The day could absolutely not get any worse. First, her alarm hadn't gone off and she had been nearly late getting into work. Then she had been replaced as head of her team for the Osborn trial. Then, because her meeting with the partners ran late, the meter in her spot had ticked over and she was now looking at a two-hundred-dollar parking violation. Jennifer Walter's day could not possibly get any worse. At least, that was what she had been telling herself just before her phone began buzzing. What was normally the usual message used for Amber Alerts had been replaced by a message saying:

"URGENT MESSAGE FROM THE STRATEGIC HOMELAND INTERVENTION ENFORCEMENT AND LOGISTICS DIVISION."

Before she could even clear the message, her phone began playing a video. It was shoddily shot, probably taken on a phone's camera in what looked like some kind of basement. On the screen was a helmeted Captain America. He was speaking directly into the camera,

"This is Captain Steve Rogers; to all person's in the metro-D.C. area, you must immediately evacuate the city. No doubt you have heard the exaggerated rumors of my supposed defection. The truth is this: SHIELD has been compromised, infiltrated by the fascist geopolitical organization known as HYDRA. They are planning to use a weapon against the people of the planet. Myself and a small team of Avengers are planning on stopping them however there is a strong likelihood that Washington D.C. is about to turn into a free-fire zone. for your own safety, please leave the city immediately."

"What the hell is this?" she muttered, looking up from her phone she stared around her; everyone along the small walkway was stopped in their tracks. They were all looking down at their phones, or staring at everyone else around them. Jennifer turned from where she had been sitting on the bench along the walkway along the Potomac so she could look up at the imposing figure that was SHIELD headquarters.

While part of her felt that such an imposing monolith was meant to inspire a sense of strength and stability, Jennifer had always been a little put off by the building. Feeling as though it was a bit too much like an active military base in an occupied country, rather than headquarters for their nation's most impressive security arm.

Jennifer was torn away from her staring as the ground beneath her feet began to rumble. Standing up quickly, Jennifer began to slowly back away from the small bench, as the reflecting pool began to open. There was a loud 'whooshing' sound, similar to that of an airplane preparing to take off and the ground shaking began to intensify. The noise escalated in volume, to the point it was almost deafening. Jennifer had to clap her hands to her ears and the fringes of her skirt began to blow as a strong wind picked up.

Jennifer found herself unable to move, unable to think or breathe. From where the reflecting pool had been moments before, arose three of the biggest ships that she had ever seen before. Jennifer had not been in New York during the invasion, she had been away on a study abroad in England at the time, but she had seen the images and she knew what a Helicarrier was. And here were three, rising from the depths of some sort of hidden bunker underneath the SHIELD headquarters.

Over the din of jet turbines and screaming, Jennifer could make out the brief sound of what sounded like glass being shattered. Looking upwards, Jennifer was shocked again, to see the shape of a man diving out of one of the windows of the SHIELD base. From where she stood, she could hardly make out the figure, dressed in black as they were. But as they descended, she could identify that it was a man, in his mid-twenties, dressed in dark combat fatigues. The man landed with a thud on the carrier and gunfire screamed above. The carriers had risen to the point where Jennifer could no longer see the decks, but she could hear the gun shots and the shouting and knew that whatever fighting was happening, was intense.

More movement from above drew her attention away from the carrier, two more figures were falling from a high point of the base. One dressed in a dark blue uniform of some sort, and the other wearing some kind of a harness. The man in harness then sprouted…wings? Jennifer blinked a few times, to ensure that she was not simply seeing things but no, her eyesight had not failed her. One of the men had sprouted metal wings and was now flying around one of the carriers as the big guns began to open up with antiaircraft fire. Ducking to the ground, the world seemed to shake even more around her as the skies above were soon coated in the black dusting that accompanied the heavy rounds.

