Chapter One: First Impressions – Part One
There was something about the view from very tall buildings that Lexie Lockhart found captivating and she could never really quite put her finger on what it was.
Maybe it was the way that from the extraordinary height of very tall buildings made the world around her, and everyone in it, seemed so tiny; so distant and so insignificant that she could disconnect in a way that seemed otherwise just this side of impossible. She could step outside herself and not think about anything or anyone for a change. She could just sit back and observe life as it went on around her; she could just be, and she could just relax. Or maybe it wasn't that at all. Maybe, in fact, it was the complete opposite and it was because it gave her the distance to think about anything and everything she needed to or wanted to … without being pulled in seventeen different directions on account of everyone's ongoing petty life struggles, self-involved conversation, and never-ending drama.
Maybe it was either of the above or maybe it was for 10,000 other reasons Lexie didn't have the mind to suss out or even put into words, it didn't matter. When it came down to it, it was the quiet of the whole experience she valued the most; that she loved the most. It was the quiet that kept her so enthralled, that strange sort of quiet that made a room feel like a vacuum but yet wasn't quite dead silence; all the sounds and all the bustle from wherever the fuck or whatever the fuck still present, still there and still audible … but just barely, like life was being operated by remote control and someone had cranked the volume way down to the last notch just above mute just for background noise; just enough to serve as a gentle reminder that one would have to jump right back headlong into life at level eleven at some point or another. That strange kind of quiet that dulled the sense and made it hard to feel anything other than at ease … that strange kind of quiet she chased relentlessly and only very seldom ever managed to lock tight in her grasp.
There was something about the view from very tall buildings that Lexie found captivating and she could never really quite put her finger on it … but it made her feel calm and still. There was something about the view from very tall buildings that made her feel safe.
… an odd thing really, considering her current surroundings, which did nothing at all to inspire any sort of guaranteed safety at all … not really anyway.
Stood pensively in front of floor to ceiling windows in a ridiculously large office inside the ridiculously tall building that comprised S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, Lexie surveyed the bustle of the ground floor below and the city that lay just beyond for the 100th time since she arrived. She stood in silent observance, moreover, contemplating for the 100th time that she really had no idea why she was there; that she had even less idea why she had even come.
All she knew was that it had been two weeks. Two weeks since a rather "gracious" invitation had been extended to her to attend a meeting the subject of which she was not yet privy to. Two weeks since Nick Fury had sent a tandem of well-dressed flunkies to request her audience and to their credit, they had been low key for the first few days. But as things of said nature usually went, especially when large and covert intelligence agencies were invoved, when she had not so politely brushed them off, it did little else but convince said well-dressed lackies to put the heat on her full force. After all, a polite request for her presence wasn't exactly just that … this hadn't been a request, it had been a demand.
This hadn't been a request, no. This had been a very thinly veiled, very cordial order and those who delivered would no longer accept rebuking. Two weeks, on the daily she had seen them in some manner or other … at her favorite coffee shop, following her down grocery store aisles in the middle of the night … when she actually had time to attend to her most basic needs. She had seen them outside of her building, before and after her morning run, in their shiny black car lying in wait; there at the ready for her to approach and take the bait. For two weeks she'd a tail she couldn't shake no matter what she did. They were everywhere she was at random intervals of the day … and when they just so happened to darken her doorstep on her professional stomping ground, when they had no other option open to them but to show up on the regular at her work, Lexie had no other option but to give in and obey.
The risk was too great, she couldn't chance a proverbial foot being driven into a hornet's nest that would swarm and overrun her life and anyone she just so happened to have grown rather fond of. She couldn't chance that the things she had buried so deep in the past would be resurrected for no other reason than to open a can of worms and stir up a world of trouble … and as long as the heat was on her, and the more attention they continued to draw towards themselves and Lexie alike, the greater the chance of said shit storm becoming a definite screaming actuality.
There was nothing more she could do now other than play the game and comply, as much as she didn't want to and as much as she hated to. She had no choice now but to not rock the boat. She had to at least try and work out what exactly the urgency was and to find out why exactly a lowly bartender who worked the most dreadfully boring day shift in a less than thriving and wholly shitty dive bar warranted the kind of attention she was receiving.
Two weeks since two government lackies had begun to extend an invitation for a meeting they were not authorized to disclose the meaning behind … or even so much as hint at just why Director Nick Fury so wished to have just a few minutes of her time … that would have been far, far too easy.
