literature

Echoes 32 - Safety

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Iron Clad: Echoes
Pairing:
TonyxScarlett (OC)
Universe:
Iron Man MCU Post-Avengers
Theme:
Romance, Angst, Drama

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            Scarlett sat in front of the café that had served as a meeting ground for S.H.I.E.L.D. on a bench waiting to hear anything about those inside the quarantine. No one would give her any information no matter who she pestered. Jinx had been unavailable and all Scarlett got from her stupid earpiece was chatter about keeping the perimeter. Hell, Scarlett had even resorted to trying to call Nick Fury. Of course the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. would never answer his phone and of course the number she had went straight to the person who made all his appointments.

            There was no one to manipulate, no way to sneak in, nothing she could do. Doctors she recognized had been rushed past, but she hadn't seen them since and they didn't have a moment to spare for her.

            Head in her hands, Scarlett cursed under her breath. Marcia had offered to let everyone go, to leave her friends alone if she had gone with her. Scott had done the same. Who was the real villain here? Scarlett had to keep reminding herself over and over that there was no promise that MedCo would have kept. They just wanted to get to her, to make her feel guilty. Marcia had even tried to remind her that she was a pawn on both sides of the fight. S.H.I.E.L.D. was using her as much as MedCo would. How many times had she had to argue with S.H.I.E.L.D. about using any of the technology she'd designed over the years?

            Well the mental warfare was working, especially since her oldest friend was now potentially infected by a potentially deadly viral weapon.

            Scarlett had been wrong to think that Marcia hadn't undergone some kind of testing just as Scott had. What a fool she had been to think that MedCo would let them take any of their higher ups in for questioning! They should have kept her in the building, kept her secure, then moved her under lock and key to a secure facility. Instead, they'd thought Scott had been on the run, thought they'd taken all the necessary precautions. MedCo had prepared for every possible outcome where S.H.I.E.L.D. had not.

            Stealing a glance at the chaotic Manhattan streets Scarlett rubbed her hand over her jaw. She shouldn’t be here anymore. Scarlett had a thousand things to do. If she was going to keep any sort of cover she would have to get on her jet back to Malibu before anyone could speculate she had been involved.

            But she didn't want to leave yet, she wanted to make sure her friends were okay. Not for the first time since this had all started, she felt helpless. Useless. Tapping her foot, she sat upright and leaned her head back against the window. She had to get out of her head. It was bad news in there right now.

            From the corner of her eye she saw someone seated against the back of an ambulance, holding a cup of coffee and looking very lost.

            Nathan.

            Scarlett had completely forgotten all about Nathan once she was sure that he'd been safe. As she stood, guilt nearly made her buckle over but she didn't allow it. Slowly she took deep breaths, but even then all she could hear in her head were accusations. It was her fault Natasha and Mickey were potentially infected with something terrible. Not to mention however many agents had been nearby. Toxic thoughts continued to race through her brain. Nathan's life would never be the same. He'd have to be guarded for the rest of his days, at least until MedCo was gone and that could be never at this point. Nathan was a hostage to Scarlett's lies.

            She walked over to the ambulance and leaned against the back of it next to him. Honestly she had half expected him to be angry at her, to tell her to buzz off but instead he looked relieved to see her, even smiled. Scarlett didn't deserve such kindness from such a good man.

            "Finally, a familiar face." He chuckled. "No one seems interested in any of my charm right now." Averting his eyes he shook his head. "Not that I can blame them. It seems like everything's gone terribly wrong."

            "Are your friends okay?" Scarlett looked to him nervously. She very rarely got nervous, but at this point she really did care about Nathan. Not that she ever wanted anything to do with him romantically, but she cared enough about him to put herself in harm's way. She'd learned quite a bit about her feelings toward people in the last hour.

            "They are doing just fine. A few minor injuries here and there but it seems the worst damage was done out here on the streets of Manhattan." Nathan offered a weary but comforting smile. It was clear he didn't blame her for any of it even if she did. "They're monsters, all of them. Terrorist organizations, preying on the innocent."

            "Look Nathan," Scarlett began nervously, "I'm really sorry."

            "It's all right." Nathan smiled, much to her surprise. He was a far nicer man than she could have ever deserved. "At least it makes sense now. Well, a little."

