"Again," Rollins snapped at me. "You aren't trying Lyngley."
I didn't say anything back. There was no point if I argued I only made things worse for myself. A week down the track I'd made no progress at all according to Rollins. Even with a few suggestions from Jared and Riley, which I had tried and got shut down for. Then told in no uncertain terms I was not to use anything that Rollins hadn't taught in the class. I was beginning to really hate my hand to hand class. The only saving grace every morning was my PT sessions jogging with Riley. I quickly wiped my sweaty face on my shirt and tried again.
It was a heel palm strike to this chest that was being taught. I knew this move already. It was the quickest way to drop somebody. But Rollins wouldn't even let me get close enough to land one. He told me that I needed to get through his defences first before I could even touch him.
I took a few steps back and tried my attack again. This time Rollins grabbed my arm and wrenched it behind my back so hard I felt like my shoulder was going to rip out of the socket. I gritted my teeth against the pain. He didn't let go, instead, he pulled my shoulder harder and called out to the rest of the class.
"And this is an example of why you need to be quicker, Recruit Lyngley here is about to getting a dislocated shoulder for her sloppy work."
Stars danced around my vision as Rollins tightened his grip even harder. If he didn't dislocate my shoulder, he was definitely going to leave more bruises. I struggled in his grip which only made it worse. Something inside of me snapped. Whether it was from years of roughhousing with Jared or me temper finally fraying, my body reacted.I brought my foot down onto Rollins toes. Hard. The grunt of pain and the loosening of the grip on my arm was enough to let me drive my elbow back into his throat. Rollins staggered back from me and I turned to face him again. He looked furious. I swallowed back my fear as he charged at me again. I didn't block the punch to the face he sent at me. But I did get my timing right and managed to send a direct kick to his groin a second afterwards.
"Fuck you," I spat at him, turning on my heel and storming out of the gym. It wasn't until the doors slammed shut I let myself reach up and touch my aching face. Blood dripped onto the floor from my nose. I could feel my left eye started to swell already. Adrenaline was a wonderful thing, I didn't feel too much pain but later on, it was going to be horrid. I iced my hand and put it over my nose and face and marched straight for the locker room. Ignoring the bleeding everywhere that I was doing. I nearly made it to the locker room before a strong arm stopped my angry march. I glared up at the offending person. It was Rumlow and standing with him was Riley. Great, about the last two people I wanted to see right now.
"What the fuck happened to you?" Rumlow frowned at me. "Show me your face."
I gingerly pulled my hand away from my face and let Rumlow take my chin in his hand and tip my face slightly. I didn't miss the grimace from him, nor the angry look crossing over Riley's face.
"Aren't you meant to be with Rollins doing that stupid hand to hand class?" Riley asked me. He crossed his arms, a frown marring his handsome face as he took in the scene in front of him.
I nodded silently, not trusting myself to speak. I was either going to be really angry. Or I was going to break down into tears. Neither one of those things would help me right now.
"So what happened?" Rumlow asked again, dropping his hand from my face.
"He had me in an arm lock, felt like he was about to rip my shoulder from the socket." I grimaced at the memory, rubbing my forgotten aching arm. "He's been telling me the entire time I need to be faster, I'm not doing anything right. So I got him off guard and he didn't like it. He punched me in the face so I kicked him in the balls and stormed out."
"Right." Rumlow's lips quirked up in a small smile. "Besides your face and arm, are you okay?"
I shrugged, not trusting my emotions right now. I was angry and frustrated. I didn't think anything was broken, just bruised. My nose had stopped bleeding, it was just my eye swelling shut that was going to be a small problem. I needed both eyes to fly. Ian was not going to be happy at all if I wasn't going to be able to do our flight to Alaska today. Somehow my flight had ended up being lumped with a supply drop to one of the Alaska bases.
"He can't do that Rumlow." Riley pointed out sounding angry. "Just because he hates Jared doesn't give him the right to smack the shit out of Kari."
