Hope for the Hopeless

Chapter Nine: Not Exactly Hiding


The first thing that caught Holly's ears once she stepped through the large glass doors and onto the helicarrier's control hall was her uncle's voice.

Upon hearing Coulson's mild but stern voice, she had expected him to be giving orders to the other agents in the room; to sound smart and commanding as he crossed his arms and stalked around with a glare on his face.

What she did not expect, though, was to hear him gushing to the poor man about his namesake trading cards and seeking permission from him to sign them.

"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all."

Holly chuckled under her breath and shook her head exasperatedly at her uncle's antics.

If there was anything the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was truly proud of (other than his knack for whistling the entire tune of 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head' pitch-perfectly), it was his ability to collect the mint and original conditions of Captain America's paraphernalia. From trading cards (which were his prized items) to comic books and even to bed sheets, you name it, Phil Coulson's got it.

Holly was sure that if there ever was a contest to find the biggest collection of Captain America trading cards, her uncle had a pretty good chance of winning it.

"They're mint," Coulson continued with pride. Holly walked up the steps to the platform they were on and laughed when she caught sight of Steve's disinterested look with his tightly folded arms, no matter how much he wanted to keep it down. "Slight foxing around the edges, but they're in near perfect condi –"

"Morning, Phil," Holly cut in, coming up to the two men with a mirthful grin. "Good morning, Captain Rogers."

"Morning, Ma'am," Steve immediately replied, as though relieved and thankful for her sudden appearance.

Coulson turned to the young woman and raised his eyebrows at the piece of accessory she was sporting on her head.

"What in the world are you wearing?"

"What's wrong with it?" Holly asked, offended by the incredulous and mocking tone in her uncle's words.

"You're wearing animal ears." Coulson deadpanned.

"They're cat ears," She added lightly. "To be specific."

Holly's hands came up to fidget with her black cat-ears headband self-consciously. Her satchel of equipment was slung over her shoulder as usual and like yesterday, she had ignored the S.H.I.E.L.D. one-piece jumpsuit that still hung in her closet, and had chosen instead to put on a simple loose, white blouse and a pair of dark wash jeans.

Unlike other days where her hair was normally left down and free, Holly had chosen to hold her fringe away from her face with the eccentric looking headband, much to her uncle's chagrin.

Coulson flicked the ears of her headband lightly. "Why are you wearing these?"

"Don't sound so offended," Holly muttered, slapping the agent's hand away. "You don't like Tobie, you won't understand."

"What has that cat got to do with this?"

The young woman huffed in annoyance. "That cat. He's got a name, Uncle P! He's my family now and by default, an extension of your family too!"

Steve could only watch on in amusement and slight confusion over the two's good-natured bickering over what sounded to be a cat that Coulson obviously had not taken a liking to. It was easy to see how close Coulson and Holly were at the look of fondness in the agent's smiling eyes. Their interactions reminded him faintly of how he and his best friend, Bucky, used to be and he couldn't help when his smile faded at the thought of him.

"Well then, if anyone were to ask if you and I are related," Coulson said with a teasing smile. "Please tell them we're not. At least, we're not when you've got that appalling thing on."

"One more word from you, Phil," Holly threatened. "One more word and I'll set Tobie on your Captain America collectibles once this mission is over. I hear cats are prone to scratching and biting manythings at his age."

Coulson looked horrified at her threat as his blue eyes widened. It was rather amusing to see the normally stoic man looking like this after a small threat made towards his souvenirs. "You wouldn't."

At this, Steve chuckled aloud. Even Agent Hill and Fury, who were nearby, had to hide their smiles from breaking out onto their austere faces at their fellow colleague's anxious expression.

The young woman narrowed her eyes at him and smiled. "Try me."

She then turned towards Steve with a smile and nodded towards the huge table while Coulson took this chance to excuse himself to help out the agent tracking locations of the Tesseract.

"Come on, Cap, time for your vitals again," She paused and looked up at him worriedly. "Unless you'd like for me to switch to someone else, if me taking them is bothering you? My offer from yesterday still stands."

"Uh, no. It's fine… you're fine," He muttered, shaking his head bashfully. Holly watched in surprise at the faint blush that blossomed across his cheekbones. "I have to um, apologize, for my weird behaviour yesterday. It's – I just… I have… I've been told I'm awful at interacting with women. And yesterday, you were just too close to me that I panicked."

He let out a soft sigh and ruffled the back of his hair in frustration. "I don't mean to offend you, if I did, somehow."

