The woman and the girl listen to the reading in the car. They dance to the music and have a great time.

“How old are you?” The girl asks.

“I’m eighteen. How old are you?” The woman says.

“Six.” The girl says.

Then the radio changes to someone talking in an urgent voice.

“...City near road 332, I repeat, bombers approaching Kansas City near road 332. Everyone must evacuate immediately.”

I sit in the hospital lounge, processing what Willows and Jackson told me. I should be getting to bed, but I can’t. They told me that if the bombs and explosions didn’t kill me, the shard of radioactive glass should have. And yet I sit here, feeling quite alive. Finally I get up and walk around the building, trying to find Fury. He wanted to see me anyways. I find him an hour later, in his office.

“You wanted to see me.” I say.

He turns away from his many computers.

”I didn’t know it would be this late. But ok. Sit down.” He says, and gestures to a chair. “So, Katie Wilson, was it? You look fresh, considering that you’ve been in the hospital for almost two months.” He says, looking me up and down.

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I realize he’s right. I did take a shower this morning, but I haven’t touched makeup or exercised at all. Strange. Fury waits for me to answer. When I don’t, he pulls up something on a tablet.

“You’ve heard of the Avengers, right?” He asks.

I nod. ”Of course, everyone has.” I say.

“They want to meet you.” He tells me.

I stand there in shock. “What? Why do they want to meet me?” I ask, and Fury shrugs.

“I have no idea. They just said that they’d like to.” He says.

”All of them want to?” I ask suspiciously.

He shrugs again.

“I guess they just want to know how you survived.” He says, and turns to his computer. “While you’re here, I should ask you. Are you going to move back into your old city? Or will you stay here?”

“I can’t go back to my old life. It would be too much. But I don’t have a job here.” I say, and think about my possibilities.

Fury stops me short.

”I can offer you a job here. You could be very useful. You’ll start training next week Monday, 8:00 AM, Training Hall. Give this”-he gives me an envelope-“to the Head Coach there. I’ll see you around, kid.” He says, and dismisses me before I can ask what job it is.

----------------------------------------

The next day I find a sticky note on my nightstand. Strategy room, 12:00. I have over five hours until then. So I go to the gym after a quick breakfast. I want to be in good shape when my training starts tomorrow. When I get there, there’s only a few people in the massive gym. And it’s not like any gym. It has obstacle courses, shooting points, stuff like that. I think I can even see a swimming pool.

I spend around two hours lifting weights, running, and swimming. I’m surprised at how easy it is. Ok, it’s not easy, but it’s not as hard as I expected. Weird. I spend the last hours before noon at the public library across the street. I borrow a few books and head back. I realize I’m 10 minutes late, so I run to the Strategy room with my bag of books.

“Sorry I’m la- hi.” I say.

Everyone else is already here.