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infinitesundrop · 3 years

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Read Chapter 2: Perks of Being a Civilian on AO3 | FFN

Banner Credit to the Amazing @the-dream-team

Fic Summary: They say time heals. It’s been nine months since Lily lost her mother and sister, but she still feels their absence every day. The only thing getting her through these difficult times has been the masked hero, Spider-Man. With the attacks on the city getting worse each day, and with the growing animosity towards London’s only hope, Lily has no choice but to act. After all, we all have powers of one kind or another, in our own way. (Spider-Man AU)

Chapter Summary: No one ever said doing the right thing was easy.

Rating: T

Fic Warnings: Grief/Mourning/Survivor’s Guilt, Violence, Referenced Character Death (minor character) | Chapter Exclusive Warnings: Street Harassment, Mass Panic, Gun Violence (lasers), Destruction of Property (building collapse),Violence (hand-to-hand combat), Mentions of Explosives, Premature Acceptance of Death, Car Accident, Self Endangerment

Read from the Beginning on AO3 | FFN

When she finally tore her eyes off the skyline, she found that Spider-Man was staring over at her again. She ducked her head to hide her blush behind the curtain of her hair. “What?” she mumbled.

“Nothing,” he replied, shrugging slowly. “It’s only...what’s your name?”

Her name. Spider-Man wanted to know her name? “Lily,” she said, turning back to face the hero directly and sitting cross-legged with her back resting against the stone railing. Lily tilted her head up to see him, a shy sort of smile on her lips. “My name is Lily Evans.”

“Lily Evans,” Spider-Man repeated, and she had to admit she quite liked how it sounded coming from him. Lily heard him suck in a breath. “You know, Lily, what you did today...it wasn’t smart.”

Clutching her house keys in her hand, the metal bits poking out from in between her fingers, Lily kept her head down as she made her way into the dimly lit London streets. As young as five years old, Lily had been taught never to walk the streets alone, especially at night. Now, with all the attacks on the city, Lily couldn’t help but wonder what she was doing.

If something happened, her father would have no idea where she was. To be completely truthful with herself, Lily wasn’t exactly sure where she was headed either.

The road and sidewalks glistened with the fresh coating of rain from the afternoon, but in the night, the air felt biting and cold. A scuffle behind Lily made her jump, but it was merely her neighbor taking out the trash.

Granted, it wasn’t like Snape was the most savory figure either. They had been something close to friends as kids, having grown up next door to each other. When they hit secondary school, something had changed him. Whether it was his mother’s death or something else, he had gotten into some really shady stuff. One day, she remembered him walking into chemistry and laughing about all the various dark uses the chemicals had if mixed a certain way.

Ever since then, Lily had made a point to stay very far away from the man.

Feeling his sullen eyes on her, she swallowed back the lump in her throat and nodded in his direction, wanting to make it perfectly clear that she saw him.

Of course, he seemed to take that as an invitation to come talk to her. Lily was really not in the mood. Seeing him almost sent her straight back into the house, but there were more important things she needed to do tonight than sit at home because of Snape.

The sooner she returned home and saved her father from the worry he was undoubtedly experiencing, the better.

Picking up her pace would surely send him away, right?

Wrong. The greasy man had quickly caught up to her, reaching out his hand to grab her elbow. As his fingers brushed against Lily’s jacket, she ripped her arm forward and swung around, fist balled in the air. “Don’t ever do that.”

Whatever Snape was expecting, that was not it. He stood there, his mouth opening and closing as if he were a fish out of water. As Lily turned to run off, he cried out, “W-wait, Lily! You looked...lost!”

“Not lost,” she hissed, clutching her keys tighter, backing up away from him, but not daring to turn her back yet. “Don’t touch me. Don’t follow me.”

“It’s just,” he continued as if Lily hadn’t already made it extremely clear she wanted to be left alone, “It’s dangerous at night. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Narrowing her eyes, Lily pulled up her polaroid, snapping a photo. The flash lit up the whole block. It was only the two of them out right now. “Okay, well, you lay another finger on me, this will be your wanted photo. Leave me alone.”

Snape said something, but Lily didn’t catch it as she darted in the opposite direction. She didn’t think about where she was going; she just needed to get away.

Maybe she shouldn’t have come out here tonight.

Lily sucked in a shuddery breath as she reached a crosswalk a far enough distance away. Puffs of condensation filled the air as she took a moment to breathe while the cars drove through the intersection.

As much as she wanted to help Spider-Man, she had to admit her plan was a long shot. She wasn’t even sure if the hero would trust her enough to talk with all that was going on.

Lily pushed those thoughts from her mind, turning to the present.

She was already several blocks away from home, and even if she wanted to turn around, the idea of running into Snape again turned her blood cold. No. She had to see this through.

Taking stock of her surroundings, Lily realized she was no longer in the more residential districts. Passing a few shops that had closed up for the night, Lily wondered if maybe she was being reckless. She had no idea where she was going. While this part of town was familiar, Spider-Man had been spotted all over London.

Who was to say that she would actually find him? London was a massive city, and it was just as likely that Lily would end up somewhere unknown and in danger without anyone by her side, let alone a masked hero.

Where was she going?

She was torn from her thoughts by a loud bang, and Lily whipped around, nearly slipping off the thin piece of sidewalk she was on in between the two sides of the street, to see a gaggle of 30-somethings stumble out of the pub door that had been flung open. Starting to stagger down the street, the group roared with laughter. She placed her hand over her heart to soothe its hammering.

It took a moment for Lily’s breathing to calm down before she turned to continue walking. Her nerves were already frayed from that encounter with Snape.

Feeling herself become more grounded within her body, Lily reminded herself that she was on a mission. No backing down. Where would Spider-Man be?

She had to think about this logically. Spider-Man usually showed up around heavily crowded areas. The Bridge, Gringotts, the attack last month by the zoo... they were all bustling areas. That made sense, he wanted to protect the most people possible. Perhaps it would be a quiet night, and Spider-Man would only have to watch over the city. If they were lucky, he could stick to the skies without having to fight a second time today.

She’d heard people talk about that in classes. Some claimed that there were sightings of him on the rooftops even when the city was calm. She’d even heard some of them insisting that Spider-Man lived on the rooftops of London.

Glancing over to make sure the intersection was clear, she hurried the rest of the way across. Halfway through the crosswalk, she was hit with the realization that she was already taking her usual route to school without a second thought. Why hadn’t it occurred to her to go this way before?

Lily supposed when she first left the house, she was too worked up about the whole Spider-Man thing to do much thinking at all. For the first time since April, she'd fought with her father. And how had she handled it? She stormed out on him.

He barely let her go out for a drink at the pub with some friends after dark anymore, let alone go off wandering by herself. Not since her mother and sister...

Still, it wasn’t like she was going to any unknown parts of the city. Lily was only headed to school.

It was nighttime, though. While students did stay late to work on classwork, there wasn't usually much danger there. The worst thing that happened was students getting too drunk at the pub or arguing in the dorms.

Perhaps going to school wasn’t the best idea, but staying at least on the walking part of her commute provided her with the familiarity she needed to keep her from turning back and heading home. Once underground, she’d decide her final destination.

A familiar bright blue and red light signaled her tube station, and Lily continued on her daily commute. She descended to the Underground, scanned her Oyster card, walked down to the platform, and stood with her camera held close to her chest to await her train.

Time passed slowly and all too fast at the same time. What she was about to do was senseless, and once she boarded, it would be much harder to turn back. Lily recognized this but was still worthwhile to her.

Boarding the first car that arrived, she took a seat across from a sleeping man with facial hair. It was only Lily and the dosing passenger in their section. Normally, with so few people on the train, she’d take a seat somewhere farther away, but it was oddly comforting to be near someone else right now.

She felt bad for him. He looked exhausted, like he had come straight off a long shift. Based on his uniform, he was a subway operator. Squinting, she thought she could make out the name ‘Stan’ on his nametag.

Above the entrance, the little timer ticked down until the doors closed. What stop was he waiting for? Lily held onto the upper railing in case the train started moving, stepping forward towards the tired subway worker. She shifted her hands to brace against the seat beside Stan and leaned down to shake the worker gently. “What’s your stop?” she asked.

Stan barely responded, peeking one eye open lazily and muttering, “Piccadilly Circus”.

Of course. One of the most populated places this late would be the middle of the West End. It was always lined with tourists and locals alike.

She nodded her head, looking up at the map to see where she wanted to get off on the line. “That’s where I’m going too,” she decided aloud. “I’ll wake you when we’re there, yeah?”

Stan let out a little ‘hmmph’ in response, shifting his body so his face was squished against the subway seats with his back turned to Lily. The pleasant robotic voice announced the doors were closing, and Lily made it back to her seat right in time. The train lurched forward again mere moments later.

Studying the map above the man’s head, Lily saw she only had two stops until her own. Soon enough, the announcements declared that they had arrived, the doors gliding open. Lily stood, stepping closer to Stan and giving his shoulder another gentle shake.

In return, he grumbled something she couldn’t quite make out then turned in his chair again. It looked like there was no rousing him. Although she wanted to help, the overhead voice called for doors closing. She didn’t want to miss her stop, so she ran off the train quickly. The doors slid shut behind her with an audible click.

Once out of the car, Lily was immediately struck by how empty and quiet the place was. Usually, on a Friday night in London, people crammed onto the platforms, fighting for a place on the next train. Tonight, it was eerily quiet. The only person she saw was a janitor humming to himself as he swept.

She climbed the first set of stairs quickly. If anything, the theatres should be getting out soon, and the Circus would be filled with people going home via the Tube.

When Lily had left home, she had been sure she’d heard the weatherman call for clear skies the rest of the night. As usual, he must have been wrong, because the thunder from above the station was almost deafening the closer to the ground floor she got.

Lily climbed another set of stairs, the roar almost deafening at this point. Reaching the top of another flight of stairs, she thought she saw shadows growing larger and larger on the tiled wall towards the exit. Lily had to blink a few times to make sure she was seeing correctly. The pit of her stomach dropped with the realization that she was right.

And it wasn’t thunder.

She had been hearing a stampede of footsteps, and they were coming her way.

Turning a corner into a long hallway, all Lily saw was a horde of people flooding in, barreling towards her as if they didn’t even see her coming. The crowd ran straight into her.

Lily gasped as people shoved her aside, trampling on her feet and knocking her against the tile. Her camera crunched loudly with the impact. She braced herself for the rest of the onslaught, making herself as small as possible against the wall.

Screams of terror echoed along the tunnels. Well, at least she’d been right about where to find Spider-Man.

Hopefully, she was.

Filled with purpose again, Lily pushed against the crowd, trying to wedge her way through. She had to find Spider-Man. She had to. This was what she’d come out here for, after all. Camera or not, she had to warn him about the police and the press.

A pair of hands wrapped around one of her wrists in a vice-like grip.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the woman demanded as Lily tried to shake her off. The woman yanked back in return, Lily’s feet sliding along the floor towards her. “Lily!”

Hearing her name, Lily’s head snapped up. A familiar face stood in front of her, trying to tug her back towards the Tube. “Hestia, no, I can’t!”

“What’re you on about?” Hestia’s dark eyebrows furrowed together for a split second before she shook her head. It was as if she already decided that trying to sort out whatever Lily wanted to stick around for was not important. “Lily,” she pleaded desperately. “You have to come with me! Now! You can’t go up there!”

Lily had never seen her friend this way, so frantic and terrified. Hestia Jones was not the sort of person to scare easily‒or at all‒in the time Lily had known her. Whatever waited up there must have been dangerous.

