Trigger warnings: usage of the word 'Nazi' and 'alien'

Chapter Four: For Posterity (and Tony Stark)

"Name one hero who was happy." -Madeline Miller

April 18, 2012 - Brooklyn, NY

Steve looked surprised when Audrey rushed into the gym at two a.m., dressed yet again in a suit. He didn't look surprised when she explained why she was there.

"A mission?" he asked.

"The tesseract," Audrey answered, pushing a file towards him. "It's—"

"HYDRA's secret weapon," he finished, flipping through the sheets inside.

Audrey hadn't had a clue what the tesseract was, and Coulson was already on his way to Stark Tower, which meant that he couldn't take the time to explain, leaving her to get dressed, head over to the SHIELD base, pick up the file, take the train back to Brooklyn, and then find Steve at the gym. The bags under her eyes were bigger than her eyes themselves, at this point. It had been a while since she'd had good sleep. She didn't see any in the near future, with all the research she would have to be doing on the object.

It seemed that Steve knew about the cube, though. "Yeah," she confirmed, somewhat taken aback by his familiarity with it. "Howard found it in the ocean when he was looking for you. It was supposed to be a sustainable energy source, but, uh, it was stolen a few hours ago, from the base where it was being studied."

"By who?" Steve asked her, eyes moving up from the file to her face as he handed it back.

"Guy named Loki. He's kind of. Um. An alien, which I will explain later. He had a scepter, according to the reports, and he managed to brainwash a dozen agents in under five minutes. He's also taken control of Dr. Erik Selvig, who was one of the few people who understood the way the tesseract worked." She took a breath. "It's looking pretty bleak." As an afterthought, she added, "You don't have to sign on. You've done enough for the world already. But, um, any help is important to us."

"'Us'?" Steve questioned. "Are you a part of this team?"

Audrey shrugged, opening her mouth and then clicking it shut. "Well..." she started, voice about an octave higher than normal. "I mean, technically yes, but I didn't find out until yesterday that I was supposed to be. I'm only signing on now because it's kind of a disaster right now at HQ." She didn't say anything about how it was her first field mission. Ever. Or the armada of butterflies in her stomach that seemed more like fighter jets zooming around. People were more likely to trust what she said if she gave off the impression that she was confident about it and knew what she was talking about. In this case, only the latter was true.

"Your meeting with Fury," he surmised. "He mentioned me doing field work, didn't he?"

She really regretted asking him about a future as an agent directly after mentioning the meeting. She hadn't made it difficult at all for him to figure it out. With so many years of experience under her belt, it was embarrassing to have made such a rookie mistake. "Um," Audrey replied, rather eloquently. "Yeah. He did." The utter conflict painted on Steve's face left some rotting guilt in Audrey's core. "Listen, it's your choice whether or not you want to join. I'll leave a debriefing packet with you, and you can look it over. Just...just call me by six, okay? I'll pick you up if you're in. But if not, I won't hold it against you."

Steve took a long exhale. "Okay. Thanks."

Audrey smiled. "No problem. I'll talk to you in a few hours."

"Stop fretting, darling," Peggy Carter soothed over the phone. Audrey had a cup of coffee in her hand as she paced back and forth in her apartment's living room. The clock on the wall flashed 5:05, less than an hour away from the deadline.

When she'd told Steve that he didn't have to join, she'd really taken control of the mission in a way she didn't have the authorization to do. She'd defied her orders, which had been to recruit Steve. Whatever it takes, Fury had said. So she'd offered him a way out that she had no right to offer him, and if he decided to take it, Audrey guessed that Fury would be leaving it to her to clean up the mess.

"That man never could run away from a fight," her mother said quietly, tone nostalgic. "He won't run away from this," she assured Audrey confidently.

And while Audrey knew that this was true, that Steve Rogers had a history of picking every battle he had the opportunity to pick, so much had changed, and maybe the way the world was today would change him too. Maybe he was tired of sizing up an enemy and losing people to war. What if he just said no? It was making her anxious. She downed another gulp of coffee.

There was still a chance he'd call, though. He had another hour, and for him, it had only been a few weeks since he was fighting. But then, it had also only been a few weeks since he lost Bucky, and mere days since he'd put the plane down, prepared to lose himself.

"Okay," Audrey answered shakily. "Right, right."