There was an explosion from one of the carriers and Jennifer turned away from where she had been looking only to spot…Iron Man? No, that wasn't right, the suit was the wrong color and Iron Man didn't have a gatling gun attached to its shoulder. This was the other guy, War Bot or something. It was firing small arms from its wrists and its shoulder mounted turret as it evaded more antiaircraft fire.

Jennifer became intimately familiar with her surroundings as the screaming started. Pedestrians were running in every direction, yelling and holding onto one another as they fought to get away from the intense battle. That was when Jennifer remembered the message on her phone. This was what Steve Rogers had been talking about, that warning had been true.

She tried to run; turning away from the fighting to make a getaway in the opposite direction. But she got hit from behind, she went sprawling to the paved ground, her glasses flying free from her face. Scrambled on hands and knees, trying to find her glasses, she screamed in pain when a panicked pedestrian stepped on her ankle. She felt and heard something pop, and when she tried to stand up, she couldn't put any weight on it without shooting pain up her ankle. She flailed her arms around on the ground, desperately searching for her missing glasses. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, her fingers closed around the cool frames of her glasses. In a hurry, she pushed them to her face, luckily the fall and following stampede hadn't broken them. She tried to stand up again but found that she couldn't. Prone on the ground, Jennifer twisted her body to look up at the Helicarriers.

But her attention was drawn away from them, as there was an explosion and something was thrown violently from the deck of a nearby carrier. At first, due to the height, Jennifer couldn't tell what it was, it just an amorphous black shape, but as it fell faster and faster Jennifer could tell that it wasn't an object, but a person. And as the person fell into the Potomac, submerging beneath the icy waves,

Jennifer screamed.

A few minutes prior

"I was too late," Percy said into his mic as he punched in command strokes at a terminal. "Rumlow got the launch off." He pulled a thumb drive out of an inner pocket in his vest and plugged it into a port on the side of the terminal. Punching in a few more commands, he stood up, "Evacuation orders have been sent,"

"Confirmed," came Hill's voice in his ear, "Get to those carriers, Cap take Alpha, Falcon take Bravo, Sentinel take Charlie, we are t-minus ten mikes. Go."

"Check" Percy confirmed into his mic. Turning around from his place at a terminal Percy scanned the room. He locked eyes with a pretty blonde woman, she pointed hurriedly at a set of windows at the other side of the room, Percy nodded his thanks and sprinted towards the windows. Tucking his arms into his chest Percy ducked his head and crashed through the window. The carriers were directly below him, briefly scanning, he caught the sight of the designation numbers on the side of the side of the carrier directly below him and he directed his dive accordingly.

As he fell, he did a brief scan of the outlying area, and was pleased to see that civilians were fleeing the scene on sight. Channeling water from the river below, Percy coated the bottoms of his legs in a thin layer to cushion his fall. His feet made contact with the flight deck and he tucked and allowed the moment to carry Percy into a roll. Springing up from the roll, Percy took off at a run.

There was a flash of movement in Percy's peripheral, ducking behind a supply crate, the ground where Percy had been was torn apart as bullets exploded into the deck. Jumping up and twisting, Percy vaulted over the supply crate. As he was in the air, he locked onto three agents training their sights on him. Percy willed a spear into existence, while maintaining a firm hold of the water in order to create more. Hefting the created weapon in one hand Percy threw it.

The first spear caught the first man in the chest, piercing through the body armored embedding itself into the ground. As fast as Percy had launched the first spear, he fired two more. The two spears hit their marks and by the time Percy's boots hit the deck, the soldiers were dead.

More movement on his flank and Percy reacted instinctually. A wall of ice constructed itself in front of him as bullets began tearing into his position. Flakes of ice fell off of the wall as bullets hit their marks. Pressing a palm into the wall, a flurry of miniature ice missiles launched from the wall and into the positions of where Percy thought the shots were coming from. A series of screams alerted Percy to the fact that his attack had hit true.

Percy rolled out from his construct and made his way quickly towards the door hatch to the bowels of the ship. He had just reached the hatch when the door exploded and Percy was sent sprawling. He collided painfully with the wing of a jet, crumpling it and Percy collapsed to the flight deck.

