Bruce had come down to sit on the bench across from her. He had brought his computer down, but kept his headphones off so he would be able to hear the team if they called him. He hadn't said anything yet. She was seriously considering talking to herself to keep from dying of boredom. They had only been there for half an hour, but it felt much longer.
Finally she pulled her backpack off and set it on the floor. She sat cross-legged in front of it and started to pull things out. She put all her files in one stack, folded her old clothes and put them beside the files, and she put the gun on the bench to her right. Jade looked back at Bruce only to see that she had his full attention.
"What?" She playfully asked. Bruce set his computer to the side and leaned closer.
"Where did you get those?" He slowly asked pointing to the stack of files next to her.
"Oh, these?" She asked pointing to the same stack. "Around. Would you like to look at them?" She offered. He gave her a confused look. "I don't have much of a use for them. Half of them I don't even understand what it's talking about."
"Yes, I would like to see them," He politely answered. He slid off the bench and sat beside her. He picked up the top file in the stack and opened it. Jade watched him study. It was funny to say the least, he would raise then furrow his eyebrows, or he would hum to himself and madly flip through the pages until he found what he was looking for.
"Can I ask you a question?" He asked not looking up from the fifth file he was looking through. Jade was caught off guard at the question, and turned to look at him.
"I guess." He stopped reading and looked her in the eye.
"What file did you delete at the facility in Brazil?" Now Bruce didn't expect her to give an honest answer if she answered at all, but what she said was so crazy it had to be the truth.
"A file on James Barns." Jade didn't think admitting this to him would really matter. He would probably find out eventually, and she had all but given up on finding him. She simply didn't have the resources to conduct a world wide search for him.
"The Winter Soldier?" He asked dumbfounded. Jade nodded. "Why-" His words were cut off by a beeping sound coming from the front of the ship. He jumped up and ran to silence it.
"This is Banner," He said into the mic. Jade stood up and went to stand by him.
"Bruce, this is looking like a code Green. Get you and your purple pants out here." Jade recognized the voice as Starks.
Banner looked down at the girl beside him, then replied.
"On my way." He brushed past her and opened the ramp. "Don't leave, alright," He addressed her. She smiled at him.
"Can't promise anything," She teased. He ran down and out of sight. Moments later she heard a loud roar. She was alone.
She went back to her backpack and put her gun and clothes back in. She debated whether or not she should take the files. She decided on only taking the one on Barns. She didn't really need it, but for some reason it made her feel better. She took the remainder of the wafers and put them in her bag and searched the rest of the cabinets for anything else to eat. She was rewarded with a large bag of trail mix, which she happily put in her bag, along with few packages of crackers.
She looked outside and noticed the snow on the ground. She felt the cold air waft up to her. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. She looked around for something to cover her arms with. She went to the nearest closet and opened it. She dug through until she found a black jacket that was slightly to large. She slid it on and admired it in the mirror on the back of the door. Jade decided she liked the feel it gave off.
She turned from the mirror, threw her backpack on and walked down the ramp. She stepped onto the ground and stopped. She looked back up the ship. Was this really the best idea?
She shook her head. There were to many 'what if' s for her to be comfortable. She needed to clear her head, and she couldn't do it so close to the problem. She picked a random direction and went for it.
The echoing of gunshots made it hard for her to tell which direction the battle was. She didn't have to wait to long for an answer. A bullet zinged by her ear. She reacted by ducking and hiding behind a tree.
"Oh, not good," She said to herself. Bullets continued to pound the tree and fly by her, but nobody seemed to be advancing on her position. At least there was that silver lining. She made herself as small as possible and took her backpack off of her shoulders. She slipped her hand inside and wrapped her hand around the cool metal. She pulled the gun out of her bag and zipped it back up. Jade breathed deep and sharply turned around. She raised her gun prepared to shoot, but someone had already taken care of it.
"I had it," Jade said to Natasha after she had beaten all the soldiers to a pulp. Natasha looked at the young girl and rolled her eyes.
"Really? Cause it looked like you were hiding behind a tree while being shot at," She stepped closer to Jade. "Why are you out here anyway?" Jade shouldn't have felt like a child caught out past curfew, but she did anyway.
"I don't suppose you'd believe that I was just taking a walk?" Jade said shyly. She shifted her weight back and forth between her feet. Jade had a hard time hearing due to the noise coming from the battle so she stepped a little closer.
"No. What are doing?" Nat asked looking her over. "Is that my jacket?"
"I-" Her words were cut off by the sound of a tank. "Watch out!" She yelled jumping toward Natasha. Jade wrapped her arms around her middle just as a shot exploded from the tank. She felt the weird vibrations that told her that something had indeed gone through her. Right after the tank had fired the shot something ran right into it destroying it. It took Jade a second to realize it was the Hulk.
"That was weird," Natasha said after the Hulk was through decimating the tank. "You can let go of me now." Jade dropped her arms and looked up at her.