"I'd forgotten about that," Rumlow pursed his lips in thought, looking at me carefully. "You know even though we're SHIELD, we do have rules about this kind of thing. That class is meant to teach you stuff. Not just beat the shit out of each other and hope for the best. That's Romanoff's style and heavily frowned upon."
"Well, what am I supposed to do?" I said feeling huffy. "If I go crying to someone about it, it'll only make it worse. If I don't say anything, I'll probably get another ass kicking tomorrow for storming out."
"Let Jared see it and he and Rollins can punch it out again," Rumlow said jokingly. "That was fun last time. Or even better yet, go tell Romanoff. She'll deal with it."
I shot Rumlow a weary look. Jared was in enough trouble already. He didn't need to come riding to my rescue. Even if it was partly his fault why Rollins didn't like me. I could deal with my own problems. I didn't even know Romanoff so I certainly wasn't going to let Rumlow go and ask her for help.
"Let Barton know as well. You heard what he said in the shower the other day." Riley looked ready to march off and go and find the suggested people.
"What was said in the shower the other day?" My aching face was forgotten for a moment as I looked between Rumlow and Riley. I knew there'd be gossip, that was a given. I was curious what was actually said.
"Then Coulson will kill us for letting those two loose," Rumlow said with a shake of his head. "Nothing was said Kari, nothing of importance anyway. Don't worry about it."
Why did I get the feeling Jared had words to people about watching out for me. He was my overprotective big brother. Most of the time it annoyed me. Right now, I kind of wanted to see two infamous assassins unleashed onto Rollins.
"Let Ian see it," Riley suggested, turning to me. It was a kind of sweet how angry he was on my behalf. "I don't know the guy that well, but I'm pretty sure he'll shit his lucky charms seeing your face. Nothing is more terrifying than a senior agent who doesn't have anything to lose anymore."
"You'll lose your head if you don't move," Ian's voice came from behind Rumlow and Riley. Both instantly moved aside.
I sighed and cursed my bad luck and Ian's timing. I must have been running late enough that Ian came looking for me. I was hoping to delay that by at least a few more minutes. Enough time to wash my face off at least. Whatever else Ian was about to say died on his lips when he saw me standing there. I must have been an interesting sight to make Ian not be able to say anything for more than a few seconds.
"Right." Ian tightened his jaw and grabbed me by the arm. "This ends right now. He can't do this. Hill can deal with his bullshit attitude."
I didn't get a chance to protest as Ian tugged me along forcibly behind him. His grip only loosened when he was sure I was still following. The entire time he was ranting how about how idiots like Rollins gave STRIKE a bad name. I was silent as I trudged behind him. My face was starting to ache and I could feel a nasty headache start to pound behind my eyes. Today had hit a new level of shitty.
By the time we'd navigated to the other side of the Triskelion, and 22 floors up. We arrived in front of Hill's office. Ian didn't knock, he pushed the door open and walked in. Hill was on the phone and she looked up, shooting Ian a very annoyed look. It quickly melted away as she saw me standing behind him.
"I'll call you back." Hill frowned, hanging up her phone call. "What's this about?"
"Agent Rollins," Ian said before I could speak. "He's taking the hand to hand combat course at the moment. Maria, I can't teach fucking teach Kari when she's getting the shit beaten out of her on a daily basis. It's distracting both physically and mentally, especially for someone who has to cram so much into a short time."
"Kari?" Hill turned to look at me. "Care to explain what's going on in your class?"
"Besides me sucking?" I shrugged looking at the wall behind Hill and not at her. "Or the fact Agent Rollins said on the first day he doesn't like special cases."
"Exact words please." Hill looked none too pleased at my last sentence. "Ian, can you wait outside?"
"Yeah, call me when you need me," Ian said. "I'm off to palm our supply drop off the someone else."
With that, he left the room. I felt awkward standing there with Hill watching me carefully.
"Sit," Hill said motioning towards the chair. This felt like the day I'd been told I was joining SHIELD. I complied instantly, sitting down knotting my hands in my lap. She looked at me before picking up her phone again.