Groaning, Percy pushed himself up to his knees. His vision was swimming but he could still make out the shape of a man walking out of the burning hulk of wreckage that was the doorway.

"Oh, you gotta be shitting me." Percy muttered as he got to his feet. Cracking his neck, Percy shook his limbs loose for what he knew was going to be a fight. Looking at the man in front of him Percy shouted, "We don't have to do this Barnes." he said, hoping that by hearing his name the Winter Soldier would be jolted like he had been back at the freeway.

"Steve's a good friend. I don't want to hurt him by killing you." The HYDRA agent seemed to pause a little, but didn't respond. Not conventionally anyway. The grenade launched at Percy's feet seemed to send the right kind of message however.

Percy had managed to dive out of the way of the brunt of the explosion but was still caught in part of the shockwave and Percy was thrown again. He landed in a heap at the feet of a group of incoming SHIELD pilots. Two of them quickly scrambled to pick the man up, Percy nodded then paused, looking at the group, "What the hell are you still doing here?" he half-shouted over the canons firing around them,

The pilots looked at one another then the lead one, a woman in her early thirties shrugged and said, "We're the only air support Captain Roger's has," Just as she was saying this, War Machine raced by overhead, his turret firing behind him as a pair of Quinjets gave chase. Suddenly, Rhodey stopped in midair, and the two jets blew past. Wrist mounted rockets opened and were simultaneously launched, catching both birds in the fuel fuselages. The jets exploded in twin fireballs and Rhodey launched himself in another direction, looking to help take some of the heat off of Falcon on his approach.

Percy turned to the group of SHIELD pilots, eyebrow raised, "Appreciate the sentiment," He then turned away from the group as the Winter Soldier slowly stalked forward. "But apparently this is happening." Percy muttered, without looking at the pilots he shouted, "Either take off or leave, I don't care which!" The group of pilots hesitantly looked at one another before they ran off to their respective jets.

"As for you…" Percy growled, "You're beginning to get on my nerves pal." The man didn't respond but instead raised his rifle again. "Nope," Percy shouted as he disappeared in a veil of mist. He intended to appear right behind the agent but Barnes had been a fast study. Dropping the rifle in his hands, Barnes spun around and lashed out with a hard, left hook. The blow caught Percy across the jaw just as he was re-materializing directly behind Barnes.

Percy fell to a knee from the blow, desperately he raised his hands to defend himself but Barnes' kick caught him square regardless. Percy tumbled, catching himself and springing to his feet before diving to the side as Barnes' knee connected with deck, cracking the surface.

"Alpha Lock." Came Steve's voice in Percy's ear.

"Falcon, Sentinel, where are you." asked Hill,

"Had to take a detour," shouted Sam, and Percy could hear the firing of the big guns behind the flying man,

"Ran into an annoying problem." said Percy, rolling his sleeves up on his cover shirt. He was annoyed now and he was very much done pulling his punches. Barnes marched forward, throwing a series of fast and hard punches. Percy ducked out of the way, catching the man with a hard series of jabs to the jawline and temple. Barnes stumbled backward, dazed. Percy grabbed him by the neck of his coverall, cocking his arm back Percy leveled several hard punches to the side of the agent's head. There was a sickening crunch, as Percy broke the man's nose.

Grabbing the back of the man's head with both of his hands, Percy jerked Barnes' head forward and violently swung his knee upward. Barnes' forehead met with Percy's knee and the man crumpled in Percy's arms. Percy steadied the man before spinning on the spot and kicking Barnes in chest, throwing him into a supply crate.

"Bravo Lock." said Sam in Percy's ear.

"T-minus six mikes. Sentinel. Hurry it up." said Hill sharply,

"Working on it." Percy growled, "Oh shit," he muttered. Percy had inadvertently kicked Barnes directly to where he had dropped his grenade launcher.

