.
"Are we off?" Rose asked, picking at a fraying edge of a bandage at her wrist.
The agent grunted in reply, giving her a quick nod as he turned and walked back down the corridor in the way he had come.
Her stomach grumbled in protest and she had to take baby steps to stop her dizzied head from spinning before Rose set off in the footsteps of the agent on a labyrinth tour of the floor until he opened a door for her. He stepped aside, gesturing Rose into a room with a high window that reminded her of a prison cell, and a tall black man standing beside one of two chairs that sat opposite one another with a small metal table in between.
"Miss Walker. My name is Nick Fury. We need to debrief you on what happened last night. Please, take a seat." Fury gestured to the seat the other side of the table for Rose to sit down. She followed his suggestion, internally wincing at the sound of the metal chair legs grating against the floor.
"Ok. Hit me."
Fury raised an eyebrow then sat down himself, placing a file on the table between them. The pile of neatly organised papers sparked up Rose's interest and she gave Fury a sly look and a humoured grin.
"I have a file?"
"Yes."
"Well that was quick. Is there anything embarrassing in it?"
"You tell me."
Rose reached out for the file and turned it round, opening the front page and flicking through the pages. "Oh god," she murmured, coming to a photo attached via paperclip about a third of the way through the file. "How embarrassing."
She looked up, a half grin on her face. "Michael Levi. Senior Prom. I'd rather that had stayed buried."
"If that's the only thing you didn't want us finding out about you, I imagine it's safe to say you're clean." Fury said, folding his hands on the table in front of him, his face set in amusement.
Rose, however, was no longer amused. Her stomach growled and her hands her itchy.
"You seem awfully calm about this. That tells me one of two things. That you're psychopathic, or still in shock."
"How about unsurprised? So you know who I am. Guess I'd have to be worried if a security company couldn't do its job." Impatience had her scratching at the corner of the band aid on her neck.
Fury made an unimpressed noised.
"Look, what is this even about? I hadn't heard of SHIELD until last year's debacles in New York. And I don't understand why a security company would be so interested in me."
"The events that took place last night, as distressing as they may be, need to be discussed so you can fully understand the ripples set in motion by you."
Rose paused, fingers interlaced.
"And in English that means?"
Fury grinned. "Do you have any idea of the identity of the people you met last night?"
"People who need to rethink their fashion sense."
"Funny." Neither his face nor his tone bore any semblance of his earlier humour.
"Look, I get attacked by some guy and another one saves me. I'm here because I thought I'd have a chance to say thank you to the man while I didn't have a shock blanket smothering me or a river of antiseptic running down my neck. Can I at least do that without you making me feel like I'm somehow implicated in the Kennedy assassination?"
Fury leant back in his chair, seemingly deflated by her sudden accusation. Ever the strategist, he opened his palms in a small act of compromise.
"We're not here to make you feel uncomfortable, but make you an offer."
"And what might that be?"
"The opportunity to work for us."
"Doing what?"
Fury closed her file and planted his once again interlaced hands on top, a seriousness on his face that made Rose's stomach tighten anxiously.
"Do you recognise this man?"
Fury placed a photograph on the table on top of the file. Rose picked it up, realising it was a mug shot. The photo seemed fresh, and something made Rose start.
"This is the guy who . . . from last night." She fumbled over her words, dropping the photo. Fury picked it up and Rose guessed he had done it sensing her unease. She had been right, now the initial shock had passed, fear raced through her, pumping like wildfire in the back of her chest. Fury's hands resumed their earlier position and something close to a look of comfort settled on his face.
"After Loki came across you last night it took exactly three hours before this man handed himself into a police station in New York, confessing not only to attacking you but to a string of other crimes as well. This man is going to be put away for a long time."
"What else did he do?" Rose asked without looking at Fury. He paused, unwilling to divulge the information. Not because of confidentiality but because of the look on the girl's face. She had turned white and tense. But maybe she needed to hear it.
"He's being charged on twelve cases of assault, five cases of theft, three cases of rape and one case of grand theft auto. Like I said, he's going to be put away for a long time."
"Well if you guys hadn't of shown up last night I guess he could have ticked off another set." Rose wiped her hand over her face and sat back in her chair. The seat was uncomfortable and that helped her direct her attention from the still nameless assailant. "So what did Loki do to him exactly?"
She met Fury's eyes and ignored the brief flash of concern.
She would be alright.
"At this point we're uncertain, but we think some kind of hypnosis."
"So you can get a file on my entire life in a matter of hours but you can't get the answer to one question from one of the guys on your own team?"
