Across the Universe

Scarlett sat practically pouting on the edge of the curb across the street from the now ruined park. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents scattered to and fro collecting evidence and combing the area for every little bit of information they could recover for analysis. She didn’t like the looks of it, not one bit. No matter how often she tried to convince herself she was over thinking the situation, Scarlett couldn’t shake her unease. Big corporations were dangerous no matter what their cause. For awhile she’d managed to ignore her fears but watching the agents handle the civilians had upset her. How could they think it was alright to just wipe this from people’s memories? Those people in the coffee shop, this event could be life altering for them! What if one of them was interested in quantum mechanics before this had happened? After all, it was a college town of sorts, or at least that was what Scarlett had guessed by the looks of it.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was denying these civilians their basic right to curiosity, their right to know what had happened that evening and why. Big corporations were nothing but manipulative when it came to this sort of thing. What gave them the right to decide how to handle any situation? Scarlett had never particularly been fond of big corporations in general but those who dabbled in the everyday lives of the average folk were especially nasty. Not every corporation was corrupt and evil, or at least that’s what she tried to tell herself. Tony’s Stark Industries was seemed benevolent enough and was doing the world a load of good but it hadn’t always been that way. Obadiah Stane had seen to that.

Not to mention there was no way for Tony to monitor every single person working within his now global corporation! Some people were corruptible, greedy, or just plain naïve. Hell, Scarlett wasn’t naïve to say the least and she’d had the figurative wool pulled over her eyes on multiple occasions by a few people with less than reputable intentions. As much as that pained her to admit it was not, in fact, why Scarlett was pouting. No, Scarlett was pouting because Steve was fumbling with her shoulder and it hurt. It hurt like a bitch. She wasn’t the type to really complain about pain but for whatever reason the damn thing was aching with a sharp pain her bone and she couldn’t shake it. Usually Scarlett was able to steel her resolve and prevent any involuntary pain responses but right now she couldn’t.

She wasn’t sure what bothered her more, how much her shoulder hurt or that she couldn’t hide that it hurt.

“Do you have to pull it so damn much?”

“Sit still, Miss Damien and it won’t hurt less.”

“Not everyone’s a super soldier, you know.”

“You could’ve fooled me.” Steve scoffed as he wrapped the gauze tighter around her wound. Something had changed between them after the throw down in the park. Once they’d gotten their heads in the game it hadn’t been as hard to cooperate with the other and now that they’d begun to cooperate the so-called shade between them had begun to clear (or at least Scarlett seemed to think so). Scarlett cocked a curious eyebrow and almost smiled, but she wasn’t going to give Steve the satisfaction if he hadn’t meant it how she took it.

“I think that was almost a compliment.” Scarlett rotated her shoulder for the hundredth time that day.

“I think that we got off on the wrong foot.” Steve stood up and tried again in vain to wipe at the stain from the coffee endeavor on his uniform.

“No, we got off on the right foot and then you figured out who I was and threw a High School Musical style tantrum.” Scarlett followed suit and looked at the wrapping job on her shoulder. Steve was surprisingly good at caring for wounds. For someone who healed faster than everybody else it was rather surprising that he was so skilled.

“Yes, ma’am… about that.” Steve began and then realized Scarlett had left her jacket on the ground. Like a gentleman he bent down to pick it up but something rolled out of the pocket that made him throw it away from him as quickly as he could manage. The jacket hit Scarlett and she stumbled back in surprise and caught it, stepping off the curb.

“What? What is it?”

“Seriously? Oh come now! What is that?” Steve’s face was contorted in a comical look of horror and embarrassment. He’d gone pink all the way to his ears!

“What?” Scarlett was just as surprised as he was and leaned down to see what had fallen out of her pocket. Carefully she picked up the circular blue charm and held it in the air to take a better look.

“Why would you keep that in your pocket? Isn’t that private?”

“Private?” Scarlett laughed in disbelief. Whatever Steve thought this little charm was, it wasn’t private. “It’s certainly not mine. I don’t know where it came from.”