            "What does?"

            "Why you kept shying away from me over and over… ignoring the obvious." Nathan shrugged it off. For someone who had nearly lost his life a handful of times that day, she was surprised that he was in such good spirits and so understanding. Scarlett hadn't given Nathan enough credit. "You're in some sort of trouble."

            "Can you ever forgive me for putting you in harm's way?" Scarlett smiled a little, purposely avoiding answering the question. Nathan already knew way too much about what was going on. The less details he had the better.

            "Hey," He whispered and took her hand comfortingly. "I would gladly put myself in harm's way for you, Scarlett. I chose to." He stared at her hopefully and Scarlett slowly pulled her hand back and averted her gaze. "Ah, yes." Nathan pulled his hand back and ran his hand nervously through his hair. "I see." It seemed to finally hit him. That Scarlett had shied away because she wasn't interested, not because she was trying to keep him out of harm's way. Those two things had gone hand in hand for awhile, but if Scarlett had wanted more she would have had more.

            The silence was awkward, but there was no way Scarlett could have expected it to be anything more than that.

            "I would fight for you, you know." Nathan finally cleared his throat and looked back to her. "I would fight tooth and nail for you. But you don't want me to fight for you, do you?" Scarlett stared at him in awe. After everything he'd seen, after the things that Scott had said, how could this honest, hard working man want anything to do with her?

            "You're right." Scarlett sighed. It was a relief to finally say it out loud. Nathan had been a good cover, but there was too much going on, she wasn't the woman she used to be and she wasn't quite sure who she was going to be in even a month's time, if she hadn't given into illness by then. "I never meant for any of this to happen, Nathan."

            "Did you ever have any feelings for me?" For the first time, Nathan sounded hurt even though he didn't quite show that emotion on his face. "Or was it all for the cameras to keep all this in the dark?"

            "Of course I care about you, Nathan." Scarlett stood and walked away from the ambulance then turned to him seriously. "You are amazing, honestly. Too good to be true!"

            "If you're trying to make me feel better…"

            "No, I'm being honest. You're so talented Nathan and so sweet and smart… if things for me weren't so crazy, so… complicated. God if things were different then maybe I could have actually been myself when I'm with you. I'm not allowed to do that right now." Scarlett spoke very quickly. This conversation was breaking her heart in a way. She was never in love with Nathan, she wasn't sure she ever could have been even if she'd allowed him to come close. But Nathan was a good guy and she never would have expected his friendship, his company, to have gotten him so knee deep in her shit. "You're a great friend, I couldn't ask for better."

            "Friend." Nathan seemed to taste the word, smiled for a moment and even seemed to lose his composure. "I'm sorry, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all this. Is your name even Scarlett?"

            "Yes, I wasn't allowed anything else." Scarlett nodded but didn't explain further. "Almost everything is true. I didn't lie, I just didn't tell you everything and I can't still." She felt awkward and out of place. Nathan needed to be alone, she thought. He had to take time to process all the craziness he'd encountered that night. It took time to recover from that kind of trauma, at least for the average person. Scarlett needed a drink, she needed to hit something. Rage boiled through her. Very quickly she had gone from self loathing to hatred for Scott, for MedCo, for these assholes steamrolling her life. "I have to get out of here, okay? I need you to go home and I need you to take S.H.I.E.L.D. bodyguards with you until you're no longer in the line of fire." When he didn't respond, Scarlett turned away. She'd drop by Jinx to make sure that Nathan got the protection he needed.

            "I can help you!" Nathan got up from where he stood and ran to her side. He grabbed her hand and turned her toward him. "If you are in too deep with something I can help you if you just let me. I can save you." Nathan was grasping at what little there was left there between them. He knew what Scarlett meant by go home, she meant to leave the country. It meant they would likely never see each other again.

            "No one can help me now, Nathan. Go home."

            "What are you still not telling me?" He was frustrated, but also scared. After all Scarlett had put him through, the man still cared about her. Scarlett was astounded to say the least but for some reason this only succeeded in making her angrier. This wonderful man had gotten caught in her web and MedCo was willing to kill him to get to her. Nathan had done nothing to deserve that. Scarlett picked up his hand and squeezed it gently without saying another word. "You're not going to tell me."