Barnes growled, his eyes were glazed over, and between the blood pooling from his broken nose, and forehead, the man looked more like a wild animal than a human being. Percy tried to bring his arms up, and was in the process of summoning water to protect him when both his and Barnes' attention was drawn elsewhere.

A slow but energetic guitar riff filled the noisy space of the battle as rock music began blaring from somewhere above them.

"She was a fast machine. She kept her motor clean. She was the best damn woman I had ever seen. She had the sightless eyes. Telling me no lies. Knockin' me out with those American thighs."

"Hey there barnacle boy. Miss me?"

Came the snarky voice of Tony Stark over Percy's comms. And then a propulsor blast caught the man out of time in the chest. Barnes flew into the supply crate and both the man and the crate flew away down the flight deck.

Then the red and gold armored Avenger landed in a thud on the flight deck.

"Good to see you too Tony," Percy panted, letting himself relax a little. "What took you so damn long."

"Sorry about the wait, had to pick my suit up at the dry cleaner." Then Tony's voice grew a hard edge to it, "Take care of the carrier," Said Tony, "Me and the Sergeant here have some things we need to work out."

Percy nodded and began to make his way towards the hatch. Then he stopped and turned to look at his friend, "Stark…Tony, I understand that you're hurting, and you have every right to be." Percy then turned to look at where the soldier had been blasted, "But he didn't choose this. HYDRA corrupted him, tore his psyche apart and turned him into something else. It wasn't Bucky who killed your parents. It was the Winter Soldier."

Tony didn't say anything, he just began stalking forward, Percy shook his head and he began to move back towards the doorway. But the hair on the back of his neck stood on end and he paused,

"Percy, incoming," Stark shouted, sounding panicked, Percy turned his attention due east. Somehow, the Winter Soldier had snuck away and secured a jet. The jet was coming in on low on approach. The mini gun whirred to life and Percy turned and tried to run. He heard the sound of a propulsor being fired but it was too late, a missile was fired in Percy's direction. Percy was violently thrown through the air and suddenly the airship tilted violently to one side as another internal explosion rocked the ship.

"What the hell just happened, Charlie is listing hard to aft, there was an explosion in the one of the aft propulsors." Hill shouted into the comms.

"Sorry, that was me." said Rhodey apologetically, "Misjudged a blast and accidentally threw a jet into one of the engines."

Percy could hear the exchange but was too concerned with the fact that he was currently tumbling uncontrolled down the flight deck. Just before he fell over the side, he managed to catch a loose cable and saved himself as he fell off the side of the carrier. As he was dangling, Percy could see Barnes' jet turning around and preparing for another run at him. "Tony," Percy said, his voice wavering slightly, "Could really use a hand here." However before Tony could respond, the big guns on the flight deck began opening up,

"Um a little busy here. Gah! Son of a bitch." Percy watched as Tony got hit stray flak and was thrown through the sky.

Thinking quickly, Percy shouted into his comms, "Sam or Rhodey, need a pick-up."

"When?" Came the immediate reply,

Percy willed a new spear of water into his hand and just as Barnes made the final turn and began his approach, Percy let go of the cable and threw the spear as far and as hard as he could.

"Now would be nice." Percy said, as he fell into the sky. Percy watched as his spear made contact with the window, and the jet veered hard off to one side, before crashing back onto the flight deck. It tore through crates and other jets before skidding to a stop at the far end.

For a few, terrifying moments, Percy was in free fall. Weightless. Nothing below him but the ground and nothing over him but the clouds. The rush of air in his ears drowned out everything and suddenly, he was twelve years old again, falling from the arch with nothing under him but the rushing waters of the Mississippi. And then, something caught his arm. It was a metal gauntlet. Rhodey slowed his momentum down and heaved Percy up so that the man could sling an arm over the turret on his shoulder.

Percy pat the metal man on the back, panting slightly, "Thanks for the save man, appreciate it,"

"Yeah well, considering I'm pretty sure I'm the reason you fell in the first place…we'll call it even." Rhodey replied. "Where to?"

