HUMAN CONDITION | ❝There's bones in my closet, but you hang stuff anyway.❞
PRE-CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER | NATASHA ROMANOFF
A HERO OF HEROES BOOK
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TERRAN HAD BEEN GIVEN A WEEK TO DECIDE, NOT BECAUSE HE CONSIDERED SAYING NO, BUT BECAUSE HE HAD TOO MUCH TO SORT OUT BEFORE HE COULD LEAVE. For someone who tried to fly under the radar, he had a good number of affairs to settle before he could even begin to think about calling Fury to let him know he was accepting the assignment. The first concern that presented itself before he could even get his bearings was explaining the situation to his tenants.
To say it could have gone better would be a gross understatement.
"Okay, okay, everyone calm down," Terran called, standing on the first landing of the stairs, looking down at his tenants who were gathered in the foyer, glaring at him, "I get that this isn't ideal—"
"That's one way to put it," Janelle mumbled from where she was standing off to the side, and Terran resisted the urge to glare at her; she was supposed to be on his side.
"The last time you left you had to stay behind for an extra two months for counseling and psych evals to make sure you weren't a danger to society," a voice called out, and Terran searched the crowd, gaze landing on one of the tenants that had been around the longest, a telekinetic who refused to tell him how old they actually were.
"Yeah, well, that was different," he called, clearing his throat and glancing to the side, "I'm more prepared now, and...look, you can't change my mind, I'm just making an announcement, please don't fight me on this."
"Why not?" another voice called, one of the newer tenants, "We care about you, and you looked terrified when they left, how are we supposed to just pretend like that's fine?"
Terran sighed, glancing to the side as he rubbed his hands, trying to keep them warm. "I don't know how you're supposed to, but you have to. Look, the assignments are what keeps us safe, S.H.I.E.L.D. won't try to come in here and recruit you or bother anyone, and they keep an eye on us to make sure no one else tries to bother us either. It's a good trade."
"Yeah, in theory, but when was the last time they did anything for us? I don't remember them being here when Rhett showed up," someone else called, and Terran didn't even bother to look for them at that point.
"Okay, first off, what happened wasn't Rhett's fault, so stop with that," he began, waving his hand over the entire group, "And S.H.I.E.L.D. was there when Rhett showed up, and during that attack on the building, I just made sure you guys didn't have to hear about it. That's half of the agreement, keeping you guys out of it."
That seemed to catch a few of them off guard, and Terran appreciated the silence that followed his words, though when he looked over to Janelle, she gave him an unimpressed look. He once again fought the urge to glare at her, instead turning to look back towards the larger group.
"Look, I'm going whether we like it or not, so just hang tight and I'll let you know what the plan is moving forward once I figure it out," he clapped his hands, nodding in finality, "Glad we had this talk, meeting adjourned, see you later."
