What Did I Get Myself Into (Avengers story)

Before the storm

May 14, 2008

It hadn't taken her long to realize that the newcomer to the bar was watching her.

Emma  Carter Morgan was no stranger to the attention she was sometimes  subjected to. All the bartenders at this little pub were used to it;  they were warned about it from day one. The girls at the bar, however,  were forced to deal with it more.

The other staff members would  go after any of the customers that went too far. Peter, the owner of the  bar, often loudly proclaimed for all the customers to hear that he had  his shotgun in the back and wasn't afraid to use it. Emma herself kept  her old baseball metal bat near her during her shifts, just in case.

Emma  had assumed it had been that at first; he thought she was cute and was  trying to figure out a way to ask her out. But it had never come.

He  came every night that she had been there. He'd occasionally wear  sunglasses or a hat, or bulky sweatshirts, but she could always tell it  was the same guy. He never sat in her section, but it didn't take her  long to realize he had been watching her. From what she could see he had brown hair and tan skin. He was good looking though.  That was for sure.

She didn't feel threatened by his staring, for  some strange reason, and so she did not mention it to any of her  coworkers. Several had noticed, but Emma didn't dwell on it.

She had her baseball bat, after all.

It was only when three weeks had past of this guy watching her that Emma finally said something.

"He  just orders water," her coworker Anna told her as Emma grabbed her  purse and bat at the end of her 3 am shift. The man had left a while  ago, and Emma was convinced that he had memorized her schedule. It  didn't seem too farfetched.

Emma nodded as she slid her purse  over her shoulder. Her grip on the bat tightened. "Was he here any night  I wasn't?" she asked, curious. She hoped that he was. She was busy  enough; she had no time to deal with a cute stalker.

Of course,  Emma had never been the luckiest of girls. She failed in biting back an  irritated groan as Ann shook her head in answer to her question.

Wonderful.  She had a stalker. A very cute stalker. She already had enough to worry  about, with packing her apartment up in preparation for her move to New  York City to start graduate school at NYU, her puppy Dakota, refusal to  be potty trained, and trying to finish her study on PTSD in war  veterans for publishing at the urging of her adviser at Culver.

"Is  he a friend of yours?" Anna asked, bringing her back to reality a few  moments later. She smirked and added, with a crazed look Emma recognized  immediately, "He's kinda cute."

Emma rolled her eyes, wondering  how Anna could have forgotten so quickly that this mysterious man has,  in fact, been stalking her. "He hasn't said anything to me."

"He's still cute. A stalker, but cute. Speaking of which-"

"I  am not getting into another Twilight debate, Anna!" Emma rolled her  eyes as she walked out of the bar amidst Anna's chuckles. Anna knew how  much Emma hated Twilight but that girl always brought up that damn book  just to piss her off. She didn't think about her mysterious stalker  anymore, and instead focused on getting home.

Or rather, she  didn't think of him again until she returned to her apartment and found  him waiting for her. Inside her apartment. Kneeling on the ground and  trying to coax Dakota, her adorable German Shepherd puppy, out of hiding  from the far room.

She still had her baseball bat at least. Emma  didn't scream when she saw him. Instead, she stood in the doorway,  staring at him as her eyes adjusted to the light in the room. He stood  slowly, holding his hands up in surrender, but he seemed almost amused  at the situation.