"Life is tough, my darling, but so are you."
- Stephanie Bennett Henry
There was something dried over Eva's face, gluing her eyelids together. What… she thought dully, trying to figure out what had happened. She had been at that damn gala function thing… no, it hadn't started yet, she had gone to the bathroom to fix her make-up - no, it had been to avoid going out there for as long as… some douchebag with a gun had attacked her!
She tried to lift her head, which had been lolling forward onto her chest, but the movement sent nausea tidal-waving through her. Someone had tied her to a chair, by the feel of it- her hands were bound behind her, the back of the chair digging painfully into her underarms.
She realized with a jolt that the thing on her face was blood, her blood. Somebody had kidnapped her, tied her to a chair, and hadn't even had the good grace to take off her incredibly expensive, incredibly painful shoes. With a great deal of effort, Eva managed to get her eyelids open (quite likely tearing half her lashes out in the process) and saw that she was in a dark and gloomy warehouse, the sounds of drifting traffic coming in through the walls.
"Help!" she screamed. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
"Nobody can hear you," a female voice said, and her accoster walked into view.
"If you're HYDRA," she said weakly, "sod off. I'm only a gardener anyway, so unless you want all their shrubs to die I am of absolutely no strategic value whatsoever."
"Shut up."
"No." Eva winced as she rolled her head back in order to get a better look at the woman. She was unassuming, neither particularly pretty nor ugly, average build, no weird hair or tattoos to set her apart from the crowd. "So. I assume this is something to do with the Earth's Mightiest Heroes."
"I wouldn't exactly call them that," said the woman, "but yeah. I'm gonna make them pay."
"For… what, exactly?" Eva asked, trying to kickstart her sluggish brain as she did. She didn't know how long she had been there, and she couldn't rely on the idea of her being rescued to save her. No, she had to think her way out of this one herself.
"For everything!"
"Right," Eva replied as she wriggled her hands around in their bonds, making no difference to their tautness whatsoever. "And why do you need me to do that, exactly?"
"Because you're the weak link."
"I'm not actually one of them, you know. I just make the drinks and plant the flowers."
"So you're the easiest person to kill," the woman retorted, and Eva rolled her eyes.
"You're not gonna kill me," she said, hopefully sounding a lot more confident than she felt. "You ever actually killed anyone before? That stuff takes a lot of balls."
"Yeah." She chambered the next round in her gun. "Four whole people."
"That wasn't the answer I was expecting," Eva said under her breath. "What are you then, SHIELD?"
"That's none of your business."
"What does it matter? I'm gonna die anyway," she pointed out, "you might as well tell me your evil plan or whatever it is the kids are up to these days." She needed to get her hands free- that was what was freaking her out the most, the fact that she was powerless. If she could use her hands, then she might be able to do something. "My name's Eva, by the way. Eva Kresk. Hi."
"I thought you said I wasn't going to kill you?" the woman asked with a small smirk, and Eva tutted.
"Nobody likes a smartass. So you're obviously some kinda secret service, right? You look like it, you act like it. And you're not HYDRA, so you're probably not SHIELD either- everyone in SHIELD who hates the Avengers joins HYDRA, it's like the default option. And aren't they dead? I'm sure SHIELD's dead. I can't remember… I think I have concussion, by the way. Everything's spinning."
"Do you expect me to care?" the woman asked, and Eva threw up, just managing to throw her head forward enough to avoid her dress. Her lovely, designer dress, now stained with blood.
"I thought you might want to get me a bucket," Eva said in a hoarse voice, and spat out a mouthful of bile. "Urgh. Too late now." The movement had caused her to kick her feet up, and in the distraction she had grabbed the heel of her shoes with the tips of her fingers and managed to snap it off. "So," she began, fumbling with it as she tried to stick it between the rope holding her hands together, "I'm gonna hazard a guess at CIA." She repressed another gag. "Nope, I'm fine, I'm good. Oh, bloody hell."
"You know nothing about me," she snarled. There was a manic glint in the woman's eyes. She had the look of a desperate person about her.
