Alex walked out into the hallway to see James appear at the top of the stairs, eyes troubled and thoughts obviously elsewhere. It was a look that made Alex's heart drop. Whatever Steve had to say, it hadn't been good. However, when he saw her, he smiled and some of the tension disappeared from his shoulders. It was such a small thing, but it made Alex's heart break.
He walked over and stood in front of her, just close enough to reach out and touch her if he wanted to, but he kept his hands to himself.
"How did it go?" Alex asked, knowing by the look that it wasn't great.
"He trusts me about as much as I trust him," James sighed. "He wants to trust me, that's painfully obvious, but without having a better idea of what Hydra did to me, he won't put his people's life at risk by telling me any information. He gave me a few tidbits, but basically told me to stay out of it."
"That's it? Stay out of it? That doesn't sound like Steve, not about you." Steve had been fixated on James since the moment they met in that alley. Just brushing him off did not seem like Steve's style at all.
"I honestly don't think he is processing that he's talking to me." James leaned against the wall and ran his hand through his hair. "I am sure he has imagined our reunion a hundred different ways since he found out I was alive and I can assure you none of them have been what happened this morning. He's missing a person I'm not sure exists anymore and I think that hurts him a bit more than me being dead. You also complicate matters."
"Me? Why?"
"You're another factor, someone he doesn't know what to do with. He has always wanted to protect everyone but himself and I don't think he's going to really process what is going on until this is all over," James explained.
"What about you?" Alex asked softly, trying to read his expression. "How are you doing with all this?"
"I…it's been so long since I've felt anything, it's hard to explain what I feel. I know who he is, I remember what he was to me, but that all seems so surreal. It ebbs and flows and it's hard to hold onto. And like I said, you complicated matters."
"What am I doing this time other than existing?" Alex huffed.
"Nothing, and that's the problem." James turned his head toward her and smiled. "It's just that when you are around, it's hard for me to concentrate on anything else and it takes all my concentration to sort through my memories." James looked at the opposite wall and it was obvious that his thoughts were a million miles away, or maybe a few decades. He looked sad and confused and lost.
Alex felt as if he had wrapped his fingers around her heart and squeezed a little. He had never said anything aloud about how he felt about her. Well, he might have in Russian, but that hardly counted. While being distracting could mean a lot of things, Alex only wanted it to have one meaning. Even if he had to leave, even if it was only for a moment.
"Well me being a distraction or not, it still doesn't make any sense. The way he was talking earlier it sounded like he was ready to pin the Avengers A onto your shoulder," Alex pointed as she leaned next to him, ignoring her personal drama for a moment. "What changed?"
"I wouldn't give him any information or play by his rules. I have ideas about where the Hydra members might be, he wants them, and I want to handle it myself." James's voice was dark at the end of the sentence.
Alex felt a shiver go down her spine. James was going to handle things the way he had been programmed and he didn't seem to have any problems with that. Even with his memories somewhat back. Jonas's face flashed in front of her eyes, dead and pale.
"Why? Why not let Steve and Sam take care of it? It's kind of their job." Alex rubbed her arms. She had always known that James was a killer, he had never hidden that fact, but it still wasn't a good feeling to know that he had no problem ending someone's life. Sure, he had been a sniper in the war, but the Nazis of old seemed so different than Hydra agents of now for some reason.
"They made it personal," James said simply. Alex turned to see that he was looking right at her. He moved so he was standing in front of her, reached out, and let his fingers lightly touch her cheek where the bruise was hidden by makeup.
"That was kind of the point," Alex pointed out. That simple gesture warmed the chill in her bones and drew her toward him. Her emotions were in constant chaos when she was around him and while she loved him, even though she didn't want to admit it, she didn't like being out of control. A moment ago she was debating the morals of him killing people and now all she wanted to do was kiss him.
She ran through the same arguments she had been having with herself all week, how could she be so attached to a man who was so unpredictable and mysterious and dangerous. How had she let herself fall in love with him so quickly? How did she let herself fall in love?
"Steve says that I should get out of here without being seen, if I can. He thinks that if anyone other than Sam sees me, it's going to complicate matters," James let his finger trail down her cheek to her jaw before letting his hand drop.