"Get me Agent Rollins up here now," Hill said and hung up before anyone would be able to respond on the phone. "All right Kari, what happened? I need exact words and no bullshit."
I sighed. There was no way around this. I may as well tell the truth and deal with the consequences later. At least Hill was being a little bit sympathetic. It was different than my first time meeting her.
"First day Agent Rollins told me he doesn't like special cases. Especially ones he has to pass regardless of what happens. I believe his words were just because I was a mutant and the sister of Fury's favourite pet spy, doesn't give me special privileges."
"Right," Hill looked angry as she tapped a pen against the table. She took in a deep breath like she was calming herself. "And what happened this morning?"
"Agent Rollins was teaching a palm strike. There's an odd number of people in the class so I've been paired off with him. The rest of the class was told to practice it and I actually had to get past Rollins blocking me before I could pull the move off." I tightened my jaw in anger remembering what happened. I quickly stopped as it made my entire face ache. "He blocked me, grabbed me by the arm and twisted it around hard before telling the class I was about to get a dislocated shoulder for being sloppy. I got angry, stomped on his foot and drove my elbow into his throat to get him off me. He staggered backwards, came and threw a punch at my face which I didn't dodge. But I also kicked him in the balls just as he punched me in the face."
"Thank you," Hill said with a hint of a smile on her face. She cleared her throat, the smile gone as quickly as it came. "So, how did he react to you kicking him in the balls?"
"I don't know." I cringed inwardly. "I kind of stormed out of the class and ran into Rumlow and Riley. While I was talking to them Ian found me as well. Ian brought me straight up to talk to you and well, here we are."
"Yes, we are," Hill said with a small sigh. "This is off record completely, and I'm not speaking as Agent Hill right now. I do know your brother quite well and why this is going on. But do you know the reason why Rollins has been an asshole to you?"
"I heard Jared slept with his girlfriend last year," I said in a small voice. At least if Hill was aware of the situation. "Jared nearly got the shit beaten out of him for it too."
"Rollins didn't come off too well from it either, let me assure you there," Hill said, clearing her throat. "Sorry Kari, I put you with him and thought he'd be professional enough to not be a dickwad about it. You do need to do that class, so, unfortunately, there's not a lot I can do beyond giving him a reprimand about his behaviour."
"I didn't expect anything to be honest," I said with a small shrug. Hill calling Rollins a dickwad did make me feel a little better. "It's not the first time a guy has given me issues. I am terrible in this class, so I understand some of the frustration."
"Terrible or not, he has no right to single you out." Hill frowned looking unhappy at my response. "SHIELD is strict on how agents interact with each other. We have to work with all types of people and prejudice can't come into it. Whether there be reason or history behind it. He still needs to act on a professional level. The fact you're Enhanced should have never been brought in it. His call on whether you passed or not in that class means very little in the grand scheme of things for you. Whoever your team is will take over any training. It's just his job to make sure if you get into a situation on your first day with no back up is that you don't die and you know how to punch someone hard enough to not break your own hands."
"Awesome." I couldn't keep the sarcasm out of my voice. The hit to the face must have rattled my brain to be giving my superior the amount of sass I threw into that one word. "Guess that wouldn't be the end of the world if I get killed on my first mission. It saves SHIELD a lot of hassle."
Hill's stern look was enough to make me want to crawl away. I could have smacked myself in the head for my own stupidity and sass.
"No SHIELD would lose a valuable asset if that happened," Hill said calmly. "Regardless of how you feel about this situation Kari, you were offered this because Fury believed you could make a difference. This wasn't to fuck up your life or anything else like that. It's a year and then if you hate it that much you can walk away and have your life back. From what I'm hearing from Ian's reports you're doing pretty exceptional with your flying."
"It's not hard," I didn't have a lot else to say back to Hill after her small spiel. It was a little surreal that people actually believed in me with this job. "Its kind of fun sitting in something with technology I thought only existed in Star Trek."
