Chloe peered out the jet's window for the fifth time and only then did she realize that there was no point. They were flying over a grim ocean night for this mission. She could overhear Rumlow debriefing the rest of the team, leaving her to basically space out. She noticed it was happening more and more on her missions.
"The target is a mobile satellite launch platform: The Lemurian Star. They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them, 93 minutes ago..."
Steve was listening attentively to the debriefing like he usually did. This time, however, he kept glancing in Chloe's direction. He wasn't sure but to him it seemed like she was spacing out a lot more. He wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing since her eyes weren't doing the blue glow they usually did when she planned on contacting the Hive Mind. If her eyes didn't glow, he didn't know if she was lost in one of those contact attempts or if she was just thinking about things. If it was the latter, he had no idea how to approach it.
"Were there any demands?" Natasha's question pulled Steve's attention back on the debriefing.
"A billion and a half," Rumlow said.
"Why so steep?" asked Steve.
"Because it's SHIELD's."
Steve's face fell flat. "So it's not off-course, it's trespassing."
Natasha could do without his new streaks of accusations, at least right now when time was of the essence. "I'm sure they have a good reason."
"You know, I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor," Steve said sourly. He noticed it was a common pattern working for Nick Fury. He wondered if Seren ever realized that...or if she was ever on one of those missions. Seren was one of SHIELD'S prized — if not the most prized — agent, so Fury usually would send her on the most high-class missions.
"Relax, it's not that complicated," Natasha told him with a simple wave of her hand.
"We're in, we're out," Chloe finally turned their way and joined them, smiling like nothing happened. "How many pirates?" she asked from Rumlow.
"Twenty-five, top mercs, led by this guy. Georges Batroc," Rumlow showed the trio a picture of the man on the screens in front of them. "Ex-DGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice. Before the French demobilized him, he had thirty-six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."
"Hostages?" That's where Steve's mind always went to first. What poor innocent souls had crossed paths with guys like those? He also noted that civilians weren't usually SHIELD's priorities...at least not on his missions, anyways.
"Uh...mostly techs. One officer, Jasper Sitwell." Rumlow switched pictures on the tablet to show Sitwell's. "They're in the galley."
"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Steve asked but knew he wasn't getting an answer from anyone. He hardly ever did. "Alright, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, you'll kill the engines and wait for instructions. Chloe, you and Rumlow, sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to the life-pods, get 'em out. Let's move."
"STRIKE," Rumlow addressed the other agents, "You heard the Cap. Gear up."
"Secure channel seven," Steve gave a final instruction as he finished gearing up with the others. He stopped, though, when he noticed Chloe rubbing her temples. He barely registered Natasha confirming his instruction. "Chloe, are you alright?" He barely touched her shoulder and she startled.
"Yeah, yeah!" She exclaimed, plastering on another smile.
Steve was no stranger to fake smiles. He was a master at them. "It seems like you have a headache?"
"It's...Hive Mind buzzing, you know?" Chloe waved him off like Natasha had. "They get antsy with missions."
"The Hive Mind gets...antsy?" Steve was sure that was the first time she ever said something like that. "I didn't know that happens..."
"It does," Chloe cleared her throat. "So, what's the plan for Saturday night?"
Steve almost groaned, and then even more when he heard Natasha snort from her spot. Saturday wasn't just a Saturday this weekend, it was the day Seren was presenting her overseas team to Fury and the Council.
He still decided to play dumb. "Why the sudden interest?"
Natasha was no fool, however. Neither was Chloe for that matter. The two women crossed gazes with similar smirks on their faces.
"I can't believe Seren is coming home after 2 years," Chloe put a hand over her chest, feigning the role of dramatics perfectly. "She's my best friend so of course I'll be happy to see her back. I can't imagine what it must be like for someone who saw her as more than a friend."
"Didn't your head hurt or something?" Steve reached out to tap a finger against her temple. "Go take something for that."
'Coming up by the drop zone, Cap,' the pilot warned.
It was a saving, really.
