CHAPTER TWO
COOLEST JOB EVER!

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With a presumably busy day ahead of them, Estelle was up bright and early to have breakfast with her brother. He was meeting with their client to deliver the photographic proof they'd collected and she had burned her eyes for. It was her least favourite part of the job, delivering news to someone that their spouse was cheating was never easy.

It was part of why she hated taking the cases. Sure, a lot of the ones they took were insecure and cheating themselves and so she hated those ones overall but the rest were ones where genuine loving spouses were afraid the person they had committed themselves to was betraying them. And delivering the news that their worst fears were correct was always hard. Luckily for Estelle today, she had been the one to deliver the news last time. Well, that and it was Everett who had initially met the contact. It would go over better coming from the person the client had made contact with, not a stranger.

After her brother left, Estelle set about cleaning the living room. When she was finished vacuuming, she could smell beer again in her area rug so she moved the furniture until she could roll it up, deciding it would be best to send it to get cleaned. Just as she had finished rolling it up, her phone started ringing and she answered it immediately once she saw it was her brother.

He informed her he had talked to Nick Fury and they were to meet on the roof in an hour. Everett repeated the time over and over, clearly not believing her. She assured him he would be and they hung up.

"Perfect," she muttered to herself. "Fury can pay to get this smell out of my carpet."

Satisfied, she got up, moving the rolled up rug out of the way and putting all the furniture back where it was supposed to be. With that done, she put the rest of her cleaning supplies away and went to her room where she packed a bag. She didn't think they'd be gone for long so she packed light, just a couple changes of clothes and a few other things she'd need if she was going to be away from home.

When she was done, she looked at the clock and realized she still had plenty of time until it was time to go. After thinking about it for a moment, she grabbed her purse and headed out the door in the direction of the closest Starbucks. Everett might be annoyed when he came back and saw she'd gone, but he always did, so she wasn't all that concerned about it.

Estelle walked quickly down the streets, dodging into the Starbucks when she arrived. She cheered when she saw there were only two people in front of her in line. She'd be in and out of there in no time at all.

Hopping in line, Estelle bopped her head along to the music they were playing, always appreciating this location's choices. The person who had been at the front of the line paid and moved down to the pick-up counter. Estelle stepped up as the person ahead of her approached the cash register.

And that was when everything started to go downhill.

The person at the register had the longest order known to man and a complicated one at that. Estelle cursed and started tapping her foot in annoyance as she listened to the order continue to be listed off. After several minutes and having to amend the order twice, the person was finally done and moved down to the pick-up window to wait for their massive order.

Estelle gave the barista her drink order and a cheese danish for her brother, knowing it was one of the only things he liked here and would be angry with her for not being there already. She paid quickly and moved down the counter to wait for hers to be ready. She checked her phone and she cursed, there was a text from her brother saying he had taken her stuff up to the roof. No way she would be back in time now. Shit.

It felt like an eternity, but when her order was finally ready — thankfully before the longest order known to man — Estelle left and hurried back in the direction of the apartment. Knowing her brother had taken her things up to the roof for her, she headed directly up there, pausing just before opening the door to catch her breath and collect herself. Her brother hadn't believed she would be here on time and she'd assured him she would be. If he was going to say 'I told you so', she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of thinking she'd rushed.

Her eyes found her brother first when she opened the door and she hurried over to him. There was a man she didn't recognize standing with her brother and she gave them both a large smile, waving at them with her free hand. She could see Everett eyeing the drink in her hand with disdain but she chose to ignore that. She hoped she didn't still look out of breath.

"Sorry I'm late," Estelle apologized, tucking a strand of loose blonde hair behind her ear.

"What took you so long?" Everett asked.

"I was getting a Starbucks, duh," Estelle said, giving him a look. She then reached into her purse and pulled out a small brown bag, tossing it in his direction. "Here, I got you a cheese Danish. Figured it would make you less grumpy about my drink."

Everett rolled his eyes. "I'm not being grumpy."

"If you say so," she said, patting his cheek with a sarcastic smile before brushing by her brother and approaching the stranger she'd yet to be introduced to. "Hi, I'm Estelle Hargreeves. And you are?"

"Agent Phil Coulson," he introduced himself to her, a kind smile on his face. "I work with Director Nick Fury."

Estelle nodded and then turned wide-eyed toward the aircraft. "Woah, what the hell is that?"