"I can tell that you don't believe me," Peggy pointed out. "He'll come around. Just watch. I—no, Eleanor, just a moment," her voice broke off as she spoke to someone else. "It's breakfast time, darling. I'll talk to you soon. I love you."

"Love you too."

Click.

Audrey collapsed onto her couch, tossing the phone aside and finishing her coffee. She was screwed if Steve decided he wasn't interested. To the point where Fury might actually find a way to fire her before banishing her to the arctic tundra.

Another twenty minutes passed before her phone began to ring. In the frenzy to reach it on the carpet, Audrey managed to knock all the books on her living room table away, as well as the picture frame on the end table. It didn't break, thank god, but she had not a second to dwindle on it as she threw forward her hand to grab the phone from the floor. Hitting the green accept call button, she lifted it to her ear.

"Hello?" she breathed into the microphone.

"I'm in," came Steve's sturdy reply.

Audrey let out a deep breath. Oh thank god. The waves of relief were like a tsunami. She did her best to sound calm and collected as she answered, "Okay. I'll swing by now. Pack a bag. You've got twenty minutes."

April 18, 2012 - Classified Location

An hour later found Audrey, Steve, and Coulson on a quinjet to an undisclosed location. As much as she'd badgered him for their destination, the other agent refused, citing Fury's need-to-know policy. It seemed like now warranted needing to know, but pestering him for twenty minutes yielded no results, so she'd reluctantly sat back in her seat, eyes drawn closed and seatbelt buckled across her lap in an attempt to catch a few minutes of rest. When Coulson had begun to brief them, however, she'd had to pry her eyes open to pay attention.

Now, Steve was glancing down at a severely modern tablet, with a transparent screen and a few holographic features. Audrey furrowed her brow at it, watching as Coulson briefed them on the new members of the Avengers. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton: partners, master assassins, and as of now, fractured. Barton's location was unknown, and had been ever since the base where the Tesseract was being held collapsed. SHIELD was pretty sure he was still alive, which, to be fair, made sense to Audrey. If Loki had total control over such an asset, it made no sense to kill him. Especially not when he was just getting started.

Steve hadn't had time to take a clearance test, but Audrey guessed he was at least level 7, since that was the clearance level required to actually know about his own existence. However, Coulson didn't bother going into Natasha's past. That required a level nine at least.

"Hawkeye," Steve read off the tablet. "Clever."

"Then there's Stark," Coulson introduced, sending a knowing look to Audrey. "In charge of Stark Industries, and Howard's son. He's kind of an egomaniac, but a genius too."

"Just like his father, then?" Steve asked, looking up from the device for confirmation.

Before she could reason that it was a bad idea, Audrey jumped to Tony's defense. "He can seem conceited at times, but he's not that bad. He's kind of sweet, deep down."

"Really deep down?" Coulson asked.

Well. Yes, but agreeing would kind of contradict her entire point. "I've spent more time with him than you have," she settled diplomatically. To Steve she said, "He's an acquired taste."

That morning, actually, Tony had texted her demanding that she send him a picture of Steve. For posterity, he'd sworn.

"Well, personality issues aside, the suit is a pretty big development technologically," Coulson added, steering them back on track. "It's an asset. Stark's a consultant, and we want to keep him on our side."

Audrey had prepped herself for this somewhat by pulling the files of everyone else on Fury's shortlist. For the most part, she'd been able to figure enough out about their backgrounds, with the exception being Doctor Banner. She'd been stationed in Oslo when he'd destroyed Harlem, and he'd dropped off the grid pretty soon after she got back to New York.

"So this guy was trying to replicate the super soldier serum?" Steve asked, as the file changed from Tony's to the scientist's.

"A lot of people tried to replicate the serum," Coulson answered, and then gestured towards Audrey. "That's why Agent Carter had to be raised quietly. To keep Peggy Carter's enemies from trying to hunt her down, or to prevent Nazi sympathizers from kidnapping her or experimenting on her." Audrey bit the inside of her cheek to keep from reminding him of the time when she was kidnapped. Once, as a small baby, by a crazy scientist hell-bent on reviving HYDRA. Peggy had shakily recounted the events to her, calling them the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced.

Scarier than the war? Audrey had asked.

