CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
( UNEXPECTED )
THE COOL NIGHT wind whips around Quinn as she takes her time stepping out of her car. She tugs at Steve's leather jacket tighter, hoping to create some heat from the large jacket.
Although it had been two weeks since he and Natasha last left, she felt the same stabbing sensation of watching him leave on a mission once again, and once again he handed her his jacket to inform her he was leaving.
It had become a tradition of theirs, now every time she saw the jacket she winced a little like she had been slapped or pinched. Even though he always came back she knew there was a fair chance he never would on each mission and each day he was off on the mission made it seem like an eternity for her. Like she was falling into a pit of hopelessness and disappear.
Her tiny crush she had developed on him was getting bigger with each smile he shared with her and she didn't know how to take it.
Unlike Maddox, she knew she wanted to be with Steve but whether or not she was ready was the thing that kept holding her back from asking him on an official date.
Of course, he would come over and watched movies or television with her (only ones that were iconic and worth watching like Star Wars or the Jurassic Park movies), but that was purely to show him what he's missed from the decades he spent in the ice.
Jo always called them dates but Quinn was heavily against calling them that. Steve didn't have an opinion on what they called them, but they weren't dates to him either. She grumbles to herself as she unlocks the door to the building.
She had planned to watch Indiana Jones with Steve tonight but of course, he had an immediate mission to go with Natasha that he couldn't tell her about. As she enters her loft it's completely dark which throws her off.
Usually, they leave a light on within the loft just in case someone was trying to break in. Unless someone did break-in in this case. Quinn shakes the thought of Jo being dead somewhere in the loft, she recounts to the parking lot. She hadn't seen her car, she must've been at Josh's.
It still didn't explain the absence of Rudolph. Quinn shuffles her way inside, cautiously peering around from side to side before shutting the door to the outside, entering the loft into complete darkness. She suppresses the urge to shout if anyone is there, she knows someone is there, she's just hoping it's Jo playing a prank on her.
If that was the case Quinn was going to chew her out. She timidly makes her way into the loft, softly padding towards the kitchen. Her breathing is going to be her enemy as she can't seem to keep her breathing quiet. It's shaky and all over the place, as well as her trembling hands.
Her foot collides with something in the darkness causing her to trip loudly. A laugh erupts from the living room causing her hair on the back of her neck to stand on edge. She reaches helplessly up to the counter only to knock over the display with their steak knives over. She fumbles as she blindly tries to grab ahold of the blunt end of a knife.
As she does the lights come on and she sees exactly what - or who - she's tripped over. She lets out a loud gasp and her hand immediately latches on to the golden fur of Rudolph's motionless body. "Ruddy!" She whispers out hotly, tears stinging her eyes.
A pair of loud footsteps alert her and she grabs ahold of the steak knife and points it up at the intruder. Her eyes soften for a moment as she looks up at the intruder. "Agent Ward?" her voice is trembling slightly. "What did you do to him?" she blurts out, holding on to Rudolph's head protectively.
Agent Ward merely kicks the knife out of her hands, flinging it upwards towards the ceiling. She staggers on her rear, pushing herself back to escape him but he roughly grabs ahold of her underneath her arm. She fights, dragging herself along the floor in protest.
Her legs kick upwards as she remembers her training, she's able to scissor kick him and lay him flat on his back for a moment before she quickly tackles her back down to the ground. This time he grabs her by the scruff of Steve's jacket and drags her to the couch, tears stream down her face as she groans at the pain Agent Ward has caused her and out of pure adrenaline.
He ties something around her mouth, muffling the sound of her sobs. A pair of fingers snap in front of her face, drawing her attention forward. Her eyes widen as she gazes up at Alexander Pierce, the Undersecretary.
Confusion overcomes her as she continues to look between him, Agent Ward, and a man sitting to his left with a notable metal arm. "How are you, Miss Cruise?" The Undersecretary asks, earning just another confused look from Quinn.
Her eyes guarded as he chuckles at the fact she's been gagged. "You know me but it's probably a shock to you that I know who you are," he states, shrugging his shoulders. Quinn's eyes quickly gaze towards the man with a metal arm, who's gun lays splayed in his lap.
"You've got a nice place here for someone who has an I.T. job. What do you pay monthly two grand?" he humorously questions looking around the loft, trying to lighten the mood. "Nice dog too, really friendly breed. You're lucky he didn't attack or else...well...he wouldn't be knocked out with mild sedatives now," he once again chuckles at his own joke, trying and failing to make Quinn feel comfortable.
