Thunderstruck

Convincing her father to let her go on the mission was something Lexi counted as a win. She'd never been able to convince her father to let her go into danger with his Avenger buddies or even join them on missions where there was no danger in the entire time they had been a team, no matter how many times she had asked him. So the fact alone she was getting to go with them this time was a major win. What made it even more of a win was it meant she was going to get to be there when they rescued Rosie.

The one downside to all of this was it wasn't planned. It mostly came out of nowhere. Which meant there were a few people who needed to be notified she was definitely not going to be available for the next several hours at least, if not longer. And that meant she definitely needed to find a more quiet corner where she could call her mom.

It rang a few times before Kimberly answered the phone.

"So, you know how I texted you, telling you I went to go see my dad?"

"I don't think I like where this is going," Kimberly said.

"Yeah, you probably won't like it... So, the reason he called and picked me up was because they are like ninety-nine percent sure they've found where Rosie is and he wanted to tell me in person and so once he told me I convinced them… to let me come with them," she finished hesitantly.

"You did what?" she questioned, voice eerily calm.

Lexi gulped. Calm was always worse. "I convinced them to let me go with them to rescue my sister. But, and I think you'll agree this is really the good part, they're gonna make me stay in the quinjet — which I agreed to, by the way — and help run comms."

"I really shouldn't be surprised anymore, should I?"

"Hey, you're the one that wanted to raise me knowing my dad,” Lexi pointed out. “Not that I'm complaining, I would never complain about that, but, you know, you kind of brought this on yourself. What did you think was going to happen when you had a kid with Tony Stark?"

"I was hoping you'd take after me,” Kimberly said.

"We both know that ship sailed a long time ago."

Lexi had heard that statement from her mother many times over the years. Her parents couldn't be more different, it was a wonder they had even hit it off enough for her to exist. Of course, Lexi also knew her father had been a playboy for a long time and she knew her mother very rarely drank a lot because of how she acted. So maybe it wasn't entirely a miracle they'd ever come together, but it didn't mean when the sun had risen the morning after, they weren't back to being very different people.

When Kimberly had realized she was pregnant, it had changed a lot of things for her. She had a choice to make, many choices, really. She'd handled everything with an incredibly level head. Kimberly had decided her baby deserved to know who their father was, but she didn't want Tony to be a bad influence. She would raise the baby all on her own, she never asked for anything from Tony, she never asked for a penny, she only asked that he allow her to dictate when he could see Lexi. In what Lexi could only imagine was the incredibly patient voice she'd grown so used to, Kimberly had explained to Tony how even though she could see that he was a good person, she also knew the kind of life he led and it wasn't something she wanted around her child. She'd allow Tony to see Lexi whenever he wanted, as long as he was sober and not on a self destructive streak.

It was this conversation, Lexi believed, which had set the foundation for the relationship her parents had today. While everyone who knew him wouldn't question that James Rhodes was Tony’s best friend, only a very few people knew he had a second and it was Kimberly Quill. They may not have had the most traditional of friendships, nothing like Tony and Rhodey, but it was Kimberly who he had turned to when he found out he was going to have full custody of Rosie when she was just a baby. It was Kimberly who had told him he could be a father and talked him down off the cliff. Any time Tony was in New York for business, he'd bring Rosie with him and let her stay with Kimberly and Lexi.

After what had happened to the Quill family when Kimberly was young, it wasn't any wonder at all that she'd grown into the woman Lexi idolized so much.

Kimberly sighed. "You said you'd stay in the jet and help run comms?"

"Yes! But that's just to keep me there, not that I was planning on running off or anything. I just want to be there when they do rescue her so she has a familiar face with her while everyone else is off kicking the collective ass of the people who did this to her," Lexi explained calmly. “I… Dad told me they’d be rescuing her at this base and I just had this horrible image of her having to stay alone in the jet and she’d be scared because of everything she’d just been through and I couldn’t just let that happen.”

Kimberly sighed again and was silent for a minute. In her mind, Lexi could see her mom at her desk at work, pinching her nose, eyes closed, probably questioning all of her life choices up to this point and wondering what she’d done to deserve a daughter who stressed her out so easily. Both mother and daughter had long since accepted that Lexi was going to be the reason why Kimberly went prematurely grey.

