Zoë Aetos: Starting & Ending Action
Chapter One
Evangeline stood in front of her cracked apartment mirror, fussing with her bangs. Her blue eyes crinkled with amusement when someone knocked on the door. She sauntered over to the door, pulling her lab coat off a hook.
Swinging the door open, she grinned at her guest.
"Bruce!" she said brightly.
"Ready?" the man asked, pushing his glasses further up his face. She took his out-stretched arm as her door shut behind her. It locked automatically behind her, and Bruce looked down at her. "Do you have your keys this time?"
The blonde giggled lightly, fishing through her lab-coat pockets for a pair of keys. She waved it in front of his face for a moment before pocketing them again. Bruce rolled his eyes at her playfulness as he tightened his grip on his medical bag.
Thus was their routine. Bruce picked up Evangeline who joked around until they reached their destination, then she was all business. He was the only western doctor around and she was fresh out of nursing school to help him.
With the outbreak of typhoid in Calcutta, Bruce was at his wits end until Evangeline had arrived with her nervous but cheerful attitude. In fact, he didn't quite know how he functioned before her.
They walked together to a patient's house deep in the slums. There were women and children crying and drunken men stumbling home after a day's work in the fields and an evening in the bars. All around them was the smell of decay and misery.
Had Evangeline thought she would be working out here? Not exactly, but Doctor Banner needed a nurse and she decided to come. As a student, she had dreamed about working in a fancy city, but she was here now and that was all that mattered.
The night seemed like it would be a normal night with the usual. Making rounds to the patients, accepting the meager money the families would force into their hands despite Bruce trying to deny it.
It seemed normal, until a little ten-year-old girl ran into the house and up the stairs. The wife of the man they were treating, tried to send the girl away, but the girl was persistent.
"Are you the doctor?" she asked, struggling to get to Bruce as Evangeline injected their patient with painkillers. "I need a doctor! My father. My father's not waking up! He has a fever and he's moaning but his eyes won't open!"
Looking to Evangeline, Bruce's eyes practically begged her to deal with the child. His Hindi was good, just not when someone was talking a million miles an hour.
"Slow down," Evangeline cautioned, moving towards the girl.
The American pulled off her gloves, kneeling beside the girl.
"My father—"
"Like them?" Evangeline asked softly, gesturing to the people behind her. The girl nodded, holding up a wad of cash.
"Please!" she begged, voice cracking as she blinked back tears. Bruce nodded, gathering up his stuff.
The girl perked up slightly, bolting out of the door.
"H-hey! Wait!" Evangeline called after her. Bruce started jogging out the door, not waiting for her. Evangeline looked apologetically at the grieving wife before darting after her partner.
She followed the girl and Bruce to a run-down shack near the edge of the slums. She looked around carefully as Bruce slowed his pace into the house. Evangeline caught up to him, panting slightly.
Following him inside, Evangeline frowned when she saw the empty room.
"Should've gotten paid upfront, huh, Evangeline?" She giggled again, shaking her head lightly before letting out a small squeak when someone walked out from behind a curtain. "You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle."
The person was a woman with red hair and a dressed in a long green dress. Bruce put down his bag as Evangeline shuffled her feet nervously.
"Avoiding stress isn't the secret," Bruce told the woman.
"Then what is it? Yoga?"
"And you brought me to the end of the city. Smart," Bruce continued, not answering her question. "I-uh-I assume the whole place is surrounded."
Removing her scarf, the woman shook her head.
"Just you and me… and this girl." She gestured half-heartedly at Evangeline who looked over at Bruce, watching him with confusion. He didn't look back at her.
"And your actress buddy? She a spy too? Do they even start that young?"
The woman shrugged, "I did."
"Who are you?"
"Natasha Romanoff."
"Are you here to kill me, Ms. Romanoff? 'Cause that's not going to work out for everyone."
"What do you mean, kill?" Evangeline questioned. "Bruce…"
"I'm not here for that," Natasha said, sending Evangeline a glare. She clearly wasn't impressed with the blonde. "I'm here on behalf of SHIELD."
That shut Evangeline up. Everyone knew what S.H.I.E.L.D. was. They were their own organization, apart from the CIA and the FBI, working on their own terms.
"SHILED," Bruce said, sounding a bit angry. "How'd they find me?"
"We never lost you, Doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent."
"Why?"
"Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now we need you to come on."
"What if I say no?"
Natasha's expression turned seductive, looking at him with a small smile.
"I'll persuade you." The doctor's eyes turned sad and reluctant.
"And what if the—Other Guy says no?"
"You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you want to break that streak."
Pushing at an old wooden cradle, he shook his head.
"Well, I don't always get what I want."
"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe."
Banner chuckled, "Oh, those I actively try to avoid."
"This…" Natasha said, taking a seat at a table. "…is the Tesseract."
The woman slid her cell phone along the table. On it was the image of a Tesseract, a blue glowing cube. It was not of this world, Evangeline mused, peering over Bruce's shoulder.
"What does Fury want me to do?" Banner asked. "Swallow it?"
"He wants you to find it. It's been taken. It emits a Gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. No one knows Gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be."
"So… Fury isn't after the monster?"
"Not that he's told me."
"And he tells you everything?"
"Talk to Fury, he needs you on this."
"He needs me in a cage?"
"No one's going to put you in a—"
"STOP LYING TO ME!"
Natasha jumped to her feet, pulling a gun as Evangeline did the same, aiming at Bruce's head. Bruce pulled back slightly, a small smile on his face.
"I'm sorry. That was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do." Natasha stared at her, looking scared out of her mind. "Why don't we do this the easy way where you don't use that?" Bruce continued, glancing back at Evangeline. "And the—the Other Guy doesn't make a mess? Okay?... Natasha, Evangeline?"
Lowering her gun, Natasha spoke quietly into her earpiece.
"Stand down. We're good here." Bruce grinned at her.
"Just you and me?" Natasha just stared at him as he turned to Evangeline. "Where'd you get the gun, Eve?" he asked, crossing his arms. He was a bit startled to see brown eyes instead of the blue ones he had grown accustomed to seeing.
Reaching up, Evangeline pulled at her blonde hair, causing it to fall off her head, light brown hair tumbling down her shoulders.
"I've always had it, Bruce." She looked over to Natasha. "Hello, Tasha."
Natasha pursed her lips, "Welcome back, Zoë. We need to talk."
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