Chapter Text
It was a sunny, breezy afternoon in the middle of May in Philadelphia, and Lexi Shaeffer had just gotten to her car in the student parking lot when she heard a woman’s voice behind her. “Miss Shaeffer, congratulations on your graduation.”
Lexi turned quickly to face the woman, keeping the car’s remote gripped tightly in her left hand, thumb locating the panic button.
“Thank you,” Lexi said, glancing quickly at the woman’s hands as she approached. They were at her side, empty. “I’m sorry, but do I know you?”
The woman stopped several feet away from Lexi—close enough to have a conversation, but not so close as to appear threatening. In fact, Lexi thought, everything about her seemed to scream ‘non-threatening.’ Well-fitting slacks, low-heeled loafers, a slim-cut tailored jacket—all articles of clothing that would make hiding a weapon difficult.
“No, not yet. I represent a group that is interested in hiring you. You have a unique skill set that we find makes you extremely valuable. May I give you my card?” she asked, as her right hand slowly reached into her jacket pocket. Lexi slipped back half a step, right hand going for the car door handle.
The woman withdrew her right hand slowly, holding a card between her index and middle fingers. She extended her hand toward Lexi, but came no closer. “If you’re interested in discussing this opportunity, there’s a coffee shop across the street where we could sit down and talk.”
Lexi glanced around quickly, and seeing no one who looked out of place, carefully stepped toward the woman and reached out for the card. As soon as Lexi took the card, the woman took a step back, always keeping her hands where Lexi could see them. Her efforts to keep Lexi at ease didn’t go unnoticed, which was something of a warning sign in and of itself. Lexi also took a step back, and glanced at the card in her hand. It said quite simply, “Maria Hill, Deputy Director.” There was a phone number, but no other information.
As Lexi looked at the business card, Maria took a very quick moment to study her. This was definitely the woman they were looking for. She appeared to be about 25 or 26 years old, just over average height, athletic build, long, dark hair, dark blue eyes; very cautious in dealing with others, extremely wary of strangers, ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. When Lexi looked back up, Maria made sure her expression was pleasantly neutral.
“Maria Hill?” Lexi asked. The woman nodded, a small smile on her face. “This doesn’t say what group you’re Deputy Director of.”
Maria turned to the side as if to walk across the street. “If you’d like to accompany me to the coffee shop, I can answer all your questions.”
Lexi hesitated. She did need to find a job now that she had finished this graduate program and her latest doctoral thesis. The coffee shop Maria had indicated was one that Lexi had frequented over the last few years. Even though Lexi didn’t normally talk to strangers who came up to her out of the blue, at least it was a familiar, public place. It wasn’t the first time she had been approached for a job interview, and Lexi’s intuition, which was usually spot-on, told her that Maria Hill had no interest in harming her.
“Um, sure, I guess. I have to admit I’m somewhat curious.” Lexi locked her car doors, but held on to her keys. She pulled the strap of her satchel over her head so that it crossed her body, and walked around her car. When the traffic subsided, both women crossed the street in the direction of the shop.
When they entered, the little bell over the door jingled happily. The aroma of coffee washed over them. Lexi took a quick look around. The coffee shop had a cozy, homey feel to it. Wood floors, scratched and dented with age, but clean; exposed brick walls, dotted with bookshelves. The wooden counter was simple, though the equipment it housed was modern. The ceiling was criss-crossed with exposed beams, from which a few small fans spun lazily. Several of the small wooden tables inside were occupied, people reading books or newspapers or working on laptops. A man with a stroller texted on his phone, a couple in the corner chatted quietly to each other while feeding each other bits of pastry and making goo-goo eyes at each other.
Maria walked directly to a table in the middle of the shop by the wall that had a file sitting on it. A briefcase sat on the floor, up against the wall. Lexi looked around again, wondering how on earth this woman’s belongings hadn’t been disturbed in her absence. Before she could think too much on this odd fact, the man behind the counter looked up and smiled at them.
“Hello ladies, what can I get for you today?” he asked.
“I’ll have a large black coffee, and…” Maria said, and then looked at Lexi.
