Amore2210 . Loves. Fanfic- Thank you! And it should only begin to start picking up and up :)
Lexicon04- Thank you thank you thank you! Wow. I'm so happy you think that. I work so hard and...I just have all these feels.
Protagonist Of Life- You're pretty good yourself :)
miller330- Writing that is going to be so much fun. I'll have to write it with you in mind. Maybe you'll get a dedication :D
Ali- That's my favorite part about it. I love sweet, cheesy, awkward crushes.I also enjoy long romantic walks to the fridge.
xxLiveLoveReadxx- Okay! Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I'll make sure he is.
Forever-a-spartan- You're even better for reviewing :D
ohvafltn- Here you are!
Yup, writing this chapter was a blast. It was great because I didn't have the charger for my MacBook, my PC writing document glitched and wouldn't work, and I resorted to sketching out a rough copy of this is a notebook. Needless to say we then lost power and heat. The house became freaking cold so we partied at another house with power and my friend (who I am eternally grateful too) let me borrow her charger because her parents have another. So until our power gets back on, I'll be here, huddled under ten blankets, popping out chapters for my multiple stories (I hope...we all know how plans go). I hope to have another one out while I'm on Christmas Break, but on the 26th I have to get oral surgery (apparently I need a tooth exposed, gross, right? D:) so we'll see how everything turns out.
Moving on from the rambled mess, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR :D I hope you all have a great one!
Please Enjoy.
*~FAINT~*
S.H.I.E.L.D BASE
New York Branch
December 8th
9:32 AM
Beep Beep Beep.
The shriek of the agonizingly irritating alarm was permanently silenced by a fist slamming down on the cursed clock, another yanking the cord from the socket. A small, blissful sigh rose from the mound of covers, gently rising and falling with the breath of the person underneath falling back into a light slumber.
Rap Rap Rap.
"Miss Harland?"
The mass of sheets groaned, a body wiggling deeper into the cocoon of blankets. The annoying hand knocked at the door and called her name once again.
"Miss Harland, you need to get down to the lab. You have a meeting later with the Director and you need to get your information gathered!" Davis called.
Ashlyn groaned, kicking the shrouds of warmth from her and swinging her legs over the side of the cot. She yawned and stretched, pulled her shirt back down with a lazy hand when her abdomen was exposed, and slumped out of bed and across the room to her tiny dresser to grab her glasses and get changed. The small amount of clothes they had grabbed for her were in the laundry and she was resorted to wearing S.H.I.E.L.D issued garments. The insignia she despised was plastered in white to the front of the black, tight t-shirt that was too tight for her taste (it fit perfectly fine, it was just Ashlyn had never been a huge fan of her body so she stuck to baggy shirts and sweaters. She was never comfortable in her skin, let alone display her petite body in a snugly fit shirt). Once her teeth and hair were brushed she quickly deodorized, slipped on her shoes and socks, and exited the room.
Ashlyn was greeted by two bagels glued together by cream cheese being tossed in her direction. Ashlyn nearly missed but caught her breakfast and took a hesitant bite before chowing down.
"Thank you, Tony," Ashlyn thanked.
"No problem, kiddo. I ran across the street to the bakery so I didn't have to eat those disgusting water-based eggs. Fury wants to meet with us so get cracking," Tony told her before turning on Bruce. "What about you, Banner? Do I get any cognizance from you?"
Bruce grinned sheepishly from his work station. "Thanks, Tony."
Stark waved him away and began to click away at his computer. Then to Ashlyn he commented, "I like the shirt better than the others, Ashie. Maybe you're finally starting to crawl out from under your rock."
Ashlyn's cheeks grew hot at his sincere remark, squirming slightly. The brunette mumbled something incoherent in reply, removing her flash drive from around her neck and inserting it into the side of her screen.
"Have you managed to track that crackpot yet?" Tony inquired, breaking the silence.
Bruce bounced his head back and fourth, zooming in on a map of Europe to show Tony. He pointed to a faint green line that zigzagged across the diagram. "Yes and no. I've got a trail on him, but no location where it ends yet."
"You know, you should get a cool nickname. Your alter ego gets one, so why not you?" Tony replied, rounding on him with some sort of sharp tool in his hand.
"We already got nicknamed the Science Bros by Barton," Bruce said with a shrug.
"I know, but that's me and you we're talking about. Remind me to think of some ultra-secretly-cool handshake."
