Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter. You're all wonderful.
This chapter takes place about three days after the last one.
Conversation 28 : One Step Forward…
Cuddle Bunny: Friday told me that it was safe to text message you again. Are you back in civilization yet?
Me: No, still at an undisclosed location, but I can talk to you again which is nice. I was hoping it was Laura keeping you abreast of what's going on.
Cuddle Bunny: I'm not ready to talk to her yet about my problems.
Me: And if you talk to her at all, you think that she's going to force you to talk about why you chose Bucky over everything?
Cuddle Bunny: I did not choose Bucky over everything. I just… I'm not even sure how to talk about it.
Me: You kind of did, but I don't want you to hang up on me so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut about it for the rest of this conversation. See, progress.
Me: Your ex-girlfriend is a sadist. I had no idea that you were into that sort of thing. Did she bring out a whip during bedroom fun time? Everything hurts right now and not in the fun way. I bet we could do it the fun way.
Cuddle Bunny: I am not having phone sex with you. I never had sex with Sharon. Or are you talking about Melinda?
Me: Of course I'm talking about Agent Scary. Making out with somebody once post funeral does not count as a relationship.
Cuddle Bunny: I'm so glad you're finally realizing that.
Me: Agent Carter flew me out to the middle of nowhere for sans armor training exercises with Agent Scary. She stuck around for about an hour to watch me get my ass kicked by various individuals before leaving without participating herself.
Cuddle Bunny: Which is probably for the best.
Me: Especially, considering I think someone decided that she would be going through the Cuddle Bunny text messages as punishment for her helping you get your toys out of lock up even though they're not actually supposed to know about that.
Cuddle Bunny: Oh God. Are you sure they're not doing that to punish me?
Me: Everything's not about you, sweet cheeks.
Me: In addition to dropping off the bequeathed items from Aunt Peggy, I think the interim director sent her to try to get more information on Cuddle Bunny not realizing that she already knows you're Cuddle Bunny and is not going to say anything. Agents from the Carter family are anything but stupid.
Cuddle Bunny: She knows I'm Cuddle Bunny?
Me: Again, Carters are not stupid. That was pretty obvious by the fact that she also brought me the things Aunt Peggy left you in her will. A lot of mementos from the other commandos which is better than the Howard diaries I received.
Cuddle bunny: Shit
Me: Language
Cuddle bunny: It's appropriate
Me: Friday is working on figuring out how to get the stuff to you, but it might be a couple of weeks. Although I did make a couple of copies of the pictures of you pre-transformation. Seriously, baby, you were always hot. I hope that's okay.
Cuddle Bunny: It's fine. Actually maybe you should keep everything. I need to travel light and I trust you to keep everything safe.
Me: OK.
Cuddle Bunny: Is Sharon mad at me? Maybe to the point of telling her bosses who your boyfriend really is?
Me: I don't think so. She did risk her career to help you before because she thought it was the right thing to do. I don't think that's going to change just because you don't want to make out with her again.
Me: I don't know for sure because we didn't really talk about you. Too many armed agents around for a private conversation. I mostly shared embarrassing stories such as that time Michelle changed Agent Carter Junior's diaper in the middle of the library during study group one time.
Cuddle Bunny: You really need to stop with the passive aggressive behavior
Me: Speaking of passive aggressive behavior, in addition to keeping the armor on the sidelines, Agent Scary took my phone. Do you have any idea how cruel that is? I think I spent the first two hours in communications withdrawal. Also I had nobody to make snide comments to besides Agent Scary. It was awful.
Cuddle Bunny: Don't call her that. Could they have taken your phone away from you in an effort to trace my location?
Me: First, I made that phone so I couldn't find you unless you wanted me to. In the event of an emergency, you can hit the yellow button and I could find you, but you're the one who has to initiate the rescue Steve protocol.
Me: Two, Agent May likes you. Don't worry, it's mostly platonic at this point. After having one boyfriend/fuck buddy turn out to be Hydra and her ex-husband murdered by said Hydra boyfriend's minions, she's kind of off of relationships right now.
Cuddle Bunny: That had to be awful.
Me: Definitely.
Me: Finally, Rhodey is going through round two of the vetting process. I mean, he's still mad at me for putting his name forward, but the man will always put his country first. Apparently keeping some PR obsessing rule oriented asshole from being in charge of Shield is part of that.
Me: It's between him and US patriot Jeffrey god of international public relations. He may have a bit of an edge because he allegedly saved a few high-ranking UN officials during the Vienna fiasco. Did you see him save anyone in Vienna because I didn't?
Cuddle Bunny: I didn't get there till later.
Me: So if Rhodey survives the UN vetting process, things will be a little bit better. We might be able to meet up in person to hug it out. Laura wants that.
Cuddle Bunny: Do you?
Me: I'm also okay with kissing it out. I would also suggest fucking it out, but that would probably end in bloodshed. I'm old enough to know sex doesn't solve anything. Actually, it creates new problems and I usually end up in tears or me on a course of antibiotics. Don't worry, I've been clean for years.
Cuddle Bunny. I do think we need to see each other eventually.
