His Chance At Redemption

Alive!

Author's note: Gotta give a massive shoutout to my friend and human muse, LadySif_8   for helping me with suggestions along the way of getting this chapter done!

Only warnings I can think for this chapter is a mention of infertility, and of course cursing. Maybe a passing mention of torture.

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   She'd woken up well before the alarm was supposed to go off. Laying in bed, hoping to fall back asleep was useless, so she decided to go get in a bit of a workout before everyone else got up and stirring around.

   Getting down to the gym, she decided to keep all the lights off and workout in the dark. Sure, it reminded her of some not so fun moments from her captivity, but she'd always been comfortable in the dark. Even well before everything happened and she was still free back in her old hometown, she had many different exercises she'd do to fine-tune her 'night sight'. Wanting to get a little runtime in before hitting the bags, Jesse made her way over to the treadmills.

   She stopped in her tracks, catching sight of bright yellow 'CRIME SCENE' tape wrapped around the area she'd been in yesterday. There were even some chalk outlines of various shapes on the floor. Somebody had jokes, and it didn't take much imagination for her to figure out who! She would have words with Sam about this later. Well, no bags this morning then.

   Starting out at an easy walk, Jesse gradually bumped up the speed until she was flat-out sprinting. The pace she held would've been impossible for a normal person, like Sam. She laughed at the thought of how he tried sometimes, how she would let him keep up for a few strides, then listen with twisted satisfaction as he groaned in agony as she blew his doors off. She couldn't stop grinning as she eased herself down to a slower pace, eventually stopping the treadmill to go workout on the weight bench.

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   After taking a shower, Jesse got dressed in her usual black jeans, black tank top, and tac boots. She had a few colorful clothes but she hardly ever wore them, much to Nat and Wanda's dismay. Bless them, they'd bought them when she'd first arrived in the compound as a way to try making her feel more normal, but she had a hard time convincing herself to put them on. Don't even get her started on the dresses the other two women tried to get her to wear to no avail. She flat refused to wear them. Even on the rare occasions when she could be convinced to attend one of Stark's parties, she wore her usual dark clothing and stayed tucked over in the darkest possible corner, like Aragorn from Lord of the Rings.

   She let out a chuckle as she sat at the kitchen bar, gnawing on one of the special protein bars Bucky, Steve, and herself had to eat. Her laugh caught Bruce's attention as he came walking through the door.

   Bruce knew today was important to her, so he was glad to see her in good spirits. He enjoyed her company, she never judged him or looked at him odd. To her, he was just another person. He smiled as he thought of the many times she'd sat with him in the lab or elsewhere as he worked on something. She didn't always understand what it was, but the science behind it seemed to fascinate her. He laughed to himself thinking of the times she'd fallen asleep sitting there beside him. He joked that he ought to put a pallet over in the corner for her so he wouldn't have to carry her all the way to her room.

   "Bruce, my man!", her voice breaking him out of his thoughts.

   Walking over to her, he notes the lopsided grin on her face.

"Bruce, my man", she repeated, "we need to talk."

   "About what Jess?", he asked innocently, although he has a pretty good idea.