Hey everyone sorry for the delay. Had a bit of writers block but finally worked through it. SO here it is. Let me know what you think. Enjoy :)
"Is this all really necessary," I said grunting.
"You've been slacking and I'm whipping you back in shape." Wren said as he was doing pull ups next to me without struggling.
"I think this could be considered torture." I said.
"You've barely done eight." Wren said letting go of the pole he was using.
"And a ten mile run." I said letting go.
"Which you do every morning," Wren said wiping the sweat off his forehead. "That's enough warm up time to spar."
"We're sparing? Can't we take like a five or ten minute break?" I asked and Wren answered with a look that said, "What do you think?"
Wren had set up mats in the Barn so we could spar and not get hurt. That didn't stop him from knocking me on my ass more times than I could count. If it weren't for the stone healing me I'd be covered in bruises.
"Were done for now. After lunch we're working on your powers." Wren said.
"Yes sir." I said.
I got dressed in dark grey yoga pants and black ACDC pull over. It was a huge difference to the outfits I wore in New York but since Wren was spending the day assessing my weak point and strategizing my new work out plan I figured my best bet was to dress comfy.
I headed downstairs to get started on breakfast but Wren had beaten me to it.
"There you are, breakfast is served." Wren said.
"What is this?" I said looking at the table. There was a plate of yogurt with berries and a glass of green juice.
"Breakfast. Low fat greek yougurt with blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. And a kale, and fruit smoothie." Wren said.
"Apples or oranges." Wren answered.
"Okay, I was going to make us omelets with some hashbrowns." I said.
"I thought I'd give you a break." Wren said.
"It's our first day back." I reminded him.
"You're getting flabby." He said.
"Did you just call me fat?" I said a bit annoyed.
"No I'm saying you need to start taking better care of yourself. You eat huge breakfasts because you only eat once or twice a day." Wren said.
"What, I love food I just loose track of time." I defended.
"Either way that has to stop, especially with the training regimen you're going to be on."
"But I love carbs." I said pouting.
"We all like our greasy breakfasts especially after a night out but this is about improving not digging ourselves into an early grave." Wren deadpanned.
"Fine I'll give it a chance." I said taking a sip of my sour smoothie.
"It's an acquired taste. You'll get used to it." He said sitting down.
I ate my breakfast and then I dragged Wren to the living room and I started showing him all the Disney movies a normal person his age should have already seen. Then he said the unspeakable and asked if Star Wars was just like Star Trek and they got bumped up the list.
"So the short sand people killed Luke's aunt and uncle. The robot that beeps can actually be understood by the shiny one and they landed on the desert wasteland planet where the guy they had to deliver the message too just so happened to live on?"
"Yes, and C3PO's main function is to be a translator so yeah he understands R2D2. As for the rest just call it luck." I said.
"How did she make it through that trash compactor and not get that dress dirty?" Wren asked.
"It's a movie Wren, multiple costume changes." I said.
"In a regular gunfight that wouldn't happen."
"No it wouldn't," I said.
"Move Obi Wan move!" Wren shouted. He got really emotionally involved during the sword fights.
At the end of A New Hope we were hungry and I made us a grilled chicken salad but when we were done it was back to drill sergeant Spencer.
"What's the biggest thing you've ever moved with the energy projection?" Wren asked.
"Um, I pushed a couple of people." I said.
"How many?"
"Like two or three."
"Okay time to push your limits." He said before putting a hand on my shoulder and teleporting us out of the house to a snowy forest.
"Where are we?"
"Canada, miles away from the closest town so we don't have to worry about being seen." Wren said. "See that fallen trunk I want you to lift it up."
"That tree trunk?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I focused on the fallen tree and extended the energy out of my body and pushed it toward the tree trunk. When I felt it touch it I started pulling it towards me. Only problem was it wasn't moving.
"Ah," I kept pulling it but instead of it moving, I fell forward. "Whoa!"
"Not as easy as you thought it was going to be?" Wren asked sarcastically.
"Okay, I'm going to do it again."
