Washington DC wasn't too far from New York, and within twenty four hours of the so-called New York massacre, the President of the United States came to inspect the damage and to meet the Avengers that saved the town and the world from complete destruction, only to find that all the super heroes had parted their ways and the war criminal had been taken by the Asgardians, taken home so to speak.
Weeks later, a makeshift shrine had been made to commemorate those killed in the New York massacre, rivaling in size to the Twin Towers memorial, and the President had also put two million dollars aside to the construction of a more permanent memorial to those lost.
However a lot of folks left New York, finding that between PTSD and lost family and friends, they could no longer live there, and had swarmed into the country, or the next closest big city, Washington DC.
And that meant that he had to lie low, if anybody found out he was here, they would form some sort of lynch mob and go after him with shotguns and flaming torches, although Bella had insisted that things like that only happen in Texas.
She had also said that it was her duty and her job to protect him no matter how annoying or impulsive he was proving to be, and that he would look good in a Colombian Neck-tie. She had then proceeded to polish her sidearm and glare at him menacingly with a small smile on her face that seemed to dare him to do something stupid. And that was before they had gotten to DC.
She did drive much faster than she should, and overtook the other cars in the convoy, and sped well ahead of them to reach DC three days early. Granted she also took only ten minutes for lunch and ran mostly on drive-thru coffee, no wonder she got to the destination early. And Loki had developed a liking for steak sandwiches smothered in barbecue sauce.
She seemed to be the rebel agent. She dressed differently to the others, she spoke differently to the others; however she still had the chip on her shoulder that came with being a SHIELD agent and being able to carry a gun. She wasn't afraid of what she said, and she wasn't scared of the consequences. SHIELD must have been too scared of her to smack her into line, or afraid of the consequences, perhaps. But despite appearances, she seemed, to him anyway, to be one of their most brilliant.
"C'mon, Boss, what's the point of being a SHIELD agent if you can't drive really fast?" she began to pace around her large lounge room and Loki watched her from the couch, wondering when the floor would fall in. she was talking to Fury, and was not by any means impressed, and he got the feeling that they were very incompatible, which made him wonder why Fury had recruited her personally.
"Okay, we get to shoot bad guys, but that's only half of it," she rolled her eyes, "What could he do to me? Talk me to death? I hate to break it to you, Boss, but my guest's not really being a chatty Cathy" They were talking about him now, "he may be some ancient, mythical fucker, but he has no powers, I'm safe," she sighed, "so; I removed the shackles, fine. But he is hardly a danger now, is he?"
It seemed that for once, somebody was on his side, "I'm right here, you know," he smiled slightly; perhaps she would become a great friend of his one day. She was not afraid of him, or anything.
She covered the receiver, "shut it, you," she shook her head, "no, that was just Loki being annoying again, you know, he does that." She glanced at him, shaking her head.
"Yes, Boss," She said, "no Boss."
"Three bags full, Boss," Loki arched an eyebrow. She ran a finger across her throat, looking him in the eye.
"I do not have a readout of his mental state yet, but he has done nothing to prove to me that he is dangerous, at least not yet," she smiled, "so no need to send out the fellas in the fancy white coats yet. Yeah, I'll keep you updated. Later."
She tossed her phone on the coffee table and sat beside Loki on the couch. She sighed and leaned back, "what a tosser."
"Excuse me?"
"Fury's a tosser," Bella repeated. She grabbed the remote control for her television and switched it on, "he hates my guts because I keep calling him out. I think I only keep my job because the shit would hit the fan otherwise."
"What is the significance of shit hitting a 'fan'?"
She grinned at him again and pinched his cheek, "you're so adorable," he drew away from her although he had been burned, repulsed, "when the shit hits the fan, everybody near gets sprayed."
Loki nodded, understanding a little more, "and why would this happen if Nicholas was to terminate your employment?"
She smiled again, sadly this time, "I'm a war hero," she answered stiffly, "let me show you something."
She picked up a case on the table and opened it up. Inside was a little purple ribbon with a medal on the end.
"What is this?" he took the case from her hands and examined the medal. It sure looked important enough. He read the small card inside.
Bella Rodriguez.
I thank you for your bravery, since no one else will. I wish you to know that nobody blames you. It is my fault you were caught in that blast, and I will take full responsibility when it comes to the JAG inquest. I know you blame yourself, but don't. I am to blame.
Captain John 'Willis' McLean.
She took the card from his hand and gave him a glare of ice; clearly he wasn't supposed to read it.
"I was injured in action six years ago, an IED blast in Helmut Province," she explained, "I was bomb disposal, so I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. Four good men lost their lives in that convoy, but not me," she mentioned to the medal, "that's called a Purple Heart. I got it for getting injured."
"I should not have asked," he said shyly.
She smiled wryly, "it was a long time ago," she closed the case and put it back on the table. She flicked the TV channels, from soaps to news, "Fury can't fire me because of the backlash he would get from the agency and the heat that mister Prez will give him."
He nodded, "I am sorry."
She looked directly at him for a moment, and smiled wryly, "your brother was right," she grinned at the look on his face, which was somewhere between shock and disbelief, "he assured me that you weren't a bad guy. I believe him, and I'm an idiot, I know."
He smiled. Thor still trusted him, after all he had done. It was almost touching, it was touching that he had attempted to appeal to his jailer.
"Next to come on Fox News, is the Destroyer really back on Earth?" the woman spat out the headline through some grid that looked like a rhino's but crack with nylon stitches in it, obviously reporting from some sort of state penitentiary.
"After a tip off from an unknown source, we recorded this film outside a small New Mexico town, the site of the Destroyer massacre in 2011."
He arched an eyebrow and Bella sat up further to watch.
The footage was of the meet in the desert, of the six armored SHIELD cars and her own black sedan. She saw three blurry figures on the edge of the crater, and identified them as Thor, Odin and Loki, and the six cars encroached on them. A few minutes later, so did hers. They had captured the entire, supposedly clandestine meet. How on earth did they get past the security, and how did they know anyway?
She grabbed her phone out of her cap on the coffee table, and pressed one, speed-dialing Fury. It took a few seconds to get answered, "Boss, we have a problem."
"What problem, Rodriguez?"
"Turn on the TV," she demanded.
There was a slight pause. Fury must have been doing what he had been told to do because there was the hiss of speakers and the same reporter's tinny voice.
"Damn."
"Damn doesn't cut it," she shot back, "we have a leak, and if New Mexico has been compromised, how many of our other operations have been as well."
"Can you handle the detail?"
"Of course I can handle the detail," Bella shook her head and groaned, "as long as you whitewash the media and stop the crackpots from getting up on top of the Empire State with a Barrett."