Chapter 10

Q opened his eyes. He was alive, that was nice to know at least. His head ached again though, he felt it and his hand came away with some blood on it, he had a cut across his forehead. He sat up, looking around. He had been thrown down the street by an explosion. Whilst he had distracted the machine, Thor had called down lightning and cracked open the destroyer. That had caused some internal system failure and voila, explosion.

I got to my feet, I was covered in little pieces of shrapnel, a few bigger than the rest that were properly imbedded in me. I fell over again, my bad arm causing a rush of pain to go through me. My right hip was burning, I felt down to it. Shit. There was a large piece of metal, about the size of a carving knife in sticking through him. He pulled himself back to sit up against the curb.

Thor had ran over to him, accompanied by Jane. "Warrior y-"

"Q my name is Q, stop with all this warrior stuff." Q's voice sounded weak

"Q you are hurt, I... I am sorry, what you did was beyond brave, I fear I can never live up to such loyalty. My brother Loki must be stopped, he is trying to break his way into my father's chambers to kill him." Thor looked scare, scared that he would love a father.

"Go, quickly. Before it is to late. I'll be fine, it's just a little piece of metal." He managed a weak smile

"I will be back soon, once my kingdom is safe." Thor erupted into a rainbow of light, quickly disappearing.

Jane threw up her arm, Q looked around to see SHIELD agents running down the street towards him. Jane stepped back as two agents slid in next to him, pressing down hard on his wound and giving him a shot of morphine in the arm. The pain went away but the whole world became floaty again. Closing his eyes he felt himself slip deeply away.

Q was at the door now, standing next to the mistress. This time felt different. He felt different, he was smaller. He was tiny, barely coming up to her hips. She took his hand, but it hurt to move his hole body hurt to move but she pulled him through the door. Inside was a dark room, in the centre was a chair, like a dentist chair, surrounded by a circle of light. He was brought forward, lifted onto the chair and strapped to it. People surrounded him, talking, he couldn't hear their voices.

Once of them pushed a needle into his arm

Q flicked open his eyes, he felt dull and leaden. Most of his body ached and the lights above him were far to bright. He sat up looking around him, he wasn't in the New Mexico infirmary anymore. This was a private wing in what looked like a proper hospital, or maybe a shield hospital. He turned around as his door opened and in walked the doctor from the New Mexico, he finally found out that her name was Dr Hope, she had a little nam badge on. She looked at him with concerned eyes before checking the monitors.

"I'm almost going to thank you, you managed to get me out of New Mexico pretty quick when I had to give you a medevac back to New York, we are back at SHIELD HQ now." She smiled and Q laid back against his pillows again, grimacing at a stab of pain from his hip. "I did say almost though, what where you thinking, I took you off active duty and you ran into a war zone, only to end up with twelve pieces of shrapnel I had to remove with tweezers and one piece that you had to go under the knife for." She poked him hard in his rips. She became quiet again, "there's.. Um, so one here to see you, though I can them away again if you aren't ready to see people."

"No doc, I'm good. Who is it?" Q hope for Clint and Natasha, maybe even Coulson.

Dr Hope walked out of the door and Q was surprised to see that Nick Fury walked into his hospital room, though he wasn't nearly as surprised by swing the director of shield as he was by seeing the next person. The President of the United States of America walked in behind Fury and closed the door to the private room.

Q tried to sit up in bed but the president held up a hand. "Son, don't move, you've gone through some tough times recently. I can't tell you how much I saddens me to see you sitting there, my own son is only two years younger than you and yet we are relying on you to protect our country. And protect it you have, I've seen many things in my life, both in the Air Force and in the Presidency but never have I seen bravery like you preformed yesterday. You stood up to an unknown alien threat and saved over thirty civilians. For this I salute you." The president gave him a salute, standing to full attention. "We had a slight argument before, you are technically not in the military because your job technically doesn't exist, and given your background you are not an American citizen either, but I said to hell with that and decided to give you both of these. I'm just sorry that they can not be given in any formal ceremony." He opened the door and an aide walked in carrying two small wooden boxes, handing the first to the president.

"This is the Medal of Honor, the highest achievement any member of the armed services can achieve for your bravery and valour during battle." He opened the box to show Q the medal in the shape of a star with his name Quentin Jacobs stamped proudly on the front of the box.

"And this is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award that can be bestowed by me upon a civilian of these United States, for your achievement in keeping our nation safe and free you have achieved this. Congratulations and may I say how personally grateful I am to you." The President opened the second box to show a golden star. His name was also printed on the box.

