Jaimie Solace and the Unavoidable Affliction of Love

Chapter Seventeen

Bruce took his time distracting Jaimie, distracting her on her living room couch, in her kitchen, in the shower, and just about every other available surface. 

Jaimie certainly wasn't complaining, because their activities certainly beat spending her night sitting alone in her apartment, trying desperately to get her mind off of the fact that she wasn't very much help at the moment.

It was a certain kind of torture, knowing that something horrible was bound to happen but not being able to actually do anything until something else happened.  Schrodinger's catastrophe?  A catastrophe is still a catastrophe even if she can't see it right now, Jaimie mused.

The thought dragged a bitter laugh out of her.  It was quiet, but still loud enough to drag Bruce out of his sleep from where he was curled around her from behind.

They had fallen asleep together last night, both of them falling into a deep and exhausted sleep, intertwined in each other's arms.  But unfortunately, Jaimie rose with the sun, so here she was, fully awake and very much stressed.

"What are you laughing about?" Bruce asked, his words sounding muffled as his face was pressed into Jaimie's hair.

Jaimie shook her head.  "Nothing, I just think I might be losing my mind a little."

"Well, if there's anything I can do to help..." Bruce trailed off, flipping them around so that he was hovering over her.  He leaned down to give her a peck.  "I would hate for you to lose it, it's one of your best features."

"Really?  I thought that was my tits."

Bruce blushed.  "Those too."

Jaimie gently pushed his shoulder, and he rolled off of her. 

"I just don't like sitting here doing nothing, you know?  I feel like I should be doing something, but I don't really know what."

Bruce nodded, he got the feeling.  "The team is doing everything they can.  They're going to find where Amanda is being kept, and we can use the information from the base to figure out what they plan to do and shut it down.  Everything is going to work out."

Jaimie wanted to believe his words so badly, but she couldn't chase away this gut feeling that something terrible was going to happen.  "It's just that... if things go wrong, everything is going to change, and I don't know if it will be for the better.  I mean obviously if Hydra succeeds in whatever plan they have then it would be horrible, but what if they leak the existence of demigods to all of the mortal world?  Life as we know it would change, and the lives of demigods would become that much more difficult.  I'm scared, Bruce.  If they actually do know the approximate location of Camp Half-Blood, nothing is ever going to be the same again."

Bruce opened his mouth, and then closed it again.  He knew she was scared, she had every reason to.  But he couldn't quite find the right words to comfort her.  Truth be told, it was likely that things were going to change regardless of what happened.  The entirety of the Avengers know of this new mythological world's existence, and there was no going back from that.  But that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Beforefore he got a chance to say anything though, Jaimie let out yet another slightly rueful laugh.  "I mean it's ironic though, right?  The gods sent me here because they wanted to make sure the Avengers didn't find out about us, but I ended up being the reason why you did."

"Yeah, but then you wouldn't have known about Alice–"

"We would have figured it out eventually, it's not like we wouldn't have noticed large amounts of demigods being kidnapped."

"But then you wouldn't have met me," Bruce whispered.  "Call me selfish, but I wouldn't trade this for the world."

Jaimie sighed, flipping onto her side to throw an arm over his middle, resting her head on his shoulder.  "You make a good point, I suppose."