I know I said that I wouldn't think about other stories and focus on the wedding, but I revamped most of this story, wrote some one-shots, and read a lot of books … all on top of school stuff during finals. Whoops.
Chapter 143: Alumnae
Stark Towers - 12:05 PM
Emily isn't sure why she started a juice cleanse today since her wedding is tomorrow. It's not like it'll work its magic in 24 hours but she'll see what happens. She thinks she's too nervous to eat anything because after eight years of being engaged, all that ends tomorrow. She'll walk down the aisle in a white gown she got yesterday and exchange vows and rings with the love of her life. So much time has passed but it felt like it snuck up on her.
The elevator doors open and Angela walks out. She's dressed in workout clothes with her hair damp from a shower. Emily only wonders why Angela changed into a different workout outfit although she's finished.
"Why are you drinking that?" Angela asks, taking a seat at Emily's kitchen island.
Emily looks at the juice box in her hands. "I'm on a cleanse."
"I don't think you're supposed to drink packaged juice."
Emily shushes her. She could do whatever she wanted. "How could you smile after a workout?"
"They feel great to me. A big chunk of training is entered around big moves and strength building. I do Olympic and heavy lifting, spin classes, yoga, circuit work, running, stairs, plyometrics, body-weight exercises, anything. As long as I break a sweat, I'm happy."
Emily pauses. "I broke a sweat just listening to that and I'm not happy. Treadmills aren't fun. You get all sweaty and sticky and look like you'll die. I feel like I'm going to die just thinking of one."
"Don't die before the honeymoon. Daniel's been looking forward to it for eight years."
Emily slams her juice box on the countertop, some spilling out of the straw. "Wow."
Angela laughs a little. "I still can't believe you're getting married. Is it weird that I'm excited to see what yours and Daniel's babies will look like?"
"No. I've been picturing what they'd look like for so long. I'm excited too. Also, I've been thinking."
"When aren't you thinking?"
"Good point, but I was thinking that I can help you with the cake."
Angela eyes her for a moment, unsure if she heard that correctly. "You would roll fondant with a wine bottle and get tired after five seconds while making strange noises along the way."
Emily thinks that over and it does sound fun, even the strange noises. " … true, but let's do it tonight for my bachelorette party."
"In that case, I'll make sure you roll fondant with a wine bottle. Speaking of your bachelorette party, can we talk about Merida?"
Emily claps. "I was waiting! I thought you would say that we should never save cake for later when it could be eaten now. Come with me, we'll discuss this as we get supplies for tonight."
-o-
Somewhere on the Interstate - 12:28 PM
Xavier didn't think he'd be driving down this road again, especially with Apollo sitting shotgun and James and Imanu in the back, but here he is. They had a plan for Daniel's bachelor party and it would be a surprise since he didn't want one and they pretended to go along with it. The issue with the secrecy is that since Daniel didn't think they would do anything, he left town for a bit. His fault for trusting them. Once the boys found that out, they got in a car and were heading there as fast as they could with Daniel's wedding suit in the trunk.
"Why are we like this?" Apollo asks, lowering the radio's volume although it wasn't on. "Why are we doing any of this?"
"Because Daniel's getting married tomorrow and it's a western tradition for the groom's friends to celebrate?" Imanu guesses.
"I don't know why Daniel is at the Academy if that's what you're asking," Xavier mutters.
"The end is possibly near but we're acting as if it's not," Apollo says.
James puts a hand up like he's in a classroom and nobody calls on him. "Because we sometimes cry when we laugh so now we're doing both? Kill two birds - never mind, bad metaphor."
Xavier narrows his eyes at James through the mirror and Imanu gives him a look. James shrinks in his seat and hides behind the seatbelt as Apollo looks out the window. He did have a point, bad metaphor and all. He and Sigyn are birds. Reality is all well and good but, sometimes, they want to pretend the world is a better place than it is. Great and wonderful things can happen. That love triumphs over everything.
-o-
SHIELD Academy, New Jersey - 13:02 PM
Merida didn't want to come to The Academy. The moment she graduated, she never thought she'd have to see the school again and was grateful she wasn't assigned here (unlike Xavier, Daniel, and James) post-graduation. SHIELD sent her all over the place to do small missions or she accompanied her SO before Xavier called about Project: New Generation. Merida had nothing wrong with her days in The Academy but she didn't want to make the drive here.
She isn't sure why she brought Blake along or why he said yes. He wanted to go on a road trip to see her crazy school and she thought she'd get a thrill out of it. The car ride was two hours of them arguing over a radio station until they agreed on silence. It didn't last long since Blake started talking. He shut right up the moment they arrived on campus because he was busy looking out the window in awe.
