Chapter Twenty-Three: Still Alive
Eve felt the trails her tears had left on her cheeks drying. Though those tears of anger and frustration were gone now, their remains stung. She felt like she looked childish or weak, yet she had no way to wipe the stains from her face. She forced her eyes to meet Sam's. He looked so upset, it broke her heart in dozens of places. Her mind traveled back to the way Loki had made her feel, and it was a good feeling. She had experienced pleasure and passion, desire and drive. Sex with mortal boys had never been like that. The way Loki treated her when they were together that way, it was obvious he had been alive far longer than her. He was intuitive and took his time. She reluctantly rejoined the moment at hand and was sickened by the sound of herself. Sickened by the way everyone was looking at her. "Please turn that off," she begged him as the recording rolled on.
"Gladly," he bit before slamming his finger onto what was apparently the power button.
"The things people will do when they think no one is watching…" Fury mused, making aggressive eye contact when her eyes moved to his. "So, tell me, Eve. Was anything you told us the truth?"
"Yes. All of it," she insisted.
"What else did you leave out, then?" Eve was silent. "Do you sympathize with the psycho? Or are you just one of those girls who has a thing for bad boys?"
"Think what you want," she said, "the truth would sound worse than any assumption you could make."
"I highly doubt that…" Tony commented.
"For once, I agree with him," Fury stood. "And now I'm even more curious. Please, enlighten us."
Eve gulped. Tell the truth. "I need you to understand first and foremost that I don't agree with what he's done. Not any of it. He has treated me badly, held me captive and threatened me. But I'm still alive, somehow…"
"Oh, don't tell me," Barton rolled his eyes.
"I don't know how it happened. It makes no sense, so don't ask me to explain any further. I...I care about him."
"Jesus fucking Christ!" Barton stood as well, causing her to turn her attention to him. "How dense are you, exactly? You think he cares about you in return? When he fled, he left you to deal with us. If he cared, don't you think he'd have taken you with him? Made some grand gesture, like, Eve-run away with me!"
"I didn't say that he cared about me…" she took a deep breath.
"How can you-" he stopped abruptly. "Why can't you see how insane that is?"
"I can," she spoke through gritted teeth, "and maybe that's why I didn't want to tell you!" She grew frustrated, eventually realizing how claustrophobic being glued to the table made her feel. She pulled her arms up against the metal, knowing it wouldn't do any good. She had absolutely no range of motion. "Will somebody get these damned things off me? Please?!"
Natasha reached out and squeezed her hand. "We should take a recess. She's been through a lot."
"Fine," Fury agreed, "take her to her room, meet us back here. Everyone, take a ten minute break."
Tony hit the button to release her and she stretched her arms and wrists the second they were free. Natasha led her out of the room quickly with a firm grip on her upper arm. She smiled as they walked.
"Why are you so nice to me?" Eve wondered. She felt pretty pathetic, having had her dirty laundry aired in front of the coolest people in New York.
"I haven't always been a good guy," Natasha began with a small sigh, "and I know what it's like to fall for someone who's no good for you."
"Oh?"
"That was a long time ago. Well, you know I'm not Loki's biggest fan. In fact, I don't think that man has any fans. He deserves to be punished for what he's done. But I'm not about to take that out on you. You're right, you didn't ask for any of this to happen to you. I imagine your brain is fairly busy."
"You have no idea," Eve shook her head.
"Make no mistake," Natasha pointed a warning finger, "I don't support your fantasy. Your brain is busy because you know it's wrong. Loki is a bad man, Eve, and there's no way around it. I'm hoping you can learn something from your time here. Even if Barton is rude, he's right. There's no way Loki cares about you the same way you do for him. It's not fair for you to hold on to this. Especially not when you have someone in your life who really does care for you," she swiped her keycard over the scanner and gave Eve a gentle nudge into her room. "I'm not saying you have to date Sam or anything. But you deserve something more real than this. Let go of it, really think about it, but don't dwell. You'll see." She turned to leave, but stopped herself. She looked down at Eve's pants. "Your, uh, button…"
Eve blushed and bit her lip. "Oh! I must have missed it. God, I hope no one noticed!" She laughed nervously until Natasha gave her a polite smile and left. The door slammed heavily and out of curiosity, she tried to open it. Locked. Shocking. She checked out the bathroom to her right. The room was almost like a hotel room with just one queen sized bed-and a mound of trinkets for Sasha. She went to sit down on the bed and her eyes shot to the door, startled as it opened again.
Darcy strolled in and set the puppy she'd been cuddling down. She ran on her short legs to Eve, yipping and wagging her tail. "Figured you might want this back," she joked.