"Good," Hill looked at me again with an unreadable expression on her face. "I will email you through the details of what you'll be covering for the next few weeks. You can get your face checked out at Medical and then head home for today."
"I was meant to fly to Alaska with Ian," I started lamely but shut my mouth quickly with the hard look Hill sent me.
"Medical, then home. Dismissed."
I didn't argue. I didn't even say anything. I stood up and left the room before Hill could change her mind. Ian was waiting for me just outside the door. Across the hallway was a very angry looking Agent Rollins leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. I couldn't stop the smirk popping onto my face seeing the ugly bruise creeping around his neck. Apparently, I could hit harder than I thought. What surprised me the most was the trail of blood that he'd tried to clear up under his nose. It looked like someone had punched him in the face. He barely glanced at me, breezing straight past me and into the office. He didn't quite pull the door shut. Ian put his finger to his lips and tiptoed towards the door. Curiosity made me follow him. After all, Ian was the senior agent here. I couldn't disobey him.
"What happened to your face?" There was no surprise in Hill's voice at the question.
"Romanoff accidentally tripped me and I hit a door frame," Rollins said the word accidentally with more sarcasm than I'd ever be able to summon in my life.
Ian's hand flew to his mouth as he choked on the laughter trying to escape. I was barely able to hold back my own laughter.
"Well, you won't be so clumsy around her next time, will you?" Hill said smoothly. The next word was said with such command, I nearly snapped to attention. "Sit."
"Off the medical we go," Ian mouthed to be quietly, motioning for us to leave. As much as I wanted to hear Rollins get chewed out, I followed Ian. Seeing Rollins' bloody face did wonders for making me feel better.
Thankfully for me, the visit to medical was quick and painless. As I thought nothing was broken, the swelling and bruising already starting to show would be gone in a few days. I sent Jared a text asking him where he was. Instead of replying like a normal person he teleported right next to me.
"How are you feeling?" Jared asked, taking my face in his hand and tilting it so he could see the damage. "Fucking asshole. He would have been dead if I got my hands on him."
"Maybe if you hadn't of slept with his girlfriend this wouldn't be happening," I could stop my snap at Jared. I was tired, my face was beginning to ache and despite my earlier protest, I was really looking forward to going home. I pushed Jared's hand off my face, scowling at my brother.
"She told me they broke up!" Jared argued back defensively. He looked upset at the accusation I'd just thrown at him. "And like I knew this would ever be a problem. I'll have you know I had to get my ass out of jail that night too. Rollins thought it'd be a great idea to pick a fight when we were out having drinks. Wait until you meet Coulson, he had to come and get me and Barton. It wasn't fun."
"Wait, you got arrested?" I backtracked through this conversation. "Why didn't I hear about this?"
"Because it was embarrassing," Jared scowled. "For once I wasn't being a huge slut, I actually liked her. So get your cranky pants off about it. I'm sorry Rollins is a fucking dick and I hope he's going to think twice about what he did now."
"Did you have something to do with that?" I asked curiously. All the fight had drained out of me at Jared's explanation.
"No, you can thank Riley for that," Jared said with a small chuckle. "I wasn't there, but apparently he walked up to Nat and said Rollins smacked you in the face during class. Rollins didn't know what hit him when Nat walked up behind him and pushed him into the doorframe."
"I owe them both a drink." If my face didn't hurt so much I'd smile. "I elbowed him in the throat at least so one of his bruises belongs to me."
"That's my sister," Jared grinned. "In all seriousness, are you all right? Your face looked really sore."
"Nothing some aspirin and an ice pack won't fix." I shrugged off Jared's concern. "I'm free for the rest of the day. Wanna drop me home?"
"Sure." Jared grabbed my hand and before I could react to what I knew he was about to do. He teleported, taking me with him. I squeezed my eyes shut. The feeling of the world being sucked away was terrifying. Teleporting with Jared felt like having your body turned inside out and shoved through a blender if he got it wrong. But not even a second later we appeared in the lounge room of the apartment. I groaned and opened my eyes.
