Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, The Fantastic 4, Marvel or anything other than Jamie and her fellow Soldiers/OC's.
Chapter 9
Title
"Seriously, Johnny," Jamie groaned, "I have to work."
"You would never have to work another day in your life if you just agreed to marry me now," he pressed, leaning against the front counter where the security guards were stationed.
"Again, not happening," Jamie insisted, placing her flashlight back on the charging post. "Now seriously, Johnny," Jamie said, grabbed the newspaper Logan had been reading. She made sure she kept her hands behind raised front of the desk where he couldn't see, as she rolled the paper up into a tube. "I've got work to do!"
"But you're much better company than my sister! Not to mention Ben!" Johnny groaned. "That hunk of rock doesn't have a sense of humor whatsoever."
"Maybe you should try being a little nicer to the guy," Jamie suggested.
Ben Grimm was the one member of the Fantastic Four that Jamie hadn't actually met. She had heard quite a bit about him from Reed, as well as some odd comments from Johnny, who, as she understood, happened to pick on his quite a bit. Reed and Sue said he was smart, loyal and strong, while Johnny would say he was, and she quoted, "Rock hard lug with anger issues."
Jamie went with the former when believing what she heard about the man.
Jamie also knew that the Fantastic Four were also in the papers and magazines quite a bit, though she often didn't read or watch the news. Only when it pertained to military and global issues, a habit she had gotten into at a young as while her father, and later brother, were deployed. So Jamie, though hearing that he looked very different, had never actually seen him before.
"From what I hear, he's nice," Jamie said. "You're the one that's hard to deal with."
"Me? I'm the Human Torch! Best superhero around!"
"I think your sister, brother-in-law, Ben and, oh, I don't know, Iron Man would disagree with you on that one," Jamie teased.
"Iron Man's got nothing on me! Old man is too well...old for this job. Just don't tell Tony I said that."
"I think a lot of people would disagree with you on that one, Johnny," Jamie informed him. "I mean, I know a lot of great soldiers that are twice as old as you and probably better in a fight."
"Yeah well they can't light up at the flick of a finger." He grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at the held up his hand,his fingers in the formation to snap. When he did, his fingers lit up like lighter. Jamie was just glad he didn't go all out and cause the sprinkler system to activate, like he had the week prior when showing off for a delivery woman.
Jamie rolled her eyes and turned around so her back was to him. She opened the filing cabinet and pulled out a fresh log form. No, but I could, Jamie thought with a smirk. "You are impossible, Mr. Storm," she sighed, turning back around to put on the clipboard.
"Impossibly amazing." Johnny said.
Jamie just rolled her eyes and picked up the rolled newspaper and swatted him on the arm with it. "No," she laughed. "Now go away! I really do have work to do!"
"Aww but-" he whined.
"No, shoo!" Jamie scolded, swinging at him again.
"Ow! Okay okay!" Johnny whined rushing away.
Jamie just rolled her eyes, setting the paper back down on the desk. She took her seat next to Logan, who had, once again, been watching with amused eyes. Jamie sat down, signing the bottom of the log sheet she had taken off of the clip board before replacing it moments before. "You can stop looking at me like that, Logan," Jamie muttered, more focused on the paper than the guard next to her.
"I don't know what you're talking about, kid," he said.
"Sure," she muttered, spinning around in her chair to wheel over to the filing cabinet. She opened it without getting up, slipping the paper in. She turned back around and pushed herself back up to the desk. "Because that weird look you're giving me doesn't make me think something's on your mind."
Logan shrugged, his gaze still fixed on the blue eyes beauty. "You seem different," he stated, leaning back in his chair, resting his hand behind his head.
"Different how?" she asked, glancing up from her work.
"Different good," he said. "You seem happier."
Happier, Jamie thought. Well, she wasn't in captivity anymore, and she was getting used to regular life more, so yeah, perhaps she was happier. She was making friends with Johnny, though she would readily deny that in front of him in order to deny him the satisfaction and prevent his head from getting any bigger than it already was, and Steve.
Steve was making her life a lot easier. While Johnny got Jamie to laugh and lighten up, Steve was the one to really get Jamie to talk a little bit of what was bothering her. The blond man was getting her to come to terms with what happened to her, or as much as Jamie could. He knew what it was like, much more than she could ever have thought another human being, other than her fellow captive, could ever know.
