joey looks over at him, eyebrows still pulled together slightly. "you're a jerk, you know that?" they both know that she's referencing several things at the moment, not just his words minutes ago.
"yeah," he tells her, shaking his head and looking a...
a/n: guys this chapter is so mid i'm so sorry lmfao
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"MISSION REPORT: JULY 8TH, 2022."
It's two weeks later. Two weeks later, and other than the fact that Tony and Dr. Banner have finally traced Heidi to a general location, things are carrying on in their own definition of 'usual.'
Earlier this week, everyone came together to celebrate Steve's 104th-but-technically-38th birthday, and right after that celebration, Thor and Loki had to go back to Asgard for some traditional celebration there. No one's really sure when they'll be back, but that's pretty in character for the two of them. They tend to make their appearances whenever and wherever.
Before that, and after, the rest of the team has carried on normally: training in the morning, missions when assigned, helping Tony and Dr. Banner as needed as they scan different areas and try to narrow down where Heidi might be. In Dr. Banner's words, it's a waiting game now. They wait until they get some kind of signal from the satellites they're using to scan the land, or until they get definite coordinates from the call that gave them the general location of Virginia; whichever comes first.
Joey's mission readiness didn't mean the end of her extra trainings with Carrelli— if anything, Carrelli is pushing her harder than ever before. She's still playing things down during group Enhanced trainings to stay on the down-low with her growing powers, but when she's alone with Carrelli, they both mean business. After the newfound appearance-altering trick that Joey used to glamor her cut from her first mission back in June (which is almost completely healed, and invisible with a thin layer of concealer), there are two things that she and Carrelli are really focusing on: that, and extending her range of teleportation.
Having laid everything out on the table, Joey and Pietro don't have as hard of a time talking to each other around the compound anymore— that is, when no one else is around. There's an understanding between the two of them, now, that wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for everything Pietro told her that night in Manhattan: Tony can't find out that the two of them are working together, and Wanda can't find out that the two of them are working together.
Speaking of working together, Agent Carrelli wasn't lying when she said that those black-tie-style missions come up often. The Friday following that weekend in Manhattan, Carrelli and Fury dispatched Joey and Pietro on another mission just like it; the only differences were the targets at hand and that this one was in Albany, which meant a shorter drive and no overnight stay needed.
And again now, on July 9th, Joey is returning from her third mission. Same type, different targets, different place. It's 9:07 AM by the time Joey's finished her report and gotten her physical after spending the night with Pietro in Syracuse, and being her third time sneaking back in, she's confident that she's in the clear.
