You have no idea how sorry I am how late this chapter is. I'm so sorry. I won't keep you any longer. CHAPTER 10!
Tony hadn't seen Katie since she had said goodbye to him that morning and if he was honest, he was worrying. She had broken down in front of him the night before and had suddenly disappeared. It was more than strange. It had been clear that the fact that Lewis was 2 states away was bothering her and worrying about her was the last thing on Tony's mind.
The remaining Avengers were in second period English and Katie hadn't showed up, even though they were 20 minutes into the lesson. Even Clint was wondering where she was which caused Tony to grow more worried.
He looked down to the paper he was writing and groaned. He had stopped deconstructing the text from the Sherlock Holmes novel and started making theories and developments on Katie's idea of the saving time in his backup arc reactor. He groaned internally. Everything he thought about had some kind of connection to Katie.
The door opened and Steve, Thor, Clint and Tony couldn't turn, to look, quick enough. The easily recognisable girl with black hair and blue eyes walked through the door with a sigh. Her shoulders were slumped and her rucksack was on one strap over her shoulder. She walked to the front and handed a note to the teacher without making eye contact with anyone.
As she moved past, Tony noticed the dull grey blue colour of her eyes. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Tony looked back to Clint who looked at his with a confused look.
Katie was wearing a pair of faded, ripped, straight leg jeans and a black tee shirt from a 'Shinedown' rock concert. She had a pair of grey converse on and a beanie hat precisely balancing off of the back of her head. She slipped it off as she sat down and ran her hand through her hair in a failed attempt to calm it.
She sighed and took her time as she copied the title from the board at the front. She dawdled and distracted herself with the precision of each letter she gently scribed.
Tony had watched her; analysed her, fitted his action more. As she distracted herself with anything, everything she could. He could tell that the day was going to be weird, Natasha was on a mission and Bruce was under observation at SHIELD and Katie was majorly distracted.
The lesson was slow and it was a relief when it was over for everyone.
At break, the remainder of the group went to the stairs. Clint sat on the top step with Katie diagonally across on the step below him, she rested her head on his knees with the same blank look on her face. Tony was stood up with Steve and Thor making idle chat opposite him. Tony kept taking concerned looks at Katie and eventually he discretely gained Clint's attention and motioned to Katie.
Clint looked at her and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up to him as she snapped out of the trance she had gotten herself into and looked up to him. He gestured for them to talk in private and she nodded.
Tony watched as they went around the corner and began talking in hushed tones.
Being SHIELD agents, they knew how to talk without being heard.
"So tell me what's up." Clint said in a friendly but quiet tone, knowing full well that there was going to be a certain billionaire eavesdropping on their conversation.
Katie rubbed her hands over her face with a sigh. "I take it that Fury told you about Lewis being close?" Clint nodded in admittance. "Well," Katie continued. "The caretaker called up telling me that my parents' grave had been defaced and there was a letter addressed to me. He sent it to SHIELD and I opened it with Fury and Coulson this morning, that's why I missed the lessons."
"What did the letter say?" Clint asked.
Katie took a deep breath and swallowed. "This is only the beginning."
Clint looked like he expected more. "That's it? Five words?"
"Yeah, and it's the scariest five words I've ever read." She looked away, trying to calm herself and stop her fist from accidentally cracking the plaster of the wall next to her. Anger or sheer sadness, she voted anger.
Clint sighed with sympathy. "How are you feeling?" he asked, deciding not to ask 'are you alright?' considering it was a stupid question.
"Terrible," she admitted. "I can hear Lewis' voice saying the words. I can hear it constantly. I can't concentrate and I'm tense and I'm . . . I'm . . ." Clint could see Katie's fists clenching so he gripped her shoulders before she could punch something.
"Hey, listen!" he said firmly. "I- we won't let him touch you, I prom-"
"Don't promise!" she ordered and it took Clint by surprise. "You haven't met him; you don't know what he will do to get me."