"Thanks," Eve was quiet.
"You don't look so hot," Darcy noticed.
"It's been a very long week," Eve sighed, "which you now know all about. I'm kind of a disaster."
"Are you kidding?!" Darcy exclaimed. "You're like my hero...screwing bad guys, shouting at Barton. Punching people, getting handcuffed by SHIELD. I was lucky they even gave me an access card. Shit, I wanna be you when I grow up."
"Trust me, you definitely don't."
Darcy laughed. "Whatever. Listen, things will get better. Eventually. Probably not soon. But, well, I have to get back. Keep your head up, okay?"
As she made her way out, Eve mumbled an unconvinced, "Okay…"
Elsewhere
When Darcy took her seat back in the conference room, Fury cleared his throat. "Did you…"
"Did I…?" She echoed.
"Did you take that dog to her?"
"Uh, yeah. It's her dog." Darcy rolled her eyes at Jane, who smiled weakly.
"What do you mean it's her dog?"
Tony cleared his throat now. "It's funny, because you asked about the dog earlier, and I said we'd get to it, but I guess we never did. Well...remember that bit where they went off to that random farm and there were puppies? That's one of them."
"We let her bring her dog?" Fury barked.
"Not so much…" Tony, and everyone else, waited patiently for it to sink in.
Fury's face contorted as he put the pieces together. His nostrils flared. Wide. "So you're telling me...that he was here. In this building. And he found out what room we were going to keep her in. And he brought her...a dog…"
"Along with many, many dog supplies," Barton added angrily.
"AND THIS IS THE FIRST I'M HEARING ABOUT IT?! This is ridiculous. This is unacceptable. It's preposterous. Obnoxious. It's-"
"How many more adjectives should we expect? I have dinner plans," Tony quipped.
Fury took a moment to concentrate on his breathing. "Okay. Okay, let's just move forward. Impressions?"
"She's completely out of her mind," Barton offered immediately.
"I think she's pretty cool," Darcy added, throwing a sneer in his direction.
Barton pointed at her. "That's proof in itself."
Darcy looked to Jane, mouth open in offense. Jane smiled awkwardly. "He has a point, Darc…"
"Agent Barrows!" Fury shouted to Sam, who had taken Eve's seat. "Impressions?"
"None," Sam replied murkily.
"None at all?"
"That's the same girl I've known for my entire life, sir. Impulsive, outspoken...man. That is just the worst thing about this. If she were acting weird or anything, I could dismiss it...but she's just...herself. Hot-headed and...man." Sam slouched back in the chair and zoned out. He was still fitting the pieces together in his head, the texts that weren't really from her, the strange phone call. Then the ugliest detail of all, the fact that she actually liked the creep.
"Now, we're sure she's not under hypnosis?" Steve asked.
"I can go knock her on the head really quick if you like," Bruce offered mockingly.
"She's not," Barton answered. "I would know. She's just mental, that's all."
"Okay, okay," Natasha stood and knocked her fists on the table, "haven't any of you heard of Stockholm Syndrome?"
"Yes. It's a syndrome. Syndromes are indicative of diseases. She's nuts," Barton, visibly annoyed, rubbed his forehead briefly.
"Stop that. She even reflected the idea of it while she was explaining how she liked kissing him, that maybe she subconsciously forced herself to like it in order to cope with the trauma."
"Or-" Barton almost sang.
"Fine! Maybe she's crazy. Sure, let's call her all the names in the book. Or! We could help her. She is above all else a victim of circumstance. She didn't seek him out, she doesn't condone his behavior. She was trapped in her own home with him for days on end, fearing for her life. Yes, her sanity has probably taken some pretty bad hits. Can you blame her? Put yourself in her place-"
"You asked me to do that before, remember?" Barton shouted.
"Well I'm not just talking to you! My point is, now that she's away from him, we can get her better. Get her over him, and maybe find some secret something he said to her that will help us figure this out. She's not going to talk to us if she hates us or thinks we hate her, and we need her to. She's our only key. Okay?" No one objected, several people nodded that they understood. "Okay, great. Let's hope the distance from him helps her get better quickly."
Eve's Room
Eve pulled Sasha up onto the bed and left her for a moment to grab a chew toy from the stack. The pup latched onto it and curled up in her lap. Eve pet her and closed her eyes, finally able to relax for the first time in what felt like forever. Her eyes opened instinctively as a familiar velvety voice wafted through her ears.
"There's my girls."
A/N:
Managed to write two chapters in one night! Pretty proud of myself :D Now, sleep.