"Seren's coming a few days earlier to get things steady so, you know, it would be the perfect opportunity to finally ask her out," Natasha shrugged. Steve looked out the dark window. "By Saturday night, you two could be an item...and I could win me a bottle." She winked at Chloe.
In return, Chloe stuck her middle finger out at Natasha. She quickly put her hands behind her back when Steve turned towards them. "Natasha's right! I don't know what the hell happened in London but I thought I left things pretty right for you two."
"Seriously, a mission is happening right now." Because Steve knew where this was going — because it always went down the same road — he went towards the opening of the jet. Without saying another word, he jumped out.
"Was he wearing a parachute?" One of the other agents asked Rumlow. The latter seemed quite used to that kind of thing.
"No. No, he wasn't."
Chloe set her hands on her hips as something came to mind. "He'd rather face an unfamiliar ocean without a parachute than us." She glanced at Natasha as the latter came to stand beside her.
"We must be doing something right," Natasha smirked. They both shared a laugh.
"Ladies," Rumlow called. "You two definitely need to be wearing parachutes."
"Yeah, alright," Chloe said and turned back to get a parachute for herself.
They were just about to start jumping out when Natasha saw Chloe stumble forwards, losing her balance. She reached forwards and pulled Chloe back.
"You okay?" she examined Chloe from head to toe.
"Y-yeah," Chloe nodded fervently, but her eyes were still shut. Something was flashing in her mind — a series of things, actually. She opened her eyes and one moment she was staring at Natasha and the next, she saw a computer room. Was that from the boat?
"Agents," Rumlow called. "Are we ready?"
Chloe immediately nodded. "Of course."
Natasha hesitated only for a second due to the time essence of the mission. With parachutes, they all jumped from the jet. Their landing was timed perfectly because a second later and Steve would've missed the bullet on the back of his head.
"Thanks," he told Rumlow who'd been the one to take down the sneaky pirate.
"Yeah. You seemed pretty helpless without me," Rumlow had the moment to sarcastically respond.
Once their parachutes were off them, they started making their way down the deck.
"So, I'm thinking you surprise Seren as soon as she lands here," Natasha started, prompting Chloe to help her out.
"Oh yeah!" Chloe snapped her fingers. "She'd love that!"
It was hard for Steve to ignore the two women sandwiching him on the deck but he was doing a fairly good job trying. This was not the first time they ganged up on him.
"It really wouldn't take much to get a date with her," Natasha continued.
"Don't you have an engine room to go secure?" Steve shot her a look and her smug grin.
"I'm getting there, I'm getting there. I'm multitasking," Natasha said before making a dramatic jump to the lower deck.
"You know I'm starting to think you just don't like Seren anymore," Chloe announced. No, no she didn't think that all but it would be interesting taking this in a whole new direction. Reverse psychology. "You got your eye on someone else? Oh!" she gasped with another snap of her fingers. "Is it that nurse that lives across the hall from you?" She mastered the art of deception a long time ago and it came in handy for a fake frown on her face. "Is it!? Because Seren could so take—"
"Please go do what I asked you to do!" Steve's voice sounded like he was almost begging her at this point. "And leave my neighbor alone!" The last thing he needed was for Chloe (or Natasha) to go bother a perfectly nice neighbor, and sort of acquaintance, he had made in his building.
Chloe huffed. "Fine, but this conversation isn't over!"
No, because if the conversation was over then it would simply be too easy. Steve by now knew that wasn't possible.
~ 0 ~
'Calculating time estimate…'
Chloe flinched at the sudden action her brain was making without her permission. She really didn't need that calculation because if it kept going then it meant she was 'predicting' things on her own, without the Hive Mind's help. She put all of her focus on following the STRIKE team closely through the corridors of the ship. They were nearing the galley and to their luck, there was no one guarding it.
"The guard's inside," Chloe whispered. Her eyes flashed a bright blue as she began to hear the conversation from the other side. Language barriers weren't a big deal when you were part of a Hive Mind. She pressed herself against the wall, a good distance from the door and listened carefully. "'If I do not hear anything in two minutes, I'll start to kill them!" she recited what she heard. "Oh, the guard's coming."
