Back to work
Chapter 4
Back to Work
It had been a few weeks since the rescue. Emma had been ordered to relax for a few weeks, but that really only lasted a couple days. Her and Steve had been hanging out almost daily since she returned. Emma was a bit surprised at the change but welcomed the change. She was beginning to care for the soldier much more since her rescue and loved spending time with him.
He made sure to check in with her daily. He was really getting the hang of using a cell phone and used that to converse with her all the time. Then after a couple of days of ‘taking it easy’ Emma finally convinced him to start training with her again.
They started out with some light sparing and little things here and there. Steve even started out by helping her when she wanted to practice with her powers as well. She had been working on grabbing and moving things with her force field instead of just blocking and blasting with it. And she even started trying to see if she could lift herself using her force field, seeing if maybe should could fly.
One of their weight lifting and sparing sessions started out like normal, but Emma started to get extremely frustrated by being treated like she was going to break. She knows that Steve is super soldier and practically invincible, but so is she. And she feels like he, and Shield, keeps forgetting that and one evening Emma finally had enough.
“Emma, you are supposed to be taking it easy. You were captured only a few weeks ago and they did who knows what while they had you. I don’t want to hur….” But he didn’t get to finish his sentence before Emma grabbed him up in a force field like they had been practicing and lightly tossed him across the room. “You were saying?” She said with a smirk and her hands on her hips.
Steve just looked at her like he couldn’t believe she just did that and shook his head at her, “Alright alright Doll, point taken.” He said, standing up and straightening his clothes. He walked towards her, acting like he was going pick up something off the bench when he suddenly reached for her and spun her around in a fancy move and had her on her back on the ground. She just looked up him with shock, “That better?” He asked with a smile. Steve still had one of her arms in his and one foot lightly on her, holding her in place.
After she recovered from the takedown, she smiled at him with a sly grin and swiped his feet our from under him, well she tried too. He jumped over her attempt, but that gave her the room to pop back up to her feet. She dropped into a defensive position and smirked at him. “You’re on.” She laughed out.
They proceeded to spend the next half hour, fighting and wrestling, using the whole gym. You could hear grunting and laughing. A few broken things littered the room. This was the most fun that Steve and Emma had had in a while.
The two were too busy trying to pin each other to the ground that they didn’t hear anyone walk into the gym until Emma heard a familiar voice, “Ummmm…. Sapphire, I don’t think this is what Fury had in mind when he ordered you to rest for a couple weeks.”
Spinning around, Emma saw Clint Barton leaning against one of the columns. She just shrugged at him, “Yeah, well we all know how that goes. I don’t think i have ever seen you or Nat take that advice to heart either.” Barton just shrugged too back at her. He pushed off the column and started walking toward them. “Hey Captain.” Barton greeted Steve with a firm handshake. “Agent Barton.” Steve responded in that formal military tone of his. “What brings you in this time of night?” Steve also asked.
“I wanted to let Em know that I was being sent off on a mission for a little while. And that Nat is off doing some undercover work so she wont be reachable for a little bit either.” Barton said. Then turning to look at her, “Just wanted you to know and i tried calling you but you didn’t answer and i was in the area.” He shrugged at her.
“Oh sorry about that! I finally convinced the Captain here to train with me. Actually really train. And i lost track of time.” She said, and turned and winked at Steve. He blushed a little at her display, but casually bumped her back, “Well when you get thrown into a wall by a force field, its kind of hard to keep saying no.” Steve answered back to her with a grin. Barton just shook his head at their antics, wondering when they were going to stop dancing around each other.
“Well, i cant stay long. Was just seeing how you were doing as well. And we will keep to our normal routine. Ill let ya know when i am back from the mission.” Barton stepped up and gave Emma a small hug. He had started seeing her as his little sister and even though he knew she was one of the toughest out of everyone, knowing that something out there got the better of her, it had scared him. He just had to come out and say bye and see her again to know she was doing okay.
“Alright Clint. Be safe.” Emma said softly. The boys nodded at each other and Barton left.
Emma and Steve both looked at each other for a moment and then started to straighten up the gym. And after a few minutes Steve spoke up, “Hey, Emma..” she turned and looked at him, “Do you..ummm… Do you want to go get some dinner with me?” He asked softly. She looked at the clock on the wall and it said 11:30pm, “This time of night?” She confirmed with him. Steve nodded back at her, not wanting to end their evening quite yet. “Yeah, I’m sure there is a local pub open somewhere that we could get some drinks and food.”
“Sure Captain, lets go!”
The two proceeded to hang out for the next month or so. Steve was enjoying getting to know the remarkable woman and was amazed with what she was accomplishing with her powers. It seemed that ever since she was taken off guard, she has doubled her efforts at progressing with her abilities. He was dreading when she was cleared officially to start going back on missions again. That was one of the reasons why he didn’t want to train with her at the beginning, because he knew once she was back to full strength, then he would be seeing less of her. Especially because he himself didn’t feel quite ready to jump back into the field.
That moment they were both dreading came one evening when he was down in the gym, rhythmically punching the heaviest punching bag, when Emma walked in. He turned to greet her when his breath caught and his heart dropped. She was dressed in a full black body suit with weapons attached. He knew she was called back into the field. He turned away from her for a brief moment then made is way over to stand before her.
Emma knew he was worried about her going back into the field. “Hey Captain.” She smiled lightly at him.
