The Old Jackson Twins Book 2

Chapter Fifteen

This isn't going to be relevant for a while (I think) but I think you should know I give exactly 0 shits about time frames. Things happen when it's convenient for them to happen. If you have a problem, I implore you to remember that I write this for fun, and that's what makes it more fun for me. I also can stop at any time if I wish. :)

Aria ordered a few gallons of water to cover her, healing the skin-deep scrapes and scratches from the fight and smoothing out the tangles in her hair, and sent the rest back to the river. It was so dark that she could barely see across the stone ring, and Mrs. O'Leary, asleep several hundred yards away, appeared to be a rip in the fabric of space-time.

"Hey, you okay?" Reyna asked, taking off her cape and folding it up.

"I think so. You?"

"Yeah." Reyna helped her up - she'd fallen when Fenris and Hela disappeared - and hugged her. "I hated that plan you came up with."

"I know."

"It was too risky."

"I know." Aria relaxed into her hold. "Can we get food now?"

"I'm pretty sure we have a mega-powerful supervillain to stop, and you want to go get food?" Sam interrupted.

"Yes."

"Look, it's a little past midnight," Steve said, glancing at his watch. "I say we get something to eat, find somewhere to stay, and tomorrow morning, we can head to the Avengers compound or the Triskelion."

"Avengers compound, because Tony'll bite our heads off if we go to the Triskelion without Peter," Sam said, taking off his goggles. "C'mon, let's get out of here before more cops show up."

"Oh, gods." Aria rushed over to the collapsed officer, nearly slipping on the blood-soaked grass around his head. "He needs medical attention, like, now."

"I'll call 999," Steve said. "Is he conscious?"

"Definitely not." Aria checked his pulse. "His heart is barely beating. Sir, can you hear me?" He didn't respond. "Fuck."

"Look, we'll try to get some help. I'll stay with him, you guys get out of here," Steve instructed. "There's a library over in Amesbury, that way. We'll meet there."

Aria raised an eyebrow and gestured to her now-blood-soaked jeans that looked black instead of blue. "Right. Because I should definitely go into a library looking like I just committed a murder."

"Jesus- hide in a bush or something." Steve glanced down the road. "And hurry, okay?"

Aria managed to slightly wake Mrs. O'Leary. "I know, girl. But you've got to get away from here, and then you can sleep, okay? Go that way." The dog blearily stood up, shook herself, barked softly, and then half-bounded, half-dragged herself across the sprawling green fields. Aria hoped she'd find cover before the cops found a stray dog and tried to deal with it.

They just barely were gone before the flashing lights appeared. Aria, her adrenaline fading as the shock of the fight wore off, clung to Reyna's hand like a lifeline, and by the time they made it to the library and hid out back, the girls were leaning into each other for support.

"Maybe we should just make camp here," Aria murmured. "I'm exhausted."

"I don't know. Maybe we should wait for Steve." Still, Reyna's fingers brushed against her zipped-up jacket pocket that Aria knew contained the tent.

"Fifteen minutes?" Aria shivered. "Then we camp."

"Fine. Fifteen minutes." Reyna looked at Aria's hands. "You need new gloves. There's more holes than fabric on your hands."

"I'm fine." Truthfully, she couldn't feel the fingers on her right hand.

Reyna held her right hand to her mouth and blew on her fingers, warming them. "I'm not touching that other one. I'd bet thousands of dollars that it's colder than fucking dry ice."

Aria held it out and studied it, dropping the Mist shrouding it. "Prob'ly." She suddenly pulled her right hand back, then touched Reyna's face. She yelped and jumped back.

"Gods! Your hands are freezing!"

Aria doubled over laughing. "The look on your face was priceless!"

"You're an asshole." Reyna yanked off her own gloves. "Put these on. My hands'll be fine for a little bit."

Aria almost protested, but she really couldn't feel her hand. And the glove would protect other people from her metal hand. So she took the gloves and slipped them on, quickly pulling off her shredded ones.

"Better?"

"Yeah. Thank you." Aria grabbed Reyna's wrist to look at her watch, since her own was covered by the glove. "I'm fucking cold. Can we please camp?"

Reyna tried to be the responsible one, but Aria could see her own pleading expression and the cold slowly wearing her down. "We've got to wait for Steve," she said, almost like she was reminding herself.

"But it's cold." Aria could hear the whine in her voice, but she'd basically stopped caring. "And I'm exhausted. I wanna get some sleep."

"Aria, stop it," she snapped. "I want sleep, too. I'm cold, too. But we've got to wait." She saw the expression on Aria's face, and her own expression softened. "I'm sorry. Just..."

"This has been a shitty night."

"Pretty much."

Aria thought for a moment, then hugged Reyna. She instantly melted into the hug, and so they gladly stood like that for at least ten minutes, ignoring Wanda, who was on her phone, and Sam and Bucky, who were arguing (what else was new?). 

Steve finally showed up and they decided to camp there on the lawn, even if they'd only get four hours or so of sleep before they had to move out. Despite her worry about Hela, Aria fell asleep fairly quickly and dreamed about giant wolves and black headdresses.

I'm so sorry this took over a month. I'm the worst. Love you guys!