Exactly ten seconds before 06:00, Steve knocked on Jane's door three times with a "Good mornin' Sunshine!"
She smiled at the sound of his voice followed shortly by the doorbell ringing from the phone on her bedside table. She'd been up for a while and already had a shower.
She quickly finished lacing up her Converse before she ran out of her room and caught Steve in the cafeteria.
He was halfway down the line when she grabbed a plate and hurried through dishing up, spilling mushrooms on a pile of napkins.
Steve peered at her out of the corner of his eye and the corner of his mouth rose into a half smile. By the time he picked up a wrapped set of utensils, she'd caught up to him, slightly out of breath and eyes wide.
"You're in a hurry this morning," he grinned.
"I didn't want to miss you," she blushed.
Steve made a gesture with his arm for her to lead the way to a table. They ate mostly in silence, stealing glances at each other. Ayo was sitting three tables down from them with a man in a lab coat when she glanced up and saw Steve with Jane. She pushed her plate away with a look of disgust on her face.
Before Jane knew it, they were standing at the top of the stairs at the doors leading out of the Design Institute. A small Wakandan fighter craft was waiting on the other side of the courtyard, engines running with a blue glow.
"I'll see you soon." Steve's face was hard again.
Jane didn't offer any words in return.
"Remember, you can call me anytime."
She nodded, afraid that speaking will make her lose control over the lump in her throat.
He took a step back, giving her one more moment to say something, but she didn't, she couldn't, so he turned and moved quickly down the stairs and across the courtyard, stopping at the ramp of the craft. With one last look at her, his hair playing on his forehead, he jogged up the ramp as it closed and the pilot sped off.
Everything seemed to change around her with Steve's absence heavy in her heart. Shuri looked at her like she was going to do something strange and it made her feel a little uncomfortable.
"What?" she asked as Shuri kept staring.
"Nothing, I just don't want an emotional scene in my lab." Shuri's aloof remark provoked the smallest grin out of Jane, who knew she was just being facetious.
"Don't worry," Jane's voice was quiet as she steeled herself to Shuri, "I'll keep it together."
"Good." Smiled Shuri.
Jane rushed out, a few minutes late, to meet Hendrik in the study room for the morning's session.
They'd covered most of what she needed to know of ancient and Grecian history and he proposed they break everything up according to themes, the first they would tackle, being war. He presented her with a piece of paper outlining all the great wars they would be covering.
The morning went by quickly with the conquests of Alexander the Great and after lunch, Shuri instructed Jane on what to wear when she met Okoye.
Okoye led Jane to the gym at 14:00 and put her in line with the Dora Milaje trainees. She took them through a series of kata-like movements for the next hour before she had them paired up and practice blocking on each other in slow motion. Jane found her mind wandering to Steve ever so often, but kept pace with the others. Okoye finished off the day by sending the group off on a run with Ayo, who avoided Jane like the plague.
The late afternoon in Wakanda was breathtaking and Jane felt a nostalgia for something she didn't know wrap itself around her as her lungs burned. She was exhausted by the time they returned to the gym.
The following week passed in much the same fashion. She felt herself dull into the routine and started to live for the afternoons with Okoye and the young Doras. She gained strength at an alarming rate, alarming to everyone but herself, she thought it quite normal with no reference and met Shuri's concerned poking and prodding with mild irritation.
A week and a half into Steve's absence and nearly through the first world war with Hendrik, Jane rushed to the gym on a cloudy Thursday afternoon for the training session.
Waiting there for her, was a small group of Dora Milaje, which included, as always, an irritated-looking Ayo. She had been ordered by the king to help with Jane's training but had managed to keep her distance until now.
Okoye was explaining to Jane that they were going to start with a more rigorous level of training, which would kick off that afternoon when there was a gentle ping from the bracelet she was wearing. She touched it and after a moment, let out an angry breath.
"Please excuse me, I will be right back," and she turned to leave.