Rumlow nodded at her and stepped back accordingly. Indeed the guard emerged from the door, clueless of what was waiting for him on the other side. As soon as the door was left to shut, Rumlow used a stun gun to knock the guard down. Effective and quiet. Shortly after, another agent positioned a bomb on the now locked door.
"STRIKE in position," Rumlow informed the others through their earpieces.
Everyone else confirmed their positions except for Natasha. She still had a few more pirates to get through.
Once more, Chloe saw her vision distort from reality only this time she caught a glimpse of the ship's control room. "What?" she whispered to herself and quickly rubbed at her temples.
'Time estimate: 10 seconds until immediate death.'
Chloe snapped back to reality. "Time's changed!" she hastily made her way up to Rumlow. "The hostages are going to die now! Steve, c'mon!"
Sensing her urgency from his spot way above their floor, Steve gave the order. "Do it!"
The STRIKE team blew the door open and shot their way into the galley. Chloe went in behind them with glowing blue eyes again until she spotted Sitwell amongst the hostages. She ran straight to the man only to come across a pirate herself.
He went for the obvious kill but Chloe ducked before the bullet even fired her way. She struck a hand forwards, emitting a ray of blue energy — her psionic-blast as Tony had named it — and threw the man across the room. Her eyes flickered to the right where she sensed an important figure coming. She turned her head in the direction, catching the glimpse of the head pirate before he was shot down by Rumlow. She swallowed hard. It was getting difficult telling her 'senses' apart from actual psychic abilities that seemed to be forming.
Since the tech bonded with her head, her senses had heightened. One could argue that it was the beginning of 'precognition' but it always remained fairly low. Chloe never worried about it becoming something as concrete as being 'psychic'. She did not want to be psychic.
"Let's go!" Rumlow ordered the other agents to start releasing the hostages to get them off the ship. "Winters!" Chloe flinched at his call. He always had such a hard voice. "Gotta go!"
She nodded and helped release the few hostages left. Once they were all gathered and surrounded, they left the galley. They crept quietly and as stealthy as they could. On a turn, Chloe came face to face with another pirate.
"What the—" she put her hands together to create a shield just as the pirate fired at them.
"Romanoff was supposed to be here!" Rumlow yelled as if that was going to fix the problem.
Chloe pushed her shield forwards to capture the pirate instead, though it was a struggle not to get a bullet in her in the process. She then kicked a fierce foot against the man's chest, sending him against the wall. "Something's off!"
"You don't say!?" snapped Rumlow. "Where the hell is Romanoff?"
Chloe spun around, heavily irritated with him. "How the hell am I supposed to know? We gotta go now! There's more pirates around!" Her vision distorted again to show her right where Natasha was and it was heavily confusing.
"Winters, don't knock out on me!" Rumlow exclaimed.
"I'm good, but you gotta take the hostages!"
"What — where the hell are you going?" Rumlow was left to watch her go in the opposite direction of their planned path.
"I know where she is! She'll need help! Go!" Chloe turned away to run with full force. On her way, she heard Rumlow inform Steve of Natasha's absence over the comms.
She had to find her way out of the corridors and to her luck, she found a window. She planted her palm against the glass and watched it crackle as her energy overwhelmed it until it shattered. She climbed out and grabbed a hold of the rails.
The calls for Natasha were futile. Whatever she was doing kept her solely focused on that. Chloe didn't need to be psychic to know that would thoroughly piss Steve off. They were lucky in that Steve caught Batroc on the deck but had to fight him before he would escape. It was even more infuriating for Steve to hear Batroc's taunts.
"I thought that you were more than just a shield."
As much as Steve tried to ignore the comment, the smirk on Batroc's face sealed the deal. He was simply done with people trying to push him back down again.
He put his shield away and pulled his mask off. "On va voir."
They fought again. Punches were met with blocks and ducks all over the deck until someone had enough and fired precisely at one back.