Fury's jaw tightened and he shifted in his seat.
"Since you called the events of last year concerning the Avengers debacles, I think I should clarify on what actually happened. Loki came to Earth from Asgard, a realm of god like beings in outer space. He wanted to subjugate humanity and proclaim himself king by unleashing an alien force called the Chitauri."
"Ok," Rose couldn't help a smile – Fury's serious tone contrasted with the absurdity of what he was saying was utterly hilarious. She managed to maintain composure through remembering if she full out laughed it could make her stomach growl uncontrollably and she was so hungry now she swore she could see stars.
"Ok, so now he's on your side, and doing what exactly?"
"This is supposed to be me debriefing you on future plans concerning you, not on what's happening with my team."
"You want me to work for you. I might as well know what I'm getting myself into since I doubt I'm gonna be seeing any job advertisements going in the newspaper anytime soon."
"Fine," Fury breathed, and Rose suspected she was one of few people alive to ever hear that tone of defeat.
"Loki offered to help clean up his mess."
"Aww, that's nice of him."
Fury raised an eyebrow.
"Last night he reconstructed several blocks of fallen buildings in the finical district after cleaning up damage that was too dangerous for us to clear. Then he recused you. Which brings us full circle to the whole debriefing that's meant to be going on here."
"And why is it I'm of such interest? You want me to tell you the story, fine. I'm currently working for a temp agency. For the last three months I've been the secretary to one of the on-site managers for a building contractor working on the clean-up side of things that wasn't too dangerous to for us fix by ourselves." By the look on Fury's face he wasn't impressed with her sarcasm but that didn't stop her. "I have security clearance to have been on the island, you can check. I was running some errands a bit too late and then that guy jumped me, trying to take my money or my car then decided he had something even better in mind."
The cynicism in her voice drew all the temperature out of the room and made Fury shift in his chair.
"Then Loki appears and saves me. And now here I am, telling you all this while I have this ridiculous thing on my neck. Can I take this off?"
She gestured to her neck and the band aid that smothered half of the front of her throat. Nick gave a curt nod and Rose began to peel it off, low bitten fingernails catching at the edges.
"This is why we would like to offer you this job."
"Doing what, exactly?"
"It would seem you have had quite an effect on Loki. We would like you to work with us on his rehabilitation and possible full integration onto the Avengers team."
"Don't you guys play fair or something?"
Fury laughed humourlessly, gripping onto the arms of his chair.
"Let's just say when big egos are but in the same room a fight is an inevitable outcome. Especially when majority of those egos are untrusting of Loki's simply being here."
"Sounds like you're dealing with a bunch of prima donnas. Let me give you a heads up, that's not a fantastic selling point for a working environment."
"Maybe not. But these are extraordinary circumstances. It goes without saying you should expect, well, the extraordinary."
"Sounds about right."
Rose leant back in her chair, twiddling with the band aid. The pads of her fingers were all sticky now but it was a good enough distraction from her itchy wrists.
"Do I get some time to consider this? I mean, this is a lot to take in. And I'm really hungry. Do you know how much that can affect your judgement and concentration?"
Fury laughed and collected the file off the table.
"How does twenty four hours sound to you?"
"Sounds great. Means I can get twenty three hours sleep before I have to give you an answer."
Fury raised an eyebrow once again but this time the humour had returned to his features. "I'll arrange for transport to take you home and have someone collect you tomorrow. Even if you say no, you'll have to sign a disclosure so we keep confidentiality on all of this."
"Whatever." Rose waved a dismissive hand that settled onto the table surface in an almost threatening manner. "There is one condition though, that I might as well give you a heads up on."
Fury paused, halfway through making it to the door. His hand hovered over the handle before he slipped it into the pocket of his black trousers, twisting on his heel to face the girl still seated.
She looked like a coffee addicted insomniac but that might have been due to the eventful twelve hours she had been subjected to. A fierceness lit up her eyes in a way that immediately reminded him of Natasha Romanoff.
"I want to be able to thank Loki for what he did. Properly. We wouldn't be having this conversation if it wasn't for him. I wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for him."
Fury regarded the girl and nodded. Rose smiled a victorious grin and plopped her hands down into her lap.
"So are you gonna call me a cab or something?"
"Not quite."
Fury's one eye filled with laughter before disappearing as he walked through the door.
Rose let the door close before she jumped up, teeth grating against the metal chair legs dragging across the floor. She tiptoed up to the window and gazed out over the impressive bird's eye view of the Manhattan in early light.
"Yup," Rose muttered, her breath fogging up the glass as vertigo overtook her. "Straight out of a comic book."
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