The fire

Old friend

"You almost done?" I asked the brunette, she had a needle thingy stabbed in my arm. Apparently she was taking my blood.

"Almost" I sat wiggling my legs under chair. My finger trailing over the small scar that remained from the knife. "Done." She pulled the needle out and I watched the blood return to the puncture before it closed neatly.

The lady left as the some of the team walked in, joining Bruce and I. Natasha had a large purple bruise on her cheek and Clint had a nasty laceration to the head.

"Aw she's alive! I guess we can't win it all." Tony said walking into the lab, making entrance as always. His right wrist was bandaged.

"So did you get anything useful from HYDRA while we were kicking ass?" He shot me a glare.

"Yes actually, I did. And which ass kicking might you have been doing?" He retorted nodding his head to my pale, bloody demeanour. Despite my healing abilities.

He flipped his little screen thing and a holographic map appeared.

I took a deep breath. Great.

"I haven't quite worked out where it is yet but Jarvis is working on it." I relaxed it could be an old map? Then it caught my eye.

"Tony what does that say?" I said pointing at a little label. He enlarged the image showing the figures TR5.

My heart sank again. "Do you know how old this map is?" I asked again getting slightly edgy.

"No way of telling." He said pressing some buttons.

"Em, what is it?" Captain asked, his eyes full of concern.

I sat down, "That was the Mort's base in the Alps. Which wouldn't matter because of the raid that happened-" I paused.

Steve looked at me. "But?"

I looked up. "TR stood for Training Room, and from what I recall there was definitely only 3 training rooms. If you look here there are two rooms marked TR4 and TR5. Which means they're back on their old base and seemingly rebuilding. God knows what HYDRA are doing with this map. Unless you are The Mort nobody could have got their hands on this map. Not easily anyway."

"Are you positive these training rooms weren't there when you were, not hidden or anything?" Steve questioned looking at me.

"I knew the whole place inside out. Probably better than most the members. This means they're back for good."

-

I pulled myself up off the crash mat and climbed back up to the top of the ridge in the wall. How did HYDRA have that map? It must've cost them tonnes of agents, why was it worth it? What did Mort have that HYDRA wanted so badly?
So many questions swam through my mind. I gripped the metal rafter tighter, supporting myself from plummeting to the floor.
Nothing made sense. The only thing I was sure of was that my jewel had something to do with this. Maria's disappearance, being kidnapped, being attacked. Why now? There's no doubt they've been reunited for years, why this year? Maybe they were waiting until I left MI6, but even now they've had a whole year to take it off me, why this month?

I took a deep breath and let go of the metal rafter. Allowing my body to fall backwards, there's something incredible liberating about falling from height, it's those few seconds of pure ecstasy when you're just floating.
I tucked up and span through the air, the mat eating up my feet as they landed solidly on the safe surface.

"Impressive." Natasha smiled from the wall which she was leaning on.

I took a curtsy. "When I'm in a good mood, occasional acts of elegance can happen."

She laughed. "Fancy a fight?"

I smirked picking up my knife. "Nothing better to do."

-

"So what do you do when you're not working for shield?" I asked as we walked into the empty penthouse, both considerably sweaty.

She shrugged. "My own investigations here and there. But I'm pretty much always working for Shield nowadays." I nodded, picking up a pink envelope off the counter which read the words Emilia Taylor and was stamped from England.
"Excited for tomorrow?" I smiled in reply.

"I don't recognise the handwriting on this." Natasha walked over to inspect it.

"Family, friends, could it be from MI6?"

"Can you imagine MI6 sending a pink card. If they sent one it would be all white, very plain and be typed not hand written. Plus I dont think we're on speaking terms right now."

She laughed. "Fair enough. What about friends, the people you worked with?"

"Suppose it could be. Anyway I'm going to head to bed it's getting late and it's been an extremely long day." I said, shrugging off Natasha's suggestions.

"You can say that again." She laughed, unsuspecting.

"See you when I can legally drink in this strange country." She shook her head and said goodnight whilst I bounced out the room in excitement. My bouncing ceased as I found myself flying backwards onto the solid floor.

"Oh Jesus Em, sorry!" Steve rushed over to help me off the floor.

"Ow, I think I've broken my coccyx."
He pulled me up and I felt something crack back into place. My hands gripped Steve's arms in pain.

"You good?" He looked concerned, bless.

I nodded, my body finally relaxing. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good."

"Has nobody ever told you jumping in corridors is dangerous?" He asked smiling.

"Firstly I was bouncing not jumping and secondly I'm 21 in 2 hours so I'm doing whatever the hell I want." He shook his head.

"Night Em."

"Night Capsicle!"

On arriving back to my room I removed my sweaty Nike shorts and pulled off the dirty t-shirt which was covered in blood and dust. I then struggled with my tight sports bra before slipping on some leggings and a clean top.

After cleaning my teeth and a quick wash (Full shower seemed like too much effort right now) I climbed into bed and pulled out the file on bedside table. It was the one labelled 'La Rose Bjiou.'

I turned to the second page and removed a small ripped slip of paper with handwritten numbers on it. I took my business Nokia brick phone out the drawer and pressed in the correct keys. The phone buzzed for about 5 seconds before a voice came through.

"Bonjour?"

"C'est Lia."

"Comment puis-je savoir?"

"J'ai accidentellement tiré sur vous lors d'une mission une fois. Tu as menti et dit que c'était l'ennemi à me sauver de l'embarras." There was a short pause before he replied.

"Oh my gosh, thank god you're alright! I thought you were dead MI6 has told me nothing. First Maria then you, Me and C didn't know what to do! Look I can't talk for long but I know it's your birthday tomorrow. Text me a place in the morning and wait-"

"-wait till you've seen it then destroy the phone." I finished his sentence for him.

"Yeah see you tomorrow. And Lia..."

"Oui."

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Bye Finn."

"See you Lia"

I turned off the phone, relieved that that he was alright and now looking forward to tomorrow even more. But how was I gonna get out?