"Thanks," I said dryly. I wasn't a fan of that brief feeling that came with Jared's teleporting. It was just the strangest feeling in the world.
"One trip home, and I'm going back to work otherwise I'll be in trouble too." Jared gave me a small grin. "Call me if you need me. Enjoy the peace and quiet."
He was gone again before I could open my mouth to thank him. I sighed looking at the empty space in front of me. Then I looked around the empty apartment and my eyes fell on the large flat screen TV. The impressive DVD collection lined the TV cabinet it was sitting on. Not to mention there were two hard drives sitting connected to the TV as well. Jared had a huge range of taste in movies. One moment he could be watching Die Hard and the next Casablanca. After this morning I was in the mood for something with plenty of action. My eyes fell on the Transformers DVD sitting to the left of the cabinet.
I walked to the fridge, grabbed a beer and put the DVD on. Instead of sulking about being left at home, I may as well enjoy the rare free time I was going to get. With what SHIELD was trying to squeeze into my days, I was about to get very busy.
My life continued in a hurried blur for the next few weeks. I'd do PT, get beaten up by Rollins minus any blood or broken bones and make no progress at all with that class. Whatever Hill had said to him made him only back off slightly. He refrained from humiliating me in front of everyone now but I would still walk away with bruises. At least by the second week I'd stopped feeling like I was going to cry in the shower every morning. Then I'd either go sit on mission briefs and take notes on how everything was done in Operations. Or I'd sit in the office which Jared had been banished to, reading up like a good little nerd about how SHIELD ran. The only bright part of those times was that Riley was stuck in the same office as Jared, doing data entry and filing. Between the two of them not much work was actually being done. Being the quicker typer I ended up doing some of Jared's work so he could teleport to where it was we felt like for food and bring it back. Or beer that was snuck in a few times. Those times were actually pretty fun and a bright spot in my days. When Jared was away or being unhelpful, Riley was there to actually help me. He'd caught Jared out on more than one occasion feeding me bullshit about something I had asked about.
My brain felt like it was going to break with all the information I was trying to cram into it. My only sanity at the moment was doing my flight training with Ian. He'd always have coffee and beyond telling me where we were going. We wouldn't talk about anything to do with work. I pretty much knew his entire life story now. I was disappointed he was retiring straight after my training, he would have been fantastic to have around for a while longer. Not only was he good at conversation, he was also a very good listener. There had been more than one occasion where I'd been frustrated by something and he was always more than happy to listen and talk me through it. Being in SHIELD for over 40 years had given him a lot of helpful insights. Which he was more than happy to pass along to me.
SHIELD wasn't just a job. It was a way of life. Especially in Operations. There was a lot more to it than I ever imagined. I was only dipping my toe in the pool of knowledge I'd really need to know and even that was daunting enough. When Jared had joked a few years ago about being an American James Bond I'd just scoffed and called him an idiot. Now the more I knew, the more I realised that even James Bond played by tame rules compared to SHIELD. What surprised me even more was realising STRIKE was not just the dumb grunts I'd imagined them as. Though their skill sets weren't the exact same as a Specialist, they were still highly trained to be able to undercover and do covert missions at the flip of a switch. The reason Riley could speak Russian so well is because he spent seven months in St Petersburg with a small team chasing down a team of rogue American scientists. I hadn't even known what to say after I heard that story. It just made me feel very dumb and nervous all at the same time. I wouldn't be able to pull off an undercover mission, especially not for that long. While I was book smart, I had the memory like a sieve for day to day things. I couldn't even remember what I'd had for breakfast two days ago. How was I ever meant to catch up and learn all these things?
