Dedicated to Kyla, who doesn't understand humanity any better than I do
CHAPTER FIVE
The next morning Sharon found herself at her desk in the Tesseract with Angela circling the Tesseract and looking at it critically, occasionally jotting a note down on her notepad.
They'd been doing much of the same for the past two days since the briefing. Angel was an avid note taker, not wanting to miss a single detail that may need to be later looked at. Sharon was more of an action sort, she knew what had to be done and wanted to get right to it. So while Angel took notes, she kept herself occupied by playing tetris on her computer.
The door opened to the lab and the girls looked up to see Steve enter. He smiled and nodded cordially to Sharon before walking over to Angel. Sharon maintained her sloth pose and playing on the computer while surreptitiously watching the two interact out of the corner of her eye.
"Good Morning Captain, anything we help you with?" Angel asked with a smile.
"Nothing really, I was just checking in to see if there was anything I could help you ladies with," He said, "Mind you I'm no scientist." He chuckled.
Sharon snorted, "Neither are we." Angel threw a glare over at Sharon. Steve looked momentarily confused at the comment. Angel turned to him with a smile, "Actually you can help."
She walked over to her desk and pulled out a file, "I read your file and the file concerning Hydra's use of the Tesseract, I was wondering if we may be able to sit down and talk about the experience and what you might remember? Unless it would be too painful for you, I know you're still adjusting…" Angel said tentatively, wincing internally that she might have said something to anger the Captain.
Steve smiled, "It would be a pleasure, maybe there is something useful in my head that we don't know about."
"That's not all that's useful about you Captain…" Sharon muttered again, fighting to keep a chuckle from escaping. Angel through a disbelieving look in her friend's direction.
"Why don't we find somewhere else to speak Captain? We can make ourselves comfortable, I don't know how long this will take." She asked, trying to use her natural charm to her best advantage.
"I have some time, how about we talk over breakfast?" He suggested.
"It's a date." Angel said with a smile.
"You bet your ass it's a date." Sharon muttered again and smirked. Angel's eyes widened while Captain looked over at her friend confusedly, "Let's go now!" She grabbed what she needed and guided Captain to the door, throwing a look over her shoulder at Sharon.
"Is Miss Carver alright?" Cap asked as they walked down the corridor to the cafeteria.
Angel rolled her eyes and nodded, "Oh she's fine alright, she was just being a smartass. She's incredibly bored at the moment."
"Working with a league of super heroes isn't exciting enough for her?" Cap said with a chuckle.
"Oh no, that part excites her. It's the waiting around doing research and taking notes part that kills her. She wants to be actually doing something rather than dealing with the analysis portion."
"I can respect that," Cap said with a nod, "It's a necessary evil."
"That's what I tell her," Angel said with a smile.
The two grabbed their respective meal choices and chose a table in the far corner of the dining area where they were least likely to be disturbed. Angel didn't want Steve to feel uncomfortable talking about Hydra and his experiences with others around.
"Right well shall we get to it?" Angel said without preamble.
Steve looked at her for a moment and then chuckled, "I had a friend like you, cut through the crap and went straight to the point."
"Well I figure the quicker we get through talking about your hydra experience the less painful it will be."
Steve smiled and leaned over and grabbed Angel's hand, "It's not painful, it's nice being able to talk about it, I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen. Don't feel like you have to walk on egg shells around me."
Angel blushed and nodded, really enjoying the feel of his hand around hers.
"Besides," Steve said, leaning back and letting go of her hand, "If we rush it than I won't have an excuse to ask you to breakfast again."
Angel blushed and giggled, "Okay, how about you decide where we start?"
"Let's start with how Hydra was founded…"
From there Angel was lost in Steve's stories. Starting from his personal knowledge of the foundation of Hydra and how they found the Tesseract. From his accounts, the Red Skull only used the Tesseract as a power source. It charged their weaponry and was used to vaporize victims. The Red Skull seemed to see the power only as a weapon, he never went into fully researching it's other purposes and abilities.
The part that really interested Angel was The Red Skull's death. Steve recounted how he had grasped the Tesseract cube in his hand and suddenly the cube came to life and revealed a portal into what looked like another dimension all together.
"Did you see what was on the other side of the portal?" Angel asked, too immersed in the story to even take notes.
Steve shook his head, "I didn't see much, it looked like space, with a lot of starts and a couple planets. Mostly I had my eyes on Schmidt who was deteriorating at a rapid pace."
"Well he was holding pure energy, I'm not surprised it killed him," Angel said with a shrug.
"So… want to meet again tomorrow morning?" Steve asked hopefully.
"Do you have more to tell Cap?" Angel asked, gathering items on her tray to take over to the disposal station.
"Well… not really. But I figure breakfast is the most important part of the day and I hate eating alone so I was wondering if you would like to join me again."
Angel looked up with wide eyes, she wasn't entirely sure how to react to such a situation. Sharon was used to the come ons and dealing with men; Angel always shot them down before they could get as far as asking her to breakfast.
"I would like that," She said quietly, feeling her entire face heat up.
Steve's face broke out into a smile and he nodded, "I'll stop by the lab tomorrow morning, same time?"
"Sounds good to me." Angel said, knowing that when she would tell Sharon she would be off the walls with excitement for her.
As soon as the door closed behind Steve and Angel, Sharon let out an amused giggle and shook her head: her friend had it bad.
She'd been waiting for years now to get Angel to go on anything that could be construed as a date. When she saw the opportunity for Angel, she took it.
She smiled again, teasing Angel about it was going to be fun. She was looking forward to grilling her for all the details and trying to find a way to set the two of them up. She wanted Angel happy, and she trusted that the Cap could provide that for her.
"You seem to like teasing your friend." A voice said from behind her. Sharon whirled around to find Barton leaning on the wall looking at her.
"I wasn't aware that I was going to have SHEILD agents sneaking up and spying on me," She said, sizing him up with her eyes.
"Just observing your work, I'm sure your game of tetris is detrimental to the Tesseract and needs a great mind like yours."
Sharon raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her chair, "I'm not allowed my amusements?"
Barton held his hands up in a peace gesture, "Just making an observation."
"An observation that questions my intellect and character." Sharon said, narrowing her eyes, "Do you have a problem with me Agent Barton?"
"I'm curious, how to two fine arts students become the heads of a science based mission." Clint said, meandering around Sharon's desk.
Sharon didn't answer, she followed him with her eyes and watched his every move, "I see, so you have a problem with being kept out of the loop. Seems like you and Tony have a lot of issues with control."
Barton leaned over her desk, placing his hands palms down on the surface and looked her straight in the eye, "I don't know what you're hiding or why you're here. For some reason Director Fury trusts you enough to head this. I'm going to tell you now that I'm going to find out why and what it is that you are hiding from the rest of us."
Sharon leaned forward in her chair, bringing her face close to Clint's until they were only a few inches away, "Bring it on cupcake."
With that she stood and walked out with a smirk on her face, leaving a dumbstruck Clint in the same spot. He smiled and chuckled, mystery or not, the girl was affecting him in more than one way…