"Not to doubt your abilities, but at this point, I really don't think you have time to stop me from doing this,” Lexi pointed out, knowing her mom was considering leaving work early to do just that. “And I do, technically, have parental permission, so…"

"I know."

"Are you mad?" she asked.

"No," Kimberly admitted and a weight lifted off Lexi’s shoulders. "I know Rosie means a lot to you and how hard this whole thing has been on you. But you have to promise me you'll be careful. And stay on that jet."

"Of course! I'm not gonna leave that ship until we're back here at the tower, I promise."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you, too, Mom."

They said their goodbyes and Lexi hung up the phone. Before getting up or putting her phone away, she opened her texts and sent one to her boyfriend, Bobby, to let him know what was going on. She knew not only would he get a kick out of her going on a mission with the Avengers, but he also knew how much Rosie meant to her. In fact, given how close the sisters were, it wasn’t just Lexi who Rosie meant a lot to. Bobby cared for her a great deal too.

Bobby and Lexi had been dating for almost four months now, but they'd been friends for years, ever since they met in school. Bobby was one of her two friends, the other being Finn Walker. Just under four months prior, Bobby had gone all out for Valentine's Day — which also happened to be Lexi's birthday — by getting all of her favourite things and making sure she had the best day possible. It was the longest she'd been happy and smiling since she’d been told her sister had been kidnapped.

No one had ever done something like that for her, done so much just to make sure she was happy. She didn’t know how long Bobby had been harbouring feelings for her, didn’t care in the grand scheme of things, but her perception of him had changed by the end of the night. Before saying goodbye, she had kissed him to thank him for everything and, well, the rest was history.

lex-mex
dont come over tonite

donald duck
what did i do?

lex-mex
nothing, doofus, but i wont be there
they found ros and im going with them to get her

donald duck
them?

lex-mex
the avengers

donald duck
can you get me perseus' autograph

lex-mex
might be a little busy with my recently rescued sister
why

donald duck
his superhero name is the coolest so he's my fav avenger

lex-mex
your standards are astonishing

donald duck
i got you didnt i

lex-mex
smooth
will text you after we get her

donald duck
will bring her fav chocolate and stuffed animal

lex-mex
that would be cookies and cream and a owl

donald duck
i know

lex-mex
ur the best

donald duck
knew that too

Rolling her eyes but smiling, Lexi put her phone away and wandered back to where everyone was. Everyone was suiting up in their armours, costumes or suits, getting their weapons together and all of a sudden Lexi felt out of place. She was standing there in her leather jacket and combat boots with her purse while everyone else was wearing armour and catsuits, wielding some kind of weapon and looking thoroughly prepared for the situation.

But she wasn't going to let that deter her. Rosie was her baby sister and she would need Lexi once they rescued her. She would be there for her sister, no matter how unprepared she felt standing amongst the Avengers.

Lexi’s eyes drifted over to the figure standing by Captain America, Rylie Kirk, also known as Causality. Lexi didn’t know much, but she knew there was a checkered past, time spent as an assassin before switching sides to SHIELD and working towards redemption. One of the only other things Lexi knew was she’d been in DC with Steve and Natasha when Hydra had been exposed. Well, she knew one other thing. Whether either of them knew it or wanted to admit it, there was definitely something going on between Steve and Rylie.

Standing a little ways away from Cap and Causality, Lexi spotted Madeline Summers, also known as Kinesis, and Perseus Stormborn, also known just as Olympian, two of the founding members of the Avengers. Both of them were insanely powerful even though they didn’t look it. Adding further to their looks being deceiving was how Perseus was allegedly the Perseus of myth and a demigod son of Zeus. Lexi was still unsure of how much she believed the demigod part, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t still incredibly powerful.

"You okay, kid?" Steve Rogers asked, wandering over to her.

"I'm ready to get my sister back," she told him. "That's all that matters."

"JARVIS will help you with everything you need to do, okay? You'll mostly just be maintaining comms and helping JARVIS relay any information to us. Simple enough, right?"

"Sounds like a piece of cake. Which would be really great right now, actually," Lexi admitted.

Steve laughed. "Maybe once we finish the mission."