Today was painful. Three weeks into it all and I was starting to get nervous about what was going to happen to me. I'd been told I would be heading to the range tomorrow to make sure I tell the front end of the gun from the back end. I'd already gone for a flight with Ian and now I was waiting for Jared to finish so we could go home. True to my word I hadn't taken his car again. There hadn't been any need for me to since I didn't get to do any more night flying. I'd spent the entire day sitting at the back of mission briefs and debriefs, trying not to fall asleep. Since I didn't have a clearance level, all I was hearing was about very basic things. The only exciting thing I heard the entire day was one mission that had been intel gathering was now handing it over to a more experienced team for the target grab. That team had ended up being Rumlow's team. It felt like it was the only thing I'd actually known what was being spoken about.
"I'm so bored, hurry up," I complained to Jared, for about the 20th time in the last 10 minutes. He was actually sitting at his desk and furiously typing away for once. He didn't glance down at me, he just gave me the finger. I was lying on the floor between the two desks, bored, tired and grouchy. I was like a five year old when I was like this. Prone to temper tantrums and tears at the drop of a hat.
"Unlike you, I'm still working," Jared grumbled. "I got told to get this finished by today or Maria will have my balls."
"Well, that's what happens when you fuck ass around for two weeks and not get it done," Riley smirked over the top of his computer. I grinned up at him for the smart reply. Riley grinned back at me, happy he'd bested Jared for once. One thing I'd learned about Riley was that he was a quiet person. It wasn't often he spoke up without being prompted. Jared being an asshole to me seemed to be enough to prompt him to talk these days.
"Get Riley to take you home then." Jared went back to typing furiously. "Don't fuck on the couch or in my bed. I'll know if you do."
Riley went bright red and cleared his throat, looking back to his computer and not at me. I could feel my own blush crawling up my neck. It'd taken me until last week to realise I had a bit of a crush on Riley. I was being good and staying away from STRIKE guys, even if Jared did approve of Riley. Jared really didn't need to bring that up though. I hadn't told him about it, and I thought I was playing coy pretty well. I just needed to grow some balls and ask Riley out for a beer. I made a ball of ice and threw it at Jared's head. It was satisfying hearing the painful yelp come from him.
"Bitch" Jared grouched rubbing his head.
"Don't be such an asshole," I scolded Jared and turned to Riley to say something to make him not uncomfortable. It wasn't until then that I realised that Riley was just staring at me in shock. I only then realised what I had just done. He'd never seen me use my powers at all. I had learnt to keep them under wraps very well. I don't even know why I'd done that. It was such a major slip up on my part. Jared so openly teleported around here, that barely anyone gave it a second glance. I didn't think what I had just done would make Riley react like that.
"Well," Riley broke the silence first and went back to his own typing. "That breaks the awkward part of asking to see your power. You're going to be a new favourite at keg parties when someone brings a hot keg."
"Sure will be." I let out a quiet sigh of relief. I didn't want Riley to be freaked out by me. "I'm happy to be the resident beer cooler. It's even more awesome when I can turn a swimming pool into an ice skating rink."
"Can you really do that?" The sound of typing paused for a second, but Riley didn't look up from his work.
"Only if she's really angry," Jared cut in before I could reply. I was going to be smart and tell him that would be a piece of cake. Maybe if I had actually used my powers more often it might be easy. It was like learning a skill. It had to be used and practised to become stronger. Besides the few times, I'd used it over the last few weeks to try and smack Jared. I couldn't actually remember the last time I'd done any showing off with it.
"Still pretty cool in my opinion," Riley defended me and slammed the laptop shut. His comment made me smile at him. "I'm done, did you want a lift home, Kari?"
"Please." I bounced up off the floor excited I was finally going to free from the glass prison of the Triskelion. I had already changed back into casual clothes and was ready to go.
"I hate you both," Jared grumbled, still typing away furiously on his computer. "Order Indian for dinner or something Kari. I'm not cooking tonight."
Jared rarely cooked. I couldn't complain about that because I didn't cook at all. I was one of those hopeless people who could burn toast or boil water dry. About the only thing I could manage was scrambled eggs and pancakes. As long as it came from a box I could usually manage. It was safe to say I pretty much lived off frozen meals when I lived by myself. At least at Jared's apartment, there was an awesome range of food joints within an easy five minute drive. And most of them delivered too. Living in a big city like DC had it's advantages with that.