If she turned back now, it would save her father and her friends the heartache and the fear of not knowing if she was all right. Looking into Hestia’s eyes, she almost did turn back.

But she couldn’t. Not with everything at stake. If they took down Spider-Man, who would be here to save all these people? Even if it meant sacrificing her own life, Lily would do everything in her power to help Spider-Man protect the city.

It was the right thing to do.

Everything happened so fast. One moment she was resisting Hestia’s pull, the next the two of them were running along with the chaos. Hestia had loosened her grip on Lily’s wrist, so Lily took the opportunity to slide her hand into Hestia’s instead, giving her friend’s hand a tight squeeze.

The gesture seemed to have alleviated Hestia’s worries as her friend breathed out in relief. It made what Lily had to do next so much worse.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, quickly dropping her hand and disappearing into the crowd.

When Lily turned back, her friend was being pulled along by the undertow of the crowd, her arm outstretched for Lily to grasp like a life preserver. Hestia looked distraught, and Lily was certain if she were any closer she’d see tears on her face.

This had better work.

James webbed from building to building, quickly weaving his way towards the scream. It wasn’t long before he found its inspiration: two masked terrorizers perched on the base of the statue in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.

He felt a sense of familiarity as he stared at the two. It was a man and a woman, but they looked so similar. They were both childlike in stature, but their shoulders sloped inwards, making them appear hunched over. Their faces were partially covered by masks, but the features that showed through were familiar.

He’d seen them before. He just didn’t remember where exactly.

The man had a lopsided sort of leer, and through the holes on the skull mask he was wearing, James spotted beady little eyes. The woman had less distinctive features, but like her counterpart, her skin was pallid, and she bore the same wicked expression as her counterpart.

A building on the other side of the road exploded James he landed atop the flashing billboards in the junction. The rubble scattered across the road, joining the rest of the debris the two had created. Screams echoed through the streets, people in the traffic circle abandoning the cars and buses in favor of an escape through the Tube as the two culprits cackled, taking great pleasure in the mayhem they were causing.

The woman’s wheezy giggle was what made James realize who they were, the noise bringing him back to all the times he’d heard it previously. They called themselves the Carrows: a brother and sister team. They didn’t look dangerous at first glance.

They had been there, though. At the Millenium Bridge collapse. They had been the ones who took down the rest of the bridge with the same weapons they were using now.

Both brother and sister were equipped with some kind of laser, allowing them to bring any structure to the ground with a simple push of a button. The sister, Alecto, shot a theatre close to the Circus, the building wobbling more and more until it crumbled to the ground.

It appeared as if they were searching for something as they decimated each structure, but what, James wasn’t exactly sure. The buildings all around the junction had evacuated; he’d watched them flee via the Tube with the rest of the civilians from the traffic circle, so he didn’t have to worry about saving people from the collapsing buildings.

All James knew was that he needed to stop the Carrows before they moved on, before they found a building full of people to destroy somewhere else.

But, how?

He did wonder if they had any real power without their laser guns. The easiest way to test it would be to simply grab one. It seemed too easy, but sometimes, the easiest strategy was the one overlooked.

So, he did it.

Turning his wrist, James aimed his web-shooter at one of the Carrow’s laser guns. Silky webbing shot out, traveling at lightning speed from James and attaching to the side of one of the guns. He grinned widely under the mask, grabbing hold of the web with his other hand.

He reached to grab the webbing with his other hand and pull, but a sharp tug from the other end of the web made him stumble on the precarious ledge. Another tug sent him flying to the ground.

James grimaced, shooting his webbing towards the building he had been standing on only moments ago. Suddenly, the building began to crumble around him, chunks of concrete and shards of glass raining onto him as he webbed onto a double-decker bus abandoned in the road.

So sometimes the easiest option didn’t work out.

“Good to see you two again,” he said conversationally as he jumped off the top of the bus. Their guns pointed straight at him. “Haven’t seen you two out much lately. I was afraid maybe you got busted.”

That earned him a green beam shot right at him. He probably deserved that after such a terrible joke, honestly. Still, James ducked, sliding out of the way with ease.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” he asked. He needed to find another way to take their guns from them, but at least the Circus was empty. It gave him time. Usually, he’d have to finish things as quickly as possible so that no one died. The lack of innocent civilians to worry about afforded James more time to be thorough. Tonight, the Carrows would be caught.

Still, it was two against one, and he had to keep moving to dodge the onslaught of laser beams coming his way. Usually, his best course of action was to web onto a building, but that wouldn’t be such a good idea when they had the ability to destroy whatever structure he was webbed onto.

As he passed by the Tube station, another beam shot right past him, hitting one of the walls. Too busy trying to come up with a plan, James didn’t even notice the civilian who ran out of the station’s entrance as it crumbled. Instead, he just looked at the Carrows, a smug smirk on his face as he said, “You guys really can’t hit anything that’s not stationary, can you?”

They had their guns pointed right at him, and James knew it was the perfect time to web onto the guns. They were too distracted by the idea of taking him down, both wearing wide grins under their masks.

This was it. This was his chance. All he needed to do was web both the guns and get out of the way without any of the lasers hitting him.

“Say goodbye!” Alecto cackled, but before she could shoot, a small chunk of concrete landed by James’ feet.

“No!” James heard someone cry, another piece of concrete hurled into the middle of the Circus. “Don’t hurt him!”

James glanced around to see who was senseless enough to be out here at a time like this. Why hadn’t they run screaming like everyone else?

And then, he saw her.

Lily.

As his heart leapt into his throat, body freezing mid-fight, his only thought was: Not her. Anyone but her.

He stood, frozen, as Lily ran closer, the obviously broken camera around her neck swinging wildly with her movement. Luckily, it seemed as if she’d also distracted the Carrows with the disruption.

At least, James had thought so until he realized that one of the laser guns was pointed at him and the other at Lily.

“Now!” He heard Alecto cry, and the lasers came shooting towards them.

Knowing he didn’t have much time, James webbed onto Lily and tugged to bring her to his side. He heard her frightened gasp but didn’t have time to reassure her. All he could do was hold onto her and dive out of the way as the building that had been behind them crumbled down.

James grimaced as the two of them roughly slid to the ground. He scrambled up, yanking Lily up with him. In any normal circumstance, James would never manhandle anyone, let alone Lily, the way he was right now. But this wasn’t a normal circumstance.

He needed to find her a way out of here. It wasn’t as if he could leave the Carrows and take Lily to safety. As much as he'd like to, there were other things he had to worry about.

Namely, the fact that the Carrows were shooting at them again.

Without thinking, he tugged Lily across the circle with him, ducking between two piles of rubble. They didn’t get very far before having to dodge the laser beams shooting at them. There was no way they’d be able to cross the junction without stopping to duck for cover every few paces, but their options were slim at the moment.

When he heard the sounds of the guns stop for the moment, he pulled her along, running again to find cover under another pile of debris. While it was safe for the moment, they had to get moving again soon. If they stuck around, the two masked villains would find them again.

He refused to let them be caught and cornered, not with Lily beside him.

She couldn’t be here. Keeping her by his side put a target on her back. As risky as it was to send her out there with all these toppling buildings, James wasn’t sure he had a choice. Yet, looking at the devastation around them, he knew he had to think of something to give her a fighting chance.

Anything.

Despite the fact that he knew he shouldn’t leave the Carrows alone in the Circus - after all, what if another unsuspecting citizen happened upon the scene in his absence? - Lily’s safety was taking precedence at the moment.

“How’d you get here?” he asked suddenly as they dodged the lasers. If it was safe, he’d send her back the way she came.

“I was in the Tube,” she said, panting as she tried to catch her breath while they ran through the junction. Well, that was unfortunate since the station’s entrance had been decimated into a pile of rubble. He’d have to think of some other way to get her out of here. For starters, they needed to get away from the Carrows.

“T-there was a stampede,” James heard her say, and it seemed like she was just rambling to keep from panicking. He only hoped she wasn’t too focused on her words to prevent herself from stumbling. “Everyone was running towards the train, but I-you needed help. You’re fighting for the city on your own. It looked like you were in danger, and I-” She was talking so quickly James wasn’t sure she’d have any air left in her lungs, and he’d never seen those green eyes as wide as they were in that moment. “I had to do something!”

James froze, staring at her momentarily. Had she really gone towards the danger when everyone else fled? It was dangerous to dwell on her blatant lack of respect for her own life right now. “I need to get you out of here somehow,” he muttered more to himself than to her as he looked around the junction.

She had to get out of here. The Carrows were going to destroy every building in range, and Lily couldn’t be there when they did. The Tube couldn’t be her escape route. There had to be another way out.

That was when he noticed dim light coming from behind them, casting their shadows on the pavement in front of them. There was a car - an abandoned but still running car - behind them.

A blast from a few feet away reminded him that the Carrows were still shooting at them, and Lily was looking rather worn from being dragged around Piccadilly Circus. Having her drive off in the car would be the easiest getaway, but with all the lasers shooting off at random, James thought better of it. If the Carrows hit that car with Lily in it, she’d be done for.

He needed to find a way to make it safer for her.

“Stay,” James commanded, leaving her behind a tall pile of crumbled concrete. She was huddled underneath the rubble, peeking out from behind as if keeping watch, but he saw her mutely nod her head. At the very least, he was certain that she wasn’t going to move from that spot, so he swung up onto a building, trailing along his webbing.

“Aww, no more puns? What? Not as confrontational when your little girlfriend’s around?” Alecto cooed.

Gritting his teeth, James tried to work faster, jumping around from building to ground to building and back, sticking his web to every surface he reached. Each time he landed, he glanced towards the wreckage where Lily was hiding. Thankfully, the two didn’t seem too interested in her. At least, not when they realized what James was up to.

“A spider web,” Amycus said, looking at his sister with a raised eyebrow. “How quaint.”

James heard Alecto’s wheezy giggle again before she cried, “Let’s see how well these webs work to protect your beloved from our lasers.”

Seeing their distraction as his opportunity to get Lily to safety, James dropped back down to the ground, racing back to Lily. They didn’t have much time.

He grabbed her hand tightly, tugging her backwards to the awaiting car, her escape. “Get in. Drive away. Just...just stay in the car until you’re safe, okay?” He had to know she was going to be okay, that she’d be safe one way or another. Sure, this wasn’t how he wanted this to go, but this was the best option he had.

He watched as she got into the driver’s seat, her hands shaking as she clutched the wheel. “But what about you? You can’t get hurt. We need you. London needs you.” The panic in her voice made James almost want to stay with her. He could climb into the car with her or, better yet, take her back home by webbing building to building. It would be so easy to leave with her and not deal with any of this right now.

But as she said, London needed him.

He just nodded his head to her. “I know. I’ll be all right. All in a day’s work of being Spider-Man, yeah?” He knew she was trying to hide it, but he saw the corners of her lips twitch up at that. “You need to go.”

When she gave him a shaky nod in return, James gave himself one final moment to look at her before turning on his heel and webbing back into the fight.

“Miss me?” he called as he swung back.

Upon seeing Amycus wound tightly in his barricade, much like a bug trapped in a real spider’s web, James broke out into a stupid grin. Maybe this wouldn’t be so difficult after all.

Alecto’s eyes narrowed and she lined up her laser not at James, who was still behind the indestructible webbing, but at a building holding it up. It wobbled precariously, like the others had done earlier, and then crashed to the ground, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. With it, fell a section of webbing. While it wasn’t enough to tear down the whole web, it was enough to surpass his barrier he’d set up.

“Are you mad?!” Amycus cried from inside his web cocoon. “You’re going to crush-” Without concern for the rest of his sentence, or apparently the well-being of her brother, Alecto shot at the other building. As the building toppled, tearing the remainder of the web down with it, James knew it was time to move.