Clint sighed. Suddenly realising how fragile Katie was inside. She needed to talk to Natasha. He was never really any good at this but it didn't take a genius to figure out that she was more 'damaged' than she let on.
But being Irish, Katie could always find things to look forward to. "Anyway," she sighed positively. "I can't be depressed. The date won't allow it."
"Umm . . ." he looked away in thought. "What's the date?"
Katie stared at him in somewhat disbelief. "Clint." Was all she said.
"Is it . . . um . . . your birthday?"
Katie gawked at him. "My birthday's in May, it's March!"
He thought for a moment. "I haven't got a clue."
Katie groaned. "Clint! It's Saint Patricks Day."
Clint rolled his head in realisation. "Oh. I knew that!"
Katie nodded in doubt. "Sure you did. Anyway, we're going out later so don't abandon me for a mission or anything."
"Going out? Where are we going?"
Katie smirked and tapped the side of her nose. Clint smiled. He wanted to ask her if she was alright but he knew she would just roll her eyes and insist that she didn't have to worry about anything.
He sucked his cheek. He had seen Katie in what was most likely her darkest time and it led to her putting on this strangely convincing but fragile facade of strength and bravery but underneath her wounds were open and raw. The only thing that could keep him looking on the positive side was that she was nowhere near as bad as he had seen her before. He wondered if she ever thought about how she was before; how bad she had been when she was first bought into SHIELD. Part of him hoped she did, maybe it kept her sane, but part of him hoped she didn't; hoped she wasn't tormented by memories. Above all, he felt sympathy for her.
XxX
Katie walked to art with Steve at her side. The other Avengers had other lessons and Katie had never really spoken properly to Steve so she figured it was a good chance to talk.
"I didn't know you did art." Katie stated and Steve looked over to her. "I wouldn't specifically pin you as an artsy guy." They were walking around the school building to go to the separated art and design class rooms; they missed the traffic that way. There were still students walking around outside but there was just less than there was inside.
"It's just little doodles and sketches."
Katie shrugged. "Doesn't matter, it counts."
"Besides, I could say the same statement about you. You don't exactly hit me as a very arty person." He said as she pushed his hands into the pockets of the brown military leather jacket he had over the white, green and blue plaid tee shirt. He looked over to her and she sighed.
"My dad used to draw." She said simply. Steve didn't know if he regretted the decision to make the statement or not.
"I'm sorry." He said anyway.
"No it's fine." She said with a convincing smiled. "I don't mind talking about It." it wasn't exactly a lie. Dependant of what mood she was in, sometimes she would be able to speak about her parents and sometimes it was the last thing she wanted to do. Right then . . . she really wanted to talk about the good things she could remember. She continued. "I swear, my dad had such big hands, he was a mechanic so they were strong too, and yet, even when it was just a doodle of an engine piece on the back of an envelope, the lines he made were so soft and precise I could watch him for hours. Just like when he was fixing a car. He would literally bring these dead cars back to life." She realised that she was going slightly off subject but the main thing was that she was smiling. She was actually genuinely smiling about her parents. It felt weird; unnatural. "Anyway," she shrugged. "When you're on your own for as long as I was you will do anything to pass the time; reading, drawing . . ." she stopped and gazed out into the middle-distance.
Steve waited for her to finish her sentence but she never did. "Um . . . Katie?"
She looked over to him in somewhat shock as she snapped out of her trance. "Oh, sorry."
"You sounded like you were going to say something after drawing and reading."
"Oh, yeah . . . it's nothing."
"Go on." He said in a supportive way.
Katie blew air through her lips. "I used to go around pubs and stop people with offensive weapons or dangerous motives." She chuckled. "So while your standard of heroism is infiltrating a Nazi base . . . mine is setting up dangerous people so they get caught by the police."
Steve looked at her, disbelieving of the fact that she could do this. "How did you do it?" he asked.
Katie sighed and looked over to him in an 'I'm-not-going-to-lie-to-you' kind of way. "I got them to attack me." she said and looked down in somewhat disappointment.
