The Seventh Avenger

Chapter 51: The Mystery of Doctor Connor Barkley

Not long after, Steve and I decided to head back to the SHIELD base. It had started to grow late and I didn't want to exhaust and overwhelm Steve too much.

Besides this, I was also anxious to return home to see if James was still there, or if he had used my absence to his advantage and left, leaving me with no way of tracking him down. I wanted to believe that he would stay true to his word and stay for as long as he had promised so that the two of us could attempt to uncover the truth behind the visions. But a small part of me in the form of a tiny, worrisome voice in the back of my head kept planting seeds of doubt in my mind, promising me that my apartment would be empty when I returned home.

My nervousness created by this doubt shows through the way that I quickly drummed my fingers against the steering wheel as I drove: something that didn't go unnoticed by Steve.

"You OK?" he asks gently, his blue eyes studying me carefully.

It was a simple question, but one that I didn't know how to answer. I had promised James that I wouldn't tell anyone that he was staying with me, but there was a part of me that so desperately wanted to unleash all of the bottled anxious thoughts that were swirling around in my mind, just to get them out of my head. Knowing that I could do this but that was only so much that I could let him know, I let out a deep breath to calm the butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. "I'm just anxious about going home is all," I explained softly. "I'm afraid that someone won't be there when I get back."

"Oh," He says, and I see him nod slowly out of the corner of my eye. "Is it a friend?"

I wouldn't exactly call the gun-wielding merchant with the scary metal arm a friend. But the words go tumbling out of my mouth before I can stop them:

"Something like that."

There wasn't meant to be any secret, hidden message behind what I had just said but for some reason, Steve seemed to think that there was as he sent me a knowing smile. "So more than a friend?"

The bark of laughter escapes past my lips before I even have time to properly think of an answer to his question. "My God, no," I reply with a shake of my head. "That's never going to happen."

"Too complicated?"

Well, considering the fact that we were both strangers experiencing the same, weird visions and he had threatened to kill me numerous times before, I'd say that complicated fits the bill.

I don't say this out loud to him, however. Instead, I explain, "I guess so. I have this thing though...or this saying I guess. About waiting for the right person or partner to come along, and I don't exactly think that this guy fits the bill-"

"Did Peggy tell you that?" He asks sharply, though there wasn't any bite to his tone.

"...about what?" I ask slowly, confused about what exactly it was that he was asking.

"About waiting for the right partner?"

"Oh. Um, not really. It's something that I sort of just thought of on my own," I inform him, noticing the flash of disappointment that briefly appears on his face at my words. Deducing that there was something about my words that affected him, I inquire curiously, "Why do you ask?"

He shrugs and turns away at this, shifting his gaze away from me and out to the window on the passenger side once more. "No reason," he mumbles.

Reading his facial expression and body language, I can't help but think that he wasn't all that keen on continuing this discussion. So letting go of my curiosity for the moment, I shift the conversation in a completely different direction by asking, "So, are you eventually going to stop sleeping in one of the interrogation rooms?"