He wanted this over with. The Carrows might’ve gotten away on the bridge, but he wouldn’t make that mistake again.

One down. Amycus’s laser gun was laying on the ground, but it looked damaged. There was a flashing red light on the side, and a blue and green glow peeked through the cracks along the barrel of the gun. James didn’t want to risk picking it up only for it to backfire on him. Besides, James only played offense in football. He'd stick to the defensive; he preferred his webs anyway.

One more to go.

Alecto Carrow seemed to be more competent than her counterpart given that she hadn’t gotten trapped in the web, and her actions were always a bit more calculated. Despite her intelligence, without her brother, the fight was now one-on-one, and James had the upper hand.

He landed in front of Alecto as she scurried back to her safety atop the base of the statue. It was a good vantage point for her since she’d be shooting down at him. He still wasn’t quite sure how to take down Alecto, but if the web had taught him anything, they were easily distracted.

Lily was tucked away in that cab and on her way to somewhere safe. Amycus was a bit preoccupied at the moment. A lazy smirk slid across his features, looking at the Carrow while stretching his arms behind his back languidly as if he were bored.

“What did you call my web again?” he asked somewhat tauntingly. Until he figured out how to take her down physically, this was his best course of action. “Quaint, was it? Seems like a good place for your brother to hang out. Bit of a sticky situation, really. Care to join him?”

Alecto swiftly pointed her laser at James, firing without a moment’s hesitation. As he’d assumed, Alecto thought he wasn’t paying close enough attention.

Except he was.

James shot back, his webbing threading around the barrel of a gun. He grabbed onto the silky web with his other hand, tearing the gun out of Alecto’s hands. He heard her rabid shriek as she hurled herself at him, landing on his back with a violent thud.

James tried to throw her off, but she clung to him desperately, kicking and screaming for her weapon. Right when he thought he’d lost her, she started digging her long, sharp nails into his shoulders as she clawed for her gun back.

He knew he had to get her off—the pain made sure of that much—but he needed to figure out what to do with this gun too. It wasn’t as if throwing it far enough away would actually help, even it was far enough to keep out of the Carrows’ clutches. Not if it gave anyone the power to decimate the entire city. The webbing blocked anything firing from it for now, but he knew the web weakened as its chemical composition deteriorated from the elements. Far faster than James liked to admit, it became no more than glorified silly string.

He needed to act fast.

With a fierce elbow to her gut, Alecto’s grip on James’s back weakened slightly. As he began to deliver the final blow, the circle was illuminated in a green-blue light, and a feverish laugh filled the streets. James’s blood turned cold.

Amycus had escaped. In his hands was the damaged laser gun, sparking and shooting in random directions.

Alecto hopped off James’s back and ran towards her brother. Apparently, she had bigger fish to fry than fighting for her gun. With that weapon in both of their hands, ready to explode at any moment, they would be nearly unstoppable.

Not on his watch. James whipped a web around Alecto’s ankle, gripping the web and yanking her into the air. With his other hand, he webbed her to a nearby billboard. There. Even if she did get free...good luck coming down from there.

With Alecto taken care of, Amycus grew even more violent. He began firing his gun in every direction. Sometimes it went off and other times, nothing happened. The sparking was getting worse with every misfire.

Luckily, it was compromised enough that none of the shots directed at James actually hit him. The shaking of the gun from the sparks made Amycus’s aim haphazard at best. Simply blocking the lasers from coming too close was working for now.

That gun was going to be a problem. James wasn’t sure he was even equipped to deal with the aftermath if it did explode.

Amycus’s aim was getting worse, barely able to hold onto the weapon anymore. Maybe this was James’s chance. The second Amycus let go of that weapon, he could get close enough to finally put an end to all this.

Just as James thought this all would be over, Amycus had climbed back onto the statue, attempting to maneuver the gun to point in James’ direction, using the statue as a base to keep his grip on the device as it jerked about. His target line was so much better with the statue stabilizing the gun.

The Carrow was done playing bulldozer on the city. His target was set on Spider-Man.

James knew this wouldn’t be good. His options were: get shot, grab the gun and have it blow up, or, possibly, both. None of it sounded very promising. Sure, he’d been in scary situations in the past, but he’d never dealt with an unstable weapon with this kind of power in the hands of someone like Amycus.

There was a real possibility that he’d die here. That fact hit him so hard that it was almost as if one of those buildings had crushed him.

He could die right now.

There were so many things he hadn’t done, things he hadn’t said.

He had regrets, sure. He wished he’d stayed as close to Remus Lupin as they had been before he became Spider-Man, but he’d decided months ago to keep Remus out of this for his own protection.

Now, he regretted not telling Sirius how much he appreciated all his help with this Spider-Man stuff, even if he hadn’t wanted Sirius to know at first either. James wished he’d told him how he was the best friend he could’ve ever asked for, the brother he’d always wanted.

More than that, he wished he hadn’t fought with Lily at the Prophet. She didn’t know he’d seen her again tonight. Unless she found out he was Spider-Man, her last memory of him would be of their fight. He wished he’d told her how he felt.

James swallowed thickly as his mind wandered to Aunt Minnie. More than anything, he wished he could give her a proper goodbye. He knew how devastated she’d been when James’ mum had died without saying goodbye. Minnie would be crushed again, and she’d be downright furious with him for being Spider-Man.

But he couldn’t think about any of that right now. Not when Amycus Carrow was prepared to end this at any moment, his finger on the trigger.

Like Lily had said, London needed him. He needed to be there to save the people of the city. He needed to save London because that was where Remus Lupin lived. Where Sirius lived. Lily. Aunt Minnie.

He had to save them. Even if saving them meant losing himself.

Resigning himself to the fact that things were probably about to get very, very messy, he raised his hand, shaking slightly as he moved, to shoot at the gun before Amycus shot at him.

Amycus’s eyes lit up with a devilish delight in what he was about to do.

A screech from the distance caused both parties to pause for a moment. When James looked to where the noise was coming from, two bright lights from some sort of car blinded him. As he blinked away the lights, he’d seen enough to know what had happened.

The taxi careened past him, slamming into the statue in the middle of the junction. The heavy bronze figure swayed for a moment before toppling to the ground with a deafening clash, its motion bringing Amycus down with it.

The gun soared through the air, alight like a meteor. He hoped this worked.

James used both web-shooters to catch the gun, twirling it with one web, and wrapping it like a bandage with the other. Fully covered now, James webbed it to hang from a pile of rubble well lit by the street lamps, somewhere the authorities would easily find it.

He heard their sirens now, coming from a distance. Figured that as soon as things finished up, the cops arrived.

Amycus was out. The statue must have knocked him unconscious. He might’ve checked to see if the Carrow was still breathing if it weren’t for his unexpected hero. As James approached the black taxi, his heart pounded in his chest.

Lily. It had to be Lily. No one else disregarded their own safety enough to do something so stupidly brave except her.

The car was crushed in at the front, the wheels bent at a strange angle and steam billowing out of the grill. He couldn’t see her through the windows since the whole cab was filled with the deployed airbags.

Please be okay.

When he looked inside, ripping off the door of the crushed cab, Lily was heaving, and tears were rolling down her cheeks. She had a bruise purpling along the side of her cheek but otherwise appeared okay. As he opened his mouth to ask if she was, Lily cut him off.

“I-I stayed in the car,” she gasped, looking at him, her green eyes wide.

James swallowed his initial response as she stumbled out of the destroyed taxi, and he reached out, grabbing her hands to steady her. “Be careful,” he murmured, worried her injuries might be worse than what was visibly apparent. He’d gotten too used to the luxury that was self-healing. Lily, on the other hand…

She looked relatively okay though. She wasn’t too pale - well, not any paler than she normally was - and she appeared to know what was going on at the very least. Still… “I think you should let me take you to the hospital.”

“Take me home,” she said, rubbing at the bruise on her cheek. It was swollen a bit, and she had this look of exhaustion on her face that made James’s stomach flip. Maybe she was more hurt than he thought.

James shook his head slowly. If something happened to her, it’d be his fault. “Err...No. I think you need to go, really,” he insisted. “You need to get checked out at the hospital.”

Lily scowled at the suggestion this time, and it was a welcome sight. That was the Lily he knew, the one that crashed cars into famous landmarks. “Look, Spider-Man. If you won’t take me home, I’ve already committed grand theft once today. I can do it again and get home by myself, but I’m bruised and tired and I really don’t care to deal with the traffic this fight has no doubt caused. So, I’ll ask you again. Take me home.”

“That wasn’t a question - more of an order, really. You sure you didn’t hit your head too hard?” She was fine; that, he was sure of now. She was talking normally, didn’t seem too confused about where she was or what she was doing, and though her walk hadn’t been all that steady when getting out of the car, he knew she’d been shaken up. She seemed stable now.

Besides, she’d told him off, so that was an encouraging sign.

James watched with a bemused smirk as Lily narrowed her eyes and then swished around, apparently giving up on travel by web. Her walk was definitely more steady again, which, James supposed, was good. Still, he couldn’t let her drive home. Not when she’d already been through so much that night. Not with that big bruise forming on her cheek. Not with her complete disrespect for her own safety.

Lily had already spotted another taxi and was marching towards it purposefully. James, not wanting her to go off by herself and get in more trouble tonight, ran to catch up with her, leaning on her cab of choice when they got close enough. “So, tell me,” he said conversationally, “do you commit grand theft often? Should I be worried about you?”

That broke through her wall she was building up. He wished he could say the way her eyes lit up, her nose wrinkling slightly at his words, didn’t make him feel anything, but he’d felt this way since he first met her. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing that’d change anytime soon.

“Oh, be very worried,” she teased, leaning against the taxi as well. “Planning to be an accessory to my crimes, Spider-Man?”

“Sorry,” he sighed, crossing his arms as he smirked underneath his mask. He knew they needed to get out of there soon since the sirens from earlier sounded far too close for comfort, but he was having too much fun teasing Lily. “No can do. That sort of thing is bad for my image.”

“Ah, yes. Your image, which as we all know is already so good.” Lily let out a soft little laugh, more of a breath than anything, and looked down at the ground. Her smile faded rather quickly, and he knew she was thinking about the paper. As she pushed off the car and examined the wreckage they’d left behind—piles of rubble in and around the streets, the statue toppled, a destroyed cab—her eyebrows knitted together in worry.

It probably wasn’t the best thing to mention his image to her. She’d want to go and fix it, and he’d seen how reckless she could be. Reckless enough to save his life.

And she didn’t even know she knew him. He was glad that in all the chaos, he’d remembered to lower his voice a bit so it wasn’t as easily recognizable for Lily.. If she had known, James knew she’d want to help more. He could only save her from herself so many times.

Thinking back on the events of the day and watching her with that worried look on her face, he wanted to reach out and tell her it’d be okay. They were just buildings. Sure, his reputation might suffer, but he didn’t care about that. No one had died today, and that was the biggest relief, especially with Lily being involved. He didn’t even want to think about something happening to her on his watch. Of all people, hadn’t she suffered enough from his failures as Spider-Man?

He’d wanted to tell her he was sorry for all that had happened tonight. He wanted to apologize for what had happened at work too, despite the mask. He wanted to plead for her to put herself first for once, to stop being so reckless, but the authorities were rounding the corner now, red and blue lights flashing against the facades of the remaining buildings.

James took a deep breath instead. They had to get out of here. “Let’s go,” he said suddenly, offering her a hand.

Lily looked down at it as if it were a foreign concept to her. “What?”