Phil Coulson chuckled at the expression of child-like awe on her face. "That is a quinjet. Very fast. But don't worry, it's safe. It's the only way we'll be able to get to where we are going."

"Which is where, exactly?" Everett asked, bending down to pick up their bags as he followed Estelle and Agent Coulson toward the quinjet.

"You'll see," Coulson said. Estelle could tell her brother wasn't satisfied with that answer.

Inside the quinjet, there were more people waiting. Two of them were clearly the pilots as they were sitting up front. The other man was sitting at one of the chairs folded down along either wall of the quinjet and looking down at a tablet. Both Everett and Estelle immediately recognized him and not because it was Nick Fury.

No, it was not the stranger who had ruined her rug sitting just a few feet away from her in casual jeans and a brown leather jacket, his blond hair neatly styled. It was Captain America himself. She was sure her brother had been joking when he said Captain America would be more help to Fury.

"Oh, my God, you're..." Everett trailed off, unable to even finish his sentence out of pure shock of meeting the man.

Captain America stood up, extending his hand out towards Everett as he introduced himself, saying only his name, "Steve Rogers."

"Everett Hargreeves," he said. Her brother's thoughts were practically screaming at her about how amazed he was at what was happening. She was sure it was the only reason he didn't hear her own similar thoughts.

Finally, Estelle nudged her brother out of the way, doing her best to ignore his thoughts as she extended her own hand towards Steve Rogers and put on a winning smile for him. "Estelle Hargreeves. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you," Steve said with a polite smile.

With the introductions over with, the three of them and Phil Coulson sat down in the seats along both walls of the aircraft, Everett and Estelle sitting opposite of them. Even though she was a little upset she was being denied a chance to be closer to Captain America, she couldn't deny the view from across the quinjet was still a pretty good one.

Estelle was very appreciative of Doctor Erskine as she sat there in the quinjet. Whatever he had put in the super soldier serum was miraculous, really. She couldn't help but think the promotional images she'd seen of Captain America from during the war really did nothing for the figure that serum had gifted him with. And she really appreciated whoever had told him which size shirt he should buy because they had definitely told him at least one size too small.

She couldn't help the way her mind wandered as she sat there, looking at Steve Rogers. Well, until her brother nudged her in the ribs, that is. He had a disgusted look on his face and she instantly knew why. She had been thinking a little too loud. She simply shrugged her shoulders, not even a little bit embarrassed that her brother had heard what she was thinking.

"What?" she whispered. "Look at him!"

"You're unbelievable," Everett whispered back, shaking his head.

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E

stelle was impressed with the quinjet. They were going at very high speeds, but it was almost impossible to tell with how smooth the ride was. There was almost no turbulence the entire ride. Already, it was vastly different from their childhood, from the Umbrella Academy. When Everett had brought it up, she could help but agree. They were both thoroughly impressed by not just the aircraft but their company as well.

She could hardly take her eyes off Captain America. More than once, Everett had to telepathically scold her to stop being so creepy or else she'd scare the guy into never talking to them again, but she didn't listen. But how could she listen? He was her first real crush, she'd practically been in love with him since she was ten years old.

When they were kids, their robot mother, Grace, had told them stories about Captain America after they learned about him on the television one day. Estelle had immediately fallen in love. She would even have Grace take her to the library so she could look through the newspaper archives for articles regarding Captain America during the war. So, naturally, Everett had gotten his sister her very own Captain America trading cards for their birthday that year. Even now, all these years later, they were still her most treasured possession and she kept them safe in a box on the shelf in her closet with the few other items she had that were important enough to keep safe.

As they continued, Estelle found her eyes drawn to the tablet Steve was watching as opposed to the man himself, the sounds she could hear from it drawing her attention. Well, the sounds and the fact that the tablet he was watching videos on was see-through, meaning she could see what he was watching as a mirror image.

It was hard to make out when she was seeing the images backwards, but she was sure she caught sight of the distinctively green form of the Hulk. He wasn't easy to mistake for someone else. She remembered the night her and Everett had gotten home from a long day, turned on the tv and he'd been on practically every channel. She wondered why he was reviewing those videos when her and her brother hadn't been given anything to review beyond what they'd seen in the folder Fury had given them.

When the pilot told Coulson they were about forty minutes out, he stood up from where he'd been sitting and crossed over to where Steve was still sitting, his blue eyes fixed on the tablet.

