Inhuman Love

Part 7

I hear a faint knocking on the door as I come out of sleep. My body feels like jelly, I can't even form out a simple 'Come in.' I didn't think last night would have such an effect on me. But what do I know, I've never had to heal an entire arm in one night. Gosh, Daisy would be mad if she knew.

The knocking grows a little louder and a familiar voice calls me by my name. "Leah? It's me, Jemma. I came to check on you hand. Are you awake?"

Crap. I really don't feel like getting up right now. The bed is so fucking comfortable. I slowly open my eyes. The clock beside me shows 2:55pm. Really? Shit. I really must've been tired, I don't usually sleep past 10. I slightly move my fingers and toes, trying to pump some blood into them. At least my hand seems to be okay. But don't know if that's good enough for Jemma.

Talking about, she was still trying to get my attention, growing concerned. Hell, I would be too in her situation. However, I wouldn't have the patience to keep knocking, my ass would burst into the room in the first 30 seconds.

I yawn wildly and finally push myself up from the sheets. "I'm here, Jemma. Sorry, took a nap. Come in," I tell her while trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes. No way I'm going to admit that I slept that long. Embarrassing.

Jemma steps in, holding a tablet and bunch of other stuff. "Interesting. Were you also napping when I came to check on you at 9? And 10? And 12?" she asks with amusement. Busted. "Not my fault you always come when I'm napping. I was up at 9:30," I try to defend myself, small smirk playing on my lips.

"Yeah, and I totally believe you," she says with a big nod. "I'm here to check on your hand. Daisy thinks it's not ready for training, but we'll see, right? My sources are certainly more accurate than hers."

Alright, the moment of truth. It better have worked, because I didn't black out for nothing, did I?

She takes a bunch of tests, some of them feeling uncomfortable, but none hurt. I don't understand practically anything she does. Finally, she asks me to move my fingers one by one and pick up some weird heavy book.

"Alright. Well, I must tell you, that's impressive. Your hand is back to okay. Even better. It seems to have gotten stronger. I don't know how these powers of you work, but I took some tests to take a look at them in the lab. I don't have anything other to tell you than you're ready for training if you want," she gives me a quick summary. Fuck yes.

I'm don't even try to hide my excitement. I wonder how they're going to train me. Can I kick some ass?

"Okay, so like right now?" I eagerly ask.

"I have to go talk to director Coulson. He has to arrange some things. But technically you could already start today, yeah."

"Can't wait."

* * *

What is taking them so long? I get it, it doesn't just work with a snap, but I'm tired of waiting. It's been around an hour. I stand up from the bed. My limbs need some movement. I walk back and forth for a bit and do a couple of stretches. Suddenly the door opens and a woman steps in. I fix my posture, trying to leave a good first impression.

The woman looks at me, no emotion in her eyes. "You're Leah Miller? Come with me." Jeez. That woman doesn't sound very fun.

I follow her through the hallways into a bigger room. There's a bunch of training equipment, vending machine with water and snacks plus around 10 people. They were all standing loosely until we walked in. The woman leads us past them to a changing room. "Here, put these on, quickly," she gestures towards a neatly laid pile of clothes and sneakers. "Then, come out."

I hurriedly change into the clothes, not wanting to take too long. After I'm done I glance at myself in the mirror. I'm wearing a gray t-shirt, black joggers and socks. I pull on the sneakers and put my hair in a tight ponytail.

Right when I come out of the changing room the woman gives an order to stand in a line. Am I supposed to, too? Where do I go? I panic. No way in hell I want this woman to think badly of me.

I hurry to the end of the line, straightening my body. The woman quirks a brow at me but says nothing. Instead, she starts talking to all of us. "Welcome. I am agent Hall. During your training, I will be your mentor. You all must follow the rules. I am not going to repeat them for you. You can find them there," she gestures towards a long list on the wall. "We will meet every day here at 4pm. You better not be late."

I am starting to like this woman less and less with every word she says. Don't get me wrong, love the discipline. But the way she spits out her words makes me want to run far away and never look back. But what do I know.

After that agent Hall explains a few more things that I don't quite understand. Something about ranking and placement. I guess I'll ask someone about it later.

"Okay then, let's start," agent Hall says. She tells us all to back up a little. Then the door opens and, to my surprise, Daisy comes in. She's wearing a black tank top and dark gray leggings. Oh god. I try not to stare, focusing on her face instead. She sends a quick look my way and walks up to Hall.

"This is agent Johnson. She will help me demonstrate some moves and techniques," she introduces Daisy.

They give us a little fight scene, explaining different moves and positions. I try to pay attention to the moves to remember them for later, but Daisy makes it hard. I can't take my eyes off of her.

After a while they stop and agent Hall turns to us. "I hope you paid attention. Now each of you, find a spot at the punchbags and try to use some of these moves." Of course. Now we have to use the moves. That I wasn't able to pay attention to.

I find a free spot and ball my hands into fists. Step one: done. Now what? I glance at the girl beside me. She's fit, around 25 I'd say, with dark brown hair in a braid. She moves like a snake, hitting the bag pretty strongly with each time. I try to copy her the best I can.

It all reminds me of the fight at Alicia's place. Back then I wasn't really thinking, just throwing around punches where I could. But this, controlled punches, feel different.

Punching the bag the best I can I notice Daisy coming up behind me. I make my best effort to not think about it, focusing on my movements.

Suddenly, a hand presses on my lower abdomen, and my breath hitches, as I try to calm my body down. But it's damn impossible. And I thought this was bad. But as she leans closer to me lips only a couple of inches away from my ear I almost melt. "Try to keep tension in here," she tells me, but I barely hear her. My body is like a liquid, filled with thousands of butterflies, who all collectively decided it's time to start storming around. I lose all focus on the room around me, only noticing Daisy.

She stays there for a second longer before letting go. And just like that she just walks away to god knows where. I close my eyes and breathe in deeply. I have a hard time keeping my balance, the ground keeps shifting. I grab the punchbag, afraid of falling. The butterflies in my stomach are still flying around like crazy, not even considering to calm down. I swallow hard and focus on why I'm doing this. For Inhumans. I can do this for them.

I take a couple more deep breaths, finally coming back to senses.

Holy shit.