A thousand times worse, Peggy had answered, carding a hand through her hair. Audrey remembered her mom staying in her room that night, one of the first clear memories she had.

"Banner thought that gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's formula," Coulson continued, dragging Audrey out of her thoughts.

A monstrous roar burst from the tablet's speakers. "Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve asked, eyes on the news footage where the Hulk had begun to pummel Harlem. His comment elicited a snort from his daughter.

"Not so much," Coulson answered. "When he's not green, though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking."

Steve frowned.

"Stephen Hawking is a genius," Audrey explained. "He was a leader of research on cosmology—space stuff. I'll show you more about it later."

Seeming satisfied, Steve nodded. "Okay," he said.

Silence reigned over the space for a moment, nothing but the steady humming of the jet's engine and the radio tower communicating with the pilots.

Coulson cleared his throat. "I gotta say. It's an honor to meet you." Audrey's jaw dropped a little bit in surprise, because even though she knew about his admiration for Captain America, she never thought he'd actually bring it up in front of him. He'd always seemed too much of a stone-cold professional. Quickly, Coulson added, "...officially."

A small smile tugged at the corners of Steve's lips, and Audrey had trouble deciphering if it was a polite gesture or genuine gratitude for his kindness.

"I sort of met you," Coulson continued. "I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."

And, just as soon as the smile appeared, it slipped away, replaced by a look of unnerved concern. Steve tried to mask the discomfort, but didn't succeed. Not from where Audrey was sitting, at least.

Well, she thought to herself, it's not every day that your boss fanboys over your dad.

Coulson fumbled through an attempt to remedy how creepy his last statement had been, and Audrey made a note to use this as blackmail the next time he denied her a fifth or sixth cup of coffee. Steve stood up to take a look out the front window.

"It's really an honor to have both of you on board," the other agent finished. "We've had the best staff possible working to recreate your uniform, Captain. I had a little, uh, design input." Audrey almost burst out laughing at the way Coulson swelled with pride, clearly excited to be involved in the process. How had she spent years working with this guy, and still never discovered that he was this much of a dork? Honestly.

But then, she processed his words. "A uniform? Like, uh, a costume? With the stripes and everything?"

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little… old fashioned?"

Coulson shrugged a little. "With everything that's happening right now, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned."

A heavy silence sat over them for a moment, in which Steve looked fairly contemplative and Coulson looked slightly worried.

"Two minutes to landing, sir," one of the pilots informed Coulson.

"Get ready," he told them. Audrey leaned over for her duffle bag, clutching the handle in her fist as the jet began to land on… an island? That's what it looked like; it was surrounded on all sides by water. A completely paved island. With steep, symmetrical edges.

Probably not an island, then.

It was too big to be a ship, so Audrey was at a loss for possibilities. Whatever it was, though, she figured it was a part of Phase 2.

"Now can you tell me where we are?" she asked Coulson.

He gave her a half-smile, looking incredibly pleased with himself. "Helicarrier," he answered simply.

The door slid open, making way for a ramp. Audrey took a moment to steady herself before following in Steve and Coulson's footsteps, making it down the steps just in time to catch her dad addressing a redheaded woman as "Ma'am." It didn't take Audrey long to realize that the woman was Natasha Romanoff.

She was surprisingly small, for someone so dangerous. Audrey had at least three inches on her, but still felt like she was being sized up by a predator when they greeted one another.

"Agent Carter," she greeted, jutting out her chin.

"Agent Romanoff," Audrey replied.

"You're the legacy, huh? Heard a lot about you." She kept her face blank, but Audrey could sense the gears whirring in her head. Not exactly from seeing it, more from her reputation. Turning to Coulson, Romanoff said, "They need you on the bridge. They're about to start the face scan."

He excused himself, leaving Natasha alone with Audrey and Steve.

"There was quite a buzz around here about finding you in the ice," Romanoff addressed Steve. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his trading cards yet?"

Steve frowned. "Trading cards?" he asked, but the way he turned to Audrey told her that the question was meant for her to answer.

"Yeah," she answered. "Um, there's a pretty… vast… collection of Captain America merchandise. Like, kids dress up for Halloween and stuff. And there are lots of t-shirts. And a radio show in the forties, where Captain America would save Betty Carver's life a lot."

Steve made a face. Audrey couldn't blame him.