He made her feel like she wasn't completely alone. And really, she knew she wasn't. She did have James around if she really needed him, but he had his own life that he was trying to sort out. He had a wife and kids that he needed to mend ties with. And if she really tried, she was sure she could get in touch with Patrick, even though he seemed to be making no effort in keeping in touch with either her or James.
Rhys, Graham and Dove wrote letters when they could, but that was very infrequent (though Jackass Shearer never wrote, his fellow soldiers did keep her updated, despite not really caring how he was). They were busy with their own military duties and missions, and Jamie didn't want to bother them when it could have very well be putting their lives at risk. She wouldn't do that to them, not again.
So her next best thing was Steve, who couldn't possibly be told the whole story. Not if she wanted to protect the secret and not have the information getting to the government. They couldn't risk them wanting to try and recreate the project. Far too many people had died while it wa going on. The risk far outweighed the benefit, and each and every one of those soldiers in captivity agreed with Jamie on that.
But what she did tell him,what she did open up about seemed to help her move along far more than she thought it could. Jamie wasn't one for opening up and admitting how she felt. Not when it made her look weak. She needed to believe she was fine in order to move along and actually get to a point where she could truthfully say she was fine.
But she was happier, so she could truthfully turn to Logan and say with a smile, "Yeah, I guess I am."
"Good," he said. "I've seen too many soldiers get stuck over there. Their bodies make it back, but their minds don't."
Jamie stopped what she was doing and really looked at Logan. She had no idea he had known so many soldiers. So many soldiers that had come back different people, no less. Normally when he would bug her about things, he was just annoyed with the semi-robotic woman. She didn't actually think that, possibly, he was trying to prevent another soldier from truly being forever lost.
"I'm sorry, Logan," Jamie said.
"Hey, don't worry about it," he said, waving her off. "Now, finish that paperwo-"
Just as he was instructing her, the lights of the in the Baxter Building all went dark, the power completely cutting out. A couple seconds later, the dim emergency light turned off, giving the lobby an eerie red glow. The building was completely silent, the normal buzz from the light sand the computer gone.
"Great, just great," Logan muttered, getting up from his seat, a very rare occurrence.
"Did they blow the fuse again?" Jamie asked. It wasn't too uncommon for the power to go out in the building. With all of the experiments that went on with Sue and Reed, it happened at least a couple times a month.
"Beats me," he said. From the back cabinet, Logan retrieved two small battery powered walkie talkies.
Duncan Thayer walked out from his office, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest in annoyance. "Did they blow that damn fuse again?" he asked with a grumble greatly resembling Logan's.
"Don't know, Sir," she answered, spinning around in her chair to face him.
"That's what I'm about to find out," Logan said, turning the walkie talkie on. "Security to Penthouse, do you copy?"
There was a moment of silence before the other line cracked and came to life. "Penthouse to Security, this is Reed. We copy."
"Did you blow the fuse again?" Logan asked.
"No, it wasn't us this time, I swear!" he proclaimed defensively. When the power outage was caused by the, Reed always felt guilty for having them fo fix the problem. "It should be an easy fix though. I think its just the circuit breaker. Just have someone go and flip the circuit breaker off and on again."
"Will do," Logan said. He turned to Jamie and tossed her the walkie talkie before turning back to the cabinet to retrieve the other. "It's your turn, kid."
Jamie sighed, pushing herself up out of her chair. It's always my turn, she thought. You're just too lazy to do it. Not that she really minded. It was something to do other than sit there until she did her sweep around the building.
"Here, Jamie" Thayer said. Jamie turned to see him offering her a flashlight, obviously having just pulled it off of the charging dock for her.
"Thank you, Sir," she answered. She turned it just to make sure it worked before starting to make her way around the desk. "I'll see you in ten!" she called over her shoulder
Baxter building was a very different looking place in the dark. What she was familiar within the light looked completely foreign to her in the dark. Though, that could be said with anything in the dark, pretty much.
The storage area was the weirdest place to be in the dark though, or so Jamie though,seeing as she hadn't been to the top floor penthouse. She was pretty sure it'd be a little weird to be there in the dark with all of those experiments and equipment around. Then again that was why the large storage room was so freaky.
The storage room was just that. It was i the back of the building on the lowest floor, separated from everything so that when things were getting moved around, going into different area to upstairs from the utility life and down again, it wouldn't disturb the rest of the people in the building. The loading docks were connected there for the same reason.