"I believe that's the understatement of the century," Alex laughed a little as she looked down at her feet. "What are you going to do?"
"What I do best," James said simply.
"That's not an answer," Alex countered, the chill settling into her bones once again. She was really sick of people dying, even if they were bad people.
"You sound like Steve," James chuckled, making Alex look up. "I'm going to do what I have to do to keep you safe."
"You know," Alex said, her voice raising a little. "I'm getting really sick of people worrying about keeping me safe. When they do that, it doesn't seem to end well. What are you going to do, kill all of Hydra?"
While Alex was having a problem figuring out what her emotions were doing, anger had always been right there to help her out. Just last night everyone had almost gotten blown up because they were trying to protect her, she did not want a repeat. She didn't want to see anyone else die and she definitely didn't want them to die for her.
"If that's what it takes," James didn't raise his voice, but it was like steel. "I did this, I brought you into this, and I am going to make it right."
"I was the one who decided to help you, I was the one that let you into the apartment across the hall. I did that. This isn't your fault. Get over yourself." Alex's voice rose a bit more. "Why don't you stop figuring out how to blame yourself for everything and start worrying about keeping yourself safe?"
"Because I'm not important!" James finally snapped, making Alex flinch. However it was just normal frustration and not terminator mode, so she pressed her luck. She was too tired and mad at this point to care anyway.
"Don't be a fucking idiot!" Alex snapped back. "How in the name of God could you stand there and say you aren't important? Forget the fact that you are a person and all people matter. Look at what you have done! You help Steve win World War II for fucks sake. That's not even mentioning everything you have done for me. I'd be dead without you!"
"How does that make up for what I've done in between then and now? Don't stand there and try to tell me that I am a hero when you know nothing about me," James's voice dropped, but it still shook with anger. "You have no idea what I've done. What kind of monster I am."
"And you think that makes it so it doesn't matter if you die?" Alex's voice dropped as well. "Because Steve knows what you've done. I am sure he knows every gory god damn detail and he doesn't give a damn! He is beside himself trying to get you back. Who you used to be doesn't change who you are now! I have seen monsters, and you aren't one!"
They stood there, breathing heavily, staring at one another. Finally, James ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, breaking the stalemate. Alex huffed and crossed her arms, still fuming. Did she know what she felt for him? Not really. Was she determined to make him see that he was worthy of living? You bet your ass.
The moments ticked by as they both stood there, looking at one another in frustration.
"You are the most infuriating women I have ever met," James said running his hand through his hair again, tugging at it slightly. However, there was the ghost of a smile on his lips.
"You can barely remember anything or anyone, so that doesn't mean much," Alex shot back.
"You don't know the women I do remember." The ghost of a smile materialized into an actual smirk, showing that he had put an end to the argument.
"I'll take it as a compliment then," Alex gave him an answering smirk.
"Of course you would." James gave her an actual smile at this, which made him breathtakingly beautiful. Alex felt her breath catch a little and then mentally screamed at herself for being absolutely ridiculous. She was angry. She was not going to swoon every time he smiled!
James looked at her when he heard her little gasp, the smile sliding off his face. He studied her for a moment, as if trying to figure something out, before shaking his head. He reached out, putting his hand on her cheek again, and kissed her. He was warm and soft, very delicate for a man so strong. It made her feel safe. He might be a killer and he might have almost killed her, but there was something about James that just felt right. James's other arm went around her waist and held her close to him.
Alex's brain was screaming at her that this was an idiotic idea. Wasn't she just thinking about how stupid it was that she had feelings for him while she knew nothing about him? Wasn't it obvious that he wasn't going to stay around so she shouldn't get any more involved with him? Isn't that what she told herself every time this happened? This wasn't fair to him and it sure as hell wasn't fair to her.
Then her heart told her brain to shut the fuck up. She wrapped her arms around his neck, even though her shoulder started to throb, and kissed him back. There was a moment where he stiffened, as if he was having his own mental debate, before he leaned into the kiss. James's hand went back to tangle in her hair, tipping her head back a little so that he could kiss her more passionately. Her nails dug into his neck as she bit down lightly on his bottom lip, making him open his mouth, so she could slip her tongue inside. James pushed her gently so that her back was against the wall and pressed himself against her, the heat from his body easily felt through their clothes. Alex rolled into him, wanting there to be no space between them.
