Chapter 21
Wow I am so sorry everyone it's not even funny…. :( I am ashamed, I know it has been way too long since I updated. I had to edit some stuff for this chapter and got caught up with my other stories.
I opened my eyes the next morning and the first thing I saw was the rose sitting on my nightstand. I sat up with a sigh as I looked around my room. I could hear cars honking and the daily city noises outside my window.
Lazily getting to my feet I stumbled into the living room; seeing Lara.
"Morning" I heard Lara from the couch. It was Saturday so she was off work.
"Mmph" I grumble as I went straight for the coffee machine. She laughed before looking over at me.
"Sleep good?"
"Not really" I give a sarcastic smile and grab a mug.
"Don't worry Nik, he'll be back before you know it" She sighed as she went back to her computer.
"That's not what's pissing me off" I mumble. The fact that Steve, Natasha, and Clint aren't around means I got no one to bail me out when I interfere with SHIELD business.
"SHIELD's gonna be on my case about staying out of their missions" I mumble.
"Dude, just join" Lara replies flatly. "You helped save the world with them"
"It's a lot of commitment, and-... I don't want people to start expecting any good from me..."
"What the hell dude" She laughs. "You are good" She says seriously.
"No Lara I'm not" I tell her with a laugh. "I don't have a clean slate like most of them do; they made up for their mistakes- if they made any in the first place. I can't change or… forget- so easily" I tell her. She was serious at the moment, I could tell by her face. But she didn't believe me. "When people see good, they expect good" I say. "Not that I was in the first place" I mumble with a roll of my eyes and put a hand through my hair.
Some of things I've done-… they're unspeakable. Most of the things I've done I told Lara about... But there are other things only I know about that I can barely talk about. Almost as if the orders came from the devil himself, they're unimaginable. Heartless. SHIELD doesn't need anyone like that.
I really am a killer. I am not cut out for this hero business. Working with a team and relying on one another. I don't want people to start thinking I'm reliable, cause I'm not.
"Steve sees good in you" She says in a hopeful manner.
"He sees the good in everyone... even when it's not there" I say and almost smile to myself. He's too good. He's done so much for this country and the world. He literally gave his life for it already. The fact that he asked me out makes it even worse. We're exact opposites. And the sad thing is-… he doesn't see it yet.
"Is that a bad thing?" She smiles and raises an eyebrow. I give a small shrug with a barely noticeable smile. She sighed before getting up. "I'm gonna go hit the gym" She says. I look over and nod. "You wanna come?"
"I gotta run to the store, we're low on milk" I sigh. She nods before running to her room.
~0~
A couple hours later I tossed the grocery bag on the counter and then put the milk in the fridge. My eyes shot over to the window as several cars honked before I rolled my eyes and let out a breath.
I looked around the apartment and thought for a moment.
Don't feel like missions at the moment but I wanna train.
My mind swept over to what Steve told me about using the gym at Stark Tower. I bit my lip and glanced at the phone.
Almost a minute went by before I realized I was holding the phone and had already dialed Pepper's number.
"Hello?"
"Hey Pepper, it's Nichole" I spoke up; almost regretting the decision of calling.
"Hey Nichole! How are you doing?" She asked. I look around briefly.
"Good, doing fine. Listen, I was wondering about that offer with the gym-?"
"No problem, Jarvis will let you in. Just come whenever you want to" She said warmly. I smile and nod to myself.
"Ok, thank you Pepper"
"No problem Nichole, have fun!" She chuckled before we both hung up. I grabbed my lucky pack on the counter before heading for the door again.
~0~
South Africa…
Steve threw his shield at two men; watching it bounce of both before he ran forward and caught it; delivering a punch to the man that came up behind him.
Natasha was meters away; shooting her pistols at several surrounding men. While Clint was on the roof of the building next to them; picking off whoever was there as well.
"Nat, Cap you guys got incoming. A squad coming from the north side" Clint spoke over the com. Both Steve and Natasha turned to greet the squad of several men coming towards them.
Steve looked down before adjusting his shield on his arm and Natasha quickly reloaded her pistol before firing off several rounds; kneeling down behind a car.