"But ever since Tony and his suit became a thing you've kind of faded in popularity." It didn't seem like that would be news to devastate, but Audrey added, "I'm sure once the news of you still, uh, you know, being alive comes up, you'll probably be made more famous."

"That's not something SHIELD's planning on releasing to the public any time soon, though," Natasha discouraged quickly.

Steve smiled but furrowed his brow, like the news of his popularity so far after his pseudo-death was both simultaneously flattering and discomforting. When she considered it, Audrey was terrified of what it would be like to be thrust into the spotlight the way he'd been. Someone as awkward as she was would be miserable with that many eyes watching.

Speaking of awkward, Audrey sidestepped a group of women running drills to catch sight of a familiar face across the runway. Doctor Banner, less green than in the tablet footage, was nervously trying to avoid collisions with the people milling about on the Helicarrier's platform. Audrey felt a stab of sympathy for him. Seeing him felt more like recognition than anything else.

Her dad seemed to catch his eye at the same time, because he began to head over to greet him. Audrey and Natasha followed in suit.

"Dr. Banner," Steve greeted, extending a hand.

"Oh, yeah. Hi. They, uh, they told me you'd be coming."

He sounded exactly like Audrey. She liked him already.

"Agents," he said, nodding slightly at Natasha and Audrey. Both women nodded back, though Audrey's smiley visage was significantly more friendly than Romanoff's serious one.

Steve began to talk to the doctor, but his words were lost on Audrey as Natasha asked her, "Have you ever thought about fighting with batons?"

"Huh?" she asked gracelessly, because she'd never really thought about fighting with anything besides her fists. She'd barely been trained to handle a gun. Batons were way out of her depth.

"I've looked at your file," Natasha elaborated. "The way the serum's effects kicked in. The way you trained. You'd probably be good with them."

"Really?" Audrey inquired cautiously. "Um… why?"

"Good muscle strength. Increased agility. You're leaner than the Captain over there, so it would be easier for you to learn acrobatics. I could help you learn the basics," she counted off. "I'm not as good with batons as Morse, but I like to think I'm still capable. It would be interesting to train you, with the whole serum ordeal."

"You want. To train me?" The Black Widow wanted to teach her how to fight with batons. Okay. Audrey didn't know what that would entail but she assumed it would involve pain.

Romanoff shrugged. "Everyone needs a hobby."

"Have you considered knitting?"

"I have. It didn't suit me."

"Right."

It was probably more about Romanoff wanting to ensure that she wasn't useless, and less about her desire to work with Audrey. Still, Audrey was fascinated by the opportunity—Romanoff had better things to do with her time. It felt dumb to pass up the offer.

The redhead smiled, looking down at the concrete and then back up. Noticing the way people had begun to carry things inside and bolt down all the jets on the landing strip, Natasha addressed Steve and Doctor Banner. "Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a moment. It's gonna get hard to breathe out here."

Audrey stepped over towards the edge, careful not to get too close, to see a gigantic fan emerge from underwater.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked.

"They want me in a heavily pressurized, metal container?" Banner inquired dryly.

She shook her head. "I don't think so," Audrey answered. "Submarines go down, I think…" Helicarrier. Logically speaking, that meant— "We're definitely going up."

"Huh," Banner remarked, squinting down at the waves as the ship began to peel away from them. "Well then. This is much worse."

Well then. Audrey wanted to laugh. It felt like the world was new and at the same time ending. She was on a Helicarrier with her recently resurrected father, one of the most feared assassins in modern history, and the Hulk because a demigod had arrived from outer space to steal a magic cube. Two weeks ago, her biggest worry was filling out the paperwork for the team she handled—and she'd been content on the sidelines. But she was being forced into the game now.

On their way inside, Natasha kept Audrey engaged in conversation. The blonde knew that she was being evaluated, sized up, pumped for information. But she had lived an exceptionally boring life; there was no reason to lie. Romanoff was on her team now, and teams worked better with trust.

If the Helicarrier was impressive on the outside, it was stunning on the inside. Dozens of agents in full uniform sat at desks spread out across a gigantic expanse of space at least the size of a city block. Running between the clusters of workspaces was a bridge, and far enough down was Nick Fury, standing before a dozen or so consoles. Straight ahead, the entire wall was window panelling, allowing Audrey to see out into the sky. She'd never seen this much of a view before, not even on the jet on the way here, or in any of the plane rides she'd taken before. Her jaw dropped as the machine began to climb higher and higher into the sky. Audrey wanted to dissolve into the blue sky, but then she realized—Steve.