“I’ll take you home,” he said, trying not to sound too impatient, but he needed to dodge the cops. She knew that. He took her moment of hesitation to shoot a web at an intact building, getting ready to leave whenever she was ready. “You’re far too reckless to get home safely by yourself.”

“Right.” She looked nervously over her shoulder before taking his hand. “What if I slow you down, though?”

As she said this, the tires of the police cars and ambulances squealed as they screeched to a stop. Behind them, a few dozen media vans, including Daily Prophet 24/7 coverage. Their time for questions was over.

Reporters scrambled out of their vehicles. They had to leave, now, while James still had a clear view of his escape route. He wrapped his arms around Lily, tucking her in close to his side. “Hold onto me,” he murmured, kicking off the ground and swinging onto the top of the building his web was on.

As they flew through the air, the flashes of reporters’ cameras filled his vision. Looked like the Prophet got their picture after all.

The city was absolutely breathtaking at nighttime. From within the dark, the soft glow of the streetlamps and the lights inside the different apartments was a warm and welcome sight. At a distance, they almost looked like fireflies.

High above the ground, the people and the cars all looked so small. It was as if all the problems of the world were the same size. Up there, it felt like you were untouchable, undefeatable.

Of course, Lily didn’t know this because her face was smushed against Spider-Man’s chest as they fled the scene. She felt the wind whipping around them, stray pieces of hair tickling her cheeks, but she was not going to look around. Her arms wrapped around his torso tightly, and her fingers clung around the fabric of his suit as if it was the only thing able to save her if she fell.

Most certainly not the webs the superhero was soaring through the sky with.

From above her, she thought she heard Spider-Man chuckle. Lily furrowed her brows but figured she must be hearing things. What was so funny at a time like this?

Then she felt his laugh, his chest shaking with every little chortle. Terrified to look down, Lily moved her head up the slightest bit to peek at the man above her.

Problem was, it was really hard to read his facial expression with the mask situation. From the way his head was angled, it looked like he was laughing at her, watching her. “What’s so funny?” she asked, burrowing her face back into his side.

“Oh, nothing,” he murmured back to her, the two of them dipping down as he webbed onto another building. “I just think it’s funny that you were so...so reckless and brave earlier with everything you did, but you’re frightened of heights. You can run into a stampede. You can crash a car into a statue-a national landmark, mind you. But heights, that’s what does you in.” There was a beat as he thought this over before Lily heard his laugh again. “Honestly, this is probably the safest thing you’ve done tonight.”

But it didn’t feel like the safest thing, not to Lily. She felt like she was moving through the city at a very fast pace, very high off the ground while being held up by a couple of little strings. That felt like a very unsafe thing to do. She was sure her father would agree, but he wouldn’t have approved of anything she’d done tonight.

Besides, he’d done this tons of times. At this point, it must’ve been as natural as breathing for him. “I’d bet you were scared the first time you did this,” she replied somewhat bitterly.

“Sure,” Spider-Man said in return. “I couldn’t close my eyes though. Something tells me that wouldn’t have worked out for me too well.”

A smile tugged at Lily’s lips, but she didn’t dare look up. “Perks of being a civilian, yeah?”

“I suppose,” he sighed, and Lily felt him hold her a little closer. She tried to ignore the blush creeping up her neck when, suddenly, he jerked to a stop. She opened her eyes to see what had happened only to find they were hanging on the side of Big Ben. Lily gasped, tightening her grip on his suit for dear life.

“Spider-Man,” she cried, her eyes trailing down the clock tower to the streets below of their own volition. The buses and cars directly below them looked so minuscule. She felt like she was going to be sick, her skin turning clammy and her stomach churning at the sight. Her heart was beating so hard against her chest she was positive Spider-Man felt it.

“Relax,” he insisted, shifting to place her feet on a close-by ledge. “Li-Let’s breathe, okay?” He tugged her closer, shuffling so she was closer against the tower and more securely on the ledge. “You’re okay. You’re safe.”

Lily did as he said, breathing in, but it came in as a shudder. Spider-Man nodded encouragingly and she thought she heard him say something like, “good, keep going,” but she wasn’t really paying attention to his words. He was holding onto her with one arm wrapped around her in something of a hug, and Lily was very aware of his hand on her back. His other hand was gripping onto his suspended web, only his toes touching the ledge she stood upon.

She tightened her hold on him, not able to think clearly when she was terrified that now he would fall. It didn’t seem to phase him in the slightest, his head tilted upwards into the open air, looking at something high above them.

Her breath must have evened out with her distraction because Spider-Man looked to her suddenly and nodded his head in approval. “Good. See, you’re alright.” Lily only nodded slowly. “Hey, I don’t want you to be scared, but I think you’d think the city is really pretty right now. Can I take you up a little higher-”

“Are you joking?” Lily snapped, looking at Spider-Man with disdain. “I’m terrified, and you want to go up higher?”

He seemed amused by her outburst. “Are you done?” Lily opened her mouth to speak again, but he cut her off. “As I was saying, can I take you up a little higher where there’s a railing and a real floor? You can calm down before I take you home. Does that sound okay?”

That didn’t sound too bad, Lily had to admit. When she nodded her agreement, Spider-Man scooped her up and began scaling the side of the building. From over his shoulder, she saw tourists pointing them out amongst themselves from the London Eye.

As far up as they were when he first took her to the tower, Lily didn’t realize how much farther up there was to go until she was carried up to the top. The white light from the clock cast their shadows on the city below.

Soon, they reached a railing, and Spider-Man pulled them over it. Finally on solid ground, Lily let out a deep breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“Better now?” he asked, and she nodded quickly. She’d never been so happy to have her feet on the floor, even if the floor was much higher up than she preferred. As she glanced out over the city, she had to admit that it was rather pretty. The river Thames looked like glass from so far up, its surface calm and dark other than reflections from the surrounding lights and the moon in the distance. Across from them, the London Eye ticked along at a slow, leisurely pace.

“Yeah,” she breathed, unable to take her eyes off the city. It seemed so strange that the city felt so calm and quiet in one place, and yet, in another, it was filled with destruction.

When she finally tore her eyes off the skyline, she found that Spider-Man was staring over at her again. She ducked her head to hide her blush behind the curtain of her hair. “What?” she mumbled.

“Nothing,” he replied, shrugging slowly. “It’s only...what’s your name?”

Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Did Spider-Man call her dumb? Even though she had just sat down, she scrambled back to her feet so she was on his level, looking into his eyes-well, eye markings. “What I did today was I saved your life.”

“And you could’ve lost yours,” he shot back, crossing his arms against his chest.

��So could you!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms out. “You know what you do for a living right? You’re at least a little self-aware? Spider-Man, your job is putting your life at risk. I don’t think you’re in a place to lecture me about safety.”

She crossed her arms too, looking him over. He was tall, but his voice sounded young. While it was hard to tell if he was younger or older than her, he seemed like he was at least around her age range. What was a university-age kid doing sacrificing his life for the city? Lily’d had enough lectures this evening for the both of them. If he wanted to lecture her, fine. Two could play that game.

Spider-Man began shaking his head. “You don’t get it. I didn’t choose this. This was put on me, and like you said, London needs me. But you...you need to stay safe. Surely you have people that worry about you. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for them.”

Guilt washed over her like a tidal wave. Her father would be so furious when she got home. Surely by now, the news had aired. She knew the reporters had gotten a photo of her. She didn’t know if her face was visible, but with her luck, everyone would know she had met Spider-Man by tomorrow morning.

But Spider-Man was wrong. No matter what her father said, Spider-Man saved people. And no matter how angry her dad was, Lily knew she did the right thing. She set out to help Spider-Man and she did.

He was alive because of her. He’d go home to the people who cared about him tonight because of her.

For all she knew, the whole city was alive because of her. What would have happened if the two masked villains had gotten away? What if that sparking laser gun had exploded like it looked like it was going to?

Because Lily risked her life, so many more were safe. She refused to apologize for that, no matter what anyone else said. Even if that person was Spider-Man.

Besides, she was fine.

He did raise a good point, though. Her father was probably worried sick waiting for her to come home.

Lily felt Spider-Man’s gaze through his mask, and she was vaguely reminded of an ant under a microscope. He must have been waiting for her to respond, but she was so caught up in her thoughts she hadn’t noticed.

What did she even say to that? Did Spider-Man not want to be Spider-Man? If she could, Lily would trade places with him, take the weight off his shoulders. “I’m sorry,” Lily murmured, taking advantage of the fact that Spider-Man probably thought she was talking about risking her life. She wasn’t, but at least her words placated him. She wasn’t sorry for what she did.

She was sorry that he had to carry this burden for the city, sorry he had to be responsible for keeping people who didn’t appreciate him safe.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled in return, and Lily watched as he paced for a moment before he stared back at her. “Look, it’s not… I’m grateful that you saved my life and all.”

“Then-” Lily started, but Spider-Man cut her off, looking down at her in a way that she practically felt the intensity through the air.

“But I don’t want you to go risking yours for something like that again.”

Lily nodded slowly in return, even if she didn’t mean it. Something like that. They weren’t talking about saving a couple of buildings or a famous landmark. She’d saved his life. It was worth the risk. If she had to do it again, she would. But Spider-Man needn’t know that.

“Anyway,” she heard him sigh as he stepped closer to the ledge again. “I’d better get you home. Where might that be, Lily?”

She knew she needed to get home before her father went out and started looking for her himself. She’d be surprised if he hadn’t already. Lily murmured her address, joining him at the edge and grabbing his outstretched hand.

This time, she didn’t close her eyes. Whether she had grown used to the sensation or if she’d grown numb, Lily wasn’t sure. Granted, she was keeping her eyes on what was in front of her, deliberately ignoring the ground below them.

Instead, she watched as Spider-Man webbed from building to building. Every time a bit of web was released, he pressed this mechanism built into his suit. As she first noticed it, she had to blink a few times to be sure of what she was seeing.

All this time, Lily had thought Spider-Man had special supernatural abilities, and the webs were only one of them. Although she didn’t understand how Spider-Man would be able to shoot webs from his skin, she’d just assumed he was some type of mutant.

But those web-shooters were man-made. He must have engineered them somehow. Or maybe he’d commissioned someone to or something. Either way, they looked complicated.

Spider-Man must have been really intelligent to figure something like that out, but engineered web-shooters meant he was really just a regular guy.

She did wonder who was truly behind the mask. Not because of any desire to expose his identity to the world, and certainly not to turn him over to the cops. No, Lily was simply fascinated by the mystery.

Plus, it didn’t hurt that this man had sort of saved her life tonight too.

She had so many questions for him, but she was afraid that if she asked, he wouldn’t tell her. Or worse, he’d get upset and think she was trying to discover who he was. So instead, Lily kept quiet the entire way home, watching Spider-Man use his web-shooters.

How did they work? What substance inside that tiny mechanism created those near-indestructible webs? They were strong enough to resist lasers. They pulled both his and her body weight through the sky. Forget their weight, that day at the bridge, Lily watched on the telly as Spider-Man stopped a bus from falling into the river.

And it all started with those little web-shooters.

Far too interested in the web-shooters, she hadn’t realized that Spider-Man had gotten her back home until her feet were placed firmly on the ground. She glanced around, realizing that most of the lights in the building were dark now as people had gone to sleep for the night. Her own home was still lit brightly, and she was sure her father was waiting for her.

Lily turned around to thank Spider-Man for bringing her home, but by the time she did so, he’d already disappeared into the darkness.

She sucked in a deep breath, reaching out for the front door’s handle and turning it until she heard the click. “Dad?” she called, stepping inside. “I’m home…”

#jily #jily*#lily evans #james potter #lily potter #prongs #fnjp #our writing

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oksana-moods · 3 years

Text

Ghost of you - Part 14

Summary: The Octopus has Ghost wrapped around its legs.