Four Hours Later-
"Nora, let's call it a day." Wren said sitting on the very trunk I was trying to move.
"No I almost got it." I said.
The sun's starting to set and I'm starting to get used to sleeping in an actual mattress and I'm hungry." He complained. I was getting frustrated and a bit angry. That stupid ass f- It moved.
"You're lifting the trunk, you lifted it." Wren said surprised and then he jumped when the Trunk fell down.
"I lifted it." Still not believing I did it.
"Let's get the hell out of here." Wren said putting a hand on my shoulder and we were back in the mudroom.
"I'm starving." Wren said.
"Yeah I'm going upstairs and warming up. I can't feel my toes." I said.
"Nora, you did really good." Wren said.
"Thanks but you were right, I am getting soft."
"Those weren't the words I used."
"No but if you say what you said before I will punch you." I said
"Understood. I'll go fix us something to eat. Go shower get comfortable then we can watch the movie with the strange car and time traveling." He said.
"Back to the future." I said.
"But don't they go to the past?" He asked.
"You'll understand later." I said going up the stairs.
Two Hours Later-
"You as a time traveler must see how impossible that situation is." Wren asked.
"Actually the time jumps work a bit like that except I don't control where I go or when I come back but other than that when I met my mom I could have caused something like that." I said drinking a bit of water.
"You met your mother? I thought you said…oh." Wren said figuring it out.
"Yeah, not an easy trip. You were actually the one that helped me deal with it afterwards." I said.
"What do you mean?" Wren said pausing the movie.
"Um I guess now is a good a time as any to bring this up. You remember when we first me how I was a bit surprised."
"Yes you said I reminded you of a friend." Wren said.
"Well… You've known me seven and a half months but I've known you about two years, well almost three if you count the time I spent in the 1940's." I said.
"You met me before I met you? In the future?" Wren said
"Yeah trust me stranger in my kitchen is not the way I wanted to meet you." I said.
"Is that the only reason you asked me to move in?" Wren said outraged.
"What? No. When I met you, I thought you were the biggest douche on the planet but as I got to know you I started to see a lot of your good qualities. How loyal you are, how much you care about your patient, how good you are with kids and how you call me out on my bullshit not because you're a jerk but because you're looking out for me. I asked you to move in with me because I spend way too much time alone and after Steve crashed the plane I hit rock bottom I tried to off myself and no one noticed the signs. Whenever I started slipping you saw the signs and snapped me out of it."
"So you wanted a nanny?" He said.
"No I saw the same signs with you. You remember after Risa died."
Flashback Six Months-
I had just gotten back from my first solo patrol without Wren. I had jumped at the opportunity to get out from Major Asshole's supervision. He had been in an extremely bad mood and I decided to volunteer for a patrol without Wren knowing. I got to the infirmary and I heard someone crying out in pain.
I ran to see who it was and it was Risa.
"Risa hey, it's okay look at me." I said trying to check her pupils. They were constricted and I thought she was having a seizure until she started coughing.
"Nora where have you, shit." Wren said coming over.
"Risa squeeze my fingers as hard as you can." He said. She gently grasped his fingers but couldn't squeeze.
"Damn it, it's a stroke." Wren said.
"What the hell? She was discharged weeks ago she was fine." I said.
"She had surgery on her arm. Blood clot that moved through her body."
"Arterial embolism that caused a stroke, shit." I said and just like that her heart monitor started beeping and she stopped breathing. I moved to try and resuscitate but Wren stopped me.
"She signed a DNR." Wren said.
"Right." I said. Wren turned off the monitor.
"Time of Death 1645." Wren said. "I'll go tell them they have a body to take." Wren said getting out of there as fast as he could.
I stayed in the infirmary because someone had to be there when they came for the body. They came by in twenty minutes. I gave them her medical record and they were gone.
Where the hell is Wren?
There weren't any patients in the infirmary so I locked up and went to look for him. I went to the mess hall but it was empty. I checked his quarters but still nothing. I looked up and sighed. That's when I saw a pair of boots hanging from the roof.