"Okay, okay," James said, pulling back to break them apart, resting his forehead against hers. "I have to go. Steve will have my head if he comes up and sees this."
"Steve isn't my keeper. And I didn't stop you in the first place," Alex said breathlessly, which got a laugh out of him.
"Like I said, you're infuriating," James said as he placed a kiss on her forehead before letting go of her and walking down the hallway.
"The front door is that way," Alex pointed out as she leaned against the wall, trying to get her breath back.
"Who said anything about the front door?" James cast a smile over his shoulder before he disappeared into one of the doors off the hallway.
"And I'm infuriating," Alex said to herself. She placed her head against the wall and hit it against it a few times. It wasn't like she was using her brain for anything else. Her heart was racing, her shoulder was sore, and she was even more confused. This week had just been stellar for bad decisions. However, it had been good for great make out sessions, so that was a plus.
"Everything alright up there?" Steve called from the bottom of the steps.
"Fantastic," Alex called down, the sarcasm dripping off every letter. "Fan-fucking-tastic." She sighed as she closed her eyes and leaned against the wall.
"I'm going to be leaving soon, Clint's coming to hang out," Steve continued, ignoring her sarcasm. She had a feeling he had a lot of practice doing that.
"Babysit, you mean?" Alex called as she walked to the top of the stairs. The USB drive slid further into her boot and under the arch of her foot. She had forgotten it for a moment, she thanked James for that, and now she couldn't get to it easily.
"Prison guard more like it," Steve chuckled as he shrugged into his jacket. "Can I trust you to stay put?"
"What do you think?" Alex asked as she walked downstairs.
"I am praying that it is yes, but I am going to leave Clint with a taser just in case," Steve smiled as she joined him at the base of the stairs, but then he turned serious. "Alexandra, do not leave this house."
"Where would I go?" Alex ignored the USB drive digging into her foot. She thought about telling him about it, about stopping this, but she couldn't force the words past her lips. As much as she hated the danger, James was right, they had made it personal. She wanted to know what they knew, she wanted to prove that she could do something to help.
"I don't know and that's what I'm worried about." Steve sighed, giving her a serious look as a knock came to the front door. Steve opened it and Clint strolled in with a cardboard carrier filled with Starbucks cups.
"You are a God among men," Alex said as he handed her one, 'troublemaker' written on the side.
"You hear that Steve, a God!" Clint smiled as he handed him his cup as they switched places so Steve could head out.
"She hasn't met Thor," Steve pointed out with a look.
"She doesn't plan to," Alex added. Dealing with two men who had been alive for ninety years and didn't look a day over thirty was more than enough weird for her. That wasn't even counting in the evil organizations and alien artifact. She did not want anything to do with alien princes, or gods, or whatever the Asgardians were.
"Keep an eye on her," Steve said with a slap to Clint's shoulder as he headed out of the door. "Handcuff her to the banister if you have to."
"I'm not into that kind of stuff, Cap," Clint said with a smile.
"Pity, because I am," Alex winked at the both of them.
Steve sighed, look toward the ceiling, and closed the door behind him. Clint and Alex stared at one another.
"You look like hell," Clint said between sips of coffee.
"You look like shit," Alex countered.
He really did, there were bags under his eyes and he had soot on his nose. He must have been at the warehouse until Steve called him, which meant he hadn't slept. Being a superhero wasn't that glamorous after all.
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way, what's there to eat in this place?" Clint moved around her, through the living room, and into the kitchen.
"There might be food left over from what Steve cooked this morning." Alex trailed behind him, the USB literally getting under her skin. She was going to have to get it out of her shoes soon or she was going to damage it.
"Steve cooked? For just the two of you?" Clint stuck his head in the fridge and started pushing stuff around.
"He was very adamant that I eat something after losing blood last night," Alex hopped up to sit on the counter. Her whole body told her that it was a stupid idea immediately and not to do it again.
Alex was a bit surprised that Steve hadn't told Clint about James. Apparently he didn't trust his team as much as he said he did. However, Sam knew about him and was even helping him track him down, so what was the difference? As if she needed more relationships to figure out. She couldn't even deal with her own.