A/N: Keeping my promise, here we are.

Trigger Warnings: Violence, language, mentions of death and blood… tell me if I need to add any.

“As the stars begin to gather And the light begins to fade.”

#not my picture

“My God, Lara.” Carol ran to me right after I opened the door. “You said you’d call me. Dammit, Lara, you promised.” Her eyes were so sad that I felt guilty. “I’m sorry. I had everything under control.” She snorted. “You’re drenched in blood; you call this control?” I looked at my state and I was horrible, with a frown in my brows I let a soft ‘yeah’ scape my lips. “What happened?” She asked. “Greene was waiting for me.” I licked my lips and sighed. “Come, let me help you with your wounds.” I picked some clothes. “I’ll take a shower first.”

After a long hot shower, I got myself rid from all the blood in me, the literal blood, at least. The figurative one? Not quite, for Greene’s words were running wild through my mind, I could feel a headache coming. The good news was that I saw through the mirror that my shoulder plates already healed there was only one wound to be healed. When I got out of the bathroom, I saw that Carol had a medical kit in her lap at the balcony, I set in front of her and lifted the hem of the tank top I was wearing, showing to her were the gunshot pierced my stomach, and I felt myself awfully uncomfortable under her gaze. “You lost a lot of blood. Don’t you think we need to go to the hospital?” Her voice made Greene’s voice disappear from my head, for now. “It’s not safe.” I replied. “I can take care of this, if…” She was shaking her head in disagreement. “I’ll take care of you.” She softly spoke and I just nodded. “This might hurt” She said with a grimace in her face while holding the forceps and the scalpel close to my skin, she looked up as if asking permission for start her work. I just nodded at her and emptied my glass of scotch in one go. I hissed when she started to remove the bullet, “Sorry.” She whispered and I just shook my head, concentrating in not cursing out loud. After a while, she managed to get the bullet out and she looked up to meet my eyes. I don’t know how, but the tag with our names was above my shirt and that piece of metal caught her attention. Instinctively, her hands shot up to touch the plaques, and her eyes became impossibly softer. “You still wear it.” Her voice was barely a whisper, as if we were sharing a secret, and it was indeed a secret to her, until now. “How do you have it?” She asked and I felt a lump forming in my throat, right now wasn’t the time to talk about this. I sighed. “Maria gave it to me… few years ago.” Her gaze was so intense that I felt intimidated, she was looking at me like she could pull the answers with her eyes. “Why?” It was a simple question that could mean tons of things, but I knew exactly what she meant, and she knew I knew. She had powers over me that she doesn’t even know, and maybe her eyes did have the power to rip the truth out of me. “The same as before… I guess.” I softly replied after a deep breath. There was no use in deny or try to lie to her, not with her eyes shining like they are right now. Suddenly, all the stars she had imprisoned in her eyes were shining closer than ever, like the whole universe were glittering in her orbs and that alone made me want to touch her and feel her skin, just like I had a lifetime ago. “After this whole time?” Her whisper was so, so low that I thought I had imagined, but her eyes were boring into my soul waiting for a reply, indicating that I haven’t. There was no use in try to keep this at bay anymore, hell, my feelings for her were always in the way throughout this whole mission. I screwed things up and I don’t even know when. I sighed and I felt her hand cupping my cheek with a oh so soft touch that I leaned in her palm without even thinking. “Bold of you to assume I ever stopped.” She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, a gloomy smile flashed in her lips then faded when she whispered. “Our destinies dance around each other like spirals.” She replied while opening her eyes, and they were so, so gentle that I felt unworthy. She too, by saying that we were like spirals, spirals that never touch. Fuck. Greene was right, I longed for her, wish things could be different, but reality is all that I have. I wrapped my hand around her wrist and pushed her hand away from my face, sadly, realizing that I don’t deserve her touch, no matter how much I craved for this. I kissed her palm before letting her hand go and got up to my feet.

“Lara…” Before she could even begin whatever excuses or pity-speech, I cut her off. “We don’t have time to talk about this now.” I said walking to the wardrobe and picked my suit for the night. A smoking and a tie. Seeing this, Carol came inside the room too, but her face had a frown. “What do you think you’re doing? We have a plane to catch.” I sighed; this would be hard. “I’m not going in that plane, Carol. You may go, but I won’t.” I walked to the restroom so I could start to change my clothes. “You are going to Chateau de Mercues.” She spoke in a way that made it clear that it wasn’t a question. “They are going to discuss the attack in London.” I opened my arms as if there was no option, and if I squint a little, we truly have no option here. “I need to go and stop them, or maybe learn everything about the attack, so we could prevent it.” I licked my lips. “Look, you can go. This is on me and I’ll take the responsibility, but I can’t step back now.” She let a distressed breath and shook her head, as if trying to make a child learn something obvious. “If you’re going to that meeting, then I’m going with you.” This made my eyes widen. “Of course not, I don’t know what might happen there, they can hurt you or…” She walked so fast that I was startled by her hands touching mine. “No way that I’m going to let you go by yourself. I can’t sit and wait for you to come with another missing piece, or don’t come back at all.” She was shaking her head, and when she saw me opening my mouth her eyes were so hard, and I knew that there was no talking her out of this. I sighed. “Alright. We’ll keep this Philipps façade, at least while we can. I’ll change quickly.” She nodded and let my hand go and I closed the door. When Carol came out of the restroom in her dress for the night, I had to remind myself that I need to keep breathing. She glided towards me with a perfect white silk dress with thin straps over her shoulders and her hair was flat down. She was beyond flawlessness. My heart was begging for me to take her by the hand, run with her to the nearest church and offer my life to her. “What?” Her voice brought me out of my daze. I used my fingers to dry the corners of my lips. “Wow Carol you are…” I smile delicately at her. “Darling, you give perfection a run for its money.” I could knee and ask for her hand right here, despite knowing that I couldn’t, no matter how much I wanted. A bright smile adorned her lips and my stomach dropped when she looked me up and down, as if she were scrutinizing me. “I thought you looked good in dresses. But with this suit… I could marry you right now.” Oh, please Carol. I do. I walked to the door and offered my hand to her. “Loved the stilettos, by the way.” She completed with a soft giggle and I felt my cheeks burning. I think I believe in angels now.

Almost two hours driving took us to the top of a hill where we could see an imposing building like an old castle, only there was nothing old about it. Chateau de Mercues, usually, was a luxury five-star hotel, but tonight was completely reserved and prepared to accommodate all Spectre’s members. I was amazed with such beauty. We got ourselves inside the building easy and fast since I was wearing my ring and Carol her bracelet. After few instructions, we found our seats at the main hall, which was beautifully decorated. While expensive champagne was served, I let my eyes wander around the room looking for any familiar faces or someone standing out that could be their leader. Following the drinks came dinner, then the meeting started. People talked about numbers, goals… everything that they’d obtain with the contract with UN. A man, whose name is George Steinfeld, introduced himself as a new officer member due to Beauffort’s death. I met him at Greene’s boat when he invited us for lunch. Since he was replacing Jean, he’d be working with immigration and was now responsible for London situation, in his words. Like giving a speech, he declared to the group few details about the attack. Under the table, I sent a message to Natasha with everything he had shared: Piccadilly Circus in three days, around rush hours. This was everything we need, so I made a signal to Carol that we’d leave this place at the first opportunity. We were walking in a very rushed pace towards the entrance, when Steinfeld approached us. “Lara, good evening.” He offered his hand to me. “George, hi. I wish you great success now as head of immigration field.” I politely said while shaking his hand. “Of course, thank you. However, I think I might need a strong hand to help me…” He slightly scratched his temple with his index finger. “And I can’t think about anybody else but you. I think he’d like this. Jean told me he’d make you his second in command.” I was at loss. We need to get out of here, but I can just run away now. “Why. George, this is flattering. I’d love to.” I looked around and saw that Carol had already been pulled into a conversation group and shot me an apologetic smile. “Thought you’d say that. Come, there is a few people that I want you to meet.” He said and I started to follow him since he was leading the way. “Actually, let me show you the wine house, they have an aged bourbon that you’d die for.” I looked at my cellphone and realized that my message to Natasha never left my device, because there was no signal here. Fuck. Something is not right.

------

“Leave us.” A voice startled me. I stopped my wine tasting and turned to see who was talking and my eyes widened seeing Georges Batroc, in the flesh, in one piece, in front of me. No, is not possible, I killed him earlier. He walked slowly in my direction and opened his arms. “What? It looks like you saw a ghost.” His wicked grin appeared in his mouth. “I killed you.” I spat at him, and Steinfeld widened his eyes at me, quickly reading the room so he fled away. “I’m not that easy to kill, sister.” Sister? What. The. fuck? Lara doesn’t have any siblings. “I’m not your sister.” His smile was wide open now. “Sure? I have your blood in me.” That confused me, what does he meant with that? “You’re bluffing.” But he never answered me. Taking advantage of my distraction, he charged at me and my back hit an oak barrel, instantly breaking it, causing the wine to spread on the floor. Before he could land his hands on me, I kicked his legs and tried to get up, but he still picked me by the lapel of my jacket and tossed me around, my back hitting another oak barrel. In this pace we’d be drowning in wine by the end of the night. I took off my jacket and tie and dropped then by my side and ran to him. Like two boxers, we exchanged blow after blow. He tried to control the fight and I was trying to take advantage, but he dodged most of my hits, until I kicked his right leg twice and he leaned a bit more to the side, then my metal arm found his jaw and I mercilessly punched his face till I saw his head tilted backwards. I pushed his tie and used my legs to wrap myself around him and brought us both to the ground, my arms around his neck while my legs stopped his arms from moving.

