Running out of luck
Take me to the church and back again
Without tripping up
It hurt. It hurt so much. Every breath felt like inhaling acid in a gaseous form. With each gasping breath, needles pricked at the inside of her lungs, making the air harder and harder to take in. From somewhere deep in her mind, Morgan wondered why she hadn't called in to SHIELD's infirmary and scheduled an appointment to handle her cough. The cough progressed into a painful wheeze, which progressed into this terrible mess that left her staring up at the ceiling of her apartment. Everything was turning into a blurry, indistinguishable jumble in front of her eyes, and there was no way to stop it.
Trying to pull in yet another breath, Morgan found herself choking on it. The product of that was a series of rough coughs and gasps. A large hand reached out and wrapped around Morgan's left shoulder, shaking it gently. Morgan couldn't respond if she tried. "Lady Morgan?" a particularly colorful mass -Thor- called, moving into her line of sight. Morgan could recognize him anywhere. On top of that, he was the one who agreed to accompany her to Tony Stark's New Years Eve party. It figured that she wouldn't be able to spend her night drinking, dancing and chatting with the handsome future king of Asgard like she hoped for. Her dream date with her crush of the past two years was quickly being stomped out before her unfocused eyes.
If that wasnt bad enough, Morgan had heard from her cousin Sam that Agent Romanov was going to be liveblogging the whole night. It was one of the few perks the redhead had as an Avenger after, "having her[expletive] face being [expletive] plastered all over the [Russian expletives] newspaper!" She got to do things that would have compromised her work in the past.
Before Morgan could wallow in more despair about her asthma attack ruining her chances of finally going to a famous Stark party, Thor was lifting her in his arms and carrying her somewhere. It wasn't until the sudden coldness enveloped her that Morgan realized she was outside. Thor was carrying her - no, flying her away from her apartment. To safety. Her crush was, once again, acting as the hero she adored, saving the day - night.
It was strange how although Morgan felt her skin break into millions of goosebumps all over, her lungs were inflamed and every intake of the cold night air was just another gulp of more fire. The sensation was unsettling. Morgan never really had any fondness for irony.
The edges of her vision grew darker than the night sky each time she would blink.
"Please, Lady Morgan... I will get you a healer, I swear it. Breathe, my Lady. I need you to live. You mustn't close your eyes. Please..." Thor whispered in his rumbling tone, Mjolnir swinging in his right hand and creating a dull fwup, fwup, fwup in the air. He was scared, and that was making her scared. Thor was never scared - he was always the one who jumped into the middle of a fight, laughing and mocking his foes as if it were a game. Everything about this night was just so damn wrong...
A tear slipped down Morgan's cheek. She didn't want to die.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Search the wild until I'm found again
If you've had enough
Lose me to the fire and take me in
I can't get enough
And I'm not going to hide
Two weeks later, Morgan was out of the care of her doctor, Aries Ellington, in 100% good health. She hadn't even sneezed since her release from the infirmary! That was a miracle if Morgan ever saw one. It was a relief to be back at work. During the three days that she spent in the infirmary, Morgan had to watch as a man, Sgt. James "Bucky" Barnes, barged into the busy place and insisted that Dr. Ellington take care of his wounds. Whether they were made from a mission or a sparring session, it didn't matter. He would always request Dr. Ellington, and Steve Rogers was always escorting him there as a parent would their accident-prone child, with equal parts exasperation and worry. It was cute the first two days, but by the third day, Morgan worried Sergeant Barnes was a total nutcase. No normal person purposely got themselves injured to ineffectively flirt for half an hour with a doctor who was far too frazzled with various other patients to notice. It was either his lack of proper social skills or his own love-blind madness that was making him act that way, but no matter the reason, it was crazy all the same.
As she picked at her, quite frankly, gross salad, Morgan felt her body begin to slow down, tiredness seeping deeply into her bones seemingly out of nowhere. With her lack of movement in her hospital bed and forced paid leave, Morgan was stuck in her apartment for nearly a week and a half doing nothing. She hated it. How was she supposed to keep on top of things if she was barred from her office and told by Maria Hill herself to, "Go home and enjoy being out of the chaos."
Didn't that woman know SHIELD employees couldn't actually enjoy their off time? It was, like, a common trait all good agents shared.
"Lady Morgan?"
Thor watched as the small agent brought her big hazel eyes up to rest on him. For a moment, she didn't seem to process just who she was looking at, but then the familiar bright grin Agent Golden nearly always possessed stretched across her face. He didn't buy it, not even for a second. With the way her tiny shoulders were hunched forward, Thor almost passed by the typically alert agent. He didn't like the tiredness that was weighing her down. She was much more chipper than whatever this was.
"Hey, Thor! How's it goin'?"
"You are tired. You must rest."
She didn't question how he knew that. He'd come by to visit her in the infirmary enough to see what she looked like when tired, and was her also her best friend. He knew her. "I must get paid." Morgan scoffed in response. Did he know how paychecks worked or did he believe that at the end of the work week, all the agents were tossed a small pouch of gold coins? You could never tell what the big guy knew. Morgan felt everything was touch-and-go - you had to be constantly ready to explain if something new came up.