"Speaking of which, you look a bit like a mummy with all the bandages. Is it bad?" Clint pulled out a Tupperware container of breakfast potatoes.
"I mean, I've never been captured by an evil organization and tortured before, but I'm sure it could have been worse. I'm sure you've had worse." Alex grimaced again when she attempted to shrug.
"Yeah, you're right, but it's my job." Clint popped open the container and put it into the microwave. "Honestly though, how are you holding up?"
"Honestly? I don't know. I haven't really processed what happened last night and I don't think I want to, but I haven't broken down into hysterics so…" Alex said as she looked down at her feet. "I think I'm doing alright. Confused as all hell, but alright."
"Hey, confused as all hell is how I go through life." Clint gave her a smile while he waited for the microwave to ding, which it did in a matter of seconds. "But don't bottle that stuff up. Seriously not good for your health."
"Neither is the amount of hot sauce you are putting on those potatoes," Alex laughed as he dumped it without much care. "We all make poor decisions."
"You seem to make more than the rest of us. I mean, maybe not me, but most other people," Clint said as he grabbed a fork a dug into his food. He closed his eyes, leaned his head back, and moaned. Alex just shook her head and took another sip of her coffee.
"So, what's on the agenda for today? Shadow puppets? Braiding each other's hair?" Alex asked when she finished her coffee.
"Honestly, I am looking forward to a nap. This is like my sixth coffee and it's the only thing keeping me on my feet. You probably could do with a bit of rest too," Clint pointed out as he polished off the rest of the potatoes and stuck his head back into the refrigerator.
"I'm not tired." Clint stuck his head out of the fridge and gave her a look. "Exhausted, yes, but not tired. There is a difference. Is there any new information about Hydra or the bracelet or anything?"
"Even if there was, I wouldn't tell you," Clint said honestly as he came out with what looked like a bowl of spaghetti. "Not only would Steve murder me, but honestly, you have used up all of your nine lives this week. I am not going to be the one to get you killed."
"I've always considered myself more of a fox than a cat," Alex said with a smirk. She had been toying with the idea of telling Clint about the flash drive, but not if he was going to shut her out about what was on it too. Seriously, all she wanted to know was what was on the damn thing. Was that too much to ask? She had almost died to get it.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Clint smiled as he put the bowl into the microwave and started to reheat it.
"How long do you think I'm going to have to stay here?" Alex slid off the counter, the wounds on her ankles throbbing in protest, and limping over to throw out the coffee cup.
"Safe estimate would be a week, but honestly, it could be a while. With the Winter Soldier out there and Hydra very interested in you, we are probably going to play it on the safe side. The only thing we got out of the injured Hydra agents we dragged out last night was a count of the members in the cell. There are still six in play, one of them being Grant and his lovely blonde friend." Clint spoke as he pulled the bowl out, mixed the spaghetti, and shoved it back in.
"You didn't get her last night?" Alex felt as if she had been dumped into an ice bath. Jonas might have been the one that took the knife to her, but Nadia was cold and calculating. She didn't do what she did because she enjoyed it, she did what she did because she thought it was right. She also looked like she would enjoy painting her nails with the blood of her enemies.
"Hey, I put an arrow in her. What more do you want from me?" Clint pulled the bowl of spaghetti out of the microwave and started digging into it.
"So, is this just surveillance or house arrest? Because I have an exam I can't miss on Tuesday and assignments that I need to turn in. Not to mention work. I'm all for a bodyguard, but I am not going to fail the semester." Alex moved into the living room and threw herself down on the couch. It smelled like shampoo, smoke, and man's deodorant. How was it fair that Steve had been up for more than a day and smelled so good that it seeped into the furniture?
"Please explain to me how school work is more important than staying alive?" Clint asked around a mouthful of food.
"Because I'm on an academic scholarship and if I drop below a 3.5 GPA I lose that and have to go back to the farm permanently. I am barely keeping on top of the money situation as it is, I can't afford to pay for school," Alex explained. "So if I do live, it won't matter, because I'll be busheling hay bales for the rest of my life."
"Let's just focus on keeping you alive to go anywhere part, okay?" Clint said seriously. "And living on a farm isn't so bad."
