Falling for the Captain

No Pressure

I woke up to Alexa yelling at me. I groaned and begged for her to stop, but she kept beeping and beeping and beeping... I sat in my bed contemplating if I really needed to get up. Could I just lay here all day and forget everything else? Then, I look at the calendar and realize the date: my first day back as Lieutenant Commander Faye. Fuck.

"Damn you, Faye, for being terrible at getting up," I tell myself while contemplating my life's decisions. I finally get up, dragging myself to stand on the mat that turns off Alexa. Cool, right? Something that forces me to get up and turn off my alarm.

"Maybe if I actually could get some sleep, this wouldn't be an everyday problem," I say to myself.  I tend to talk to myself a lot, so this was my normal. I check my phone before doing anything else, which is already flooded with multiple messages and emails. Everyone is texting me, ranging from my cousins to the handful of Avengers that know my occupation.

It's been a year since I took my LOA. My last mission left a toll on me and I couldn't bear the pain that followed. So, with a short conversation with Sam, Kris, Grace, Griffin, Director Fury, Tony Stark, and Natasha, I left, temporarily. I needed to do that bullshit people call soul searching or whatever. It's safe to say that after a year of traveling, reading, but most importantly, relaxing, I think I found a better version of myself. Well, at least I hope so.

I look through the numerous text messages and can't help but laugh.

"Can't wait to see you. Don't stress yourself too much, okay? Love you!" -Griffin

"I hope your bitch ass is up, Faye! It's a big day, get your shit together. Lol. Love you tho." -Kris

"See you soon, kid. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out ;)" -Tony

"Don't forget to eat, Faye. I know you forget to do that when you're nervous. You're going to kill it! Literally." -Nat

What a great way to wake up, some of them encouraging me, some of them teasing me. Typical, dysfunctional family. I scroll through my emails to see if Fury emailed me. Unsurprisingly, his email is flagged.

"FRIDAY, turn on incognito mood and lock down. Set up Fury's emails on the windows please," I say. Can't have anybody chasing my tail. Learned my lesson from that the last time..

"Yes, Miss Faye," she says.

Tony installed the newest and most advanced technology in my apartment not too long ago. He said something along the lines of not wanting me to live under a rock, even while being gone. My apartment had a view of the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. Living on the east coast was a dream of mine and I always felt a gravitational pull towards it. However, living in Newport, Rhode Island was quite expensive. There's so much history, so much life. It really brings me down to earth, but it also brings my bank account down as well.

While FRIDAY sets everything up, I grab a cup of freshly brewed coffee. I know people always say "oh I can't function without coffee first" or "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee", but I don't fucking touch or do ANYTHING without consuming AT LEAST one cup. I can be a bitch at times, but I can be less of a bitch after my coffee.

"Miss Faye, everything is ready for you," FRIDAY says.

"Thank you darling. I don't know what I would do without you!" I exclaim. Okay, despite FRIDAY not being an actual physical person, she really does help out with a lot. For example, she's saved my apartment from burning down a handful of times. I forget a lot of things, like blowing out the candle before I leave. Oops.

Fury's email pops up on the window-screen and I read in detail what he says. I take a deep breath and read his email out loud.

"Faye,

Welcome back. I don't say this often, but I'm happy to have my second eye back. At the bottom of this email, I attached updated files on your cousins and the Avengers. A lot has changed in the last year, as you probably know. I hope you've had your coffee already, it's going to be a long day of catching up. See you at HQ in a bit."

I laugh at his last statement. I can't believe he remembers. Little things like this make me blush and not in the flirtatious or lovey-dovey kind of way. Something about having people know things about me makes me happy.

I scroll down to the bottom of the email and tap on "CLASSIFIED". Everyone's files appear all over my living room. Crap, maybe I should've have woken up earlier. Familiar names and faces appear all around me: Sam, Kris, Griffin, Grace, Tony, Nat, Rhodey, Wilson, Thor, Bucky, Banner, Barton, and finally, Captain Rogers. I make my way to the Captain's file first. I still have to wrap my head around the fact that I rank higher than THE Captain America. Boy, did he really make me nervous. He doesn't know my identity, but he knows of me. I kept my identity a secret to prevent anyone hurting me or my family. I'm the only one he hasn't worked with; word has it that he knows a lot more about me than I can imagine. He's been out of the ice for about 5 years now. Cap has gone on missions with my family, and from what they have told me, he's more than what I hear.

Being a high ranking officer entails more paperwork than action. My cousins got more action than me. But, I loved being behind the scenes. Despite not being in the field as often as I want, I worked my fucking ass off to get where I am today.

"Let's get this shit over with."

I sat on my couch and began to play catch up. Well, I guess it's a good thing I restocked on coffee.