"You're probably wondering why I'm here of all places to be too, well I have a proposition for you Cruise," he leans forward, she can smell the minty stench of his cologne making her sick. What did she do to deserve this? "If I remove the gag, you have to promise you won't scream, or else big guy here might have to do something drastic,"
Quinn attempts to muffle out an 'okay' but it doesn't come out clear, leaving Pierce to look at her with a dead look. She carefully and slowly nods her head, never breaking eye contact with him. Ward is the one to cross the room to release the gag out of her mouth, leaving her feeling breathless as it's removed.
She can taste a bit of blood from her gums as the cloth dug into her mouth. "Tell me, Cruise, have you ever heard about Insight before?" he questions her, hopping up from his chair to look out of her loft window. She raises a brow up in question. "I'm sorry, sir, I haven't,"
"Well that's good," he chuckles, turning back towards her. "If you had, I would have to do some serious firing," he attempts to joke as he sits back across from her. She wants to lamely smile at his version of a joke but she couldn't take anything light-hearted at the moment. "Insight is something S.H.I.E.L.D. has been working on for some time now, I figured Captain Rogers would've told you about it if he knew,"
"Steve doesn't tell me anything, he's a good man," Quinn spits out in defense of her friend. Whatever Pierce was doing here had something to do with Steve, she knew it. She had to protect him, yet she had to protect Jo and even Rudolph first. "That he is," Pierce muses as if he's bored. "But he's hiding things from S.H.I.E.L.D. and I was thinking you could help us with that,"
"Help how? By getting information? He won't tell me," she clarifies expressing her frustration by raising her voice a little. Pierce puts his finger to his lips as the man with the metal arm clenches his grip tighter on his gun. Quinn stops even though she wants to panic immediately and run out the door. She tries her best to refrain herself from creating any more stress to the situation.
"Well, we noticed that you've been training with Agent Norris and you've gotten pretty close to Captain Rogers -"
"I'm going to stop you right there," Quinn perks up, her voice trembling. She had caught Pierce off guard as he turns to look at her surprised. It takes a moment before she can find her voice as she looks at the man with a metal arm and his gun before looking towards Pierce again. "I'm not going to hurt Steve, if that's what you want,"
"And if it is what I want, what can I do to persuade you to willingly hurt him?" Pierce ponders as he begins listing off materialistic items. "Money? A new life?"
"Nothing. My life may be a bit of a mess but it is perfect the way it is," she cuts him off. Pierce runs a hand across his face as he sighs heavily. The man with the metal arm moves his finger on the trigger of his gun, instantly alerting Quinn of his presence that he's still there. She jumps a bit but stands her ground glaring at all three men in silence, just waiting for the bullet to fly through her head.
"Your mother Marianne Angeline Cruise is in the New York City hospital, treating under the care of Doctor Meredith Woodruff, she's on the third floor, room forty-three forty-five, the exact coordinates are forty point seventy-five degrees latitude and negative seventy-three point ninety-seven degrees longitude. Your mother's hair is up today, she's currently laying down in her bed, watching Jeopardy," Pierce lists off, whirling around with a pager in his hands in the process.
Quinn's jaw was on the floor with the exact details that he rambles off about her mother. "All it takes is one shot, Cruise, and you'll lose your last family member. It'll be her blood on your hands,"
Quinn bites her bottom lips hard as she furrows her brow in thought. "I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt her or hurt Steve, I care about him too much," she stipulates, hoping that they wouldn't let her be the one to harm him. Instead, she gets a hearty laugh from the Undersecretary.
"Oh, I see, you think Captain America actually cares about you. That's so sweet," he goads with a smug smile. "He does," Quinn reiterates, slightly moving defensively. The man with the metal arm trains his gun on her, and she instantly settles down. "I won't hurt him," she chants out with a deadly tone, looking Pierce dead in the eyes with a rueful glare.
Pierce sits back as he rolls his eyes. "I really wanted to do this the easy way," he simply states before nudging the metal armed man beside him a little. The sudden movement sets all the alarms off in Quinn's head, as the man moves dangerously close to her with his gun. She begins to beg with him and Pierce before she turns to see the butt of the gun ramming her in the head. Her world becomes faint before it turns to black.
She can't really get a grip on what's happening, all she can do is fade in and out of consciousness unwillingly. She remembers being shoved into a van with Agent Ward and trying to protest to not get gives in there with him.
When she can't see anything all she does is envision being at home with Jo and Rudolph when there's a knock on the door and Steve enters.
As her conscious pulls back to reality she faintly sees what can only appear to be some sort of a weird bank vault. Pierce is standing to one side of the room talking to other agents like Ward clad in all black. She attempts to stand up but her wrists forcibly stop her from doing so.
She looks down to see that she's been restrained to a chair, setting off a panic in her. She sees Pierce acknowledge her but can't hear his voice as she's pulled back into her unconscious state.