"So I am guessing house arrest is the answer to the question," Alex sighed as she laid back and closed her eyes.
"Look at you, you really do deserve that scholarship," Clint joked.
Alex opened her one eye and saw that Clint took a seat at the counter with his back to her. She reached down into her boot and fished out the USB drive and slid it into her jean pocket. Her mind was racing as she tried to figure out how she was going to get to a computer. She hadn't seen any in the house and it wasn't like they were going to let her go to the library.
"Can I at least work on assignments while I am here?" Alex asked, attempting to sound morose about being on house arrest. "Like get my laptop, or a laptop, or something?"
"Can't you just consider this a day off and take it as a win? I have never met someone who is so against just having a day to lay around on the couch," Clint said without turning around. "I would kill for a day in sweatpants, just watching television and not moving. Literally, I would murder someone if it meant I got a day off."
"I shouldn't mention that if I wasn't in your care, you'd be napping on the couch right now, should I?" Alex asked with a laugh as she sat up. "And surveillance on me wasn't too bad until the whole kidnapping thing, was it?"
"You're probably the most entertaining asset I've watched in a while, I'll give you that. Much better than hanging out in the middle of the desert looking at a hammer stuck in the ground." Alex raised an eyebrow at this, but since Clint couldn't see her he just continued eating his spaghetti. "Though you were almost the first one that was killed on my watch, so that wasn't any fun."
"It also wasn't your fault. If I thought before I acted, none of that last night would have happened," Alex sighed. The words almost burned her mouth as she said them since she was actively trying to devise a way to get a computer and access Hydra intel without telling anyone, but then she shrugged it off. She was doing something stupid, yes, but she had thought it out beforehand this time.
"Hence why we have to keep you under lock and key. Doing stupid things kind of seems to be a reoccurring theme with you," Clint pointed out.
"You really have no idea," Alex said as she got to her feet and walked over to him. "So is there any way I could get a laptop to access my schoolwork and type up papers or something? I will go insane just sitting around here knowing there is all this stuff I need to get done. I also need to call the Malone's and let them know I won't be in once again."
"Your boss? That was already taken care of," Clint said, turning to look at her. "We had an agent stop by the say that you were in a bit of trouble in regards to your ex-boyfriend and that it would be a few days until you could come in."
"She's probably beside herself," Alex groaned. "I should probably call her."
She could just picture Mrs. Malone wringing her hands and muttering about how she had told Alex not to walk home at night. She was probably blaming herself for the whole thing when it had been Alex's bad decisions and hormones that had made all of this happen. Out of everyone that she had put out because of this whole mess, Mrs. Malone made her feel the guiltiest. Alex really didn't deserve a boss as good as her.
"That shouldn't be a problem, but I'll run it past Cap. Also, there's a laptop out in my SUV that I will let you use when I get Cap's approval." Clint finished off the spaghetti and leaned back to look at her. "So until then why don't you try taking a nap so I can take a nap?"
"Sleeping on the job? For shame," Alex said, trying to figure out where Clint would keep his keys. She just needed to get out into the car and pray that his laptop was not password protected.
"There are at least three other people watching the house, I can catch a few Z's." Clint got up and walked over to put the bowl into the dishwasher. As he bent over Alex saw the outline of car keys in his back pocket.
She could stay put until he was asleep and sneak out, but she was too restless to wait for that to happen. Besides he was a master assassin or something, he probably could go from asleep to awake in three seconds. She closed her eyes, said a silent prayer that she wasn't going to get herself killed or knocked out, and then ran over.
"What the-" Clint screamed as Alex put her hand on his back and slipped her other into his pocket to grab his keys. She then pushed him forward before darting to the front door, wrenching it open, and flying down the stairs. She hit the unlock button and an SUV a couple cars down on the street beeped. She ran toward it as Clint appeared at the top of the steps. Alex got in and got the door closed right as Clint slammed into the side of the SUV.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Clint called through the window as Alex grabbed the laptop out of the back seat. She flipped it open, hit the power button, and did a little fist pump when the desktop screen popped up.
"Alex, God Damn it!" Clint screamed through the window. "Alexandra, open this door right now!"