I had Batroc in a chokehold and was about to snap his neck when a voice startled me “ah kids, this way there will be no more bourbon to enjoy during the next winter”. A man that I never saw before walked inside the partially destroyed wine house. When I saw the party behind him my bones froze and my stomach knotted around itself, because I saw Carol being tugged between two henchmen. Maybe my hold faltered, or I should blame my lack of concentration, but Batroc managed to turn himself in my hold and kick me in the face, having me pinned to the ground with my face touching the floor in milliseconds. I was about to move my arm to get him off me, but the man caught my attention by clearing his throat and pointing at Carol with his head. I saw that someone was holding a gun aiming at Carol’s head. Her eyes found mine and they conveyed how helpless she was, and my body ached seeing so much sorrow in them. But I was still confused, why isn’t she fighting? Why is she tied in this metal wrapping her hands and wrist and, mostly important why is she not using her fists to blow everything already? I was still trying to figure out what was going on when the man’s voice found my ears. “Ah you’re wondering why she is powerless?” The man said and had a wicked grin, maybe Batroc learned with him, because that smile sent shivers down my spine. “We studied the tesseract for years through Zola’s mind, and of course, through you.” He crouched down few steps away from me. “With a little help from some friends, it became possible to inhibit her powers. They are numb inside her, so she’s just like a normal person now.” I tried to move under Batroc’s body, but to no avail. “I don’t believe you.” He stood to his feet. “Of course.” Then, he shows he’s telling the truth by signaling for one of his minions and the brute guy slaps her cheek with the back of his hand and I can see her face turning to the side with the impact, a shade of red painting her perfect skin. “You will lose your hand for that.” I growled at the man. And this wasn’t a threat, no. This was a promise. He smiled at me like he knew that this wasn’t a possibility, and that made me nervous. “Ah, isn’t this beautiful? I missed you, Ghost.” He said to me still wearing that smile and I was confused. Who was this man? “Who are you?” He put a hand in his chest mocking being wounded by my lack of memory. “Oh I should be offended by you not recognizing me, but this only shows that I did my job right by erasing your memory.” I was totally lost. So, he was Hydra? Wasn’t he Spectre? What the fuck is going on here? Were they playing under another name this whole time just to fool us around? “What, are you Hydra?” He clicked his tongue and spoke. “Thought I taught you better. You’re supposed to be smarter, faster… and, especially, to be a Ghost, to play in the shadows. But look at the mess you made…” He picked a chair and set crossing his legs, as if he were waiting for his afternoon tea. This man was unnerving, his eyes only screamed how sociopathic he was. “Please, could you enlighten me, then, what I’ve missed?” He laughed. He genuinely laughed at me and clasp his hands together. “God. You were my favorite. Always sassy with your comebacks” He spoke pointing a finger at me. “While Barnes was always so grumpy. I missed you.” My mouth was hanging open. He moved his hands like dismissing my lost expression and straighten himself at the chair. “I’m Ernst Blofeld, head of Spectre and I created you! I erased your memory for the first time, and I gave you your previous arm! I loved this new one, by the way. Such an art.” He said pointing his hand to my arm, a smile in his face like this was somewhat amusing. “Then, Pierce became too greedy and decided to take you with him, both of you. Therefore, he could run the world that he claimed was his.” I was mildly aware that Batroc had loosened his grip around my body, but I was too entranced by Blofeld’s words to try anything. “That’s precisely the difference between Spectre and Hydra. They wanted audience, they wanted to be revered and recognized as mighty rulers. That’s when we became different things. They wanted the praise more than the power, and that’s exactly why they were crushed.” His wicked grin never left his mouth. “Because I value power more than anything. Knowledge, information, resources… that’s power, that’s Spectre, and we are everywhere.” My mind was running wild with this new revelation. I didn’t even know what to think. But if I squint a bit, it kinda makes sense. This whole time they were playing us, but what for, though? “You knew who I was!” It was a statement, not a question. “Even before you left the compound, dear. You were so cute creating Philipps’s profile. Of course, I had to let Beauffort and Greene in the dark about your intentions. Only today I told Greene that you were my Ghost.” He shrugged his shoulders and the way he spoke the word my made me wary. “I needed you to think that you were really succeeding with your quest.” He finished his sentence with a half-smile in his lips, but his eyes were cold and sent shivers down my spine, once more. Make no mistake here, he can be playful but he’s the devil. Suddenly, Greene’s words made sense: Blofeld was Devil. The one who created me. “Why?” I licked my lips, realizing that my limbs were starting to become numb. “Why let me do all of this only to show up now?” “Well, not everything is about you, dear. I really needed new investors; we lost a lot of good people with this Thanos thing.” He got up from his chair, making me turn my neck even more so I could still make eye contact, and it hurt like hell. “But I let you do this whole ordeal because I needed you back. I wanted you back.” He sent that wicked smile at me again. “You’re my Ghost. Always will be.” He made a movement with his head towards the Batroc and before I could say or try anything, I felt something like a needle to pierce the skin in the back of my neck, then darkness embraced me.

taglist: @yourtaletotell

#carol danvers #carol danvers x original character #carol danvers x fem!reader #cap marvel #captain marvel #captain marvel x female reader #original female character #Ghost #ghost of you #marvel fanfic series #marvel x reader #spectre

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invisibleinorange · 3 years

Text

A Different Ending | 4/?

Chapters: 4/? Fandom: Bridgerton Rating: M Warnings: Only be forewarned that this is an AU from the Adrift saga but Colin actually died in this one, so if he’s mentioned he’s actually gone. Relationships: Benedict Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington, Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington (past feelings), Eloise Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington(besties), Bridgerton Family Dynamics, Daphne Bridgerton/Simon Hastings Characters: Penelope Featherington, Eloise Bridgerton, Benedict Bridgerton, Daphne Bridgerton, Additional Tags: Bridgerton, Penadict (do we have a ship name yet?)

Summary: There were some requests for an alternate/Parallel word to "Bridgerton's Adrift" where Benedict and Penelope actually did get married. So this is the result of that peer pressure.

Benedict Bridgerton was hardly a virgin. He’d been with plenty of women through the years who all understood that nothing was going to come of the dalliance. He hadn’t ever been with someone who actually meant something to him. He couldn’t earnestly say that he was in love with Penelope at this point but with every passing day of their marriage, he certainly grew to admire her more.

That admiration was why it was easy to find affection and intimacy in ways that weren’t overtly sexual in nature. They spent their days taking leisurely strolls and leaning against each other while they enjoyed their personal exploits. She’d read to him from whatever book she’d stolen from the library and he’d spend the afternoons sketching away.

In the evenings, they would go to bed together and while neither saw fit to initiate kissing they had progressed to curling into each other. Sometimes, Penelope would curl into his chest and others his arms around her middle. Regardless of the form it took, they would lay there talking until sleep inevitably took them.

It was something they had both come to look forward to. Penelope had never quite felt like she belonged anywhere as much as she did in Benedict’s company. Sometimes it took her by surprise how right it all felt. She hadn’t really thought she could have a happy ending. She’d always thought it something meant for her sisters.

Her life had been so different mere weeks ago and yet it felt like another lifetime ago. She’d thought her heart might never heal after Colin had died, especially when she’d learned that he’d done so thinking she was sore with him. She was actually happier than she felt she deserved though.

“I should probably write something about our honeymoon,” she told him from a desk in their bedroom where she’d taken to writing her latest article for Lady Whistledown.

Benedict saw propped against the pillows. He was dressed but his shirt was undone slightly. His hair was messy because he’d just completed a bit of nap. He gazed over to her affectionately.

Eloise had not wasted any time ending her letters about what was happening at home though not much happened in the short time since they left. Benedict had been pleasantly surprised that Penelope had already worked out how to ensure publication was not stalled in her absence from London though. It was impressive for a woman to be so savvy.

“Well how do you think our honeymoon should be reported?” her asked from where he was sitting. “Are we the vision of newlywed bliss or misery?”

She laughed softly.

“Bliss,” she told him sincerely before scribbling some words on the paper. She smiled before lifting the page, gaze moving toward his as she decided to read the excerpt. “While most of London’s gaze turns to those who will seeking their match in the coming season, this writer is happy to report that the off-season wedding of one Benedict Bridgerton to Penelope Featherington has proven fruitful. Sources report that they have may forsake London all together – as they are particularly fond of their bed as most newlyweds prove to be.”

“It’s true,” Benedict said with a laugh before petting the space on the bed next to him. “I think you should return to bed.”

“As you wish.”

Penelope laughed putting down her article that she’d have to finish later, ignoring the ink stains on her fingers to go climb back into the bed. She moved right into Benedict’s waiting arms, curling into his warm body. He pressed an affectionate kiss to the top of her head.

“I’ve actually been thinking about our future home,” he told her after a moment, eyes closed as he just enjoyed having her close.

“I thought you’d found a few places that might work,” she told him quietly.

“Yes but none are good enough,” he confessed. “I found some undeveloped land in Kensington. It would take a little longer but have someone build us the perfect house.”

“I’m going to be happy as long as we have food and a bed to sleep in,” she told him honestly. “You know that it doesn’t have to be perfect.”

“I know that but it won’t stop me from providing it. I was thinking you could have your own study for your writing and not just for Whistledown,” he told her, happy to encourage your passion. “Most houses would only have one and while we could convert a room to one, we’ll need the room for when we have company or children.”

It wasn’t the first time they’d casually mentioned a future with children in it but it was the first time since they’d been married. It was kind of strange to think about filling a home with them when their intimacy hadn’t quite evolved to the point where there was even potential to children. It was always reassuring to hear them mentioned though because it meant that they would get there.

“You’ll need space for your art too,” she told him after a moment. “If we’re going to go all in on this, we should both have whatever we need to be happy.”

“You make me happy,” he told her honestly, arms tightening around her. His face buried in her hair, a hand idly moved to play with some of her curls. “Whatever you want you’ll get but… the point is that this might mean living in my former bachelor quarters for a little while.”

“I’ve never actually seem it. Tell me about it,” she told him relaxing against him, encouraging him to tell her about what was going to be their temporary home in the coming weeks. Daphne and the Duke had been generous but they couldn’t stay in the country forever.

“It’s smaller without a proper staff,” he told her after a moment. “It’s in Piccadilly near Albany Hall. It’s certainly less grand than the family home but it is private. I kept two bedrooms just in case one of my brothers ended up needing to stay. It’s quite simple though. There is a pretty nice stairwell to the roof though and I’ve been fond of going up there and taking in the city.”

“I can see why you weren’t in a hurry to end your bachelorhood,” she told him with a small smile. “I mean, I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times I wished there to be an escape from my mother’s home.”

“I’d say it was a pretty fair trade,” he told her earnestly. “I’m glad my mother meddled and brought you home to us. I don’t know that I would have convinced you to accept me if she hadn’t.”

“We’ll never know,” Penelope said with a playful smile.

There were almost always charcoals and paper nearby. Benedict had moments where he didn’t feel inspired but he had taken to sketching in the early mornings before the light became so bright that Penelope would be awake to watch him do it.

It was one thing for her to provide commentary when he was sketching inanimate objects or flowers but when he found himself particularly inspired by the look on her face as she slept or the way the fabric of her nightgown clung to her he was scared of her judgment.

His lips tightened as his eyes moved back and forth between her sleeping form and the paper, knowing that whatever he put to paper wouldn’t equal to how adorable she when she having a pleasant dream.

Normally he had enough focus to know when she was about to wake, so he could stop but his focus had been on the shading of her curls when he felt arms curl around him from behind.

Her face buried into his shoulder for a moment before looking up.

He heard her surprised sigh and he braced himself for her to say something negative but she didn’t.

“You were sketching me?” she asked in surprise. Her eyes lit up in recognition of her own form, in the fact that she actually looked quite beautiful in Benedict’s art even when she didn’t see herself as beautiful.

“I’ve been doing a little bit every day,” he confessed. “I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about it.”

“I’m flattered,” she told him, moving to sit in his lap sideways, moving the charcoals from his hand to the table. “You’ve made me look beautiful.”

Benedict raised an eyebrow at that.

“You are beautiful,” he told her firmly.

Their eyes found each other and he expected her to argue it but instead she leaned in and captured his mouth. It caught him completely and utterly off guard and he knew he froze for a second before melting into it. Her lips were soft and desirable.

One of his hands found the back of her head, fingers curling in the red locks. Between the proximity and her kisses, his body was beginning to respond and warning lights began to go off in his head. It would be all too easy to carrying her across the small distance from his chair to their bed and take her. He could literally feel himself getting more aggressive with her. He had to stop himself.

“Pen,” he murmured softly against her mouth, when he forced himself to pull back. He was her husband and there was absolutely no reason why he couldn’t do whatever he wanted but he’d always prized himself on being gentle, patient. In this moment, he wasn’t sure he could temper himself. He needed to step away but it was difficult with her in his lap, especially when he was cognizant of the fact she was still in her nightgown.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked eyes fluttering open, gaze questioning.

He could have laughed if it wouldn’t have been misconstrued.

“You’re perfect,” he told her, pressing a lingering kiss to the top of her head before gently moving her off him so he could rise to his feel. “—I was just thinking that maybe I should try and find someone to get us some breakfast.”

Penelope frowned slightly from her new standing position.

“You don’t have to go,” she told him.

He wasn’t quite sure how to explain it to her though, especially as his eyes cast over her from the door frame that he’d made a point to get himself too.