"So I am right. Look, lady, either get it over with and put a bullet in my head or tell me what the hell's going on, because I really don't have the energy for this."
"You- you want me to kill you?" the woman asked, confusion just beginning to edge in her voice. "What happened to trying to keep me talking so you could buy more time?"
Eva laughed shortly. "You noticed that, then. Look, my sense of self-preservation really ain't the strongest. I'm just coming out of a years-long stint of mild alcoholism, and I have a hell of a tendency to self-destruct. It's one of my best features, actually. It goes hand in hand with my pyromania. I think I'm babbling. Am I babbling? I'm babbling."
"Shut up," the woman snapped. "Do you have any idea how much your precious superheroes have wrecked this planet? We were fine before they came along and escalated everything, and now look at us! Aliens, malevolent AI, genetically modifying kids – it's sick, and it all happened because of them! They've only fixed what they broke in the first place."
"So?"
"So what?"
"So why are you going to kill me?"
"To make them pay," she said quietly, and Eva narrowed her eyes.
"This is personal, isn't it? I thought you were maybe one of those Watchdog people, but you're not. That's why you chose me and not one of the official super people, you want to hit them as close to home as you can get." She flinched as the woman marched forward and pressed her gun into the cut on her forehead, and shrieked in pain. "Sorry, sorry, oh god please stop that hurts get it off-"
"Stop begging," the woman told her with contempt, and removed the nozzle from Eva's face. She sagged forward and let out one of the sobs that had been building up inside of her.
"I never asked for this either," she cried, "I've been shot because of those bastards! Just let me go, please. You don't have to do this." She had dropped the stiletto heel without managing to sever the rope with it when the woman had pressed the gun to her head; there was no hope for her now. She wasn't a superhero. She wasn't brave or strong or clever, she was just a girl who had got herself into a terrible, awful mess. "Please."
"I can't." The woman's voice was shaking too. "I can't, I'm sorry. I've come too far." She sank to her knees in front of Eva, just avoiding the puddle of sick. "I've lost everything because of this. I kill you and then it's over, and I can stop with… with everything."
Eva bit her lip and swallowed down the lump in her throat. "Tell me what happened."
"No… why the hell… would I do that?"
"Please. If you're gonna kill me, I at least deserve to know why."
The woman inhaled, slowly, and closed her eyes. "Okay.
"You're right, I'm a CIA agent. A lot of people don't know this, but SHIELD and the local cops weren't the only forces at the Battle of New York- we were there too, my partner and me included. I was even there to hear about the nuke they were going to drop on the city, just to try and clear up the carnage they had made. It was horrible, we didn't have a clue what we were doing and our guns didn't do shit against the aliens- but we fought anyway, some of us to the death. Including my partner.
"He was the only thing I had, and because of the Avengers they tore him away from me and then they were hailed as- as heroes. My partner had two guests at his funeral, me and the vicar. SHIELD never even knew we were there.
"I got fired because of my PTSD," she said, and snorted with humourless laughter. "They really did tear my life apart. I tried to sue Stark Industries, just for enough that I could pay my way for a year or so until I got another job, but I didn't get a penny. They said I was lucky enough to be alive, and kicked me back out onto the street.
"I need them to know. I need them to know the hurt of losing someone important, and how everything else falls apart because of it. Thaddeus Ross is right, but his hands are tied. He needs a stray bullet. Hopefully, you dying might even mean they break up completely, and we're free of them for good. They're false idols, Kresk. We need to be rid of them."
"Your partner," Eva managed to say, "he-"
"Wasn't just my partner." The woman blinked back tears. "He was my brother."
"Oh, Jesus," Eva murmured, "I'm so sorry."
"Don't. Don't make me like you, Kresk. Oh, Christ. Why did you have to tell me your name?"
"Please," Eva begged, "look at me. I know they're called the Avengers, but revenge never actually solves anything- it doesn't even make you feel better. They're not some omnipotent gods who came and ruined our lives, however they might act. They're just people. I never liked them much, and yeah, they make as much damage as they solve. But they're good people, and they're my friends. They don't deserve to suffer like you did, nobody does."
