AN: This story starts some years before the show
Damn, it was really fucking dark. But Addison Caldwell knew what she had to do. With silent steps, she crept down the wide corridor on the 54th floor of the bleak office building. She wore a tight fitting solid black jacket and black trousers, her usually messy white-gold hair pulled back into a sleek knot at the nape of her neck.
Pausing four doors down from the conference room that was spilling light from under the doorway, she reached for the nearest doorknob, listened for a moment - empty - then jiggled the handle. Fuck, locked. Soundlessly she moved to the next and listened. Empty. Jiggle. And open, the doorknob turned. The corner of her mouth quirked and she slipped inside, closing the door behind her. The room was small and pitch black, no windows, perfect.
Addison pressed her hands to the wall and stilled completely. It wasn't necessarily required for her unique powerset but it helped her concentrate. Her stomach rumbled and she cursed under her breath but otherwise ignored it. She had to. It was only a moment and she focused in fully on the conversation taking place 100 feet away, through three different walls, as if she was in the room herself.
Politicians. She wrinkled her nose. Fucking twats. But she desperately needed the money. The people that were paying her needed to know what this particular senator's plans were for the upcoming crime bill and what information could be used to make sure it went their way. They probably weren't great people either but she didn't give a fuck. Screw all of them.
Addison took notes silently, typing her own shorthand into the device on her wrist. As soon as she could hear them wrapping their meeting up she uploaded her notes to a cloud and pulled her hood up to cover her hair before moving to the door. She paused again for a second to determine no one was in the corridor, then slipped out of the room.
A soft breath of relief left her when she found the hallway still empty and dark and she headed for the emergency stairs at the other side of the building. It was a long corridor. After a minute she stopped cold when she both heard the hard thud of someone else's heart and noticed a red dot through the blackness, focusing in the middle of her chest then rising up. Addison froze, but it was too late and she knew it.
"Don't you dare fuckin' move you supe cunt. If you so much as blink, I'll blow your pretty brains out and I've done me research on ya, so I'm pretty sure that endeavor would prove successful."
The sound of the safety being disengaged on a high powered tactical rifle was clear as day.
Shit.
She was pretty sure it would too.
Hours passed before Addison saw another person. Her lower back gave a dull throb of pain from the stupid metal chair and the chains that kept her in one stiff position. Heaven help a normal person left in this situation...but then maybe he'd left her this long on purpose because he knew exactly what she was. Even with her accelerated rate of healing, if it was too much for too long, she could still feel it. Pain. Her faithful constant companion.
Addison closed her eyes to try once again to get a read on what was going on in the building around her but it was difficult. There were too many people and she was weak. She heard muffled voices and shouts, footsteps and thuds. Someone was crying two floors up and another shouting. She shifted her attention to the other side of the building and higher up, using all her energy -
Suddenly the door to the interrogation room flew open, clanging against the wall. Unprepared for it, Addison wasn't able to buffer against the sound to her sensitive hearing.
"Fucking hell," she startled, her ears ringing and her eyes flying open. How the fuck had he snuck up on her. Addison glared up at the man that entered the room. Dark and fierce, his eyes seemed to gleam with energy and there was a cocky smirk on his face.
"Oh my apologies , did I interrupt some supe fuckery you were working on there? Do forgive me." His British accent was thick and rough, and took her off guard. This was the same agent that had threatened her in the hallway - and the sneer on his face made it clear what his real feelings were. He closed the door and took the chair across from her, slapping a thin manila file on the table between them.
Addison shifted, unable to help herself, testing the chains wrapped around her wrists behind her and connected to her ankles and the floor.
"Titanium and steel," he gave her a hateful smirk. "Anchored 5 feet into the concrete. So you might as well get comfy. You're gonna be here for awhile so let's just have a little chat why don't we?" The expression on his face was keen and knowing, his dark hazel eyes arresting. "Tell me what you know about the people you were workin' for."
Addison kept quiet. She didn't really know that much. It was a job, money she needed to survive, and she didn't fucking care. But she had recognized her current captors immediately as CIA which meant the people she had taken the job from were probably tied to foreign terrorists. Shit. "I got the contact from a weapons guy I've worked with. Normal buying and selling. I thought it was more of the same. I - didn't know."
He leaned closer across the table. "Well, that's too bad now ain't it. Because those cunts are diabolical monsters and you workin' for them is only going to help get a lot of innocent people killed." He leaned back looking at her like he could see straight into her black soul. "The only thing worse than a supe is a fuckin' stupid one."
Something heated and wild bubbled up inside of her, emotion that threatened to burn up through her from the inside out. She couldn't stand the smug, demeaning look on his face - what right did he have to sit there and judge her like he was a god. She matched his dark glare with one of her own. The sound of his heartbeat was steady and calm and it only made her angrier. "Suck my dick, douchebag."
"Oi!" He chuckled with what she could only describe as an evil grin, openly satisfied he had antagonized her to that level. "Aren't you just a joy to be around."
Addison steeled herself against her rising emotions and narrowed her eyes at him. "I am a ray of fucking sunshine."
He gave a low laugh, standing up and pushing the chair back in, his eyes glittering with mirth that she was sure would only be a bad sign for her.
"Well listen here, sunshine." He put his hands on the table, leaning down to look her in the eye, fire burning in his, his voice low and dangerous. "We've got you, and you're not goin' anywhere. You'll be locked in alone, chained up like the animal you are, for the rest of your life. You might be strong, eh, but you're not strong enough to escape me and no one out there gives one single fuck about you, do they?"
Addison swallowed but fought to keep expression stony and cold. Maybe he was right but she didn't think they really had enough proof to put her away. "I didn't do anything."
"Aye, but you were goin' to, sunshine, weren't ya? So if you tell us everything you know, maybe we'll let you out when you're 90 for good behavior." He winked and he was gone. An hour later, the next guy came in.
"Absolutely fuckin' not. No fuckin' way."
Addison could hear the smug asshole easily in the room on the other side of the glass. He knew what she could do so he must not care, she reasoned, though she wondered if she'd be able to hear him even without super hearing. Still it gave her pleasure he was so upset.
Because she'd made a deal.
What she heard next could only be described as a feral growl. "I am not workin' with a fuckin' supe cunt like her."
"Butcher, stow it. It's one mission. Think of her as a tool, get in, get the target and get out."
Butcher, Addison thought. Fitting name.
She heard him snarl and pace across the room. "I shouldn't even be on this job. I don't know why I ever listen to you Gray."
"Because I'm your partner. And we're a team. We need this Butcher. We need this now. And she can get us in tonight."
"I better not come to fuckin' regret this."
The door to the interrogation room slammed open a second later and she despised how it made her jump.
"You're signin' your life away, you hear me? And if you even think of steppin' out of line I'll shoot you myself. And no weapons," he stabbed his finger in the air at her, fierce and angry.
She wanted to shout right back at him but suddenly she was just too tired to fight. Her shoulders slumped and she tipped her head. She wasn't what he thought she was. "Fine. Can you take the chains off now?"
He crossed his arms. "No I bloody well can't. Anything else you'd like to request, sunshine?"
She wanted to throw a knife through his head but she bit her ire back. It wouldn't help anything now. "Can I at least have a meal before you put me to work?" she ground out through clenched teeth.
"Oi, hungry now are ya? Terrorism sure works up an appetite, don't it."
She looked away. "I haven't eaten in a few days."
Billy leaned on the table again to level with her. "And why exactly should I believe that?"
Addison didn't answer and she didn't turn back to him but she could feel his gaze on her, studying her and he must have seen something. He left the room and 10 minutes later she was cutting into a plate of steak and potatoes.