Merida wasn't fascinated because she's seen this before and lived here for four years. Even when her parents dropped her off for freshman year, she wasn't that amazed. She sees the same set of buildings, students wearing training uniforms and lab coats among sweatpants and tank tops, quinjets flying overhead. No wonder Blake's amazed. She sees familiar agents who were once her professors and the training field she's done countless drills on. There are some students she remembers being younger than her, a couple of floors down from her in residence, now strutting across the courtyard as upper years of fresh grads.
On instinct, she almost parks in her old parking space near Atlantic Residence but then turns into the alumni parking lot and enters the first empty spot.
"So," Merida says as she steps out of the car, "what do you think?"
Blake closes the door and looks over at some Operations kids sparring on the field, nearly beating each other to a pulp. Off to the sides are Sci-Tech students testing out their latest contraption with five fire extinguisher on site. He looks back at Merida and she's grinning.
"The Jersey Shore was freakier than this," Blake admits.
"You haven't been to Camp SHIELD," Merida says, clipping her badge onto her belt.
"Is that like summer camp?"
Merida laughs. "Oh no, not at all."
"Did you like SHIELD Academy?"
Merida starts leading the way through campus. 'I don't think anyone truly likes The Academy but it was good for me. I learned a lot."
Blake turns when he hears explosions. He looks back and sees that one of the fire extinguishers has fallen victim to that weird invention. When he faces Merida again, she's unfazed by the whole event. She's probably seen worse.
"So," Blake starts, "instead of pass/fail as a grading scale, was it alive/dead?"
"Something like that."
Merida enters the faculty building, holding the door open for Blake. He follows her up a flight of stairs and through a hallway. They pass many offices which, to his surprise, look like normal offices he's seen at his past schools and at his workplace. Standard desk, paperwork, computer, a window. It's a deep contrast from the exploding environment he saw outside. As he continues exploring, he and Merida walk by a lot of agents who say hi, taking a moment for small talk of what she's doing now and all that before they continue with their day.
Before Merida could continue, she stops right when Agent Cynthia Iyu walks out of her office and locks eyes with her. Blake nearly crashes into Merida but stops right in time.
"Should I wait here?" Blake asks Merida. "This seems like a private matter."
"Don't move," Agent Iyu orders. "Both of you, inside now."
Agent Iyu walks into her office. Merida glances at Blake for a moment, unsure why they're both being called inside but they follow the order.
Merida walks in first and sees Agent Iyu standing with two familiar fresh-faced rookie agents. She doesn't take a second to think about them because she knew they'd be here, despite never meeting them before since Agent Iyu handled the secret formalities for their communicating. It's the sole reason she came back to The Academy.
"You three haven't met," Agent Iyu starts, "Agent Barton, this is Agent Elliott Pike, your sniper and Agent Zara Russell, your clone."
As they shake hands, Merida glances at Blake for a split second to get his reaction. She smiles at his bewilderment, knowing she'll be telling him that story during the car ride home. She admires how this moment and the Jersey Shore get a reaction. That stunned face alone makes her day.
"I can never repay you for your sacrifice," Merida tells the two younger agents. They're not that much younger than her but still, they're younger. "Even in my day - wow, I'm not that old - I wasn't asked to do such a task post-graduation."
"Please, it was fun," Agent Russell says. "I loved being a redhead."
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to fire an icer at her," Agent Pike adds.
Agent Russell glares at him and Merida can't get enough of Blake's growing confusion. It makes sitting in two hours of his chatter worth it. She can't wait to tell him about how her parents put a sniper on her back so she had to go into hiding, get someone to cover for her and masquerade as the sniper, all while dressing up as an escapee to break into a submarine to save her parents. Classified mission be damned. She wants to see his face react.
After a small chatter of the mission, the two young agents make their way out, closing the door as they leave. Now alone, Merida glances at Blake before facing Agent Iyu who has her hands on her hips.
"I'm surprised you came back," Agent Iyu tells her.
"I had to thank them," Merida responds.
"Victoria visits more than you."
Merida rolls her eyes. "She does not."
"At least she calls for reasons other than needing something and needing it urgently. Who's your boyfriend?"
"He's not -"
Blake steps in front of Merida and holds out a hand with a matching charming smile. "Blake Wilde."
Agent Iyu shakes it. "Agent Cynthia Iyu, Merida's supervising officer. So, what do you do? Are you an agent?"
"No, I'm a journalist."
Agent Iyu holds his hand for a little longer. "So you have a communications degree, I'm assuming?"
Merida narrows her eyes at Agent Iyu. She will never hear the end of it since Merida has shown a passionate hatred for Communications during her Academy days, starting from the moment she found out her supervising officer was a Communications agent who won her in a game of poker in Area 51.