Whatever the reason, Lexie was willing to bet her life it was about to lead to no good.
This had to die now.
This had to be something she could put behind her now too, just as she had already put so many things behind her … or had tried to anyway. Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could fool herself int believing she had no idea why she was there. But maybe, just maybe, she knew exactly what was up and why there was currently a solid, twisting knot rooting deep in her stomach.
"It really is something, isn't it? The view." Without warning, and really more silently than she would have expected him to be, Fury appeared from nowhere at Lexie's side to admire alongside with her and rip her out of her introspection.
"It is." She agreed, taking a glance at her impromptu companion before returning her gaze out the window. "It's gorgeous, a little jealous actually. It's grotesquely peaceful up here … I can dig it."
Lexie hadn't really known what she was expecting of Fury, but he looked like he had just stepped out of some action movie; the way he was clothed completely in black, topped off with a badass old school eye patch. It was really quite fitting, of course, and she couldn't decide if it was a good omen or bad that he looked the way he did. She couldn't decide if it was accidental or if it was completely by design, but whatever the case may be, it was all together a little intimidating and maybe even a little foreboding.
"One of the best spots in the city, I think." He continued. "I guess you could call it one of the perks of the job. One of the very few joys in my otherwise long and busy day. Everything that gets thrown at me whether I like it or not, this kind of makes it all worth it … I think."
Lexie chuckled and cracked a half smile. "Well, I can't say I can relate. I've never really had an office job."
"No, I guess not. You've never been a corporate sorta girl."
"I'm sorry?" She arched a brow, taking slight exception to a rather peculiar thing to say upon first blush.
"Oh, nothing." Fury pulled his best attempt at a good-natured smile and a reassuring chuckle of his own as he brushed her suspicion aside and waved off his own comment; pointed as it was. "I shouldn't make assumptions … you just don't really read the type."
"Fair enough."
A momentary silence, a rather stiff and heavy air hung between them as each tried to get a better impression of the other.
"I can't tell you how pleased I am you finally agreed to meet with me, Ms. Lockhart. You're a very hard woman to nail down."
"What can I say? I guess I'm just that busy." Lexie sighed and rolled her eyes inwardly at being drawn into a forced game of false pleasantries.
"Now, do I call you Alexandra? Or do you prefer Alex? Maybe you're a Sandy."
"I'm a Lexie, actually … but you knew that already, didn't you?"
Once again, she couldn't tell if Fury was indulging in small talk and niceties by accident or if it was entirely purposeful to both put her nerves on end and set her more relaxed at the same time … but it certainly felt like some sort of sizing up; some sort of game to gauge her reactions right off the bat.
"You've got me there." He flashed her another smile and relented. "Please … sit."
Tentatively she complied and slid into an oversized chair tucked into an oversized desk as Fury took his own across from her.
"You'll have to forgive me if I forget my manners. I'm sure you didn't agree to all this trouble of coming all the way out here just for a bit of banter."
"Not exactly."
"Well, I'll try not to make this more painful than it has to be. I'm sorry I couldn't come to you…it's a very interesting time around here…lots of irons in lots of fires…I'm afraid I'm spread a bit thin."
"It's fine. Time is … time's the one thing I have more than enough of … I guess you could say."
"All the same, I'm sure you'd like it if I got to the point." Another somewhat cheeky smirk passed over Fury's face as he pressed onward. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions."
"Maybe a couple." Lexie lied, still painting her best attempt at a perfect poker face.
"And maybe a couple more after that?"
"…Could be."
"Well …" He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in front of himself. "All in good time. I promise you I'll do my best to wrap them all in a comprehensive package for you by the time we're through. But first, I'd like to hear what you've heard about us … tell me what you know about S.H.I.E.L.D."
Lexie was forced a pause.
She hadn't at all expected that particular question and now she had to make sure she tread lightly. Saying nothing at all would have been a dead give-away. It would read suspiciously like she was skirting around something and like she had something to hide. That, of course, would only invite more questions that probed even deeper. On the flip side of things, saying too much meant she knew far more than she, a supposed everyday average unassuming civilian, knew far more than she was supposed to … which would undoubtedly have the same effect and likely in a much more intensive and invasive fashion.
