So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.
You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.
Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album listed on my profile page too.
DAY TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012
2020 HOURS
SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER
LOCATION UNKNOWN
DUNCAN BLACKWOOD
I know you don't like cats, but can you take care of my kitten when he tells you to kill me too? She actually said that to me?! She called me a murderer! Not that it isn't true. I mean, hell, I've already killed two men down here myself, but she called me HER murderer!
Running my hand over my hair in frustration I scrape my teeth over my lower lip, catching it a little at the end before it breaks free with an internal pop that followed by a heavy sigh.
"I'm sorry loove, but come again? Ye want me, tae watch yer moggie fur ye?"
"Yes, please. I'd really appreciate it."Oh hell with this. I was trying to be calm but that just isn't going to work anymore.
Turning just enough to see the bed behind me I lightly toss the jars on top of it, as well as the decanter of what she called wine. It holds my attention for a moment when I notice with mild awe that despite it being a circle, it sprouts its own stand and lands perfectly upright in the soft surface. Right, cause the Asgardian's got magic. Neat trick I guess, but I'm still pissed. So I turn my attention back to her. "Gie up."
She doesn't seem to understand how intense the situation just became because all she does is shake her head softly and pull her knees farther into a hug.
"Please Duncan, just..." That's as far as I let her get before I take advantage of her lack of looking at me, and grab her arm. "Hey?!"
Ignoring her early and weak attempt at struggling against me I pull her to her feet sharply and tuck my shoulder into her waist to throw her over my shoulder before she can get any real momentum behind her muscles.
The abruptness of it and the solidness of my shoulder seemed to surprise the fight out of her for a second, which gave me just enough time to make sure I had a good hold on her legs, and one that put her feet out of kicking range. She may not be trained, but she was kept real close by Hawkeye, and the Black Widow, it would be a mistake for me to assume some of them didn't rub off on her.
It shows a little too when she gets over her shock and driving the heels of her hands into my back to get some leverage as she tries to hold herself up with just one by fisting it into the material of my jacket so she can claw her nails into the flesh of my ear.
Its impressive out of her, but I don't give her the chance. Before her fingernails can rip out hair or draw any blood she has the air knocked out of her again as I throw her off my shoulder and drop her on the table, her back hitting the wall behind it with a solid whack.
The fact that I cradled the back of her skull to prevent the same thing from happening to it doesn't seem to win me any gratitude from her, but that doesn't surprise me too much given how much I know she doesn't like to be touched. For all I know I might have triggered a panic attack in her, though its hard for me to tell beyond how genuinely pissed off she looks. Though the phobia theory looses less ground when she forces me to catch her wrist mid swing and twist my fingers in her hair to prevent her from headbutting me. The tour guide I met sure didn't have this fire in her.
But as intriguing as this new found fight she has running through her veins is, if we keep struggling someone's gonna hear us and come in which will probably get both of us killed since right now I'm standing between her legs and pinning her to a table!
I need her to pay attention. So I say one of the few things I can think of that will get it for me without question. "Alpha zero niner six zero two three one" She goes so still with those words you'd think I hit her with a brick.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012
2023 HOURS
SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER
LOCATION UNKNOWN
NORA ELAINE
A 096 0231
That's my number, or it was. That was the card serial number on my ID.
S.H.I.E.L.D
ELAINE
Nora
TITLE
ADMINISTRATIVE GUIDE
SEX F, HAIR BRN, HIEGHT 5-03
ISSUE DATE/EXP DATE
2009NOV10/2015NOV10
CRD SER NO A 096 0231
LOSS OF THIS CARD MUST BE REPORTED IMMEDIATELY
I didn't lose that card though, even if I don't have it anymore. Not because it expired though, why would it when its still three years away from being 2015? No, it expired because that job, administrative guide, expired with a bloody elbow and a broken computer screen. They took away that card January 2nd 2010. I couldn't keep it for security reasons obviously since it had a chip in the back of it, but I was given a picture of it by Natasha for nostalgic sake.
