A/N: Sorry for not posting yesterday. Had a ton of work to do.
Chapter 19: SHIELD training 101
It has been a month since Tris and Tobias decided to be a real couple. They decided to let their parents know about it, but urged them not to get their hopes up. The two mothers-in-law would have loved them to be more positive about the relationship, but ultimately understood that while they were married they got married for different reasons than love.
Tobias started taking lessons from Tris and Uriah in order to be able to defend himself. That prompted Andrew and Marcus to learn a few defensive moves which in turn triggered the matriarchs of both families to join. Currently, the two older couples were instructed by Natasha, who came to visit Tris again. Tobias was sparring with Uriah while Tris watched the scene from the bench.
"Any new leads on Ward?" Tris asks Tony who came to update some software on her computer.
"No. Not that SHIELD tells me anything," he says without looking up from Tris's laptop. "Any news on the kidnappers?"
"Well, we know it was Hydra, but we can't really figure out why. None of them is Inhuman and they aren't of great importance. I mean, I don't see it. They are not contracted by the government, they aren't part of a political party. If they weren't rich, they would be boring as fuck. We have too little data and I'm a bit worried Hydra didn't try anything else."
"Maybe our security measures scared them off," Tony offers.
"Didn't scare them when they attacked SHIELD each time they could."
"Hey, Tris, come over here," Natasha shouts and Tris stands up. She walks over to where her parents and the Eatons are to stand in front of Natasha. "Tris and I will demonstrate you how brutal a fight can be. Please, everyone go sit down. You too, Uriah. And take tall, dark and yummy with you," Natasha says and Tris rolls her eyes.
The two agents take fighting positions and without further ado they start fighting. Not sparring, fighting. This is how Natasha always trained Tris. Real fights, no one concedes. It wasn't like Natasha didn't care, but she knew that if Tris wanted to have a real chance to survive in the real world SHIELD would send her to, she needed to learn how to take beatings and give them too.
Both women were equally good. Both landed strikes but also got hit pretty seriously. From the benches the Priors and Eatons watched in horror as Tris gets beaten up. But then Natasha throws Tris over her shoulder into the wall, making it crack from the impact. Natalie immediately cries out and Andrew and Tobias both start running toward her. But they don't even get halfway across the room when Tris picks herself up, blood trickling down her face as she launches an attack toward her SO, kicking her to the ground. Tony got up and pulled the two men backwards before they get hurt and watches as the two super spies kick each other stupid.
"Agents, attention!" a male voice is heard and every pair of eyes lands on the man with the black leather coat and eyepatch entering the private gym in the Eaton office building. Tris and Natasha stand up as well and greet the newcomer.
"Fury," Tony says shaking the man's hand.
"Director," Tris says coming to greet their new arrival.
"Angel, I'm not the Director anymore," he says hugging the young agent.
"What brings you here?" Natasha asks.
"I was looking for you. I have an assignment," Fury says and gestures Natasha to follow him outside.
"What's that all about?" Uriah asks watching their former Director and the Black Widow leave the room.
"Beatrice, honey, are you alright?" Natalie asks and comes over to check on her daughter.
"Mom, I'm fine."
"You were thrown against a wall," Andrew says, a concerned look on his face.
"I'm fine, really," she says trying to push them both away.
"Your parents are right," Tobias comes closer and inspects the bruise on her jaw from where Natasha's booted heel connected.
"Tobias, I'm fine," she says a little irritated. "Uriah, knife," she asks and her friend throws her his pocket knife. Tris opens it and cuts her arm letting blood run down and onto the floor.
"Oh my God!" Natalie shouts.
"Beatrice!" Andrew yells, both angry and terrified.
"Tris!" Tobias says astonished.
"Would you all relax," she says exasperated. A bright light envelops Tris's arm where she's cut and when it fades the wound is gone, leaving no trace whatsoever.
"What happened?" Evelyn asks confused.
"Have you already forgotten?" Tris asks irritated. "I can heal myself. God, you people never listen. Class is over for today. I'm famished."
"Great. Now, Angel, can we get that shawarma?" Tony asks and Uriah chuckles.
The group, minus Natasha and Fury, who apparently disappeared into thin air, takes showers and changes and goes to a restaurant to eat lunch. Tobias proudly grabs his wife's hand and strolls down the street making it obvious to any bystander that this gorgeous woman is his. He knows she isn't property but he can't help it. He is crazy about her and wants the world to know it.
The parents, walking behind them, smile to themselves ecstatic that things are going so well between their children and hope that once the year is concluded they won't get a divorce.