“A medium hot chocolate,” Lexi said. Maria sat at the table, with her back to the front window. Lexi sat across from her, taking a chair that allowed her to put her back to the wall, and placed her bag on the floor by her feet, setting her keys on the table.
Maria raised an eyebrow. “Not a coffee drinker?” she asked.
“No,” Lexi said. “I love the smell of coffee, but I never developed a taste for it. Too bitter.” She looked up as the man from the counter brought over two mugs, setting the large one down by Maria, and the smaller one in front of Lexi.
“Let me know if you need anything else,” he said as he backed away.
The two women thanked him, and Lexi took a sip of her cocoa. It was good, hot without being scalding, rich and chocolaty. She hummed her approval.
“Now,” Maria said, “I would imagine that you have a few questions. Before we get started with the Q and A, however, I would like to introduce my boss.”
A man that had been reading a newspaper near the back of the shop set the paper down and stood up. Lexi whipped her head to the left at the movement, already halfway out of her seat. The man held up one hand in front of him—the other arm was in a sling, close to his chest—in a placating gesture, which, considering his rather intimidating appearance, didn’t reassure Lexi very much. “Hang on there, Miss Shaeffer. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. And you don’t want to leave without finishing that cocoa. I had some myself—it’s really good.”
The man walked slowly toward their table, long black coat swirling around his legs. His bald, shiny scalp reflected the overhead lights, and the eye that wasn’t covered by an eye patch watched her carefully, as if he expected her to make a run for it.
Lexi felt almost frozen to the spot, alarms going off in her head as the dark-skinned man reached their table. Everything about his appearance screamed ‘DANGER,’ yet as she studied him, she didn’t feel anything to indicate that he was dangerous to her. Lexi looked at Maria, who calmly slid the file to the man as he sat down.
“Miss Shaeffer, my name is Nick Fury. I head an organization that could benefit greatly from your knowledge and experience.” He opened the file, and looked at the top page. “You’ve just finished a medical graduate program with a dual major in neurobiology and vertebrate physiology. What were you looking to do now that you’ve graduated?” he asked.
Lexi watched him warily, slowly sitting on the edge of her seat. “I’ve interned over the last few years, including all of the last two summers, as a physical therapist for veterans returning from the Middle East. I was hoping to continue that work. Did one of my professors recommend me to you?” Lexi asked, trying to get a look at the file across the table without looking too obvious.
“The doctors in that practice spoke very highly of you,” Nick said, ignoring her question and reviewing the page before him. “’Knowledge and compassion beyond her years,’” he read. “You were number four in your class, yet you’ve already submitted your doctoral thesis to the review board on the subject of applied robotics and its use in prosthetics. This is very impressive stuff.”
Lexi finally blinked, asking, “How do you know that? This is confidential material. Are you on the review board?”
“No, I’m not,” Nick replied. He continued to look at the file. “You are also fluent in Italian. That’s interesting. What other languages do you speak?”
“Excuse me?” Lexi asked, a little thrown by the change in subject.
“I’m guessing you speak French and Spanish as well,” he said, flipping through the file. “Yup. And Romanian and Portuguese. German, too. Nice.”
Lexi’s heart was beating hard. “I’m not sure how you know these things, but I think maybe you want someone else. I wasn’t even the valedictorian.”
“No,” Nick said, slowly, looking up to meet her gaze. “You were not. But you should have been. It looks as though you took great pains to ensure that you were not the valedictorian. Always keeping a 3.9 or better GPA, but making sure that a couple others did just a little better than you—hell, you tutored the valedictorian. She didn’t even thank you in her speech.”
Lexi sputtered a little. “How did—she wasn’t—no one was supposed to know that. Did she tell you that?”
“No,” Maria said. “It makes sense, though. We understand why you would want to keep a low profile.”
Lexi’s eyes widened as she looked at Maria. Nick continued looking at different pages.
“With this doctorate that you’ve applied for—and we can just assume that it will be accepted at this point, I think—how many is that for you? Five? Six? I don’t even think Tony Stark has that many honorary degrees.”
“I think she even beats Fitz and Simmons,” Maria said casually.
