Chapter Thirteen:
Vivian woke up with a literal shock; she jumped so much she hit her head on the desk.
"Sweet Jesus" she cursed clutching her poor head, Stark was crouched there with a grin on his face,
"How long are you going to sleep?"
"Till now I suppose" she retorted, shivering from the cold air in the lab, Vivian pulled the lab coat on before crawling out from under the desk. didn't take long for Stark to crack up laughing when he saw Vivian in the lab coat which was much too big for her it trailed on the floor "I hate you so much," she huffed leaving the lab to locate the canteen.
"Sleep well?" Alice asked, as Vivian sat down opposite her coffee in one hand and bacon filled bagel in the other,
"Until Stark jolted me awake!" she complained, stuffing her face with the bagel dragging the news up on her tablet,
"Anything new?" Alice tried to read it upside down; she only kept up to date with the news when Vivian read it. Her face went as white as the lab coat she wore and half chocked on her bagel, "Steady now"
"He's been released" she answered slowly, her eyes felt like they burned and that there was lump in her throat,
"Who?"
"Glen Maxwell, my dad." Vivian couldn't fully compute the situation, what should she do? Go see him?
Alice was the only person who knew everything and she was under strict orders to never tell and to never bring it up. "Do you want to visit him?" she had never seen Vivian this unsettled,
She shook her head "I don't know. I want to but I left my past in a box to never be reopened and he wouldn't recognize me anyway. And I have so much work to do here."
"STOP MAKING EXCUSES!" Alice shouted slamming her hands on the table, a lot of people turned to stare at their table; she lowered her voice before speaking again "He's your Father. Your real Father. And I know that you don't like talking about what happened back then but come on Vivian the man raised you! He actually loved you. And this may be my own personal bias but if you have a Father who loves you then you should see him one last time"
Vivian fiddled with the cuffs on the jacket, seriously trying to pull back her tears. "I'm scared to see him" she whispered leaving a half eaten bagel and coffee as she let the canteen 'I don't know if I can face him' she thought back to the times she used to help her father at the jazz bar they owned and her father singing in his deep voice 'But not for me' she pulled out her tablet and ordered a ticket to England, sending a message to Alice stating she was going to be gone for a few days, Alice said she'd cover for her. She left the Heli carrier in a flurry, grabbing a change of clothes before heading straight to the airport. She was nervous and excited to meet her father again but first she had to find him and finding people is one of her many skills.
No one noticed Vivian had gone until the second day she didn't come in. This time it was Fury, who pulled me about it,
"I notice Miss Rose hasn't been in for a few days" he said surveying me with his one good eye,
"She overworked herself and she's taking a few days. I'm sure Banner and Stark have told you how hard she's been working. Even your own staff must have noticed her day and night working away in that lab"
"Yes I have noticed the hours she's been putting in" Fury said,
"So what's the problem?" I asked boldly, "She's tired and overworked so she's staying at home for a while to get her strength back" I said folding my arms over my chest, "Now if that's everything and you don't need me to shoot at anything I'll take my leave" I didn't wait to be dismissed I simply turned on my heel and left the control room,
"So come on where is she?" Stark asked, he'd taken to pestering me since Vivian wasn't around,
"I'm telling you the same thing I told Fury. She overworked herself and she's at home until I say she can come back" I said trying to get past him and down to the firing range, I'd finally been able to get my hands on an AK 47 courtesy of one Agent Natasha Romanoff and I was dying to play with it,
"See I don't believe you" Stark said making a point of standing in my way no matter how much I tried to go around him, "That girl is a workaholic and I don't think even you could keep her at home"
"Believe what you like. Now either get out of my way or I'll be testing my new armour piercing rounds on you" I said,
"Oh is that a threat?"
"I don't make threats. I make promises and I always keep my promises" I said glaring at Stark, who was only really a few inches taller than I was even in flat shoes,
"You heard the girl Stark" Steve said from behind Stark,
"Oh boyfriend to the rescue" Stark teased,
"Armour piercing rounds remember" I smiled sweetly at Stark who moved aside, "Thank ya kindly" I said my accent becoming more pronounced,
"I guess your secrets out" Steve said walking by me to the firing range,
"Oh that's the least of my secrets" I laughed, "I mean I'm sure Fury knows some like the whole teen runaway thing, dirty deeds done dirt cheap but not as many as he'd like. I have very many secrets" I said
"You know for a small girl you're pretty scary" Steve said,
"I know. It turns most guys on" I said making Steve falter, "You know we're really going to have to work on that. You can't be tripping or choking every time I make a dirty joke or say something vaguely sexual"
"I'll keep that in mind"
"Also you might not want to come down here with me. Natasha found me a Kalashnikov"
"How did she get one of those?" Steve looked honestly amazed
"I don't know and I'm not going to ask but I'm dying to play with it" I said throwing open the doors of the firing range where Natasha stood waiting for me gun in hand, "It's so pretty!" I said taking the gun off her, "Remind me to teach you that thing with your hoo ha" I said cleaning the last part up for Steve
"Done. Have fun" Natasha said before leaving the range,
"You're going to teach her something?"