Steve pulled himself from the ground with a heavy breath and turned to see Chloe sitting on the rails, legs dangling and all as if they were on a cruise. "You're kidding me." He might just push her off himself. Sure I could explain it to Seren some way or another.
"Looks like you needed help," Chloe shrugged. "And just so you know, if Seren had been here, she would've loved that whole—" she made a wave in his direction, "—French taunt thing."
"That's it!" Steve started for her, so she quicky hopped off the rail and threw her hands in front of her.
"If you kill me, you'll have a hell of a lot of paperwork to do and Seren will be really pissed at you!"
"It's a matter of who Seren will listen to, really!"
"Dammit!"
"Chloe!" Steve stopped right in front of her and demanded to know why she wasn't with Rumlow and the rest of the team.
"I know where Natasha is!" Chloe exclaimed.
"What? Where—"
Chloe ran by past him, ignoring his calls for her to wait so they could properly bind Batroc. He was only out-cold after all. He followed Chloe up to a wide door not too much inside the ship. Chloe yanked a door open to reveal a control room and right at the center was none other than Natasha working very hard at a computer.
Natasha raised her eyebrows at the pair coming in. "Hey there."
Steve forgot all about Batroc when he saw the calm agent inside. "What are you doing?" He now led the way in, leaving Chloe scurry behind him.
Natasha had a USB plugged into the computer in front of her. "Backing up the hard drive. It's a good habit to get into."
"You seriously couldn't tell us that?" Chloe sighed. She didn't know why she bothered asking. As Fury said, he did not discuss his orders with agents.
"How'd you know I was in here?" Natasha noticed the subtle stiffening Chloe's body gave. Good question to ask, apparently.
Steve was too irritated to notice. He was glaring at Natasha. "Rumlow needed your help. What the hell are you doing here?" He came up beside her to see the screens all announcing the time estimate of a download. "You're saving SHIELD Intel!"
Chloe looked around the room and concluded it was the place she'd been 'seeing' before. She shuddered. It was too freaky.
"Whatever I can get my hands on," Natasha was calmly saying on the side.
"Our mission is to rescue hostages!"
"No. That's your mission!" Natasha pulled the flash drive out of its place once she had secured the downloaded files. "And you've done it beautifully."
Chloe snorted. "Way to play it."
"Oh shut up, Winters. You do this all the time!"
"HEY!" Steve shouted over them. "I've had enough of you two for tonight! Chloe — quiet!"
"But—"
"Natasha, you just jeopardized the whole operation and for what?"
"I think that's overstating things!" Natasha said much too casually for Steve's taste.
He was completely over her attitude at that moment. He accepted early on that Natasha Romanoff wasn't exactly the ideal partner he would've wanted to work with given how different they were. Their morals were different, their strategies, and their attitudes. She was a great friend, but Steve couldn't say that they were friend friends. And it was for this matter.
Where Seren was loyal to SHIELD and her team, Steve wasn't sure where Natasha stood with him. He wasn't stupid. He knew she had a dark background, a cryptic one, and that she was lethal. He forced himself in the beginning to stop comparing Natasha to Seren, realizing how unfair that was...but sometimes he just couldn't help it. He wanted to believe that as loyal as Seren was, she wouldn't keep side missions like these a secret from him.
At least with Chloe, Steve knew that however big her mouth was — and however annoying her exuberant personality could get — she had his back. And he of course had her back.
Chloe sprung into action suddenly, her head flipping in the direction of the door that was yet to be open. Her heart skipped several beats and her mouth had gone dry. This was more than a sense and for this one time, she wouldn't fight it. "BOMB!" She screamed and turned towards her friends just as the door flung open.
Both Steve and Natasha looked at her but of course took priority in the Batroc at the door. They saw him pull a bomb from behind his back, ready to be thrown, so they put their argument aside for the moment to live. Natasha grabbed Chloe and allowed Steve to yank them towards a window. It shattered as they went through it but it was nothing compared to the exploding room behind them.
Steve checked on Natasha and Chloe as soon as they were out of harm's way but even then his eyes were rather cold towards Natasha. It didn't help much when they discovered Chloe's arm had a gash from her elbow down.
