Chapter Text
Rain was pouring down over the city and the wind was tickling the color changing leaves in the trees. Her favorite temperature in her favorite season. Robin knew today was going to be a good one. The sun wasn't even up yet but she was. Actually she hasn't gone to sleep since she woke up the day before, studying neuroscience biology.
Neuroscience was the worst class she ever took. Especially in her last year in university. She wanted to be ahead of the class . She wanted to understand more about herself. She looked at her watch, 6:30. She should get ready for class.
An hour later, Robin was walking through the early morning traffic. Walking was a way for her to help her think and be sane. Headphone on her ears, blasting her favorite music, the only way she could cover the voices in her head. She came to a busy intersection but the pedestrian light just turned red. The cars were driving fast, always in a hurry to arrive on time at their destination and the people were piling up behind her, on the sidewalk.
He was walking calmly, the rain never bothered him before, so why would it now? For once in the last six months, he wasn't hunted. He just needed to stay low and everything was going to be alright. And that day wasn't gonna be different. Until he saw her.
When he got to the intersection, there were already a lot of people waiting to cross the intersection. He looked around at the men and women, intrigued. There was an old couple with their groceries bags, a few teenagers going to school, business men and women in their finest wardrobe and his attention got caught by a young woman with a black baseball cap in front of everyone. Her short brown hair was drenched in rain water but it didn't seem to bother her much. A car honked on their right, making her look at it. A shiver passed in the man's spine when he saw her face. She was beautiful. It sure was a long time since the man saw such beauty in a woman. But he had a rule, only one; never fall in love. Why? Because he decided so after he found out he was created to destroy. Love hasn't been part of his life since over seventy years ago.
The light was still red and the teenagers were inpatient to cross. They started to push each other as a game. The man knew this was going to end badly. One of the gang pushed his friend too hard and he fell on the young woman, making her fall in the busy street. He didn't think twice. He ran through the crowd, pushing everyone off his path.
Robin was still on her knees, when a delivery truck driver honked as he saw her laying in the middle of the street. At the sound of the honk, she lifted her head and knew what was going to happen. People were screaming, yelling at her to get up and run but she knew she didn't have time. She closed her eyes and waited for the fatal shock to hit her. So much for a good day, she thought. In a fraction of a second, she felt a bump in her ribs and a cold grip on her left arm as she was taken to the other side of the street. When everything stopped moving, she opened her eyes to see a young man with a grey baseball cap over his brown hair, kneeling next to her, breathing heavily. He did look familiar but she couldn't say who he was.
Her headphone fell off during the accident and the voices started to fill her head, but one came through stronger than the others.
She's safe.
He lifted his eyes toward her, looking at her seriously. She knew something was wrong when she saw a little light flash in his eyes.
In the short time their eyes met, a flood of information hit her. She saw a lab and what seemed to be researchers. She heard a painful screaming. Male screams. She felt scared and the second the screaming stopped, she felt nothing, no emotions. Then a symbol appeared, an octopus with a skull for a head and the name HYDRA. Suddenly she was back on the wet sidewalk, the handsome stranger still in front of her, eyes locked into hers.
Realizing something happened by the look in her eyes, he got up and ran away from her before she could say anything.
"Wait..." She let out in a breath, still shocked by the event.
The light went green letting everyone cross the street. The people, seeing she was ok, were just passing by Robin, who was absorbed in her thoughts.
After a minute to regain her right mind, Robin got up and went to school. She was all wet from the rain but got time to change when she arrived. She went straight to the girls locker room at the university gym. She hoped there wasn't anyone in the locker room as every time people saw her, they always treated her differently because of her condition.
Most of her life was controlled by the voices. To be more precise, one day she talked to her mother about hearing people talk in her head. She was only eight years old. What she didn't tell her mother was that she could hear them for as long as she can remember. Her mother went to see a doctor who prescribed schizophrenia medication. She was on the drugs for only four months, her mother took her off of them when she realized her daughter wasn't herself. She looked like she was under the influence of bad drugs all the time. Her mother couldn't bear it. The first few hours after missing a dose were the worst withdrawal she could ever get through. Voices were rushing inside her head all at once. It took her a week to get back to normal. Then her mother tried other ways to cover the voice. Robin found relief when she was listening to music, blasting it loud enough. With the years, she managed to work on her mind and concentrate on one voice at the time, so in class she could just listen to the teacher. It wasn't easy but she made it through ten years of young adults' dirty minds in university already.
