Reality in Motion

fancy mood ring

It was early, oh God, it was so early. That combined with the little sleep Q was able to get after her late night with Captain Rogers (about three hours) made for an interesting state of mind. She felt like she was moving through Jell-O. Her whole body ached and she knew it was because of all the physical activity she had done the day before. Not that it was even that much, she was just incredibly out of shape.

She had worked on less sleep though and she was determined to make it through her second day with Captain Rogers. In the light day to day schedule she had given him, it was set that she would meet him at his apartment at five in the morning, before the sun rose. While she was at his apartment for the second time the night before, she saw that the folders had been shuffled through and she hoped he had read the one containing the schedule. What she should've done was verbally confirmed it with him last night, but she...didn't. God, she wasn't very good at this. For as much time as she spent studying people, she wasn't very good at interacting with them. Some of them at least.

Before she was to meet with Captain Rogers, she had to pick up a few things from SHIELD. She needed a way to track his moods and reactions. His heart rate and blood pressure were important to monitor, but she was more concerned about his dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin levels. Those affected his moods and reactions to what was going on. They were more important in making sure progress was being made. She knew that there was a way to do it: injecting a radioactive version of the neurotransmitter into his head and then viewing it via a PET scan. But that seemed like a lot of work and she wanted something that could tell her right then, during an event or a conversation, not hours later. She could stick wires to his head or take his blood every hour but that was exhausting and got in the way of having him live a normal life.

There was practically no one in the Triskelion when Q got there. There were a few agents and analysts around who were on active ops, but it hadn't hit the busy hours yet. She paid no mind to those that were there, wanting to only find one person. She had called Dawson on her walk home, interrupting his video game, and asked for his help. He grumbled about it being such short notice, but agreed to see what he could do.

When she got to his computer station, she found that it was empty. Blowing out a breath through her lips and making a raspberry noise, she turned around. She started to walk back to the elevator, pushing out of the Operations Control room and going down the hall. As she walked, someone fell into step next to her, matching her pace.

"Proctor." His voice was smooth and deep, but she didn't dare look over at him. Instead, she took in a breath and straightened up a bit. She really wasn't in the mood.

"Rumlow." she responded.

"You didn't answer my call last night." he continued, getting straight to why he was walking next to her.

"I was busy." she simply answered. He let out a small laugh.

"I stopped by your apartment too." That got her to stop walking. It woke her up a bit too, causing her to turn to look at him, meeting his eye. The corner of his mouth quirked up in a sly smile as she took in a deep breath through her nose.

Glancing around herself, she made sure the hall was empty before she grabbed Rumlow's arm. She shoved him back, making him walk backwards into the stairwell. For what she lacked in strength, she made up for in surprise. The door shut behind them and she continued to move them backward until his back hit the wall. He let out a chuckle, hands going to grab at her hips. She pushed them off of her and stepped back, brandishing a finger at him.

"You broke a rule." she hissed out at him. "Why do you think we have rules?"

"Because it turns you on." he easily responded with a smirk. She gave him an unamused look, arms going to cross over her chest. He was right and he knew that. They both did. "C'mon, Q, haven't you ever heard the saying rules are meant to be broken?" he asked as he pushed off against the wall and took a step towards her. She didn't find that funny, the unamused look turning serious.