Steve turned his head to her with a smile. "That is heroism." He stated.
She looked to him with a confused smile. "Excuse me?"
"Just a minute ago you pretty much said that compared to my level of 'heroism', yours doesn't matter. It does. You put your safety on the line to help others. I'd call that heroism."
Katie shrugged. "It's not at the same level though." She said quietly.
"It doesn't matter. It's all the same. Everything, big or small. It all makes a difference." He said with a small, genuine smile.
Katie looked down with thought and then turned to him. "I can tell you were a soldier." He didn't expect that response. "You can tell by the way you talk sometimes."
Steve looked away, somewhat flattered and looking like he was about to blush.
Katie smiled but it suddenly dropped from her face as she chill ran down her spine. Her body went rigid and she stopped against the oncoming students. Steve took a few more steps but turned as he realised Katie was no longer by his side.
Katie looked and assessed the faces of everyone in the oncoming crowd. Everybody was normal. She couldn't see what she was looking for but this was not the first time she'd had the feeling that someone was watching her. It was an intense, nerve-inducing stare that Katie could feel boring into her skin.
"Katie?" Steve's voice made Katie jump and she turned to look to him. "Are you alright?" he asked.
Katie took a few deep breaths. "Umm . . . yeah." She said in a self convincing tone. "Fine.
"C'mon then," Steve gestured in the direction of the art class. "We'll be late."
XxX
Katie looked down at the pencil sketch that lay on the table. She looked at the variations of thick and thin, hard and soft lines she had used to create the dimensions of the hand she had chosen to draw. The bell rang for the end of the lesson and she pushed the drawing into the folders each student had been given.
"homework for next week," the art teacher announced. "I want you to draw something that inspires you." She spoke with the hippie-like tone of a classic art teacher. It almost made Katie cringe.
Within seconds, Steve was by her side with his bag on his back and fully ready for fourth period maths. Katie looked over to him and smirked. "Well aren't you just 'Mr. Speedy?"
Steve smiled. "At least Speedy is better than Capsicle or Grandpa."
Katie frowned. "You don't take offence to Tony's nicknames do you?"
Steve shrugged and looked down. "Not really, but you can't really take offence to Speedy."
"Guess so." Katie reasoned as she placed her pencil case into her bag so it covered the rifle in the bottom of her bag. "c'mon, we have maths next, right?" the two began walking outside.
"Yeah." Steve replied with an unusually enthusiastic tone. Katie just groaned. "You don't like math?" he asked.
"Well I'm good at it, it's just one of those subjects that will forever be a lesson that makes you cringe, do you know what I mean?"
Steve thought for a moment as they made it inside and into the busy corridors. "No, not really."
Katie shrugged. She suddenly felt an arm around her shoulders and turned to see Tony. "Hey paddy." He said like it was normal to randomly put your arm around a girls shoulder and then call her a stereotyped name.
"Hey Tin man." She said and she felt his mini glare in the side of head. She just looked forward and ignore but she really wanted to smile.
"How's your arm?" he asked.
"Kinda like I had a small electromagnetic chip implanted in it less than 3 hours ago." She said in an honest tone and Tony smiled.
Katie suddenly looked up. She could hear the familiar sound of air bending round an arrow. She looked up just to see the arrow with a purple sucker on the end spinning towards her. "Duck!" she shouted and jumped to the side. This resulted in Tony being dragged with her as the arrow carried on where she had just been but hit Steve straight in the middle of the forehead.
Unlike Katie expected, though, instead of just falling off, the sucker stuck to Steve's head and he just stood there, shocked.
Katie and Tony looked at each other before uncontrollable laughter ripped through both of them. Steve was just staring forward in shock.
Katie turned to see Clint get down from his vantage point atop the lockers with the collapsed bow in his hand. He walked forward. "Sorry Steve."
Steve didn't answer; he just blinked and carried on looking forward. Clint cringed and carefully pried the sucker from Steve's forehead.
Katie and Tony laughed more. Katie couldn't breathe and Tony was all but rolling on the floor.