The president saluted again before leaving the room. Q still felt as shocked as he was when the President had walked in. Fury walked to the door and opened it, beckoning in two figures. Nat and Clint had been waiting outside for him. Both of them inspected the medals.

"This is just... phew, you have no idea how proud Nat and I are, what you did was so amazing " Clint Beemer at him, his eyes full of praise.

"Though stupid, you could have died, what were you thinking." Nat sounded annoyed but Q knew that she was just thinking of how upset she would have been if he had died.

"Yes Agent Jacobs, I didn't feel as if your induction into SHIELD was a good move. But you have proved that Agent Barton was correct. You have brought a great honour on our organisation. You have proved that you can lead men in the field and are a capable solo agent, going beyond the line of duty. I am promoting you from your training status to a level seven agent. You will be assigned to STRIKE team delta effective immediately." Q couldn't think of how to make this day weirder, he had woken up hundreds of miles from where he fell asleep, was given medals by the president and finally promoted from the lowest rank of agent to the highest.

"Th... Thank you sir" Q's head felt light as Nat squeezed him. Fury almost smiled. Almost

"You've got two weeks leave starting tomorrow, oh and we got you an apartment" seeing the shock on Q's face he quickly added, "don't worry it is just across the road from Barton, there is no need to be afraid. Now I really must be going. Good luck Agent."

Q felt something as Fury left, a feeling that emanated from the imposing man, it was a feeling of trust and care. Q knew then that Fury really did care for his agents and in that moment he decided to trust the man who probably had more secrets than the rest of the planet combined.

Nat and Clint sat down next to him in the chairs by his bed. "Gah your gonna have it easy, two weeks leave! Me and Coulson have already been reassigned down to Santa Fe and Nat is going to Russia for a couple of months. Though we will both be there tomorrow."

Q looked confuse again, "how did you find out..."

"What you really didn't think we wouldn't know" Nat said with a superior tone. "If you really got to know it's because Stark sent a gift because apparently you told them it was your Birthday tomorrow and you didn't tell us." Nat really had a good fake hurt face.

"I didn't want a fuss about it, it's just a birthday." Q looked around the room, not wanting to make eye contact with them.

"It's your sixteenth and your first birthday in the normal world and you just came back from a death defying triple mission. I say you get to have a party, Laura has already started preparing." Q looked genuinely worried now, "it won't be that bad, just Nat, Phil you and my lot."

"Well I'm looking forward to it then." Q smiled another week smile. Nat and Clint could see that how tired he was feeling and decided to leave him in peace.

Q quickly drifted back to sleep and for the first time in a longtime he didn't have nightmares.

Q was woken up by the nurse next morning coming into his room to check if he was still breathing.

"Aw hon, did ya sleep well?" She said with a slight twang in her voice.

"Yeah really great thanks, do you know what time I can get out of here?" Q felt restless having been asleep so long.

"Yeah hon, you just need Doctor Hope to sign off that your stitches are ok and then you can go, I can getcha breakfast if you would like?" When Q nodded she walked out of his room, only to be back a few minutes later with some waffles and syrup. "There ya go. Now eat up, you needcha strength back." She made sure he ate it all before taking his tray away. As she left Dr Hope walked in.

"Good morning, how are you feeling?" She shone a light in his eye and started examining is various cuts and bruises.

"I feel fine doc, just a bit of aching in my arm, that's all. The new cast was awful though." He had only realised when he woke up that morning that his cast had been changed for a pink one. The President had given him two medals, while he was in bed wearing a pink cast on his arm.

"Well you know not to break it in future now, because I will find the pinkest cast I can next time." She glared at him so Q knew her threat wasn't idol at all. She checked that his stitching on his hip was still in place and put over a new pad and then helped him out of bed. "There are some clothes for you in one of the drawers over there, don't take of that pad for at least five days," she motioned to the chest of drawers in the corner of the room, "and I think Agent Barton is going to take you home, he is waiting just outside. You can leave whenever you are ready, now you may not believe it but I actually do have per patients, no matter how much time I spend patching you up. So good luck out there Q, I better not see you in here again for another month at least." Doctor Hope signed at the bottom of his chart and walked out.

Q quickly changed into his clothes, Clint must have brought them from his room. Leaving his room he found Clint in a waiting room in the bright waiting room. Disturbing posters about how to look after bullet wounds at home lined the walls.

"Happy birthday Q" Clint handed him a cup of coffee, "come on, I've got a great day planned for us." The two of them walked out of the hospital doors, Q still with a slight limp. It was odd, because the second you were out the door of the medical wing, you were back in a grey SHIELD corridor. Q almost felt blinded from change having spent the last few days surrounded by the bright colours.

