#this took me two whole hours to draw because I move at a glacial pace

[conceiteddemon]

Doodle of Caleb Clawthorne and his lovely partner!

[star-trekkin-across-theuniverse]

Resource Management, pt4

Word Count: 2385 Tags: @supermoonpanda @rayleyanns @sistasarah-sallysaidso @feelmyroarrrr @anyakinamidala @dirajunara @anotherotter @little-study-bug @rampant-salamander @goodnightwife @samaxraph99 @anotherotter  @outside-the-government @kingarthurscat @coyote-in-space @originalpottervengerlock @dolamrothianlady @curiositywillbethedeathofme @superheroesofbothuniverses

In the first few months after the Battle of New York, there had been a rush of merchandise and marketing that was primarily intended to draw attention to the heroes of New York and away from SHIELD. Stark’s Iron Man action figure was an excellent example. There had also been a ridiculously camp cartoon that had aired for half a season before being cancelled, but it had a fantastic comic-booky theme song that made my heart so happy that I often found I was humming it to myself when I was stressed out. I wasn’t alone in finding the tune catchy. The chances were often in your favour that if you hummed the first two notes on a crowded SHIELD elevator that someone would join in. Enough of us used it as a ringtone that Fury had sent a memo reminding everyone that it was the official SHIELD ringtone last April Fools Day.

I had just stepped into the seminar room, and was already running late, when my phone rang. I’d forgotten to silence it, and to my embarrassment, my ringtone filled the silent room. One of the new hires started giggling as the cheery cartoon music started floating from my hip pocket, and Stark turned around, an eyebrow quirked. I shifted everything to one arm and fought the blush flooding my cheeks as I reached into my pocket to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hey. I hope I’m catching you at lunch.” Coulson hadn’t texted since the previous morning, but I hadn’t expected a phone call.

“Actually, I’m going to have to call you back, if that’s okay?” I dropped the stack of books on the table at the front of the room. “I’ve just walked into my seminar and I’m running late.”

“Anna, you have to evacuate the building. We have intel that suggests it’s going to be attacked within the ho-“ A deafening explosion rocked the building, and I dropped to the floor, losing my grip the phone. I reached for the phone and scrambled underneath the table.

“Phil? What the fuck is happening?” I practically screamed into the phone.

“Get out of the building. Get Stark to get you out of the building!” His voice cracked and I knew I should be scared. If Coulson sounded scared, I should be terrified. Another deafening explosion rocked the building, and ceiling tiles started falling. I pulled my legs under the table, unable to stop myself from letting out a shriek of fear.

“Okay, class, we need to evacuate!” I called across the noise. I took a quick look out from under the table, but was knocked onto my back as Stark shot from under his table to tackle me. Before I could protest, a large chunk of steel and cement slammed into the spot where my head had been. Stark snatched my phone from me.

“Hi. I don’t know who you are, but Ms. Ellis needs to go.” He hit end and handed my phone back to me. “Put that in your bra or something. You’ll probably need it. We need to get out of here.” He rolled off me and started playing with his phone. Another huge chunk of cement fell, this time on the table Stark had been under, and the table buckled and flattened.

“We aren’t safe, Stark. Unless that phone has a teleportation device in it, I think texting is probably not the smartest move,” I snapped. I tried to survey the room, and saw the last of the others scrabbling for the door, and heading toward the stairs. There was another explosion and the windows blew out of the room. Stark grabbed me by the scruff of my blouse and started dragging me toward the open windows.

“Come on. Watch your knees, there’s glass everywhere.” He swept his free hand across the carpet as he crawled toward the gaping space where the reflective glass had been, dragging me alongside him. My knees appreciated the effort, but they were getting chewed up anyhow.

“We are seventeen floors up, Stark, we can’t jump!” I screamed as he hauled me to my feet at the window ledge. He held me away at arms length.

“Take a step to your left,” he ordered. Suddenly, he was being covered in the Iron Man suit. It appeared out of nowhere, and was snapping onto his body with precision and speed. When he was fully covered, he pulled me against his chest.

“Holy shit,” I muttered. He looked down at me as he stepped over the ledge of the window.

“Did you forget I was Iron Man, Ms. Ellis?” His voice had a metallic, echo-y quality. We flew clear of the continuing explosions. He set us down in a park across the river from the Triskelion. His visor flipped up.

“Thank you,” I breathed as I got my legs under me again. I felt wobbly and a little nauseated from the open-air flight.

“You should get home and then do whatever it is you SHIELD types do when the shit hits the fan,” he recommended. Another enormous explosion, and part of the building blew out into the parking lot.

“My car!” I cried, as I saw the destruction. “I have to find the muster point. It’s in parking lot B.”

“I’m heading back in to make sure everyone is getting out okay. Can you get there on your own?” He asked. I nodded, completely numb. He blasted back into the sky and toward the crumbling building. I stood, frozen in place, staring at the building in horror. Deep within me, something pushed me forward to the muster point, and I found myself running across the park toward the river where the B lot was.

There was a small group of people beginning to gather under a flashing blue light. A security guard was checking a tablet as they arrived. My phone rang again, and I stopped running to answer it.

“Don’t go to the muster point, Anna. SHIELD has been compromised. Head directly home, pack a bag and then leave.” It was Coulson again. I turned around and started away from the parking lot, in the direction I’d come from. I smoothed my skirt, trying to beat the dust off it. A quick glance over my shoulder told me I hadn’t been noticed.

“And then where?” I asked, continuing through the park.

“There’s a café across the street from our restaurant,” he said. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Our restaurant?” I was in too much shock to think.