"No. They're not your friends, they aren't like us-"
"Trust me," said Eva, "they really are. I've seen them all before they've had caffeine, and they really are just like the rest of us. They might look different, they might have fancy suits and strange faces and weird abilities, but they're people to the bone and all they want to do is help. Just like you do."
"What about you?"
"I just want to make it through the day," she smiled, and the woman laughed through her tears.
"What happened to your self-destructive tendencies?"
"Oh, they're still there. But it's not the bad stuff in us that defines who we are, not unless we let it."
"So what does?"
"Kindness," she said, "love. Bad jokes, and just… humanity, really. We really are an amazing creation, you know. A friend once told me, the chances of one person being alive now is something like one in three million. We shouldn't be alive, but we are, and it's not because of these big world-saving shows of heroism, it's because of… kindness."
They were both crying now, heavy desperate tears of two people who didn't know what was going to happen next. "I don't know what to do," the woman whispered.
"What's your name?"
"… Anna."
"Anna," Eva said gently, "put down the gun, please. It'll help, I promise." The lump of lethal metal splashed into the sick puddle. "You can untie me too, if you want."
"What will you do if I do?"
"You'll have to wait and see. Look at me, I'm hardly about to overpower you."
Anna hesitated, then pulled a flipknife out of her pocket and cut the ropes tying Eva to the chair. The gardener waited until the weapon had been put away, then wrapped her tattooed arms around Anna. "You're okay," she whispered as the woman sobbed onto her shoulder, "it's okay, you're okay, everything's okay…"
"I'm so sorry…"
"Don't be, sweetheart. It's not your fault."
%
Eva was sat on the edge of the hospital bed, nibbling her lip as Dr Cho stitched up the cut on her head, when Vision came in.
"Hey," she said, as Cho stepped back after tying off the silk. He wordlessly embraced her and she buried her face in his chest, curling her fingers into the impossibly fine fabric of his cloak. "Where's Sam?"
"About an hour behind me. Agent Romanoff told me what happened - are you alright?"
"Kinda," she mumbled as he released her and examined her forehead, "where's Anna?"
"Safe. I knew you would ask, so I checked myself."
"She should talk to Sam," she said, "he does the PTSD counselling and stuff. He's good at that." She stumbled as another burst of dizziness emanated out of her head, and Vision set her down on the bed.
"You saved both your own life and hers, Eva. That was… quite something."
She slid down so that she was lying with her head in his lap. "I just told her the truth. I understood her a little, I think. I understood that feeling, of there not being any point in being alive. I used to be like that, before…"
"Before what?"
"You. You kind of saved my life, V." She smiled up at him, her view wavering as fresh tears rose in her eyes. "That's quite something."
He laughed softly. "It was my honour."
"I'm really kinda lucky to have you, y'know. I'm just some human, and you're so much more than that."
"Oh," he said with a smile, "Eva Kresk, no. There's no such thing as more than human; I still don't understand how the universe managed to fit an infinity into each and every one of you, but I'm rather glad it did."
She grinned, biting down on her bottom lip. "We're alright," she admitted.
"I'm so very proud of you, Eva."
"Why? Because I saved someone's life?"
"No. Well, partially, but… a year ago, had I said something like that about you, I would have been immediately contradicted. 'We're alright' happens to be a colossal improvement upon that." He kissed her forehead. "Get some sleep."
"You're not the boss of me, Oompa Loompa."
"I never presumed I was, Eva. Not one single time."
A/N behold! The longest Coffee Run chapter there ever has been, and most likely will ever be! I feel like this is the climax, the part that the rest of the fic has been building up to. Did you like it? Did you feel like you needed more angst on top of all the pain you're gonna get from Civil War? Did you think, upon reading chapter one, that we would end up here? I certainly didn't.
SiriusLOCKED's spoiler-free review of Civil War: HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. Best character was Ant-Man, but Vision and Bucky (my favs) were AMAZING in it. I'm updating this on the WiFi of the pub five minutes' walk from the cinema, in which I will shortly be going to see it again. Super-hyped!