Is was a Saturday so not many people were in the office but those who were stopped to stare at him as he walked past, some even coming up to him and clapping hi on the back or shaking his hand.

"News travels fast around here doesn't it" Q was tired of the attention he was getting and couldn't keep a hint of annoyance out of his voice.

"Of course it does, your on YouTube." Q started as Nat's voice came from behind him. He felt a war glow in his chest to be back with his friends. "Damm, over five million hits, you beat the clip of me and Clint in Beirut. Unknown boy saves superhero. Of course, they have not idea who you are. SHIELD has kept everything under wraps quite well but some cellphone footage leaked out. You are all over the news, better keep a low profile for a while, though no one will expect you to turn up in New York."

They made their way down to the garage level walking over to Clint's car.

"Hope you don't mind, Laura has a shift at work till three so we've got the kids." Clint looked concerned at Q. Q saw in his eyes a fear that Q wouldn't be happy.

"Yeah that sounded great, I want to spend a day around normal people. No more ego centric billionaires or ancient Norse demigods. What have you got planned for us?" Nothing could spoil this day for Q, or at least he wouldn't let anyone ruin it.

They got into the car, Clint still not letting Q drive even though he was sixteen now. "Nope, not ever, no one touches my baby. I love her more than Coulson loves his Captain America trading cards." Q laughed but Nat looked across at him.

"I wouldn't make fun of them, he is very proud." Q scowled, still not sure if they were serious or not.

They drove through the city, reaching Clint's home pretty quickly and then swapping the car for an SUV that Clint swore was being searched for by the Tokyo branch of SHIELD.

Nat grabbed Lilia from inside, where her mum was all to happy to get her out of her heir. whilst she was getting ready for work and their small group drove over to the local park where Cooper had a group of friends playing soccer. They all sat on the sidelines, with Lilia talking about her latest obsession with the My Little Pony she had in her hand.

It was nice, just being able to sit in the sunshine, letting life pass him by. They were watching Lilia run around with a group of friends that she had found. Just being able to sit and chat felt so new to Q, his life had always been dictated and planned. Every waking moment was for training or fighting or running.

"So how did you not just kill Stark? I mean he seemed to like Q but then again both of them are massive nerds so that's expected really." Clint was lying on his back in the grass, twirling a drum stick in his hand. As far as Q knew, Clint didn't own drums so he made a mental note to find out their story.

"Stark's not that bad you know, you just get him started talking and he won't stop, practically entertains himself. And what's a nerd, if you called me it though it's never gonna be good." Q's sounded happy and content sitting around the grass. He was looking froward to spending the evening with his friends.

"Ah luchshiy drug, I felt like killing Stark on my first day, especially after Monaco, he was such an idiot." Nat's voice was sweet and Q heard the dangerous purr in it. He didn't doubt that if she had a reason she would have put a bullet in Stark's brain instantly.

"luchshiy drug, what does that even mean?" Clint looked across as her. Q looked confused as well even though Russian was his first language.

"Have you never heard that before? It was just some slang from the Red Room. It was what you called the person who you most wished you wouldn't have to fight." Nat looked at Q with open and honest eyes. For a spy she did open up to him quite easily.

"No, I never heard that before... I... I killed everyone else." Q felt himself tense up. Clint laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Q don't feel like you have to talk about this now, ther-" Clint said with a harsh feeling in his voice. Q interrupted him by shrugging his hand off.

"No, I need to do this. I can't keep running from my past, I've got to face it one day or another, so it might as well be now. You know when I said before... About what Nat did to me was for breaking down mental barriers which would magically enhance my strength. Well that was a bit of a lie. There was a doctor at the Red Room, he was on old Russian called Valdov Eustar.. He was obsessed with the super soldier serum. The once that made Captain America, Captain America. No one had perfected the serum since the war after the man who first invented it was shot but Dr Eustar was obsessed with creating a modern super soldier. He decided that the reason no one else had succeeded was because the mind would reject it, not allow the body to perfect itself. I was four years old. What Nat did to me had pushed my mind to far. I broke, going completely insane. I remember seeing people dancing along the corridor that led from my cell to the lab where I was tested on. My mind was spinning and reeling. I heard singing. It feels odd now, I remember it so clearly. Then there was a stinging pain along my arms, they had injected me with half a dozen needles. They pushed an odd blue fluid into me, I remember it burning all inside me before I passed out. When I woke up my mind had snapped back, the scientists were surrounding me. Doctor Eustar in the centre. He undid the straps that held me down. I remember looking at him. I remember I said, "it feels odd" but the doctor just smiled. "You are perfect.""

