Chapter Five:
"Are you aware how dangerous your actions were?" nick fury was furious -no pun intended- with the reckless actions of his two new recruits.
"Honestly I don't see the problem, I prioritized the safety of the people around me" Vivian argued paying more attention to her tablet than the director.
"You call throwing grenades around safe?"
"They were flash grenades and firecrackers are legal to own" the conversation was more like a tennis match and Vivian was pushing her luck.
"And the Semtex?"
Vivian shrugged "illegally acquired and in all fairness there was no-one around"
Fury sighed annoyed with girl already "do I need to confiscate all of your explosives?"
Vivian laughed at Fury.
"Like to see you try"
"GET OUT! I'll deal with you later" Vivian didn't look up from her tablet as she saluted leaving the room. She followed her feet the room she longed to be in the lab were the space pod was but alas no key card no entry, to normal people that is. Vivian knew they'd be monitoring things more carefully now so she decided to take the old fashioned way in: the vents. She kicked it in and climbed up closing the gate behind her crawling through the dusty tunnels till she was directly above the labs and dropped down, closing the vent after as to not arouse suspicion.
Walking around the pod she looked at the quick notes someone had made. Though she sat and read them under the desk, should someone walk past and see an unknown person they'd instantly sound the alarm and she'd be in trouble with the cranky bald man again.
"Is there a reason you're sat under the desk?"
Vivian jumped a mile hitting her head on the desk "o sweet Jesus that hurt" she noticed the man crouched down in front of her as Dr Bruce banner. "Hi Dr Banner" she crawled out from under the unit still rubbing her sore head.
"You were?" he looked from the documents in her hand, which she passed back over,
"Reading your notes on the pod"
"How did you get in without the code?"
"Good old fashion know how...the vents and those things are dusty" she laughed casually "so doctor can I help?"
Banner smiled "I could use the help"
'He has the loveliest smile' she thought and set to helping him with the pod.
"Actually give me five minutes if I heard right Alice was heading to the med bay...do you have anything that gives a good electrical charge?"
On the other side Steve was trying to calm a very irate Alice as the nurse in the med bay tried to give her stitches,
"Oh come on it's just a little numbing agent. I went through worse when I had my procedure"
Alice huffed glaring at the poor nurse who just wanted to help "and I don't rightly care. I hate needles and that's all there is to it. Just give me something to hold against it to stop the bleeding and a band aid and I'll be fine"
Alice's words were short lived when she passed out "hello" Vivian smiled a tazer in one hand "I thought you might have some trouble with her, she freaks at needles. She'll be out for about five minutes so I'd get working on them stitches."
Vivian swiftly returned to lab this time through the door, borrowing Dr Banners pass. Tony had also come to assist with the work,
"Well here's the arsonist"
"Hey I prefer professional pyrotechnic" Vivian replied, putting her glasses back on.
Back in the med bay Alice had woken up "I'm gonna skin that bitch alive" she stormed past Steve and headed for the most likely place for Vivian to be the lab "VIVIAN ROSE PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!"
Vivian hid behind the doctor "I did it for your own good. I swear." banner looked at her confused "you know I borrowed that tazer well I used it on Ali so she could get stitches without beating the nurse to death"
Tony decided to step in before anyone got too angry "Why don't we all calm down and have a drink" Alice answered his suggestion with a well aimed punch in the gut
"Stay out of this" so Steve removed Alice by force, picking her up kicking and screaming.
"You have an interesting friend" banner looked back at the petit woman behind him,
"Well it's not the first time she's tried to kill me, I was her target at one point, someone hired her to kill me. But heck that was a few years ago now and we're practically family now."
Tony just couldn't understand these girl's "and you still piss her off?"
Vivian chuckled "on a daily basis, besides she knows it's beneficial to keep me alive hacking and card counting racks in a lot of cash"
Stark frowned at here "speaking of cash"
Without looking up from her work she replied "already spent it on somewhere to live instead of staying at cheap hotels again" and with that she zoned back into her work.