"Masters in Communications and Media Studies," Blake corrects just to flaunt and prove he did something more. He watches Agent Iyu nod approvingly.
"Did Merida tell you that she has a minor in Communications?" Agent Iyu asks him with a devilish grin. Merida should've called in her thanks.
Blake gasps dramatically as he looks at her. "Agent Mer!"
"I should've left you in the car," Merida states.
"She completed it in two years," Agent Iyu asks, snarking at Merida's flared expression.
Blake continues staring at Merida who spends another moment glaring at her SO. When she looks at him, his mouth is open in and admiring shock, as if out of everything she told him about herself from her job to her family to her friends, her minor in communications is the part that leaves him speechless. Merida waits for him to say something or snap out of his trance but he mouths, you amaze me, and then she's the one unable to say anything.
-o-
"Please tell me we're not spending the night in Jersey," Blake says, looking at the sparring field where Operations cadets are running a military obstacle course while being fired at with oncoming projectiles. He glances at Merida who's smiling nostalgically.
"No, I have to get back into town for a bachelorette party," Merida responds.
"Thank god," Blake mutters. "Am I invited?"
"No."
"I attended my sisters' bachelorette parties."
"I won't ask."
"Yeah, please don't. I was only allowed once I was old enough to drive but not drink so I could drive them all home. You know, because I was too young for my now-brothers-in-law bachelor parties. It was scary."
"As scary as the Jersey shore? Hearing that I had a clone and hired a sniper?"
"Jury's still out."
As they continue walking through the courtyard, Merida points out interesting buildings and tells Blake about them. Everything from her residence with funny stories or where certain classes took place, she shared and he was intrigued that she made it out of this school alive. Merida could say the same about him and his journalism schooling. She could never picture herself sitting through those lectures.
"Why didn't you tell me you have a Communications degree?" Blake asks her. He feels betrayed and Merida rolls her eyes at his dramatics. "And that you completed it in two years? That's impressive."
"Because it's more of a diploma proving competent fluency in German," Merida replies. "It's not impressive."
"Okay, fine, you can think it's not impressive but I will. It's hot."
"I spent the summer after third year in Germany."
"It was probably hot there too."
"Du bist sehr nervig."
Blake's jaw drops the same way when he learned Merida had a Communications degree. "I'm swooned."
"Seriously?"
"I speak German. Es ist eine Landessprache in der Schweiz."
Merida scoffs. "Of course it is. Your accent is thick, almost native-sounding."
"German's my mother tongue. Time here and all over Europe for school took away my accent."
"Can I have a language to myself? I know English, Russian, French, Spanish, and German. What do you have?"
"Three of Switzerland's main languages - German, French, and Italian. I spent a summer in Greece like you and Germany while taking a course in my undergrad, and know more conversational Greek than formal. And English, obviously, which I learned all through grade school."
"That's it?"
"Maybe."
They continue walking through the courtyard but Merida stops when she sees Daniel walking out of the faculty building. Why is he here? Merida doesn't want to stop and have Blake wonder what happened but she doesn't want Daniel to see her with Blake. It was weird enough that her SO met him and revealed her darkest secret of the Communications degree she has framed and stuffed in her mattress. He doesn't need to know that part or else he'll make connections. To avoid an awkward conversation, she hands Blake her car keys.
"Pull the car up, I'll be a minute," she says.
Once Blake is out of sight, Merida scurries over to Daniel, walking casually as he notices her.
"What are you doing here?" Merida asks him.
"My SO asked me to mark some papers," Daniel responds.
"You're getting married tomorrow."
"Tomorrow. There's still time."
"You're impossible."
Daniel smiles as he shrugs. "I got the honeymoon."
"No, you don't."
"Yeah, I don't."
Merida smiles a little. It's comforting seeing Daniel here like she did for four years straight when they were students here. It's almost as if the roles didn't change. She came from being annoyed by her SO and he got work he wanted from his.
"What are you doing here?" Daniel asks. "I thought you swore never to return to campus."
"I had to thank my SO for the rookies," Merida responds. "I've already been here for too long. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to return to town for Emily's bachelorette party."
"Have fun at that."
"Have fun at yours."
"I'm not having one."
"Oh, right…"
Merida forgot he didn't want one and scurries away before he becomes suspicious. She arrives at her car, begging that Daniel doesn't turn around and sees someone else in the driver's seat. When she gets inside, Blake is peering out her window as Merida buckles up.
"Hey, Agent Mer, I think your friend who's engaged to Emily Stark just got kidnapped," Blake says.
Merida smiles, not looking up from her phone. "He's fine."
I haven't written a chapter for SA in a while so it was fun to have it here.
Merida's moment with the rookie agents is a callback to The Secret World of Espionage. Also, she told Blake that he was annoying (I used Google Translate).