Marvel Oneshots

Newspaper (Jack Thompson)

Prompt: "I trust you."

Summary: Reader and Jack Thompson have been married for a while, and have recently made it to the other side of the ordeal with Whitney Frost and Vernon Masters. Now, as Vernon Masters' coconspirators are going through their lengthy trials, the members of the group who still have some power are doing everything they can to discredit the SSR agents who brought them down. Fortunately for Jack, he and his wife have a bond like none other.

Day Thirty-One of Fictober!! We're finally done!!

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"Oh Y/N!" came a sing-song voice from the doorway of the office. I sighed and rolled my eyes, then straightened at my desk. Mary, one of my least favorite coworkers, came bouncing into the room, smiling a sickly sweet smile that made me confident I wouldn't like whatever she'd come in here to say.

"What do you want, Mary?" I sighed, shuffling a few of the papers in front of me in an effort to look busy. My desk was the reception desk, which meant it was at the front of the office. Everyone else, men and women, looked up from their work to watch us as Mary plopped a newspaper on my desk.

"I just thought you should see this," said Mary, her face tightening into a fake pout of sympathy. "I mean, if it were me, I would want to know."

"What on Earth are you talking about?" I snapped, grabbing the paper from where she'd tossed it. To my surprise, I found my husband on the front page, along with a bold headline:

SSR CHIEF JACK THOMPSON CAUGHT IN AN AFFAIR

I scoffed as my eyes scanned the page and the picture of Jack. I glanced at the first few lines of text out of curiosity, and I could hardly believe what I was reading.

The chief of one of America's most essential agencies was caught out on the town with a mystery woman who was certainly not his wife. Rumors and even some first hand accounts suggest the woman may have been a Communist, and that Thompson may have even fathered a secret child with her.

I couldn't get past the second sentence before I burst out laughing.

"This is what they're calling news now?" I asked, glancing to see which paper had suddenly decided to become a tabloid. As expected, it was one of the papers Vernon Masters and his cronies had a hold in.

See, a few months ago, my husband and some of his SSR friends had gotten into trouble with a massive conspiracy out in LA. They'd won in the end, and had enough evidence to make sure the surviving members of the conspiracy ring were prosecuted, but the trial hadn't finished yet. Several members were still out and about, and apparently their new strategy was to discredit Jack (and likely Peggy, Daniel, and anyone else who had helped) to give them an edge in the trial.

I chucked the paper straight into the trash where it belonged, then looked back at Mary to really savor her shocked expression. I just smiled right back at her while she floundered for something else to say.

"You... you're not bothered by the fact that your husband is cheating on you?" she practically screeched. "With a Communist?"

"Mary. The only thing that I am bothered about right now is that you're hovering over my desk and blocking my lighting while I have actual work to do."

She still didn't move for a few seconds, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to come up with something to say to me and failed. I mostly ignored her, going back to my papers and making a point of shifting them so they were out of her shadow. After a few more moments of blustering without any reaction from me, Mary stormed away in a huff to her desk across the room.