"Can you imagine how cute their babies will be, Natalie?" Evelyn asks as she walks next to her friend.
"So cute," Natalie beams.
"If it's a boy we can play ball with him," Marcus says and Andrew eagerly agrees.
"Dad, you didn't even play ball with Caleb," Tris says turning around.
"You heard us, huh?" her dad asks sheepishly.
"Half the street heard you. You guys aren't particularly whispering," she says with a chuckle.
They continue their way till they reach the restaurant Marcus swears has the best steaks in town. They enter and get a private booth where they manage to sit all eight of them together. All the guys order steak, while the women order pasta and lasagna.
"And a cheesecake, please," Tris asks and the waiter asks how many slices. "A cheesecake, a whole cake," she says and laughs a little. "There are plenty of mouths to feed."
Their lunch is uneventful and funny, all of them sharing hilarious stories that either happened to them or their friends. Marcus tells everyone how he first asked Evelyn out. He saw her in a boat on the lake in the park with her sister and immediately got into one himself and caught up with them. Evelyn didn't know him back then so she thought he was a crazy person. By the time, he managed to tell the two sisters he was interested in dating young Evelyn, Marcus stood up, the boat shook and he fell into the water. When he resurfaced, he had a toad sitting on his head and the girls busted out laughing. Evelyn, feeling sorry for the young man, accepted his invitation to go have a soda with him near the park.
"And that's how I met your mother," Marcus says patting his son's shoulder.
"Tris, why don't you tell us something fun?" Natalie asks her daughter who has been unusually quiet.
"There ain't nothing."
"Come on. Really Tris?" Tony asks.
"Well nothing family friendly anyway," she says with a smirk.
"Maybe a story about your grandpa. You and George were always so close," Natalie says.
"Well, there was one time when I couldn't stop laughing," she starts saying and everyone smiles. "It was the summer after I turned nine. My older siblings were too cool to go camping with the old man and me, which I didn't mind. I couldn't hear another thing about too many mosquitos and bunny poop all over the road. Grandpa and I went camping in the Rockies. He taught me to hunt and cook my food, he taught me to fish, to build a fire and shelter. He was awesome. You could literally drop me anywhere on the planet and I would know what to do to survive. That summer grandpa told me stories about the war, about how he fought, how he survived, how he lost his older brother Sherman. He was sad and I tried to cheer him up. I tried to tell jokes but realized I didn't know any. So, I told grandpa. He obviously taught me many jokes. I don't remember any other time I laughed so hard." Everyone smiles at the adorable childhood story. "He was always fun to be around," Tris says a little sad, remembering her grandfather.
"I don't remember dad ever being this fun," Andrew says thinking hard about a time he and his father did something they both enjoyed.
"That's because you and him were completely different. You are just like Caleb," Tris says and her father raises an eyebrow in confusion. "You are both nerds."
"Tris, don't say that," her mother scolds.
"What? It's true," Tris defends.
"That's your fun story?" Tony asks.
"Well, yeah. It's not really the funniest, I admit, but it's one of the happiest times."
"Why?" Uriah asks taking a bite from his steak.
"Grandpa was always working even after retirement. He hated being useless. But that summer he gave up everything to take care of me," Tris says eating the last of her lasagna. "He was my hero growing up. I miss him terribly."
"When did he die?" Evelyn asks.
"Last summer. Heart-attack. He died instantly. But I think that's what he preferred. After grandma died two years prior he was always so sad and whenever I talked to him or visited his ranch he tried his best to be cheerful for my sake but he was never the same after he lost her."
"My dad loved my mom immensely," Andrew explains further. "I love my wife, don't get me wrong, but I think he loved his far more. He was stern and a discipline freak but he loved my brother and me. I always tried to be as good of a father to my children as he was to me. But sometimes I think I failed. Especially with Beatrice."
"You didn't fail, dad. We are just different and that's okay. Sure, I was grandpa's favorite, but that doesn't mean he didn't love the rest of you," Tris says.
"I don't think your grandpa had favorites," Marcus says with a chuckle, at which all three Priors shake their heads.
"No, she was his favorite alright," Andrew corrects. "Beatrice looks a lot like my mother when she was young. But it's her personality that's so much like my father's that made her the favorite."
"A parent shouldn't have favorites," Evelyn says with a frown and then looks at her son.
"I agree, but my dad really loved Beatrice a lot. Mom was number one for him, followed by Beatrice and then came the rest of us."
