"So it's not growing back?" Eva asked the administrator of the Avengers HQ, staring at the massive glyph scorched onto the turf. "And it's been, what, nearly four months?"
The administrator nodded. "We tried putting fertilizer on it, but-"
"That probably made it worse," Eva told her, chewing her lip. "But it has been raining a lot recently… my best guess is that whatever did it killed all the nutrients in the soil as well, so you'd be better off just tearing it all up and starting again. Put a feature there, or something."
"Would you be happy to do that?" she asked.
"Hell yeah! I mean, um, I'd certainly consider it," she said, "if the payment's right."
"Well," said the administrator, "we would of course cover all the costs, and then there's the design fee…" she reeled off a line of numbers, and by the end of it Eva was having to try very hard to stop her jaw dropping.
"That certainly seems suitable," she said, "I work mornings, but I can be here weekday afternoons to do everything."
"That's excellent," replied the administrator, "I'll sort out a security pass and have it mailed to you. A pleasure doing business with you, Miss Kresk."
"You too," she said, shaking her hand.
%
"Hey! You don't have clearance to come through here!"
"Bugger off, Pete," said Eva, as rain pounded the bulletproof windows. She carried on walking until she found Sam, who was just coming out of the gym.
"It's raining outside," she said, as she dripped onto the marble floor.
Sam lasted about half a second before snorting with laughter. "You, uh, you got caught in it then?"
"Such are the perils of being a gardener," she sniffed. "On the plus side, the plants're coming along nicely. Can I seek shelter?"
"Sure," he said, throwing her his hoodie. She shrugged it on, pulling the sleeves down over her hands and tucking her sodden hair beneath the hood.
"Where's everyone else?" she asked.
"V's doing something techy with Romanoff, everyone else is in the rec room I guess. Fridays are chill days, unless there's something big happening."
"The more I hear about this place, the more it sounds like a college on acid," she said. "I would love to see what the Avengers' rec room looks like."
"Well, what are you standing there for? Making an indoor pond?" he joked, and she stuck her middle finger up at him.
The rec room turned out, somewhat disappointingly, to be just like any other, except perhaps more expensive. There were a few television screens plugged into some games consoles, a drinks bar, several squishy sofas and a pool table. Rogers was stood at the latter with Agent Hill, while Maximoff, Barton and Rhodey sat watching them at the bar.
"Well that is just the most pitiful thing I have ever seen," Rhodey remarked as Eva followed Sam into the room. "Who tried to drown you?"
"Mother Nature," she shrugged. "Sorry for gatecrashing."
"Don't worry about it," Cap replied, socking the white ball with his cue. "You're welcome in here whenever the weather gets too bad outside. Perk of the job."
"Thanks, Mr America," she replied.
"Just Steve. Although it is still a little weird talking to you without a counter between us," he joked.
"Stay away from my girlfriend, Rogers."
"You wanna play?" Hill asked, hitting the last ball into the top left corner pocket. "I'm done losing against supersoldiers."
"Sure," replied Eva, taking the cue the woman offered to her. "It's like golf but sideways, right?"
The others in the room exchanged glances. "This should be interesting," muttered Maximoff.
%
Twenty minutes later, Eva had pocketed the eight ball and everyone in the room was staring at her.
"What?" she said, a little defensively. "I spend a lot of time in bars, okay?"
"Did you know she could play like that?" Steve asked Falcon, who held up his hands.
"Dude, I had no idea. Which just made it all the more fun to watch."
"Losing's good for you, Cap," laughed Hill, who had taken a great deal of pleasure in watching her annihilate him.
Rogers was a gracious loser; he shook her hand, joking how he would never look at a pool table the same way again.
"What can I say? There's more to me than gardening."
Something in his expression shifted; his gaze became more calculating, serious.
"Uh," said Eva, what did I do?"
"Nothing. I just had an idea. Nat," he said, turning to the entrance, "perfect timing."
"What's she doing in here?" Romanoff asked as she walked in. Behind her, Vision smiled at Eva, who saluted back at him.
"Not getting rained on. I'm assuming you didn't have any luck with the Oscorp servers?"
"No. No word from Athena, either."
"Right," said Steve. "In that case, I've got us a way in." He clapped Eva on the still-soggy shoulder.
"What? What am I? What's going on?" she asked, looking around the room for answers.
"Captain," said Vision, seriousness in his tone, "she's a civilian, not one of us. We cannot ask her to be a part of this."
"V, normally I'd agree with you. But we're desperate, and with our help she won't be in any danger. It's not even like we have to invent an alias; she already fits the job description. And it's hardly like she's an outsider, is it?"
"If anybody feels like telling me what's going on," said Eva, "that'd be grand."
"There's nothing to tell because it ain't gonna happen," said Sam shortly, not joking around for once. "You can't just tell her she's doing this for us, she isn't a spy!"
"The captain's right," said Romanoff, "we don't have another option. She's all we have."
"She has a name, and is right freakin' here!" Eva snapped. "Now how about you tell me what it is you want me to do, and I'll tell you whether I'll do it!"
Steve and Romanoff exchanged glances; the latter nodded. "We've had reports of Oscorp's R&D department are attempting enhancements," the captain told her. "We need to access their database for their records, but it's a private server and our usual contact for things like this won't pick up the phone. Without SHIELD to support us, we can't send in a mole since we don't have one, and none of us are exactly covert."
"You can say that again," she said, "so you want me to go in and hack their systems? Bearing in mind I can barely make a spreadsheet? Or remember my password?"
"You wouldn't actually have to hack anything," Steve replied. "We have some of the tech Stark left us, including what he used to access SHIELD's servers on the helicarriers a couple years ago. We just need someone to get inside and get near a computer, but so far we haven't been able to do that since their security's so tight."
"So?"
"So they're looking for new employees," he said, "nothing important, nothing that's actually involved in R&D. There's a couple of HR positions, and in their own headquarters…"
"A gardener," she finished for him.
"It's your decision," said Barton, "we're not forcing you to do anything."
"No, I- I want to do it. Who doesn't want to be a super secret spy, right? Will this get me higher security clearance so y'all actually tell me what you're doing all the time?"
"Wait- you're sure?" Steve asked.
She shrugged. "I mean, yeah, why not? You said it was safe, right?" her gaze shifted from him to Vision.
"In theory," he said slowly, "there's no reason for them to suspect you. We'll give you an earpiece, so we can talk to you the entire time."
"Will you be the one talking to me?" she asked him.
"If you wish me to be."
"Yeah. I won't freak out if it's you," she said. "So do I get a codename? Supersuit? One of those pens that I can shoot people with?"
"We're trying not to arouse suspicion," said Steve, and she sagged.
"So no supersuit, then."
A/N exciting times for Eva, right? BUT WILL IT GO WELL? You'll have to wait and see.