Alone ✧ KATE BISHOP

1 - Good Mourning

FOUR MONTHS LATER...

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

Jasper let out an irritated groan, reaching out from under her blankets and smashing her palm against the top of her alarm. The loud monotonous screeching was abruptly halted, and Jasper almost went back to sleep - that is, until she saw the time. 5:30 in the morning. She had a subway to catch at 6:15 that would take her to work. She'd totally overslept.

"Shit!" Jasper hissed. She flipped over, throwing back the blankets and leaping out of bed. Then, she rushed over to her closet and dug through the messy racks of hanging clothes until she found something suitable to wear: a Budweiser T-shirt, high-rise jeans, and combat boots. She threw them on before darting over to her mirror and shaking out her short dark curls using her fingers. Once she felt presentable, she ran out of her room and threw on a long brown and black fur coat before grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl on the counter, grabbed her bag and keys, and sped out the door.

Jasper was thankful that she lived so close to the subway station she had to take to work, so she only had half a block to run before she reached the station. She rushed down the stairs, seeing the train she was supposed to take already at the stop. She ran forward, pushing past people, before she practically dove through the doors of the train just before they closed. Then, Jasper stumbled briefly, nearly falling over but managing to right herself just as the train began to move forward.

Sighing in relief, Jasper leaned back against the wall of the subway car and tilted her head back, closing her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. She was thankful that she'd managed to make it to the train on time - her dad would have her head if she was even a minute late. And an angry Markus Owens was the last thing anyone wanted to face.

After her talk with Andi four months prior, Jasper had grown tired of sitting in her apartment moping around all day or playing video games. So, against her better judgement, she'd decided to accept a job at her father's highly successful company, Kloud 9 Industries. It was a tech company that had produced some of New York's most advanced and innovative technology, and had even partnered with huge companies like Oscorp and Apple to put out even more products. It was a billion-dollar company, worth a fortune, and the large tower that served as its headquarters could be seen almost as clearly as the old Avengers Tower building.

However, Jasper's dad was - modestly speaking - a complete asshole. He was a greedy, vain, selfish man who only cared about his money, his image, and his company. His heart was cold, and he had little concern for the wellbeing of his family or even his staff. He only engaged with people he felt were fit to talk to, and anyone else he considered to be less than human. That was why Jasper had never introduced him to her friends, and had fought so hard to defend Andi when she visited Jasper's house - her dad wouldn't and didn't approve of them, and Jasper knew it.

So why had Jasper decided to work for him? There were a few reasons. One, her dad had been paying her rent up until he hired her, but kept complaining about it despite Jasper living in the cheapest apartment she could find. She was tired of hearing him whine about it, so she eventually decided to work for him so she could pay her own rent and get a better apartment. Two, she was desperate to pass the time - she would welcome literally anything else to do besides sit in her room with her thoughts. Due to her ADHD, Jasper's brain was almost always active, so sitting alone with nothing to do but think was a downward mental spiral of doom just waiting to happen.

But the biggest and most important reason was that her father was getting older, and though Markus was still just as angry, volatile, and intimidating as he had been when he first started the company, his health was beginning to fail him. He had a limp now (but refused to use his cane), he struggled to do most of the more physically demanding tasks at the company, and some days his memory was faulty, leading him to miss or forget important information. Despite how big of a dick he was, he was still Jasper's father, and she knew she had to care for him as he got older.