The Scarlet Apprentice

New assignment

Jimmy stood patiently at the reception of the building, holding onto the two coffees he ordered, one for himself and one for y/n. He'd already waited 10 minutes for her, but he wasn't going to break their streak of walking to briefings together every morning.

Her car rolled gently over the gravel of her parking space before stopping at a halt as she pressed her foot down on the breaks.

"Shit, shit, shit." She muttered under her breath in a panic while grabbing her bag from the passengers seat and resting it on her shoulder.

She closed the door and locked the car before speed walking to the front doors of the facility, walking fast enough to get there quickly, but slow enough to not look weird.

Jimmy's head sprung up as he heard the doors be forcefully pushed open, before he sighed and walked over to her, "you're late."

"Good to see you too, Jimmy." She nodded without stopping her walk.

"I got you a coffee." He jogged slightly to catch up with her pace before he walked with her, handing her a coffee.

"You're a godsend." She hummed while taking the cup from him and sipping a bit, "Is he in there?"

He shook his head with a slight shrug, "I'm not sure."

"I hope he's been fired." She casually told him, her words laced with hate.

"One can only hope." He crossed his fingers while taking a sip of his own cup of coffee.

The two turned the corner. "How's your project with the guys at quantica going?" She asked to keep the conversation going until they got where they needed to be.

"it's moving slow, but we're getting there." Jimmy explained.

"Can i know anything about it yet? Like what the hell it is? Who works for-." She began asking.

He cut her off with an abrupt answer, "Still no."

"Great." Just as she said that, she was at her destination, "I'll see you later." She nodded before pushing the door open and walking in.

Out of everything to look at in the room, the first thing she noticed was that Hayward was standing at the front of it as if he was about to start a lecture.

"You're late, agent l/n." He announced as if it wasn't completely obvious.

"I got caught in traffic." She shrugged it off and sat at the first empty desk she saw, slumping her bag down off of her shoulder and onto the floor.

Jack Miller was the playboy of the team - or at least he thought it was. A lot of the girls seemed to swoon over him, except y/n for obvious reasons. He leaned from his desk to get closer to y/n with a smirk on his face.

"Third time this week." He said to get her attention, his smirk growing even bigger when she looked at him, "you keep this up and you'll be fired."

She didn't do anything except scowl at him until she directed her attention to hayward so he could start his speech.

"Now that we're all here, i can finally hand out assignments instead of summarising the last week for everyone." He cleared his throat, "Yesterday we received a tip that there might be an out of world weapon being used somewhere between romania and Poland for illegal testing. At first glance, it seems to be a functioning energy device which has the ability-."

As the words poured from Hayward's mouth, y/n's eyes wandered around the room. His speeches were all the same, talking about a weapon that might exist in a random part of the world, and they'd go straight through y/n's ear and out the other.

Her attention fell on whatever intrigued her most, causing the director's words to sound like blurred mutters to her.

"y/n, i'd like you to handle this." He concluded his announcement.

The mentioning of her name caught her attention fast, "What?"

"I want you in the team i'm sending to see if this objects really there." He summed up.

"Seriously? I'm one of your strongest assets and you wanna send me away to track a weapon that you think exists?" She sarcastically asked.

"Respectfully, y/n, i don't think you're in any position to decide what you do around here considering your last mission." He looked away as if to give a new announcement to the other side of the room.

"Neither are you." She blurted.

The room fell to an uncomfortable silence while he turned his head back to look at her. He stared at her in confusion, wondering if he heard her right, while she leant in her chair with her arms crossed, staring him directly in the eyes with a blank face.

Once he realised she was being serious, he coughed awkwardly, "Excuse me?"

"Well you're not the man in charge, are you?" She asked, looking around the room at people's reactions, "Not anymore, at least. We all know you're being watched. You're not the director of sword, you're just the face of it. Shouldn't you know that?... considering your last mission?"

With his eyes burning into her, he chewed the skin on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying anything he'd regret. The other agents in the room turned to each other, some smirking, some shrugging. Then, Hayward finally moved.

"Meeting adjourned." He announced.

Everyone instantly accepted the extra time they'd been given from the early closing and left the room as quick as they could with their bags. Just as y/n stood up, hayward spoke again.

"Y/n, a word." He tilted his head towards his office as he walked into it.

She dropped her head back with a small sigh whilst quietly muttering curse words to herself before picking up her bag. Before she could make it to the office, jack stood in front of her and blocked her path.

"Prepare to lose your job." He smirked while looking down at her.

"Piss off." She shoved past him and walked into Hayward's office after hiding her annoyed face with a blank expression.