"Clint, looks like they brought that tank" Natasha spoke up. Clint looked to the side; seeing a tank following the squad towards their location.
"Lucky me" He smirked before pulling another arrow from his quiver; aiming it at the tank. Seconds went by before he let the arrow loose and it flew through the air before hitting the tank; causing it to explode. "Oh- Yep. I'm good" He nodded to himself. Natasha smirked and shook her head with a roll of her eyes.
"You're full of yourself" She chuckled before quickly dodging a few bullets before quickly shooting back.
"Yeah but you still love me Nat" He shrugged from the rooftop. You could say they were 'dating' although they don't admit to it, everyone knows they're kinda a couple.
"You two- focus" Steve finally spoke up with a grunt as he jumped off a nearby car and hit one of the soldiers that came around the corner. "We have a mission finish" He told them.
"Don't get all grumpy on us Cap just because your girl isn't here" Clint told him as he shot an exploding arrow at a squad of soldiers.
"Wha- I am not grumpy!" He made clear; snapping the neck of a guy with his shield before turning and punching another guy.
"Uh huh" Natasha grunted as she wrapped her legs around a nearby soldier and flipped; knocking him to the ground. "Be honest with yourself Steve" She smirked as she got to her feet. Steve merely rolled his eyes and threw his shield at the approaching soldiers; it hit three of them before he ran forward and caught it; hitting the last one before turning back. "So how wa-s it?" She asked him; dodging a bullet.
"How was- what" He asked as he punched another hostile before kicking another.
"The goodbye, how'd she take it" Natasha asked again; shooting down the last guy she saw. Steve glanced at her and looked around as it grew a bit quiet.
"Barton, last man to your right" He said into the com link.
"Got it Cap" Clint replied before Steve heard the whiz of the arrow and the guy fell out from behind a car. It grew quite once again and they all looked around; seeing no more hostiles. He took off his helmet and put a hand through his hair as it fell in the way of his eyes.
"She was alright" He replied before looking at her.
"You made out with her right?" Clint asked.
"Wha- Barton!" He scolded; looking behind him as Clint walked out of the building and over to where they were. "I didn't-... we- it was just uh-… " He stuttered before getting a bit red in the face.
"Oh yeah, it definitely went down like that" Clint laughed and patted him on the back as he walked by. "Don't worry, its ok" He chuckled as he walked in the other direction. Steve looked down before catching the look Natasha gave him. She smiled before following Clint.
He sighed and blinked several times before looking around and quickly jogged over to catch up with them.
~0~
I adjusted my lucky pack on my back as I walked up the door to Stark Tower. I slowly walked in and looked around for anyone. There wasn't.
"Welcome back Ms. Woods. It is good to see you here again" I heard Jarvis speak up.
"Hey Jarvis" I say a bit awkwardly. "Uh, may I enter the gym?" I asked.
"Of course, Miss Potts has given you access to the Tower and Gym. Mr. Stark is currently in the lab"
She gave me access to the whole tower? Wow. A lot of trust there. I would never trust myself access to this place.
"Thanks" I replied; still a little confused before walking into the elevator. I looked at the panel on the wall and found the gym. I remember Steve pushing the floor number when he showed me the gym the last night.
The door closed and I waited patiently as it went down. Soon the door opened back up and I walked out. I walked down the small hall that we did last night before walking into the gym. I sighed as I looked around.
This was the best training gym I had ever seen. It pretty much had everything. Sighing I walked over to where the training mats and a few punching bags were. I tossed my pack down before grabbing some wraps from it.
I sat down and began to wrap up my hands slowly; looking around the room. It was quiet; the only sounds heard were me tightening the wraps around my hands and my breathing.
About a minute later I finished and walked over to the bag before throwing a couple punches.
I don't know what it was but I always threw a better punch when it was at someone. I wasn't as good at punching the bag as I was people. When trained I only fought people, there were no practice bags we used. I punched real people until my knuckles bled and their face was bleeding. I know, it made me sick at first but now I couldn't care less.
You could say standard human emotion is something I'm lacking these days.