"Well…" Holly pursed her lips thoughtfully, avoiding the Captain's sincere eyes as she took the various equipments out of her bag. "You did act as though you couldn't wait to get away from me. I thought I smelled of something horrible."

"Oh god, no." disagreed Steve immediately. "No, y–you smelled nice, Ma'am. Wonderful."

Holly looked up from fixing the thermometer for him and quirked an eyebrow in amusement at his words. "You've smelled me before?"

"What? I smelled… Oh god," Steve closed his eyes in frustration and covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "I'm just going to stop talking now."

Holly laughed softly, shaking her head at such an uncommon display of bashfulness from a grown man. Truthfully, it was strange for her to see the famed hero as an awkward, stuttering man when it came to women. She had always had this idea that Captain America was a strong, eloquent and confident man.

But she figured though his physical appearance had been enhanced by the serum, his personality still remained like that of his older self – the skinnier, weaker one who was constantly bullied by others.

"I'm just teasing, Steve," Holly admitted, pulling his hands from his face gently. She took care to put some space between them after placing the thermometer under his tongue and smiled at the blush on his face. "I'm sorry, it's just really funny to see a man as powerful as yourself being reduced to a shy, blushing boy. We don't get that now. Men are almost always so overly-confident and full of themselves despite their lack of substance."

Steve nodded quietly in response to her explanation due to the thermometer in his mouth as Holly got started on his blood pressure. A comfortable silence hung over them, now that Steve had explained his reasoning for his uneasiness around her.

"I think they look okay," Steve blurted out, breaking the silence once Holly had taken the beeping thermometer out of his mouth. His blue eyes were trained on her headband. "A little weird to be seen onboard an espionage agency plane, but I think it looks fine."

"Really? Thank you!" Holly beamed at him as she reached up to adjust the headband. Her eyes seemed even brighter, now that they were not hiding behind her curtain of hair. "At least someone appreciates it!

"I bought them especially for my cat you know? I thought I should dress myself in something similar to his species in order to avoid shocking him. He was just a baby when I got him and I'm sure it's not good for his mental health to suddenly have a human looking after him. I missed him a lot this morning, that's why I had this on. It looks ridiculous, I know, all the agents were looking at me weird," She went on, ignoring the fact that the super-soldier might not be interested in the story behind her accessory.

It was a habit of hers, to always ramble on when she touched on one of her favourite subjects. Phil thought it was endearing, although annoying at times when he wanted to be left alone. Others, such as her colleagues at the hospital, found her tendency to talk endlessly aggravating, especially when they've just had a twelve-hour shift dealing with annoying patients who were demanding to be treated for trivial illnesses such as a common flu.

"He's called Tobie," She added, taking the thermometer from Steve's mouth when it started beeping. "Cute name, isn't it? I had one of the kid's in the hospital choose it for me."

"Do you work in the pediatrics?"

"I love children, don't get me wrong, but I don't think I have the patience to deal with them all day everyday. I can't even be in the same room as my niece when she goes into one of her temper tantrums. Nope, I work in the trauma department," said Holly as she readied the timer and placed her fingers on Steve's pulse-point. "The little girl who named Tobie – her name's Laney, by the way – was a patient at the hospital. Leukemia. Poor girl was a total sweet – okay, I wouldn't necessarily call her a sweetheart. That girl's rough. I nearly knocked her down when I was rounding the corner with my medical cart. It was her birthday, that day, you know? But her parents were too busy with work to come visit her. It's ridiculous, really. Work shouldn't come before family. Family always comes first, no matter what. Especially when said family member is sick and looking forward to your visits," She stated indignantly, obviously feeling angry for Laney.

Steve had to force down the smile from breaking on his face as he listened attentively to her tirade.

"Anyway, she got angry at me for nearly bowling her over. But then, she started crying. Now, I don't have any experience whatsoever with crying children. Wailing adults were another thing entirely; I deal with them all the time. But crying children? No. Just no," Holly shook her head and proceeded to count Steve's calm breathing. "So, I panicked and pulled her into an empty ward and I tried to hush her up. She was going all red in the face. I thought I was going to kill her! I tried bribing her with candies because really, which kid on Earth doesn't like Mars Bars and Sour Patch Kids right? But then she shook her head and screamed at me saying she wasn't allowed candies, and proceeded to throw me the ugliest glare in the world, saying, 'What kind of nurse, are you? Do you not know that people like me aren't allowed to eat everything?' Then there were more tears and more words and somewhere in her wailing I made out the words, 'It's my birthday but it sucks because my parents are not here and I'm all alone, about to be killed by a negligent fool,' Yeah, I know, she said that. Charming girl, really.