"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked, looking up at Coulson.

"A lot of people were," Coulson told him. "You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

There was a roar from the tablet and the video of the Hulk that was still playing.

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve said.

"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Steve looked up at Coulson with a look of confusion which was all too endearing. "He's like a smart person."

Steve nodded in understanding.

"Although, there was one miracle that happened after you," Coulson said after a pregnant pause.

"You mean us?" she was quick to say.

Coulson's gaze shifted towards the twins, and he nodded in response. "That's right."

"Them?" Steve asked, curiously staring at the siblings across from him.

"Oh yeah," Coulson said. "October 1st, 1986. It's a day the whole world remembers."

Steve had all but forgotten about the tablet now, his attention entirely devoted to the twins. Estelle was not complaining. "What happened?"

"Forty three women who hadn't been pregnant gave birth," Everett explained. "One of them was our mom."

"But we aren't like the others born that day," Estelle said, eager to tell Captain America everything. "We were the only twins, which is definitely the reason we were adopted by our father. We were... fascinating to him."

Everett snorted. "That's one way of putting it."

"Our father didn't get all forty three children, though," Estelle said. "Only nine of us."

"They were also born with powers," Coulson added to the conversation. "Which is why they're here. Director Fury thought they'd be a good help to us."

"We were only twelve years old when our father introduced us to the world as the crime-fighting team known as The Umbrella Academy," Everett continued explaining. "Code names and everything."

"That's right," Estelle said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're in the presence of The Mirage and The Guardian, you know. There are a lot of people who would have been just as excited to meet us as they would you."

"Once upon a time they would have been, anyway," Everett corrected.

"Yeah, those days have passed..." Estelle said, thoughtfully, her eyes drifting downwards as memories of the past came rushing back full force, causing her to frown.

As though he could feel her emotions — which wouldn't have been all that surprising, everything considered — Everett also looked down with sadness in his eyes. Neither of them liked thinking about the past, especially certain specific periods of it. Their time out publicly as The Umbrella Academy was one of those times.

For several moments, it was just the dim sounds of the plane between them, but after a while, Coulson cleared his throat, taking the opportunity to continue speaking to Captain America.

"I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially," Coulson said, earning another incredibly adorable smile. 

The twins snapped out of it at the sound of his voice, simultaneously looking up from the floor to look at Steve and Coulson as the two men spoke.

"I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping," Coulson continued.

Steve looked down and Estelle herself had to fight down a laugh at how Coulson had fumbled his words. Clearly, she wasn't the only one onboard who was obsessed with Captain America.

As if you aren't just as obsessed, Everett teased her.

I'm not denying it, Estelle thought. But at least I can form proper sentences.

"I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice," Coulson immediately tried to correct.

Estelle turned to look at her brother with a smirk. See? Poor guy can't even talk.

Once more, Everett rolled his eyes at her.

Steve stood and crossed to stand just outside the small entrance to the cockpit, placing his arm up on the top of the archway. Estelle took a moment to appreciate his figure again now that he was standing up. He was broader than her brother, Luther, whose power was super strength. For a brief moment, she wondered who was stronger between her brother and Steve Rogers before it quickly morphed to imagining him picking her up to whisk her out of danger the way her all her brothers had at some point in their crime-fighting career.

Estelle winced when Everett suddenly nudged her in the ribs again and she shot him a dirty look he only returned with another disgusted look. She simply rolled her eyes at him.

"You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board," Coulson finished.

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job," Steve said.

"Oh, you are. Absolutely," Coulson assured him.

How could he not be? Estelle couldn't help thinking.

"Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input," Coulson said proudly.

"The uniform?" Steve asked. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?"

"Nothing wrong with something old fashioned," Estelle chimed in, standing up and crossing over to where Steve and Coulson were standing.

"Stell, I swear to god," Everett said from behind them, sounding a mix of embarrassed and annoyed.

Estelle ignored him.

"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned," Coulson said.

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F

orty minutes to the second after the pilot told them how far out they were, the quinjet landed on what Estelle could only think of as a fancier version of those military ships with the landing strips on the top. She had never seen one of those in person, only ever really seeing them in movies or on tv, but if they were anything to go by, this was much fancier than those.

