Disclaimer: I don't own Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Agents of SHIELD, etc. I own Jamie.

Chapter 24
The First of Many

The planet was desolate. The rocky terrain was difficult to maneuver, and it was even more difficult to walk with the pouring rain shooting down ontop of her, feeling like pellets being thrown onto her skin. Geysers shot out of the ground, riding twenty, thirty, forty feet into the air. The wind was atrocious, making it very difficult for her to walk, and prohibiting her from flying whatsoever. The sky was black and gray with storm clouds, but on the horizon was an red-orange glow, highly unnatural for anywhere on Earth.

Jamie looked around, confused as to where exactly she was. All she knew was that she was cold, alone, and lost. She had no idea how she even got wherever she was. She just had to get out of that rain that was soaking her, and chilling her to the bone.

And Jamie hadn't been cold since the day she died.

Wondering out the deserted area, Jamie wondered if anybody had ever inhabited the land around her, wherever it was. If the whether was different, and it was occupied with shelter and places to live, perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad.

Jamie's aimless wandering came to a fault. Is that….Jamie wondered, her eyes landing on a structure in the distance. Is that a building? She wasn't exactly sure, but if it was, it would be a place for her to get out of the rain and perhaps try and look for help to figure out where she was. And if it wasn't a building, she could still take refuge from the rain. The last thing she needed was getting sick.

Upon getting close, Jamie could, indeed, say that the structure was a building. It almost resembled Greek or Roman styles temples, though Jamie wasn't really an expert in that area. Al she knew was it was big, with large cascading pillars and open entry points. She walked inside ringing out her hair and her clothes the best she could, but she couldn't help but feel the cool draft inside the large, dark structure.

There was something about the darkness that told her to run. It made her uneasy, but at the same time, she felt obligated to go in further. It was like something inside her wanted her there, wanted to consume her into the dreariness of the whole region.

So, despite her better judgement, Jamie trekked what through the building, and the inside was almost as dangerous as the land outside, with the added bonus of little horrid lizard creatures that completely ignored the woman as she trudged through the land they claimed for their home.

She came upon a large door, overgrown with whatever plan was covering the walls. The place was unlike anything Jamie had ever seen before. It was unbelievable. If she wasn't feeling everything, she wouldn't believe she was actually there.

Why, where, and how she got there were still two unanswered questions.

Jamie pushed the doors open and walked through, her eyes instantly landing on a pedisle on the other side of the room. The pedisle, and the item perched on top, were the only things in the vast room. The pedisle contained some sort of blue-violet field, protecting whatever was so important that needed to be protected in such a thing, as well as in such a barren wasteland of a place.

Her blue eyes, flaring far more than usual, were unable to tear away from the object. She didn't even realize she was moving towards it. Upon further inspection, she figured out that the orb inside was cast from metal, though it wasn't evenly cast. The metal almost looked like an orbal nest, but perfectly round and sturdy.

Once in front of the item, Jamie couldn't help but lift her hand and reach for it,completely disregarding the protective field around it. As it happened, the field did not react to her whatsoever. She picked up the orb and brought it out of its containment pedisle.

It was heavier than it looked, weighing down in her hands. Jamie turned the item around in her hands, her mind trying to determine what exactly it was. There weren't any buttons. It didn't turn and open. She didn't quite understand what the purpose of it was.

That was when her blue eyes caught sight of the faint purple glow inside of the object through the small empty spaces where the metal wasn't. She raised it higher to her face to try and get a better look inside through the cracks, but she couldn't make anything in particular out. But as the seconds ticked by as she continued to look at the dim light, her pulse increased, her breathing picking up the pace.

At first the light looked calming, but the more she stared, unable to look away, the more uneasy Jamie felt. Something about the light was off putting, dangerous, and she knew she wanted nothing to do with it.

Jamie moved to put the object back where she had taken it from, but before she could slip it back into the protective field, the glow intensified, completely engulfing Jamie in a familiar burning sensation, causing her to scream out in utter pain.

Jamie jumped, her eyes shooting open. She sat up on her couch, her breathing uneven. She glanced around her for her surroundings. A shaky hand went through her hair, pushing it out of her face.

"Jamie? You okay?" Steve asked. He was sitting in the comfortable armchair, his sketchpad on his lap in one of the rare moments it wasn't lost in thought or searching for clues on Bucky. He looked at her slightly concern, though not overly so seeing as they weren't in any danger.

"Huh?" She asked, though she didn't exactly expect an answer. She heard what he said, but after what she had just seen and felt, she wasn't completely taking everything in. Jamie groaned, rubbing her eyes tiredly. From the clock on the wall, she had been asleep for a couple hours, but she felt as if she hadn't slept in days. She groaned again, shifting so that her feet were on the floor and she wasn't taking up the whole couch.

"Hey, you okay?" Steve asked once more.

"Mmm," Jamie hummed, rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, just a, uh, weird dream. A really weird dream."

"Good weird or bad weird?" Steve pressed. He got up from his spot and moved to sit next to her on the couch, rubbing her back. He could see how confused and uneasy she was, and it was the one of the easiest ways to help relax her.

"Bad weird," Jamie admitted, subconsciously leaning into his side.

"Nightmare?" He asked, a bit more concerned, like his old self.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I mean, it wasn't really bad, but it just left me with a bad taste, you know?"

