That night, which was no less than two hours after her decision to stay, Bobbi's team arrived back at the Playground and she met them outside the hanger with Coulson, Teagan and Orion. They introduced themselves to her. They were Lance Hunter, Isabella Hartley, Idaho, and Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie. Once that was over, they headed back towards the office and she was first first to speak regarding her prompt leaving of their first meeting. "I'm sorry I high tailed it out of there while you were talking. That's another three people dead because of me." She could feel Teagan's eyes burning into her.
"You don't need to apologise." Bobbi said. "We should've been quicker."
"I should've taken them with me."
Lance, who was preoccupied with petting Orion, asked, "So what where they doing there? It looked like some pretty heavy stuff was going on."
"I don't really know what they were doing, I was... too busy with trying not to die. And you're right, whatever they were doing wasn't good." She felt Bobbi's eyes on her for a moment.
"It's a shame we didn't try to retrieve those files. They could've answered a lot of questions."
Ackerly nodded agreeingly and stifled a yawn, "Yeah, real shame, but what's done is done." The rest of them nodded their heads and they peeled off into Coulson's office with her, Teagan and Orion saying goodbye and heading to bed.
"I'm glad your sticking around even if it is only for a week." Her friend said. "Have you decided where you're going?"
"I thought about it and the best bet for me to help Nick and take out HYDRA bases around the world."
"You're helping everyone out by doing that. Where do you think he is now?"
"No idea, and that's the fun in finding him."
They entered their shared accommodation and her bed for the rest of the week would be a mattress on the floor, against the wall where Teagan's desk once sat. Both women were used to roughing it out and although this wasn't exactly that, they'd still act like it was. Her duffle bag rested atop the mattress which she promptly moved to the floor and sat down with a yawn. "You want to shower first?" Teagan asked, gesturing to the ensuite bathroom.
"Nah," she replied, "the tiredness has crept up on me. I need to sleep. Besides, I'd fall over."
She chuckled, "Fair enough, I'll see you in a bit." And with that Teagan went to have her shower. Orion made himself comfy on the large folded blanket at the foot of her mattress. Lyra was still with Fitz but she didn't mind.
In the meanwhile, she took off her prosthesis and sock, thinking about whether or not to actually change into her pajamas. Due to her constant feeling of being unsafe and on edge in places, she's not used to changing into sleepwear in case something bad happened and needed her attention. But the Playground was a safe place, what happened today aside, and they had plenty of people who could take care of things if anything did happen. Pajamas were much more comfortable than sleeping in her day clothes. Eh, what the hell. With a deciding shrug, she shuffled over to her duffle and rummaged around for her pajamas. It didn't take long to locate them and when she did she quickly changed into them. Teagan might laugh at the fact that they were vibrant red and covered in white mickey mouse heads but she's seen her in much, much worse PJs before. She neatly folded her clothes and put them aside before leaning against the wall and massaging her aching stump. The socket might be incredibly comfortable but wearing it for extended period does start to hurt. She stretched her other aching limbs too.
Ackerly looked up upon hearing the bathroom door open. Teagan exited, paused for a moment with a raised eyebrow at her pajamas, then jumped on her bed, tossing aside the towel she used to dry her chestnut hair. "Nice, jammies." She said, rolling into her front and propping up on her elbows. "For a doctor and an Avenger, they're pretty awesome."
"Thanks? And for a busy S.H.I.E.L.D agent, I'm surprised you lot sleep at all."
"We do... Sometimes not as much as we should." Teagan looked at her then to Orion who had quickly fallen asleep. "Gabe?" She asked, pushing her hair out of her face.
"Yeah?" She asked curiously, continuing to rub her stump.
"Do you have a superhero name? I mean Stark's Iron Man, Steve is Captain America, Banner is, well, Hulk when he's mad; what about you?"
"Some of the public and news outlets call me Emit, but I'm not too fond of that, I don't like it."
"Then what would you like to be called?"
"Nothing rude."