Lexi was rooted to her seat, hands shaking. “I—,“ she swallowed a lump in her throat, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Nick flipped through several pages in the file. “Robotics, biochemistry, biomedical engineering, computer sciences, and, of course, your medical degree. Are there more?”
Lexi shook her head, stammering, “I-I’m sorry, but I didn’t do all that.”
“Not under your current name, no,” Nick said, “but you’ve been very busy as…” he read the top of a page, “…Amanda Samuels…” he flipped to another page as Lexi’s blood turned to ice in her veins, “…Alicia Stanley…” he continued. He looked at Lexi over the top of the file. “…Alexa Shaeffer. You might want to consider different initials next time.”
Lexi grabbed her bag and her keys and jumped up from her seat, shoving her chair back with a loud scraping sound. She looked at the front door, but this Fury guy was between her and the exit. Nick stayed seated, again holding up his hand.
“Now calm down, calm down. We have no interest in exposing you, or harming you in any way. On the contrary, you could be of great service to us.”
“Who is ‘us,’ exactly?” Lexi asked, breathing hard, taking a step back toward the rear exit.
Maria turned her head to the side. “Steve?”
A blond man, seated by the front door, set down his book and stood up. His sheer mass would have been alarming to Lexi, but his genuinely friendly smile and kind-looking blue eyes locked onto hers. There was something familiar and somehow reassuring about him. He walked over, right hand extended.
“Hello, Miss Shaeffer, my name is Steve Rogers.”
Lexi backed up two more steps. “Captain America?” He nodded with a small smile, dropping his hand. “You might think I’m crazy, but just because you look like him doesn’t necessarily mean you are,” she said.
“Doesn’t sound crazy at all,” Fury said, leaning back in his chair. “Sounds like a good way to stay alive.”
“Not sure how I can prove I’m me, though,” Steve said, frowning.
“Punch a hole in that brick wall,” Lexi said, pointing over her shoulder.
“What? I can’t do that. That’s private property,” Steve said, looking shocked.
“Okay, you’ve convinced me,” Lexi said, extending her hand. Fury snorted a laugh. Steve gave her a wry smile, then shook her hand.
“But I don’t understand. What is this? What’s going on here?” Lexi said, when she released Steve’s hand. She was still standing by the table, even as Steve pulled a chair from another table over.
“Please, Miss Shaeffer, sit down and we’ll explain,” Steve said, pulling Lexi’s chair back from where she had pushed it. She dropped into her chair, still clutching her bag and keys, feeling utterly bewildered, and only then did Steve also sit.
Lexi looked around the coffee shop. “How many of these people are yours?” she asked.
“All of them, except the coffee guy, and we paid him to take a break for a few minutes.” Maria replied. Lexi looked over her shoulder at the couple in the corner, and they were looking right at her, smiling. The man gave a little wave with a pastry before taking a giant bite. The woman, a striking redhead, rolled her eyes. Lexi gave a small wave back, then looked over at the man with the laptop. He gave her a small nod, messy dark hair flopping onto his forehead, then went right back to his computer. Sure enough, the guy behind the counter was gone. The man with the stroller gave Lexi a big, happy smile.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
Lexi snorted somewhat indelicately. “This is insane, “ she said. She turned back to the three people seated at her table. They were all studying her, perhaps wondering if her flight response was going to kick in. “Should I even ask how or why you think I have anything to do with the information in that file?”
Nick looked at Lexi appraisingly. She was pretending to humor him, wondering if she could get him to doubt his own file. He understood her position—she had been hiding for a long time. She needed to be handled very carefully if they were going to be successful.
“Miss Shaeffer, you’re looking at the remains of what used to be S.H.I.E.L.D. After the fall of the Triskelion in D.C. last month, S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t officially exist any more. We need to start over, and we need to recruit from the outside. There are very few people we can trust, and for as long as you’ve been hiding, you can obviously keep a secret.”
Something clicked in Lexi’s head. “Wait. Are all these people,” she looked around, then focused on Nick and lowered her voice to a whisper, “the Avengers?” Steve nodded with a slightly embarrassed-looking half-smile.