She's in the loft with Steve, his leather jacket is clung tightly around his shoulders. He bites his bottom lip as he begins to pull her in, closing the gap between them as he cups her face, lips inches from hers.
There's a pinching, and then burning sensation coming from her neck, bringing her out of the dream. She looks to see a man with latex gloves shoving a needle deep into her neck. She wants to scream but her body will not let her. "How are you feeling, champ?" a distorted voice asks her.
She lazily flips her head to the side to see a blurred version of Pierce with latex gloves on as well. "You look like hell, kid," he tuts, grasping on to her cheeks and then letting go "I wish we could've done this the easy way, but, I guess this is the only way," he sighs out, earning a gurgled sound from Quinn as she watches him pull out something black from the table beside the chair. It's a mouthguard.
Her mind tries to take over what if could be used for but by the time she's stopped fighting a way to break free of this the mouth guard has found its way into her mouth, making her drool a little. "Sorry it had to be this way," his voice is distant in her mind even though he's next to her in the chair.
She watches him push away in the wheeled chair as someone locks on to the sides of her head, forcing her to look forward. Exhaustion overwhelms her, she's too weak to fight anything including herself. She stares out at the handful of people in the room watching her intently as two black pieces latch on to either side of her face.
She wishes she could blackout, she wishes she could sleep and dream, but her body won't let her. Her breathing is sporadic as she sits in the chair, panicking about what's happening.
She never could have anticipated what was to come next. A humming sound alerted her that something was about to happen before her head felt like exploding as she feels a wave of electricity run through her mind.
She bites down on the mouthguard, her screams muffled by the device as another shock tears through her. Memories flash before her, memories containing Steve. All turn a certain blood red as they cross her mind. Slowly but surely she fades back into being unconscious only hearing certain words that sear themselves into the back of her mind as she attempts to mumble them out.
~ BOOK ONE: THE WINTER SOLDIER ~
WHEN SHE WAKES up she's gasping for air, clutching down on to her comforter. Her mind is racing, still thinking she's in danger until she feels something creep up to her. She groans at the sudden wetness of Rudolph's tongue sliding across her face in an attempt to comfort her.
Rudolph was in her room with her, alive and well. Quinn tosses her blanket off her body, she was fully clothed in her pajamas, ones that she only wears when she's home alone. She carefully makes her way out of her room to see the kitchen light on like it always is.
No signs of distress or forced entry anywhere. Had she dreamt it all up? It could be possible, she was stressed from work and from Steve being gone. Blair had also been pushing her to her limits once again.
The door begins to jingle, catching Quinn off guard and also alerting her to an intruder. She quickly grabs ahold of a steak knife from their display and points it at the front door, just waiting for the intruder to walk in.
Her eyes narrow as the door flings open to reveal Jo. Instant relief flows through her veins as she utters out Jo's name in disbelief. Jo cautiously stares between Quinn and the knife in her hands as she pets Rudolph on the forehead.
"Quinn, what's going on?" Jo questions nervously, causing Quinn to nervously spin around in a circle to see if there was a danger. No one could hurt Jo when she was there to protect her, she was the reason why she couldn't let anyone hurt her. What would Jo do without her?
"Quinn," Jo beckons to her roommate, careful to not stand too close to Quinn with the knife in her hands. Quinn twirls to see the hurt and confusion Jo held within her eyes, her stances defensive just in case she needed to grab the knife from Quinn. "Is everything all right?" she questions her roommate once again, pushing Rudolph behind her just in case.
Quinn blinks at Jo confused before looking down at the knife in her hand. She quickly puts the knife down on the counter and puts her face in her hands, sighing out of frustration. She never wanted to scare Jo. "Just a nightmare," she excuses herself. "It's made me a little jumpy,"
"Is it about the intruders again?" Jo asks, relaxing a little from Quinn's sudden defeat with the knife. Quinn had always had nightmares about home invasions, even though it never personally happened to her or Jo.
She didn't like the fact that one in five people were kleptomaniacs and would kill to steal something they really wanted. Quinn merely nods her head as she bites down on her bottom lip almost embarrassed. She couldn't believe she had a nightmare about her own boss and an agent who helped her learn her tricks.
"You can sleep with me, come on," Jo offers, more like demands, as she hooks her arm around Quinn's to lead her down the hall. Quinn didn't protest, being with someone strengthened their numbers against the odds of an actual home invasion.
She still could believe she thought Pierce was our to get her for being close to Steve, work has really taken its toll on her. She didn't see any signs of breaking and entering but if she had looked up in the kitchen, she still would've noticed the spot where Agent Ward had kicked a knife up into the ceiling and pried it back down.