"By now, I was so desperate for her to stop crying that I would do anything. So, I told her that she could have the honours of naming my kitten if she stopped crying. And let me tell you, she ceased her tears faster than you can say 'cat'. I nearly regretted it when she first suggested Henry. Who names a kitten 'Henry' anyway? But then, she changed her mind and picked Tobie instead, thank god," Holly concluded. "And that's how Tobie became Tobie."

She pulled her hands away from Steve's wrist before halting when she realized she had been going on and on for the past few minutes while he stayed silent during her endless jabbering. Holly looked up at him worriedly and plastered on a meek smile.

"Was I talking too much? Is it annoying you? I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Steve said, smiling. He was amused, if anything, by her off-topic babble. "There's only one thing bothering me though."

"That is?"

"Sour Patch Kids?"

Holly chuckled at the confused look on his face. "Oh yeah, I forgot you were from the forties. It's a candy, like Swedish Fish? Ring any bells? No?" She shook her head, watching as the baffled expression on Steve's face deepened. "Oh, um, it's just a type of soft candy coated with a sour powder. I hate that stuff, to be honest. I can't understand why so many people like them. They're disgusting."

Steve laughed at her obvious distaste for the candy and watched as she jotted down his recordings in a neat, cursive script. It seemed as if he had managed to hold himself quite well in her presence today, although his heart rate was still a tad bit higher than normal. "You don't like sweet things?"

"No, no. I do. It's just the Sour Patch Kids or any kind of sour candies I've got a problem with," She explained, not looking up from her notebook. "What's the point of eating sweets if they're sour? It's contradicting and stupid to me. Sweets are meant to be sweet. That's the whole point of creating sugar confectionary. Anyway, your vitals are looking much better than yester –"

"We've got a hit!" The two turned towards Agent Sitwell who had been monitoring one of the computers. "Sixty-seven percent match."

The computer in front of him was letting out a sharp alarm as the picture of Loki flashed in red on the bright screen. Fury turned away from where he had been speaking quietly to Hill and walked up to his own panels of computer.

Sitwell turned back towards his computer when another alarm sounded and his brows furrowed. "Wait – cross match, seventy-nine percent!"

Coulson rushed up to the man. "Location?"

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Königstrasse," The agent declared after a tap was pulled up on the screen with an area highlighted by a small red dot. "He's not exactly hiding,"

"Captain," Both Steve and Holly turned towards Fury, whose attention was cast on the super-soldier. "You're up."

Steve nodded curtly at his command and rushed from the control bridge without another word. Holly shared a worried look with Coulson before she too darted out into the corridor after him, taking hurried steps to catch up with the man.

"Steve! Wait!"

The super-soldier halted at the call of his name and wheeled around, raising his brows at the sight of Holly following him quickly. He waited for the young woman to reach him before continuing on his wake towards the armory, though his large strides were slower this time so that she could catch up with him.

Holly held onto the strap of her satchel tightly as she walked briskly beside the determined captain. "Are you going after Loki alone?"

Steve looked down at her and nodded, his blue eyes ablaze with fearlessness. "It would seem so."

"But he – please be careful," Holly bit out, flushing red when he glanced at her again. "Loki… I've seen the destruction he can cause. He's absolutely, totally off his rockers, and not to mention, he's got magic powers and a wand. He's danger with a bolded capital D and several exclamation marks to emphasize the point. You've got to be careful."

"Don't worry, Ma'am," said Steve as he sent the fretful woman an assuring smile. "I'll be fine."

"It's Holly," Her hand shot out and held onto his arm tightly causing the two to stop in their tracks in the middle of the helicarrier's corridor abruptly at her action. Steve blushed, while Holly's red cheeks brightened further. "You have to promise me you'll be careful."

"Ma'a – Holly, I'll be okay," Steve assured her; though he was slightly taken aback at the amount of concern she was showering him. "Really."

"Just promise me," She demanded firmly, her grip tightening on his arm. She let out a weak smile to neutralize the severity of her words before her hold on his arm slackened. "I haven't shown you how Tobie looks like yet. You've got to come back whole enough for me to gush to you how adorable he is."

Steve's nodded, his lips curling up into a small grin. "I'll look forward to that."