Thor crossed his arms over his chest as the agent began to pick at her salad, clearly believing the conversation with him was done. In retaliation, he stalked over to her, grabbed the fork from her hand and placed it on the table. Morgan let out an exclamation of protest, slapping a tiny hand against his arm as he linked his with hers. It was too easy to pull her from the cafeteria and lead her down one of the various halls of the SHIELD headquarters- no agent milling about made any move to stop the Norse god from taking one of their own away.
Who was foolish enough to try?
When the pair made their way by the gym, Sam was just stepping out. In his hand he held a giant wad of money that he counted with a giant grin plastered to his face. Upon seeing the struggling female and indifferent male, he stopped them. "Hey, Morg! Hey, Thor! How's my favorite cousin and favorite deity?"
"Help! I'm being kidnapped. Call the police - no, call the other Avengers!"
"Your dear cousin, Falcon, is dreadfully exhausted. She must rest. I am escorting her to her home."
Sam looked between them. Thor looked particularly concerned as he gazed down at Morgan, who was trying her hardest to pry Thor off of her. The task looked like it was draining her, and it probably was after her recent sickness. Being a responsible man, Sam Wilson thought hard on who could be the liar in this situation. He'd had never been lied to by the tall blonde man before. Morgan, on the other hand, lied about her real job for five years before telling him where she really worked once the Winter Solider fiasco happened. "Oh? Cool, Thor. Bye, y'all!" He walked away, smiling to himself as he heard Morgan screeching obscenities behind his back.
The Norse god continued pulling Morgan in the direction of the garage. Morgan continued to fight, drag her heels and complain. When they made it, Thor finally let go. He turned to the small woman and prepared to ask for her keys (Clint taught both Steve and Thor how to drive a few months ago, claiming the thrill of watching "two old men freak out about parallel parking being worth being up at 5:30AM."), but she was gone.
Morgan peered from behind Tony's gaudy red corvette, looking out for Thor. If I take the back stairs, cut through the gym and go to the third floor, I can round back and make it to my office in less than seven minutes - She was already sprinting for the exit, grinning madly as she went. The grin was wiped off by the sudden appearance of Thor's solid figure.
She didn't dare look up into the eyes that had a look as thunderous as anything Mjolnir could create.
"Turn around."
Pouting, Morgan marched to her black 2016 Nissan Altima, tossing her keys over her shoulder to Thor. She tried to ignore the slight wheeze in her panting that came from sprinting across the large garage. She really didn't want to go back to the infirmary. He was thankful for her disappointment. There was no way he would be able to hide the wide smirk of amusement. By Odin's beard, if she knew how enjoyable he found her clever nature to be, he would never be able to get her to do as he asked! She really had a problem with authority.
~*~*~*~*~*~
So many reasons
Why you're better off
"Like this, right?" Morgan asked, cracking a hazel eye open.
"Yes. Focusing on your breath will help you find your limits. Learning your limit will allow you to know when to stop and prevent another asthma attack, Agent," T'Challa hummed in response, not bothering to open his eyes. When she first approached him and asked if he could teach her how to meditate, the Wakandan king wanted to laugh at the neon green, sleeveless shirt and bright yellow pants she wore. She looked like a Sprite can. However, the earnestness in her eyes to learn a new skill made him rethink being cruel to her.
"Okay, right. Right. Breathing. In and out. Not too hard."
In all honesty, Agent Golden was a wonderful pupil. If it weren't for her asking if she was doing the right thing every five minutes, she followed his every word and stayed still. She was much better than that Scott Lang at this. Even if she did talk a lot. The agent was quickly becoming his best friend and she didn't even know it.
From the inside of the ring in the middle of the room, Thor watched the pair with a sour expression on his face. He didn't like that the woman he felt affection for was spending time with a man who wasn't him. She was supposed to learn skills from him, not the panther.
Steve, his sparring partner, didn't say anything as Thor suddenly dropped from his fighting stance and stared Agent Golden's way. He knew that Thor felt strongly for the pretty, brown-skinned woman, but he had no idea it was this bad. He left his midsection totally open!
"What is this?" Thor mumbled to himself, his brow furrowing as his blue eyes studied the unmoving people in the corner of the room. It shouldn't have bothered him so much, but the thought of Lady Morgan enjoying the panther's time when they weren't even doing anything did not sit well with him. It made him question if he was too boring to have Lady Morgan just sit with him and enjoy his company. And the panther! He was intelligent, quiet and composed, all traits of a king that Thor did not yet possess. Thor was still prone to outbursts of rage, fumbled when trying to understand Midgardian ways and spoke at a volume he knew sometimes startled his peers. "I don't like this..."
Clearly, Agent Golden felt something for King T'Challa. Prince Thor couldn't even compete...
~*~*~*~*~*~
You've seen the madness
Blind to right or wrong
I tried to put my brakes on
But I'm already lost
Lost to the madness
"What the hell is your problem?" It was one of those days. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
First, Morgan was visted by none other than Director Coulson and former Director Nick Fury, and both men were pissed about the backup of paperwork in Agent Golden's department. With her being the Head of Confidential Information and Filing, she took all the abuse. It wasn't her fault that a pipe burst over one of the only computers that didn't have its information stored on a secured flashdrive, but the two men didn't see it that way. Her men and women were doing their best to recover as much information as they could based on memory for the contents of the filing cabinet.