“I take you were called back in?” He asked her, already knowing the answer. She nodded at him. “Yeah, Fury actually called me for this one. Something strange going on at a research base in South America. Not sure all the details yet. But Fury needed me to do some investigating on this one. I just wanted to come and say bye in person.” Emma reached out and placed a hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll be back soon!”
As she turned around to get going, Steve reached out and grabbed her elbow and spun her back around towards him. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a tight hug. “Please be careful.” She stepped back a little bit from him and then leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. “Will do! Keep out of trouble Captain.” She smirked at him with a wink.
Steve watched her walk out of the building, and went back to the punching bag. Meanwhile, Emma was smiling like a fool cause she just kissed Steve.
A few weeks later…… (changing to 1st person)
Emma pov
Quinjet mid flight
I was currently on my way back from South America for a mission when I received a distressed call from Agent Coulson. It was a wide com broadcast for shield personnel. He said that the PEGASUS base was compromised and needed immediate evacuation help.
“This is Agent Sapphire. En-route to your location now.” I spoke over the coms.
“Negative Agent Sapphire. Get to New York SHIELD base now.” That was director Fury’s voice she recognized immediately. He sounded like he was out of breath. I wonder what the hell happened.
I let out a breath, but followed orders. “Copy sir.” I muttered. Immediately switching my course, I started heading towards New York like I originally was.
*beep beep*
I pulled my cell phone out, wondering who was texting me at the moment. Steve knew not to text me until I texted him first.
*Meet me at the gym before you get to base*
Thats all the text said, but i knew which gym he was talking about. Now i was worried. If Fury was bringing in Steve Rogers, then something big has happened.
I texted him back a simple *copy*
I flew to the building that Steve and I both stayed in. It had the gym in the basement level that Steve practically lived in. Shield had designed it to resemble a more 40s look. I think it made him feel more comfortable during his time transitioning to todays world.
Landing on the roof, I hopped out and made my way down to the basement level.
I got the the gym door and could hear talking coming from inside already, so I opened up the door quietly and snuck in. Fury was already in there speaking with Steve. I glanced around the room and noticed a line of punching bags and some sand scattered around. I let out of huff of air then looking at Steve. I could tell that he was stressed and hadn’t been sleeping very well. He usually only had the row of punching bags when he planned to not sleep and try to beat the stress away. I lost track of the amount of evenings and nights I found him like that. That was when I started to train with him. Gave him something to focus his mind on when fighting a real person.
“You here with a mission sir?” Steve asked.
“I am.” Fury responded.
Steve turned looked up at Fury, “Trying to get me back into the world? I told you, that mission that you sent me on to rescue Agent Warner, was because it was her. Im not ready yet.”
“We are trying to save the world.” I watched as Fury handed Steve a file. I chose that moment to walk in because i was curious about what happened as well. I hadn’t heard from either Barton or Nat yet and i was on edge with being in the dark.
“Hydra’s secret weapon.” Steve muttered. That made me perk up. The tesseract? That was what Barton was involved in i had figured out.
“Ah, so thats what this is about. What the hell happened Fury?” I spoke up from my hiding place. I held back a smirk at startling Steve and i think i may have even caught Fury off guard as well.
“Emma! When did you get back?” Steve asked. He walked over to me and gave me a short hug. “Just now, i was on my way back when i was told i needed to get the quinjet here and meet fury. Im not sure what has happened yet either.” I said, giving fury a look that demanded he start talking now.
“Howard Stark fished that out,” pointing at the picture that was in the file Steve was still holding, “of the ocean when he went looking for you. He thought that the tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy.” I grabbed the file looking it over as well.
“Well that’s something this world sorely needs.” I muttered. Fury nodded agreeing with me.
“Who took it from you?” Steve asked. I looked up at fury for the answer.
“Agent Warner will know who i am talking about, but he is called Loki.” Shit… Thor’s brother. “He is not from around here.”
“Steve, the world is not what you remember. Loki is a god from Norse mythology. This is huge.”
“At this point, I’m not sure if there is anything that would surprise me at this point.” I snorted at that, and Fury spoke up, “Ten bucks says you’re wrong.” I rolled my eyes at that.
“There is a debriefing package waiting back at your apartment for the both of you.” I looked to Fury, “Warner, i want you to escort Rogers here to the landing pad. Coulson will meet you there and get you guys to the carrier.” I nodded at him in understanding.
“Fury, what happened at the base? Where is Barton? I know he was involved with what ever was going on there. Protection detail the same as what we were sent on for Thor’s hammer.” Fury paused and let out a big sigh, “Barton’s been compromised. Loki did something to him. He is working with Loki.” I sucked in a sharp intake of air.
“Have you contacted Romanoff yet?” Fury nodded, “Coulson has her called in already. She will be bringing in the big guy.” Oh shit. Banner. Fury nodded at me and went to leave, but he paused as well.
Steve had went back over to grab his gym bag and then held out his arm to me to loop my arm through. As we were getting towards the door, fury asked, “Is there anything you can tell us about the tesseract that we ought to know?”
Steve muttered out, just loud enough for myself and Fury to hear, “should have left it in the ocean.” We both walked to the elevator to head to Steve’s apartment.
“Guess you are a shield agent now.” I joked. Trying to lighten the mood. Steve chuckled lightly, but still remained quiet.