“Yes I do,” he said resolutely before disappearing down the hall to regain some level of self-control.

#benedict bridgerton #bridgerton #penelope featherington

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wolfpawn · 4 years

Text

I Hate You, I Love You, Chapter 90

Chapter Summary - Tom and Danielle spend some time in London before the Kong, Skull Island tour starts, but Danielle runs into a slight hiccup.

Previous Chapter

Rating - Mature (some chapters contain smut)

Triggers - references to Tom Hiddleston’s work with the #MeToo Movement. That chapter will be tagged accordingly.

authors Note - I have been working on this for the last 3 years, it is currently 180+ chapters long. This will be updated daily, so long as I can get time to do so, obviously.

tags: @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @jessibelle-nerdy-mum @nonsensicalobsessions @damalseer @hiddlesbitch1 @winterisakiller @fairlightswiftly @salempoe @wolfsmom1

If you wish to be tagged, please let me know.

Tom woke in the morning, tired from the late night the night before, a smile on his face as he felt Danielle move slightly beside him. Turning slightly, he urged her around in her sleep so that she would be against him. He had a few days before the movie tour and though the days would be busy, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, not to mention find out what the American wanted to speak to her about, hoping it was something that would further her own career. As he felt her sigh against him, he smiled. "Morning." "Hey." Danielle stretched a little. "When did I wind up here, I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No, I must confess I may have woken you urging you here to me." He grinned.

"Oh, well, that's okay then. How are you feeling after last night, happy?"

"Well, yes, I never imagined you doing that." Tom kissed her. "I am so glad you did though. I encourage you to do so whenever you see fit."

Danielle laughed slightly. "No, though I am glad you were pleased and did not think I was just tagging along for some weird reason, I meant the movie, it seems well-received."

"It does, and why would I think such a thing as you being weird, other than the fact you are a tad quirky anyway?" "I dunno, I was worried you'd think that I was checking up on you."

Tom pulled her closer to him. "Darling, I know you, you don't think like that."

"I just didn't want you to think that." Tom pulled her to him and kissed her again before manoeuvring himself so that he was above her, kissing her all the time. "Are you still…?" "Yes," Danielle groaned, feeling his boxers against her thigh, a very stiff yet damp part of it making itself very known. "It's nearly done, a day more maybe." she tried to shirk down a little. "If you want…"

Tom groaned as he felt her hand snake down his body, but pulled away. "No, not just me." Danielle frowned. "We haven't done anything since the fight, I want to wait until I can be in you again." he kissed her once more. "Regardless of his thoughts on the situation." Danielle smirked. "He seems a little adamant." "Darling, you cannot refer to him and use the word little in the same sentence," he warned.

"No, that is a slight injustice to him."

Tom was about to joke about her use of the word 'slight' too when Danielle's phone beeped to signify she had a text. She turned to the bedside locker and reached for it, taking a moment to unlock the screen before reading what it said, her face unreadable for a moment before her eyes widened. "Everything alright?"

"Um, that guy, the American, I am to meet him at twelve in The Wolseley, where is that?" "Piccadilly."

"Right…it's fancy, isn't it?" "Yes." "Damn." Danielle groaned. "I need to get up and get sorted so."

Tom rolled to the side to allow her out of bed. "Will I drive you?" For a moment Danielle was going to decline, worrying who would see them as they drove through the streets, but she stopped herself. "If you're not busy."

Tom, having seen her conflict, smiled and sat up in the bed. "I'm never too busy to offer such to you." he kissed her shoulder.

"Well, stop now before we are late then." she smiled, kissing him again.

Tom pulled her back into the bed, kissing her again and again as he did so. "Can't help it." "How are we supposed to get anything done?" "You need to stop being so sexy and alluring," Tom explained.

"Right, so Bridget Jones' nanny knickers it is then." Danielle giggled. Tom could only chuckle in reply.

* Danielle's hands were still shaking as she got out of the taxi in Belsize. She could not recall even getting in the cab as she made her way up the front steps. Tom had gone to get the altered schedule for the following few days of promoting in London, so she had not asked him to collect her again, though he had insisted he would.

The meeting had gone well, the man from America was actually Australian working in Hollywood and had other business to attend to in Europe, but on being given her exam answer by his friend, he insisted on meeting with her on his travels. The system she had accurately critiqued was his and she had found a fault no other had ever even thought of. The discussion only took a short while, but Lucas had spent the following time asking her all about herself and talking to her regarding different matters in general.

Danielle changed out of her clothes and got into her normal attire, the dress she had chosen was one she had brought from her house in Suffolk for if she and Tom were having friends over again, nothing fancy, but classy, but it was not appropriate for the afternoon's work. She got a cup of tea before heading to collect Mac from the kennels, the dog ecstatic to have his owner back. Since he was so hyper, she decided it was only fair to bring him for a walk to burn the energy before bringing him back to the house.

They walked through the park at a swift pace, Danielle paying little attention to her surrounds as again and again, Lucas' words spun round in her head. It wasn't until a man with a camera stood right in front of her, causing Mac to bark did she startle enough to focus again. "That's Tom Hiddleston's dog, isn't it?" Danielle was about to say that Mac was hers, not Tom's, but she stopped herself, her focus going to the man's American accent and the camera clearly primed in his hand, so she walked around him and continued on the pathway saying nothing and not acknowledging him in any way, Mac looking back at the man every few steps. Danielle's focus was on the sound of a camera clicking again and again as she did so, but she did not react to it in any manner, instead willing the path to turn enough for her to call Luke. As soon as she got back to the car, she put Mac in the back seat and got in, her hands reaching for her phone and pressed the dial button once she found Luke's number. "Ms Hughes." Luke's voice was calm and friendly on the other end of the phone. "I am glad to see that you survived another public event." "No one knew I was there with him," Danielle commented. "That's not the reason for my calling, I have been spotted." There was silence for a moment. "Spotted how? Tom is here looking at me, actually quite worriedly now." "I was in the park, walking Mac, and a photographer came up asking was he Tom's dog and took photos." "What did you say back?" "Nothing, I ignored him and kept walking." "The best action plan really," Luke noted, typing on his computer. "Yes, you're here online."

"What?" Tom's voice was in the background. "What is it?" Danielle asked fearfully.

"Hey!" Luke sounded peeved on the other end of the phone.

"Darling." "Tom!" Danielle smiled in relief.

"You're alright love, he is saying that Mac is mine, but he is referencing you as my hot petite dog walker."

"Could be worse, wait, did he actually say hot, because he was creepy?" "It says 'petite and attractive'," Tom informed her.

"Could be worse," Danielle acknowledged.

"Are you okay?" "Yeah, I mean, it was weird, and he was in my face, and it was creepy the way he was staring at me as though I was going to just openly admit to everything if he did it long enough, but overall, fine." She answered honestly. "Good, I'm sorry you had to deal with that when all you wanted was a walk, Elle." "It's fine, besides, after the tour…"

"Yes, Luke and I were talking about that earlier, we'll make sure it is nice and smooth, well we'll try for that on our side, obviously other people might have other ideas, you know." "Yeah, but we'll be sorted." "You never text to tell me how today went." "I'll talk to you about that later." "Good or bad?" Tom asked. "I'll talk to you about it later."

"Elle?" Tom pleaded. "Good, I think."

Tom chuckled at her tone. "What does that mean?" "I am being offered some amazing work." "But…?" Tom asked worriedly.

"I have to talk to you about it." "How long will you be gone?" "Only a week, maybe two every so often, about once every two months or so." "So what is the issue?" Tom asked curiously.

"I am not sure." "Elle, what is wrong darling?" Tom noted a small shake in her voice.

"I didn’t think…"

"You are incredible and so amazing, how could you think you would not succeed at this?"

"It fast tracks things."

"How do you mean?" "I thought it could take years, like five years minimum, this…this could make it two at a stretch since I'll be working too." Tom felt his chest swell with pride on her behalf. "Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" "I have no idea, I mean, I cannot take it in. I…wait, I said we'd talk about this later." "Well, it appears we are talking about it now." Tom chuckled.

"Isn't this Luke's phone?" Tom looked to Luke who was looking at him in utter bemusement. "Yes, it is. Which reminds me, why did you ring him and not me?" "Because he said to ring if I was spotted, and I was. I was going to text you when I got off the phone."

"I am still hurt." Tom feigned. "No you are not, you are relieved she took it so well and thought to contact me, now give me back my phone and finish talking to one another face to face, later, after I get this sorted." Luke's voice was echoing in the background before it came close again, signifying he had commandeered his phone back from Tom. "Danielle, thank you for reacting as you did and for having the sense to contact me. They are running with the dog walker angle for now, but obviously, that will change in the near future when the announcement is made; though I should tell you, you are dressed like someone would do on the first of March, which of course they will criticise, these are going to be some of the first photos used of you, so be ready for that, as the only other ones they have are from that dinner in October with Diana and if they are very observant, they may figure out it was you in the shot with Emma and Tom at the New Years party and in the background of some Skull Island shot." "Okay."

"I know they are not ideal, most people want to look as though they expected it." "No, they are going to be fine I think, besides, I am not overly bothered. They will only use them as a starter. The more boring I look, the faster they will look elsewhere for their stories, I am sure a Kardashian will do something to get their focus again soon." "Exactly." She could hear the smile on Luke's face. "Keep your nose clean and that is exactly what will happen."

"I will be home in an hour or so Elle," Tom shouted from the background. "I'll bring dinner." "No, you need to keep trim for the suits for the tour." "One night won't hurt, we are celebrating," Tom argued. "We'll have some fun." "I am sitting right here and I do not need to hear any of this." Luke groaned, putting his head in his hands.

"Fine to the food," Danielle put her key in the ignition of the car. "I actually have to rush now, I forgot I had to go somewhere." "Elle?" Tom's voice was worried again.

"I'll text it to you." She promised. "Please do." Luke pleaded before hanging up after saying goodbye to Danielle. "I am glad things are going well for you Tom I really am but short of engagements, marriages and pregnancy announcements that I genuinely hope I will get to do for you in the future, please don’t make me a first-hand witness to your plans for the evening that involves you and your girlfriend doing…" Luke made general incoherent hand gestures. "Please."

"You're a prude Luke." Tom laughed, grabbing the paperwork Luke had for him before heading for the door. "And you're an exhibitionist." Luke retorted. "What's this of Danielle's day?" "She met with some big-wig from the US regarding a course she did recently, she flew through it and also found some major flaw so he was anxious to meet her about it, it was today." "It sounds like it went well." Luke smiled before his face fell slightly. "If not challenging." "She needs to move around for work, as do I, we just need to work with that. Same with several of my friends in the industry, we can work at it as they do." "Good plan." Luke agreed. "Now, please leave so I can try and forget what I was forced to endure a moment ago." "Lighten up Luke, you will age yourself. You stress so much." "I did not need to hear that." "I know, but be honest, me making plans with my girlfriend is better than me having a sex tape and talking to some call girl, right?" "Definitely." "So, see it as a glass half full so," Tom beamed going out the door.

#I Hate You I Love You #chapter 90 #tom hiddleston #Tom hiddleston fic #wolfpawn

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imjustthemechanic · 5 years

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Glockenspiel

Part 1/? - Transmission Part 2/? - The Sandhill Hotel Part 3/? - Piccadilly Part 4/? - The Future Part 5/? - Too Late Part 6/? - The Mystery of the Missing Time Machine Part 7/? - Underway Part 8/? - The Sierra Bunker Part 9/? - Cross-Country Part 10/? - The Pit Part 11/? - Calls for Help Part 12/? - Campout and Reunion Part 13/? - Apocalypse Bunker Part 14/? - Terrible Truths Part 15/? - Library Crystals

Peggy’s first reaction was to roll her eyes – of course Howard assumed a ‘civilian contractor’ was himself. He did have a point, though. Stark Industries was the company the SSR went to, again and again, because Howard built things nobody else could… and because Peggy trusted him. The odds, on reflection, were pretty good.