Then they gave me a different ID, and later when I was sent to P.E.G.A.S.U.S I received yet another so why would he say the serial number of a card from over two years ago? Back when I was was still a...
"Yes Nora, you got it. Good girl." He says, now accent-less and with a tiny flash of a smile as he releases his grip on my wrist and my hair, cautiously glancing at the door as he keeps his voice low, but apparently confident in my cooperation.
He probably shouldn't be because I feel less stable now then I did when I was pounding on the door screaming. "Y-y-you your-you're with S.H-S.H.I.E.L.D?!"
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012
2025 HOURS
SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER
LOCATION UNKNOWN
DUNCAN BLACKWOOD
Well, I got her attention, but after hearing one note of that sentence it looks like I got her fire too. Not that I can blame her, if I was in a helpless situation like her and somebody waited as long as I did to reveal they were an ally I'd probably want to beat their ass for it.
She probably wants to do that to me too, but she doesn't know how to handle all the signals her body and mind are bombarding her with and is just left overwhelmed by them. I can see it, like I've seen in enough people. Training makes it easier but some people react badly to adrenaline, it leaves them unable to do anything else but shake and cry as they come down off it.
Enduring the furious strikes of her fists into my chest and shoulder I re-invade her space again, forcing her arms to buckle as she continues her assault and allowing me to wrestle them to a pinned position between us as I bear hug her to me.
"Shh, I know, I know, I'm an asshole. Its okay, you cry it out..." I whisper to her as I wait for her to exhaust herself, but even during it I'm silently hoping she isn't the biting kind because in this position my neck rather open to it. "...you do what ever you have to as long is its quiet agent, I got you. You're safe."
She redoubles her efforts at the words agent and safe, but it doesn't concern me because I actually know she is cooperating. If she wanted really wanted do something to me all she would have to do is get out one scream, but even while I'm prepared to squeeze the breath out of her if she tries, she hasn't yet. She's upset but she isn't stupid, and she isn't out to get me killed.
I can feel her fight leaving her and the adrenaline withdraws really hook their claws into her not long after that. There's no purpose in the sharp heaving breaths and shivering as she buries her face into my shoulder just because she has no other place to put it until I let her go, which I'm not going to do until she is really and truly calm again, phobia or not I can't risk it.
So I try to talk her through it as quickly as I can. Repeating all the clues to who I really am that she didn't seem to pick up on before. "I've been to Bogota with my sister, I'm named after my old man, I came in from Dounreay in 09..."
And then start on a few hints I hadn't been able to drop before I had to resort to physical methods. Dad always has been a fan of certain phrases. "There are enough martyrs in your past lil hen, you don't get to be one too, your life has been a gift Okay, now I know your at a tipping point but you let me put my hands in the mud, you just worry about finding the courage for the next steps that come."
"No." she sobs out, making me stop in uncertainty because I thought she was calming down, but now she seems to have taken it back in the other direction. "No, no, no, I don't want to..." She starts to push against me again, but her strength is less stable given that the adrenaline is still withdrawing and hasn't re-invaded her blood to quell the shaking. "I don't want to know, please I don't want to know!"
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012
2029 HOURS
SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER
LOCATION UNKNOWN
NORA ELAINE
Not again, please not again! I don't want to know. For once, for the first time, in my life I don't want to remember something. I don't want to know who he is, I don't want to remember that I know who he is because we met once. I don't want to get this man killed too. Not again, not another one, please not again!
"Hey, hey..." He tries to calm me again, keeping his voice a reassuring whisper as he tightens his grip back up to remove the slack it started to give me a moment ago. "You need to be calm now, this won't be good for you."
Its not a threat in that sentence, just a threat from me. I know taking my body through a roller-coaster ride of hormones won't leave it in a good place at the end of it all, I've had enough experience with those panic induced rides to know that part very well. Its what upsets me the most.