Percy scanned the horizon and caught sight of Sam flying down to pick up Cap. Pointing over to the men, Percy said, "Over there, get me to Cap, we need to finish this."

"Check," was Rhodey's reply over the comms and they took off towards their comrades. Just as they got within a few yards of Sam and Steve though, a new flurry of antiaircraft fire began to open up.

Rhodey yelped in surprise and pain as something caught him in the side, Percy was thrown from the man's shoulder and suddenly he was falling again.

"Percy!" Yelled Sam and Steve together, but Percy wasn't paying attention, he none of them would be able to catch up to Percy in time by this point. He only had a few seconds worth of a window before this would become problematic. Reaching into his vest, Percy withdrew his targeting blade.

"Steve, catch!" Percy shouted, before hurling the targeting blade through the sky at the Captain, Percy watched as the man snagged it cleanly out of the air, and tucked it into a pouch on his belt.

"What about you?" Steve yelled into the mic,

"I'll be fine. Focus in on the carrier, those things reach three-thousand before you can swap those blades out and all of this will be for nothing. Get those carriers down, Steve. I'll see you when we kill those things."

Turning around in the air, Percy repositioned himself. He could see the waters of the Potomac just under him and coming up fast. Positioning himself just so, he hit the water in a perfect dive, the familiar and safe feeling of the water encompassing him. He felt the pains and aches of his body begin to alleviate. His joints popped as his body was restored. He hadn't been able to submerge since the shower at Sam's and he was sore and tired. This dip in the freshwater was exactly what his body needed.

He wasn't sure how long he had been down there, could have been thirty seconds, could have been thirty minutes. Percy had a bad habit of letting time slip away from him when he was in the water. Opening his eyes, he smiled, and he shot to the surface.

BREAK

Jennifer crawled to the edge of the river and looked down. It had been nearly ten minutes since she had seen the man fall into the river. She wasn't sure what drew her to the side of the river, but some part of her just needed to see for herself. She should have known better, she had watched enough documentaries on Netflix to know if someone fell from that kind of a height into water, they would be little more than a very wet pancake. But something was different about this. Some part of her was telling Jennifer that she needed to be there, looking at the water.

And sure enough, just as she had scooted to the edge of the bank, something burst from the water, spraying and soaking Jennifer from head to toe. Turning around sharply, and gasping in fear and shock, Jennifer caught sight of the man she watched plummet two-thousand feet into the Potomac, and her eyes widened in shock as she recognized who she was looking at.

He was bigger than she was expecting, both taller and more muscular than any other person she had ever seen. His broad back was heaving as he took deep breaths. More shocking than his sudden appearance however, was the fact that he was completely dry. The man stood up and turned around to look at the skyline, but then he caught sight of Jennifer, sitting on the ground, her ankle throbbing, and still soaking wet. She froze in place, she could feel her eyes widen and she stopped breathing.

She'd heard about him of course, given that her cousin was a…work friend, she had naturally asked about all of the Avengers. But never in her life did she imagine she would meet one of them. Bruce had made it a point to keep her as far away from SHIELD and his "other" job as possible. Jennifer agreed with it for the most part, her cousin had attracted a hell of a lot of bad attention over the years, and Jennifer Walters was as far from a superhero as her geeky cousin used to be. Apparently, Bruce couldn't keep trouble from finding her though.

He must have seen the fear in her eyes because his feature softened and he crouched down low, making himself look smaller and far less intimidating. "Hey, hey," he said softly, his voice was low but gentle, "It's ok. You're going to be ok." His eyes dropped down and eyed her swelling ankle, "That looks like it's hurting," he said, pointing at the injury. "I might be able to help you with it."

Jennifer didn't respond vocally; she didn't trust her voice around the man. How could she? The Avengers were practically royalty these days. They were almost mythical in their pop-culture stature, and so to have one not three feet in front of her, and talking to her, was more than a little overwhelming.