Thor's chuckled boomed around the corridor. "It may pay for you to be considerably more observant, my friend." He thumped Steve on the back and this pulled him out of his stunned trance.
Katie wiped the tears away from her eyes and managed to stand upright. Tony joined her once he had calmed himself down. "I thought Soldier Boy was supposed to be the one with the heightened senses."
Katie chuckled but it came out as full blown laugh as she looked over to Steve and saw the red mark where the sucker had been. Eventually, the whole group, even Steve and Thor were laughing about something; whether it was the fact that Katie couldn't calm herself or whether it was just that Clint had shot Steve with an arrow that had left an obvious mark.
Steve was rubbing his head to try and calm the redness. Once Katie managed to gasp in air, everyone suddenly realised that the corridors were almost empty. They all began to walk swiftly to the maths room.
The teacher, Mr. Edwards, has a young man around the age of 27. He was in a shirt and tailored black trousers with a black belt with a customised buckle. He seemed like a nice enough man, the students seemed to like him, but Katie could see the darkness in the back of his eyes; the dull colour that would go unnoticed, the part that made him skitter every now and then or dart his eyes around the room.
The Avengers were placed in seats that could only be further away from each other if they were all in separate corners of the room.
Katie and Clint were the only people who were near each other; they were just an empty seat away from each other.
Mr. Edwards handed out work about algebra and the 'nth algebraic term. Katie and Tony got straight to work and Steve spent a while just trying to get his head around it, Clint was frantically chewing on the end of his pen and Thor was trying to look at the books of the students next to him as he had no idea what was going on.
Around 15 minutes into the lesson, the door to the class room and a student stood at the entrance. The rest of the students just acknowledged him and then went back to working, but not Clint sand Katie. Their eyes widened.
This boy was in dark, severely ripped jeans with chains clipped to the belt loops and badges down the hem. He was wearing a black AC/DC tee shirt with real leather, loosely tied boots. He had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. He had the stature of a mature businessman but his ragged look told otherwise; a cunning disguise.
"Ah, Dean!" the teacher exclaimed. "I was wondering where you had gotten too. You can sit over there."
Katie squinted at the teacher's choice of words but suddenly realised that the bigger problem was the fact that Dean Russell had been placed to sit between her and Clint.
Katie analysed everything; the expensive watch on Dean's wrist and the way he would look up and around every now and again, she also didn't miss the fact that Mr. Edwards was calm now and was no longer skittering around.
She gently tapped the pads for her fingers on the desk and Clint noticed. It was a simple code that Katie and Clint had been using since they began working together years before; it just meant that Katie was done her scan and Clint could move in.
Clint waited for a moment before looking over to Dean. "Um . . . excuse me?" he whispered and Dean looked over to him with indifference before Clint continued. "I'm new here and I don't think we've officially met." He held him hand out. "I'm Clint Barton."
Katie assessed Dean's posture and expression as Clint attempted to start a casual introduction and possible conversation. "I'm Dean." He shook Clint's hand. "It's nice to meet you." He said simply before going back to his own work.
It was a completely normal reaction; in fact, it was too normal. Dean went straight back to his work and Clint shot a cautious look to Katie before he looked back to his own work.
Katie did the same but she didn't pay attention to the textbook. She was too busy pouring over the pieces of information that could hold details as to how they could defeat Deans growing power. Something was just too off about Dean; she knew that he was potentially a criminal who could kill the Avengers but there was still something that was out of place.
It gave Katie the chills.
Did you like it? Yet again, I'm really sorry about the late update. I think it's that I now have a general idea of where this story is going, or at the very least I know what the next few chapters are going to be about. I think it's the fact that this story is no longer keeping me on my toes and I'm no longer buzzing to write more in my notebook. Don't worry! I will keep writing because I'm loving writing it but I'm just saying that until I get an idea that was unexpected to myself, the updates may not be as quick as they once were. I promise that I won't abandon the story.
Still open to constructive criticism and please just give me some support (or possibly some tips?)