NO GOOD DEED || S. REID

2.2

IT TOOK LESS THAN THREE HOURS FOR SECTION CHIEF ERIN STRAUSS TO CALL KATHARINE, letting the girl know that she had gotten the job and that they would be seeing her on Monday.

The problem was that it was Tuesday which meant that she still had five days in between now and then. She couldn't fix her broken window as it had been three days since Tony Stark himself had come over and put in a new one as an apology for running off one of her closest friends. Yes, Steve Rogers was on the run, and Tony was a bitter man but he still knew where he had to make amends.

That left one place for her to go.

After the fall of SHIELD, Nina Hayes had officially relocated out of Washington DC and into Quantico, Virginia. She had begun working for a technology company that allowed her to work remotely from home and had decided to settle in Triangle, Virginia. After two months there she began to despise living in a town named after a shape and decided to move into an apartment building in Quantico itself using her father's money and what she earned from her new well-paying job.

So, that's where Katharine went. The neighborhood Nina lived in wasn't a bad one. It was low in noise and relatively safe except for that one time a drunken man had attempted to take advantage of Nina... let's just say that the man never should have messed with one of Katharine's friends.

Upon arriving at the apartment complex, Katharine parked next to a rather ugly 1965 Volvo. She locked her car door and made her way into the building, letting herself in with the security password Nina had given her. Katharine thought Nina was crazy when she first gave Katharine the password, saying that it was something she should never give out even if she knew the person well enough to trust them with her life. There were some crazy people out there, she had told her, as well as some very deranged mind readers and telepaths.

But Nina shrugged her off and told her it was no big deal. So long as they didn't have the key to her actual place, she would be fine.

Katharine knocked on the door twice, waited three seconds, and then knocked again. It was a little childish but they had created knocks that allowed the other person to know who was at the door. A security measure they had developed while Katharine was in hiding.

The door swung open to reveal the bright smile of one Ms. Nina Hayes.

"Kat!" the shorter woman flung herself at her, wrapping her arms around her neck and squeezing tightly. "You didn't tell me you were coming over!"

"It was a last-minute decision," Katharine managed, hugging her friend around the waist just as hard.

Nina let go, lowering herself to the ground. It was almost comical, the height difference between the two. Some would say seven inches wasn't a lot but Katharine would say it was about half the size of a bowling pin between the two.

"I just finished baking those brownies you liked. I was going to bring them over later but you're here now so we can eat them together!" Nina explained, practically skipping away from Katharine and into her little kitchen.

Katharine took the time to look around her friend's place. It had changed in the two weeks she had been away. It was messier due to the fact that Nina's latest fashion project took up the majority of her dining room table. That plus the island full of baking supplies and the paperwork strewn across the coffee table made the apartment look well-lived in and gave Katharine the feeling of home. After all, she had spent the first six weeks of her hiding at Nina's place.

Katharine kicked off her shoes, remembering her friend's no footwear policy, and joined the shorter brunette in the kitchen.

"I didn't put the nuts in this time but I did add chocolate chips because I know you're a chocolate addict," Nina said, pulling the brownies out of the oven. She set the pan on the stovetop and removed her gloves, setting them to the side. "But do tell, how did that interview go?"