"Yeah, I know the sort," Steve said, pulling her further into his side by wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "You're freezing. You're never cold,."

She curled into him, trying to steal his body heat for herself. "Yeah, it was cold and raining," she muttered. "It felt so real."

"Well, you're awake now," he said, smoothing out her hair.

"So are you," Jamie pointed out. "When was the last time you slept, Steve?"

Steve remained silent. He wouldn't look at her, his eyes directed towards the window. Jamie sat back up, his arm still around her. She gently placed a comforting hand on his knee, giving him a reassuring squeeze. He was there comforting her over something that wasn't important when he needed the comforting more with something ten times worse.

"Steve, talk to me," Jamie said.

"Tony called," he said. "He wants us to move back up to New York City. Stay in his new Tower. He's calling it Avenger's Tower."

"I don't see why that's such a bad thing," Jamie said. "Except for the fact that we'll have to deal with Tony more, but that's not really all that big of a deal."

"He wants to help track down HYDRA facilities," he went on. "Help Thor look for Loki's scepter."

Jamie was confused. Everything she heard him say sounded rather appealing to her. A free place to stay. Good people to room with. Take down HYDRA. It all sounded pretty sweet to her. "Again, I don't really see the problem, Steve."

"I know we have to stop HYDRA, but…" Steve muttered, his free hand rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Time spent looking for HYDRA takes away fro trying to find Bucky."

"Oh," she muttered. "Okay. I get it now. You feel like you're abandoning your best friend."

Steve's blue eyes turned and connect with her own. He looked far more vulnerable than Jamie had ever seen before. "Yeah," he admitted.

"Look, that's the last thing that's happening here, Steve," Jamie told him. "Look at it this way, you already have Falcon running around on leads. While he does that, we can help take care of HYDRA. And when we're not, we can train and look some more, right? You can delegate, you know. We're both happy to help."

"But you have Cerberus to hunt," Steve muttered.

"Yes, but we also have the Brits looking for them too," Jamie said. "Just because they're not doing with under Fury's command now, doesn't mean they're not doing it. When they find something, they'll let me know and call me in, but until then, I'm all yours."

"You're too good to me," Steve said. He leaned in, placing a gentle, lingering kiss to her temple. It seemed so intimate because of the emotional subject. Her cheeks tinted red, which hadn't happened in quite a while.

"You deserve every bit of it, Steve," she assured him. "Now, why don't we call Tony, huh? Let him know we expect him to pay for the moving truck…"

This is a really short chapter, and I'm really sorry for that. I had it planned out several different ways before it finally went this way, and I think I'm happiest this way. It's short, but important in several ways in moving the story line forward. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it all the same!

Thanks go to the following individuals for their reviews on the previous chapter:

xenocanaan- It does a bit, more worries him than anything, but it was really this chapter that snaps him back to his normal self more. I mean, it'll take some time, but the next chapter show some improvement for him, though not fully out of the funk. One step at a time, I suppose.

ShatteredSoul37- lol, I can't tell you that, because then it'll give it away. But feel free to let me know who you think it is. I've had a bunch of guesses, all from Colin to Killgrave.

Jedi Jelsa777- The interview has been something I've had done before Cap 2 was even started, actually. I've wanted to do it so long!

autumnfall1989- They do have good chemistry, don't they?

eli7777- I almost forgot to put the flowers in there at the end. It was a last minute addition that I've very glad you liked.

Jo- 6 days? Really? Holy crap! I have to wait until the 5th to go and see it at the midnight opening at my theater! Not fair. You lucky, lucky duck!

CJ/OddBall: Rose of Sharon is just a type of flower that is on a blush or a small tree-ish plant. I have one outside my house. I'm just randomly picking flowers at this point. They used to have meaning...Now I'm just pulling out of my ass, lol. Well, Jamie did talk to Steve about his behavior in this chapter. He's not in the next one, but after that he's slowly starting to get back to himself. After all, Jamie makes a valid point in this chapter. Oh, I so would've messed up my words in an interview as well. I was once interviewed randomly for a college thing and it was horrible! The creeper gets worse too. The only reason she hasn't blown up is because she's embarrassed about being effected with something like this. She's killed people, seen her closest friends die and have them turn against her, and this is effecting her on the same level, so it makes her feel weak. That's pretty much why she hasn't really talked about it to anyone...And yeah, I'm stoked for the movie to come out! It come out right after my last week of classes, and right before my finals, but I'm so excited to go see it.

Queen of Erebor- I almost forgot to put the necklace in. It's been something that I've been meaning to do somewhere in the story, but I couldn't figure out exactly where I wanted it. This seemed liked a good enough situation.

MidnightPenguin- There's a lot of stalker gifts to come, and it gets worse too. That's in two chapters. ;)

seasidewriter1- I know. I've always wanted to have an interview. I had it planned and in my head the actress Krysten Ritter was who I based her after. I loved her in Transformers, and so I had her be Cat. Even threw in the Australian part, and then what does Jessica Jones go and do? They case her for Trish! It was too late to go and change it, but I just thought it was funny. She might go on Trish Talk, but I'm not sure yet. Jessica Jones does come up soon though, so there's a plus.

UrsaEider- Lucky! Civil War doesn't come out here until Friday! I have to wait until FRIDAY! So no spoilers, you here? ;) I'm really glad you thought about Jamie and how she would fit into the rest of the movies though.