Girl Erased

The First War 10

I open my eyes, feeling weird and out of place, and when I look at the clock I see how early it is.

"5:30?" I mumble to myself, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. I look around for about a minute, somehow still processing the past day's events. I finally stand up and make the bed. When I finish, I take a step back and admire how boring it all looks. It looks exactly the same as it did when I climbed into it last night and it took no work at all. Not to mention the several shades and hues of gray on every single piece of the room. I turn to look at my culmination of stuff sitting on the floor next to the nightstand. My bag is loosely hugging the baseboard and everything - except for the drugs - is propped up on top.

I take it all apart and set it in nice, neat stacks around my bookbag and start to put it all away. My dad's jacket is first, folded small enough to hold everything up. The gun goes on top of that, Then I carefully hide the drugs under my mask and I wedge my wallet toward the back of this stack. Now, what? I lean back against the bed and look up at the clock.

"Great, that took 17 minutes," I mumble. I get up and start to pace the room, feeling restless and a little anxious if I might add.

"Fuck this," I say, grabbing the bag and heading to the door right by my room. I use my powers to keep the alarm from being triggered by the door and I make my way to the city.

I'm not an idiot, I know they won't lose me again, so I just leave to take care of some things and enjoy one more day of freedom. First stop, apartment number 107. I take my key out of my wallet and quietly open the door, latching it behind me. I quickly duck, feeling someone swing something by my head. I stand up and punch him realizing too late, it's Mickey.

"Shit! I'm sorry, reflexes."

"What the hell are you doing? What the hell-" He starts to ask, walking away from the door.

"I wanted to return my key and let you know to start the whole roommate hunt."

"Bro-" He says with a sigh, "You live in my house for a month, all secretive, and one day, you're untying me from a chair and throwing things with your mind." He says, pointing out how odd that all is.

"In my defense, I wasn't supposed to get caught."

He closes his eyes and puts his face in his palm, I kind of understand why this is all so overwhelming for him. I really did keep him in the dark.

"I guess I understand why you wouldn't get a job." He finally says.

"Speaking of," I say, pulling out 3.5 grams and setting it on the counter, "I'll sell it to you at a discount." I offer

"Oh, what the fuck." He says, flipping through his wallet and handing me 3 twenties

"So, where are you living now?" He asks, taking my key off the counter and throwing it into a drawer.

"The Avengers building," I mumble into my hand

"What?"

"The Avengers building," I say more clearly, "Upstate."

"Damn," He says, starting to laugh

"What?"

"What even are you?" He says, starting to mock my hand movements. I use my powers to make him smack himself in the face.

"Point taken."

"Hide that. Because I'm not doing it for you." I say, zipping up my bag and walking to the door. I look at him and the apartment one last time and close the door, heading to the stairs.

I walk around the block for about 20 minutes until I see a sandwich shop on the corner just a few blocks from my, now, old apartment. I walk in, order a number five and continue to walk the streets until I feel like I've walked all of Queens. I head back to the compound and set my bag in the closet, noticing a part of the room not covered in gray. I look at the clock seeing that it's only 2:30 and I make my way to the backyard and just lay down in the grass, staring at the sky.

"How did you lose her again?" Peter yells when they finally realize what he said. Steve calls Tony into the room and he starts furiously typing on his computer. Everyone surrounds the screen trying to figure out what he's doing.

"What are you looking for?" Peter asks, not sure how his computer will find the girl Tony couldn't pin down for two years

"I put a tracker in the collar of the shirt I gave her, so if she put it on..." He says, clicking a key and furrowing his eyebrows at the screen.

"You're tracking her?!" he asks, still trying to read Tony's expression

"Yeah, but I must have programmed it wrong because it says she's just in the backyard."

"I'll go check, you guys figure out what to tell Fury when he gets here," Steve says, walking to the door

"Wait- Fury? Why is Fury coming?" Peter asks, suddenly really nervous

"He knows about Ruby," Tony says sighing, and looking up from the screen

After a couple of minutes of watching the clouds, I hear the door open and see Steve running towards me.

"What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted fresh air. And I got bored when I came back."

"From where? Why didn't you stay?"

"I knew you guys would find me again. No point trying to escape fate, am I right?" I say, sitting up and looking at him

"Are you gonna come back inside?"

"Do you need me to?"

"It would be nice of you to join us at some point," he says, taking my extended hand and lifting me off the ground.

We walk back into the building in silence, his mind consumed with guilt and anxiety.

"Why are you so nervous? Who's Fury?"

"How did- oh. Do you mind not doing that?"

"Alright," I say, getting ready to ask about the person he was worried about when we walk into the conference room and I look him in the eyes. Well, more like, eye.

"Now, who the hell are you?" He asks, moving around the table

"Why do you need to know?"

"You sure as hell know why I need to know. They tell me you're in my head."

"Ok, Nicholas Joseph Fury of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, I do know why you want to know who I am but I'm not really interested in telling you."

"And how can I convince you?"

"You can't." I say, nonchalantly, "You guys have nothing I want."

"That's a very good point." Nick says, putting confused looks on the team's faces, "But you're wrong." He rebuts

"And how's that?"

"If you leave now, you won't see your dad again."

I choke on my next words, now understanding how pointless they are. That's not what I expected from him at all.

"My dad is dead," I mumble, trying to fight the urge to throw something at him.

"Well, we have tabs on a James Lucas West, with a deceased daughter and wife-"

"No. You don't." I say, standing up a little taller, "That's not my dad."

"We have reason to believe it is, Ms.West" Fury says

"No. That's not my dad. That's James Lucas West. My dad died three years ago." I say to a silent room. No one speaks, no one even breathes for a couple of seconds. Everyone just glances around the room at all the faces, not sure what to do or say when finally I just give up and walk back to my room.