~ 0 ~
"I'm really fine," Chloe sat on the edge of a medbed. She was getting stitches for the gash on her arm but it was really nothing. She knew that in a few days, the gash would be gone. "My super healing isn't all that fast but it's faster than the average human's."
Steve hadn't left her side until he knew for sure that she would be just fine. In his mind, he blamed himself for getting so distracted. He was relieved to hear from the doctor herself that Chloe was indeed fine.
"Thanks," he told the doctor on her way out.
"I'm not a child," Chloe called to him when the doctor had gone. "I"m 25. I believe I'm at the age where you went to frikin war."
Steve rolled his eyes at her on his way back. "And I'm pretty sure that story didn't end well, unless there's an alternative that I didn't hear about?"
Chloe shook her head at him with a light smile tugging at her lips. "Seriously, when did you get so sassy? Have my lessons been that good?"
"How are you, really?"
"Great!" Chloe hopped off the bed. "I'm not Seren so I actually let the doctors really check me over." They were both aware of Seren's deep fear of anything medical related. "No concussion, just stitches that I really didn't need."
"I'm sorry about Natasha — I already talked to Fury about it." Though it hadn't really led to anything productive unless he counted discovering S.H.I.E.L.D.'s latest projects as one. It truly wasn't.
Even Chloe was a bit unsettled of the idea. "It can really shoot a thousand people at a time?" she whispered. Steve nodded grimly. "That's...high, even for S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Go home Chloe," Steve sighed. "And rest."
"Seriously, I'm good," Chloe did a little spin for show. "It takes more than just a bomb to take Chloe Rose Winters down."
Her words made Steve remember the little conversation he had with Natasha on their way back home. Even though he was thoroughly upset with her, she did make a good point that he couldn't outright ignore. Chloe had warned them of a bomb before Batroc even revealed it. In fact, she had even made the warning before either of them felt nor saw anything.
"Hey Chloe...how did you know that the bomb was coming?" He studied Chloe to the smallest of details and he was disappointed to see her immediately lying to him about it.
"Woman's intuition!" she shrugged casually. "I, uh...just felt it."
"With the Hive Mind? I didn't know it was that accurate…"
Chloe snorted. "Hardly. It was just my gut telling me, alright?"
Steve didn't press any further. If someone as sweet and young as Chloe could easily form a lie, then what did he really expect from something as big as S.H.I.E.L.D. to do?
"Look, I'm gonna go rest...I might skip dinner tonight, if that's okay?"
"Yeah," Steve said, "Please take care, alright?"
Chloe nodded, gave him a quick hug and then hurried out of the room.
~ 0 ~
Nick Fury was halfway into his office when he saw Chloe waiting for him at his desk. "Uh, excuse me?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "Shouldn't you be resting from your mission? Great job with the correct calculations, by the way."
"Yeah, that's sort of what I wanted to discuss," Chloe said, straightening up in her chair while Nick came around and sat down opposite of her.
"Discuss?" Fury once again seemed incredulous.
"About the streak of missions I have upcoming."
"Um, I don't usually discuss my orders with agents. That includes you."
Despite his hard look, Chloe was smiling. "Yeah, but I'm not your average agent."
"Don't get cocky, Winters. I have plenty of 'non-average' agents around here. What do you want?"
Chloe's eyes did a quick sweep around the office like she was searching for something, or perhaps being cautious of, before she answered. "I think I need to take a break from missions."
"A break?" Now Fury was truly at a loss. "Where do you — a break? You'll excuse me if I laugh, right?"
Chloe deadpanned him. "I wasn't kidding, Fury. I need the break."
"You and I both know that you can't afford to" — Fury raised his fingers into quotation marks — "'take a break'. I need you moving. At all times. Period. Now go home and rest."
Chloe shook her head, refusing to leave until Fury heard her out. "I'm serious! Lately, I feel like there's, I don't know, something strange going on with my powers. The Hive Mind has been buzzing way more lately. I think it's because I turned 25."
"What, are they throwing you a birthday party?"