It was also the largest area of the building that the security guards had to check out, as well as the most difficult area for Jamie to be in. The large crates and machines reminded her so much of the training area at the compound she had been held in. Every corner she walked around made her think she was going to be attacked.
Jamie was just about to get to the circuit breaking i the storage room when her eye caught a flash of light in her peripherals. She stopped and turned, pulling out her gun and holding it in one hand while shining her flashlight to her right with the other. Before she had a proper look at what was going on, however, a loud bang echoed through the storage room. Jamie instantly dove to the side, hiding behind one of the large crates, but she was too slow
Whoever had shot had been aiming at Jamie, and had kicked her in the shoulder,causing her to drop her gun and flashlight. She landed on her side, luckily not on her injured left side. She sat up,pulled out her gun with her good side and managed to use her left to pick up the walkie talkie.
"Roe to security," she whispered urgently. "We have intruders in storage. They are armed and dangerous. I repeat, they are armed."
Jamie didn't get a chance to hear the reply over the radio for she heard several footsteps running her way. She didn't have much time to act. She didn't have anywhere to go, anything to use as a weapon, and she was already injured to begin with. The situation sure was escalating quickly.
"You said the wouldn't come for fifteen minutes!"
"That's what the old time was!"
They've observed, Jamie thought. They're been watching the place and doing their homework. Obviously it's a little outdated though, seeing as I always respond right after the outage occurs. They've gotta be thinking of Logan. So, have they attempted this before?
Jamie sat there, listening in on their conversation as she got up, looking above her to see if she could jump up to the top of the crate before they surrounded her. She wouldn't be able to jump up with her injured arm, and she vowed to not use her abilities ever again. She couldn't risk exposing what actually happened while in captivity. Her only hope was to disarm and fight with her fists...or fist.
The first guy came around the left of the container, and Jamie figured that out from the sound of his footsteps. She was standing against the container, ready for anything. He was holding the gun out in front of him with one hand, the flashlight in the other right above the gun, much like how she had been holding her things, and how police officers did it.
Jamie, the moment her eyes landed on which hand he held gun in, threw the walkie talkie, with accuracy, and made contact with his wrist, causing the man to drop the gun. She lunged forward, tackling him to the ground. She was down for but a moment before rolling back to her feet, putting him back up with her as a human shield in case the other person tried anything funny.
The man she held though was far too large for her to simply just hold on her own with one good arm though. Once he realized what had happened, he broke out of her hold, sending his elbow back and into Jamie's cheekbone, surly bruising it. Jamie growled, only stepping back a single step in her second of shock. She moved quickly in raising her foot and slamming it down on the back of the man's knee, breaking it.
He howled out in pain and feel to the group, holding his injured extremity. Jamie couldn't just stand there over him though, she had to keep moving. There was still the other man with the gun. If she remained there she would be right in the open to be shot at again. It was too dark to truly see how close the other man was. The time it took for Jamie to kick the guy's knee out provided the other thief with the opportunity to kick Jamie quare in the stomach.
The young woman was knocked into a large stack of metal poles, the purpose of which was not known. She landed on the floor in front of them, but her impacted jostled them enough to tip over right on top of her legs, pinning her to the group. She cried out, desperate to pull herself out from under the heavy weight.
A sweatshirt wrapped around her neck, strangling her. Jamie let out a strangled gasp, not getting any air whatsoever. Her hands instantly went to the thing around her neck to try and pull if off so she could breath, but it was useless, the sweatshirt was wrapped around the guys forearms, and with the position they were in, Jamie couldn't possibly twist around to get out.
Jamie gasped again, but nothing entered her lungs. She was going to get strangled to death. She was going to come back home from that hellhole in Qatar to die in a security job in a break-in.
Jamie wasn't going to let that happen. She managed to reach up and back to the guy's face, her fingers finding the indent where his eye socket was. Jack gagged as the man pulled the clothing tighter, trying to prevent her from getting to him, but it was no use. Jamie had already gotten hold of the area and used her nails to drag down the front of his face. She could feel the hot blood covering her fingers as the man stumbled back with a cry.
"Police! Drop your weapons!"
The only thing Jamie could do at that point was cough and take in as much air as she possibly could. The Police secured the two intruders, while Reed went to the breaker to flip the switch to turn the power back on. Johnny ran up to Jamie to help her, seeing as nobody else was.
