Renegade Rising || Leo Fitz Book Two

Chapter ThirtyNine

The next day, Asia sat with her legs folded, meditating. In her lap, floated a small prismatic crystal of ice, rotating slowly in a circle, bobbing up and down just slightly. She was so focused on her meditation, eyes closed, brow furrowed, keeping that ice spinning in front of her, that she didn't even notice someone enter the room.

That is, until he cleared his voice. Asia slowly opened her eyes, keeping the crystal floating in front of her, bobbing just ever so slightly. The man in front of her wore a grey suit with no tie. He had closely cropped curls of black hair and skin the colour of coffee beans. He had his fingers loosely crossed in the shape of a triangle, pressed to his lips, watching her calmly, not speaking a word.

"Can I help you?" she asked finally, flicking her wrist and causing the crystal of ice to disappear. He nodded once, a small impressed grin flashing over his face for only a moment.

"So you're the one everyone used to hale as the Mini-Romanoff," he said finally. "Pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Andrew Garner." he held out a hand for her to shake. She studied him for a moment, narrowing her eyes, then finally shook his hand firmly.

"A pleasure as well," she replied. "I'm guessing you're the one who is here to check if I'm still sane? And if I can control this icy mess." she waved a hand over herself, indicating she was the one everyone considered a mess recently. "Well, I've got great news. The control is not so much of an issue any more."

"I can see that. What methods have you been using to train yourself so appropriately?" He asked calmly, taking mental notes on her responses, the sarcasm, the way she sat. Every detail was important when it came to observations like these, and if Dr. Garner was the one deciding whether or not she would remain with SHIELD, he wanted to make sure he was doing his job damn well.

"Meditation, mostly," She replied with a shrug, leaning forward and propping her head up in her hand. "Nothing fancy, breathing exercises, mental cleansing, all of the usual stuff. Things Nat taught me, back in the day."

"You say 'back in the day' like you're eighty years old," Dr. Garner grinned at the girl, and she rolled her eyes in response.

"Sometimes with everything we do, it feels like I could be. Lived a lot of lives here, ya know?" She replied casually. "Wouldn't trade it for the world, though. We do good, every day. We help people." She smiled over at the doctor, before adding, "And I'm not just saying that because this is a psych eval. I love what we do here. I love my team. I love the help we provide."

"Alright, I hear you. And I believe it. I know you know well enough that lying right now isn't going to help anything, or either one of us," he nodded back at her once more. "But there are answers I need to know. Firstly, why did you shoot yourself the other evening?" Starting with the heavy ones.

Asia let out a sigh, looking up at the ceiling for a moment, trying to get all of her thoughts in order. There was no real easy way to answer. "I mean, it wasn't....I knew the gun was an Icer. I wasn't trying to kill myself, I would never do that. But I knew that...that if I didn't get the situation under control, my team could come into harm. So I eliminated the threat, this time it just happened to be me." She shrugged. "My training, everything we do here at SHIELD, has taught me to protect my team. That's all I was doing. Is that a good enough answer?"

"There is no right or wrong answer, Agent Monroe, as long as you're answering truthfully," Dr. Garner replied again, with a small smile. "So, how did you feel when you couldn't control it?" He asked, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly, watching her intently as she answered.

"Honestly, it was terrible, and terrifying. The idea that...that I could hurt my team, even when I was trying so hard to get it under control, it is one of the worst feelings I've ever experienced." She shook her head, looking down at her hands for a moment, picking at a loose hangnail. "That's why I've been training myself so intensely. I don't want to ever put them in danger like that, again." She sighed, shaking out her shoulders, as if voicing the words released physical weight off of her back.