Alex ignored him as she plugged in the USB drive, and opened the folders. Her eyes widened at the amount of information that was all in neat little folders. Clint was on the phone, probably calling someone to override the electronic locks. Alex hit copy all and then clicked on the last opened file.
"Son of a bitch," Alex said. Staring at her was a blueprint of what Hydra believed the bracelet looked like. It was the exact one that she had dropped off to the lost and found on Tuesday before she met up with James. All this time, she really had known where it was. She didn't know what she had done to the universe, but it was having a lot of fun at her expense.
The download was complete so Alex yanked out the USB drive as the door locks popped open. Clint wrenched open the door and Alex threw the drive at him.
"What the fuck-"
"You probably want to destroy that and we need to go, I know where the artifact is," Alex cut him off as she put on the seat belt.
Clint looked at her for a moment before dropping the USB onto the ground and stomping on it was more force and longer than needed. He basically ground it to dust under his heel. Alex had a sneaking suspicion that he was pretending that it was her head. He kicked the pieces into a storm drain, muttering as he did so. He hit a contact on his phone as he walked around the car and got in.
"This is Agent Barton, the safe house has been compromised. Put everyone on high alert. The asset is in my care with Captain and Falcon running back up." Clint said before he turned the key in the ignition, sighed, and hit another contact. "Cap, you remember that joke about the handcuffs? I should have listened to you."
Alex heard Steve say something on the other end that did not sound overly friendly and Clint grimaced. She was pretty sure there were a few expletives as well.
"Yeah, well, apparently she had a USB drive that was taken from the Hydra base last night. She says she knows where the artifact is and we are heading to retrieve it now. I can't leave her here in the safe house because the drive probably had a tracker."
What came through the phone receive was definitely not friendly and Alex wondered where he had learned language like that. Then she remembered he was in the army and just sighed.
"Steve, Steve, I got her. We are heading to," Clint looked over to her and she mouthed campus, "campus to get it. Just meet us there. Yes, I understand, I won't let her out of my sight." Clint hung up and swore under his breath as he buckled up and pulled into traffic.
"How mad, exactly, is he?" Alex asked after a few moments of silence.
"If he was Banner, he would be tall, green, and tearing up Harlem as we speak," Clint's voice was level as he navigated New York traffic. "He chewed my ass off. I am sitting on its bloody remains. It is such a shame, I had a nice ass."
"It is a nice ass, very firm," Clint just shot her a glare out of the corner of his eye. "I'm sure it's still show stopping. He is going to murder me when he gets his hands on me," Alex hadn't really thought about that when she had run out the front door. She wanted all of this to be over, but Steve was probably going to shake her until her teeth fell out, and that was the best case scenario.
"Good possibility. There is a known assassin and at least six members of Hydra after you and you run out into the street, turn on a tracking device, and then draw us out into the open without back up. You're lucky I didn't murder you." Clint said between clenched teeth as someone cut him off and he laid on the horn. "There's still time."
"Why haven't you?" Alex was genuinely curious.
"Because I have never seen Cap this mad and I can't wait to see him lay into you," Clint explained.
"I'm glad I could do that for you," Alex leaned back and watched the traffic.
Clint muttered under his breath about crazy blondes and sicking Natasha on her, but Alex attempted to tune it out. Instead she focused on all of this being over, the alien artifact being handed over to the right people to do whatever with it, being safe again. Sure, that would mean she wouldn't see Steve and Sam and Clint any more, but she was pretty sure she could live with that. If this week had taught her anything, it was that she wasn't superhero material. Hell, she wasn't even side-kick material. She was the stupid female that got killed in the first five minutes of an action movie material.
It also meant that she wouldn't see James anymore. He had already left once and only came back because she was in danger. With the artifact locked away, he would disappear once again. Was she ready to let him go? She knew the answer to that was a resounding no. But what choice did she have?
James…well, James was a different matter entirely that she didn't have the time to sort through at that moment. Push that with all of the other emotional baggage that she had collected this week. It was getting pretty crowded in there.
"Where should I park?" Clint asked as they got closer to the campus. Alex told him the street closest to the science building. He found a parking spot, but put his hand to stop her from getting out. Alex just looked at him, but he reached over and pulled a gun out of the glove box. He slid it into the waistband of his jeans before getting out of the car. His eyes did a 360 scan before walking to Alex's side and opening the door.