When the ramp lowered, Everett stood and reached for their bags, but Coulson waved him off, assuring him that another agent would collect their things and bring it inside for them. Her brother still didn't look convinced by this so when he glanced at her, she shrugged and gave him her best reassuring look. Even if she didn't think she'd been all that reassuring, her brother seemed convinced and relented, moving away from their bags.

They exited out of the ship together, just behind Coulson and Steve and once they were out in the sun again, Estelle caught sight of a redheaded woman who was clearly heading towards them.

Finally, Estelle thought, this isn't going to be a boys club after all.

Next to her, Everett rolled his eyes. You are so annoying.

Says you.

As soon as Coulson caught sight of the redheaded woman, he turned towards her. "Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers and Everett and Estelle Hargreeves."

"Ma'am," Steve said.

"Hi," Romanoff said to him before turning to Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace."

"See you there," Coulson said and headed off.

Left with just Romanoff, Estelle was quick to step forward, extending a hand towards the woman.

"Estelle Hargreeves," she introduced with a smile. "I gotta say, I am so happy not to be the only woman here. I grew up with six brothers. Not an experience I wanted to repeat if I'm doing a repeat of the whole superhero team thing."

"Hey!" Everett protested.

"Natasha Romanoff," she replied, a smirk having grown on her face as Estelle talked.

"This is my brother, Everett," she said, gesturing at him. "He's probably my favourite brother."

"Probably?"

Estelle didn't look at him as she tried to fight down her smirk, very aware this only annoyed him further. This seemed to amuse Natasha, as the smirk on her face hadn't gone away as she watched this interaction go down. Natasha turned to look at Steve as they started walking away from the quinjet.

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha told him. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" Steve asked.

Estelle made a mental note to mention her own set to Coulson next time she saw him. She wondered if they had the same set and, if they didn't, what the different editions would look like. Maybe he'd be able to tell her where he found his collection.

"They're vintage," Natasha continued. "He's very proud."

"I don't know about you, but I like a good vintage," Estelle chimed in, turning her smile on Steve.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she heard her brother's voice echoing in her head. Oh my god, please shut the fuck up and stop flirting with Captain America.

Estelle turned and gave her brother a look, sticking her tongue out at him. In response, he simply rolled his eyes, clearly unphased. When the twins finally looked away from each other, they found themselves on the receiving end of two confused looks. She sometimes forgot not everyone knew that her and Everett could communicate in their heads. For so long, all their siblings had known they could do it and they really hadn't gotten close enough to anyone in the meantime for them to notice it.

"Uh," Natasha began, glancing between them in confusion, "everything... good?"

"It's nothing," Everett assured her.

"I wouldn't call it nothing," Estelle muttered.

Before anyone else could say another word, something piqued the interest of Captain America, as he walked away towards another man standing some ways away from them. They followed after him.

As they got closer, Estelle finally caught a glimpse of the man's face and her eyes widened when she realized it was Bruce Banner. Fury had even recruited the Hulk for this. It made part of her worried it was worse than she had initially thought and they were in over their heads, but the other part of her was still freaking out about all the people they were meeting.

"Dr. Banner," Steve greeted, extending his hand towards the man.

"Oh, yeah. Hi," Bruce responded, shaking Steve's hand. "They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube," Steve said.

"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce wondered, sounding apprehensive.

Steve quirked a smile. "Only word I care about."

God, he's so perfect, Estelle thought.

Bruce seemed to appreciate the sentiment and nodded before looking around and back at Steve. "It must be strange for you, all of this."

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," Steve replied, staring off in the distance to where a group of men in training are running laps, a faraway look in his eyes as he seemed to be reminiscing about the days he spent in the army.

"Gentlemen, Miss Hargreeves," Natasha interrupted, arms crossed in front of her. "You might want to step inside. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe.

Estelle had all of one second to wonder about what was going to make it hard to breathe when the entire carrier began to shake. Her brother grabbed her arm to help steady her as they looked around. The entire crew — excluding Natasha — were either running towards the nearest door to go inside or pulling on oxygen masks.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked.

"Really? They wanted me in a submerged,  pressurized metal container?" Bruce said incredulously, sarcasm laced in his voice.

The four of them — Steve, Bruce and the twins — curiously made their way towards the edge of the carrier. They peered down over the edge, expecting to see the carrier making preparations to go underwater. Instead, they witnessed as the carrier began to rise above the water, an engine emerging from beneath the water's surface as what they once believed was a typical aircraft carrier began taking flight.