The Sentinel smiled, he had a nice smile, Jennifer thought, it filled his face in a pleasing way and made his deep green eyes pop. He then moved forward, and the first thing he did was place his hand on her ankle, and suddenly Jennifer was covered in a warm and comforting feeling. He hair was no longer wet and dripping and she was no longer cold through her damp clothes. She looked down at her hands and body and saw that her suit and clothing were dry as though they had just been brought back from the cleaners. She looked up at the man holding her ankle in shock, he smiled back at her,

"Sorry about that, I didn't think anyone would still be around when I came out." she just nodded dumbly. She had seen the footage of the man summoning swords out of ice and water, it wasn't out of the realm of reality that he could dry her out.

"Now I apologize, I only started practicing this recently so I'm still kind of new to it, but it looks like just a bad sprain instead of a break or fracture." The man was saying as he examined her ankle, then his gaze rose and met her own. She could get lost in those eyes of his if she wasn't careful.

He returned his gaze to her ankle and waved his free hand in the air. A bubble of water appeared in his hand and he slowly lowered his hand down to her ankle. She closed her eyes and braced herself for either the cold wetness of the water or some kind of pain, but neither came. Instead, like when the water was removed, her ankle was filled with a warm sense of relaxation. She watched in awe as the swelling in her ankle lowered and the pain went away.

After a few moments the man removed his hand from her ankle. Slowly, he rotated the ankle one way, and then the other. Looking her in the eye he asked,

"Any pain?"

Jennifer shook her head in the negative.

He smiled again, and Jennifer couldn't help but return the gesture. "My name's Percy. What's yours?" he asked,

It took her a second to find her voice but she finally managed to speak, "J-Jennifer. Jennifer Walters." she said, and the Sentinel, Percy extended his hand out for her to take. With a shaky hand she took his hand in hers, his larger grip totally encompassing hers.

"Nice to meet you Jen," he said, and Jennifer tried not to swoon a little at the nickname. He then stood up, still holding onto her hand, "Now let's get you out of here before-"

He was cut off by a series of loud explosions. The pair looked up and watched as the three Helicarriers were turning their cannons on one another. Two of the Helicarriers exploded in a violent hell-storm of fire and metal began to fall down to the earth as the third Helicarrier collided right into the side of the Triskelion.

"Oh shit," Jennifer heard Percy mutter to himself, "Get behind me!" He ordered as he pulled Jennifer behind him, "And crawl under that bench! Hurry!" She did as she was told, too scared to think about questioning him. She watched as he ran into water, no that wasn't right, he ran right over the top of it.

"Holy shit…it's the second coming…" Jennifer muttered to herself as she watched. From her place under the bench, she watched as the Sentinel, as Percy, raised his hands into the air above his head. He assumed a ready stance, with his legs spread shoulder width apart and his knees bent, as though he were preparing for some kind of incoming attack. Then with a roar, like he was lifting something very heavily, Percy screamed. The water of the Potomac rose around him, gallons and gallons at a time. It rose above him, and then the water began to contort, taking shape.

It was like watching a sculptor slowly craft something out of clay. The water changed in shape until two, enormous hands, the size of a small building, were shaped out of the water. With another roar, the water hands flew up into the sky, one hand catching the first Helicarrier, the fingers of the hand wrapping around the deck of the carrier. The second hand caught the other carrier and did the same. With a shout of pain and a growl, Jennifer watched as Percy was forced to one knee, his arms shaking and the veins in his neck throbbing from the effort.

The carrier's descent slowed considerably, but they did not stop, the were falling too rapidly, Percy shouted again and another four tendrils of water launched out of the river beneath Percy. Two tendrils each attached to the carriers and the ships shook as their descent was slowed considerably. With a strain, Percy began to lower his arms to his side. As his arms lowered, the ships lowered too. When they were only a few hundred feet from the ground, Percy shifted his hands and, like he was upending a bucket, Percy overturned his hands and literally dumped the carriers back into docking bays they had been launched out of.