“What is it then? Stark’s? Did Stark put that in your pocket before you left? Some terrible toy he talks about? Why would you bring that with you on a mission?” Steve’s face was beet red, quite literally. Scarlett’s eyebrows jumped to the top of her forehead. What had Tony said about her at S.H.I.E.L.D? It must have been something rather perverse for Steve to react so drastically to a tiny round charm. Of course it had been Tony’s fault. He was destined to ruin her day even when he wasn’t there! She would be giving him a hard time about it when she got home, that was for damn sure.

That was if he was there to talk to in the first place. Scarlett hated this day. It was weird. Weird never ended well, not in her book.

“A toy? You think this is some kind of sex toy? Oh, Rogers.” Scarlett began in laughter but was interrupted by Steve’s continued embarrassment. Sometimes Steve was so incredibly sweet it was astounding.

“Don’t wave it around! I don’t want to see it! This is exactly why working with you is such a disaster! Look ma’am where I come from what a man and a woman do in their free time is all well and good but it stays in their private lives! A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell and a lady surely doesn’t carry this around with her!” Steve was like an old man giving Scarlett ‘the talk’ about sexual responsibility. “It’s called self respect, Miss Damien!”

“Look, Captain.” At first Scarlett had been incredibly amused by how naïve and sweet Steve was with his lack of knowledge on the subject but now it was causing her problems. “This?” She purposely took a step forward and held the charm close to Steve, forcing him to look at it. He winced as though it had smacked him in the face. For a super soldier he sure was acting like a big baby. Scarlett was mashing the reset button for this day in her head but it was non-responsive. Why was the human brain such faulty technology? Computers Scarlett could fix, but people were panicky, finicky creatures that she couldn’t control even on her best days. Considering this was one of her worse days she was having quite the time. “It’s not a sex toy. It’s cute that you think this is a sex toy but you’re 95, get laid already or go to a class or something.” Scarlett turned it over between her fingers and glanced at it again.

“Then what is it?” Steve’s embarrassment only worsened upon realizing that he’d jumped to conclusions. What was wrong with him today? This wasn’t him! He didn’t act like this toward anyone, nonetheless a lady. But Scarlett wasn’t a lady, not from what he’d heard from Tony Stark.

“My guess is it’s a good luck charm of some kind.” Scarlett realized where it had come from the more she thought about it. Jinx’s hug had seemed odd back at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and now she knew why. Slipping her jacket back on her shoulders Scarlett rummaged through the pockets she didn’t usually utilize. Things usually fell out of the front ones, which is exactly why she didn’t bother. Now they were filled with small trinkets that Scarlett guessed were also good luck charms.

“Good luck charms?” Steve was as perplexed as ever. “This looks like it would bring a lot of things but luck is not one of them.”

“Jinx seems to think that death is following me like a bad date. This looks like something that’s supposed to ward off evil spirits, an eye of sorts.” Scarlett was going to give Jinx back her sex toy in style later, that’s for sure. As irritating as her day was she couldn’t resist a good joke. Plus, if Jinx knew what kind of trouble she’d gotten her into with Steve then she’d be apologizing over and over. Then she’d likely ask if it helped her at all. Scarlett would argue it most certainly had no positive effect on her day, that’s for sure. It was mildly upsetting to Scarlett that she could already hear the young woman’s voice in her head. Maybe in another life they could’ve been friends or something.

“Jinx put it in your pocket?”

“When she hugged me before we left, she must have. I wouldn’t take them because this karma voodoo crap isn’t my style.” Scarlett shoved the evil eye charm back into her pocket and then sighed heavily. Steve was turning over his apology in his mind, Scarlett could tell. As he opened his mouth to speak she held up her hand. “Look, I’ve had enough of this. I don’t know what my idiot boyfriend told you about me but whatever he said was obviously an over exaggeration of the truth to get on your nerves. If you knew anything about Tony you would realize that’s what he does. He finds a sore nerve and he harps on it for two reasons. One because it amuses him and two because he thinks it could break any awkwardness. You may hate the guy but he doesn’t hate you.” Scarlett wasn’t sure that was true but she hadn’t heard him voice too many opinions on Steve other than the obvious goody two shoes vibe he gave off. There was weird history there that involved Howard Stark, Tony’s father, and Tony very often avoided talking about family issues.

