Unexpected Valor

1

Valentina Alvarez, or Val, woke to the morning radio DJ banter and sighed as she woke from her restful sleep. She had been working for a week at her dream job, a SHIELD research scientist at the Triskelion in Washington DC. Originally from California she had graduated with top honors in chemical engineering and interned at a few pharmaceutical companies. She finally was approved to work at SHIELD and she couldn't be happier. She bounced out of bed and began her morning routine. Orientation had gone well and she was getting used to working in such an awesome lab with awesome people. It was awesome.

She hurriedly got ready as she didn't want to be late. She loved her job so far and was starting to make friends with the other workers in the lab. She wore mostly business casual and put her long brown hair up in a French twist with a few stray curls framing her face. She said bye to her cat Frank and headed out the door.

Her car barely started and she would have to remember to leave work a little early so she could run by a repair shop. She parked in the massive parking garage and grabbed her badge and work bag. She was a bit of a dreamer and usually had her head in the clouds, but that's when she attained her best ideas or break throughs. She was too busy thinking about the project she and her team were going to work on today and wasn't paying attention to the traffic as she entered the crosswalk. She was in the middle of the crosswalk when there was a screech of tires and a horn blaring at her. A black pick-up truck had almost hit her in the cross walk. She shrieked and stopped walking with a hand over her heart. She turned to the car and raised a hand in apology as she was saying, "Oh my gosh! Sorry sorry sorry!"

Then she scurried out of the cross walk as the driver gave her a scowl and a raised hand in frustration. She continued on her way through security, the lobby, and finally the labs. Her new home away from home. She greeted her coworkers, grabbed some coffee and started working at her station.

Brock Rumlow was running a little late to work Monday morning. He had drunk a little too much and woke up paying for it. He took a cold shower and then jumped into his pick up and headed to work at SHIELD. He was a member of the STRIKE team which worked along side Captain America on covert missions. He was listening to the morning news as he drove into the parking garage. Out of the corner of his eye he saw some movement and had to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting a woman in the cross walk. She hadn't even looked for oncoming traffic! He railed on his horn as he raised a hand in frustration as she was saying sorry over and over again. He shook his head and continued on his way as she scurried across. He parked his truck and headed to the Strike team training area. Today was going to be a long day.

"Hey Val, how's it going?" A tall blond man said to her, as he came up to her work station.

"Oh, hello, Dr. Groff. I'm doing well. Is there something I can help you with?" She asked.

"No, not really. Have you had lunch yet? I'm headed down to the cafeteria. Would you care to join me?" He asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.

Val took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I could use a break. I've been looking at my screen all morning."

They walked out together with their lab coats on and joined a few other colleagues for lunch. There was some small talk about the latest research they were doing on plant toxins and a few nerdy jokes thrown in. Val got a little carried away and laughed a little too loud. She was such a free spirit despite her love for science. Her laughter was infectious and a few heads turned to the boisterous group. Sergeant Brock Rumlow being one of them. He was with a few of his team members eating their lunch. He scoffed and then shook his head. "What? What's that about?" Jack Rollins asked him.

"Figures. I almost ran over one of those science nerds over there on my way in this morning. She just walked right through the crosswalk not even looking for cars," he said with a huff.