"Holy shit, Jamie!" Johnny exclaimed, kneeling beside her to lift the metal off her. Once she was unpinned, Jamie pulled herself out and laid on the ground, still desperately trying to catch her breath. "You okay?" he asked, checking her over and not checking her out for once.
Jamie waved him off with a wave from her good arm. Honestly, she would be okay. She just needed to clean her wound and get a sling for it. Some ice on her bruises would help a great deal, but that was honestly all she really needed medical wise.
"So, uh," Johnny said, sitting down next to her. "I think you earned a promotion."
Jamie laughed, which caused pain in every part of her. "Ow."
All Jamie wanted to do after work that night was to hit the sack. She didn't want food. She didn't want to shower. She didn't even want to take off her shoes. The brunette simply wanted to plop down, face down or otherwise, and just close her eyes to pass out into a dreamless sleep. Falling asleep wouldn't be the problem, she knew. It was stay asleep and hoping for a dreamless slumber.
A girl could dream.
Jamie opened the door, carelessly tossing her keys into the little dish on the table next to the door. Her now free hand moved to her other arm, cradling it gently, in hope that in doing so, the discomfort admitting from her injury which radiated shockwaves up her arm and into her shoulder and neck would lesson.
Jamie sighed, rolling her neck as she kicked off her shoes, leaving them next to the door. She took several steps into the hallway, using her foot to push her door shut. She figured she probably should make herself something to eat before going to bed, despite having the complete lack of motivation to do anything other than crawl into her warm comforter.
She turned her head, eyes falling upon the light admitting form the living room. She stopped, eyes narrowing. She could had sworn she turned everything off before leaving the apartment that morning. Jamie specifically remember stubbing her toe against the coffee table turning off the lamb on the side table next to the armchair. So why were the lights on.
A pale hand reached to the gun at her hip, upholstering it. She slowly made her way around the corner, checking to make sure nobody was there to jump at her or overtake her. She was at a disadvantage, after all. However, she quickly sighed, seeing who exactly had broken into her apartment.
"I see you've had a long day at work."
Agent Coulson was sitting in the armchair across from the couch, a glass of water sitting on one of her coasters on the coffee table in front of him. He looked tense, with black bags under his eyes. Jamie had never seen the man look so overworked, which lead her to believe something was very wrong. And if something was wrong in his business that definitely didn't mean anything good for the public.
"I shouldn't be surprised," Jamie stated, slowly making her way around the couch. She plopped down, gun still in hand. "I always expected to find you in the apartment one day. What do I owe this surprise visit to, Agent Coulson?"
"We need your help," Coulson admitted.
"My help?" Jamie asked in disbelief, shaking her head. She didn't understand exactly why they needed her help. For all they knew, she was just a soldier, and their agents were specially trained. She had been discharged long before. She was out of practice (or so they thought) and was just a simple soldier. Why being a wild card into the playing field? "I'm a middling," the girl said, "so I don't see how I could possibly be of any help to a giant government agency."
"That's a lie," Coulson told her, leaning forward. His elbows took a place on his knees, supporting his weight as he moved closer to the girl. "And you and I both know it, Private."
Jamie shook her head, gainsay what he said. "No, I'm just a security guard, Agent Coulson. There's nothing special about that, now is there?"
"Something's about to happen and we need all the help we can get here, Private. Now, you know what happened while you were in captivity. You know what you can do. We know what you can do."
"That sounded extemporized," Jamie muttered, holstering her gun.
"Amir told us, though we threatened to deport him and his family, so you shouldn't be angry with him," Coulson stated. "The experiments. The ability to control energy."
Jamie gulped, but did her best to keep her expression the same. She was found out. There was no going back to normal. She had tried that already and the whole time they already knew her secret. "You must really be desperate to come to me. I mean, you've been trying to get me to come clean for what? Three months? A very large, very important factor had to have changed the rules of the game for you to come here to openly admit that you already knew what happened."
"You're right," he said. "We're desperate."
"That's something you never want a powerful agency to say," the woman laughed humorlessly. "What do you want me to do exactly?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you," Coulson informed her. "Director Fury wants to tell you that himself."
"Huh, the Director?" Jamie sat back, her back extremely sore. "I should feel special, shouldn't I?" She didn't feel special whatsoever. All she felt was that something was off. Why couldn't they tell her what she was going to be doing? Why were they in such a hurry? What had SHIELD so scared?