Jane turned to the other women in the room and walked onto the sparring mat. Ayo walked over to her and slowly began circling Jane, her eyes moving up and down her in apparent disapproval. She took a lock of Jane's hair between her thumb and forefinger, rubbing the strands together before dropping it in apparent disgust.
She turned to the other Dora's, "Come, let us begin! Jane will go first." Several rhythmic cries echoed around the gym as the Dora's acknowledged their superior. They formed a circle around Ayo and Jane.
"Jane... Li liweyo..." Ayo breathed. "None as fitting as, 'Alien'."
"Let us see if there's any memory in your body."
Ayo lunged at her and landed a blow first to her jaw and then to her ribs with a well-placed kick. Jane slammed into the mat, the room spinning for a moment. Her ribs ached and her face was stinging.
"Get up!" Barked Ayo. "Remember your training, anticipate, block!"
Jane rose to her feet, knowing what was coming.
Again and again, Ayo sent Jane falling to the mat. Blow after blow hitting their marks with deadly precision. Ayo seemed to grow more and more impatient, which made her hit harder and harder.
"Have you learnt nothing?" She spat. "Can you not block one blow?"
Again and again, Jane got up, until blood was dribbling onto her shirt and she was having a hard time breathing through the pain. She was watching Ayo carefully, who was erratic and seemingly unpredictable, no attack was similar to the one before it.
The young Dora's encircling them looked very uncomfortable with how Ayo was getting out of control, but they dared not utter a protest for fear of meeting the same fate.
Again Jane went down, this time over Ayo's back and felt her shoulder dislocate. She clutched at her arm, bringing herself up to her knees and then her feet. Swaying slightly.
"That's enough." Called Okoye angrily as she walked through the door and took in the scene, but Ayo wasn't done. She broke into a run and hit Jane at full tilt, Jane's head cracked on the concrete just beyond the border of the large mat.
"Ayo!" She heard Okoye yell before she succumbed to the darkness.
Jane's eyes blinked open under the harsh lights of the lab. Her body ached all over and her head was pounding.
Shuri nearly knocked over a trolley as she rushed to Jane's side.
"She's awake, get me morphine, now!" She commanded.
Jane felt a needle jab into her arm and a few seconds later, her mind went a little fuzzy before she blacked out again.
She forced her eyes open. She let her head roll to the side and saw that it was just after midnight on the clock. There was a strange man sitting on a bed in the lab. Someone was by her side immediately, shining a light in her eyes.
"Do you know what your name is?" It was like waking up for the first time all over again.
"Jane, it's Jane. Please stop shining that light in my eyes," she croaked, waving whoever it was away.
She closed her eyes, trying to squeeze away the ghosts of the small flashlight burned into the back of her eyelids.
"Shuri?"
"Yes, I'm here."
"I am not convinced that exercise is good for me."
Her head rolled to the side again and the man on the bed was looking at her from under a heavily knitted brow. His chin-length dark hair partially obscuring his face. She could fight the heavy darkness pulling her under no longer an saw as the light faded that his left arm was gone.
When Jane woke again, she was nearly fully healed. She'd suffered broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a skull fracture, a cracked jaw and various soft tissue injuries. Shuri told her that she'd been unconscious for two days.
"You are very frustrating," Shuri frowned and smiled at her at the same time. "You do not respond to Vibranium treatment at all. I was left to wait for you to heal by yourself."
"You say that like it's a terrible thing," Jane responded with a small smile.
"It is, here!" Shuri made a motion with her arm to encircle her lab.
"Who was the man with one arm?" asked Jane.
"That was the White Wolf Li liweyo, I'm busy fixing him, it might be a good idea to introduce you two, you have a lot in common." Mused Shuri.
"We do?" Jane's curiosity was piqued.
"I'll let you know when he's awake again and you can see for yourself." Shuri was glad to have found something that seemed to interest Jane. Since Steve left she'd withdrawn significantly.
Okoye had come to see her and apologised for how far Ayo had gone.
"When I told you it would be more rigorous I did not mean this." Okoye motioned to Jane's fading bruises.
"Is she here?" asked Jane.
"She is." Replied Okoye.
