Evangeline Ackerman was just your average 23-year-old nursing student at NYU. Drowning in student debt and searching for a residency program that would help her, eventually, pay off the loans.
As of now, two weeks before her graduation, Eva had exactly one job offer. A two-year residency at the Northwestern Medicine Northwest Suburbs Nursing Residency Program, near Chicago.
Eva let out a frustrated groan as she once again checked her position of the NYU residency waiting list. She hadn't been accepted by a variety of programs, but that was the rejection that hurt the most.
Ever since she made the move to New York four years ago, Eva had been drawn to the magnetism of the city and all of the diversity. Plus, the food was amazing.
She knew that she would take the job in Chicago, but she felt conflicted to be leaving this place that she considered home.
It was the sound of a knock at her door that drew her out of her thoughts. Getting up, Eva walked across her small studio apartment to answer the door.
"Hello?" she asked, shocked to see a man she hadn't seen before in her life.
"Are you Evangeline Ackerman?" the man said officially.
"Yes," Eva said, not opening the door too much. "And you are?"
"I am Agent Phil Coulson," he said. "May I come in?"
"Agent?" Eva asked, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm going to need to see some ID."
"Of course," the man said, pulling out an ID and showing it to her. Eva tentatively looked at it, and it seemed official enough, so she let him in.
"SHIELD?" Eva asked, opening the door so he could step inside. "That short for something?"
"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division… we had to shorten it."
"Thank God," Eva said, chuckling. "You want coffee or something, Agent…"
"Coulson," he said, "and no, thank you."
"Of course," Eva said. "Now, I'm assuming there's a reason that you're here? Doesn't seem like everyday a government agent appears on your doorstep."
"Yes," he said. "We need your assistance."
"With?"
"That's classified."
"Wow," Eva said, grabbing a glass of water. "This is why no one trusts the government, you know. You want me to help you, but I can't know what it is?"
"We have a patient, and a former agent of ours said we could trust you."
"Is there anything you can tell me?" Eva asked.
"Only that this is a matter of upmost importance," Agent Coulson said.
"And why should I help you?" Eva asked.
"Because you want to stay in New York," the agent said nonchalantly. "You help us, we can guarantee you stay here."
Eva froze at his words. She contemplated what he said. Staying in New York was everything to her, so maybe… just maybe…
"Why me?" Eva asked. "There are tons of people, way more qualified than me… I mean, I haven't even graduated yet."
"You had a glowing recommendation," Agent Coulson said. "Your background check was clean, you're educated, you are close to where we need you, and you don't work for your own interests – you want to help people."
"Where would I be going?"
"You'd stay in the city, and it's essentially a check-up," Coulson said.
"When?"
"Now," Coulson said, "if you agree."
Eva looked at him and took a deep breath.
"What the hell," she said. "I'm in… Just don't kill me or anything when we're done, okay?"
"We won't, Ms. Ackerman," Agent Coulson said, a chuckle escaping him. "Please follow me."
"Also, please call me Eva… Ms. Ackerman makes me sound like my mom," Eva said, following Agent Coulson, locking the door tightly behind her. He led her to a black car, complete with tinted windows and an equally stoic driver.
"So," Eva as she stepped into the car. "Since I agreed, do I get to know who my patient is?"
"Not yet," Agent Coulson said. "First, we have to do some paperwork… an NDA…"
"Very classified," Eva mused. "I can sign it right now?"
"Perfect," he said, handing her a folder with papers enclosed. She scanned over the documents. It seemed pretty typical nondisclosure agreement stuff, and nothing immediately stuck out to her.
"Alrighty," Eva said, signing the papers. "There you are."
"Thank you," he said. "Now, how familiar are you with American history?"
"I took classes in high school and the standard gen eds for undergrad," Eva said, "so not much more than your average person."
"How familiar are you with Captain America?"
"The war hero, right?" Eva said. "I think had to write an essay about him… he went down in a place at the tail end of World War II, right?"
"Yes," Agent Coulson said. "But we just fished him out of the ocean, and it appears he survived."
"What?"
"What you don't know about Captain America," Agent Coulson continued, "is that he was a normal man from Brooklyn named Steve Rogers. He was a part of a trial with a serum that ultimately changed his DNA and cells… he is in perfect health and hasn't aged… the ice preserved him."
"Holy shit," Eva murmured, before furrowing her eyebrows. "Wait, you're not telling me that freaking Captain America is my patient, right?"
"I am."
"Don't you need someone more qualified in the study on this? I mean, the cellular changes alone are way above my-"
"We know you have an extensive background in science," he said. "Besides, you already agreed."
Eva looked at the man next to her, and in spite of the situation, cracked a smile.
"You're a hardass," Eva said, "you know that, right?"
"I've been told."
"Lucky for you," she said. "I tend to like hardasses."
The two sat in silence, until the car lurched to a stop. Stepping out of the car, Eva was greeted with a tall black building that she had often passed in her runs in New York.
"So, this is what this building is," Eva murmured, following Coulson inside and onto an elevator, ignoring the gazes of officially dressed agents, no-doubt wondering why a small blonde woman in leggings and an old sweatshirt was inside their top-secret building.
And it was in that moment that Eva wished that she had changed into something more… appropriate for the situation.
"Right through here," he said as they made their way down a hallway. He opened the door and as Eva stepped inside, she was greeted with the gaze of two men.
