A/N: Everything except Ida and Jax belong to Marvel.

Co-written with riboflavinb2. Also available on Wattpad

I'd love to hear what you think! Thanks for reading.

Ch 3- Reunited (And It Hurts Like Hell)

New York. The city that never shuts the fuck up.

He breathed in the hot stench of grime and desperation, his scar twinging.

She was here, in the city. He could feel it.

He'd been watching the fish girl for ten days now. Ida Emerson was an immaculate creature of habit, methodical in all her routines. (It always amazed him how much effort humans put into repetition, utterly ignorant to how vulnerable it made them.) After two days of observing from a distance, he took the time to case her apartment building as well as the aquarium, clocking floor plans, security, and the like. He couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

He found himself studying his current target with interest. This blonde aquarium scientist was apparently the person Silverfin valued most in the world. But despite their apparent closeness, there'd been no sign of his enemy whatsoever, even after following fish girl for over a week. This had caused a brief worry on his part that he might have made a mistake about her and Emerson's relationship, or maybe even that Silverfin was actually a step ahead, just lying in wait to kill him at any moment.

However when he cloned fish girl's phone, he discovered hundreds of texts exchanged with the woman in question.

His decision to clone the phone was rewarded once again when Emerson received a text from Silverfin, saying that she was en route back to the city and wanted to meet up.

He now sat two tables away from fish girl and her lunch date, an accountant named Clark Mills that lived in the same apartment building. He half-listened to their pointless first-date drivel, noting their agreement to meet up later that night, and simultaneously studied the the individuals that made up the crowd around him, keeping an eye out for potential threats, anomalies, or signs of a tail.

His heart spiked with anticipation when the target finally got up from her table. He quickly threw down some money for his meal then went about tailing her as she made her way back to the aquarium.

Now was the time.

Her guard would be down, because she thought this part of her life was safe, separate, untouched by the death and dangers of their world.

How naive.

Ida checked her phone. 2:30PM. She definitely still had enough time to prepare her next batch of ammonium hydroxide for the ongoing experiment the aquarium was involved in. Of course, she could always make Johnny, the intern, do it. But the last time he tried to dilute the 20X stock of ammonia, he got the math wrong and lost a whole day of testing. She didn't blame him; dilutions were always the most difficult part of laboratory work for her too, even though they were probably the easiest for many others.

Ida donned her laboratory coat and safety goggles. She squeezed nitrile gloves onto each hand, hearing the satisfying snap of the band on her wrist. Luckily, she had already drawn her hair up into her characteristic bun, so everything was out of her way to do her work.

She'd been working at this aquarium for ten years now. She snagged an internship when she was only a freshman in college, and they were so impressed with her that they kept inviting her back. They knew her work ethic, her passion of aquarial sciences, her skills. She quickly rose in ranks at the aquarium, now she managed a team. Every fish in that aquarium was her responsibility. And so was every research project that pertained to fish. Sea mammals she didn't know as much about. Bits and pieces she picked up from different classes and other aquarium employees, but she didn't think she could lecture on marine mammals for ten hours like she could with fish.

Ida unlocked the chemical cabinet and grabbed the stock solution of ammonium hydroxide. It was a rather large bottle, but still very concentrated. She pulled it out, locked the cabinet, and moved to the work bench. Here, Ida began to measure out the specified ammonium hydroxide and added it to the correct amount of water to make 1X, 3X, 5X, and 15X dilutions of the concentrate.

It was rather tedious work, and Ida was antsy. She hadn't seen her best friend (and maybe only friend) in a month and a half. If she could just get through these dilutions…

Jax pushed open the main doors of the aquarium, unable to subdue the smile on her face. The excitement and anticipation of finally seeing Ida after six weeks apart had her practically bouncing. The damp chemical air of the building washed over her as she waved to the portly security guard, George, and strode up to the front desk.

"Hello, how can I-oh! Hi there, Jax." One of the usual front desk attendants, Vanessa, greeted her with a smile. Jax was at the aquarium so often that all the employees knew her by name. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah, I know. I've practically lived on a plane for the past month with all the potential clients I've had to meet with." Jax lied smoothly. She leaned over the top of the glass barrier and nicked her usual guest pass. "Ida in the back?"

Vanessa nodded. "Seems like things are extra busy for her today."

Jax bid her goodbye and expertly navigated her way to the area not open to the public, where all the labs and facilities were housed. She swiped her pass and, as soon as the sensor flashed green, she lifted her foot with a wolfish grin. Then Jax kicked the door open with the force of leading an assault into enemy territory.

