"you gotta leave before you get left
( 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 )
❛ I may be a mess
but I'm the mess
that you wanted ❜
in which a criminal for SHIELD has a big reputation and a chaotic life, but still makes time to save stev...
IF A MAN TALKS SHIT THEN I OWE HIM NOTHING ( don't regret it one bit 'cause he had it coming )
══════════════════
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ONE YEAR LATER
TESSA KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG THE MINUTE SHE OPENED HER MAILBOX.the air was cold on that march evening, her apartment building was, cold the heat was broken in the lobby. She sifted through the mail, dividing it for her and Lottie as she walked up the steps.
She opened the door to be greeted by a very excited Duke, who wagged his tail, expecting pets with his slobbery mess of a face. Tessa patted his head as the dog followed her into her bedroom with her mail after leaving Lottie's on the counter along with her keys.
She sat down on her bed, Duke jumping up and laying down next to her. It was the usual junk mail. Nothing extremely interesting until she got to the small cardboard box covered in tape. She grabbed the scissors from her bedside table drawer, opening the cardboard.
Inside, was a deck of worn cards. They weren't shiny and new, they felt lold and were ripping at the edges. Tessa's breath trembled as she flicked through them. She shuddered as she got to the final card: the Ace of Spades.
She threw the deck and its box across the room, hurrying to her desk and opening her computer as Duke raised his head to look at her.
She dug through files, internet sweeps, finding traces of them everywhere. She stayed up for a long time, searching.
She couldn't call anyone, tell anyone, she just had to do this on her own.
Thus began the race. The House of Cards was back. Tessa, no matter what costs had to stop it. there was one condition. Her sisters stayed safe. They couldn't know about it. It wasn't something she would bring anyone else into, and she was going to stand by that.
She came out of her room when Lotte came home.
"I need to move out," She said. "I have to go back to Brooklyn. I'm so sorry. I can help you find another roommate, but I need to leave in the next two weeks."
Lottie nodded. "why?"
So Tessa explained, the best she could. Lottie of course understood and helped Tessa pack, ready to flee town any moment.
Duke didn't mind the plane, he slept at her feet the whole time, his breathing keeping a slightly panicked Tessa calm. He was a pretty dog that Tessa got from the shelter. Vets say he's about three, but Duke was the calmest dog Tessa knew. He had golden eyes, amber spots against black fur that shone in the sun. He was a big dog too — he looked like a Newfoundland and a Husky mix and he sure did like to talk like a Husky.
Her new place was a nice apartment in Brooklyn, that she may or may not have gotten by bribing Maria Hill. I had one bedroom separate from the rest of the place, a little bathroom, a fairly spacious kitchen.
She got adjusted and ready to face what the world threw at her.
She didn't dare call Croia or Delilah. This was her thing, she wouldn't bring them into this. They didn't know she moved to Brooklyn, they didn't know that she had a dog, they just thought she was still living with Lottie in London.
She couldn't lose them. Never again.
══════════════════
ON MAY 6, TESSA FLICKED ON THE TV. The news station was there automatically, and she sat down, intrigued.
Apparently, the city of Sokovia was flying. She became less intrigued once the gravity of the situation sunk in.
Delilah lived in Sokovia. Steve was a part of the team fighting. Tessa couldn't figure out what was going on up there, but she knew it wasn't good.
She gripped her phone, dialing Croia's number quickly. She picked up on the first ring.
"Tessa?" She asked, her voice shattered.
"You seeing this?" Tessa asked.
"uh-huh," Croia said, her voice shaking. "I think the entire world is seeing this"
"and Delilah?" Tessa said. "Do you think she's—"
"I- I can't do that right now," Croia whispered. "I gotta go." She hung up, forcing Tessa to comprehend this on her own. She couldn't think, she didn't know how to react. She could possibly lose two people she got attached to.
The truth was, she thought about Steve. She thought about him all the time. She contemplated doing a dive and finding him, maybe getting a chance to explain.
She never could bring herself to.
Her apartment was covered in maps of the east coast and a few in Europe, pins over the ones she found. Red marked the ones that were housing girls, green were facilities that didn't have any girls, and the ones marked in yellow were the ones that were bought out by the house.
She had pen all over her hands, notebooks were strewn across the place. She didn't have a desk, so she used her coffee table and her couch, hooking her computer up to the TV.
Duke was no help, he would sit in the middle of the living room holding one of his "babies" and wagging his tail waiting for Tessa to play with him. They were furry and had the crinkly stuff inside so Tess sometimes had to take it away so she could work and he would just squeak his tennis ball sadly until she took a break.
She didn't think about him then.
But now, watching the news, she wasn't thinking about the pins on her walls or the next thing, she was thinking about him, hoping that he was okay, thinking g about a guy she hadn't seen in over a year.
More than anything, she felt guilty, because she was thinking about him. She had no right to. She left him without giving him a chance to put a word in edgewise and this was a year ago. He wasn't thinking about her anymore so why should she think of him?
It was messy. She wished for so many things.
══════════════════
JUNEBUG SPEAKS!
duke is my favorite tbh he and steve are gonna be brotp and he's a Newfie husky s he's really really cute istg