Q could feel a few tears running down his cheek. Clint had a hard look on his face but it was Nat who spoke first. She lent in close to him, "I'm going to find them luchshiy drug. Im going to find them and then I'm going to kill them all."

She got up and started walking away from him, but Q called out again. "There's more, there were other boys, I know the Red Room doesn't usually have them but there was a whole corridor of us." Q pulled out the old knife he carried whilst he talked, flicking it in and out. "None of them had been injected you see, they weren't competition to me, all they were were cannon fodder. I killed them all, one by one. Twelve boys and not one of them is alive today. The worse thing is that it got easier every time. Whether I was shooting one for running slow or slitting another's throat with a knife the killing got easier. And that was the whole idea, make killing easier, turn him into the assassin we want him to be." Q dug the end of the knife into his fingertip, a small bead of blood welling up.

Q hadn't seen her coming and so almost stabbed Lilia when she jumped on him. He hadn't noticed Nat signalling her to come closer.

"Q, it doesn't matter that you didn't have a family growing up. You have one now and that's all that matters. We may be a bit dysfunctional but we will always be there for one another. Lilia what did you want to say to him." Nat had steel in her voice, determined to not let Q wallow in self hatred.

"Oh yeah, I wanted too say, um... Happy birthday Q." Lilia had her little grin on her face and Q managed to forget all his problems in that moment, looking at Lilia before hugging her close. He felt the tears start to fall down his face again but he wiped them away before anyone could see.

Clint was looking at him again. "Kiddo. Always remember that who we were isn't who we are now. It's what you do with your life from now that will define you. You aren't stuck in that past anymore, you just have to let it go."

The rest of the afternoon past quickly, with a familial glow surrounding their group. Q had been raised believing that being an assassin meant that he could never have a family. A home. Someone who loved him. He now knew the truth. It wasn't that no one could love you, it's that you find the people that you trust and they are your family, closer than any other bond that can be made.

After soccer in the park, their group went back to Clint's house where Laura had been making a huge dinner for them of beef stew. It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted and being surrounded by his friends made it the happiest moment of his life, just sitting there at the dinner table. Laughing and smiling, talking about old funny stories.

They moved through to the living room where Phil brought through a pile of boxes. Q realised that they were for him.

"You bought me things?" Q felt confused, why would you give someone things on a birthday?

It was Lilia's innocent voice that broke through his confusion. "You always get presents I your birthday. Otherwise how can other people show they like you?" For someone so young, Lilia was pretty smart sometimes.

Clint grabbed the box on top, opening it to show a black watch with silver metal gilding it. It was covered in knobs and switches making it rather big and bulky.

"This isn't just any old watch," he pulled out one of the knobs, revealing a thin cable that stretched out. "This is the strongest wire in the world, that could hold up a car. And this," he pointed at the button next to it, "fires the claw over fifty feet. And-"

"Ok ok, stop geeking out over the watch, let him look at his other presents." Laura scowled at the pair of them. Q was looking feverishly at the watch, trying to figure out all of its features. So far he had seen a dart launcher, an electrodisk and if you turned the watch head around it became a miniature computer.

Phil passed Nat the next box. She pulled the is off to show him a long knife that was beautiful. Made with a long black hilt that had an intricate pattern of lines running along it and a small crest sat it the middle of the hilt. It was a circle with a line crossing through it that didn't quite reached the edge of the circle. A bolt of lightning crossed behind it perpendicular to the line that Q though represented his staff. The blade was long and thin, razor sharp with a fine cut on it. It was the opposite of Barton's gift. Where the watch was high tech and bulky the knife was thin and old fashioned.

Q felt overwhelmed with emotion, completely filled with joy and gratitude to his two friends.

"This is just to... Wow I don't know how I can thank you enough."

Nat reached out to him, resting her hand ontop of his whilst smiling at him.

Phil made a coughing noise at the back of his throat and grabbed a big box that he opened to show Q a stack of books and a few DVDs. "Everything you need to watch and read, all the old classics and some new ones. Basically everything to get to know pop culture in the world." Q quickly scanned the pile looking at all the names, Lord of the rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars. The list went on and on. He was going to take a long time to get through them all.

Laura pulled out a painting. It showed a field with flowers and trees. Flowers dotted the scene with barrages of colour. Q looked at it and was straight away taken to a happy place in his mind, with the wind rushing through his hair and the grass lowing around him. Looking at the painting just gave him such a good feeling of peace, tranquil and calm.

