The Grey Zone (Black Noir / The Boys Fan Fic)

Ch 13 Controlled Chaos

Jess opened the windows of her apartment with a sharp tug, cursing the rotten window frames as she did. She hoped for fresh air to fill her stuffy apartment, but was met with a disappointing, hot blast of traffic fumes from the streets below. Another signature muggy New York day.

Following her prop department mission with Chrissy, she had awoken earlier with confidence. For once she felt as if she was tailing a solid lead for the stalker case and she had arranged to meet with Phil to discuss the developments. It would be the first time she had seen him in person since their brief interaction at the home invasion and she was keen to show him that The Agency had made some positive movement on the case.

As the city haze crept into her apartment, she went over her notes to make sure she had an answer for all of Phil Madison's inevitable questions. He would no doubt still be shaken from the home invasion and he had only visited his townhouse once or twice for a change of clothes since the occurrence. It was Jess' job to make him feel secure, but he had a penchant for dramatics so she knew she had her work cut out.

Without putting all of her eggs in one basket, she was certain that Nathan A Lawson was linked to the stalker in some way. Seeing how angry he was at Phil Madison for taking priority in the prop department showed Jess that he definitely had a strong motive. Perhaps he wished to spook Phil Madison into hiding, never to return to work for Vought again.

The only thing that didn't quite make sense to her was the footage of the intruder who entered Phil's townhouse.

While looking over the case notes, she couldn't help but wonder who was behind the mask. She couldn't get an accurate size scale, but the stalker looked somewhat more chiselled and slimmer than Nathan.

Jess was still hung up by the comments made that the figure in the footage could have been Black Noir. It was this one case note that didn't make sense. Why would a supe stalk a producer?

It made more sense for Nathan to be the stalker, but he didn't have the same physique as the person in the security footage. He was the type to flash the cash though, maybe he simply paid someone to do it on his behalf. Jess was certain that there had to be something linking him to the case.

As she poured another cup of coffee, she felt content. She was sure that the case was moving in the right direction. All it would take would be to catch the stalker in the act or link one of the mystery gifts back to Nathan.

Leaning over the kitchen countertops, she looked out across her small living space. The golden sunlight streamed through the windows and for once, the apartment almost looked nice. A sudden pang of guilt washed over her. She was afraid to get too comfortable in New York. She'd told herself that she was only there to worm her way into Vought. Nothing more.

She was there to work. This wasn't her home.

Snapping her out of a daze, her phone pinged with a message from Phil Madison. "Meet me at the MET, Central Park and bring me an overnight bag from the house. We're finishing in about 40 minutes."

40 minutes to get anywhere in Manhattan meant Jess would now need to act fast. Especially having to take a detour to Phil's house to grab an overnight bag.

She hastily started to stack her case notes together, curating only the essential information to share with Phil. Going back over to her post-it note covered wall, she glanced over everything just to make sure there were no assets that she was missing. Sifting through her unorganised desk, she filed away the notes she no longer needed.

Everything was just as she had left it, apart from one small detail.

The make shift, post-it note covered conspiracy map pinned to her wall had been tampered with. She had pinned Nathan A Lawson's name right at the top of her case research display, but it had been removed. Jess looked under her desk, assuming that the pink post-it note had simply fallen, but it wasn't there.

Curious that she had misplaced her own notes, she shuffled more papers on her desk to see if anything would fall out of them.

As she was in a rush, she shrugged it off and prepared another post-it note, writing Nathan's name and putting it right back at the top of her case map. She was strapped for time, so she quickly gathered the remaining papers into a bag and ran into her room to get dressed in a manner more appropriate for a meeting with Phil Madison.

Running out of her bedroom she once again caught the corner of her underwear draw with her ankle, which lead to her tripping slightly and kicking her Homelander research board that was propped up against the wall outside of her bedroom. 

"I'm sure I closed that." She thought.