One was a tall, intimidating man, whose presence was only made more intimidating by the eyepatch he wore. The other was a muscular, blonde man who looked deeply confused. Even without the mask and costume, Eva was able to figure out that the blonde was Steve Rogers.
"Ms. Ackerman," the intimidating man said. "I'm glad you decided to join us. I'm Director Fury."
"Pleasure to meet you," Eva said, her voice soft and quiet. "And you must be Mr. Rogers."
"Steve," he said. "Call me Steve, ma'am."
"Only if you call me Eva," she said, before turning to Director Fury. "So, what exactly is it that you need me to do that your doctors here can't do?"
"Give him a check-up," Director Fury said. "Rogers is clearly uncomfortable with SHIELD right now, so we thought a third-party might be a better avenue."
"Alright," Eva said. "If he's worried about security and trust, then I do have one request… All results and files I do on him… They go on a private server. You can't touch them unless I have his okay or it is immediately pressing information. Understood?" She met Director Fury's eyes, her blood running cold.
He didn't speak and Eva began to freak-out inside. Maybe she shouldn't have been so stern. After all, this was a spy organization that had taken her from her studio apartment… They could kill her and make it look like an accident… no, make it look like she never existed. Maybe she should apologize or-
"Deal," Fury said. "I'll have it set-up within the hour. Now get to work, Ms. Ackerman." He turned and left the room with Coulson trailing after him.
"They're intimidating, aren't they?" Eva asked, turning to face Steve.
He didn't speak, merely nodded.
"Okay," Eva said. "I'm just going to grab some stuff from the cabinets over there."
Once again, he only nodded.
Eva silently grabbed her items and returned, grabbing the sheets on the counter. As she suspected, they were medical forms for her to fill out.
"Okay," Eva said. "I just have to take some blood and go over a few things with you about your medical history."
"Sounds good," Steve said, his posture stiffening.
"You okay?" Eva asked, grateful that he had spoken. Quiet appointments always sucked.
"Never liked getting blood drawn," he said.
"Right," Eva said, thumbing through his outdated medical history. "Before the serum, you had a lot of medical issues… Any of those come back up when you were on-duty?"
"No," Steve said.
"This'll pinch," she said, disinfecting the injection site. She inserted the needle and began to draw blood. "And the worst part is done!"
"Thanks," he said, his form still stiff.
"Are you okay?" Eva asked, noticing his rigid posture.
"Yeah," he said.
"Must have been quite a shock," Eva said, watching his facial expression as she spoke. "Waking up to a completely different world."
"You have no idea," he said, but from the look on his face, Eva knew his mind was elsewhere.
"Now, we're done with that," Eva said as she pulled out the needle and quickly put a piece of gauze over it. Before Steve could get up, Eva had put a bright green band-aid on the site.
"Really?"
"It was either that or Hello Kitty," Eva said. "It's what they had stocked up." She shot him a look and he shook his head slightly. Eva was just relieved to see him loosen up.
"Alrighty," Eva said, handing him a few papers, "if you'll just fill out those, I can let you go."
"That's it?"
"That's it," Eva said. "I'm sure they'll get you to someone far more qualified than me… I'm a temporary fix, just to make sure you're not broken."
The two sat in silence for a few moments with Eva going over his old files and him filing out the forms before Steve broke the silence.
"Where are you from?"
"Wisconsin," Eva said. "A small town called La Crosse… it's actually how I got interested in medicine. There's a small school called Viterbo that had a partnership with a clinic that let high schoolers volunteer during the summers and weekends… Found out that I loved it, and then I ended up becoming a nurse." She glanced up from the papers to see him staring at her. "I was rambling, wasn't I? Sorry."
"No," he said. "It's nice to not be treated like some… superhero."
"As far as I'm concerned," Eva said. "You're a hero, but you're a person first."
Silence once again enveloped the pair and ended as he handed her the papers.
"I think that's all I need," Eva said, gesturing to the door for him to leave. "Good luck Steve."
"Thanks," he said, giving her a smile and leaving. Eva went over the forms for a few minutes when the door opening drew her attention.
"The server is set-up and ready for you," Agent Coulson said.
"Awesome," Eva said, walking over to the computer. "I'll just go ahead and put this in, and then I'll be out of your hair."
"That's actually what we wanted to talk to you about," another voice said, and Eva recognized it as Director Fury. She turned to face the pair.
"What?"
"I told you we could guarantee you would stay in New York City," Coulson said. "We'd like to offer you a consultant position with SHIELD."
"But… I'm literally a nurse," Eva said, furrowing her eyebrows. "Don't you guys need doctors and surgeons?"
"We have plenty of those," Director Fury said. "We need someone who has a flexible schedule to consult on issues of medicine and science alike… you have the background and personality required."
"Wow," Eva said, sitting down in a chair. "That's… that's a lot to take in."
"We have great benefits," Agent Coulson said, "and we would pay for travel that you would need to do. We also would be willing to decrease the amount of information we keep in your personnel file."
"Why?" Eva asked.
"You like your privacy," Coulson said.
Eva looked at the two men. Taking this job meant stability and staying in New York… but she couldn't shake the feeling that the two men were hiding something from her.
But she knew what she was going to do.
"Alright," she said. "I'm in."
So, that's how Eva ended up graduating from NYU and working for one of the most secret intelligence organizations in the world, a decision that would ultimately impact the rest of her life.