"What the…" I saw a makeshift set of stairs made out of crates that made it easy to get to the roof. Here goes nothing.
I got up there and walked over to sit next to Wren.
"If you want to jump of a building and die it has to be at least a sixth floor, seven if you want to be sure." Wren said as he looked down.
"How long did you know her?" I asked.
"Met her two weeks after I first got here. She was on the squadron I tagged along with for my first patrol. She covered me while I got an injured kid out of the way. Saw her in the infirmary often. Used to think she was a total cluts turns out she always got injured covering someone." Wren said.
"She was tough, funny, and at times a bit scary." I said.
"Bad shit happens to good people."
"Life isn't fair." I said.
"It's not, so why do we keep doing it."
"Because it gets better, eventually." I said. "Come on, let's get dinner."
End Flashback
"You said the exact same thing I told Gramps after I tried to off myself." I said.
"You tried to kill yourself?!"
"Three times. Stone didn't let it work, I moved on." I said.
"Fuck." He said sitting down.
"Point is, Knowing we were going to one day be friends and live together wasn't the reason I asked you to move in. My knowledge of our future was what made me give you a chance. You know me, you know I don't open up. Even with what I knew you had to take the first step." I said.
"That doesn't change the fact you kept this from me." Wren said.
"If I had told you this would it have changed anything?" I said.
"Yes it changes everything."
"Really? Name one thing that changes."
Wren sat there thinking about it for a few minutes.
"I can't think of anything." Wren said.
"Thought so. We're not going to meet for the first time until Connor's around four so you still got a few years until that happens." I added.
"You have to start writing all of this down. You're timeline is a giant hairball its so tangled within itself its getting messy." Wren said.
"You're just witnessing it imagine living it."
"Wouldn't want to be in your shoes."
"You really don't," I said.
"I think I'm going to call it a night." Wren said.
"Good call, see you tomorrow for training." I said turning off the TV.
Third Person's POV-
Steve had just gotten back from his morning jog when he saw Sharon coming out of her apartment.
"Morning Steve." She said.
"Morning, Laundry day?" He asked.
"Yeah, gotta get it done early, only time the machines aren't being used. Only hassle is taking them downstairs since the elevator's shut down." Sharon not so subtly added. She had slowly started to worm her way into Steve's life.
"You know you're welcome to use the machine in my apartment." Steve said.
"Oh, no I don't want to be a bother." Sharon said.
"No it's fine come on in." Steve said. "I've actually been meaning to ask for help with the coffee maker its been beeping every twenty minutes and I don't know why."
That made Sharon laugh. "I'm sure we can figure it out besides we've missed a few meetings for your history lessons."
"Yeah sorry about that, mission came up and I was gone for a few weeks." Steve said.
"I understand I got sent out a few small missions too." Sharon said.
"You're back in the field?" Steve asked.
"Nothing big just a few stakeouts. Needed to get out of the office." Sharon said.
"That's good. I'm gonna hop in the shower. The machine's through there help yourself to anything you need." Steve said before going to his room and grabbing a change of clothes before hopping into the shower.
Steve was so lost in his head thinking about work and the anniversary of the day he crashed the plane he had forgotten Sharon was in the apartment. He walked out into the living room shirtless and saw her standing there.
She turned and saw him.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot you were here." Steve said practically running back to the room. He put on a shirt and walked back to the living room.
"Sorry about that I got lost in my head." Steve said.
"No it's fine, you have a lot going on." Sharon said with a small smile.
"Yeah, been out of the ice for almost a year and I keep thinking about everything I left behind." Steve said. 'Or who I left behind' He thought.
"You looked at the files I left for you last time? The ones on your old team?" Sharon asked.
"I read them all before New York. Didn't answer what I really wanted to know." Steve answered.
"Really, If you want I could ask for files on anyone that you want to look up." Sharon offered.
"I already asked they don't have it. Its fine, I wasn't expecting much." Steve said just as his phone started ringing. "I have to go, Nat's downstairs another mission came up."
"Oh, I just put my clothes in." Sharon said.