            "No, I'm not." Scarlett nodded.

            "I'm not going back home." Nathan sighed resolutely but smiled anyway as she began to object. "I will take the bodyguards Scarlett but I love Manhattan and I'm staying here. I don't let fear run my life." Scarlett gave a curt nod of understanding. "I'm not going to stop speaking with you either."

            "That's just stupid." Scarlett narrowed her eyes at him.

            "I wasn't simply chasing you to chase you, Scarlett." Nathan looked to her seriously. "You're a good friend whether or not you think you are and I don't abandon good friends."

            "It's not okay for you to be my friend right now." Scarlett pulled her hand back and stepped away from him, trying to make him just a little angrier at her.

            "You should have thought of that before you befriended me." He smiled a little bit and then turned away from her. Scarlett watched him walk away, her chest tight, her stomach lurching. For a moment she was sure she was going to throw up but instead she turned and punched the air in frustration. Her ears were ringing, all she could hear over it was his footsteps as they walked away. Then something very unwelcome.

            "Miss Damien!" A shrill, accented voice called from across the street.

            "You've got to be fucking kidding me." Scarlett cursed under her breath as she turned to face Jemma Simmons. She was definitely not in the mood for whatever this would bring. Then again, maybe Jemma had news on her friends. It was unlikely since the doctor hadn't been present at the operation to begin with. Then again with the hundreds of things she was kept out of the loop from with S.H.I.E.L.D, there was no way she could have known if Fitz and Simmons had been waiting for her to collapse nearby or something.

            "Are you doing okay?" Jemma turned to see Nathan walking away and speaking with a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents closer to the quarantine zone. There was anxiety in her voice, as though she wasn't sure now was the very best time to talk to Scarlett. Scarlett looked manic, almost, to Jemma. Her eyes were wide and she was clenching her jaw. It looked like at any minute, Scarlett could explode.

            "Fine." Scarlett took a deep breath and then cleared her throat. That cling was always there these days and today was no different. Despite how good she'd felt while fighting, the tightness in her chest was telling her she had more than overdone it. "How are Romanoff and Pierce?"

            "What? Oh, oh yes I asked about them. They won't let me see them so I don't have much to report." Jemma nodded and when she saw the disappointment on Scarlett's face she immediately brightened up. "However I did glance at their blood work while the others were beginning decontamination and so far everything looks normal. Our guess is that Ms. Edmonton wasn't toxic long enough to do any damage to anyone else. It was likely a precaution they took to prevent S.H.I.E.L.D. taking any valuable prisoners."

            "That's one hell of a precaution." Scarlett wondered for a terrifying moment if that was what would happen to her body when she died. Would she be infecting everyone else as her corpse rotted away in some hospital bed she would eventually be confined to? Scarlett would rather take a bullet any day. For a brief horrifying moment she saw herself crippled, unable to breathe on her own, grasping to life, very alone.

            "Thankfully everyone was far enough away from her to do much damage. The only one with any fluid contamination was Natasha and a few people who took splatter from the initial blow. Still, all the numbers look good. The odds that they caught anything at all from the body are pretty slim." Jemma smiled encouragingly but Scarlett only scowled in return. "They just want to be safe, that's all."

            "Right, because this whole thing was so well organized for everyone's safety." Scarlett snapped and turned away. It wasn't Jemma's fault the whole operation had gone sour. In fact, it was no one's fault but Scarlett's that anything had happened at all. If Scarlett had never approached S.H.I.E.L.D. she would have died alone in some hotel room and none of her friends would be infected with anything. MedCo wouldn't have gotten what they wanted, Scarlett would be dead, and no one would be hurting because of her. Instead, she'd been so damn selfish that she'd tried to save her own neck.

            She'd told herself it had been to do some good with the time she had left, to try and stop MedCo, to leave some of her ideas behind to better the world, but in the end it had all been a ploy to save her life. Scarlett knew it wasn't her fault, she knew it deep down. She'd made bad decisions but not one of them had earned her a slow painful death. Scott was to blame, Scott's obsession, possession, his instability. Scarlett couldn't believe they'd lost their only lead, that Scott hadn't been detained. Nothing had been gained from this operation. Hell, they'd only suffered and Scarlett had lost one of the few friends she had left.

