Liar

“The thing is burnt to a crisp,” Rocko said as they stripped out of their gear in the warehouse.

“Are you sure about that?” Kennedy asked as she shrugged out of her jacket.

Rocko gestured towards the small, muted tv screen. The news coverage of the helicopter crash was what was being talked about. There were rescue teams combing through the area to make sure no one was left behind. Kennedy stared at it for a few minutes while her fingers gently massaged her shoulder. It ached from where Freyja had caught her.

“About as sure as it gets,” Rocko replied. “I hope that trip was worth it. I lost a good guy for that wreck.

“Jay was my friend too, Rock,” Kennedy said as she rolled her shoulders. “He was dying of cancer. He chose to go out like this. He had enough drugs in his system that he wouldn’t have felt anything.”

Kennedy glanced at the tv screen as the headline of one victim scrolled across. Swallowing, she turned away and stretched her arm across her chest as far as it would go. The muscles in her shoulder ached but it wasn’t a crippling pain of a torn muscle. She inhaled and exhaled before stretching her arm behind her head.

“Is it worth it?” Rocko asked as she picked up her previously discarded bandages.

“Is what worth it? All of this?” Kennedy looked over at him as she spoke.

“All of it. You look like hell, Kennedy,” Rocko said as he walked over. “Hell, you look like you’ve been through hell.”

“Well you know what they say,” she shrugged as she began wrapping her abdomen. “If you’re going through hell, keep on going.”

“Even if it gets you killed?”

Kennedy paused in wrapping her ribs and looked up at Rocko. He was standing in front of her, muscular arms folded across his chest. His blue eyes held her one green eye and one hazel eye without blinking. Her teeth bit down on the inside of her cheek lightly.

“It’s in our job description,” she muttered, adjusting the bandages. “If it happens, it happens. You and I both know that no one ever makes it out the way they were.”

“You’re willing to die for this guy who won’t lose a night over what he’s doing?” Rocko asked tightly. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“I’m willing to do whatever I have to, okay?” Kennedy returned, her voice hardening slightly. “I know what I’m doing. I know what I’m dealing with and I know the consequences. I’ve been in this lifestyle as long as you have.”

Kennedy moved away from him and went back to wrapping her bandages. She pulled them tight, almost tighter than she meant to, teeth gritting together when the pressure on her ribs was more than what was comfortable. She let some of the tension out and gave the wrapped part a few gentle tugs.

“I only worry about you because I know you’re the one who’s going to make it out somehow,” Rocko sighed before walking over to her once more. “You’ve got that instinct.”

“Well, you have to think of yourself first in this world,” Kennedy muttered as she pressed the bandages into place. “I think this is it for me, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she sighed as she straightened up from untucking her pant legs from her boots, “I think I’m done with this. This is my last job. After this…I’m just gonna get out of New York, fly under the radar and figure out what to do from there.”

Rocko looked at her, brows raised. “You’re going to drop it and walk away from this life? Just like that?”

“You don’t think I will?” Kennedy asked, a defiant tone creeping in to match the tilt of her jaw.

“I know you will,” he shrugged. “If you want it bad enough. But you and I both know how hard it is to get in. Getting out is hell.”

“Well, I’ve already been through it once,” Kennedy shrugged back. “There’s nothing that says I can’t do it again.”

Rocko smirked slightly but only shook his head as he shouldered his bag. Kennedy picked hers up as well before walking towards the exit of the warehouse. She needed to ditch the wig before long just in case S.H.I.E.L.D. had managed to track them to the warehouse.

“If you’re feeling a little dangerous,” Kennedy called over her shoulder, “you should meet me for breakfast at that cafe that we like in Brooklyn tomorrow afternoon.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“And you say that I am the one with a penchant for theatrics,” Loki said dryly as Kennedy walked inside the apartment.

She glanced over to where he was sitting on the couch. The tv was running, something he seemed to have figured out. The footage of the helicopter crash was still playing. Wasn’t there an important official in danger of being murdered somewhere?

“How’d you know it was me?” Kennedy asked as she shrugged out of her jacket.

“Just a wild guess,” Loki replied.

Rolling her eyes, Kennedy hung her jacket up before slipping her boots off. She tossed them just inside her bedroom while on her way to the kitchen. It felt good to be barefoot again.

“So what, exactly, did you dart off to who knows where to get what?” Loki asked from the couch.

“Two weeks and you’re already a couch potato,” Kennedy said as she walked back into the living room, beer in hand.

Loki’s brows rose slightly, unsure of what exactly her comment meant but knowing that he was being made fun of. She didn’t like the intensity of his green eyes sometimes. Right now was one of those times. His stare was unnerving.

“Okay, okay,” she muttered, hands up in surrender. “No more jokes about things you don’t understand.”

That got her another look that was barely less severe than the first. Kennedy just shrugged and took another sip of her beer before reaching into her bag and pulling the drive out.

“This,” she said, gesticulating with the drive, “is what I went to get.”

“And that is going to do what? Exactly?” Loki asked.

“It’s going to get us into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database. Once we’re in, I’m going to start looking for your scepter-y thing,” Kennedy explained as she booted up her laptop.

Once she connected the drive, Kennedy had nothing left to do but sit and wait. She leaned back against the couch and sipped at her beer while the computer worked.

“Loki?”

“Is this terribly important?”

Kennedy turned and gave him an irritable look. “I’m sorry, do you have something better to be doing? Like reading People and getting a manicure?”

Loki gave her another narrow-eyed stare before gesturing for her to continue.

“Did you ever…was it hard for you to…”

“Did I ever attempt to kill the bumbling blonde creature that I somehow accepted for a brother for all these years?” Loki finished for her, turning to give Kennedy a look.

“I guess, yeah,” Kennedy nodded before taking another sip of her beer.

“If you intend to murder Freyja, then you’ll need something stronger than bullets,” he continued condescendingly.

Kennedy just gave him a withering look. His lips twitched briefly into what might have been a smirk had her computer now beeped. She took a brief, smug sense of victory in the fact that it startled him. On the screen of her computer the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo was glowing.