The Hargreeves twins and Steve were in complete awe as they were sprayed with some water from the engine that'd once been completely under water. Beside them, Bruce smiled in disbelief, shaking his head.

"Oh, no," he said with even more sarcasm than before. "This is much worse."

Everett and Estelle turned towards each other after a moment, sharing big goofy smiles because this was, without a doubt, the coolest fucking thing they have ever seen. Estelle wrapped her arm around his and leaned into him. In response, Everett wrapped an arm around her shoulders. And then, in unison, they thought, Coolest job ever!

Natasha let them have a few more seconds to stare awestruck at the engine before insisting they go inside, seeing as none of them had oxygen masks and would need to remain indoors for their own safety.

Reluctantly, they all followed her inside where Natasha began leading them down various halls until eventually, two doors opened up and they had entered the bridge of the ship. Immediately, Everett noticed Nick Fury standing at the command center, with Phil Coulson at a computer nearby.

They walked further through the bridge, awestruck once more. Everett and Estelle found themselves staring out the massive window that covered a majority of the room, blown away by the view.

"This is..." Estelle trailed off, lost for words.

"I know," Everett breathed.

They eventually looked away from the glorious view, watching as Steve approached Nick Fury and pulled out some money, handing it over to him. With a faint smile, Fury took the money and pocketed it. Estelle knew a bet when she saw one, and wondered why Steve owed a man like Fury money.

Fury then crossed the room to approach Bruce Banner, extending a hand towards him, which the doctor reluctantly shook. "Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce replied. "So, uh... how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear," Fury told him.

"Oh yeah, where are you with that?" Bruce asked curiously.

Fury turned towards Agent Coulson to explain. Nearby, Natasha crouched down to look at a computer screen, reaching out and swiping to the left.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Coulson explained. "Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha said worriedly from her crouched position.

Bruce removed his jacket, rolling up the sleeves of his buttoned shirt. "You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury inquired.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays," Bruce instructed. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places." He finished rolling up his sleeves and tossed his jacket over his arm. "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

Fury nodded in response. "Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please."

Natasha stood from her crouched position, walking off towards a door behind them, leading Bruce down the hall.

"You're gonna love it, Doc," she told him. "We got all the toys."

Seeing Fury now standing alone, an idea came to mind and a smirk grew on Estelle's face. She left her brother's side, walking towards Fury as if she was on a mission. Everett followed behind, remaining in ear-shot.

Once she reached him, she crossed her arms over her chest. "My rug still smells of beer."

Fury raised a brow at her in surprise. She heard her brother sigh from behind her, but Estelle didn't waiver, she simply continued to stare at Fury expectantly.

"It's gonna have to be sent off to be cleaned properly," Estelle continued. "I figure anyone who can afford a big, fancy ship like this could afford to have one small area rug cleaned."

"You want me to pay for your carpet to get cleaned?" Fury asked, as though he wasn't sure he heard her correctly.

"My father could have afforded to have it cleaned and he doesn't have one of these fancy ships," Estelle said, matter-of-factly. "He doesn't even have a small one."

Fury laughed, whether in amusement or not, it was hard to tell, but he shook his head and reached into his jacket, pulling out a business card and handing it over to her.

"You call that number after we've stopped the crazy god and we'll see about getting your carpet cleaned," Fury told her before walking off, shaking his head some more, most likely in disbelief of what just happened.

Estelle strolled back over to her brother, waving the card around like she'd won the lottery. "And just like that, dear brother, my favourite area rug will be good as new and I won't have to replace it, after all."

"You honestly believe he's going to help you get the rug sent out to be cleaned?" Everett asked in disbelief. "Honestly, Stell, he has far more important matters."

"Why else would he give me this card?"

"To shut you up?" Everett guessed.

She playfully hit his arm. "You're just jealous because Nick Fury likes me better."

He raised a brow at her. "In what world does Nick Fury like you better than me when all you've done is yell at him about a rug?"

"Everyone likes me better than you," Estelle said with a teasing smile. "It's common knowledge. Just ask anyone."

"You really are so annoying," Everett complained.

"So I've heard," Estelle said, her smile widening into a full blown grin. "But only by you, which only further proves my point. Face it, loser, people love me."