Someone called his name so he wandered over to them and Lexi decided enough was enough and she wasn't going to keep standing around. She entered the quinjet, familiarizing herself with the area. There was only one pilot's seat, but she knew JARVIS was wired in so the A.I. could pilot it as well. There was enough seating for at least the entire team and slick cupboards that, at a guess, contained any kind of supplies they'd need.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Lexi turned around at the sound of a voice and saw Madeline standing behind her. Her expression was soft, but inquisitive. She could tell something was on Lexi's mind. Lexi remembered who Madeline was and laughed to herself.

“Funny, you asking me that,” Lexi said. “As if you don't know.”

“It's a conversation starter,” Madeline admitted with a shrug. “And I know better than to poke around a Stark’s head.”

Lexi laughed at that. “Yeah, I suppose I wouldn't want to be in my head either if I had a choice.”

“Nothing against you, I promise. I was in your father’s head once and I still can’t look at him the same.”

“Oh, that's a rookie mistake,” Lexi said, laughing again. “Had you talked to my dad before trying that? I'd hope that would've told you not to go further.”

“I was trying to see if he was alive, so unfortunately I couldn’t check first.” 

“Guess I can't fault you, then…”

Madeline laughed. “I still give him crap for it.”

“He probably deserves it for whatever you saw.”

“How’re you feeling about seeing Rosie?”

“I'm… anxious, I guess, is the simplest way to put it. I hate thinking about everything those monsters have probably done to her and the state she'll be in when we find her, but… but the thought of her being all alone in this jet after being all alone wherever they've been torturing her is worse. I can't let her be alone, I have to be there for her,” Lexi explained. She paused for a minute before continuing. “My feelings don't really matter. She's the only thing that matters.”

Madeline sighed. “Rosie’s lucky to have you for a sister, you know.”

“I do,” Lexi agreed with a laugh. “She needed someone to show her the real world. Love my dad, but…”

“He’s not exactly the person you’d go to for street smarts?”

“You can say he spoiled her, it's okay,” Lexi said.

She laughed. “He meant well and you know he would’ve done the same for you.”

“My mom is too smart to have let that happen,” Lexi said, looking down at her hand as she traced it back and forth over the back of a chair. “But I did get some pretty great birthday and Christmas presents. When he was sober enough to remember to send them.”

Madeline’s gaze softened at Lexi’s words. “He’s proud of you, you know. He may not say it often, but he is in awe of how much you’ve accomplished so far.” She smiled. “And he regrets not having been okay enough to be around for your childhood.”

Lexi pushed back the tears which sprang up at Madeline's words. “Yeah, I know. He likes to think he's some big enigma but he's pretty easy to read. Especially since he got back from the whole kidnapping thing. I see it a lot when he looks at me. The regret. These past few months more than ever. Plus he's not as sneaky as he thinks about anonymous gifts and donations to my school.”

Madeline lifted her hand, a tissue flying through the air and landing in her palm. She then handed it to Lexi with a smile. “At least he wasn’t a teacher at your school.”

“God, my dad would be a terrible teacher.” Lexi laughed, fiddling with the tissue in her hand. “Him getting me into Midtown was bad enough, let alone if he taught there.”

“Listen, my parents were my teachers, and the man I consider a grandfather was the headmaster, that made school something else.” Madeline laughed. “But you’re making your own name every day.”

“Thanks,” Lexi said, smiling at Madeline. “I try.”

For a split second, Madeline’s gaze became far away, only for her to sigh as her gaze returned to Lexi. 

“I’ll see you in a bit, okay? Perseus wants to talk about something that apparently can’t wait two minutes.” She then blushed before turning to face Perseus. “I’m coming, calm down!”

Lexi smiled to herself as she watched Madeline exit the quinjet and approach Perseus, who was lingering a few feet away, trying to look like he was standing that close to the quinjet just by happenstance. She may have only known vague things about their history, but she was still happy for them, happy they'd made it back to being happy together.

Alone once more in the quinjet, Lexi turned to look out the front windows. She was close. So close to getting her sister back. There was no way she'd be entirely fine after four months of torture but getting her away from them was better than just leaving her to her fate. And, of course, it meant she could start to recover. It meant she could force her to watch The Princess Bride with her again and take her out for fast food and to the arcade. All the sorts of places people without an endless stream of money went to entertain or feed themselves.

Lexi couldn't wait for that day. Even if it would be a while before Rosie was well enough to do it. She could wait, she could funnel all of her considerably low well of patience into that. And if Hydra managed to persist after this, Lexi would find some way to burn them to the ground for daring to hurt her baby sister.