GOLDEN GIRL, STEVE ROGERS!

ZERO | PRELUDE

PRELUDE

"MIERDA!" The sharp ring of her doorbell sounded through the apartment. Carmen was almost asleep, so the sound kicked her into action, almost making her slip off the couch.
"Dame un minuto!"

She quickly pushed the blanket off her and pulled a jumper over her top. Shuffling over to the light switch on the opposite side of the room in the dark she tripped over a shoe, letting out another curse. When she turned to the clock on the wall and saw the time '11:37pm' she shook her head and she made her way to the door.

Seriously, at this time? She prepared for some kind of shouts from her neighbour or brother. Both surprising invested in her doing something other than spending her days trying to teach her cockatiel to talk, it's output varied at different times of the day.

She swung the door open hastily, her eyes still adjusting to the bright light in her room. Her eyes met a familiar face and she shook her head aggressively. It wasn't a face she wanted to see.

"Sorry, you must have the wrong apartment." She barely looked to him as she spoke, angered by his appearance. It would kill her to think about why he would appear.

"Miss Espinosa." He however looked her straight in the eyes, his demeanour as harsh as ever.

"Fury." She stated blankly, and opened her door fully so he could walk in.

"May I?" He asked with a smirk before taking a few steps in.

He walked through the room, looking at the collection of books scattered across her coffee table and how clean the rest of the flat was. Carmen had spent most of the day reading through everything she could, and happened to fall asleep by her table so she hadn't cleaned up yet. Plus she wasn't expecting any visitors.

"Nice place." He blankly commented, making his way to a chair across from her couch.

"SHIELD pays well to compensate for their lack of hospitality." With a few more curse words barely under her breath she made her way back to the couch, sitting down uncomfortably opposite to Fury.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, but dismissed her as he looked through one of the books before him. It didn't interest him too much, he was just using his time.

"What do you want from me, Fury?" She queried, not wanting to deal with the games he liked to play. During her time at SHIELD she avoided everything she could and just concentrated on her work. Of course it came back to bite her in the ass. 

His eye studied her after he placed the book back down. She was much different. Her eyes had heavy bags underneath, but she seemed surprisingly alert. It was a given she had just woken from a sleep, but she seemed much more disheveled and disheartened than he has ever seen her. The fire wasn't there.

He remembered the moment he met her, the day he welcomed her to SHIELD. She had barely graduated and she was brought in under the pretence of a regular job offer. Her energy was capturing and she seemed so awed by everything around her. That brightness never left her whole time there.

"How are you?" He asked this with genuine curiosity, he cared for her health and he always thought of her as a great asset to his team. It was a shame to see such a young girl, full of potential lose her spark.

"I'm fine. Alive, breathing. I told you that day I had years, anyway." Just after speaking she shook her head. She did her best everyday to push away any thoughts about what was happening to her. 

"Is it-" He could barely ask.

"The size of a grape." She replied. Her eyes didn't look to him.

There was a brief moment of silence. She looked to her hands for a moment, concentrating so hard on stopping any tears leaving her eyes. God, was it hard. Fury was good at reading people, so he let her have that moment. 

"I've thought about this, a lot, actually. You were a great asset to us, it hurt to lose you." He looked directly to her as he spoke, it was intimidating when he wanted it to be, but right now he just wanted her to know every word he spoke was real.

"We want you to come work with us again. Recently we gained possession of quite an important object. It's been in SHIELD's possession for years, but, it's only recently it was passed to New York for safety." He was talking about the tesseract, an object they were so oblivious of, and the power it held. They relentlessly experimented and tested it, looking to harness whatever power it had in a way the Red Skull had failed.

"What?" Her voice choked out, barely listening to his words. She didn't know if this was what she had been waiting for since she left, or what she never wanted to hear again.

"A completely different arrangement to before, we don't want you to fall worse due to radiation exposure or anything else. I'm asking you to lead our team of scientists. See the results, pose more tests, evaluate- not a lot of lab work on your part."

He was speaking so quickly and thoughtlessly that Carmen spaced out. No, he couldn't. But there he was making her head spin.

"Fury, I-I can't just go back. Work and help SHIELD. You need to give me time to think and-" She felt her head ache when she thought about everything he was saying. It was a hell of a lot for a Thursday night.

"This is the only chance I can give you, a ride there with me, tonight. Come and we can set up everything as you had it. In your free time you can do what you like. Use our gyms, visit the city, take a cooking class, I don't care. We only want you for a few hours a week." By this time he was stood up, pacing slightly before her on the couch. It wasn't intimidating, but pressuring as she sat and listened to his words.

"N-n-n-n-no. Stop, I can't listen to this. I'm not a computer you can turn on and off whenever you need it. I have a nice life here, it's been over a year." Her protests fell short, he knew she was lying through her teeth.

"Carmen you sit her everyday. You read, you sleep and you talk to that goddamn bird. What happened to that ambition?" His voice angered as his frustration grew, and the sound rang through the apartment.

"I lost it, when you told me I was incapable of being a scientist and threw me out the door! I was dying, Fury! And you threw me out like a broken toy. What could I do?" It hurt her to try and not to cry, trying to keep it all stuck behind a wall. Her eyes began to water and her voice broke down as she shouted.

He couldn't say a word, not a thing. He stayed quiet and let her have peace as something close to guilt over took him. He swore he had done it to protect her, to keep her alive a little longer. He knew her constant working was making her tumour worse everyday. How else could he have helped?

But now they needed her. Carmen, the beautiful young genius. It was only her that could advance their work, he knew that. He wasn't stupid enough to place someone else in a position she needed. She needed to keep working, they both knew that sitting around all day was killing her even more.

"Do you expect me to apologise?" It was so quiet to listen to the answer that didn't need to be said. He knew he did and she knew too. But Fury was always too stubborn to do that.

"I'm sorry. But, please. You know."  Carmen took a breath and a sip of some cold coffee. She hated being a pushover.