Carelessly, Audrey abandoned Natasha's side to join Steve. "You good?" she asked, making an attempt at casual.

He nodded wordlessly, but seemed awed. "This is wild," he muttered.

"I know." She took a breath. "This is new to me, too. Not an everyday occurrence in the world right now."

"That's… that's good." He stopped gawking at his surroundings for a moment to make eye contact with her. "I can get used to a lot of things, but this might be difficult."

She snorted. "Yeah…" Audrey's voice drifted off as she caught sight of a familiar face across the Helicarrier. Darcy Lewis. Before Audrey could say hi, Fury stepped away from the consoles in the center of the bridge and greeted the incoming group.

"Gentlemen," he addressed Steve and Banner. "Agent," he said to her.

"Director," she replied, clasping her hands in front of her and shifting into a more professional version of herself.

He nodded to someone behind them, then said, "Hello, Doctor Foster." Slightly more agitated, he followed with, "Miss Lewis."

Audrey turned around and smiled at the women, dropping her hands back to her sides. Darcy gave a toothy grin and said, "Captain."

"Ma'am," Steve replied automatically.

But she wasn't addressing Audrey's father. She was staring straight ahead. At Fury. Or more specifically, Fury's eye patch. Audrey's liking for Darcy increased immediately, solely based on the confidence with which she made a pirate joke about the most terrifying man in the room.

Seeming to accept that Lewis' respect was a lost cause, Fury rolled his eyes and moved on. "Doctor Foster is here to assist Doctor Banner in finding the cube."

Jane stepped forward and half-waved at Banner. He stuck his hand out for her to shake, and she accepted easily. "Your work on wormholes is incredible," Banner praised.

"Thanks. I read your dissertation," Foster gushed. "It was fantastic."

As the two scientists began to greet each other and talk with Fury, Darcy noticed Steve and Audrey's presence. "Oh," she said simply when she saw Steve. "Holy crap."

Steve shifted awkwardly from one foot to another. Audrey jumped in. "Darcy, this is Steve, Steve, this is Darcy." She left out the last names deliberately, because even though she'd been given high enough clearance to be on the ship, Audrey wasn't sure if Fury wanted her to know about Captain America coming back from the dead. Briefly, she remembered reading that Darcy was a political-science major—all the more reason not to mention it. She'd recognize the name instantly.

Audrey had worked the New Mexico case, which unfortunately involved appropriating all of Jane Foster's equipment and building a worksite around the satellite hammer that had crashed in the middle of the desert. After it had all been over, culminating with a giant fire robot blowing up the small nearby town, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s apology gift had been a job opportunity for Foster. If she shared her research with them, they'd provide her with all the funding she wanted.

"Miss," Steve said, extending a hand to shake just as Darcy said, "Steve."

Audrey watched the encounter with far more amusement than was her right. She'd had far more cringeworthy conversations than this.

Despite knowing that it would be better to remain quiet, Audrey continued, "Um, so, Steve is my—he's a soldier. Turned agent. He's, uh, shadowing me. And Darcy is Jane Foster's assistant."

If Audrey was being completely honest, that was the most convincing lie she'd ever told. She wanted to pat herself on the back.

"I feed Jane. And make sure she sleeps." Suddenly realizing what she was saying, Darcy said, "Uh, nice to meet you."

"It's my pleasure," Steve insisted. He noticed Coulson gesturing to him from across the room, and very regretfully apologized, "If you'll excuse me."

Darcy nodded. The nervousness faded from her face as he left, and she instead turned to Audrey, smiling and nudging her arm. "Long time no see, huh?" Then, quieter, she whispered, "Uh, they aren't gonna make me wear one of those full-body suits, right? Because I haven't been to the gym in a few…" She trailed off, as if weighing how honest she should be. "...years. And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't fit." She gestured vaguely at her chest.

"They won't make you," Audrey assured her. "You'll just be in the lab, so it's fine."

