Jaimie Solace and the Unavoidable Affliction of Love

Chapter Ten

"I'm not going to say it's not what it looks like, but I would really appreciate it if you gave me a chance to explain instead of, you know, shooting me."

Clint considered her words carefully. He knew from the beginning that something was off about her, but despite that, he still found himself growing warmer towards the woman. He didn't rule out that she could be a spy, but he had really been hoping that she wasn't.

"I;m not going to shoot you," he said, sighing. "Here is what is going to happen. You are going to take these handcuffs, and cuff your hands together in front of you."

Clint was still in his full SHIELD uniform, as he remained on standby in case the team needed to call him in. That meant he had easy access to the SHIELD issued handcuffs he carried on his belt, which he took off and lowered to the floor, kicking them across to her without lowering his weapon.

Jaimie didn't move as they slid towards her, and made no move to pick them up when they bumped up against her feet.

"In the name of honesty Clint," Jaimie began, ignoring the mans obvious scoff of disbelief, "I feel like I should tell you that these are pretty useless on me. I mean I can wear them if that would really make you feel better, but it would take very little effort on my part to get out of them."

She wasn't lying, over the years she had mastered and honed whatever powers of light she could utilize from her father, and it really wouldn't be hard to get out of these handcuffs. She also had no plans of pretending to be something she wasn't, and she figured if she couldn't find a way out of this then the team was going to figure out what she was anyways.

Her response made Clint pause, his finger tightening over the trigger of his gun. "I assure you, those work pretty well on enhanced individuals. Put them on."

"I know how they work, Clint. They won't work on me."

It was true, for whatever reason. She had found this out early on when she had found an experimental pair in the lab, locked one on one of her wrists and subtly tried bending the light. Whatever power inhibitors the handcuffs had didn't suppress demigod powers, even if they somehow worked on Norse deities like Loki. It didn't make much sense, but Jaimie chalked it up to the fact that the Greeks and Romans rejected mortal technology of any kind, they just weren't compatible. That, and some semi-lazy plot development (looking at you, author).

Clint was only getting more and more on edge, and Jaimie recognized the look of someone on the precipice of their flight or fight reflex. And she was certain Clint was not going to choose flight.

"Listen, I'm not planning on fighting you, I just wanted to be honest. I'm going to cooperate with whatever you want to do, so here," Jaimie leant down to scoop up the handcuffs, slapping them onto her wrists semi-awkwardly. "Lead the way, Clint. I'll admit, I don't know the way to the interrogation rooms. Do you even have any in the Tower? Or are we taking a trip to SHIELD headquarters?"

Clint really didn't like the way this was going. Honestly, he would have been much more in his wheelhouse if Jaimie was trying to kill him. He didn't mind telling her that.

"You know, I've apprehended a lot of spy's in my time at SHIELD. But this reaction is kind of new to me."

Jaimie shrugged. "Yeah, well. This whole spy thing is pretty new to me too. Most of my resume wasn't a lie, I really was a trauma surgeon in Seattle. This isn't really something I signed up to do."

Clint had lowered his gun at this point, walking forward to grab Jaimie by her elbow,leading her out of her apartment and down towards the elevator.

"Oh yeah?" He asked, gruffly. "You just happened to stumble into the job?"