~0~
About an hour later I started finishing up as I walked into the elevator.
A spent a while at the bags before doing a few simple exercises that I usually practiced for missions.
I was about to push the lobby button when I stopped. A part of me wants to thank Pepper for letting me borrow the gym but Jarvis told me she isn't here. I guess I could tell Tony though. Jarvis said he was in the lab.
"Jarvis what level is Mr. Stark on, I'd like to thank him for letting me borrow the gym" I spoke up.
"Of course, I can take you there now"
"Thank you" I replied quietly as the elevator started moving up.
Seconds later it opened and I walked out before seeing Tony at a work table. My eyes trailed around at the lab and I mouthed a wow. This was pretty high tech. But I wouldn't expect any less from him.
I knocked against the wall as I adjusted my lucky pack on my back. He looked over through goggles.
"Hey Woods" He spoke up; taking his goggles off his face. "How was the gym?" He asked. I nod as I took a few steps in.
"Was pretty relaxing actually- it relieved some tension. Thanks for letting me borrow it" He replied; looking around.
"No problem, you can come and use it whenever. There's no need to call" I nodded in reply.
"Oh, Cap called this morning" Tony spoke up. I looked over at him with somewhat plain face. I don't show a lot of emotion, but that's probably pretty known. "Was wondering how you were doing. The connection in South Africa wasn't going through to your phone" He says before walking over. "Figured you'd want that" He handed me a phone of some sort.
"What's this for?" I asked hesitantly.
"So he can call you. Figured you'd want to talk to him so I enhanced the connection so you should have a few good minutes every call before the connection starts breaking up a bit. There in an isolated area right now" He explained.
"Oh-... Thank you" I was a bit surprised as I put the phone into my pack. Not seconds later it started ringing and I jumped a bit.
"Speak of the devil" Tony muttered. I rolled my eyes before pulling it back out and went for the door.
"Thanks Tony" I called back. I barely saw the nod as he went back to work before I walked into the elevator and pushed the lobby button; answering the phone.
"Hello?" I spoke up; my voice a bit hesitant.
"Nichole?"
"That's me" I smirked.
"Hey, I Uh- I tried to call you this morning but the connection kept cutting out and-"
"I know, Tony told me and gave me this phone"
"So you were at the Tower?" He asked. I smiled and nodded to myself.
"Still am actually. In the elevator heading for the lobby" I reply with some amusement in my voice. "How's South Africa?"
"Uh, it's alright. It could be better" He chuckled.
"He misses you!" I suddenly heard someone else's voice and furrowed my eyebrows.
"Clint-!" I heard Steve's muffled voice through the phone and a crash as I started chuckling. "Sorry about that" He spoke up quickly seconds later, his voice no longer muffled.
"That's fine, I take it everyone's being quite the joy" I laugh.
"You could say that" He replied and I heard more muffled voices from Natasha and Clint in the background. I walked out the door and started down the sidewalk. "So how's it going with you?" He asked.
"What like so much has happened in the last twelve hours that Lara let you into my apartment?" I laughed.
"You never know" He chuckled. I sigh as I kept walking and frowned slightly.
"Well... I bought milk" I state. "That's about all" I sum up.
"I'm sure by the time I call again something more exciting will have happened" He replied. I shrug.
"One can only hope" I smile to myself. "Alright, I'll talk to you later I guess" I spoke up.
"Ok, I'll call you before the weeks over. Maybe Thursday" I nod.
"I may or may not be gone. Lara has a couple missions for me"
"Alright... Be careful" He added quickly at the end. I rolled my eyes.
"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" I laughed. "Wishing my soldier good luck as he goes off to fight a war on another continent" I sigh dramatically. I could hear him laughing just barely.
"Yeah well I'm allowed to worry too" He argues.
"Fine, worry all you want" I chuckle. "Ok I got to go, see you next month" I try to say happily.
"Bye Nichole" I smiled to myself.
"Bye" I respond before ending the call with a sigh. I quickly shook my head before walking faster back towards the apartment.
Hope that was ok :) Please review! And I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible! I will try very very hard I know I say that a lot. It won't be another several month waiting process! :(