Unexpected

Surprise Company

My ears turned deaf as Jenkins rattled off about the next prisoner in line as my eyes still followed Ed as he was backed up into the line again. Shouldn't my heart have calmed down by now? Shouldn't I be able to think clearer? Shouldn't I feel as if I was freed from the tight grasp he still had on me?

"Agent Copper." Jenkins' voice took on a louder, sharper edge all of a sudden.

"What?" I snapped back to the interrogation room, whipping my head around to face the robotic agent.

"Are you unsure?"

"Unsure?"

"Do you recognize this one?"

"Oh, yeah, right." Come on! Get it together! I have a job to do. Taking a deep, steadying breath I scanned the next hostage over. He had a beard and darkish eyes that had the heaviness of a care-worn man tired out by too many worries and sleepless nights. This one looked like he'd gone through hell and back. Then again, he'd been caught by Hawkeye and the Black Widow, so he probably had gone through hell and back. I couldn't place him. Even so, since I hadn't been listening to Jenkins' schpeel... "Uh, could you tell me his info again?"

Jenkins didn't hesitate for a second to read through her portfolio again, "Benjamin Founder. Age-"

Benjamin? As in Ben? I leaned forward, inspecting the man over again. Oh my gosh! It was him! Those dark brown eyes that had once been filled with arrogant humor had lost their over-confident glitter, and the shape of his face had been hidden by his vaguely scraggly beard! What had happened to him after New York to have changed him from the leader of a posse of jerkwads to this tired out wretch?

"I know him. He was friends with Ed...ward Richardson." It was weird to know his whole name, "he was one of the ones to... uh, to play guard when he tried to-"I cut myself off quickly, "He was also willingly a part of the invasion until he was mind-controlled just like Richardson."

Both of these rats caught in the trap. I couldn't believe it!

My mind swirled as we continued down the line until each of them was documented. I had positively identified four of them, but the others I couldn't tell one way or the other. After that I was swiftly dismissed by Agent Hill, and I took no time in obeying. I nodded swiftly to the second in command then rushed off past Steve, Nat, and Rumlow before they could say a word. The tension of that interrogation room was making me feel almost queasy with the stress and the intense eyes that had been watching me. I couldn't face them. Not now. Not with him... Ed... so close. My pace which I had originally set to be quick and purposeful turned into a full on sprint as I practically fled down the hallway to the elevator where I mashed the button to get back to my floor, back to my office where there was solitude and silence so that I could think more clearly.

As soon as I entered my office though all I could manage to do was slump against my closed door, sliding to the ground as I pulled my knees up to my face. I'd been afraid of this. Ever since I had seen Ed being tugged out of the quinjet my mind had been overrun with dark memories from that time of my captivity, my fear and confusion, the trauma of what he had done to me, how Ben, Ed, and their gang had tried to track and hunt me down like an animal. It was suffocating, like I was being thrust back into that night in the refrigerator, when I had lost all hope of help, when the terrible reality of my situation had crashed down on me as I struggled against his advances. What if he had succeeded? What if I hadn't broken that light bulb?

Tears squeezed from my eyes like burning lava. How had I not cried myself completely dry yet? Why wasn't I over this? I felt sick. My stomach churned and twisted itself into tight knots. I could almost taste the bile rising up my throat. Just stop thinking about it! Calm down! Ah shoot!