┌───────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────┐

"𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙠𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙨𝙨."

└─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────┘

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

The evacuation alarms begin to blare as Brock crouches down with Juniper glued to his side. He rounds the corner and stabs two men before shooting at a man and woman when suddenly his earpiece goes off.

"Sir, the Council's been breached."

Juniper snatches her opportunity. She breathes in sharply and snaps her thumbs, biting down on the inside of her cheek so hard she takes a chunk flesh, copper coating her tongue. She keeps both thumbs in place as she exhales slowly, holding in any possible tears as she stretches her neck from side to side.

"Repeat, Dispatch." Brock hollers back.

"Black Widow's up there." The man informs.

"Headed up." Brock says, turning to his wife. "Let's go." He grabs her arm while kicking the stairwell door open in one swift motion.

"I have eyes on Fox." Maria notifies, catching Brock and Juniper climbing the stairs on her screen. "Falcon?"

"Yeah?" Sam's voice comes through.

"Rumlow's got Juniper. He's headed for the Council." She tells him, though she's expecting Juniper will pull something a trick or two out of her back pocket before then, but calling for back up never hurts, just to be safe. Maria already almost lost Nick, she's not taking anymore chances.

"I'm on it." Sam sighs, unzipping his vest.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

"I'm on 41, headed toward the southwest stairwell." Rumlow radio's as he pushes through the door, releasing Juniper for a split moment.

Now.

She slides off her hand cuffs.

"Baby, let's go." He turns around to find her holding up her cuffs as she dangles them in her hand. He sighs, tilting his head. "Don't be stupid."

She barks out a laugh. "I'm done taking orders from you." She kicks him in the stomach sending him backwards, then immediately strikes him across the face with her cuffs.

He raises his hand up to his cheek before looking up at her in shock.

"You've always known I could kick you ass." She states, stepping forward to stand over him.

"Don't—" He says weakly as he tries leaning up until Juniper places her foot onto his chest, pulling the gun she swiped off of him out of waistband.

"Stay down." She glares down at him, her chin trembling slightly.

Suddenly the door burst open and Juniper snaps her head to find Sam entering the room.

"Looks like you don't need me, huh?" He nods to her in respect which Brock uses to swipe Juniper's legs out from under her and he rolls away, jumping to his feet. She gazes up at him, unwavering, as he points his gun at her before pressing his boot slightly into her throat.

"Hey-" Sam snaps, stepping forward.

"Sam, don't." Juniper warns without breaking eye contact, raising her chin. "Do it." She baits him as his hand trembles slightly. Her hand slowly slips into her pocket for her lipstick. "Do. It. Brock." His name rolls off her tongue that she once moaned. Said I love you to. Spoke during her vows.

Now the name was merely poison on her tongue.

She catches a glimpse of Sam begging to inch forward and she gives him the tiniest subtle shake of her head no. Brock glances over his shoulder at Sam, scoffing as he shakes his head. "You're a fucking whore." The gun "You're a fucking whore! Fuck you!"

Juniper giggles, manically calm. "He really intimidates you, doesn't he?" She asks simply. "How cute." Something inside of him snaps. His wife, his supposedly other half didn't choose him. He leans down, heaving her up my her throat and she takes her opportunity to strike.

Juniper takes her armed lipstick, the same one she used on Brock in the elevator, and stabs the small but sharp knife laced with a little poison, not deadly merely to slow a person down, into the side of Brock's leg as she's yanked up. He grunts in pain and as he raises her up by the throat she swings her leg over his shoulder, clasping it around his neck, the pressure forcing him down to one knee.

"Damn." Sam whistles quietly to himself. Safe to say she did in fact not need his help.

She twists one of his arms behind his back, holding down the free one with one foot while she presses her other foot on the back of his neck.

"We're done, Brock, it's over." Her voice claims strongly. "You know, you were right about one thing." A smirk graces her lips. "I have always been a better fighter than you."

'I'd let a woman like you beat my ass in a fight any day.' She remembers him cockily telling her after she took his ass down to the mat the first day they met. She never thought it'd come to this. She never thought her marriage would end on the opposing side of her husband, with her pinning him down as S.H.I.E.L.D. is about to be set aflame. Her mother's legacy, her livelihood, everything she's wanted since she was a little girl... destroyed in a matter of days. But she knew her and Brock's relationship was ruined far before then. She just didn't want to admit it to herself.

Sharon, Laura, Isla, Natasha... they were all right about him. And she despised it. Because it made her look foolish. It made her wrong.

"P-please, baby." Brock struggles to get out his words in the current position he's in- lying in the bed he made. "I-I'm sorry."

"You're not fucking sorry!" Juniper raises her voice, pressing her foot further into his neck.

"Ah-"

"Man, shut the hell up." Sam finally tells him off.

Brock chokes out a scoffing-laugh. "You're out of your depth kid."

Sam shakes his head going to say something else when he notices something out of his peripheral vision and fully turns to the large glass window, eyes widening. He's over to Juniper in two strides.

"We gotta go." He grabs her elbow.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

𝟶ʙᴜᴛᴛᴇʀʙɪsᴄᴜɪᴛ𝟽 sᴘᴇᴀᴋs!

Hello, hellooo... and welcome back to THOA14 ;)

So sorry it's been a hot minute... the end of May was crazy in the best possible way & I'm ngl I was stuck on this chap for a min bc this is the first chapter I've actually had to write in over a year & not just edit lmao, so it took some time to actually get out what I've had planned/envisioned for this scene for QUITE some timeee... BUT I AM SO HAPPY WITH HOW IT TURNED OUTTT!!

Sam rlly just third-wheeled Juniper & Brock's marital spat lmao, love that for him, & he stood up for his new bestie IMMEDIATELY!! No hesitation, we love him for that !!

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapterrr & Juniper finally showing tf up & why she is Agent 14, yes ma'ammmm!!! We love to see it !! But I also loved adding that this was hard for her, tho he's a piece of shit, Brock's still her husband & I loved getting to show that for her, I just feel like it adds so much depth to her character!!!

Also, WE HIT 800+ READS ON THIS BOOKKK, HOLY SH!T, HELLO?!?! Thank y'all so muchh for reading & I'm so excited that more ppl are discovering this book!! Until next timeee, mwah!!