Banner shook his head, chuckling to himself. "Whatever you say, Star-ow!"
Ashlyn jumped and pivoted to see Banner rubbing his side. Stark must have jabbed him with the tool.
"Nothing, Banner? Really?"
"I wouldn't come if I couldn't handle pointy objects."
They both grinned at one another as if they were sharing some sort of private joke. After a moment Tony spoke again.
"Wow, you really got a lid on that, Bruce Ban the Science Man...hey wait! That's perfect!"
"Bruce Ban the Science Man?" Bruce chortled at that. "Like Bill Nye?"
Tony turned back to his work. "Whatever floats your boat."
Ashlyn laughed weakly to herself, typing away on her screen. The two men really were something else.
It was awhile before anyone spoke again. Ashlyn gathered up her information, seeking out reliable resources and memorizing more about Dr. Schwarzlose. She only hoped that she would not have to give a presentation. The stress and her fear of public speaking would overwhelm her. What if she puked? Ashlyn was getting jittery at the thought of it. Surely Nick Fury wasn't evil enough to make her speak out loud?
"Hey, Ashie? Banner and I will be right back, okay?" Stark said. Ashlyn nodded and the two men left the room, nearly running into Rogers as he tried to enter.
"Capsicle! What's the rush?" Tony asked.
"I would like to speak with Miss Harland," Steve responded. Bruce nodded, gesturing for him to pass before pulling Stark out of the room.
"Hi, Steve." Ashlyn waved shyly from her seat at the screen. "What do you need?"
"Good morning, ma'am," Steve greeted officially. "Do you have all of your work done?"
Ashlyn nodded. "I was just gathering it. D-Do you know when the meeting is?"
"I'm not sure what time, but I know that it will be in here. Would you mind if I sat with you?"
"N-Not at all," Ashlyn said, swallowing to stop her tongue from getting tied. It was just Steve. They were friends. She didn't need to stammer like an idiot. She moved to pull him up a chair but Steve was ahead of her.
"Thank you."
"I like the company," Ashlyn assured him, getting back to work on gathering up all of her info. Steve held up some sort of notebook in his arm, looking as if he was writing something out. He looked up over his work, gazing at the screen.
"How do you know how to work that?" Steve inquired.
Ashlyn tapped a few buttons before answering. "My father loved technology, so we always had some sort of computer or device in our home. I picked up how work them by watching him. I'm always working with computers, whether it be writing a report for class or making a project. Our generation has been working with this sort of stuff, and the newer generation is practically born knowing how to operate computers and iPads and other things."
"Our generation?"
"How old are you?"
Steve paused for a moment before answering, "Twenty-three."
"I'm twenty-two," Ashlyn smiled slightly. "I-I figured y-you had to be around my age."
Steve looked uncomfortable so Ashlyn cleared her throat, holding her hand up to the screen. "It's just remembering what buttons do what. I-If you press this, this brings up the internet. And this one can create a chart with information you give it."
Rogers nodded, leaning over to peek at the buttons she gestured too. He touched the screen, jerking when a loud series of beeps blared from the computer.
"You turned on the sound," Ashlyn flicked it back off. "W-What are you working on?"
Steve's cheeks grew pink before fading, holding out his book. "Nothing to grandstand about. It would bore you."
Ashlyn's gaze fell down on the paper, her eyes widening in awe. There on the sketch pad was a gorgeous girl. Every detail was perfectly crafted and beautifully drawn, her hair falling in tumbling, dark waves, the soft details of her face, even ripples in the sweater. Her glasses were shaded and flawlessly rounded. Wrapped up by the woman's hands was a coffee cup, her downcast eyes gazing at the steaming liquid so her long lashes kissed her cheeks. Her lips were parted in the tiniest of smiles, her pretty face angled down at the table she was sitting at. Ashlyn was even more shocked when she realized the ravishing woman was her.
Ashlyn's eyes flitted up to Steve's as she raised her jaw back up so it didn't continue to hang open. Steve's face was wary, analyzing her reaction.
"Oh Steve..."
"You don't like it?"
"I...I...I don't know what to say. It's beautiful."
A slow grin spread across Steve's face. "You like it? I thought you would get creeped out and take a powder."
"Why me?" Ashlyn stared back down at the drawing of her. "Out of everything you could have drawn...?"
Steve opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Dr. Banner and Stark reentering the room. Ashlyn flipped the page, handing him back his drawing.