It was a fine balance and a difficult area to decipher just what exactly what sort of middle ground would get her by and get her on her way.
Unless living under a rock, everyone knew about S.H.I.E.L.D; that much was undeniable. Everyone knew about S.H.I.E.L.D and everyone knew about the so aptly titled enhanced humans the organization had such a penchant for working with. Everyone knew something about what it was all about and what was going on. Generalized information for a general public. Night and day between actual knowledge and the measly scraps thrown to the masses to placate them; to scratch the surface and let them in on just enough. What the general public didn't know, couldn't hurt them after all. What the general public didn't know kept them calm and collected and maybe even complacent.
Ignorance was bliss after all.
What the general public didn't know couldn't hurt them. What the general public didn't know would keep them up at night and incite a good old-fashioned bout of mass hysteria. There were too many like covert organizations, too many people, too many threats both on home soil and on an intergalactic level as well just to up the ante even more. So many people with so many agendas and so much power. The fate of everything and everyone was in a constant flux of being managed and maintained and resting on the edge of a blade; one false move would result in utter disaster from which there would be no form of return.
What the general public didn't know couldn't hurt them.
… but Lexie wasn't the general public. What she knew was in fact far more than she was supposed to.
But right then and right there she had no choice but to play dumb and hope for the absolute best, while at the same time dreading the sinking reality of something much worse.
"About as much as anyone else really." She sighed. "I mean, you guys do cool shit and get the bad guys … something like that, I guess."
"Do cool shit and get the bad guys. I might have to steal that from you. Straight, to the point … I like it."
"It's kinda the best I've got. I didn't know this was gonna be a pop quiz, I would have studied. Listen …" Lexie did her best to try and get the ball rolling; to get to the crux of the conversation and get the show on the road so she could promptly extricate herself from the situation as soon as possible. "Why exactly am I here, Mr. Fury? Pardon my French, but I don't know what fuck is going on. I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm not sure why you're trying to talk me to death, and I have about a hundred other places I'd really rather be soooooo …"
"You got some snap to you…I like that too."
"Snap." She chortled." I know. It's not quite what my mother would call it, but she always warned me it'd get me in trouble … she wasn't exactly wrong."
"Mothers are like that … not being exactly wrong … but maybe not being exactly right either." Fury nodded, his demeanor shifting slightly as he zeroed in a little more intently. "Tell me, do you have a good relationship with your mother?"
Lexie froze as her heart sank to her toes. She'd given him an in and she barely even realized. Without even knowing it, she'd opened the door just a crack and he had stomped his way right on in, leaving her to feel like quote a fool on account. The way she had been made to wait for what seemed like hours, the pointless small talk, the not so pointless dialogue he so easily pretended to slough off and assuage her suspicion. If she was bored, if she was confused, of she was even just a little frustrated by the entire encounter it would be all the easier to push Lexie to drop her guard. Once she dropped her guard and only once she dropped her guard, would Fury be ready to dig full force into the heart of the matter. She'd played right into his hands the entire time … and now she was in a strangle hold with little chance of prying herself free.
It was a brilliant move, really. She should have expected nothing less.
"Sure. About as good as any." She lied through her teeth, full well knowing she was beaten but not willing to give an inch until she absolutely was forced to.
"Good, good. That's good to hear… you speak often?"
"Not so much. We're both very busy … life and such."
"I see." Another pregnant pause flooded the room, tension so thick it was flat out oppressive. "So, it's been a while?"
"You could say that."
"That's unfortunate. That's a very important relationship to maintain … no room for resentment … leads to nasty things. I'm glad it's just a matter of conflicting schedules. But I have to ask … are you really gonna tell me it's just that?" Fury leaned forward and pulled open drawer in the desk and slipped out a rather weighty looking manila folder. "I mean, it wouldn't have anything to do with this … would it?"
He tossed the folder to land squarely in front of her and there was little else Lexie could do but stare vacantly directly at it, mind racing a thousand miles a second with nothing she could do to stop it.
Her entire life, she presumed, classified, organized and stacked neatly within the confines of a bland beige casing. Everything she had hidden away and stuffed down to try and live some sort of life that was normal and respectable for a change. Everything she had hidden away, risen above and kept from everyone around her for so very long come storming to the forefront and laid at her feet so effortlessly, so matter of factly, so plainly demanding an address that she didn't want to give.
She was fucked.