Keira Jones had a heart of stone, but her power was to feel other people's emotions.
Bucky Barnes was feeling too many things all at once, although his alter ego had done things that made him want not to feel anything at all anymore.
Together, the...
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"Can we talk now?"
Keira's voice sounded sarcastic, but she seriously hoped the answer would be positive.
It had been a week since she had woken up in the hospital room, and she was already showing signs of progress. She was supposed to keep the cast for a month at least, but apart from that she was going to be back on her feet as if nothing happened. Or, at least, that's what she had tried to convince herself from the doctor's words, although he had never openly admitted it.
Fury was sitting down next to her, his hands abandoned on his lap as he looked at her. She had tried to convince him to tell her everything for the entire week, and only in that moment he had finally decided to spill everything out, asserting that she had to gain her strength back before listening to what he had to say.
"So?" she asked, adjusting her back against the soft pillow.
"I'm afraid you can't go back to the field anymore, Keira." He said bluntly, not even trying to sugarcoat the words he had been forced to deliver her.
Keira felt an anxious feeling rising up in her chest, but she tried to push it down as she looked at Fury, confusion clear in her features.
"Why?" She asked, her voice surprisingly monotone.
Fury sighed heavily, before he started talking. "After your accident, I've been forced to hand all your documents to the doctors, documents where it was asserted that you had 'enhanced perception of other people's emotions'. It was the best I could come up with, but they assumed it meant that you were deeply affected by your surroundings, and your empathy could be a winning skill as much as a losing one. After what happened, they detected the animosity between you and your colleagues and concluded that the trauma of your accident could turn you into a... dangerous subject, if placed in the same room as the other trainers."
Keira did her best to process Fury's words without freaking out, but it sounded so sick that she couldn't believe it was really happening. "They consider me mentally unstable? Me?!"
Fury couldn't help but scoff. "I know, it sounds absurd, but there wasn't much I could do about it."
"You're the head of SHIELD, is there really something you can't do?"
"I made specific rules for those who would become special agents here, and one of the most important is mental stability. I already did too much to allow your training, and you can't continue down this path if official documents state you're not stable. I'm extremely sorry, the best I could do was allow you to stay here because of the sessions with Barnes."
Keira snorted loudly, clenching her fists. "Unbelievable. Absolutely fucking unbelievable."
Fury remained silent for a while, before he talked again. "This could help you, Keira. Maybe helping Barnes get better can prove that you're not as unstable as the doctors claim you to be, and you might even go back to the field, sooner or later."