“I highly doubt that Mr. Stark was trying to comfort any of us with those stories. The only reason I stuck around was to tell him how appalling it is to treat a woman of any value the way he does.”

“That’s the thing, Tony’s a pretty surprisingly good boyfriend. Yeah he runs his mouth and he can be a complete chauvinistic ass but he’s a good man! You know how I got this wound on my shoulder?”

“You were attacked at a restaurant by what seems like a WET unit.” Steve searched his memory for the file he’d read after he’d been briefed on the situation from the night before.

“Yeah, on my first legitimate date with Tony. He was a complete gentleman… well you know as gentlemanly as Tony can be. He was very sweet, on his best behavior and went out of the way to make the night special. It would’ve been all well and good if, you know, this hadn’t happened.” Scarlett gestured toward her shoulder.

Steve stayed silent. He had a very hard time picturing Tony Stark the gentleman. In fact, if it was possible, smoke would’ve been coming out of his ears during his attempt.

“The point is I don’t care what you think about Tony. I don’t care what you think of our relationship. To be perfectly honest I don’t care what you think of me, Captain Rogers.” Scarlett narrowed her eyes at him, her lip curled in annoyance. “We’re supposed to be partners. We’re stuck together for the time being whether you like it or not. You have to trust me or it’s not going to work. You have to judge me on the work that I do and not the stories you hear or you’re not going to have my back. This is never going to work. You were distracted out there when all that went down.”

“Look here, ma’am…”

“You were. You weren’t at my side fighting that woman. You’re a damn super soldier. You should’ve lifted that crazy bitch up and threw her back into her damn portal! Where were you?” Steve again stayed silent. “Then that other girl! You just held her by her damn jacket. Twist her wrist back! If you wanted to bring her in you could’ve. The Steve Rogers I saw today? It wasn’t the same Steve Rogers I worked with a few weeks ago. I had a knife plunged in my shoulder yesterday so I know my game is off. What’s your excuse?”

Pulling the evil eye out of her pocket again, Scarlett turned it over in her hand. If little things like this were going to be a problem then they absolutely were not going to be able to work together. Multiple times she’d said that to herself but now she was really starting to believe it. She knew Tony wanted her to have a partner for whatever reason but so far it wasn’t working out as well as they had hoped. Right now, Tony was on the top of her shit list too so she was seriously considering going over his head to speak with Phil Coulson. In fact, Scarlett was regretting signing a contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place. These super heroes were far too high maintenance for her liking.

“You jumped to conclusions over a stupid little charm!” Scarlett’s plans for the charm disappeared from her thoughts as she continued to rant. If she was laying it all on the table she might as well let it all out. Today was becoming a no good very bad day for Steve Rogers. “You don’t have to respect Tony. I’m not asking you to. I’m asking you to respect me. If you can’t do that then I don’t want to waste my energy arguing with you Rogers. You can’t treat me the way you treat him. You can fight with him all you want, I’m not going to defend his actions unless they need defending. If he said terrible things to you about our relationship then I will give him a hard time about it because it’s my place to. But if you’re going to let your relationship with my boyfriend dictate the way you treat me? That’s where I draw the line. I’m calling you out on your bullshit, Steve.”

Steve continued to stare, his gaze going from the evil eye to the woman holding it. She was right and he knew that so why was he fighting this so hard? Adjusting to the 21^st century was difficult enough without being paired up with a woman just as sarcastic and frustrating as her boyfriend. But maybe she wouldn’t act that way if he had at least tried to put the right foot forward into their partnership.

