Ok, I'm back. For now. I am so sorry, guys. I had a look at my alerts a few days ago and saw I was nearing a hundred. I feel so terrible right now, but here's the new chapter. It took a little bit of digging to get back into this story. As I said in my author's note, I had a lot of other stuff going on- starting college for one. :P Plus I'm slightly ADD and got into other stories of a Loki/OC nature. :/ So here it is! I've kept everyone waiting far too long and I really feel awful about it! Forgive me?
Ash let out a huff as she sat back down on the bridge of the Helicarrier. It had been two hours since she had been anywhere else in the great airship and she was at a loss as to what to do. She didn't exactly fit in with the other agents onboard, her long brown hair flowed freely down her shoulders and her blue jeans and sneakers didn't exactly match the SHIELD jumpsuits either. She drummed her fingers on the large metal table, one hand coming to rest her chin in a few seconds later.
Agent Coulson had walked back on deck, hands behind his back as he made his way directly into the control section towards Director Fury. Out of the corner of her eye, Ash was able to make out Captain Rogers coming in behind Coulson. She held her breath, waiting awkwardly as he took a seat beside her.
He really was good-looking. She couldn't remember a time when she had gotten butterflies simply because of the way a man had looked on the outside. There had been that time during her freshman year in college with a fella in her anatomy lab, but other than that she had always been more of a substance kind of girl. Needless to say, that had left her quite barren in the boyfriend department. She had never had the want for one… so why was it so damn hard to formulate a sentence when she looked at this man?
She felt like she needed to say something though. They were both sitting at the same table alone after all. Wouldn't it be a bit too bitchy not to say anything?
"Have you… heard anything?" she asked quietly to the super soldier. Steve obviously didn't hear her, and she floundered a bit at first as she tried to salvage her dignity. All of the other agents hadn't been paying her a lick of attention, so she didn't feel too awkward when she realized that. "Did you hear anything about the Tesseract?"
Steve heard her that time, and he looked her way with raised eyebrows before he shrugged. "Naw. We probably won't hear anything for a good while. Banner is in the lab as we speak, but I just came back and he wasn't any closer to finding it than earlier."
Ash nodded as she looked down at her hands. "I haven't felt anything either, but I'm starting to think my abilities won't be able to locate it."
Steve shrugged, glancing down at a golden wristwatch under the brown leather of his jacket. "Well, we'll need to find it soon. I don't know what this Loki guy is planning but he probably won't wait around forever."
Ash nodded, feeling blood rush to her face. Why was this so hard? "So… what's it like? Being a doctor and all?" Steve said quietly. Ash looked to him, chewing on her lower lip as she tried to formulate an answer.
"It's alright," she said softly, crossing her arms carefully and leaning into the table. She ran a hand through her hair, and cringed as the ends caught in her fingertips. She really needed a shower. "I think I get more joy from it than most do." Steve nodded, meeting her gaze. She felt even more heat rush to her cheeks at that and she looked back down at her hands in an attempt to regain her composure.
"Taking joy from a job is important," Steve agreed, resting a palm on the table. "The feeling isn't fun when you feel useless."
Ash tilted her head at that. "You sound like you are speaking from personal experience."
Steve filled his cheeks with air, letting it out slowly as he sat back a bit in his seat. "I am."
"Captain America, Super Soldier, has felt useless?" Ash said incredulously. "I'll bet you were the golden boy back in your time." As soon as the words left her mouth, Ash regretted them. Because where most men would have looked back at her with a cocky grin, Steve looked back at her with a profound sadness.
"Not… not always," he said quietly. "I had my fair share of disappointment. Let's leave it at that."
Ash licked her lips, her embarrassment quite evident on her face. "I'm sorry," she said after a while.
Steve shrugged. "No big deal," he said as he made to stand up. "I'll see you around, okay?"
Ash smiled wryly, nodding as Steve went to stand down in the main part of the bridge. There were so many secrets, but in a way, Ash felt connected to this man. She wasn't sure what it was, but she liked him. He wasn't like most men, but then again, he wasn't most men. He was a puzzle; a puzzle that Ash fully intended to solve.
ooOOoo
"If it's not too much trouble."