"Oh right, Stay uh but can you lock up after you're done?" Steve said.
"Oh course, thank you so much." She said.
"Just being neighborly." He said before grabbing his bag and walking out.
After Steve was gone Sharon sat down and looked around the apartment.
"Uh, this place is a disaster. Looks like my grandpa lives here." She said to herself.
She started snooping around to see what she could find out about the ninety-year-old super soldier. He kept things very tidy. Good thing she was trained to snoop.
There was nothing to see in his living room so she decided to go into his bedroom. The bed was neatly made and all of his clothes were folded neatly. He looked under his bed and found a box. She recognized it as the one her aunt had given him when he had finally gotten around to visit her. She wanted to know what was inside but Steve wasn't in a talkative mood when as Sharon so aptly described it to her friends, her aunt ruined the mood by forgetting where she was or the fact that Steve had been there for hours.
She opened the box and saw old black and white photos. Some were of Steve's team others were of him and his best friend. Then there was one of Steve hugging a brunette. The way they looked at each other she could tell they were deeply in love with each other. Sharon put all the pictures back in the box and shoved them back under the bed. She was upset. Competing with someone who was there was easy. Competing with a ghost was a whole different set of baggage.
She sat down on her bed and sighed. She was going to have to restrategize how she was going to win over Steve.
She was about to stand up when she saw something on the bedside table that caught her attention. It was a compass. She opened it and saw the picture as the same brunette as before hugging Steve's best friend. He was hugging the girl from behind and kissing her cheek as she looked at him and smiled.
Who was that girl?
Nora's POV- Two Weeks Later
Today's the day, my first day at work. I talked to the program director and we worked out a schedule to work half the time in the ER using my Trauma expertise and helping train the residents and the other half I would be working in the cardiology department for my fellowship.
Today was Trauma day. Want to know the best part of working in the ER in on of the most gun friendly states in the US? GSW, Gunshot wounds. But that wasn't the biggest surprise of the day. Guess who I ran into on my first day?
"Doctor Martell." I heard someone call out to me.
"Doctor Matthews Good morning." I greeted. He was the head of the residency program and Chief of Surgery.
"Before I take you to your residents for the day I want to introduce you to the other doctor starting today. Meet Doctor Spencer." Matthews said.
"Hey Nora," Wren greeted.
"Hi Wren, something you forgot to mention?" I asked.
"Do you two know each other?" Matthews asked.
"Army." We both said at the same time.
"And we're housemates." Wren said.
"Oh, then I guess you each have a friendly face around. Now then, follow me I'll take you to your residents." Matthews asked.
We followed him to the nurses' station.
"Doctors, I'd like you to meet Doctor Martell and Doctor Spencer. The six of you will be shadowing the two of them for the entire week. You three with Doctor Spencer the rest of you with Doctor Martell. If you need anything let me know." He said before walking off.
"Let's head to the pit shall we." I said walking towards the ER.
"She's Martell, I was thinking she'd be… grown up." I heard one of them say.
We walked in and the ER was chaotic.
"Stay close and if I tell you to do something do it." I said.
I walked over to the ambulance bay and saw as a police officer with a two gunshot wounds was brought in.
"GSW to the abdomen lost about two pints of blood. Lost consciousness about two minutes ago. Pupils are still responsive." The EMT said.
"You." I said to one of the residents. "Go get an OR ready."
"You," I said to the one that spoke before. "Go get blood. O neg. Run." I said and he was off.
"As for you prep the patient and then get ready to scrub in."
"Oh my god really?" She said.
"Course." I said and she was off. I headed down stairs and found resident one.
"I got you OR 2. Good go to the observation room, Doctor…" I said turning to the brunette doe-eyed doctor who got lucky today."
"Johnson. Susan Johnson." She said nervous.
"Doctor Johnson is scrubbing in today." I said. She looked shocked and was about to argue but I intervened. "Is that a problem?"
"A-No ma'am." She said.
