Two - Alone

"Director Fury sent me down here to check on you, he said that you-" Steve paused and looked at the girl, who was currently hanging from the top of her cell, by her feet. He was amused at her way of trying to lighten the mood and become less bored. Jessica simply was like a spider, hanging from the ceiling as someone else stared and thought of what to do next.

"Just call him Nick, Director Fury is too formal," Jessica told him nonchalantly, not even looking up at the blond man. Steve seemed surprised. Her memories were gone, and yet...

"How'd you know his first name?" he asked, walking further into the room. Jessica looked at him as he did so.

"Natasha must have said it," she replied, shrugging at him. Her blank face told one thing, but Steve felt like somewhere deep down were her memories in tact, trying to break a stone wall. He looked at the open floor of the cell.

"Do you want me to close it?" Steve nodded toward the floor as she looked down at the exit for a moment, seemingly contemplating something.

"Well, I do not want to hang here all day," she admitted, watching as Steve went to the control panel and tried to remember Fury's instructions. "If you really want to be a soldier, Steve, you have to remember direction."

Steve looked back up at her with a small smile. Although she was HYDRA's soldier, he could tell there was a pure, selfless person in there somewhere.

"What?" she asked, looking at him with her head slightly tilted. She didn't understand Steve, so nice and understanding while everyone else called him a soldier. She wondered if he thought of himself as one. Soldiers were different from this man. They were cowards acting tough and getting angry.

"Nothing," he replied, looking back over at the tablet, "I think I remembered how to close it." After a few minutes, Jessica was sitting back in the middle of her cell and Steve was leaving the room.

~🕷~

Later on, Nick Fury came in to visit the girl, who was calmly sitting in her cell, staring ahead. When she noticed his presence, she looked up with a straight face and asked, "Well, when can I leave?"

"Why do you want to go back to HYDRA?" Nick asked in disgust, watching her closely.

"I was abandoned as a child, they saved me. Took me in. I owe them everything," Jessica admitted sounding like a programmed computer. The director shook his head and let out a sad sigh. He'd heard this so many times before.

"That's not true, Jessica," Fury told her, watching as her face became slightly angered.

"How would you know?" she asked in an agitated tone, glaring at him as he crossed his arms.

"How did you know my first name?" he asked, watching her open her mouth to lie. "And don't say you heard anyone say it, 'cause you didn't." Jessica thought for a moment, and it hurt. Her head hurt every time she drew up the name 'Nick Fury' and how she knew it so clearly. Every time she thought she had an explanation, she went blank.

"I don't know." Confusion sunk in and Jessica masked it with a straight face as she was taught. The man thought for a moment, wondering why she was being so- dare he say -human.

"Now, isn't that suspicious?" he asked her, watching as she stood up and looked at him, studying him. Something clicked in Fury's brain: Jessica wasn't in mission mode like she had been the last time he was in this situation and that's the cause of her small amount of emotion.

"I do not understand," Jessica admitted, waiting for an answer.

"Watch this," Fury lifted up an iPad and brought it to the glass, pointing the screen toward her. The video was playing, it was Fury in front of someone seemingly interrogating them.

"What's your name?" The person didn't answer, and Fury walked out of the room, becoming frustrated by their silence. They wouldn't answer any question he'd asked in the past hour. The person looked up at the camera emotionlessly and then the video stopped. It hurt Jessica's head just to watch the video, like she wasn't supposed to.

"That is not me, you manipulated the video," Jessica concluded, finding a way around her stuck situation. Seeing the video gave her a sense of familiarity, but. she couldn't see why.

"Is that right?" Fury asked, turning the iPad back around and sliding his finger on the screen. "Then, watch this." And he clicked play, turning it to face Jessica.

"A day in the life of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," the british accent behind the camera sounded familiar and deep, but feminine. The camera was pointed to another female agent, who was working at a desk. She looked up and smiled; it was Natasha.

"You know that you can't show that to anyone," Natasha told her, crossing her arms with an amused face.

"It's not for viewing purposes, Nat. I'll have this as a memory," the girl behind the camera explained. "Now, get back to work Agent Romanoff!" she mocked Fury. Natasha covered the camera and turned away, waiting for the other agent to shut it off. "Fine," she grumbled, turning the camera on herself.

It was Jessica, but she was so unfamiliar. Wearing a smile and playfully rolling her eyes. It was almost as if this Jessica and Arachne were two completely different people and they practically were. HYDRA manipulated her mind, memories and lessons erased, but some things stayed the same, not much. Her motives were different and so were her actions.

"Agent Romanoff doesn't like to be on camera, I'll show you my day instead." Jessica took the camera into another room, pointing the iPad and zooming on someone. "That's my new-ish boss, Director Fury. I practically owe him my life."

Then, she walked up to him as he was talking to Clint, and pointed the camera at the two. "Nick, Clint, what do you have to say about S.H.I.E.L.D?" Clint looked at her and shook his head, a small smile evident.

"That it will be firing you if you don't turn that camera off," Fury sassed in a half serious manner.

"Yikes," Jessica turned the camera around, "he's just grumpy because Clint is prettier than him." Then, she could hear Clint chuckle and Fury grumble something as he walked away.

"Just turn it off!" Jessica demanded, looking up from the iPad and at the non-digital Fury. Her head hurt bad. "If you all knew me, then why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"You wouldn't believe us. We knew that HYDRA had erased your memory," he explained, watching her slightly worried expression.

"How long was I there?" she asked, her expression going blank and her emotions numb.

"Which time?" He asked in return.

"I was there more than once?" she was shocked, but you couldn't tell by her voice or face.

"Twice. The first time was a few years, and the second time was... a few months," he answered, waiting for her to reply, but she didn't. She just turned around and crossed her arms. Throughout the whole conversation, her head ached, but she chose to ignore that. Fury caught the hint and left the room.

Jessica needed to be alone with her thoughts. Her whole life is a lie, but she still had some doubt in the director.

~🕷~

A/n
How was that?
What are your thoughts on the situation?