"Yeah and if you get over your whole attitude to sex I'll show it to you. Stand back" I brought the gun up to eye level and let rip tearing the paper target to shreds, "Oh my god I love this thing!" I laughed once all my bullets were gone, "It's too bad Fury won't let me keep it" I said sadly putting the gun down, "I suppose I'd better get home and check Vivian hasn't turned the floor into a workshop again" I said to Steve, "But honestly think about the sex thing. I'm really good just ask Thor" I said leaving the range,
"I'd rather not ask another man about how my girlfriend is in bed" Steve said
"Suit yourself. But let me know if you want to lose it because I'm not picky where I do you"
Steve paled. I laughed
Vivian stood at the airport it was early hours of the morning, people pushed past her to get to their terminal. She hoisted her bag over her shoulder and went to grab a taxi. She would seek her father out in the morning. A cheap hotel would see her through a day or two. She tossed and turned full of anxiety. When she finally dozed off it was for an hour then she was up thanks to the blinding sunrise. She had brought and outfit that maybe her father would recognize, a high waist black patterned skirt, white Victorian shirt with frills around the cuffs and white ribbons in her hair. She thought she would start at a place they both new well 'the sidewinder' or where it used to be anyway. It was a coffee shop now. It seemed they both thought the same thing. Vivian noticed a tall greying man dressed in simple shirt and jeans but his deep green eyes gave him away. She couldn't muster anything to say and stood a good four foot away from him and hummed their favourite jazz song.
"Chet baker, good man" he smiled though when he turned to face her, the smile faded he rubbed his eyes and blinked before staggering towards her reaching out to her "Vivian?" to hear him call her name after all these years, sent her flying back into her past
"Daddy" she wept, running towards her father hugging him tightly "Daddy. I missed you" she sobbed, he cried too holding her close ruffling her hair like he used to. Pulling apart he looked her up and down
"My little girl, you've grown up to be such a beautiful lady" he was still the same proud man he was back then. "I've wanted to talk to you for so long" they went and sat at the coffee shop where their home used to be and reminisced and she told him everything. "You were just like me growing up, a trouble maker"
They laughed
"I'm sorry daddy but I can't stay here long I have to get back to work" Glen took her hand and squeezed it
"I understand" she smiled and wrote down her number "call me whenever! I'd give you an address but we move a lot. I love you daddy" Glen hugged her again
"Take care; you'll always be my little girl."
The next day she returned to New York and ventured straight to the base. She needed to see Alice. Whom she found with Steve, running up to her and giving her a hug
"I'm back" she mumbled slowly and started crying again "he remembered me" she sobbed, "He remembered"
I held Vivian until she stopped crying, it had been fourteen years since she'd seen her father and I guess the experience must have been too much for her,
"Now aren't you glad I made you go" I asked when Vivian pulled away from me and wiped her face on her sleeve,
"Yeah I am. I gave him my number so I suppose he'll call" Vivian said
"That's my girl" I said enveloping her in another hug, "Come on we'll get coffee somewhere in the city and you can tell me all about it" I waved goodbye to Steve and took Vivian out of the base and to a nearby Starbucks,
"I didn't know what I should do so I put on a skirt and blouse like the old school uniform I used to wear and headed to where the club used to be. It's a coffee shop now"
"That's a shame I'd have liked to see the place where you learned to count cards" I said sitting down at a table with two large black coffees,
"Well I saw him first and he didn't see me so I hummed a few bars of our favourite Chet Baker song and he knew it was me the moment he turned around" Vivian continued to tell me everything that had happened in England and when she was finished she was physically as well as emotionally drained, "It was good to see him again" she said finally after a moment of silence,
"Another reason why you should always listen to me when I give advice" I said smugly
"You just had to ruin the moment didn't you?" Vivian laughed, "We were having a nice bonding moment and you go and ruin it by being all vain. Pride is a sin you know!"
"I prefer Lust if I'm honest"
"Speaking of which what happened with you and the Cap? I see you're wearing his dog tags openly now"
"Yeah well everyone knows he's my boyfriend now so there's really no point in hiding them. Plus I look tough with them on"
"No you don't" Vivian said bluntly, "You're tall and skinny you don't look tough. You look like arm candy"
"Thanks Viv"
"You're always welcome. I think I'm gonna head back to the apartment. Jet lag"
"Yeah ok, I'll head back to SHIELD for damage control" so Vivian and I parted ways she went back to the apartment and I went back to base,
"Resting huh?" Stark was the first person I met when I got back,
"Have you ever worked a solid week with four hours sleep been attacked by a strange spider like thing and almost been poisoned then almost burn yourself alive?" I asked him, he didn't say anything, "I didn't think so" I headed back to the control room where I met Fury and gave him a story about an overworked Vivian having a bit of a breakdown because of a lack of sleep plus the whole overworking thing.
Steve however was a different matter; he wouldn't let the issue go no matter how many times I fed him the 'official' story,
"Come on I know you're not telling me something, is it to do with her life in England?"
"I told you. Vivian's life in England is none of mine or anyone else's business unless she wants to make it so. So drop the issue alright? She was overworked and her brain was a little fried and she had a dream about her birth parents"
"She's adopted?"
"Yeah that's all I know as well so don't think you're gonna get anything else out of me" I said resolutely
"Ok I'll drop the issue" Steve finally admitted defeat,
"Good"
Later when I got back to the apartment I found Vivian sound asleep in her room and thought it best not to wake her. We'd all need to be at our best when Apocalypse made his next move