"Whatup bitch, I'm back!"

Ida jumped a foot in the air at the sudden slamming of a door, then she heard Jax's familiar shout. Luckily, Ida had just put down the solutions of ammonium hydroxide from her hands. Otherwise, there would be some nasty consequences, and Ida really didn't want chemicals burns today.

"Jesus Christ, Jax! You scared the urea out of me!" After calming her pounding heart, Ida smiled, happy to see her friend.

Jax's face scrunched up in disgust. "Ew, gross. Why can't you just call it pee like everyone else?"

Laughing and looking down at the solutions she had just brewed, Ida said, "Lemme finish up here. I have to put my ammonium hydroxide away."

"Sure, yeah, go right on and do that. But not before I do THIS!" Jax tackled Ida around the middle with such a big hug that it actually lifted her a few inches off the ground.

Ida actually squawked as she was crushed by her best friend's embrace. She still could not understand why a drug sales rep had to be fit as fuck, but somehow Jax managed it. Then Ida remembered that she was still in her Personal Protective Equipment, and that Jax shouldn't be touching her at all.

"Jax! Put me down! I could have extremely alkaline substances on my lab coat! It could basically burn your skin off." Ida lifted her gloved hands from Jax's shoulders, trying not to get any more liquid on her. "May I remind you that we have discussed this at length before?"

"Yeah yeah, chemical burns, internal bleeding, cancer in the ass. Blah blah blah, I know." Jax finally set her back down and stepped back the proper safe distance of three feet that Ida was always reminding her of. "But can you blame me? It's been over a month since I've seen you! That's like, criminal."

Ida was relieved to be back on solid ground again. "It's anal cancer, not 'cancer in the ass,' as you so eloquently stated. And nothing in this room could even cause anal cancer." She paused, finally catching her breath after that eventful greeting. "So how was your trip?"

Leaning against a lab station, Jax chuckled. "Oh you know, the usual. Fancy dinners with rich assholes, explaining drug research that no one ever understands, nonstop pencil skirts." Jax gave an appreciative rub of her jeans. "And of course, an endless amount of board meetings. What about you, how's the aquarium doing? I know y'all were having some issues last time I was here."

"Mr. Inky had to be isolated yet again." Ida reported. "He escaped his tank again this morning. Found him on the ceiling of the otter quarantine,"

"Good ol' Mr. Inky! Glad to hear he's keeping you entertained while I'm gone." Jax laughed. "But hurry up and finish what you're doing so we can go. Also, I'm gonna run to the bathroom real quick." Jax flashed her a grin then headed off towards the restrooms.

"Watch for crossing octopi on your way there!" Ida called after her.

The aquarist turned back to her lab station, and started to clean up. She started to wrap parafilm on the top of her solutions, carefully stretching out the sheet to fit snugly on each container and taking as much time as she could. She would return to the research project after her outing with Jax and had to ensure it wouldn't spill or evaporate in the meantime.

She picked up the 15X dilution that had yet to be parafilmed and eyed the solution to make sure it was as precise as possible. The liquid sloshed in the glass beaker, but Ida was careful not to spill it.

She was just about to place the solution back onto the lab table when suddenly someone grabbed the top of her arm and yanked her backwards with unnatural strength. Ida was simultaneously unbalanced and surprised by the sudden interaction. She didn't even get a look at the guy before she accidentally flung the 15X beaker solution in his face, drenching the left side.

Ida screamed, and so did he. The man was large and muscular with dark olive skin, and she had never seen him before in her entire life. Dropping his hold on her, he reached for his face and desperately tried to rub the offending liquid away, his eyes clenched in pain.

This was bad news for the man, whoever he was. And it was all Ida's fault. "Shit!" she screamed. "You need to wash your eyes right now!"

How did he get back here? Why would he just grab someone like that? Did he not see the chemicals in her hands?

Ida noticed a spot of the ammonium hydroxide on her sleeve. Soon it would leak through and start to slough off the top layer of her epidermis soon. But she had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

The man was screaming even louder than before as trying to rub the liquid away caused even more pain. Ida grabbed his jacket sleeve and tried to pull him towards the eyewash station, but he didn't budge an inch. In fact, he actually leaned away from her. The man had no idea that the longer the ammonium hydroxide was exposed to his sclera, the more opportunity he could be blind in that eye for the rest of his life.

She pulled even harder on his arm now. He shouldn't have grabbed her like that, but that didn't mean he deserved to be permanently disfigured and blind!

Her proper safe distance of three feet wouldn't be so stupid to Jax now.