"To be fair, I was the only one who put up with grandpa and gave him a piece of my mind when he bugged me with his shit. That's why I was his favorite. I had the balls to stand up to him. I saw him yell at you one time and you chickened out, even though you were right about whatever it was you argued about."
"That's called respecting your elders," Andrew defends.
"Bull shit! You, all of you, always chickened out. Sometimes you even asked me to deliver bad news to him."
"Beatrice, enough," her mother says and gives her a look to cut it out. Tris nods and resumes eating her cheesecake.
After that they all just kept telling jokes trying to avoid talking about delicate topics again. The day they had spent together thus far was too nice to spoil it.
After paying they all left the restaurant and each went home. Since Tony decided to stay the whole weekend he headed back home with Tobias and Tris.
"What do you think Fury wanted with Natasha?" Tony asks as they enter the apartment building.
"I don't know. The man was always a mystery. As badass as he is, he is also a fucking Pandora's box. Whatever it is he wants, I bet my soul it ain't good."
"Why do you say that?" Tobias asks appalled.
"Home" is all Tris says and Tobias nods. The elevator ride is short and before long the couple and their Avenger friend enter the apartment. Tobias offers to make coffee and Tris goes and shows Tony the guest room. Upon returning to the living room Tris sits down on the couch next to her husband while Tony sits in the adjacent armchair.
"Nick Fury was the Director of SHIELD for a long time. He put together the Avengers, which is a good thing. But he also was responsible for Project Pegasus," Tris says and Tobias raises an eyebrow, which she doesn't see because her head is resting on his shoulder.
"Angel, not everyone speaks SHIELD," Tony says amused.
"Ah, right," Tris says and sits up. She turns her body so that she can see Tobias and explains. "Project Pegasus was technically a good idea, but poorly executed. During World War II Hydra, under the disguise of Nazi orders, looked for mythological and supernatural artifacts. As you might remember from your history books, Hitler was obsessed with that," she says and Tobias nods. "What many don't know is, so were others. One of them was Johann Schmidt also known as Red Skull. He found a powerful blueish stone called the Tesseract. Long story short, the Tesseract is pure energy and Fury wanted to harvest that energy. In itself not such a bad idea, especially since it would have ended fossil fuel dependency. But the Tesseract is more than just a bundle of electricity in a blue box. It's a gateway into space. That thing opened the door for the Chitauri invasion," she says and lets it sink in.
Tobias leans back and tries to wrap his mind around what she just told him. He never heard of this Tesseract before nor about its involvement in the almost end of the world.
"So, it was SHIELD's fault all that crap happened?" he asks a little angry when he realizes that without that Fury this would have never happened.
"No, it wasn't SHIELD's fault. Neither was it Fury's. Could the situation have been handled better? Undoubtedly. Would this have happened if any other powerful agency or government had the Tesseract? Probably. What really happened is this. While Fury had the best intentions, there were other forces at play. We now know that all that happened wasn't an accident. You see, Loki, brother of Thor, the trickster god, manipulated Selvig, the professor in charge of figuring the mysterious artifact out. He made Selvig build a gate to invite aliens here on Earth. Without Loki's interference, it might have taken us years or even decades to understand the Tesseract, not that we really did in the end. Bottom line, we are not alone in this universe and we can't close our eyes. We are creatures who explore, search and risk. No pain, no gain, right?"
"Tris, this is not a basketball game," Tobias says a little irritated.
"No, it's not. But we are far behind technologically speaking than other species in our galaxy. We need to know more and fact is there are hundreds of places all over the planet that hide alien artifacts or even temples. Everything we used to know about our history, our very own evolution needs to be re-written. Aliens came here before and toyed with our DNA. Why do you think I exist? I am Inhuman because I'm a descendant of an alien race who came here and experimented on early humans. My kind was created to be soldiers in an intergalactic war between far more advanced species than the human race."
Tobias remains silent once again. All this information is too much to digest and form an opinion. He sits up and goes to the bar where he pours himself a glass of scotch. Tris follows him and takes the bottle from him. She gives Tony a look and the older man leaves the two alone. She takes a glass and pours some scotch into it. She sets the bottle down and holds the glass in one hand and grabs her husband's hand with the other, pulling him after her to sit on the couch once again. They face each other and Tris smiles.
"Not everything that is happening in the world is fair. And most things good and worthy are achieved through trial and sacrifice. We can't change the game, just the players. Will someone once put our safety and very lives in jeopardy? Most likely. But it's up to us to decide who."