11. June 11

The alarm went off like a herd of Mongols riding right through her head. Jo turned it off with her eyes closed and slowly got up, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in her left temple.

She got up and went to the bathroom to have a quick and very cold shower. She felt better afterwards. Then she brushed her teeth, got dressed, almost fell over some clothes lying scattered on the floor and went back to the bedroom to find Steve sleeping in her bed.

"Dear god", she mumbled.

Pictures of last night appeared before her inner eye. Drinks, too many of them, by far too many. Steve, standing right in front of her. His dark blue eyes. The sensation of skin on skin… Black.

What had happened? Oh god, what had happened?

She withstood the urge to wake him up. She remembered how had told her some months ago that he had trouble sleeping, right after Nunavut, so she went quietly out of the room and into the living room, where she grabbed her bag. She stopped at the kitchen table, where yesterdays' remains were standing. The empty bottle of Whiskey, with matching tumblers. Two bottles of wine, white and red, and two mismatched glasses. A whole lot of other bottles that had once contained alcoholic drinks of different sorts. Steve's long drink glass was still on the table. A full bottle of water, still open, stood on the counter. She picked it up and emptied it in one go, then opened the fridge to take out another one. The light in the frige was on, so electricity was back. Holding the cool bottle in her hand, she decided to take another one as well and put them in her bag. She made for the door, but thought twice about it and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from a drawer and wrote a note for Steve to find when he would get up.

In the twenty minutes it took her to reach the Triskelion she emptied both bottles of water, each in one go. Unfortunately she hadn't thought of taking a pill against headaches.

She entered the building to the bustle of a new workday, making her way straight to the elevators on the far wall. An empty one arrived just as she stopped in front of the wall, making her wonder once more whether there sensors in the floor, calling for elevators.

She entered the elevator and leaned on the glass front that faced outside and offered a stunning panorama of D.C.

"Coffee", she just said absentmindedly.

"Request approved." The computer voice ringed right in her head. It felt as if her head would split clean in half.

"Quiet," she groaned and closed her eyes, but still she was wondering how the computer had understood what coffee meant.

The elevator stopped in the seventh floor, where she headed directly to the room on the far left side. It offered a few glass tables with perfectly matching chairs and a rather uncomfortable looking couch. Most of all, there was a small side table in a corner with a jug of coffee, several dark mugs, sugar, and milk, as well as some cookies. Nobody but her was there, so she took the first mug she could reach and poured herself a coffee, to which she added by far too many spoonfuls of sugar. She took the mug and sat down on a table, took a deep sip of the delicious coffee and laid her head on the cool table. She closed her eyes… just for a second…

A splitting sound woke her up and made her jump. Looking up, she saw Natasha sitting opposite her, having placed a cup of coffee right in front of her. The coffee mug being put on the table must have made that wretched sound. Natasha smirked when she saw her face.

"'s not funny," Jo groaned.

"You look terrible", Natasha said. "Had a deep look into a bottle last night, then?"

"Don't even get me started…" Jo said.

"Seen Steve today?" Natasha inquired.

Jo hoped that her face hadn't turned the colour of a tomato when she said that she hadn't seen him.

"Too bad."

"Why're you asking?", Jo wanted to know.

"It's nothing," Natasha answered. "I just thought that, with the two of you going to cinema a few weeks ago, and you being next-door-neighbors, Steve was really opening up to you. He could really do with a friend, you know"

"We're not dating, if that's what you're talking about"

Natasha chuckled and shook her head lightly. "That's not what I was thinking about, no."

"He had a date with Sarah, did you know that?"

"Is this gossip, here? From you?" Natasha grinned and leaned closer when Jo didn't answer, but merely smiled. "How do you know?"

"Well, he's told me," Jo said.

"How was it?"

"What do you think?"

"He screwed up?" Natasha asked.

"Indeed, he did. Well, at least he treated her like it was the 40's all over again, and she didn't seem to like it that much. Hasn't called since"

"Poor Steve," Natasha said. "When did he tell you?"

Jo said nothing. She didn't even know why she didn't want Natasha to know about last night. Maybe because she didn't know herself what had happened, or rather-

"Are you going all red on me?" Natasha said jokingly and took her mug.

"No, I'm… am I? I am, right?" Jo made a face and buried her head in her arms. When she looked up again, Natasha was staring at her, her hand holding the mug frozen in midair. "Natasha?" she asked tentatively.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Natasha put the mug down again.

"No, I… Yes… No, I mean… no, I don't know…" Jo took her own mug, carefully avoiding looking Natasha in the eyes, and drank a sip of coffee. It was cold, and far too sweet.

"You don't know?" Natasha asked incredulously.

"I… yeah, we were pretty drunk last night. We had a blackout in the house, and Steve was locked out, and we started drinking-"

"But he can't get drunk"

"Ever gave him a Pangalactic Gargleblaster?" Jo remarked dryly.

"Go on"

"I don't know how to go on, I don't remember. I woke up this morning and he was lying next to me in my bed, fast asleep… Then I came here"

Natasha looked like she was about to start laughing.

"Don't," Jo said. "Just don't, okay? Please?"

"You two should talk about it, you know that?" Natasha said and drank from her coffee.

"I know"

They said nothing for a few moments.

"It's just," Jo started. "I didn't know I was this sort of person. I didn't know he was-"

"Agent Marlow?"

It made her jump. She turned around and saw a pale young woman, dressed in a blouse and dress pants, looking at her expectantly.

"Yes?" Jo said.

"Mr Fury wants to talk to you."

She swallowed. What did, what could Fury want from her? "In a minute, yeah?"

"Miss, he said it was urgent."

She exchanged looks with Natasha, who shook her head slightly and shrugged.

"I'm coming," Jo said and stood up.

She had a feeling this wasn't going to be good news.