"According to the, uh, doctors, we typically reach full brain maturity at 25 and I think the Hive Mind's noticed."
"So what are they doing about it?"
"I don't know, that's the problem. That's why I want to take a break from missions. I don't want to compromise anyone or anything."
"I can't keep you on the sidelines, you know that," Fury reiterated. "I need you to...I need you to be an agent," he said, looking at her sharply, hoping that she understood him.
Chloe of course understood him. "I'll be more of a danger if I stay in the missions. You never know what could happen out there, even on missions." She gave him the same sharp stare he had. "I got lucky on this last one but I can't keep it up. Something is happening and until I can figure it out, I shouldn't be on any team, not even Steve's. He's asking a lot more questions and I don't know what to tell him."
"You'll just tell him whatever you tell Agent Soul. They're the same, they'll believe whatever you say."
"And Natasha?"
"Leave Romanoff to me. She knows better than to go prying."
Chloe still wasn't convinced at all. She threw her head back, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. "And I keep getting these damn headaches."
"You can always let the doctors here check you over," Fury said, but Chloe scoffed.
She looked back at him, smiling sourly. "You know that's not a good idea. I have outside help anyways." One I can trust completely.
~ 0 ~
Chloe never asked where it was that Steve went when he wasn't at work nor at home. She suspected a lot of his time went to the gym where he could get all of his frustration out. Tonight was one of those nights and she suspected that he would have a lot to 'get out' at the gym after their mission.
She made herself cozy in his living room after showering and putting on a fresh set of pajamas. She sat down on the couch with a cup of tea that would hopefully soothe her head. She was very glad that she was able to catch Seren that evening on a video call and even jokingly asked Seren if she ever slept.
Seren rolled her eyes on Chloe's laptop screen. "I'm busy," she said as she tended to whenever she happened to talk in the evening. "And by the looks of that ugly gash on your arm, I say so were you. Did you just get back from a mission?"
"Mhm," Chloe nodded. She set the computer on the coffee table and reached for her cup of tea. "Under Steve's lead, of course. Fair notice, he almost killed me in it."
"What?" Seren snorted. "What did you do?"
"Way to go victim blaming," Chloe huffed.
"Chloe."
"God, why do you two even sound the same way when you call me like that?" groaned Chloe. She pulled her legs up and tucked them underneath her. "Look, all we said was a few things about you and him—"
"You and Natasha, I'm sure," Seren said, rolling her eyes again.
"We were on a boat and he nearly shoved me into the ocean!"
"Those poor fishes."
"Seren!"
Seren laughed for a good minute or so. Chloe didn't like it one bit.
"Well, at least one of us is laughing," Chloe muttered.
"It's your fault for provoking him like that," Seren said, shrugging. "I keep telling you and Natasha to cut it out already. After 2 years, it gets very old."
"We just want you to be happy!"
"Chloe, there are so many external things that need to be considered for this kind of stuff. You and Natasha just can't fix them for us, sorry."
Chloe still thought Seren was wrong, but she was too tired to keep arguing about the same thing. Tomorrow would be a new day.
"Is Steve around?" Seren asked, making it that much harder for Chloe not to keep teasing at. "I'm coming a bit earlier than planned."
"What? Seriously?" A great wide grin spread across Chloe's lips. "When!?"
"Tomorrow," Seren said with her own giddy grin. "I wanted to let you guys know so I'm glad you called me today. Is he around?"
"No, uh, and I don't think he'll be in until very late today. But I'll pass the message as soon as I see him!"
"Thanks," Seren said. "Where is he, then?"
Chloe was so tempted to be mean and say 'on a date' to see what Seren would do. It would be hilarious and hopefully a push in the right direction.
"Chloe? Is he okay?" Seren's natural concern is what made Chloe answer very differently.
"He's just at odds with Fury again," she said. "There's a new big mission SHIELD is taking on."
"Oh? And what is it?"
"You don't know?"
"I haven't been on a mission for SHIELD in 2 years, Chloe. I'm on loan so I don't exactly get the news over here."