"Good, Johnson I'll see you in there." I said French braiding my hair and putting it into a bun. I grabbed my Star Wars scrub cap Jess had gotten me for my first day. I went through my routine scrubbed my arms, hands, and under my nails before drying off and going in there.
Treating gunshot wounds was like riding a bike. It was one of the most common injuries I saw in Afghanistan.
I did the hardest one closest to most of the vital organs myself but for the next one I decided to test out Johnson.
"Johnson, what do you see?" I asked.
"The spleen's been punctured, it needs to be removed." She said.
"Have you ever removed a spleen before?" I asked.
"Uh no, I've only assisted in an appendectomy." She said.
"Today you're going to walk me through it." I said.
And she did up until about halfway.
"Good job. Take over." I said. "I'm walking you through the rest."
She did good up until she froze.
"I-I Don't know how to do that." She admitted.
"That's fine, You did good. I'll take over and you can watch." I said. "See that right there, " I said pointing at the principle artery.
"That the…."
"Yup Need you to clamp it." I said
One snip, removed the spleen and then cauterized the vein and we were done.
"Close up." I told her and she did perfectly.
When we were out I went to tell the officer's partner and family that he was stable and that a nurse would be by to take them to his room.
I found the three residents talking at the nurses' station.
"Okay you three, Johnson, great job in there. You operated on him so you're in charge of his post ops. Anything changes you page me. Number two, I said to the guy that talked about my age, they need people in the clinic, so you're going. Number three you're on labs. I'll check in after lunch." I said as I walked away.
"Doctor Martell." Number two called after me.
I stopped and waited for him. "Something wrong?"
"Is this about what I said earlier because."
"Stop, you're not the first person to not take me seriously because of my age and you're not going to be the last. The clinic is short handed and I've read your file. It said your bedside manner could use some work so go work on it. If you find an interesting case and you want a second opinion let me know." I said before heading down the cafeteria.
"Busy first day?" Wren asked.
"Multiple GSW on a cop." I said.
"Do you know the cop's name?" Wren asked.
"I read the first page after the surgery. Will Adams, father of twin girls, Annie and Tess, wife Mary." I said. Wren and I had this system where we didn't read the first page of our patients' file, the one that said any personal information such as their names or family. We didn't want to let emotions cloud our judgment so we read any other information and then when the patient's family had to be notified we read the rest.
"I taught you well." He said.
"What about you? Why didn't you say anything about you're new job?" I said.
"I wanted to see the look on your face when you saw me here." He said.
"I was not expecting this that's for sure but I'm glad you're here. You're a great teacher." I said.
"So are you, I saw you from the observation room. You gave Johnson the confidence to try and she learned. You also didn't let that guy's comment bug you." Wren said.
"It's not the first time someone comments on my age, won't be the last." I said digging into my salad. "How were you're residents?"
"I put them all on scut." He said.
"Wren, you're supposed to be teaching them." I said.
"I am, I'm teaching them humility and to not fight with each other." Wren said.
"Should I ask?"
"Didn't bother to ask. Did a bursted appendix this morning."
"Sounds easy, good warm up." I said.
"Patient died. Sepsis from previous surgery."
"I'm sorry." I said.
"It happens." Wren said.
The rest of the day was pretty slow. No surgeries just kids swallowing odd object. I took a nap in an on call room until Wren teleported in and scared me.
"Time to go home." Wren said.
"Can't I have a patient in post op. I'm on call." I said.
"So am I, they'll page us if they need us and when they do they'll page us and I'll teleport us back." Wren said.
"You sure?"
"Yes now up, I'm not carrying you." Wren said.
A Month Later-
We both got into this routine of always looking out for each other. I'd make sure Wren wouldn't get on any one's bad side and that he wasn't too hard on his residents. He made sure no one messed with me and that I ate and slept enough. We were pretty close to the point people thought we were an item. Apparently men and women can't be just friends.
Things were good. I started to go out more on my own. I found a chat room for up and coming software developers and they met once a month for Taco Tuesday. I showed up once and met a bunch of people they were all developing their apps or just needed someone with common interests to chat with. Birds of a feather flock together.
