Sometimes he hated dating a wizard.
There was so much about Alexis that Steve loved. Her brilliant mind. Her compassionate spirit. Her quirky and innocent sense of humor.
Of course, sometimes her sense of humor was the problem...
Every once in a while, Alexis liked to 'test' him. She would give him a general location to meet up, then leave a trail of 'breadcrumbs' for him to follow until he discovered where she was really hiding. An 'odd sock' item, out of place in the environment. A strange sound. A familiar smell, wafting in on the breeze. All these clues would eventually lead him to his beloved.
Who, today, was sitting in a rowboat anchored in the middle of Prospect Park Lake. He sighed, smiling even as his exasperation showed in his voice. "Alexis!"
Alexis chuckled as she turned to the direction that she knew her boyfriend would be coming from. "Hi Steve!" she yelled back.
"Are we going to talk like this all day?" he called out to her, knowing the answer even as he asked the question.
"You could come out here and join me!" Alexis countered.
Steve rolled his eyes. Alexis *knew* that she had anchored the boat just far enough away that he could jump into the boat if he wanted to. But that would mean jumping into the boat...and potentially revealing to anyone watching that he was the 'mysterious' Captain America. No, he thought, there has to be some other way for me to get out there...
A flash of metal glinting against the late morning sun caught his attention. There...Alexis, you little sneak... A second rowboat was moored by the shore twenty feet away from his location, surrounded by tall rushes and covered in enough leaves and stray tree branches that it would have been nearly impossible for anyone else to find.
Steve cleared the branches from the boat and rowed it out to meet his girlfriend, who first tied the two boats together, then pressed a cold beer into the hands of her boyfriend before climbing into the leaf-covered rowboat. "Did you *really* think I was going to jump?" asked Steve.
"No," Alexis teased, shaking her head. "But I knew you would be *tempted* to jump..."
Steve rolled his eyes before finally kissing Alexis in greeting. "Good morning," he purred with a smile.
"Good morning," Alexis purred back before silencing her boyfriend as she returned and deepened the kiss.
"Good morning, Captain!"
It wasn't the 'Captain' that caught Steve's attention. It was the familiar ring of the voice that *called* him Captain. A voice that, he thought, he would never hear again. He stood up in the boat, scanning the area for the source of the greeting. Fog started to slowly roll across the surface of the lake, causing Steve to worry further. "Alexis," he quietly warned, "it's SHIELD. Watch it."
"I could get us out of here," Alexis offered in a quiet whisper.
"No!" Steve insisted, his voice barely coming above a whisper itself. "This fog is bad enough. I won't put you at risk."
"Captain," the voice called out again, "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. Innocent lives are depending on this. Can we talk? Somewhere more...private?"
Alexis and Steve looked to each other in a moment of unspoken communication and sighed in defeat, knowing that neither of them could live with themselves if they left now. Not if innocent lives were at stake. Alexis called up a gentle breeze to push them in the direction of the voice, then untied the connected boats so Steve could 'row' them back to shore.
When they arrived, Steve offered a hand to Alexis to 'steady' her as she got out of the boat, then turned to face an asian woman he didn't recognize...and a middle-aged gentleman he did recognize. "Agent Phil Coulson," Steve greeted the 'older' man warily. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
"I was," Coulson replied matter-of-factly.
When Coulson didn't volunteer further information on the subject, Steve pushed further. "Are you still with SHIELD?" he asked.
Coulson nodded. "This is Agent Melinda May, a member of my team."
Steve nodded in acknowledgement of the asian woman's introduction but made no move to greet her formally. "What is this about, *Agent* Coulson?" May's gaze fell on the redhead at Coulson's side. It was a move that Steve recognized instantly. "This is Alexis, my girlfriend," he told Agent May. "Anything you can say in front of me, you can say in front of her."
May opened her mouth to protest discussing SHIELD business in front of a civilian, but was silenced by her boss. "It's all right," Coulson reassured May. "I believe this may involve Alexis' father...?"
While the comment may have placated May, it sent Steve and Alexis on high alert. Both the superhero and his girlfriend tensed up immediately. "What would an agency like SHIELD want with a 'celebrity' writer?" Alexis asked, trying to make the question sound as casual as possible.