"Indian it is then." I didn't argue with Jared's dinner choice. I loved Indian food. "How late are you going to be?"
Jared shrugged and pulled a face. His expression spoke more than words could. He was going to be here until much later.
"I won't wait up then. Dinner will be in the fridge."
Riley and I made our way out of the office and took our time walking to the elevator. Riley hit the button and the elevator opened instantly. What neither of us expected was the blonde male agent to come barreling out of it at nearly a sprint. Riley's reflexes were a lot quicker than mine and he pulled me out of the way. The other male agent was on the phone not paying attention to where he was going. He quickly dropped the phone and mouthed sorry before continuing his fast pace down the hallway. I caught the tail end of his phone conversation before he bolted.
"I am running to you right now Coulson, please don't kill me."
I smothered my laugh, even though the other agent was too far away to hear me. Riley chuckled under his breath before walking into the elevator.
"Someone's in trouble," Riley said as the elevator started to take us to the garage. "Big trouble by the looks of that. He's usually not that rude."
"Who was that?" I asked.
"That's Barton. Hawkeye. I'm sure you've heard of him."
"Yeah once or twice," I said dryly. Over the last few weeks, I'd found out Jared was friends with both Barton and Romanoff. I still hadn't had the chance to meet either one of them. I wondered if it was partly Jared being overprotective of me. Or he simply didn't want to share his friends. It was a toss-up which one was the truth.
My phone binged as an email came through. It was becoming a regular occurrence at the moment. SHIELD seemed to have no problems with sending an email for just about everything. Somehow even though I wasn't an actual agent yet, I was getting all memos. Even things that didn't apply to me. However, this email was different. I couldn't stop the grin appearing on my face as I read it.
"At long fucking last, I'm getting time at the shooting range tomorrow."
"Nice," Riley grinned with me. "That should make you happy. I can't wait until I'm cleared so I can get back shooting. Here's hoping my medical goes as planned for tomorrow."
"Fingers crossed for both of us then." I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. It was the best news I'd had in weeks. "Want to have Indian with me to celebrate?"
A guilty look crossed Riley's face. I instantly knew what his answer was going to be. I tried not to let my disappointment show. That was silly of me to ask. I hadn't meant anything else behind it except for being excited for being allowed to do something besides sitting on mission briefs.
"This is a bit sad," Riley chuckled nervously. He ran his fingers through his hair before he continued. "But I Skype with my Mom every Wednesday night when I'm home. I never miss it because I never know when the next time I get to talk to her will be. Mind if I take a rain check?"
"Not sad at all." I smiled. I wasn't lying, it was actually very sweet. My Mom was lucky to get an email from me most weeks. Let alone sitting down and having an actual phone call. She'd been sending me a steady stream of texts and emails. I'd been too tired to do more than give her short replies to everything.
"Sorry." Riley apologised with his adorable crooked grin. "It's just my Mom and my sister Tessa I have for family. My Dad died in a car crash a few years ago. We're pretty close."
"Stop apologising," I said gently. "It's totally fine, you don't have to explain yourself to me. Besides it just picking up takeaway, nothing special."
Riley looked like he wanted to say something else. But he just turned away with a frustrated look on his face. I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong. But the elevator opened and more agents walked in. I let the subject go. If Riley wanted to talk to me about it, then he would. If not it was none of my business what he was thinking.
"I think you're fucking awesome for dropping me home," I said lowly as we crammed towards the back of the elevator. Riley was squished up beside me and I wasn't minding the closeness at all.
"I figured it's the least I can do for you putting up with me the last few weeks," Riley said quietly but returned the smile.
"I can think of so many worse things out there."
I couldn't help but grin at the smug smile that appeared on Riley's face. Maybe I wasn't the only one disappointed with him not staying for dinner.