“Not all of the Avengers, but yes, they are,” Nick said.
Lexi looked at Fury. Really looked at him. “I’m not admitting to anything,” Lexi began, “but can you tell me how you connected me to those other people in that file of yours?”
Maria spoke. “We were looking for someone who had experience in physical therapy—“
Nick cut in, indicating his injured arm, “In this line of work, some of us get a little banged up from time to time.”
Maria continued, ”—so when your thesis came up on our search, we looked into your background.”
“What?” exclaimed Lexi. “You investigated me?” She started to feel the panic rising again. “Who else knows?”
“No one else knows. It was just a basic background check at first,” Maria said. “We also ran a search for other documents with a similar writing style, to see if there were other submitted or published works under your name. We happened to get quite a few hits, all with a 99.7 per cent or higher match. We weren’t surprised at the matches, per se, but we were very surprised that they were all seemingly written by different people, years apart, on a wide variety of subjects. So we looked into these other writers, and we began to see a pattern.”
Nick picked up the story. “All of these documents, written by different doctoral candidates at different universities. Yet all of these candidates shared very similar backgrounds. All women, all 25 to 27 years old, all from midwestern states,” he looked at Lexi, “all children of military families, all now orphans with no immediate family.”
Lexi’s breathing became somewhat shallow and her chest tightened considerably. Her hands were clenched into fists in her lap.
Nick looked back at the file, but Lexi was fairly certain he had memorized it already and the papers were just for reference. “All of these women were clearly the brightest in their class, yet made sure they were not valedictorian; they all immediately went on to good careers, stayed for a few years,” at this point he closed the file, “then all died unexpectedly. Usually a car or boating accident.” He sat back in his chair, looking at Lexi. “Everything passed on to a distant relation that lived out of state through a dummy corporation. No muss, no fuss.” He slid the file back to Maria. “And, of course, they all had the same initials. That was the clincher.”
“Damn,” Lexi whispered. She sat, perfectly still, as her carefully constructed life was dissected right in front of her.
“Miss Shaeffer,” Steve said, leaning forward, “we promise, we’re not here to destroy your life. If you come work with us, you can stop hiding.”
Lexi looked at him, her eyes shining, her breathing erratic. She felt like she was having an anxiety attack. “You don’t understand,“ she gasped, “I have to hide. They’ve been looking for me for so long, I can’t let them catch me again—“
“Who’s looking for you?” Steve asked, looking concerned.
“The ‘scientists,’” Lexi laughed bitterly. “That’s what they called themselves, anyway. I don’t know who they really were, they never used names. It was always ‘Doctor’ and ‘Sir.’ They had accents, European accents. I was able to escape before they really started cutting me apart, but I know they’ve never stopped looking for me. I saw what they did to the others….” She stopped, closing her eyes.
Steve looked at Fury and Maria. “Sounds like Hydra. If they knew somehow that she was special, they would never stop looking for her.” Steve turned to look at Lexi. “If you don’t mind my asking, Miss Shaeffer, how long ago did you escape them?”
Lexi looked out the front window of the coffee shop at all the happily oblivious people walking by, wondering how all this had happened. Two hours ago, she was accepting another diploma, wondering what medical practice she would join. Now she was on the verge of exposing every secret she had guarded so desperately for so long. She suddenly felt exhausted, like the weight of every lie she had been carrying was pressing down on her shoulders.
Steve reached across the table, taking Lexi’s hand. “You can trust us, Alexa. We’re the good guys.” At that, Lexi felt a bubble of hysterical laughter try to work its way out. Steve must have seen that she was nearing her breaking point, because he added quickly, “I trust everyone in this room with my life. We need you, and I think you need us, too. Let us help you.”
Everything she needed to know was in that one simple touch. His intentions were good. “Please, call me Lexi,” she said softly, taking a shaky breath. “I escaped from the scientists when I was ten years old.” Steve’s eyes widened in shock. Lexi took a deep breath; looking from Steve, to Nick Fury, to Maria Hill, then back to Steve. “It’s not going to be easy for me to stay in one place. I’ve been hiding for nearly forty years.”
***