"Nothing," Coulson replied. He drew in a deep breath and let it out, hoping that his intel was correct. In the most formal language he could think of, Coulson got down on one knee before he announced his intentions. "I am humbly requesting the assistance of the honored Guardians of Shangri La."
May shook her head, blinking back her disbelief as she tried and failed to not stare at her boss. What is he *doing*? Who is he talking about? she thought.
Steve and Alexis tensed up even further. "Why do you think I would know how to contact the Guardians?" asked Steve.
"I know you and the Avengers helped the Guardians fight that dragon attack a while back," Coulson replied. "And since you are, evidently, dating the Sifāng's daughter..."
Steve and Alexis sighed in defeat, knowing that Coulson's information was accurate. "What do you want from them?" asked Steve.
"A member of my team is dying," said Coulson. "The doctors have said there's nothing more they can do for her. I was hoping that the Yīzhì might be able to help. SHIELD doesn't know I'm here. I'm only asking because..."
Alexis' attention trailed off as a familiar bengal tiger bowed at her feet. Honored Sifāng-Nú'ér, the tiger's mind-voice greeted Alexis, it is good to see you again.
While Alexis couldn't help but stare at the cat at her feet, she had to stop herself from dropping down to get closer to the spirit animal. What are you doing here?
I am here to...vouch for the warrior Coulson, the tiger replied. He is good and trustworthy.
So you want us to help him? asked Alexis. The tiger nodded. What about Agent May?
As trustworthy as the agency she works for, the tiger replied.
Having gotten an earful and a half about how much SHIELD could be trusted, Alexis knew exactly how they should proceed. Got it. Thanks. Out of the corner of her eye, Alexis noticed that the group's attention had completely focused on her...so she took the opportunity to take control of the discussion. "Do you know how to get to City Island?" she asked Coulson, her attention entirely focused on him.
"I...do?" asked Coulson, confused by the direct question.
"Then go to the abandoned lot at the end of Marine Street and wait for further instructions," Alexis replied. "Go *alone* or the Guardians will do nothing to help your friend. And if you know as much as you claim to know, then you know that they will know if you are truly alone. Is that clear?"
Coulson nodded, thrilled to see some hope for Skye for the first time since her shooting. Steve, though, was growing more confused by the minute. "Lex?"
"A...mutual friend just vouched for Agent Coulson here," Alexis replied.
Coulson looked like he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him. There was only one being that could have 'vouched' for him in so short a time. "You saw...?" he asked, not wanting to admit to his 'imaginary' ally in front of his fellow SHIELD agent.
Alexis nodded. "How soon can you get to City Island?"
"Within the hour," Coulson replied.
"Then my father and his team will meet you there...*if* you follow my instructions."
Coulson nodded, understanding the implicit threat in Alexis' last words. "Thank you, Ms. Castle. That's all I can ask."
May finally found her voice again after the two teams separated from each other. "What the hell happened back there, Coulson?" asked May, her nerves fraying from feeling so out of the loop. "What did you just agree to?"
"Saving Skye," Coulson replied matter-of-factly. He climbed into the classic car he affectionately called 'Lola', not letting May get into her earlier passenger side seat. "Go back to the bus," he instructed May. "I'll be back soon."
May had to resist the urge to punch the nearest tree as she watched 'Lola' fly northward to Coulson's meeting. She found great comfort in being the one who held all the cards. She *needed* to be the one who was in control, and feeling so out of control...nothing frustrated her more. She opened a channel on her communicator. "Ward?" she demanded, a little more forcefully than necessary, "I need you to find me everything you can on some group called the Guardians of Shangri La..."
#
Steve was having trouble keeping his jaw clenched. His emotions were flipping between shock, anger and confusion so quickly that he was rapidly developing a headache as a result. "What the hell was that?!" Steve pushed Alexis, his tone demanding an immediate answer. "I was just about to turn them down! Who vouched for Coulson? Ryan?"
Alexis shook her head. "Your 'friend' Agent Coulson has somehow gotten the attention of the tiger spirit. *He* vouched for him."
Those were probably the last words that Steve expected to hear. "*The* tiger spirit? The one that creates the army?" Alexis nodded, causing Steve's emotions to turn and settle on a dime. "Wow," he exclaimed, amazed by the news. "So what now?"
"Now we go to the warehouse and try to convince the Guardians to drop everything and try to help a rogue SHIELD agent," Alexis replied...
before they disappeared.