"Don't come back with injuries I can't fix," Holly added, taking his response as a positive acknowledgement of her plea for assurance.

"I won't," Steve said. "I'll see you later, Holly."

"See you," said Holly as Steve flashed her a quick smile and continued down the corridor. "Be careful!"

Steve turned back at her reminder again and nodded his head, grinning at the bright pink flush in her cheeks that was apparent she was embarrassed at her own outburst. With another wave, the soldier started towards the armory again, a silhouette of a man on a mission as he left with Holly watching after him worriedly.


Holly sighed again for the third time that half hour as she sat uncomfortably in the stiff chair beside Coulson, who had been tapping away at the computer keyboard diligently. Her headband was tucked away in her satchel now, after proving to be a nuisance with her repetitive actions of tucking and pulling her hair from behind her ear. Plus, the agent beside her couldn't help but snigger whenever he turned to look at her, much to her displeasure.

For the past hour and a half, Holly had been trying to find ways to occupy herself while she waited for Steve and Agent Romanoff's return from their mission to capture Loki.

She hated waiting, and the fact that she was waiting to know if Steve was hurt or not was absolutely killing her.

Sure, he's a super-soldier with a peak human system, but Loki was a god, for crying out loud. A human going up against a deity was never going to be a fair fight, no matter how strong and competent the human may be. Not to mention, said god had a magic wand that he could use to control anyone within his path. So, who's to say he wouldn't use it against Steve?

The first hour of the wait was spent doing productive things such as taking Dr. Banner's vitals, bringing him his lunch (she decided to be the deliverer of the scientist's meals in the end) and updating him on the progress of their mission as they made small talk for a while before she left the him alone to work on the Tesseract in peace. Holly then decided to drop by the medical bay and see if there was anything she could do. However, seeing as they were on a helicarrier where nothing (or anything, for that matter) happened, the medical bay was as desolate as a ghost town. The only patient there was a poorly looking man who had his head bent over a vomit bucket while Dr. Conway prescribed him with some motion-sickness medicine.

It amused Holly to know that even S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents could get motion sickness when they always appeared to be so limitless and unbeatable. The gratification ended though, when the sickly agent gave a particularly hard heave, causing her to cringe in empathy.

Coulson cut her a concerned glance at her sigh before turning back towards what he had been doing. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine," came her distracted reply as she resumed staring into space.

"You've been sighing and doing that thing you always do with your hair when you're upset," Coulson pointed out, puling his eyes away from the screen and setting his worried gaze on her. "You're not fine."

Holly stayed quiet at her uncle's blunt observation and sagged in her seat, fiddling with her hair once more. "Do you think Captain Rogers is going to be okay?"

Coulson quirked an eyebrow at her random question and appraised the young woman with interest.

"I'm sure he'll do well. He's Captain America," Coulson replied lightly.

"You're just saying that because you adore the man," Holly murmured. "Super-soldier or not, he's going up against a God. Isn't that enough to worry you?"

"He'll be fine. I have faith in him," the agent said. "Why are you so concerned, anyway? Are you two that close?"

His eyes narrowed at the young woman suspiciously. It wasn't in a way of jealousy that he assumed Steve and Holly were much closer with each other than with him, but in a way where Coulson would look when he found out that the young woman was hiding a potential romantic relationship from him.

"What's with that look? Can't I be worried about a friend?" asked Holly defensively.

"Sure, whatever you say, sweetheart," Coulson returned when a box popped up on the screen. "Looks like you don't have to wait anymore. Agent Romanoff just sent a message to say they're en route back to the helicarrier. With two gods."

"Two?"

"Looks like Thor decided to tag along."

Holly let out a rough sigh and ran a hand through her hair. "My life is not normal. Why can't the most exciting thing in my life be something like choosing between having pancakes or waffles for breakfast?"

"You were never normal to start with," Coulson commented mildly and received a dirty look from the young woman. He was about to defend himself when he pressed a finger on the earpiece he had always been wearing and listened attentively to the message Fury was sending to all of his agents. "Hols, are you free?"

The young woman gestured to her slacking body slumped in the chair and raised an eyebrow at him in response. "I'm going to take that as a 'Yes, Uncle Phil. I'm free, and I'm more than happy to help you with whatever you need.' Can you go fetch Dr. Banner from the lab for me and bring him to the bridge? There's a slight problem dealing with the Tesseract and we need Banner's help."

"I came here to be a nurse," She grumbled, even though she got up from her seat and made her way towards the laboratory.


Edited as of 15 April 2015