Me: I think it will happen. Honestly you're starting to fall off the radar of most people except for Ross and certain members of the DOD community. They are too busy with Quake, the Robin Hood bank robber, right now to worry about Nomad, freer of kidnapping victims.
Me: The UN really likes you. They are thinking about using small teams of enhanced persons to do black ops stuff, like rescuing victims from terrorists.
Cuddle Bunny: Will the new Avengers be doing that?
Me: Probably no team that involves me could be doing anything considered black ops. I'm too flashy and well known. But there's hundreds, maybe thousands of people with powers throughout the world right now and I'm sure not all of them are underage. Maybe some of them have your good doer energy.
Cuddle Bunny: I just hope that neither the UN nor any state see them as mere weapons.
Me: Some do like Senator Nadeer, but in her case, she's obviously team inhuman internment and not team use enhance people as weapons for our side. But not all are like that.
Cuddle Bunny: You said you are doing training exercises. Did you meet your prospective new Avengers?
Me: Fun change of subject. And yes, I did meet my team.
Cuddle Bunny: How did it go?
Me: I haven't told them that I'm fluent in Spanish yet.
Cuddle Bunny: What does that have to do with anything?
Me: I hear and understand everything they were saying about me. "Rich asshole" was one of the nicer things said. Yo-yo also stole my suit tracking bracelet just to prove a point.
Cuddle Bunny: That's not good.
Me: Yo-yo is only putting up with me because she has feelings for Agent Mack. However, the good Agent will not be involved with her romantically if she is an exclusive Shield asset because of fraternization regulations.
Cuddle Bunny: But she won't be under Shield's fraternization policy if she's an Avenger?
Me: Exactly, but I'm not even sure if that's enough to get her to put up with me for an extended period of time.
Cuddle Bunny: You do come off as being abrasive at first, but once people get to know you, it is easy to see what a good person you really are deep down inside.
Me: The problem is most people don't want to get past that rough exterior.
Cuddle Bunny: That's their problem, not yours.
Me: A lot of people have that problem.
Me: Also, Agent Scary completely beat my ass in no armor combat. I'm sending you video footage of that since you now know who Agent Scary is.
Cuddle Bunny: I'm still not happy with you having Friday tell me instead of doing it yourself.
Me: I told her to tell you because I'm kind of a coward. If we waited on me to tell you, it would be another month before you knew the truth.
Cuddle Bunny: You're not a coward. You just use avoidance as a coping mechanism too much.
Me: You do to. I've lost count how many times you have lately changed the subject or not even responded to something that I've said.
Cuddle Bunny: Maybe I just want to avoid conflict right now. I like what we've built with each other and I don't want to fight with you. We didn't solve anything by going at each other's throats in Siberia. I just decided it's better to let things go where they go with us and not fight it.
Me: Well as long as we both realize we're taking the easy way out, I guess it's okay, despite what certain new teammates may think. That's another thing Yo-Yo said about me. Apparently I do take the easy way out too much. It's a side effect of wealth privilege, apparently.
Me: I really should probably let them know I'm fluent in Spanish, if we're going to make this work.
Cuddle Bunny: But you want to avoid another fight so you're just not going to say anything.
Me: Probably. I'm exhausted and I'm trying to keep my head above water, but I'm not sure how well I'm doing.
Cuddle Bunny: I think you're doing better. I believe today's day 60.
Me: It is. 60 days is the longest I've managed outside of the Afghanistan forced detox.
Cuddle Bunny: That in itself is an example of you not always take the easy way out. The easy way would have been you getting completely loaded right now.
Me: Which was tempting after getting my ass kicked.
Cuddle Bunny: Was it that bad?
Me: Okay, things went better once we were going up against the other guys together. I'm so sad that Agent Carter didn't stay around for that.
Cuddle Bunny: How much better?
Me: Half of Shield's new strike team for enhanced person containment is currently in medical.
Cuddle Bunny: Am I supposed to take that as a good thing?
Me: Yes. Hey, as much as I want to keep talking to you, Rhodey just arrived, thankfully without his competition. Which means it's time for Agent Fitz and Agent Coulson to give us the grand tour.
Cuddle Bunny: So you're now text messaging me from the ATCU facilities? Is that safe?
Me: About as safe as me emailing you from anywhere else. Also, I'm not exactly at the ATCU facilities. Actually, I can't tell you where I am, but since you can't tell me where you are, It's only fair. I'll talk to you later, lover bunny.
Cuddle Bunny: I prefer cuddle bunny. Be safe.
Xxxxx
Person that cares about my boss: Friday, are they planning on telling Tony what really happened to Anna Jarvis today?
FRIDAY: Yes. My contact, Agent Fitz agreed to wait until Colonel Rhodes could make it to the facility. Due to the vetting process for the position of director of Shield, that was not possible until today.
Person that cares about my boss: It's that bad?
FRIDAY: They agreed to my counsel that both Laura and Colonel Rhodes be there.
Person that cares about my boss: So it is that bad.
FRIDAY: Possibly. But I am uncertain because I still do not have access to the documents, despite the fact they been recently digitized.
Person that cares about my boss: That's not reassuring.
FRIDAY: I am sorry I'm unable to reassure.
Person that cares about my boss: So am I.
To be continued