Chloe realized that Seren was right and told her everything that Steve had talked about with Fury and what he saw concerning Project Insight. Seren was speechless in the beginning. There was definitely something to think about with three huge ships in the air constantly looking for potential targets.
"I can't believe Tony helped out with that," Chloe shook her head.
"He saw the old schematics, Chloe, not the actual thing," Seren said. "I doubt he would have been so lucky."
"I don't know, Seren, something about a ship analyizing potential threats to kill them doesn't sit very right with me. I mean, people can change, right? Not everyone is terrorist."
"That's the big picture," Seren said. She learned a long time ago how SHIELD operated and it always ended with the same thing: look at the big picture. "It doesn't matter if there's 20 people capable of changing if it means eliminating 1 terrorist."
"Doesn't that bother you?"
"Does it bother you? We're both from SHIELD, after all."
"Yeah, but you've worked way longer with them," Chloe countered. "I think these are the kinds of things that Steve doesn't like from the job. I'm surprised he's lasted this long with his moral compass. I could say the same about you."
Seren smiled rather sadly. "Wouldn't that have been different?"
Chloe raised an eyebrow at her. It was the first time she heard Seren imply that she thought about a different path away from SHIELD. She took a sip from her tea and cleared her throat. "Hey Seren, what...what would you have done if you never worked for SHIELD?"
"What?" Seren laughed lightly. "Why does it matter?"
"Just a question," Chloe shrugged, "Simple talk and all. C'mon, what would you have done?"
Seren entertained the idea solely because Chloe was asking in good faith. She seemed a bit off to Seren, honestly. "This doesn't leave the room, got it?"
"I solemnly swear," Chloe said with a hand raised in front of her.
"Um, okay," Seren started nodding to herself, "If I had never been recruited by SHIELD, I think I would have loved to go into the botany department. I love the idea of studying and growing plants, discovering new ways to combine plant DNA."
"Wow, a total geek," Chloe said with a laugh.
"Shut up!"
"My money would've been on astronomy or some shit like that."
"I do like astronomy," Seren said, "But I've always figured that the stars were too far from me. Plants were something that I could reach and manipulate. They were earth."
"Mm, poetic," Chloe said, clearing her throat.
"And you? What would you have done if you had never run away from home?"
"Oh, uh...well, before I was on track to become a gymnast."
"But do you think that's what you would have stuck to?"
"I mean..." Chloe swayed her head, "I'm very nifty with technology."
"Nifty?" Seren raised an eyebrow at her.
"I live with Steve Rogers, remember that?"
Seren chuckled.
"But I guess it doesn't really matter now," Chloe said with a lamentable sigh. "Our fates were sealed before we even knew it."
"C'mon, Chloe, you're only 25. You can do so many things."
"Not with this Hive Mind in my head," Chloe tapped the side of her head. "Your powers are yours, but I'll always be connected to some freaky alien race." She made her peace with it a long time ago. She wouldn't ever be able to go back home and live a normal life.
"I think that's not what's stopping you," Seren said quietly. "You have always been able to go back home. Your parents would welcome you with open arms because at the end of the day, they miss you. And I know it hurts like hell knowing that you only go and visit your aunt and cousin in the city."
"Because aunt May doesn't ask questions and Peter's too young to understand it. I can't go back home and tell my parents that I share my knowledge with an unidentified alien Hive Mind. I'd freak them out permanently."
"You're their daughter, it wouldn't matter," Seren insisted. "Your parents don't want to change you." Her parents would want nothing more for her to move back to Hudson and play small town girl again.
"Unfortunately, I've changed way too much since I was 17," Chloe said. To go back home, she would have to pretend like she was still 17 year old Chloe who only cared about cheerleading, and her upcoming prom. That seemed like ages ago. There were a lot more important things in her life right now and each one needed her full, undivided attention...or someone would get hurt.
A/N:
Seren as a botanist would've been cool, just saying. She'd be a plant nerd but she'd be my plant nerd okay. In other news, I love planting seeds for future stories :)) can you spot them ?
P.S. As always, I have an AO3/Wattpad account under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow :)