I'd Bleed for You

Chapter One

Chapter One

*~*~*~*

"Mom?" I whispered through my tears.

"Nic!" My thoughts were broken by someone yelling my name. I looked up from the counter I'd been staring at to see one of the other waitresses looking my way. As soon as she saw that she had my attention she pointed towards one of the tables in my section, the once empty table now occupied by a middle aged man in a suit. 

I couldn't help but notice how strange it was to see a man in a suit here, the attire making him stick out like a sore thumb. There weren't many people dressed nicely like that in Marion. Most the people around here tended to work on farms or in related fields of business; nothing that a suit was needed for. Nevertheless, I made slipped out from behind the counter and made my way over to the table with my notepad in hand to take his order.

"Good evening and welcome to Perkins, can I start you off with something to drink?" I greeted him with a smile as he scanned over the menu in his hands.

"Actually...I was hoping to have a word with you Veronica?" At his use of my full name, I froze in place. It had been years since anyone had called me that and, as far as I knew, anyone who knew me by that name was dead or had long since forgotten about me. Everyone who knew me now knew me as Nichole thanks to a set of forged documents that I'd gotten my hands on when I was sixteen. Even then, no one bothered to call me Nichole, always preferring to shorten it to Nic. It didn't make sense as to how this man knew my real name when no one else did.

"Who are you?" I questioned the man, my entire body tense.

"Please, take a seat." He gestured to the empty seat across from him. I hesitated for a moment as I looked around, the other workers weren't paying us any attention and there was no one else seated in my section but him. I kept my eyes on the man as I sat down opposite him and tucked my order pad into my apron pocket.

"Who are you and how do you know my name?" I didn't bother beating around the bush. I wanted answers and I wanted them now.

"My name is Phil Coulson and I'm with SHIELD." He introduced himself. SHIELD sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't remember where I'd heard of it before. "I know your name because we've been keeping a close eye on you for a while now. Just to make sure that-"

"That I didn't go crazy and kill a bunch of people?" I finished for him as I felt my blood start to boil. It was because of those types of assumptions that I didn't socialize with people or let them know what I was. If they knew then they'd no doubt see me as a threat and kill me before I had the chance to explain. All the government wanted with people like me was to either kill them or lock them in a cage somewhere for their own little experiments.

"Why are you here?" I asked him. Underneath the table I had my hands balled up into fists in attempt to stay as calm as possible under current circumstances, but I was struggling. Everything inside of me was telling me to make a run for it, to get away from this man as fast as possible though there was still a small part of me that was curious. If he knew who I was and what I was capable of then he could have taken me by surprise and locked me up somewhere rather than choosing to have this conversation at my work.

"We need your help." His words caught me by surprise. He put a file on the table and pushed it over to me. I hesitated for a second before my curiosity got the best of me and I opened the file, finding different pictures and reports inside. I didn't read much of it, only skimming, but there were various words that stuck out to me, such as: Loki, tesseract, Avengers, unstable, and Selvig. I recognized the last name, Erik Selvig. I'd attended one of his lectures when I was younger and had decided to give college a try. It'd been about astrophysics, while many had found it quite boring I'd found it interesting. Since then I'd reread many of his and Bruce Banner's studies on the subject, hoping that one day one of them would publish something that could help me better understand myself.

"What happened to Selvig?" I asked out of curiosity.

"He was taken by Loki, along with one of our agents. Loki is planning some sort of world domination and we need your help to try and stop him." Phil informed me as I continued to skim over the papers.

"Last time I checked, helpful wasn't a word used to describe me." I raised a brow at him as I looked up from the papers. "Usually it's something along the lines of 'freak' or 'menace'."

"The world needs you, Veronica, what do you say?" He asked. I could see the hope in his eyes, it almost hid the unease that he clearly felt by being so close to me. He reminded me of my father.

"What's in it for me?" I shook my head as I pushed the file back towards him. "How do I know this isn't just some trick to get me in a cage?"

"Once this is over you'll be in the clear. You'll never hear from us again and I'll personally make sure that your location is never found by anyone ever again. You'll have a life free of being tracked and watched. You'll never have to look over your shoulder again." He promised me, sincerity clear in his voice. "I can also give you the location of a place that helps people just like you, it's a school of sorts."

"Deal." I agreed as I quickly took the file back from him and started scanning the papers more closely.

"I'll have a car pick you up after your shift ends tonight." Phil informed me as he stood up and held out his hand to me. I couldn't help but sigh as I handed the file back to him, only earning an amused smile from him in return. "I'll return this later, I promise."

"I'll be keeping you to that." I warned him as I watched him leave the restaurant while I sat in the booth a little while longer. All I had to do was help these people and I'd be free, I wouldn't have to hide anymore.

I'd be safe.