Tell me about Jack Keagan

Chapter 3

Jack woke up before 6 AM and went for a walk to investigate her new surroundings. She was captivated by the clear-cut uniformity of life within the concrete walls that fenced these people off from the rest of the world. The grass was manicured evenly, creating a slate of green sliced by even, crisp white cement pathways, interrupted with monolithic buildings that housed America's secrets. It presented a heavy contrast to what Jack knew, her neighbourhood resembling more of a kaleidoscope of clashing colours than this place. She missed the mismatching bricks facades, deathly slippery concrete steps and harlequin colours of curtains shrouding the windows, adding to the collage of the streets. She missed her neighbours that brought with them scents of cashew chicken and delivered chilli and cornbread when they saw Jack and Larissa looking tired, and the old lady Betty Lake who always slipped Jack a fiver for a sandwich at the corner shop if she was concerned she looked 'too skinny'.

The thought of being back in the apartment, in her floral-wallpaper bedroom, made her feel homesick. She craved to hear the screech of the bathroom taps, or even the whistle of wind through the cracked windowpane in the laundry. The smallest things that she had taken for granted were now plaguing the forefront of her mind. Jack felt her spirit lift at the thought of going back to it after the first mission and powered through her walk, feeling the emerging sunlight wash her clean until returning to the start.

Inside the building, Jack walked to the kitchen where the congregation of people were fighting for the coffee machine, no one except Steve noticing her.

"Hey! How was your first night?" He asked over the fray of people in the kitchen. She nodded, observing everyone. Steve walked over to her, pointing everyone out.

"That's Sam, he has a falcon suit that lets him fly. That's Natasha, she's a fighter you never want to cross. That one is Thor; he comes and goes from Asgard as needed. Asgard is a whole other planet so don't expect to be driving to his place." He joked, standing beside her near the island bench. Jack rubbed underneath her eyes and yawned, noting that she had barely slept. She kept waking up and turning her iPod back on, needing to listen to something to keep out the sounds of her own thoughts. The silence of the compound at night kept her awake, adjusted to the cacophony of sirens and Larissa's nightly podcast binge from the next room. Quiet made her feel uneasy. During HYDRA imprisonment, silence meant something bad was happening, like an eerie calm before a storm. Silence came before the cell unlocked, before she was dragged out by her hair, before she was forced to end something or someone.

The other thing that gnawed away at her sanity was not knowing the next step, the next place to be or thing to do.

"So, what should I be doing with myself for today?" She asked, placing her hands in the pockets of her jumper. Steve turned around to walk backwards into the kitchen warzone as if this were a completely normal household occurrence.

"You, my friend, start training today. You're not coming out anywhere unless we know you can handle yourself and anyone else."

Jack shrugged, holding up her curled fists for effect.

"Oh yeah, I can kick it."

Jack discovered within an hour that she could, in fact, not kick it.

She felt it the most when Natasha Romanoff had her laid out on the gym floor, in a headlock no less. Nat had kept it fun, knowing that making it serious early could possibly set off her abilities. Nat found that a bit more challenging, as she took her work and her fighting seriously, but was happy to be flexible for the new ones. Especially ones that Steve had an interest in keeping happy and here. At Jack's request, they kept going and kept pushing her repeatedly, until Nat told her she had to move on, or she would hurt herself. Jack wasn't allowed to stop when she used to fight before and being let go felt strange. Fighting against someone who wasn't out for blood felt strange, and it put her on edge.