The carriers crashed into the docks, the sound of metal scraping against metal sounding like fingers against a chalkboard, and Jennifer tried to screw her eyes shut and cover her ears against the noise.

When the noise had stopped, and there was an eerie quiet along the walkway, Jennifer opened her eyes. Crawling out from her hiding place she slowly walked forward, stupefied but what she was looking at. Great pillars of thick, black, smoke was escaping from the docking ports, and Jennifer could still see part of the carriers as they lay against the dry docks. Then her gaze shifted and she saw Percy, slowly, gingerly, make his way over to the walkway. She ran up to the water's edge, just in time. Just Percy reached the lip of the walkway, he collapsed and almost fell through the surface of the water, but Jennifer reached out and grabbed a tight hold of his arm.

The weight of the man almost dragged Jennifer into the water with him but she managed to pull him out of the water and onto the grass. Panting from the exertion, Jennifer collapsed into the grass. Leaning over him, she was relieved to find his chest moving up and down, and after leaning her ear down to his chest, she could hear his breathing was steady. Sighing in relief, Jennifer collapsed down next to him.

Her heart almost had a chance to stop racing, before there was a loud whooshing noise, and the sound of something heavy landing on the grass. Bolting upright, Jennifer found herself staring into the glowing red eyes, and black and gray face plate, of War Machine. The fear in her breast must have shown on her face because quickly, the metal man raised his hands up in a supplicating gesture, and the face plate retracted to show the handsome if weathered features of Colonel James Rhodes.

"Easy there Ma'am, it's alright. I'm a friend." Jennifer nodded reluctantly, but she didn't remove her hand from its place on Percy's chest. Raising an eyebrow at that Rhodey raised a hand to his ear and began speaking, "This is Rhodes, found Jackson. Looks alright, just a little drained, got a fix on our location? Good, I'll go join Tones in the hunt for Steve." Rhodes turned his attention to back to Jennifer, "I got some friends coming to pick his dumb ass up. You mind staying with him, make sure he doesn't do anything else stupid?" Jennifer nodded dumbly before Rhodes nodded at her and took off back into the sky.

"Some friends they are," Jennifer heard Percy mutter, and her attention was immediately tracked back to the man on the ground, his eyes were slowly opening and he was fidgeting. "I'm semi-conscious and they decide to just let me chill with some woman we've never met." Percy then caught her gaze and had the good grace to look sheepish, "No offense Jen. You seem great but you know…" Percy trailed off but Jennifer laughed all the same,

"No, no…I get it." she said easily when she got her laughter under control. Percy grinned back up at her before he gently extracted himself from her grip and stood up, pulling her to her feet as he did so.

"What were you still doing here by the way," Percy asked her, "I could have sworn I got the evacuation order put out in time."

Jennifer tried to fight down the oncoming blush, "No! No-you uh, you did." she stammered out, "I was getting ready to run, but um, I got pushed and I lost my glasses and then when I tried to find them someone stomped on my leg and I just…panicked…" she finished lamely and started to fidget with the hem of her skirt.

She was looking down, embarrassed, embarrassed that she had acted so-so cowardly in front of an Avenger of ALL people. She jumped a little when she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking up, she met Percy's strong gaze. He was no longer smiling but was staring at her with such an intensity that Jennifer had to fight not to look away.

"Jen," Percy said seriously, "You were caught in the middle of a war zone, one that you sure as hell never asked to be a part of. There is no shame in being afraid, hell if you weren't scared, I'd be even more concerned." Percy said, seriously. "It's not a person's inability to feel fear that makes somebody brave or courageous. In fact, I would argue that the absence of any sense of fear invalidates a person's ability to be brave. It's our ability to push through our fears and face dangers head on that makes us brave. And you, today, were very brave."

