A/N: Everything except Ida and Jax belong to Marvel.
Co-written with riboflavinb2.
Let me know what you think of her hero codename, I was kinda torn about it.
I'd love to hear what you think! Thanks for reading.
Ch 2 - Meet Bucky Barnes
At 12 o'clock exactly, Ida received a text from Clark Mills.
Ida, I'm waiting outside by the ticket booth. You ready?
The aquarist mentally facepalmed. She had forgotten to cancel the date with the accountant. Jesus Christ, Ida, get it together.
Well, now she'd have to go with him. Great. Maybe she could make some excuse to cut the lunch short.
Ida quickly typed out a reply and leapt towards the employee bathrooms to gussy up and slather on some lipstick. When she looked in the mirror, she questioned how she even left her apartment that morning.
Her hair was falling out of her bun, her eyeliner was uneven, and there were dark circles under her eyes that resembled a black hole. Oh well. At least her characteristic green eyeshadow was as vibrant as always.
Ida ripped her dark blonde hair from the bun and shook it out, trying to tease it towards the roots. She swiped some nude lipstick across her lips and dabbed some on her cheeks, blending it for some makeshift blush.
Feeling significantly more confident with her appearance, Ida left the restroom, waved to a couple of her teammates on her way to the front gate, and told them she'd be back soon.
Clark Mills was the type of attractive that made Ida feel like her skin was on fire everytime she saw him. He had a jaw that could slice butter and the body of the godliest Greek god she could dream up. He may have been a boring conversational partner, but what did that matter when his body could speak for him?
"Hey, Clark," Ida waved to the man.
"Ida. Good to see you. Where would you like to go to lunch?" No frills in his language, that was for sure.
"I was thinking we could go the coffee shop around the corner. It turns out I'm needed back at work in about thirty minutes, so we may have to cut the date a bit short. Is that okay with you?" Ida didn't apologize. She never apologized to men. Apologies give the man all the control. She learned that years ago.
"It certainly isn't ideal, but I guess we can work around it," the accountant smiled to let Ida know it was a joke. Not the greatest humor, but again, he didn't need humor with a body like that.
The pair headed to the coffee shop, making small talk on the way there. Clark complemented Ida's appearance. Ida laughed and said the overwhelming fish smell probably ruined her look most of the time.
At the coffee shop, Ida ordered a turkey croissant and a berry smoothie, allowed Clark to pay for her food after he insisted he should, and sat at a table nearest the door. He sat across from her.
"So, Ida, tell me a little more about yourself," Clark said.
Ida hated this question. It was super bland. She wanted to talk about the ethical implications of zoos, what life on other planets looks like, if wearing white after Labor Day mattered.
"Well, I grew up here in Brooklyn. Had two parents. My mom was a bit of a Flower Child, and my dad...wasn't. I've always loved fish and I used to beg my mom to take me to the aquarium every weekend. Fast forward a trillion years and what do you know? I ended up working for the very aquarium I used to visit." Ida paused for a second and smiled conspiratorially. She leaned in towards Clark and raised an eyebrow. "If you were stuck in Jurassic Park and you had your choice of weapons to defend yourself, what would you pick?"
Clark looked unimpressed and unaltered. It was a weird question, Ida knew, but she was just trying to a get a reaction from her date. He gave her none.
Clark simply shrugged. "I've never seen Jurassic Park."
Ida's jaw dropped as a waitress stopped by and dropped their food at the table.
"You've never seen Jurassic Park? Are you kidding me? It's a cinematic masterpiece!"
"No. I was never a huge watcher of movies."
"Then you're just not watching the right ones! That does it, Clark. You're coming up to my apartment tonight and you're watching Jurassic Park with me."
Mission accomplished. She'd have the man right where she wanted him. Alone and on her territory. There was no way he could deny her. Not when she was so willing.
Clark smiled. He was picking up what she was putting down.
Ida pressed the Home button on her phone, and watched as her phone illuminated the time. She had to go.
"Great," Ida said. "I'll see you at, say, 8 o'clock?" Ida picked up the pristine turkey croissant and the smoothie, and stood up from the table. "Gotta run, Clark Mills. Those fish can't swim without me." She bent down to his level and planted a firm kiss on his smooth cheek. Drawing back from his face, she whispered, "Thanks for the lunch."
With that, Ida left the cafe - eating the sandwich on the way - to continue her shift at the aquarium. Now that her date was over, she could finally change into reasonable clothing. And then the real party would begin when Jax got here.
Jax finally finished blow-drying the thick dark mass that she called hair and immediately checked the time.
1430.
Shit! She had to hurry.
Jax quickly dabbed some concealer on the bags under her eyes, and put on a bit of mascara. She made herself stop and assess the new bumps and bruises starting to appear on her skin, then she covered them with makeup as best she could. She'd caught an elbow to the jaw during the fight earlier and it was already turning a lovely shade of blackish-purple.
Walking into her closet, Jax quickly shimmied into a pair of dark jeans from off the floor and threw on a slouchy gray shirt overtop, plus a long necklace. She slipped on her old combat boots, tucking a handful of throwing knives into them, before finally securing her KA-BAR (her favorite combat knife) into its hidden sheath on the back of her waistband.
Jax always had some kind of blade on her person; she felt totally naked without. (Knife combat was her expertise after all.) She had nothing against guns, obviously, she used them all the time, and she certainly couldn't deny that their longer range was optimal. But nothing set her soul on fire like the feeling of cold steel in her hand. Knives were versatile, direct; an extension of the body.
