—chapter eight:
learn to keep
a lid on it

"ONE WRONG MOVE
AND THE REST GOES
BOOM."

Things were going smoothly. Or, as smoothly researching an otherworldly object with the potential to wipe out the planet if handled incorrectly could get.

     Jackson was finally getting around to wrapping her head around it, knowing that getting too curious about these things could lead to disaster for her and everyone on the ship if she put her nose in where it wasn't needed.

     She tried her absolute best to control the urge to divulge head-first into everything but it was more than difficult to fight against twenty-five years' worth of constant brain wiring and rewiring.

     It was how her brain worked. It was how she was trained.

     While Jackson was gripping and loosening her grip on an electric poker, Bruce looked over to her and asked, "You okay there, Jackson?"

     "You know, fighting your natural curiosity is harder than it looks. Especially if it's your main way of learning," she answered, shaking her head. "Kinda feels like a recovering drug addict going through withdrawals but obviously less severe."

     "No one's forcing you to change your learning habits," Bruce reasoned, "they're just asking that you direct your curiosity. . .elsewhere."

     "Because they don't trust me," Jackson deadpanned, gripping the poker a little harder. "Coulson doesn't trust me because I got too close to the Tesseract and because I screwed up the computer system. Even Loki thought that I was a witch from another planet who's come to take the Tesseract. Loki! Of all people, god!"

     Then there was the sound of a sharp snap. Jackson didn't even bother looking down to know that she had broken the poker in half. She let it go and let the remnants fall onto the lab table before raking her hands through her hair. She heaved a sigh and could feel her eyes beginning to burn.

    Bruce stared on in astonishment, mouth agape like a fish out of water. From what he's witnessed, Jackson rarely ever acted this way so he wondered why she snapped all of a sudden. He knew that there was a lot of power in one's emotions, as he was a living, breathing example of it. But he didn't think that Jackson would ever let them get to their boiling point in such a short amount of time.

     I've got a very high EQ, he remembered her saying, I read that it wasn't particularly great to be so sensitive, as it would make me hyperaware of everything that was going on around me. But I think it's nice.

     So Jackson didn't just snap because no one trusted her, she snapped because her brain was starting to become hyperaware of everything, thus making her overly sensitive.

     "Jackson," Bruce started timidly. Jackson turned to look at him, dead silent but her eyes were giving everything away. "I think you may wanna lie down for a while and cool off."

     "I'm fine," she retorted, clearly lying, her tone clipped and arms crossed. Her eyes had gone a little bloodshot, probably from trying to keep herself from crying. Usually, she'd cry and let it out but something about this occurrence didn't feel right. Her brain couldn't get a grip and figure out which emotion she was portraying so it went a little into overdrive.

     "No, you're not. Your brain's starting to overheat and you're becoming overly sensitive to all kinds of things. You're taking in too much all at once and it's only a matter of time before you really blow."

     Jackson just stared at him, her eyes flat. Shaking her head, she responded, "You're right. I'm- I'm in way over my head and I gotta lie down somewhere." She started to make her way out of the lab and began the trek to find someplace to sleep.

"Where's Marie?" Tony asked as he walked into the lab and into his workspace, taking notice of the missing person.

     "She, uh, went to go take a nap," Bruce answered, not bothering to look up from what he was looking at.

    "Her brain starting to fry?" That's what made Bruce lift his head. He took his glasses off and asked, "What?"

     "You know," Tony started to explain, waving his hands, "her head's reached full capacity and she can't take anything in anymore."

     "Not exactly, but you're not wrong, either. It hasn't reached full capacity but all of Jackson's emotions went into overdrive because she's gotten so aware of everyone else's feelings that they overrode her own."

     Tony nodded. "Uh-huh. And what happened to be the tip of the iceberg?"

     "How do you mean?"

     "Well, in order to even have Jackson go overboard, something must've have pushed her to the edge. What was it?"

     Bruce shifted his weight from one foot to the other, wringing his hands. "I, uh, may have told her I liked her."

     Tony's eyebrows rose, but deep down he was smug about it because he had somewhat called it. Noticing Tony's smug expression, Bruce quickly went on. "But then she went on about how no one trusted her because she had gotten too curious about everything that was going on. And then she broke the electric poker."

    "She broke the poker?" Tony asked, rather impressed, "She couldn't have. That thing is industrial—or was, as I should probably say. Although, she does have some of that serum in her."