Steve was wrenched from his thoughts quite suddenly as he looked down at Agent Coulson. The super soldier had been on the deck for the past ten minutes, his conversation with Dr. Wilson bringing back painful memories that he didn't care to think about in that moment.
Steve nodded absently, trying and failing to figure out what Coulson had been talking to him about. The SHIELD agent smiled up at Rogers happily as he turned back to look out over the agents.
"It's a vintage set," Coulson said a few seconds later. Oh, so he was talking about his trading cards again… "Took me twenty years to collect."
Steve's eyes widened considerably as he looked down at Coulson. In all honesty, he felt quite… awkward around the little man.
"We got a hit!" Agent Sitwell's voice came from over at the tracking table, and both Steve and Coulson's heads shot up.
"Talk to me," Fury said as he made his way from the control panels in the center of the room.
"319 Konigstrasse. Stuttgart, Germany. He's not exactly hiding."
Dr. Wilson had come over to the group at that point, arms crossed as she tossed her long dark brown hair over her shoulder. Fury placed a hand on the back of Sitwell's chair, looking at the picture of what looked like the man in the files Steve had come across.
Ash licked her lips, glancing over at Fury. "What do we do now, Director?" Coulson said in his clipped tone.
Fury glanced back at Ash, then looked at Captain Rogers. "Captain, you're up."
ooOOoo
Ash wasn't sure what made her pipe up. She had never been one to volunteer for anything in her life. So how she found herself raising her hand as Rogers left the room to suit up, she had no idea.
"What, Wilson?" Fury said as he started walking back to the table above the bridge at a fast pace.
Ash followed, easily matching the Director's stride. As one of the few female surgeons back home, she had learned how to hold her own when dealing in a man's realm of work. "Sir, I think I should go down there too."
Fury raised the eyebrow of his good eye before his face settled back into an amused expression. "Why?" was all he said.
Ash took in a deep breath. Her face had gone bright red again as she tried to talk and she knew if she didn't watch it she would get even more flustered. "Because I'm immune to Loki's scepter. That was proven back at the research facility-"
"I'm gonna have to shoot that down, Doctor. You aren't a field agent. You are a civilian doctor that we don't have any more need for, quite frankly."
Ash furrowed her brow, her temper rising at Fury's last statement. "Sir, I can get in and out of that party easily. I'm female, I'm inconspicuous, and Loki thinks I'm dead. He knows who Captain Rogers is and will be expecting him, no doubt. I can at least be an eye on the inside to help you all out."
Fury crossed his arms, listening as she continued.
"I think there's something more to the Tesseract than just an energy source, Director."
"That is none of your concer-"
"I'm connected to it. We all know that. It's obvious. Otherwise I'd be dead after that blast I sustained when Loki tried to kill me. But something in my gut is telling me that that party is where I need to be."
Fury pressed his lips together in a fine line, taking a deep breath as he thought through what she had said. "If I send you, you will be in a red zone. Loki is dangerous and he's a maniac that obviously has no regard for human life. You get in there, you'll have communication with us, but you're on your own until Captain Rogers shows up."
Ash inhaled slowly, her heart racing in her chest as she nodded. "I understand, Director."
Fury nodded, studying her resolve on the subject for a moment longer as he tapped his fingers on the table. It felt like much longer than a few seconds to Ash. "Alright then. We'll scramble a chopper to get you down there. You act just like any other civilian. Do not approach the hostile. Is that perfectly clear?"
"Yes sir," she replied.
It wasn't until after Agent Hill was leading her away from the bridge that Ash realized what a stupid thing she had done.
And there's the chapter everyone has been waiting for :/ Sorry so very very much, guys! On another note, I realize that it's highly unrealistic that Fury would send Ash down to Stuttgart given her background, but it was the only way I could think of to get some of her powers and capabilities to come to light. *winkwink* Plus, it's fanfiction. So anything can happen right?
Is anyone still interested in this? I plan on continuing if the interest is there. I have this whole psychological thing that I want to add in as well.
~Sirius