            Nathan had said he'd wanted to remain her friend but that was way too dangerous now. Damnit, she'd meant to ask him where he'd learned to fight. The guy had boxed at some point in his life, that much she had been sure of. Now she'd never get to ask him, she'd have to hack into his college records to try and see if he'd done so then. How pathetic. Something good had to come of this. Where had MedCo gotten the supplies to build such complex bombs? Manhattan was one of the more secure cities, one of the more cautious cities.

            Someone had to be helping them from within the city, someone that had taken Scarlett's ideas and built them into weapons for MedCo to send her a message. Scarlett didn't realize that her hands were shaking, that she was so angry she was trembling from head to toe. She had also very quickly forgotten where she was and that she was with Jemma Simmons. Scarlett had gotten so lost in her thoughts that she had disappeared for a few moments.

            "Why don't you come inside with me? We can get you some help."

            "I'm fine, I'm not going anywhere." Scarlett stepped away from Jemma and completely disregarded her wishes, her concerns. There were dozens of wicked people in the city, dozens of gangs and villains who could have helped MedCo. How could Scarlett narrow down the playing field? If MedCo wanted to send her a message she would send them one right back. She wasn't some S.H.I.E.L.D. puppet, she was a force to be reckoned with and they would be sorry they picked a fight with her.

            "It's just a precaution. I think given the situation and the amount of stress your body is under, you should really…"

            "I just said I was fine. What part of that was difficult to understand?" Scarlett spoke quietly.

            "You should come with me to headquarters and we can see Percival. Maybe we can even take your treatment a bit earlier than usual. It will help to prevent anything the stress lets in. Your immune system is compromised these days and even the slightest…"

            "I need you to quit babbling and leave me alone." Scarlett interrupted. Jemma hesitated but silenced and watched Scarlett sadly. There was that same damn pity that everyone else at S.H.I.E.L.D. had for her these days, that pity mixed with fear, probably a hint of resentment for getting them all involved. "I need to think, that's what I really need."

            "I know what that means for your type." Jemma spoke up, clearly against her better judgment. "You're not going to sit and think or stay alone ad take it easy. I know that you're going to do something, Miss Damien and it's not a good idea. I can't allow you to put yourself under any more stress!"

            "Look, Jemma, I agreed to aid S.H.I.E.L.D. with all of this not be kept as a prisoner in some hospital room like a sick kid! If you want me to go in to see Percival then you better fucking arrest me because I am not going willingly!"

            "I'm worried about you!" Jemma pled, stepping into Scarlett's line of vision as she turned away. "You are ill! Alright? You are very ill and I get that you are struggling coming to terms with that to the point of denial! But you…"

            "You don't know a damn thing about what's going in my…"

            "I know the woman you used to be, Scarlett! I know her, I saw her in those files, I saw her even today as you worked but you are not that woman anymore. You can't pretend to be! Do you really think you're going to be just fine after all of that? There are days where you can't function! And because adrenaline got you by today you think that you're invincible? You can't pretend there are no repercussions for your health anymore!"

            "Don't you think I know that?" Scarlett grit her teeth.

            "I don't think you do! You fight our decisions at every turn!"

            "Because they are stupid  decisions."

            "You are not a medical doctor!"

            "And I know my own limits better than you!"

            "You are sick!" Jemma shouted at her and Scarlett silenced. "You are weak. And you need our help." For a moment she thought she might have won the battle but Scarlett shook her head. Without another word, she turned away from Jemma and walked through the crowd of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents where she disappeared from view. 

First: 01 All Is Not As It Seems
Previous: 31 First Blood
Next: 33 Memory Lane


Disclaimer: Tony Stark, Iron Man, SHIELD, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and everything about the Marvel Universe belongs to Marvel! I claim no ownership of these lovely characters or their back stories. However, I do own several of the original characters, including Scarlett Damien, Scott Aaronson and a few more that will be introduced throughout the story. Mickey Pierce belongs to tbdoll and Jinx belongs to perkidanman.  

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Iron Clad: Across the Universe
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Between the Edge and Forever: A Killjoys One Shot
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