"Fury's rounding the corner with Barton and Romanoff," Stark warned. Ashlyn nodded, looking meaningfully at Steve before getting back to work.
"Stark, Dr. Banner, Miss Harland, Captain," Fury said once he entered the room. "What do you have so far?"
Dr. Banner showed his map to Fury, explaining the complexity of the situation. "I have a trail but it doesn't seem to end anywhere. There are high concentrations of gamma radiation at these points, but they don't connect or end anywhere. I'm still trying to figure out how to crack the code."
"You might need a miracle, Doctor," Fury replied bluntly, his eyes finding Ashlyn's. "What about you, Miss Harland?"
Ashlyn's stomach clenched, blinking. "Uhhumum?"
"Can you tell us what you've found?"
Cold sweat broke out on Ashlyn's face, a familiar tingle in the back of her mind. Before she could even say a word or think anything, her thought process seemed to screech to a halt as a tremor rocketed up her spine, her limbs growing numb. Her hand reached out, grappling for pen and paper, her hands coming back empty.
"Miss Harland?" Nick Fury's voice died out as a buzz in her ears blocked out all sound. Their lips moved but no sound reached her ears, only the buzz of deafness. She patted her side, trying to find her notebook before she remembered it was confiscated. She turned to Dr. Banner, her eyes widening in alarm as she extended an arm towards him. His figure multiplied to several as black spots appeared in her vision as the floor rushed up into her sights and the world went black.
10:14 AM
Tables and chairs were thrown, a chorus of Ashlyn's and Miss Harland's adding to the ruckus as Ashlyn's knees buckled and she collapsed face first onto the floor. Steve leaped over the lab table and fallen chairs, rushing to Ashlyn's side. Dr. Banner was already crouched next to her, flipping her over onto her side and grabbing her wrist to check her pulse. Her other hand twitched, her fingertips dragging as they carved shapes in the tile. Ashlyn's chest heaved up and down as she drew in fast, shallow gulps of air.
"What's wrong with her? What happened?" Steve asked, his voice panicked.
"She's fainted." Bruce glared up at Fury, waving at him to back off as he approached. Steve's heart thumped in his ears as worry and fear coursed through his veins.
"Is she going to be alright?" Tony questioned, kneeling next to Bruce.
"She's experiencing some form of seizure. It's most likely stress related," Dr. Banner responded, pushing back her hair from her face to reveal beads of blood blossoming on forehead. "That would be from the fall."
Steve left out a sigh of relief when her eyes cracked open.
As Ashlyn's eyes fluttered open, she instantly regretted the action. Steve and Bruce Banner swam in her vision, numbers spinning across their faces. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton waited at the side along with Fury, their heads exploding into more numbers when she tried to peek.
It was like someone was sawing her head in half, shoving needled into her eyes and ears and then applying thousands of white hot pokers to her skull. Ashlyn cried out, trying to clutch her head but the vision was not over yet.
No. It was never over to begin with.
"We need to take her to the medical ward," Bruce said, looking anxious now.
Steve scooped Ashlyn up into his arms before she could start screaming, his heartbeat like hummingbird wings. Her eyes closed again and instead her lips opened, crying out and moaning in agony. He held her head against his shoulder so it couldn't loll about, his other arm supporting his body underneath her.
"Lead me there."
They sprinted down the hall behind Fury, up the stairs and to the west wing. Medics were there waiting with a gurney as if they had been called. Steve set Ashlyn down on the stretcher but was held back as he moved to follow.
"I have to make sure she's okay," Steve objected as two of the doctors blocked his path.
"She's in the right hands now, Captain," one of the doctors said. Steve's heart continued to race, his stomach clenched in an iron fist of anxiety and terror.
"I have to-"
"Captain Rogers."
Steve backed down, turning around and settling down into a chair.
"Don't worry, Cap, she's being taken care of," Barton reassured.
Steve wished to voice his opinion, to hold Ashlyn in his arms and make sure she was truly going to be alright. The Captain didn't know how to say it, but for the first time since he had woken up, he had found a true friend in Ashlyn. Sure the rest of the Avengers were his friends, but they were more colleague than actual friends. Ashlyn had actually listened to him when he spoke, not because she had to but because she wanted to. She had class and was quiet and shy and perfect. Peggy had been beautiful, classy, and impressive, but she was long gone. Steve had mourned her and he knew she would want him to move on, to be happy. That was why Steve hated going to sleep, especially since he met Ashlyn Harland. Rogers was deathly afraid of falling asleep and waking up in about another seventy years and everything he knew and loved would be gone again. He couldn't bare the fact of loosing the Avengers, and now he couldn't even think about loosing Ashlyn.
