Ravageuse

Jade woke up with a startle, thoughts of last night flooding through her mind.

“Shit. Shit shit shit shit,” she mumbled as she looked around the room.

She was in her own room. That’s a good sign. She’d rather have a confrontation with the Hulk than have to take the walk of shame out of Stark’s. Maybe that was exaggerating a bit, but Jade was feeling dramatic this morning.

Second good sign: her clothes were still on. She already felt more relaxed at this revelation, but she needed reassurance. After searching her room and finding her purse, she pulled her cell phone out and dialed Natasha’s number.

Natasha answered on the second ring. “Don’t worry. The most Stark did was carry you out to the cab. I covered the rest.”

Jade let out an audible sigh. “Thank god.”

The red-head on the other line chuckled. “I somehow knew you’d call me in a panic.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for taking care of my drunken ass last night,” Jade said as she walked to the kitchen to make coffee. She didn’t hear Natasha’s response though because upon walking into the kitchen, she dropped her phone in shock.

“Good morning! You look rough. Did you have a hard night?” Tony Stark stood there in the middle of her kitchen, grinning with a cup of coffee in his hand.

“Coffee?” He asked as he held the cup out to her.

Jade could feel her blood boiling and she’d be surprised if her skin wasn’t visibly bubbling at this point. This was too far. Jade could handle the smart ass comments and persistence, but not this. Not Tony Stark standing in her kitchen unannounced and very unwelcome.

She was seeing red. A lot of red. The room was spinning and she could hear her heart pounding. She could feel her heart pounding all throughout her body. Its as though she became one big pulse and was ready to implode any second.

She faintly heard Tony speak again. “Holy shit. Is it me or is everything moving? Jade, what the hell is going on?”

She wanted it to stop. She begged for it to stop, for the feeling to go away. Because she knew what would come next and she knew it wouldn’t be pretty.

“Get out!” She yelled. He needed to get out. The walls were cracking. The room was shaking. Her eyes rolled back into her head and her vision went black.

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

Jade woke up to a beeping sound and a sore body. As soon as her mind put the pieces together, she practically shot up.

Looking around the room, she realized she was in what looked to be a hospital room. Relief settled in once she spotted Bruce Banner standing in the corner. He was looking through a file of papers and pushing his glasses up on his nose every few seconds. Once the sound of her unsteady breathing echoed throughout the room, he looked over to her.

“You’re awake,” he said more to himself than to Jade.

She searched through her mind for reasons as to why she would be in here- and then it hit her.

“Oh no… It happened, didn’t it…?” She asked out loud. Bruce gave her a sympathetic look. “Well, I’m not too sure what exactly it is, but yes. It did,” he responded. If anyone could understand what losing control was like, it was Bruce. He didn’t know what it was, but he could definitely sympathize for her.

Jade closed her eyes again before she realized something. “Tony! Is Tony okay?!”

Bruce nodded his head. “Tony is fine. You’re in worse shape than he is.”

“That’s what usually happens,” Jade replied as she stared at the machines around her. “Do I really need to be hooked up to all of these? I’m not dying.”

Bruce shrugged his shoulders. “You passed out. You’ve been out for three days, Jade.”

Jade sighed. “That usually happens too.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Bruce looked to Jade. “Fury is…”

“Furious?” Jade asked with a half smile.

Bruce chuckled lightly. “Yeah… He’ll probably be in here any second now. He wanted to talk to you the moment you woke up.”

“You might wanna step out of the room for this talk, Doc,” Jade warned him as she struggled to relax.

“I planned on it,” he replied. Just then the door flew open and in walked Nick Fury and his lackey, Maria Hill. There goes all hope for relaxing.

“Dr. Banner,” Fury nodded, which was basically a dismissal. Bruce gave Jade one last sympathetic look before leaving the room.

Fury clasped his hands behind his back and stared at Jade intently. “At what point in time were you going to let us know that you are dangerous.”

Maria Hill stood in the corner of the room, refusing to look at Jade. How could Jade blame her though? She’d been found out. She was destructive and everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. now knew it.

Jade shut her eyes for a moment. “I didn’t intend on letting that side of me come out, sir.”

“Yeah? Well neither did Dr. Banner, but that resulted in a lot of injuries and a helicarrier almost plummeting us all to our death.”

“I understand your concern-”

Fury interrupted with a humorless laugh. “Concern? I’m not just concerned, Agent Collins. This is not something to be taken lightly.”

“So, what are you going to do? Experiment on me? Take blood test after blood test until you understand what I am? Because I can assure you, you won’t figure it out that way. I don’t even know what I am. All I know is that I am completely destructive. And before you go on about how irresponsible I am, or whatever it is that you plan on saying, let me just say this. For years now, I’ve buried it away. It scares the living hell out of me. Each time it happens, I come a little closer to destroying myself. So, if you think I actually want to be like this, then you are sorely mistaken,” Jade said. She hated this. She hated not being in control. Control was what she needed. In order to live, she needed total control, and right now, she was grasping onto what little control she had left.

Fury studied her face for a few moments. He was a man of few emotions, but right now it was obvious that he was going to try and be understanding. “Why did it happen?”

Shaking her head, Jade tried to come up with a decent response. “It happens when I don’t feel in control. When I’m caught completely off guard and when things get to be too much… It happens. Normally I’m pretty good at keeping myself calm, but-”

“But Stark showed up at your apartment and you snapped? You haven’t been feeling very in control since you started at S.H.I.E.L.D. have you?” Fury asked, keeping his eye on her.

Jade narrowed her eyes on him. “Did you send him over?”

“Answer the question, Agent Collins,” Fury said, his voice ringing with irritability.

“Answer mine first,” Jade responded childishly.

Fury rolled his eye. “Yes, although I did not command him to show up at your own home unannounced. That was all on Stark. I wanted him to discuss with you what we’ve found out about Dr. Sallow.”

Jade searched her brain for the name, but no bells were ringing. “Dr. Sallow?”

“Yes. The man you met on yours and Stark’s assignment,” Maria finally spoke from her corner in the room.

Jade refrained from rolling her eyes. Agent Hill would be the one to mention that. She had something against Jade ever since that failed assignment. Jade knew that Maria Hill didn’t trust her, and after recent events, she really couldn’t expect her to.

“So you found out who he is? What else do you know?” Jade asked eagerly, focusing her attention on Fury.

“We don’t know much, but more on that later. At the moment, I find this to be more concerning matter,” Fury said.

“Look, I had every intention of keeping this little secret hidden until the day I die. But lucks not always on my side. I don’t know how I got this way, but it’s a part of me,” Jade explained.

Fury was about to say something else, but instead, he pressed his finger to his ear. Jade could only guess that someone had communicated with him over his earpiece. “I’ll be there soon,” Fury said.

Fury looked back to Jade. “Can I trust you to not crumble the place to bits?” Fury asked.

Jade raised three fingers in the air. “Scout’s honor, sir.”

Fury nodded curtly before exiting the room with Hill. Jade let out an exaggerated sigh before finally resting back against the pillow. She made an attempt to get comfortable, but the pillow was practically a rock covered in a sheet. I really gotta talk to Bruce about upgrading the bedding.