"We get in, we get out, and that's it. Now move," Clint was all business and Alex was not going to argue.
They moved quickly to the science building and up the steps to the glass doors. Alex put her hand on the door and attempted to open it, only for it to resist her. She pulled again before she remembered a very vital thing she was missing.
"Damn," Alex said as she pulled on the door again, making them rattle.
"What?" Clint's eyes were still scanning, his fingers twitching against his leg.
"All the buildings are locked unless you have a student I.D., which I don't have on me. It's between classes so we have to wait for someone to come and open the door." Alex couldn't believe that she had forgotten that she couldn't get in without her I.D. She didn't doubt that Clint could bypass it with some technology, but she had wanted this to be easy and for everything to just be over.
"Let's go, I don't like being out in the open without backup," Clint said as he put his hand on her arm.
She was about to go with him when she spotted someone coming down the steps toward them. Alex peered through the glass and smiled when she recognized the bouncing curls coming in her direction. The glass door swung open and Monica gave her a dazzling smile, not that her smiles were ever anything but dazzling.
"Hey girl, what are you doing here on a Friday?" Monica asked as Alex and Clint hurried into the building. "And who's your friend? And what the hell did you do to yourself now?" Monica grabbed her hands and looked at her bandaged wrist.
"The usual," Alex said vaguely.
"Right," Monica looked Clint over from head to toe, her eyes narrowing. "Anything to do with him?" Obviously she hadn't forgotten the very scary man from the day before. Clint wasn't making a good case for being just your average Joe since he was staring at her as well and had arms the size of logs.
"Kind of, but not in the way you think. It's an insanely long and very complicated story, but this is a friend, an actual friend, and he is making sure nothing else happens to me for the foreseeable future. Please don't ask questions," Alex said, cutting Monica off before she could say anything. "Just take your stuff, get out of the building, and hopefully I will see you on Tuesday."
"Your skinny white ass better be there or you're going to need a bodyguard," Monica said looking to Clint. "And we are getting drinks afterwards and you are telling me every damn detail."
"I promise Monica, just please get somewhere safe. If you can get anyone else in the building out do that too," Alex squeezed the other girl's hand.
"No classes in here today, remember? They are fumigating over the weekend and want everyone out by three. I just came to grab some papers for one of the sisters that is sick. You're going to give me wrinkles," Monica said. However, Alex must have looked worried enough that Monica took her advice. She headed out the door and walked quickly into the mass of people on the street. She blended in almost immediately.
"Well at least we don't have to worry about that many students. Where are we heading?" Clint asked.
"Lost and found, this way," Alex started off down the hall.
"Wait, you're telling me this artifact has been sitting in the school lost and found all this time?" Clint asked in disbelief. "Not only that, but you knew where it was? We've been looking all week and it's in a cardboard box in the back of a closet?"
"Actually, until Tuesday, it was in a storage drain outside the building. I thought I'd be nice and took it to lost and found." Alex explained as they down the hallway and toward the science library, which also housed the lost and found. "I didn't say anything because how I was I supposed to know it was an alien artifact?"
"I use to think that I had bad luck, but you, you are on a whole other level," Clint sighed. They reached the library, with the single student standing behind the desk looking bored out of her mind. She was probably counting down the minutes until she got to leave.
"Hi, I think my bracelet was turned into the lost and found," Alex said trying to seem upbeat and personable.
"What does it look like," the student didn't even look from the magazine she was flipping through.
"Well, it has three silver bands and turquoise stones placed into it. It also has these weird markings cut into the silver." Alex dropped the nice act and tapped impatiently on the desk. For some reason she felt as if the Hydra agents were right behind them, like she would be caged at any minute. It probably didn't help that Clint was still tapping his fingers against his leg and kept his head on a swivel.
"Give me a minute," The girl sighed before heading into a room behind the desk, still without looking up at Alex.
"We've been here too long," Clint whispered into her ear.
"You want to shoot her to get her to move faster?" Alex asked him.
"She isn't top of the list of people I want to perform bodily harm to," Clint snapped back.