"That's the best news I've heard all day. They didn't even let me grab a coffee before they sent us to the airfield. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Audrey nodded adamantly. "I would help you get it, but—" I don't know where to find it. The rest of her sentence was lost as Coulson called her over to start the facial scan. "...but my boss is calling me. If you ask someone and say it's for Jane, the scientist about to save the world, I'm betting they'll help you, though."

"Thanks, secret-agent-woman." Darcy shot her a wink, and Audrey couldn't help but laugh. For a moment, she forgot that the world might be ending. The feeling didn't last long.

She arrived at the scanning base and took a seat in the empty chair next to Agent Sitwell. The man shot her a dry smile in greeting, probably forgetting that Audrey was his superior.

"Sitwell," she responded flatly. He'd always been kind of a jerk. Not quite an asshole, but definitely not the kind of person you tried to high-five.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the plant," Coulson explained, arms crossed over his chest. Cellphones, laptops. If it's hooked up to a satellite, it's got eyes and ears for us."

"That's not gonna find him in time," Natasha interjected. Audrey felt the impulse to defend her job, but also knew that scanning every mobile device in the world for a single person would be near-impossible.

"You have to narrow the field," Bruce agreed. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

Audrey had no idea what a spectrometer was, but she was open to learning if it meant they could catch Loki faster.

While the group debated their options, Audrey turned her focus back to the computer. She'd keep doing what she was doing until someone came up with a better idea.

As she began to sift through the negative results, double-checking everything the computer spit out as a hypothetical, she began to wonder if Loki had the ability to disappear, the way the myths said he could. She prayed not, otherwise this entire thing would be fairly pointless.

Dozens of faces crossed the screen, while an image of Loki from security footage at the lab was centered between the computers. He had long, dark hair and a cruel smirk.

Audrey was familiar with face scanning. She'd been an investigative agent since the mid nineties, and she'd been one of the first people to use it. It was one of the easier techniques, but not quite the most effective. Still, it outranked stakeouts on her list of personal-favorite-investigative-techniques.

Audrey filtered the settings a little, to adjust for a wider age range. Most people began to look older when they got tired, and she assumed that the god they were hunting didn't allot any hours for nap time. It had been a decent amount of time since Clint had been kidnapped, far longer than any human should be able to stay awake for.

Well. Any non-SHIELD-employed human.

Loki's settings were kind of a wild card. He looked to be around thirty, but Jesus, he was at least a thousand years old. The scanner usually identified the faces, cross-checked them with a birth certificate, and then spat out a positive or negative. But Loki had no birth certificate. For a second, Audrey wondered if the scanner would be able to find her. It would pick up her age as twenty-one, cross-reference with her birth certificate, and deduce that she was not the sixty-five year old in question. Weird.

The chiming sound that the speakers emitted signified a match, so Audrey clicked on the face it pulled up, and-yup. Definitely Loki, and looking greasy as ever. "We've got a match," she announced, drawing the attention of Steve and Coulson.

"Sixty-seven percent," Sitwell relayed.

"Seventy-nine," Audrey corrected. "Cross-match says seventy-nine."

"Location?" Coulson prompted.

"Stuttgart, Germany," she answered. "Twenty-eight, Konigtrasse."

"He's not exactly hiding," Sitwell added, frowning worriedly at the computer screen.

Audrey turned back to the result, mouth forming an oh as her brows furrowed. She hated to admit it, but Sitwell was making a good point. "That's not good. If he's not hiding, I'm guessing he's probably not afraid. Which means he knows he's got the upper-hand." If Barton had been brainwashed, then the intel he had was now Loki's. That at least included Romanoff, and information on the cube. Audrey didn't know what else.

Fury nodded, then turned to Steve. "Captain," he commanded, "You're up." Then to Audrey, "Suit up. I want you on the jet with Natasha."

Uh, wait. "You mean—"

He cut her off with a nod. "You're going with them."

Well. That was fantastic.

a/n: I'm still so amazed by how much of a response this story has gotten! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. Your words feed the muse and make me so, so happy. Shoutout to CatrinaSL for translating this story from gibberish to English.

I've completed a lot of the coding for the tumblr, so everything is officially up and running!

Again, thank you for the reviews and I'd love it if you left one on the way out.

Chapter Five: Like Father, Like Daughter

Audrey gritted her teeth, knowing she was making a stupid decision but doing it anyway. "I'm going in."

EDIT 5/19/20: Added timestamps, corrected typos, etc.