“You’ll figure it out.” The line went dead. I turned around to survey the destruction. The Triskelion looked as though it was quickly falling to ruins. Every few seconds, something else exploded. Whoever had planned the attack seemed determined to erase the memory of the building from the earth. I wondered if they would succeed. And then, selfishly, I thought about my flattened car. That my purse was still inside the building. That my Thor bobblehead probably wasn’t bobbling anymore. I started toward the nearest metro station to get home. I’d worry about how to get inside when I got there.

“I heard about that government building being attacked. I didn’t realize you worked there, Annie.” Bob, my building super, was about a million years old, moved like a snail and loved to talk. But he was letting me into my apartment, so I wasn’t about to complain.

“Yeah.” I didn’t have the energy for multi-syllabic answers.

“What do you do there?” He prodded.

“I manage Human Resources,” I replied.

“For what?”

“For the whole building.” It was vague, but I had to be.

“Ah. I retired from the agency when the Cold War ended.” He tapped the side of his nose knowingly. I smiled blandly. It didn’t matter if it was CIA, FBI, NSA or any of the other acronyms that littered the district; they all thought they were the only ones.

We were walking up the stairs so slowly that I was getting a cramp in my ass. I stopped midflight and pulled my heels off. I wiggled my toes on the cool stairs and waited until Bob reached the landing for my floor before following, stretching enough that the cramps subsided. He unlocked the door faster than I thought, and peeled a spare key off his jumbled key ring.

“Until you get organized, Annie. Be safe, sweetheart.” He patted my shoulder and began his glacial-paced descent back to his office. By contrast, I shut the door and became a flurry of activity. I repacked everything I’d taken to the academy, and then threw in some extra pants and t-shirts. I figured anything else and I’d have to rely on the goodness of Coulson’s heart. I was packed in moments. As I zipped the suitcase closed, I realized a suitcase was really obvious, and went digging under my bed for my old backpack from university. I carefully repacked as much as I could into it, and dug my favourite big purse out of my closet for the rest. I even found a wallet, just because it felt weird to not carry one. Not that this one had anything in it. I looked slightly less obtrusive. Until I realized I was covered in dirt, my blouse was torn and my knees were bleeding.

I stripped down and hit the shower, careful to be gentle on the cuts on my legs. I toweled dry, bandaged as many of the bleeding spots as I could and found a pair of ancient and ratty cargo pants. I pulled them on, and pulled out my old Captain America t-shirt. Once I was dressed, I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and braided it. I surveyed myself in the full-length mirror on my bathroom door. I looked like any other college student, unless you looked closely enough to see the crow’s feet around my eyes, and the greying at my temples.

I assessed my bags again and unpacked and repacked again, getting everything I wanted into the backpack. I traded out my big purse for a small one, and raided my piggybank so I had a few bucks to tide me over, should Coulson take longer than I’d expected. He hadn’t given a time before he hung up. I checked the time. I’d been a half hour. My heart was still racing and I felt a little like I might have a panic attack, so I sat down on the couch and dropped my head between my knees, and took some deep breaths.

I could hear sirens. They sounded like they were coming from everywhere. I didn’t think anyone was coming for me, but I knew I should get moving. Our restaurant. He said meet him at the café across from our restaurant. We’d only ever been to one restaurant, and I hadn’t noticed a café across the street. But I’d be so overwhelmed by the restaurant that I might have missed it. I pulled up the street on google maps and switched into street view. Sure enough, across the street from the restaurant was a café. I grabbed my backpack and headed out.

There were cops everywhere. Every major intersection had a roadblock. I hit the metro station, thinking that would be the quickest way to get there, but everything had been shut down. I must have made it home on the last run. I was going to have to walk, and the restaurant was probably five kilometres away. Ironic, considering the runs I’d been doing. I knew I could walk it in about an hour, so I plugged my headphones in and got moving. I did my best to avoid the roadblocks, not wanting to get hung up in the congestion.

I was huffing and sweaty by the time I turned down the street that would lead me to the café. I looked at it carefully. There were two ways in, and it wasn’t crowded, but it wasn’t the kind of place that I thought anyone would notice me either. I decided to go inside and get an iced cappuccino while I waited. I took a seat on the patio and pulled out my book. May as well look as though I belonged.

“Excuse me, miss, do you have ID?” I looked up into the eyes of a man in a suit, flashing a badge I didn’t recognize at me. I frowned.

“Not with me. Why?” I reached into my pocket for my phone and blindly tried to hit the redial button. It would connect me to Coulson.

“Surely you know there’s been a terrorist attack on a government building downtown?” He asked. I gasped and dropped my book, trying to be convincingly surprised. I scrambled to pick it up.

“No, I just was on a break and needed caffeine, you know. I thought there were more cops than usual around.” I was only a few minutes walk from of the multitudes of university campuses in the district. I sat back down, folded my page over and smiled at the suit.

“You’re an international student though. You should be carrying ID.”

“I’m sorry?” I blurted. “What makes you think that?”

The suit raised an eyebrow and pointed at my backpack, and the very prominent flag badge on it. I laughed and shook my head.

“So your ID?” He asked. I set my smile and tried to be charming.

“Like I already said. I don’t have it with me,” I shrugged.

“You’ll need to come with me then,” he said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.” I stayed seated.

“I didn’t throw it.”

“Well, pitch it my way, or my ass stays glued to this chair. And the name of the agency you’re with as well,” I demanded and crossed my arms.

“I can have you arrested for –“

“I’ll take care of this.” It was Agent May. She took my backpack and flashed her badge at the suit. “Mine trumps yours.” She took my arm roughly and snapped a pair of cuffs on me before I could protest. She walked me toward the waiting SHIELD SUV, and stuck me in the backseat. Coulson was waiting there, and pulled me into his arms.

“Thank god you’re okay.” He kissed my forehead. I leaned into him and burst into tears.