    "She also said something about screwing up Coulson's computer system while she was getting tested," Bruce mumbled, scratching his head.

    "Really now?"

    Bruce nodded, rolling his in his lip as he did before releasing a tsk.

    "Guess you wish you that killed that cat right about now, don't ya?"

    "You were the one telling her to poke the bear!"

Jackson woke up to something that sounded suspiciously like a Norse hammer bringing brought down onto the table. Her head shot up and she looked up to see Thor wearing a solemn look on his face. He was worried. He was worried about her.

     "Why the fatigue, Lady Edwards?" he asked, taking a seat beside her. Jackson wiped a hand over her face and heaved a sigh. "I'm nursing an emotional hangover." She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head.

    When it looked like Thor wasn't following, she went on to explain. "I, uh, my emotions have the risk of getting to be too much sometimes and when that happens, my brain goes crazy and it makes me feel sick. It feels like the Earth spinning too fast and the Sun is burning way too bright."

    Thor nodded. "I am not entirely sure if I am able to relate to your encounter however, I know that if emotions are not handled properly, they have the ability to take control of us. Drowning in sadness, blinded by rage, eaten away by anxiety. That kind of thing."

    "Very true," Jackson agreed, turning to him, "I actually have the ability to feel other people's emotions. Controlling them? I'm not sure. I don't even know if I would want to be able to do that."

     "So you are an empath?" Thor inquired. Jackson nodded. "May I?"

    Thor nodded, leaning forward so Jackson could get a good look at his face. The amount of time it took to pinpoint his main emotion decreased dramatically as she said outright, "You're in distress about Loki. You've cared about him for so long so you don't know why he's acting like this."

    The light in Thor's eyes dimmed as Jackson pulled away. "He said that he got tired of living in my shadow, that he was the rightful heir to the throne of Asgard."

    "But isn't he adopted? How does that work?"

    "Loki is the son of Laufey, King of Jotunheim and the Ice Giants," Thor began, "so, by birthright, he is a prince. Ever since he had been adopted by Odin, my father, he had felt that he had the right to rule Asgard since he was no longer able to rule Jotunheim."

    "Can he? Rule Asgard, I mean," Jackson asked, her voice quiet even though there was no need to be. Thor shook his head. "No. As much as a brother he is to me, he does not contain any Asgard blood in his veins. Therefore, he cannot rule."

    "I did the same thing to Loki as I did to you and I found that he was jealous of you. He was jealous of all the attention you got when you two were children and this is his way of getting his own attention."

     "Are you perhaps magic by any chance, Lady Edwards?" Thor inquired, eyebrows risen.

     "I'm human. Which I guess could be the same thing."

     Thor nodded before touching Jackson's shoulder and leaving her be. Jackson took a look around the hull from where she was sitting, taking in all of the workers that were working double time trying to find the Tesseract. She rubbed at her temples, let out another sigh, and debated getting up and heading back to the lab. Deciding against it, she rested her head against the cool glass of the table and fell back asleep.

     Jackson had come to know that she was a dreamful sleeper, always seeing the most vivid things while she slept and remembering everything when she woke up. She would also rather die than admit that she had some rather. . .explicit scenes play around in her head at night from time to time. Thankfully, she was able to suppress those so she wouldn't be plagued to see them every now and again.

    This time, the same six, different-colored—blue, green, red, purple, orange, and yellow—blob shapes popped up into her mind, swirling around her psyche. She didn't know what they were or what they meant, some were more gem-shaped than others—the blue and the yellow—and the others were still kind of blobby-looking. There was something that started to look like a fist that was made from the dusty nebulae in her mind, the blobs of color each taking place in a knuckle-shaped hole.

     Then there was a snap, the nebula fist exploded, and Jackson woke up with a chill going down her spine as if she had just been doused in a tub full of ice water. This could not have been good. She took in a huge gulp of air to help slow the rate of her pounding heart as it rammed itself against her ribcage, just about ready to burst. She wrestled with the idea of telling someone what she dreamt of but she figured that there were bigger problems at stake, so she decided to put off telling anyone about her dream in technicolor, whatever the hell it was supposed to mean.

     She tried going back to sleep but it looked like she wasn't going to be sleeping again any time soon.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
things are getting . . . interesting . . .