Jennifer had literally no response to that, luckily, she didn't need to have one ready. The air around them was whipped into a frenzy as a helicopter lowered to the ground. Percy turned and gave a wave to the people in the helicopter before turning back to Jennifer, "Guess this is goodbye." He said, patting her on the shoulder, "It was nice meeting you Jen," he turned to walk away but was stopped when Jennifer, who for the first time in a very long time, acted on impulse, and slipped a card into Percy's hand

"If you…if you ever need a good lawyer. Give me a call. Please." Percy looked down at the card in his hand before looking at her. His face broke into a wide smile

"I'll keep it in mind" he said. "Now I want you to get out of here Jen, and try to stay out of trouble." he added with a wink. Stepping into the side of the chopper, he tucked the card in a pocket inside his vest and took a headset from Sam, catching the man's look as he passed the headset he asked, "What?" Sam didn't respond,

"What!?" he asked.

But his only response was an annoying smirk.

BREAK

Jean's eyes slowly blinked open, groaning her eyes slowly adjusted to bright fluorescent lights of the infirmary. The room was silent, save for the steady, rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor. She sat up, slowly, wincing as she did so. Her head was throbbing, screwing her eyes shut she tried to block out the onslaught of thoughts and voices. Soon enough, she got a control of her powers and the noise ceased. Sighing in relief, she slumped back into her pillows.

Thinking back on what happened, her pulse began to elevate, illustrated by the increased tempo of the heart monitor. Panicking, she reached out with her senses, feeling for Percy anywhere. After a few moments of searching, she found him. He was tired, and sore. But his heart rate was steady and he was alive. She got a flash of him in a helicopter next to the Black Widow and a man she didn't recognize. Sighing in relief, she vowed to herself to kill the man herself for scaring her like that.

"Bout time ya woke up," drawled a woman's voice to her left. Looking over, she saw Anna Marie LeBeau, better known by her alias Rogue, lounging casually in a chair next to her bed. She swiped her streak of white hair out of her hairs and tucked it behind one ear, "Way you were sleepin' I neva thought you'd wake up." She said, her thick southern drawl sounding like smooth molasses.

"How long was I out?" she asked,

"Ah don't know," Rogue responded, shrugging her shoulders, "Ah got back late last night though, and you were still sleepin. Don't think it was too long though."

Rogue looked down at her chest, and carefully, began extricating herself from the tangles of wires and machinery. "Where do ya think you're goin?" Rogue asked, raising an eyebrow,

Jean tugged herself free from the last sensor and swung her legs off the table. "I pass out in the middle of the lounge, have been unconscious for god knows how long, and I wake up, not to see my boyfriend, but you." She paused and looked over her shoulder, "No offense," Jean said,

"None taken," Rogue shrugged, crossing her arms, "You off ta give that boy scout a piece of your mind?" she asked,

Jean's eyes narrowed, focusing her powers she was able to easily locate Scott. He was laying down, still as a board on the bed in their shared bedroom. He had been acting oddly, lately, irrational and unusually combative and distant. It was high time they discussed whatever issues were between them. And that said nothing of the horrible things he had accused her of before her episode.

Grabbing a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt on the table by her bed, Jean changed out of the hospital gown and made to leave the infirmary,

"Something like that," she said, and made her way to her wayward beau.

AN: So I had to split this chapter up a little. Otherwise it would have been like 10k words and I'll be honest, that's longer than I like my chapter's to be. Other than that, this just about wraps up the Winter Soldier arc, the next chapter should be out next week, and it's…a bit of a doozy. What do you think is gonna happen? Let me know because I'd love to see if I've foreshadowed it well enough. Also, as I've been trying to finish the next half-blood chapter, I've been stuck with this idea. Would anyone be interested in reading a Percy Jackson procedural cop drama set in the DC's Young Justice Universe? I have a few chapter's done and I like it a lot. It's very different but kind of fun. Either way, thanks for all the love and support, ya'll are the freaking best.

Love,

LilDB