Ten years was a long time in university but she started as a bachelor in computer and informatics because she enjoyed it a lot in high school. One of the few things she spent most of her time doing as a loner. Alone meant no voices and no voices meant peace in her mind. So she learned how to hack any system and she loved it. Now she was working on her neuroscience masters, trying to figure out why she can hear voices, what was actually happening to her. But to this day, she never found the answer.
She changed quickly while thinking about that man who saved her. Why did he run? He had that look before he left in a hurry. Was she that ugly, awful? She knew she wasn't the most beautiful woman but still... Someone tapped her on the shoulder, getting her out of her thoughts.
"Hey Robin! You look like you've been in the Titanic while it sank... Don't you have an umbrella?"
"Cooper! What the hell are you doing in the girls locker room?"
"Locker room? You're not in the locker room anymore."
She looked around and realized she was in the hallway, near her biology class.
"Are you okay?" Cooper asked his friend, worried.
"I... Almost got hit by a truck..."
"Your music again?"
"No, I got pushed... But some guy, he got me out of the way..."
"You should stop blasting that music in your ears. Mostly because it's not good for them. You wanna be deaf at 40?" He gave her an insistent look. "That guy, was he cute?" He winked at her, changing the subject.
She didn't answer, letting him know that she found him attractive as her red cheeks betrayed her.
"I need his name."
"I don't know, he left before I could even say thanks. He did look familiar but I can't figure out who he is..."
"You need to find him. And maybe you can thank him the right way." He smirked. "By the way, Christina wants you to come for dinner tomorrow."
"I don't know, Cooper. I have a lot of homework and studying to do."
"Ok. Ok, but if you change your mind let me know."
"I'll let you know. I gotta go or I'm gonna be late again."
"I'll see you later then."
After he left her on the sidewalk, he felt stressed out. She looked straight into his eyes after the incident and he heard a female voice inside his head, one he never heard before.
HYDRA?
He left in a hurry at those words.
Since that morning, he felt as if someone was following him. Did it mean they found him? He pushed the thought away. Still, something was special about her. With the look she gave him, she seemed to have seen something in him. She didn't seem like an agent from HYDRA but then again it's the enemy. They looked like any regular person. He had to make sure she wasn't a threat. He decided to follow her.
He sat at a coffee shop next to the intersection where he pushed her out of the way. He waited for hours to see her pass by. And she did walk past him, after a long day of classes. He followed her and she never even tried to hide, she led him straight to her apartment. He sat on top of the building next door and watched her all night until she went to sleep. All she did was read books, study maybe. She didn't seem like a threat.
The next morning, he waited for her to leave for school and he walked into her apartment. He decided to check her place for clues. He saw books and CD's by the douzaine. It was a small apartment, one room, a kitchen and a bathroom. He didn't find anything so he decided to stay and wait for her to clear his mind from all the suspicion. He sat in her lazy boy and waited, again, for hours.
It was another long day, a lot learned and as much homework and studying added to the ones before. She knew she couldn't go to dinner at Cooper's place. She texted him and headed straight to her apartment. She arrived home an hour later, wet again. She closed the door behind her and let her bag fall on the floor. She took her shirt off and one of her earbuds fell on the floor. She felt an air draft and realized she had left the window open all day. Walking towards her window to close it, the music wasn't playing as loud as usual and a familiar voice came through her mind.
Stop looking.
Scared, she stopped abruptly on her way to the window. The voice was so loud, it meant it was close by. She waited a second and the voice seemed to have stopped. Could be the neighbor, she thought, trying to calm herself. She brushed the voice off and closed the window. She put back her fallen earbuds in her ear and blasted more music. She walked in her wardrobe to find dried clothes when she suddenly recognized the voice as the one from the man who saved her earlier. She found it odd as she had never heard him before the accident. But then a mixture of emotions flew inside of her, the same mixed feelings from the day before. She scanned the room rapidly and her eyes stopped on a dark figure sitting on her chair in the bedroom. She let out a scream, scared to death, trying to cover her almost naked chest. The figure jumped on her and covered her mouth to shut her up. It didn't seem interested in her being half naked. He pushed her back against the wall with something that felt really cold on her skin.
"Shut up. I just want you to tell me how you know about Hydra."