Alex rolled her eyes and the girl returned with a cardboard box. She dropped it with a thud on the desk and turned her attention back to her magazine. Alex felt her fingers curl into a fist, but grabbed the box and pulled it toward her instead. Her lip curled up as she started to paw through the assorted forgotten items that had been brought to the lost and found. There was an alarming amount of socks and sets of keys. How did you get far without either of those things?
Finally, her fingers closed on something that was cold and metallic. She pulled it out and in her fingers was the small piece of jewelry that she had almost been killed over. It didn't look any more impressive now that she knew what it was, but she did notice that it seemed to vibrate ever so slightly against her skin. Was it doing that before or was she just imagining it?
"Thank you ever so much for your help." Sarcasm dripped from every letter as Alex turned and left the library with Clint beside her.
"Alright, let's get you the hell out of here," Clint put his hand on her back and started to propel her toward the door at an alarming speed.
"You want this?" Alex held the bracelet out to him, but Clint shied away from it.
"I like to keep things that are known to have mind controlling properties as far away from my body as humanly possible." Clint said as they turned the corner, almost running into a girl on her cell phone.
"Sounds like someone had a bad experience," Alex gave him a look.
"Everything leading up the Battle of New York was not a great time for me," Clint said shortly as they reached the front door.
Alex didn't know what made her look to the right after she pushed open the door, but she saw the woman in all black before Clint did. She took a decisive step backward as the door was ripped out of her hand and the woman charged forward. Clint didn't even have time to draw his gun before she was on him, knocking him to the ground. Alex brought her leg back and smashed her combat boot into the girl's stomach. She rolled off Clint, who sprung to his feet as two more men came through the door.
Clint pushed Alex behind him before going at the two new assailants. One swung his gun around and Clint grabbed his wrist, snapping it back without hesitation, which caused a sickening crack and the gun dropped. Clint got him good in the jaw while kicking the other one closing in on him in the stomach.
Alex slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, mostly because her palms were so sweaty that she was scared that she was going to drop it, before slipping on her brass knuckles. Then she landed an uppercut onto the third man, who had gotten back onto his feet. He stumbled backward and Alex hit him with a left hook before bringing her boot up right between his legs. Her wrist was screaming, but she felt a lot better.
Three more people in black came through the door and Clint backed up, still in front of Alex, to assess the situation. His nose was bleeding and his face was bleak as he kept pushing Alex down the hallway.
"Just hand over the bracelet and the girl, and we'll make this painless," a female voice called. A voice that made Alex's blood run cold. Nadia walked to the front of the group, a small smile on her face.
"Did you come to return my arrow?" Clint's voice was flippant, but his body language was tense. He was running through the scenarios in his head and none of them ended well for him and Alex.
"I came to return the favor," She said as she leveled her gun at the two of them.
Alex stopped breathing and figured this was it, this was how she was going to die, over a god damn alien bracelet in the fucking science building. She wanted to apologize to Clint, that she was sorry that he was going to get killed because she was a stubborn dumbass, but all she did was stand there and stare at the gun.
That's how she saw the shield coming, smacking Nadia right in the back and causing her to drop her gun before it bounced back out the door. Sam came in almost right after it, getting one of the taller Hydra members in a choke hold. Clint launched at the nearest person when Steve came barreling through the door. There was screaming and cursing and suddenly Alex wasn't frozen anymore.
Alex ran.
It was only when she turned the corner that she realized her legs were taking her to the stairwell. She knew the building well and knew that there was a locked student lounge on the fourth floor. She hit the stairs running and got up to the fourth floor as she heard someone enter the stairwell after her. She ran full speed down the hall and hung a sharp right, almost skidding into a vending machine, before regaining her feet and charging toward the lounge. Usually students just used their cards to swipe in, but there was also a security guard desk right in front of the door.
She turned the corner and there was no one behind the desk. Alex would have screamed in frustration except she was out of breath. Instead the flung herself at the door. She pounded on it, hoping someone would open up. She looked through the door her heart sank when she realized that there was no one in there. She stopped pounding on the door and took a step back. Maybe if she hid behind the desk until the security guard came back?
"Hello Alexandra." Alex turned to see Grant standing there, a smile on his face. "Long time no see."