"Sorry," She said slightly embarrassed. She realized she had held on to long.
Natasha opened her mouth to say something, but a loud grunt drew her attention. Natasha's head snapped in the direction of the sound. She turned from Jade and ran in the direction the sound had come from. Jade was going to follow, but something knocked her off her feet and onto her back before she knew what was happening. During her fall her gun flew from her hands.
"You're not an Avenger," Someone said above her. Jade sat up and turned to look at him. He was tossing her gun from one hand to the other while circling her. Where had this guy come from?
"Thanks Captain Obvious," Jade groaned. She looked up at him and he smiled down at her.
"Why are you out here?" He asked. He had a heavy accent that Jade placed as Sakovian. Jade stood up to get better look at him. He had remarkably silver hair.
"What are you doing?" She asked. He opened his mouth to say something but a loud roar interrupted both their thoughts.
"Got to go." Jade barely heard the words before he became a blur and out of her sight. He had left and had taken her weapon with him. Jade was shocked to say the least. She had no idea there were others like her. Hydra wasn't exactly open with her about their new developments. She shook herself from her shock and ran after Natasha.
"What happened?" She yelled over the noise before kneeling next to Clint. He was hurt, that much she could tell.
He groaned and tried to roll over, but Natasha wouldn't let him.
"Stay with him. Thor's on his way to help. Don't move," Natasha said to her. She stood and started to walk away.
"Wait," Jade called after her. "Where are you going?" Jade didn't know what to do, she had never had to take care of anybody but herself.
"Just keep him alive until Thor gets here," Nat said before running off. Jade threw up her hands.
"That's not exactly my specialty!" Jade yells to her retreating back.
"Great to know," Clint breathes. Jade cringed at his voice. His breathing was unsteady and his voice was hardly there. "Why are you out here?" He asked. Question of the century.
"Looking after you, didn't you hear her?" Jade said teasing him. He raised his eyebrows at her.
"Are you sure it wasn't because you were going to run?" He asked. Jade heard crashing nearby and came to the conclusion that it was Thor.
"A conversation for a later time," She said just as Thor came charging through the trees. He stalked to them and looked between her and Barton. He shrugged then leaned down and picked Barton up off the ground. Jade stood and watched him start to leave.
"You coming," He looked over his shoulder to ask her. Jade nodded.
"Give me one second. I'll meet you there." Jade took off in the direction she had come from. She went to the bullet hole filled tree, grabbed her backpack and then went to the ship. She arrived at the same time as Natasha and Bruce. Jade braced herself for what they were going to say.
"I thought I told you to stay in the ship," Bruce said to her. Nat and him walked up the ramp and Jade went in behind them.
"And I told you I couldn't make any promises," She teased. He looked back at her and she gave him a small smile. He smirked back and went to his computer to put some wireless headphones on.
Jade set her backpack underneath the bench and sat down where she had sat last time she had flown. They all quietly waited for Tony and Steve. When they arrived Tony had Loki's staff and he quickly put it down to go start up the ship. Steve immediately went to go check on Clint. Neither of them said anything more than a hello, so Jade assumed nobody had mentioned her anti-climatic escape attempt.
Jade watched as Natasha had talked to Bruce and laughed to herself as Thor tried to take his foot out of his mouth. They seemed almost normal. Jade remained silent until Natasha broke away from Bruce and came and sat down beside her.
"Here you go," Natasha said pushing something into Jade's palm. Jade looked down to discover a small pill. Her heart rate soared. They were going to drug her! Natasha must've seen Jade's expression because she quickly explained.
"It's a pain reliever. Bruce told me that when you phased it gave you a headache so I got one for you." Jade nodded and dry swallowed the pill. She wouldn't admit it, but she was almost happy that they weren't going to knock her unconscious. She hadn't even noticed the pain until Natasha had said something.
"Thanks," She said simply.
"I should be thanking you," Nat said to her. Jade looked up confused.
"For what?"
"You saving my life." Jade shook her head.
"If I hadn't been there in the first place you would've seen the tank earlier and would've never gotten so close to being hurt." Natasha gently nudged her.
"Don't cut yourself short. What you did was amazing. I don't think I would ever get used to doing that, though. Phasing, it was weird." Jade smiled and looked back down at the floor.
"It's quite possible you could get sick from it, though. I've never done it with another person so I don't know what it might do to you," Jade admitted. She had only phased with non-living things before, and she wasn't sure how it would affect Natasha. Jade yawned in her mouth trying to hide her exhaustion.
"You're tired." It wasn't a question, but Jade nodded anyway. She leaned her had against Natasha's shoulder. Jade waited for Natasha to shrug her off or tell her to get up, but she didn't. Jade didn't know what she was thinking. She shouldn't be doing this, she shouldn't act so weak, but she didn't care. She quickly fell asleep on Natasha's shoulder. She would later reason that it was exhaustion and the pain in head that made her do it.
