Eva, who had dreamed of being a gardener since she was old enough to hold a trowel and dislike her parents' concreting business, was wandering around the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in a state of utter and complete delight. She had just spent twenty minutes talking to what she was fairly sure was her (non-synthetic) soulmate: a heavily tattooed, earringed man in his late forties who had spent the last year of his life carefully cultivating a small flock of perfectly delicate, colourful irises, and talked about them with such emotion that it brought a tear to his eye.
I have to get something here next year, Eva thought fervently, wandering between beds filled with lavender and foxglove. Sure, working as a groundskeeper was nice, but this was where her heart lay, in designing small, intricate masterpieces of living things. She was buzzing like a honeybee with excitement, and her mind was whirling with ideas and inspiration.
There was only one issue with the blue-skied perfect picture she was currently living in, and that was the international crisis currently occurring. Still, she thought, the Avengers can look after themselves for a week, right? And the only other person I've got to worry about it Alvie, and I doubt that she's got anything to do with all of this.
She drifted happily through the grand pavilion and took a seat in a little café to order a pot of tea, which was practically and wonderfully on tap over here. As she waited for the waitress to bring it over, Eva doodled garden designs in her notepad and watched the news on the television in the corner with one eye, keeping an eye out for any familiar names or faces. Of course, the Avengers were all over it, so much so that when it cut to a press conference with the less-than-aesthetically-pleasing Thaddeus Ross she was actually relieved.
"We have allowed Athena free reign up until this point," Ross was explaining, "but releasing information with the deliberate intent of assisting with the escape of a terrorist has forced our hand." The cameras flashed off of him, and Eva pursed her lips. Athena… yes, she knew that name from days spent loitering around the HQ corridors. She was an information broker, wasn't she? And a hacker - but that didn't seem like a crime compared to everything else that had happened the last couple of days. What had she done to piss off Ross?
"The UN is declaring Alvine Kennings, also known as Athena, as an enemy of the state."
"WHAT?!" Eva shrieked, making the person next to her drop their tea. "Alvie? Alvie Kennings is Athena? SERIOUSLY?"
She fumbled with her phone and punched in Alvie's number, but instead of a ringing sound all she got was her answerphone message.
"Is everything alright?" the man with tea in his lap asked, leaning over to her. Normally Eva wasn't one for sharing, but his accent reminded her of Vision so much that she couldn't help herself.
"Not really," she said, "that news report – Athena – what's she done? Why's she an enemy of the state now?"
"Um… I believe that she leaked the location of James Barnes to the rogue Avengers. That's all it takes to make you a terrorist these days, apparently."
"One!" Eva cried, balling her hands up in her hair. "That's all I wanted! Just one normal friend! I'm cursed! I'm actually cursed!"
"I beg your pardon?"
She struggled to get a hold of herself, remembering that, in England, emotions were there to be repressed. "Sorry, I, uh… what else is happening? With the Avengers, I mean?"
"Well," said the man, now looking at her with some concern, "they've found Barnes, broken out of a secure facility in Berlin and that Maximoff girl has fled the US with the chap that shoots all the arrows. I can only assume that they are squaring up for some kind of epic battle." He said it in a very disapproving manner, and poured himself another cup of tea from the pot. "Americans, eh?"
"But half of them aren't even – oh, never mind," Eva sighed, and looked back up at the television which was now showing some grainy CCTV footage of Tony Stark leaving what must have been that facility in Berlin the man had mentioned. She should call Sam, or Vision, or someone –
No. You're on holiday. You can't get involved. If you get involved then that's the beginning of a lot of trouble.
She nibbled her lip. What would Peggy do? Stay calm, first and foremost, and not do anything rash. Eva took a deep breath to calm herself down and texted Sam, Vision and Alvie the same thing:
To: Tall glass of water, Alvie in wonderland, Is it a bird? Yes
-Dont do anything stupid or everything else is gonna look like a playground fight compared to me being mad at you okay? love you xx
It made her feel a little bit better, although she doubted that she would receive any reply at such a tense time as this –
From: Alvie in wonderland
-TOO LATE LMAO
From: Is it a bird? Yes
-Rogers accepts full responsibility for my actions so get mad at him not me xx
From: Tall glass of water
-Duly noted. Take care of yourself too x
Eva looked out of the café window at the picturesque gardens, bustling with butterflies and visitors to the show. I don't understand my life anymore, she thought gloomily, as the waitress brought her her tea.
A/N so this particular fic is, I am 90% certain, going to go on hiatus for a couple of weeks, because a) I'm in the middle of exams and, more importantly, b) the next chapter has spoilers for Finding Bucky in it - more specifically, spoilers for a chapter that isn't out yet. They're only mentioned in passing, but I feel like it would be inherently morally wrong to spoil something that I haven't even updated with the spoilery bits in question yet. Does that make sense? I don't know. I'm very tired. You know what I mean, I think.
Apologies for the very Alvie-heavy chapter for those of you who don't read Finding Bucky, too. I'm okay with using her as a character in this fic, but I don't like their plots overlapping too much like this. Still, if Civil War had everybody and their mum in it (literally, in Tony's case) then I can make an exception for this chapter, and to be fair Eva kind of deserved to find out at this point. Anyway, I'm babbling. Feel free to read the other Civilian Chronicles while you wait for the next instalment of this. I'll love you forever.