It was all-good until the time jumps started again. Aya was going easy on me and gave me a month to adjust to my new training and work schedule but it was time to time travel again. She even left me alone to wallow on the anniversary of Steve crashing the plane. It wasn't as sad as last year when I still thought he was dead but it was still sad because it reminded me we couldn't be together. Wren, Jess and Sam spent the day keeping my mind off of it and they did a good job. It wasn't until I went to bed and saw the picture of them on my bedside table that I cried. Axl ended up sneaking upstairs and cuddling.
Dad kept his promise and stopped by for a weekend. It was nonstop lab time. Wren and Friday conspired behind our backs to get us out of the lab long enough for lunch and dinner. He made me pay for it after dad left by making me train a bit longer.
It was our first day off in a while. Wren, Jess, Sam, Connor and I were going to have a picnic. Just as we were about to head out I got the chills.
"Oh crap." I said.
"What? Now?" Wren asked.
"Yeah sorry, I hope I don't take too long." And then I was gone again.
When I opened my eyes I was in an alley again. Please tell me I'm not going to see my mom again. It was hard enough the first time Aya.
'Don't worry, you're over forty five years from coming close to that' Aya responded.
I walked out of the alley and saw I was in New York and judging from the date on the newspaper it was May 7th, 1946.
I looked around and saw a diner or something called L&L Automat. I walked in and saw Peggy sitting down in one of the booths I sat down in front of her and she looked up from her newspaper.
"Nora? Where the bloody hell have you been?" Peggy asked.
"My time. After I got shot in Belarus I went to the future ahead of my time. Got the bullet out and then I went back to my time." I said.
"You were here about a week and a half ago." Peggy said.
"Almost Two months for me." I said.
"How've you been?" She said.
"I started work at the hospital. Been teaching residents. It's going good. Wren moved in. He's good. Been training me to control it and my endurance is better than before. He also started teaching me a few new moved. There's this really neat one where I incapacitate someone by wrapping my legs around they're neck and flipping them over. Still working on it but it's going good. Have you heard from… him?" I said.
"You can't stay mad at him can you?"
"He's a liar and a jerk but at the end of the day he's still family and I've had a year to get over it. He was right, I wasn't in the best headspace to deal with it, doesn't mean I'm not going to make him grovel a bit. " I said.
"I must say, I was very pleased to receive your call. Can I assume you're back on the team?" Jarvis said as he pulled up a chair.
"I don't believe we ever were on the same team, so no. We are still, however, working towards a common goal." Peggy was the great at playing hardball.
"Fair enough. It may interest you to know that your superior paid me a visit." Jarvis mentioned.
"Chief Dooley?" Peggy said concerned.
"Yes. It seems there may be a change in the prevailing winds within the SSR." Jarvis answered.
"Leviathan has certainly sparked their interest, but Howard isn't out of the woods just yet. What did Dooley want?" Peggy asked.
"Information on a battle in the German town of Finow. I didn't say anything at the time, but Mr. Stark did visit Finow in 1944. He returned... distressed and soon after began construction on his vault." Jarvis said.
"Why does Finow sound so familiar?" I said. Peggy and Jarvis turned to look at me but realized I didn't remember.
"What did Howard have to say about it?" Peggy asked.
"I've tried getting messages to him. However, he's been difficult to reach." Jarvis said sounding a bit worried. Since when doesn't Gramps stay in touch with Jarvis?
"Mm. Interesting, but that can wait. Russia has been training young women to be undercover operatives, and we both know that Howard's major weakness is..."
"Women." I said.
"And raspberry truffles." Jarvis added.
"I need you to get me a list of all the women that Howard has... entertained in the last year." Peggy said a bit uncomfortable at having to ask.
"I'm not sure there's enough ink in the whole of New York to complete that request." Jarvis answered.
"Fine. Just in the last six months, then. Is that possible?" Peggy compromised. There goes half the amazon.
"Oh, yes. Yes, I suggest we start with the western hemisphere." Jarvis said.
"I have a better idea." I said getting both their attention.