Her voice was quiet from behind the painting, "I thought you might need something to go on your wall in your new apartment, you know, because you have nothing really of your own and I thought it was quite, um nice." She sounded scared that he wouldn't like it, being the super assassin that he was.

"It's perfect, it's looks just so nice. I want to be in there, walking in that field." Q heard the sincerity flow through his voice. Laura beamed at him, happy that she hadn't gotten him a bad present.

Lilia had made him a card and Cooper had made him an impressive figure from plastic class. It was a fighter that looks a little like him holding a staff, the painting on it was quite intricate and Q was surprised that such a small boy would have the precision to paint it.

Clint suddenly sat up, remembering something before rushing out of the room. He returned a few second later with a small wooden box.

"Jane Foster left this with me before we took off, she said she that it had returned from Asgard from Thor. I decided to leave it for you until your birthday though."

Q opened the box to see a small cylinder of a silvery metal with a note tucked next to it. He picked up the note and saw a large cursive text

Warrior, this is what we on Asgard call Mithril. It is strong material, with the perfect weight for any weapon it is cast in. I trust you abilities to use it.

His staff was going to pack one hell of a punch now.

After the presents were done they all sang happy birthday for him as Laura showed them the massive cake that she had gotten from a little baker around the corner. It tasted of vanilla with a lovely sponge centre that melted in his mouth. It was the perfect way to end the evening and Q soon started to feel tired. Phil and Nat had already gone home but Q had been convinced into staying letting Lilia draw on his cast whilst she got ready for bed. After the kids had been tucked in Q couldn't make anymore excuses to stay.

"I really need to go and have a lock at the flat, I haven't been inside yet." He was looking down the street, not able to spot it as you had to turn a corner.

"Oh that reminds me, you may want these." Clint was speaking to him from behind a pair of keys that he was holding out in front of him. Q took them. The keys felt heavy in his hand, he was not sure how he felt about having his own apartment, his own place to call home. As far as he could remember, this was his first ever. He supposed that he must of had a home when he was still small, still living with his father but he couldn't remember that house, especially after his last memory there was of his father's corpse.

He hoisted the painting under his arm and piled the other boxes into the big box from Phil and pulled that under the other arm before nodding goodbye to Clint and Laura.

"Just remember that our door is always open, day or night." Laura called out as Q walked down the sidewalk. He was scanning the distance, looking for the building before finally seeing it. It was a tall building, at least ten stories, with large windows looking out the front. He speed walked to the door, feeling happy as he pushed a key into the lock and twisting with a nice click. The door swung open to show a cozy entry hall with a green carpet and some stairs. Q knew that his apartment was on the sixth floor so he jumped in the lift that was just next to the stairs and slammed his hand into the six button. As he spilled out onto the carpet of the hallway he looked across to see the door to his apartment opposite. He went and pushed the second key into the lock, feeling excitement course through him as he opened the door.

He walked through the door to find a spacious living room, with large greens sofas spread out across the floor to create a large sitting area and a huge TV was mounted on the wall. Q looked across the living room to see a kitchen with a modern fridge, cooker and sink. He walked across to open the cupboards, finding a few glasses and a mug but little else. He looked around and noticed a small white envelope sitting on a counter top. He pulled it open to find a debit card and a small piece of paper detailing some bank account. On the back of the piece of paper were just two words, go wild.

Q smiled after reading it and walked across the room to a door which he opened to find a set of stairs hidden by it to get to a second floor. Going up them he found a bathroom with a huge shower and fancy toilet. Crossing over to another door he found a bedroom that was just occupied by what looked like a very large and thick bed. Q found all his clothes in a wardrobe that was linked to this room, which was clearly going to be his bedroom.

Q suddenly realised how overcome with sleep he was and fell into bed after quickly changing into his pyjamas. He woke up the next morning with a start, forgetting where he was before realising he was in his own room. In his own apartment.

He got out of bed and got dressed, washing in his own bathroom. He decided to explore the rest of the apartment. He walked to the other door on the top floor which he guessed to be a second bedroom after looking inside and finding nothing, he would have to buy a bed for this room. He walked downstairs again to see his lounge with the big green sofas and the kitchen. He found some orange juice in the fridge, it was the only thing in there, and poured himself a glass, sitting on a stool at the little breakfast bar his counter made up.

He looked across the room to see another door that was as the side of the apartment. He walked across the room to open it to find a huge long space, about three quarters the width of the rest of the apartment and just as long. The was a single note on the wall saying Use your imagination

Q smiled as ideas started flooding through his head.