“HYDRA obviously got most of the crystals back,” she observed, “because there were boxes and boxes of them in that bunker.” Not to mention the ones the supposed electricians had been using in London. “I suppose we didn’t let you keep all of them. Look up library crystals.”

Howard did, and came up with more corrupted documents. Somebody had wanted to remove every trace of the machine and its workings, and had very nearly succeeded. They had to hope Howard’s hunch was correct, because it was all they currently had.

They headed back to the hotel, since Toulouse would have to return there to pick up her luggage, but rather than waiting out front they sat down on a bench near the back hallway, where the entrance to the bunker was. Toulouse would hopefully look for them there. While they waited, Howard put some more thought into possibly locations for the library crystals.

“To extract the information from them I would have needed my own matter duplicator, or some other device,” he said. “If I didn’t want anybody finding that, I would have destroyed it, but if the crystals themselves still belonged to the SSR I would have hung on to them. You guys might have wanted them back someday.”

“Very wise,” said Peggy. “Where would you have put them?”

“It would have depended on where I was living at the time,” Howard said. “If I were still in Malibu, I bought some land on the point that I was thinking of building a house on, but the engineers told me there were caves in the rock and it wasn’t stable. I could have hidden something there. Or if I were in New York, I’d probably put it in the Mansion vault.”

“Because we both know that’s impregnable,” Peggy remarked.

“I’ve been fortifying it,” Howard informed her.

Well over three hours passed between them parting ways with Toulouse and someone coming to find them again, and when someone did, it was Kevin. “Sorry we took so long,” he said, “we tried to text you, but then we remembered you lost your phones. We figured you’d be in the hotel somewhere but we didn’t want to draw attention to you while Cass was still here, and Toulouse doesn’t want to come back in anyway.”

“That’s quite all right,” said Peggy. “How did it go?” She hoped the meal hadn’t ended in disaster.

Kevin grimaced and held up a hand, tilting it back and forth. Peggy had not seen the gesture before but it suggested a foundering ship – which already told her what the answer might be.

“Oh, dear,” she said.

They followed Kevin back out to the front of the hotel, where they found Toulouse sitting in the front seat of a car, in tears. Kevin got in the driver’s seat and Peggy and Howard climbed in the back, and then an awkward few moments went by in which the only sounds were the air conditioning and Toulouse’s sniffles.

“So what happened?” asked Peggy. How had the situation just gotten worse?

“Nothing,” whimpered Toulouse.

“It actually wasn’t that bad,” said Kevin. “Mostly I just talked about my work until Cass nearly fell asleep. He’s probably gone to tell his father Toulouse is marrying the most boring pond scum scientist in the world.”

“Then why…” Peggy began.

“I’m stressed!” Toulouse wailed. “The whole time I didn’t know whether Cass knows about the bunker and the stuff that’s in it, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it! Does he know it’s there? Did he put it there? He likes Klimt for some reason and he’s got like four Klimts down there so maybe he did! But I had to keep smiling and pretending I was interested in what Kevin was saying… you’re not boring,” she added, to Kevin, wiping her nose. “I was distracted.”

“It’s okay,” Kevin sighed. “Pond scum is an acquired taste.”

“So now it’s all done I’m just venting,” Toulouse added, and hiccupped. “You can only bottle things up for so long, you know? Then they have to come out, and this is how mine come out. Oh, god, I need a shower and I need to fix my makeup, but where are we gonna stay? I can’t go back in there! I just can’t!”

Kevin shrugged. “Last time I was in California I was giving a SETI Talks lecture on extremophiles,” he said. “They put me up at a Super 8 in Menlo Park.”

They ended up finding a Holiday Inn in a questionable-looking neighbourhood further inland. Toulouse once again expressed a hope that nobody would recognize her, and it seemed that nobody did. Her smeared makeup probably helped. Once they had a room, Toulouse took a very long shower and Kevin sat down with his computer to answer some email.

“People are gonna be wondering where I am,” he said.

“What are you telling them?” Peggy was curious. How would anyone explain this mess?

“Well, I’m definitely not going to say I’m hanging out with time traveling clones looking for a Nazi superweapon,” Kevin said. “I think I’ll say I’m dealing with a family crisis. That’s technically true, it’s just not my family.”

A few minutes later, the shower finally shut off. Another quarter of an hour passed, and Toulouse emerged, wearing a robe and with a towel wound around her hair, and flopped face-first on the bed. She looked utterly miserable.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice muffled by the comforter.

“It’s all right,” Peggy assured her. “Everybody has to break down sometimes.” Even Peggy herself, although she preferred not to let anyone see.

“It’s not that,” said Toulouse. She turned her head so she could speak more clearly. “When I went with him, I thought I was going to subtly interrogate him, like people do in movies, or like you hear about Black Widow. I would bring up the apocalypse bunker by telling him the maid asked me…” Tears spilled over in her eyes again, and she pulled the towel off her hair to bury her face in it instead. “And I thought he would tell me because he doesn’t know I’m with you guys, or at least he’d let something slip, you know? But I couldn’t do it. I was too scared. I Just let Kevin do all the talking.”

“To be fair,” Kevin said, “get me started about my work and I talk a lot.”

“So now I went through all that and I didn’t learn anything,” Toulouse sniffled. “I wanted to help but I just couldn’t.”

Peggy patted her on the back. “Honestly, I’m glad you didn’t,” she said. “It might have been very dangerous to let him suspect how much you know. But Toulouse, we need other kinds of help now.” She was starting to hate using this young woman for her money, but it wasn’t as if they had a lot of choice.

Toulouse looked up again. “What kind?” she asked.

“Well, while you were at lunch Howard and I did some digging of our own,” Peggy said. She explained that they’d gone back to the Best Buy, and what they’d learned from their searches there. As Toulouse listened, her eyes dried and she sat up and began drying her hair. Peggy half expected to see rainbows appearing on the white towel, but evidently Toulouse’s hair was colourfast.

“Good for you,” Toulouse said, managing a tear-streaked smile. “You’re getting the hang of the twenty-first century already. I’m proud.”

“We’re quick learners,” Howard assured her.

“So the missing library crystals may be in Malibu or in New York,” said Peggy. “We need to check both places. This time I think we’ll start with the closer one.” If they’d done that in the Sandhill Playa Del Rey, it would have saved them a lot of trouble.

“Oh, you don’t need to go to Malibu,” said Toulouse. She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her robe.

“Yeah,” Kevin agreed. “Malibu’s out. Your son built a house there, and a terrorist knocked it down.”

“What?” Howard’s eyes widened. “Is he okay? What happened?”

“Long story. Christmas 2013,” said Kevin. “But if you hid anything there, I’m sure he would have found it.”

“Definitely,” Toulouse agreed. She got up and went to the desk, where Kevin was sitting with his computer. “What’s the address of this mansion in New York?” she asked, reaching over his shoulder to access Google maps.

“1E 70th Street, Manhattan,” said Howard and Peggy in unison.

“That sounds familiar,” said Kevin with a frown. He typed it in, and a result came up.

“Oh!” Toulouse exclaimed. “I’ve been there! That’s the Stark Gallery – it’s an art museum!”

“It is?” asked Howard, surprised all over again.

“Absolutely,” Toulouse nodded.

Kevin selected a link. “Yeah, says it was opened sometime in the nineties, in memory of Howard and Maria Stark.”

That didn’t sound like good news to Peggy. “Then it can’t be there, either,” Peggy said. Surely somebody would have found a thing hidden in a museum.

“It still might,” Howard told her. “One of the things I did when I repaired the vault was make sure it was better hidden. I made it smaller, and I had plans to conceal the entrance. If I managed to finish that, they might not have found it, even if they renovated the entire interior.”

“They’ve got a lot of rooms that still have the original furnishings,” Toulouse said. “They might not even have done that.”

“You see?” Howard asked. “They’ve got to be there!”

“It’ll be worth checking,” Peggy decided. “Toulouse, you don’t have to keep helping us…”

“Yes, I do!” Toulouse had already moved Kevin’s chair aside, and was looking up plane tickets.

“If your family really is involved in this, then it could be particularly dangerous for you,” said Peggy. It was clear that Toulouse had already had a narrow escape during lunch with her brother, and by now HYDRA would certainly have noticed that she kept turning up where Howard and Peggy were.

“If my family is involved in this, then it’s my responsibility to do something about it,” Toulouse insisted. “Whatever they’re up to, I need to know about it! I should have known about it already!”

“They deliberately hid it from you,” Peggy reminded her. “It’s not your fault.”

“Well, I’ve been ignoring them because they ignore me,” said Toulouse. “Maybe if I hadn’t been out shopping and getting degrees and stuff, I would have noticed something was up earlier!”

Peggy really didn’t know what to say to that. Such things were always obvious in retrospect – she sometimes still lay awake at night wondering how she’d ever trusted Dr. Ivchenko. “I understand you feeling that way,” she said cautiously, “and we do appreciate your help. But Toulouse, remember what I told you. If we say something is too dangerous for you, there can’t be any argument. You need to sit it out. Promise me that.”

Toulouse bit her lip, hesitating.

“Toulouse,” said Peggy firmly. “Promise me.”

“I promise,” said Toulouse, but this time Peggy wasn’t sure she could believe her.

“How about you, Doc?” Howard asked Kevin.

“I work in Yellowstone,” said Kevin. “If there are people who are planning to blow it up underneath me, then I shouldn’t stay there. I’d rather be with the people who are trying to do something about the people trying to blow up Yellowstone. I know the geology of the region, too,” he added. “So I might even be useful.”

“Looks like we’ve got help whether we like it or not,” said Howard with a smile.

In the morning they went looking for another thrift shop, because Peggy and Howard really needed more than two outfits each. Peggy found herself a blue floral blouse with elbow-length sleeves and a high enough collar not to show any cleavage, which was a relief – full-length sleeves were very uncomfortable in the California heat. Howard, meanwhile, came out in a black shirt with a pattern of pink flamingos on it.

“If we were going back, I’d tell you to wear that just to see what Mr. Jarvis thinks,” Peggy told him.

“He’d probably throw something at me,” said Howard cheerfully.

Despite this banter, Howard was quiet on the drive to the airport, and Peggy was too. She was sure she knew what he was thinking – her joke had reminded him, as it had her, that they were unlikely to ever see Edwin Jarvis again. If he hadn’t died years ago, he would be very old now, and perhaps have lost his memory the way Peggy herself had. So would Anna, and Angie, and Jason, and Daniel, and everybody else they’d ever met. Even if they did see any of these people again, what could they possibly say to each other? It wasn’t even as if anyone had thought Peggy and Howard were dead and would be overjoyed to find they were wrong. In the minds of their friends, they’d been there all along, and now these imposters arrived out of nowhere.

“Peg?” Howard asked softly.

“Yes?”

“I don’t mean to sound like a schmuck,” he said. “But… I’m glad you stepped onto that platform with me.”

There were several things Peggy could have said in response to that. She could have told him he’d better be, because if she hadn’t he would almost certainly have been shot. She could have remarked that she wished he hadn’t felt a need to play with the bloody thing. She could have commented on his use of the word schmuck, which was not something he would normally have said unless he were rolling drunk.

But instead she just squeezed his hand. “It’s nice to be appreciated,” she said.

#fanfic #agent carter #peggy carter #howard stark

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