Shuri kept her in the lab for two days after she woke, denying any request she made to leave. She even had bland food brought in so as to avoid Jane having to leave to go to the cafeteria. By day three, Jane was desperate to get out, to say the least. Shuri had run a dizzying multitude of tests from just as many tissue samples, and Jane had had enough.
Come to think of it, there were three things that she wanted.
She wanted to talk to Steve. She wanted something decent to eat, and she wanted to get back on the mat with Ayo.
Her phone's battery had died on the bedside table in her room during her recovery. She still thought it an inconvenience to take it with her everywhere. She hopped off the bed and began walking toward the exit and her room.
"Jane, wait!" Called Shuri. One of the medical staff blocked her way out.
She slowly turned until her eyes met Shuri's. "I have been extraordinarily patient with you... with all of this." She made a small rolling movement with her head.
"But you need to let me leave now." Her tone was calm but commanding.
Shuri was caught a little off guard, Jane had never actually protested what she did before, certainly not with this much authority.
"Okay. I just want to be sure you are one hundred percent... and that you're safe."
"I am fine." Came Jane's stern response.
Okoye looked at Shuri with raised eyebrows.
Jane turned to face the man blocking her way. One look at her eyes and he quickly stepped aside.
Jane strode up the spiral ramp, out of the door and down the hall to her room. She didn't care about the fresh air coming in through the gap in the back of her hospital gown.
She closed the door behind her and plugged her phone into the charger. Stripping, she climbed into the shower, letting the hot water soothe her sore muscles. When she closed her eyes, she could still see every move Ayo made, like it was a recording playing on loop.
She put on fresh gym clothes, dried her hair and headed to the cafeteria. She had two decent helpings of lunch and a fair few glasses of water.
Back in her room, she powered up her phone. She had a missed call from Steve and a message asking if she was okay.
She touched his name on the screen and the line connected in her ear.
"Jane?" he answered almost immediately.
"Steve."
"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice thick with worry.
"I am okay. My phone's battery died, and I only got to charge it now. I am sorry I missed your call."
"Shuri said that you were unconscious from training?"
"I am fine now."
"Are you sure there isn't anything you want to tell me?" He was suspicious of the situation.
"I'm not ready for that story yet." She repeated what he'd said to her not long ago.
He was silent on the other end of the line.
"I am glad to hear your voice, Steve." She said quietly, her heart nearly exploding in her chest.
"I'm glad you're okay." He replied.
"I am going for training now, so I have to go."
"Okay, look after yourself and call me if anything happens." His voice still thick with worry.
"I will."
She pressed the 'end' button. Part of her marvelled at the magic that the unassuming phone held, that she could talk to Steve when he was so far away. Part of her resented it for not being more miraculous, for not bringing Steve back. She put it down on the bedside table and headed out to the gym.
There was a significant training session in progress with a group of Doras. All of them fell silent and moved to the edge of the mat when they noticed Jane walking in.
Ayo walked into the centre of the mat. "Back from the dead, Li liweyo?"
"You did not kill me," replied Jane, coming to a standstill a few inches from Ayo.
"I will keep trying," breathed Ayo.
And she attacked, again. Jane was quick to dodge the blow and felt surprised at her own reaction. She watched as Ayo's jaw clenched before she struck a second time, missing again.
Jane blocked every blow that Ayo threw her way. No matter what she tried, there was no breaking through Jane's defences. Frustrated, she shifted tactics, trying to intimidate Jane into attacking.
"My purpose is to protect my king and my country." She started. "And you are a threat to both of those things. You should not be here."
Jane shot back "I am at a loss for where I should be and I have no intention to harm you."
"Your broken mind betrays you." Spat Ayo. "It will remember who you are, soon."
Okoye came running into the gym, having seen what was happening on the security feed.
"Li liweyo, come!" She called, slightly out of breath, shooting Ayo a dirty look.
Jane's eyes darted to Okoye, but she didn't take her focus of Ayo. She slowly began to back away, not risking turning her back, Ayo's words stinging her in her retreat.