After being dragged kicking and screaming from the lab by Steve I was sent home by an equally irate black man,
"Cap keep an eye on her" Fury ordered going back to trying to clean up Vivian's mess
"May as well make the most of it" I decided as I headed back to the apartment just as the furniture was being delivered, "Right well I guess I'd better roll my sleeves up. You don't need to stay if you don't want to" I told Steve as I took off my destroyed jacket and got to work on assembling my bed,
"Director Fury said to keep an eye on you" Steve said as a reply
"Yes but in that get up I'll not get anything done because I'll be laughing at you the whole time. You and your tights"
"They aren't tights" Steve defended
"They sure as hell look like tights" I argued back, "if you're going to stick around at least give me a hand" I said trying to read the instructions for putting up the bed,
"Need some help there?" Steve laughed after I got fed up with the instructions and tried to simply hammer the bed together
"I never did anything like this before" I admitted, "When I was at home my Dad put everything together and when I left home I stayed in motels mostly. After meeting Viv we started to stay in fancy hotels. This is our first apartment"
"What happened to make you leave home?" Steve asked taking the instructions from me
"I'd finally had enough of my life being planned out for me" Steve picked up a screwdriver and got to work on putting together the bed,
"I know a little of what that's like" he said, "after my procedure I was paraded around like a dancing monkey I went from city to city selling bonds and knocking out Adolf Hitler so I understand wanting to break free of what other people want for you"
"I come from a place steeped in tradition. My great - great grandmamma was a deb so my great grandmamma was a deb and you see where I'm going with this.
It was expected of me to be a deb and to make a 'respectable' marriage and then my daughter would be a deb. But I didn't want that so I broke the rules.
Instead of going to tea parties with the other debs my age I went drinking in the backs of trucks with boys like my Daddy.
Mamma didn't like that. Thought I could do better than rough neck boys and farm hands. Of course Daddy thought it was great because those are the kinds of boys that will take care of their girlfriends.
And that lead to some brutal arguments in my house. My only refuge was drinking with those boys in their trucks or goin huntin with my Granddaddy. It got to the point where Mamma started to lock me in my room to stop me doing anything she didn't deem deb appropriate.
I was locked in this world that had been planned out for me by my Mamma. I was a social tool without a use. I was screaming all the time on the inside. It got to the point where I was so neurotic about being trapped just wanting to break out.
Eventually I realised that if I wanted out I'd have to get myself out so one evenin I waited till Mamma was passed out drunk with her box of wine and I grabbed all the money I'd been saving in an old confederate tin under my bed and my Daddy's old .44 and I made a break for it into the night. I was only sixteen"
"So what happened after that?"
"Well I realised that I could get what I wanted by batting my eyelashes at some fool and when that didn't work force did. So I learned to fight and when I was eighteen I started my own hit woman business. Anything for a fee. Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. When I was twenty two I met Vivian. She'd stolen money from a client and I went to kill her and get his money back. But when I met her I saw so much of myself in her that I just couldn't. So we decided to become partners and I told my client the deed was done. He paid me and Viv and I split the cash. We've been together since"
"What happened to Vivian? You said you saw a lot of yourself in her"
"It aint my story to talk if you wanna know your best asking her yourself. Here jump on this bed with me" I said once Steve finished putting up the bed
"Um I don't think -"
"I just want to make sure it's sturdy" I said
"Ok" so Steve got on the bed with me and I had the opportunity to ogle him up close,
"I guess I should try and put the rest of the furniture up myself"
"But you have no idea how" Steve said, "I'm here so I can help"
So Steve put up the rest of the furniture around the new apartment and it finally looked like a place someone could actually live. All the while I just sat or stood around ogling Steve.
After all the furniture had been put up I was able to buy some bed clothes and cushions. Nothing too fancy just enough that the place would actually look like a home.
Eventually Viv came back. She poked her head around the door,
"Can I come in?" She asked
"Yeah I've forgiven you"
"I'm gonna go then" Steve said
"Thanks for all your help!" I waved as he left the apartment
"I brought a peace offering" Viv said holding up a six pack she'd bought somewhere. The two of us sat on the new couch in silence for a while before I spoke
"So I shared my sob story"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah he was real nice about it. Just listened and didn't judge"
"Alice"
"Yes?"
"Try not to break this one ok? He's kind of important"
"I make no promises"