He's holding me. His arms, wrapped in the cotton of his jacket or not, are still circling my naked shoulders like a vice and pinning my hands against his shirt covered chest as his hands unconsciously rub soothing circles into my back. He's touching me, and the most frightening part of it all is I can't decide if that frightens me more then the restraining offends me.
I didn't want my fear to be fixed by fear! I want to scream so badly, but I cant even do that because I don't want to bring the consequences of that scream back into this room. I'm so frustrated by all of this and I can't do anything to alleviate it! "I don't know what to do."
"I know, I know lil hen." He says with a reassuring edge to his tone before he shows a certain level of faith in me and lets me out of the cage of his arms and rests his hands back on the table. "This situations about is FUBAR'd as it gets, but remember who I am luv, I got this. I'm a STRIKE captain."
I do remember him, sort of. I remember a clean shaven man with a military buzz cut and a nice tan, but I wasn't really looking to closely at the time, because his lieutenant, a man named Rumlow, was making me uncomfortable. He never touched me, but he kept looking at me and stood really close, on top of the things he said to me made me nervous.
His captain noticed, and was kind to me. He ordered Rumlow to back off. His captain was one Agent Pierce, which didn't mean much to me until we arrived at Councilman Pierces office, and the secretary said his father was expecting him. I met Duncan Blackwood once, and he was called Alexander Pierce Jr.
"No, no..." He frowns as I shake my head. "...No, you got get out of here. He'll kill you too, please, I don't want anyone else to die." He frowns, and looks at me, but he doesn't turn around and leave, like he needs to do. "Please, please leave, or your going to end up dead like Clint and Erik, please leave!"
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012
2033 HOURS
SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER
LOCATION UNKNOWN
"DUNCAN BLACKWOOD" A.K.A ALEXANDER PIERCE JR.
STRIKE TEAM CAPTAIN
Jesus Christ... She really believes that. She put her hand right on my heart and begged me to abandon her because she really thinks we killed agent Barton and Doctor Selvig. ...I told her to stop acting like a martyr and she tells me to leave her behind?!
"Your friends are not dead Nora, and I am not leaving you." I can't leave her now even if I wanted to not when I've got words flashing in digital letters across the cornea of my left eye.
AGENT PIERCE. MISSION OBJECTIVE: RETRIEVE AND PROTECT THE 0-8-4.
NOTES FOR THE READERS:
Okay, so there were a few big reveals in this chapter, mostly centered around Duncan. Now I'm going to avoid potentially spoiling anything for anyone who may not have seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season one yet, but for those who have the references should be pretty easy to spot. At this point though I imagine almost everyone has either seen or familiarized themselves with Captain America: the Winter Soldier, and knows the name Alexander Pierce.
No, my Alexander Pierce is obviously not the same one, and I'll explain. I thought up and started writing this story back before the first Avengers movie came out, and then decided to rewrite it for the sake of quality and pacing, so I developed the character Duncan, and blended him together with a very minor character from the comics that I never imagined would make it into the movies. I was wrong, but by that point I liked the character so much, and he was such an important part to my plot that I couldn't and didn't want to change him. So I made him the son of the Alexander Pierce from the movies.
Also, if anyone is questioning why mind controlled Clint hasn't outed Duncan to Loki yet, its because he doesn't know. Yes, Duncan is a former STRIKE team Captain, and that makes him part of S.H.I.E.L.D, and yes, he is the son of a big shot in that clubhouse. But don't forget he is currently working for MI-6 and just because they work in the same business doesn't mean they know everyone else they work with, I mean just because you work at "burger king" doesn't mean you know every single other "B.K." employee in the world, or the CEO's son.
DUNCANS ACCENT TRANSLATIONS:
I'm sorry loove, but come again? Ye want me, tae watch yer moggie fur ye? = I'm sorry love, but come again? You want me, to watch your cat for you?
Gie up = Get up.