Captain America: The Phoenix

23. Restless

Quinn had been unable to sleep at all the night they got back to HQ. After hastily showering and changing into daytime clothes, despite nearly everyone in HQ heading home or readying for bed, she emerged from her room and made her way down the elevator and into the communications room. 

Hill had gone home for the evening, but she, out of the kindness of her heart, picked up Quinn's call, knowing exactly what she wanted to talk about.

"They won't talk." Hill straight-forwardly told Quinn from her computer system as Quinn sat in the darkly-lit communications room. All the other machines and tech were shut down and closed for the evening, except for the huge monitor she was using. 

Quinn let out a sigh as she reached up to clutch her head. 

"But they will eventually. Agent Rivera, you need to get some rest." Hill told her.

"I need to know, Hill." Quinn exasperatedly told the woman in the monitor. 

"And we will try to find out, okay? Tomorrow, during the day." Hill, level-headed as always, said. "We'll keep up communication with the CIA and the FBI, and I'll relay the information to you."

This didn't ease Quinn's soul much, but she ultimately gave a nod because she knew she had to accept that she would have to wait this out. It just ate away at her, the danger she seemed to have brought.

"Okay." Quinn leaned back in her chair, allowing her tense shoulders to drop in the slightest. "I'm sorry. I'll let you sleep."

"Get some rest, Agent." Hill gave a sympathetic expression before signing off and ending the call. 

Quinn turned off the monitor and sat silently in the darkness of that room. She should've went upstairs and gone to bed, but her mind relentlessly raced, trying to put together all the pieces of who these people were. Quinn had a hunch. 

But she knew that if her instincts were right, everything would have to change and she knew what she would have to do. All of the clues and details added up and pointed to only one culprit. Feeling like an absolute crazy person, still roaming the corridors of HQ while everyone was already asleep, Quinn went back to her room, but did not allow herself to rest. She stayed on her computer, doing necessary research to figure out who was after her. After researching many different organizations, criminals, mobs, mafias, radical groups--there was only one that still made the most sense. 

Before she knew it, the sun was already rising, the light coming through the glass of her window. She wasn't tired. So she got up and went down to the training room, trying to take her anger out in a healthy way, by setting multiple punching bags and gloves on fire. 

Panting breathlessly, she found herself kneeling on the floor in the middle of the training room, feeling dizzy from her last scuffle with the punching bag. She glanced down at it as it sat about five feet away from her, it's fire slowly fizzling out as she watched. Quinn then let out a long sigh as she laid back on the training room floor for just a second, feeling the cool tile underneath her. 

After minutes of absolute silence, the training room windows came up and the sun was almost completely emerged from the horizon. She sat back up, allowing herself to look in front of her, right out of the wall of glass. Outside was the grassy area of HQ, where groundskeepers and early risers were already up doing the upkeep. 

Quinn then reached into the pocket of her workout pants, pulling her phone out. Scrolling down her contacts list, her finger hovered over one, knowing that that person might just be person she needed on this investigation.

Senator Reeds had all the connections, all the suspicions, he even had the plan to take them down. The doubts in Quinn's mind about who was behind the pursuit for her capture begun to dissipate quickly as she continued to do the math.