"We need to leave as soon as possible," Coulson said. The man stood up, taking the small backpack that had been resting on the floor beside his feet. "I already packed you a to-go bag. Hygiene products included. We'll have a uniform provided for you upon arrival."
Jamie stood up as well, not needing anything else other than her shoes and her keys. "I don't know if I should be thankful or creeped out that you packed my underwear, Agent. Shouldn't you at least buy me dinner first?"
The two made their way to the door. Jamie grabbed her keys from the dish and slipped her shoes back on. Coulson held the door open for her as he said, "Would cafeteria food count?"
Jamie let a chuckle escaped, her blue eyes rolled. "Is it any good?" she asked, locking the door once both individuals were in the hallway.
"No," Coulson stated.
"Then no, it doesn't count," she said. The two made their way to the stairs. Coulson knew Jamie always took the stairs, having a fear of the claustrophobic elevator due to her time in captivity. "How long am I going to be expected to be gone?"
"I packed a week's worth of supplies," he said. "Though I'm not certain about the duration of your stay."
"And you knew I'd say yes?" she asked offhandedly.
"I was instructed to bring you in, compliant or otherwise" he stated.
"Well, that's reassuring," the girl muttered.
Once outside in the night air, Coulson lead the girl to the black SUV around the corner. He opened the back seat for her, allowing her to get in. She went to move over, but Coulson made no move to get in, confusing the brunette. She tilted her head subconsciously at the man, silently asking him why he wasn't getting in.
"Agent Bedig will escort you to your transportation," he informed her. He handed over the bag to the girl. She set it on the seat next to her as she listened intently to what Phil went on to say. "I've still got some work to do."
She had no inclination as to what Coulson still had to do, but it unsettled her. Was it dangerous? Was it incredibly important to the mission at hand? Would he be okay? Coulson, though a general annoyance to Jamie, had gotten comfortable with the man and didn't want anything bad to happen to him. He was a good guy, even if he happened to break into her apartment and did who knew what else.
In short, she would have felt much more comfortable having Coulson with her, instead of getting dumped with an agent she was unfamiliar with.
"But we'll still end up at the same place, right?" she asked, putting her hand out to stop Coulson from shutting the door.
Coulson gave the younger girl a small smile and a nod. "Yes," he said. "I'll see you soon, Private Roe."
Jamie let out a break she hadn't known she was holding. "I'm holding you to that, Agent Coulson."
So there we have it, the unexpected start of The Avengers, so I hope you're all excited for that. I know I am, that's for sure. Anyway, hope you guys liked this chapter, I've had this one planned out in my head forever so I'm happy it's finally out on paper (internet?) and posted. I forced myself to sit down for three hours (my 3 hr photography class got canceled - it's only the second week for Pete's sake!) and just hammer the rest of it out. Let me know what you guys thought and review!
Thanks for to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter(s):
seasidewriter1 - I hate school, which is ironic because I'm going to be a teacher so….I love teaching, but I hate attending, if that makes sense. Doesn't help that the majority of my classes are 3 hours long. Anyway, enough about that. I'm glad you liked the was the only part I kind of dreaded writing. Fighting scenes in general, really. And Coulson is very Coulson, That's why we all love him so much! I'm glad you found it cute. I know their conversations go from light to heavy to light again, and sometimes that's okay, but I fear there is too much of it sometimes. Oh well. Oh, and don't worry, Johnny's not going to just disappear, and Steve obviously isn't either,so they're bound to run into each other at some point. And there will be quite a few times where you'll see that side of Steve. Have things planned. Many things planned.
Guest - I'm so happy you loved it! And yes, I love having Steve and Coulson i it. And don't you worry, I'll "keep up with all the things." lol..
ToFallUponTheNight - I didn't really plan on updating so quickly either. I like to give it a little time to get some reviews first, but I was so excited that I just did it. But I totally get you on the whole "Fall in love with an inactive story" thing….I'll admit, I'm a little guilty on that. I have a stories on my page that are like that, but hey! I'm stuck, I can't help it! But I'm glad you liked the chapter, and classes were good, but the weekend was filled with homework. Uh! No thank you!
Trisscar95 - I'm so glad you liked it! Thank you for the review and I hope to hear from you again.
TMG4899 - I'm glad the chapter put a smile to you face. Steve is a protective fellow, isn't he? It' absolutely adorable. Hope you liked this chapter as much as the last.
shika93 - I know, I agree with you. Hope you liked the chapter!