Jax eyed her small .380 pistol for a long moment but then realized that was probably overkill, she was just going out to eat with Ida. Grabbing her bag, she looked around for her favorite black leather jacket, the one she rarely went anywhere without. What the hell, where is it? She quickly searched all the usual places but came up empty.
Dammit. Where did she last remember having it? She backtracked her time before she left with Clint and Nat. Coffee with Maria Hill, dinner with the team, then...
Duh! Jax smacked herself on the forehead. She'd been binging an awesome new show called Sense8 when she'd gotten the mission orders.
Doing one last mirror check, she ran a hand through her messy black hair and headed for the elevator.
"Jarvis, recreation floor three please."
"Yes, Miss Foster." The posh AI responded.
A moment later, Jax stepped out onto the floor where the Avengers spent the majority of their downtime, and then made a beeline for the tv area.
"There you are." She spotted her beloved leather jacket lying on the edge of the massive luxury couch. As she went to grab it, the elevator dinged from around the corner.
"Anyone here?" A familiar voice called out.
No way. That sounds like…
"Steve!"
As the red, white and blue boy scout came into view, Jax ran at him and jumped into a hug. Steve caught her easily and swung her around with a laugh.
"Good to see you, Jax! It's been a while." He set her down and flashed his impossibly perfect pearly whites.
"Well it's your fault for leaving me with the misfit squad so you could go on some secret manhunt with Sam."
"Yeah, funny you should mention that." Steve looked around the room. "Where is everyone?"
Jax shouldered her jacket. "Nat's out, Clint's asleep, I think Tony and Bruce are in the lab, and Thor went back to Asgard for a while."
"Shoot. I was hoping to tell everyone the news together."
"What news?" Jax asked when suddenly the elevator rang again. Out stepped Sam Wilson and some guy Jax didn't recognize. Jax bolted past Steve to wrap Sam in a hug.
"Hey Jax!" Sam hugged her back tightly, laughing lightly at her energetic greeting. "Been causing trouble while I was gone?"
"You know it." Jax grinned and fist-bumped him.
"We miss anything interesting?" Sam asked as Steve came over to join them.
"Nah, it's been pretty quiet since you left a few weeks ago." Jax scratched at a fresh cut on her arm from the day before. It always itched the most when they started scabbing. "Nat, Clint, and I actually just got back from a mission this morning."
Sam said something in return, but Jax didn't hear it as she snuck a few glances at the large stranger Sam had brought up with him, currently hovering between him and Steve. His shoulder-length brown hair was shaggy and matted, and he looked like he hadn't slept in a year. His eyes constantly surveyed the room, and Jax instinctively knew he was studying his surroundings, evaluating all the potential weapons and escape routes. It was a reflex found in many combat veterans.
His face tugged at something in the back of her mind. He seemed...familiar somehow. Also, she admitted to herself, he was pretty damn good-looking. Not many men could successfully rock the grungy strung-out look (at least not without coming across as gross and creepy). But he made it work oh-so-well. (Ugh, if only she was as good with guys as Ida was.)
Jax then observed the tightness of his shoulders and the tension in his jaw. The man was definitely on edge, like he was waiting for an attack. Just like her dad whenever he came home from a tour.
The guy flinched as Steve suddenly clapped him on the shoulder.
"Jax," Steve beamed. "I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Bucky Barnes."
"Wait," It finally clicked why his face was familiar. "Bucky Barnes? As in the Bucky Barnes?"
The emotion in Steve's eyes was unmistakable as he nodded.
Jax couldn't believe it. Steve and Sam had spent the better part of a year now trying to locate the former Winter Soldier. She'd started worrying that it was just some wild goose chase.
Jax was so ecstatic with the news that she almost greeted Bucky with her trademark tackle-hug, but luckily she stopped herself just in time. From what she could see, Bucky probably wouldn't have appreciated it. She settled on giving him a warm smile instead. "Nice to finally meet you, Bucky. I'm Jax Foster."
Bucky blinked at her, then dropped his gaze. "Uh, nice to meet you too."
Yup. He's barely even started adjusting.
"Oh shit!" Jax saw the time on her phone. "As much as I'd love to stay and get acquainted, I gotta go." Jax slipped on her leather jacket and headed into the elevator. "See ya later, guys!"
"Bye!" Sam and Steve called out. Bucky just stared. She met his eye and gave him a little grin as the elevator doors slid shut. She looked forward to hopefully helping him come out of his shell.
Reaching the lobby, Jax took the hidden side door out of Avengers tower to avoid any paparazzi or fans staking out the main entrance.
The rest of her team had long since had their identities revealed to the world. But by some unbelievable miracle (plus the help of SHIELD's Nano Mask tech), Jax had managed to keep her real name a secret, only known to the public by her codename 'Silverfin'.
But that didn't stop reporters and superfans from constantly trying to figure out who she really was. There were entire Internet forums dedicated to theories and discussions about Silverfin's true identity. But thanks to Tony's complex security measures and an algorithm that scoured the web for her face and deleted it, people only managed to get semi-blurry photos of her during fights. They might as well be snapshots of Bigfoot in some shitty science fiction tabloid (who Jax knows for a fact is actually just an Inhuman living deep in the Canadian wilderness).
Not even her family or friends knew the truth about her. When Jax has first joined SHIELD, she'd made the difficult decision to keep it a secret from the people in her life. They all thought that she was a pharmaceutical sales rep, and though really Jax hated lying to them, it was necessary for the kind of missions she often went on.
She sighed, shaking such heavy thoughts from her mind. Jax tucked her hands into her jacket pockets and started the brief trek to the aquarium.