Steve bent over, gazing down at his hands that were folded over his knees. They said Ashlyn would be okay, that she was in good hands, but he felt like there was something more. She hadn't just fainted due to stress, there was something fundamentally wrong with her. He had witnessed the agony in her expression when she had awoken momentarily only to pass out again. Now that he was thinking about it, she had been sick when he had escorted her back to her room. And in the commons when she claimed to be having head pain.
Bruce Banner knew a lot more than he was letting on. The look of pure scorn and contempt he had given Fury when he had tried to approach Ashlyn when she had fallen. What this Fury's fault? Was he to blame? What did Dr. Banner know about Ashlyn Harland that he did not?
"Dr. Banner?" Steve asked, getting to his feet. Fury, Barton, and Romanoff had left for some other meeting. Tony claimed he wanted a drink. The rest of the room was empty except for them. "What's wrong with Ashlyn?"
"She's had some sort of seizure, Cap," Dr. Banner said, running his hand across his face.
"What's really wrong with her? Do seizures honestly cause that much pain?"
Dr. Banner crossed his arms over his chest. "I told you as much as I know. Ashlyn will divulge if need be. Right now you just need to hope she's going to be fine."
"But I thought you said-"
"Seizures tend to vary. I've never seen one like this in my life and I'm exposed to a lot of freaky things." Something suddenly buzzed in Banner's pocket and Bruce pulled out some sort of square device. "I'm sorry, I have to go. Tony would like to speak with me."
Steve watched as the troubled man crossed the waiting room to the door and left. Steve heaved a sigh. He went back to his thoughts but was soon interrupted.
"Captain Rogers?" A nurse peeked her head out from the door. "Ashlyn is fine. She would like to see you."
A wave of excruciating pain shot through Ashlyn's cranium, making her nearly tear the paper in her white-knuckled hand. 12 12 12. She had begged the doctors for pen and paper, knowing that the pain would only begin to subside once she freed her mind of the nefarious numbers. Her vision had been dark and awful, full of numbers and a group of teenagers. One with blonde hair and blue eyes. Another with flaming orange hair and blue eyes and turned amber halfway through her vision. A boy with dark hair and dark eyes. Another boy with curly brown hair and green eyes. The four of them danced in her vision, displaying tremendous significance and power. The sneering picture of the evil German scientist, Dr. Schwarzlose was among the teens. There had been a map, one outlining certain points and numbers. The one that stuck out most in her mind was Helsinki, the capital of Finland, decorated in the same series of numbers. 12 12 12.
Nick Fury had visited first, right when she had awoken. She told him of the vision, the points, the numbers. He gave her back her folder and took off with many thanks. He would page Banner and get him to work on checking out the gamma levels in Helsinki.
All Ashlyn wanted was to see Steve, to sit with him and assure him that she was all right. She wasn't even in a hospital gown, and according to the doctors she could leave when her head pain had subdued some.
"Ma'am?"
Ashlyn smiled when Steve entered her room and pulled up a chair to sit by her bedside. She sat up, immediately regretting the action when her head throbbed again.
"H-H-Hi, Steve."
"I was really worried about..." Steve trailed off, his eyes boring into hers. "Are you okay?"
Ashlyn nodded, feeling anxious now that he was here. Now he knew something was wrong with her. "They said I can leave when my head pain calms down. They said the incident was s-s-stress related, more or less. I'm sorry for s-scaring you."
"And you're going to be alright now?" The sincerity, longing, and panic in Steve's eyes was extremely touching. Ashlyn's heart skipped a beat and she dipped her head again, trying to hide the blush creeping across her cheeks. 'I've never felt this way about anyone before...do I like Steve? I think I do...God...I think I Steve...does he like me?'
Ashlyn gave him a bashful, tiny smile with a small shrug. "I hope so."
1:15 PM
Nick Fury stood in his room in the command center, a map of Europe with several points highlighted on the map. He peered at the agents and officers standing on the other side of the table, each a head of a specific branch. He cleared his throat, issuing one last command.
"Get ready. We're boarding the helicarrier and moving out December 12th."
~Illumini