Teagan chuckled at that and thoughtfully rubbed her chin with the back of her hand. "Something that reflects your powers... hmm. Volatile?" The doctor gave her an angry look. "Yeah, you're right, it's crap... What about Spark?" She shook her head. "Or Flash?"
"My powers don't resemble a flash."
"They kinda do but I see what you mean. How... about... Neuron?"
"Nothing really happened to my neurons either, they became slightly better than the average human. So, no."
A pause lingered in the air as Teagan thought. She could see her friend's face working to think of something. She blurt out, "Oh! You know how much you love Orion?" The dog's ears pricked up but he remained asleep.
"Yes?" She said, unsure, narrowing her eyes.
"Okay, so, hear me out on this."
"Go on, Teapot."
"Corona."
"As in the aura of plasma that surrounds the sun during a total solar eclipse, corona?"
"Precisely!" Teagan enthused, pushing herself higher on her elbows. "It's a great name. It follows that cosmic theme you're so fond of; Orion- that's a constellation and a star- Lyra is also the name of a constellation and your other dog, Altair, was a star too."
The doctor pouted thoughtfully, "That's a nice reasoning but my powers don't exactly form a 'crown' shape nor are they plasma-y."
Teagan sighed, resting her head on the bed and letting her damp hair fall. "Superhero names are hard." She grumbled.
She glanced over to Orion then back over to the defeated Teagan. "Y'know," she started, her friend looked up through her dangling hair, "Corona isn't a bad name... and the sun does release energy. O.R.B.S. is-was-whatever a luminous sphere too."
"So?" Meyer drawled, a smile tugging at her lips.
She gave a confident nod of her head. "Alright, Corona."
"Yay!" She did a little dance on the bed.
"But, roll play. I want to hear how it sounds."
"Okay, so... I'll be a news anchor. Ahem!" Teagan put on her best stereotypical news reader voice, "In other news, earlier today Captain America and Corona worked together to defeat the tyrannical leader, Dick Tate. And an eyewitness at the scene had this to say, "they kicked absolute ass and I wouldn't want to be other bad guys. Corona is pretty freakin' awesome!" More on this story at six. Or," she cleared her throat, "oh God! Help! Save me! There's something after me! Help Corona!"
Ackerly laughed and nodded her head enthusiastically. "Yep, definitely Corona." She said before she yawned.
Teagan grinned, rolled onto her back and slithered into bed. "You're tired. Goodnight Gabe."
"That's abrupt."
"It's like you said, we don't get enough sleep."
The doctor chuckled, "Alright, goodnight." She moved off from her position against the wall and scrambled into the bed, pulling the covers up over her shoulders to keep her nice and warm. It took a few moments to find a comfortable sleeping position and after adjusting her pillow, quickly went to sleep.
"Gabriella! Wake up!" Rough hands shook her violently and she jolted upright, wide awake and tired. Teagan was crouched beside her, hands on her shoulders, with worry prominent on her features.
"Ah! What?" She asked in a tired daze, frantically looking around the still room for trouble. "What happened? Is everyone okay?"
She quickly nodded, "Yeah, yeah, everyone's fine but I'm not sure about you."
She took a deep breath, at least no one was hurt. "Spit it out, what's wrong with me this time?"
"You were shouting..." Teagan answered hesitantly, "about... well it sounded like gibberish but it troubled you. Are you alright? Were you having a nightmare?"
She was shouting? Well that explains why she wakes up not fully rested the majority of the time. "I-I-no, I was just... sleeping."
"Are you sure? Just sleeping?"
She nodded assuringly, "I was... I'm sorry I woke you."
Teagan removed her hands from the doctor's shoulders and sat back on her heels, rubbing her sleepy face. "Well, it keeps me on my toes. Try not to do it again."
"I'll try." Teagan smiled at her and got back into her bed. Ackerly stretched before laying back down, pulling the covers over her and swiftly falling back asleep.
This is the penultimate chapter folks!