Fishsticks & Raccoons || Avengers

Ch 7 || I Refuse

But for the first time, Jax didn't feel that way. Ida's presence was making her anxious. Well, it wasn't Ida so much as Ida inside a SHIELD facility. It was disorienting. Ida shouldn't be here, she didn't belong in this place, attacked by a madman and covered in someone else's blood. Ida belonged at the aquarium, surrounded by all those weird fish she adores and chasing after Mr. Inky.

But instead, here she was. The two halves of Jax's life that she had tried so hard to keep separate were now colliding like an ugly car crash.

'Adapt. Survive. Move forward.' Right now, those words were the only thing keeping her from a Grade-A freakout. Now or never, Jax; nowhere to run. (False, the lab has four escape routes.)

Jax finally looked her friend in the eye. Her gaze flickered to Ida's bright green eyeshadow that, along with the shark fin necklace that Jax gave her, Ida never left home without. Jax blinked, and for a moment Ida was eighteen, a freshman at NYU. Her heart lurched. What if Ida thinks she's a monster? What if Jax tells her the truth and Ida is horrified and disgusted and never wants to see her again? What if Ida is scared of her?

'Adapt. Survive. Move forward.' Her eyes stung but she blinked it away before it became something. 'Adapt. Survive. Move forward.' Deep breath in, deep breath out. 'Get it together, agent, you can do this.'

"Ida."

Ida brown eyes met Jax's blue ones.

"I'm not gonna lie to you. What I do...it's ugly. Stuff that makes most people uncomfortable. SHIELD operates in the grayest of grays." Jax paused to see if Ida had any reaction, but there was none. Ida was either waiting for her to continue or the painkillers were working really well. She pressed on. "But what we do is for the good of the world. Everything I've done, every order, every mission, every moment I'm out there doing my job, I know that I'm helping people. All of my actions are for the purpose of saving lives." Jax stopped herself there, despite the temptation to babble on like Tony always does.

Her friend just stared at her with dilated pupils. Ida better not be doped-to-hell because this was hardest conversation of Jax's entire life and she was not eager to have it twice.
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"You're lucky I'm a scientist," Ida started. "If I was anyone else, I probably would have panicked."

Ida let out a stammer of a laugh. It was her way of accepting all that she'd learned that day. She wasn't one for I'm sorry's and I forgive you's. She felt it was wasted time.

"So," Ida continued. "What now?"
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The moment Jax heard that laugh, that same laugh Ida always used to bookend any of their little spats, Jax's entire body sagged with relief. She couldn't even speak for a moment she was so overwhelmed.

Jax pulled herself together. "Now-"

The lab doors slid open.

"Now, you disappear." Director Fury strode into the room like Ares himself.

And things were going so well too.
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"Sorry... I what?"

Ida had decided it - Director Fury was a jackhole. He walked into rooms like he was confident in his dominance over everyone in it. Ida didn't appreciate it. She'd dealt with jackholes of that ilk before, had even lived under the roof of one for eighteen years.

"Novak is a dangerous criminal with a penchant for revenge. We are placing you, Miss Emerson, into a witness protection program where you'll be secure."

Ida laughed. Not a real laugh but one of the clearly sarcastic variety.

"Away from my life? From Jax? Yeah, right, Eyepatch." After she said it, she wondered if she perhaps shouldn't have antagonized him. Oh well. "I refuse your protection."
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Where was a good Chitauri invasion when she needed one?