“We’re partners now. We’re supposed to trust each other. I trust you to save my life, Steve. Do you trust me to do the same? Am I wrong to trust you?” Scarlett hoped that by putting it all out on the line she could clear the air with Steve and get back to working a job and not a high school drama. Unfortunately she was met again with silence and not because Steve was disagreeing with her but because this wasn’t as easy for him as he had hoped it would be. Steve was a soldier and he was a damn good soldier at that. He could give orders, lead a mission, get the job done, but for some reason he couldn’t seem to do it with Scarlett. Her blue eyes were pleading with him and he could see behind them the frustration and the pain. He was the cause of part of what he saw looking back at him.

Steve felt damn guilty. He couldn’t look her in the eyes anymore, not when she was looking at him with such hope and despair in the same moment. He turned away from her, just to clear his head. Maybe she was working him over. Her file alluded to her being as devious and conniving as the Black Widow when the situation called for it. Could it be she was just playing him? Somehow he didn’t think that was the case. Her sincerity was dripping off of her. She’d been brutally honest with him since they’d begun arguing and now he found that he instantly believed her.

“I’m scouting the perimeter like we planned to do. If you need something radio me.” Scarlett took his silence as a bad sign. She tossed the evil eye on the ground in frustration. That stupid trinket caused her more grief than she thought possible. Reading Steve was harder than she’d thought. His intentions always seemed to be, well, genuine. Everyone had a motive, except for apparently, Steve Rogers. Steve didn’t argue with her as she walked away. Her head was spinning, her thoughts reeling through the day’s events.

Why couldn’t she get anyone to trust her? Tony didn’t trust her to be safe on the job. Hell, her boyfriend wouldn’t even tell her why he was upset even though it was pretty damn obvious. Then again, apparently all their struggles and misery were her fault to begin with so maybe that was why he didn’t trust her. Scarlett already knew S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t trust her and if she took one step in the wrong direction she’d likely end up in a cell for the rest of her days, or at least until she could break out of it.

Now Steve Rogers, the wholesome, all around good guy, the face of the American nation, thought she was a filth drenched slut unworthy of trust or respect. Being a good guy seemed to be less and less appealing as time went on. She was tired of arguing her way into helping people. Wasn’t helping people supposed to feel good? She knew it wasn’t going to be easy, doing the right thing never was and she knew that from years and years of doing the wrong thing. At this point it hardly seemed worth it. Going back to being a mercenary working in the shadows seemed more and more appealing by the second. No bitchy boyfriends, no bitchy coworkers. Just the job. Scarlett could get the job done no problem, without a second thought.

Steve turned to watch Scarlett walk away. She’d more than proven herself multiple times over and yet he couldn’t get over the mental barrier that Tony Stark had built in his mind. Why was he letting Tony get in his head when it came to this woman? She was right. He walked the few steps to the discarded evil eye and picked it up. Turning it over in his hand suspiciously he realized it must have been exactly what she claimed it to be.

Even if it hadn’t been what would it matter to him? It wasn’t his business and he needed to keep it that way. Scarlett needed him to be the partner she had hoped for. He’d seen the disappointment wash over her when his behavior had changed toward her upon meeting up with her that afternoon at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Now that the darkness of dusk had fallen over the east coast and the streetlamps that weren’t in disrepair had turned on, Steve could see clearer than he could when the sun was shining.

Slipping the trinket he’d retrieved into a pouch on his utility belt Steve knew what he had to do. For now he’d scout the perimeter as Scarlett had decided to do and see if anything turned up for their mission. The mission had to be his primary focus. His mission and his partner. When things had wrapped up for the night he’d approach her and give her back the good luck charm that had caused them both such strife. He’d jumped to conclusions and for that he was sorry. How well that would actually work out for him when he was face to face with her he wasn’t sure but he knew it was the right thing to do.

He owed Scarlett an apology and a little respect. Maybe this partner thing would work out in the end after all, but only if they both made the effort. Steve touched the device in his ear and spoke to Jinx on the other end of it.

“We’re scouting the perimeter. Will radio in when we’re done.” He didn’t wait for a response and ignored any confirmation he heard in his ear. If nothing else, Scarlett had made him reconsider the things he thought he knew about people. While he doubted he was ever going to be friends with Tony Stark he hoped that he could be at some point with Scarlett Damien. And if not friends, then perhaps they could at least be partners.