Then, as if to pay her back for her carelessness, Pietro Maximoff got shot while on a mission with his sister, Captain America and Vision. Agent Golden was forced to console Wanda until the crying woman could calm down. Morgan didn't understand the younger woman's grief. Everyone knew seven bullets would keep her brother down for two, three days at most. Regardless, she patting Wanda's back and told her things that she hoped would be soothing.
As if that wasn't the icing on the cake, Pepper Potts came down with the flu and was currently in some hospital somewhere in California. That left Tony Stark wandering around SHIELD headquarters, bothering everyone and getting in their way, Agent Golden included ("No, you may notchange our filing system! I have my way of doing - DID YOU NOT JUST HEAR ME, STARK?!" "Sheesh, why'd I invite you to my party? A party you never showed up to, by the way." "Get out."). In addition to that, Morgan was left trying to deal with everything as co-Chief of Communications for both SHIELD and Stark Industries. Pepper was supposed to be her other half, the half that did most of the work because she had time.
It was already hard enough being in two important positions, but then there was what happened with Thor. It started off as a simple mission that Black Panther was capable of handling on his own. Despite that, the injury of Pietro earlier that day made the king wary, so he brought along Bruce Banner and Thor to help him out. The mission detailed them stopping a mad scientist who created a serum that would force the X-gene to appear in anyone who had it as a recessive trait. Everything was going well, and T'Challa fought the villain without either of his teammates needing to step in.
Then Thor had a meltdown and went berserker, smashing all the vials of the serum that SHIELD wanted to study (because SHIELD was no stranger to shady activity, they only justified it as keeping information that the people may need in the future).
Thor, being a man who struggled to tell anyone that he did, in fact, mess up, refused to even face Morgan as she yelled at him. "If I have a problem, it would only have to do with you..." It was childish, and came from a place of anger, but right now, Thor had no idea how to translate his frustration in a way that wasn't this. The hero of the day had been T'Challa, and Thor was starting to feel like he would be in the man's shadow forever if things kept up the way they were - today was just proof that he wasn't needed. Was this how Loki felt?
The shock that came with such a harsh statement made Morgan back up a few steps. She stared up at the back of Thor's head. "Y-You don't mean that... C'mon, we can go back to my place and watch a movie." She made to reach out and touch his arm, but Thor whirled around and glared down at her.
"No." You pity me. I don't want your pity. I want you.
"Fine!" And she stormed out of the conference room. If he was going to be like this, there was no reason for her to continue to be around him.
Morgan fumed all the way home, absolutely enraged. The nerve of that man! How could he talk to her like that? She was only trying to help him, and he turned on her, like she was his enemy instead of his best friend. He was so out of line! He -
She had to pull her car over on the side of the road, her tears blurring her vision too much to safely drive.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Cause when I inhale, exhale
I'm back again
"Please, speak to me."
Cough. "Fuck off," Morgan croaked out before blowing her nose into a tissue. She was laid out on her couch, sick again. This is why I work a fuckin' desk job...
Thor handed her the box of tissues that sat on her coffee table. He felt they were much too far away from her for his liking. If she wanted them, she would have had to sit up, lean over and strain to grab them. She was much smaller than she believed she was. "I want to make sure you are well. You have not attended work in a week. Sam is worried, but he was busy with a mission, Lady Morgan."
"Tell Sam thanks. Fuck off, now."
Thor hesitated, wondering if he should tell her the real reason as to why he was in her apartment at 11:18PM, handing her tissues and holding a bowl of chicken noddle soup ("Soup's good. She'd take soup over a salad," Agent Romanov told him, having knowledge of many likes and dislikes of her co-workers. How she knew these things was the true mystery). Finally, Thor pushed on, gripping his courage with the strength of Odin himself, "I... I was jealous."
Morgan opened her eyes that had drifted closed, staring blearily up at Thor. At first, she couldn't make sense of his words. Then, gradually, the words pieced together. "Jealous? Why? Asthma isn't fun, Thor! It freaking sucks and I -"
"King T'Challa of Wakanda is your lover, and I acted as a child would. I threw a tantrum and lashed out at a person I care deeply for... I hurt you."
"It hurt. It hurt so much," Morgan whispered, sniffling. "You acted like you didn't even care about me. You yelled at me. You've never yelled at me like that." I was scared, was the silent addition to her words. Thor heard them clear as day, and he hated himself for being such a brute. This was exactly was Thor worried about - becoming the unfit brat that wanted the throne that Loki and his father saw him as just a few years ago.
"I'm sorry."
Whether it was from her slight fever or from deep down inside, Thor would never be able to tell, but Morgan nodded her head slightly. "I forgive you. And I ain't dating T'Challa, Big Man."
Then she began to cough in the same way she did on New Years Eve. Thor was already reaching for her and summoning Mjolnir. Time to see Dr. Ellington again...