2.

Well, thank you for the reviews! Here's the second chapter, I hope you like!

'I imagine you've heard of Tony Stark.' Nick began immediately.

'Yes.'

'Well, recently he fished something interesting out of the ocean. We simply can't figure it out. Agent Romanoff recommended you because you are an expert in gamma radiation. One of the best.'

'Not the best.' Nikita chipped in.

'No,' Nick smiled grimly, 'we know who the best is, and hopefully we won't need him. You're also very familiar with almost every form of energy known to man.'

'Yup.' Nikita replied cheerfully.

'Then I think you can help us.' Nick led her along a narrow bridge across a vast warehouse. He stopped in the middle and pointed down. Nikita almost imperceptibly tightened her jaw. Dozens of white-coated men and women rushed around like ants, zigzagging around large complicated machines, all of which were whirring and clacking at top speed. Nikita's eyes flicked around swiftly, trying to make sense of the chaos. In the centre of the room, surrounded by all sorts of scanners and monitors and a little crowd of white-coated scientists, there was a smallish blue cube. Nikita couldn't fathom what it was, but she had a feeling it was alive, somehow. It glowed and hummed, refusing to give up its secrets to the desperate scientists milling around it.

'That's why you've called me here.' she said aloud, pointing at the blue cube. Surprise flickered across Nick's face, but he quickly banished it.

'Yes. Well done, Dr Romanoff. The blue cube is what we fished out of the sea. It's called the Tesseract.'

'What is it?'

'An extraterrestrial energy source.'

'How did it come to be here?'

'We don't know. It was found in the 1940s, and we sunk it in the ocean. As I said, it was recently fished up.'

Several questions flicked through Nikita's mind. Why did you sink it? Why on earth did you drag it up again?

'What are you going to use it for?' she asked aloud. Plenty of time to find out the answers to the other questions later. She didn't imagine she'd get a satisfactory answer by asking Fury anyway.

'The Tesseract could be a source for clean, free energy for all mankind for millenniums to come.' He replied brusquely.

Liar. Nikita thought. You're a liar. Her brain ticked as she continued to study the scene below. If he's lied to me about what they're using it for, then clearly they plan to really use it for something bad, something they know I'd refuse to help them with. What? If it really is an energy source – it must be. They'd know I'd find out straightaway if it wasn't – then my best guess would be that they want to use it to make nuclear weapons. Just what the world needs. More nuclear weapons. Out of her peripheral vision she noticed Clint and Maria still standing there, stock still. Do they know? Does Natasha know?

She glanced up briefly to see Nick Fury studying her intently. Nikita was suddenly very aware of how high this bridge was. The appeared to be a locked iron gate at the opposite end of the bridge, and Clint and Maria were blocking the other end. Nick Fury stood between her and the opposite gate. Nikita suddenly had a feeling that to refuse this little job offer would be extremely unwise. Of course, this wouldn't be the first time she'd been threatened, directly or indirectly, from prospective employers. But secretly she was curious. What was this Tesseract? What plans did they have for it? If it really was extraterrestrial, then they were on risky ground.

'Ok. I'll do it.'

Nick instructed Clint to take her down and introduce her to the head scientist. Maria left with Fury, and Nikita could almost feel the hostility from the other woman's eyes boring into her.

The machines seemed much bigger and noisier up close. Nikita mentally listed what each one was specifically for, and what correlation it might have to the cube. That way she figured out for herself practically everything that had been learned so far about the Tesseract.

'This is Dr Erik Selvig,' Clint pointed to a grey-haired man standing by himself with folded arms.

'Dr Selvig,' he called, 'This is Dr Nikita Romanoff.'

'Ah yes,' Dr Selvig approached them and smilingly extended his hand. 'We've been expecting you, Dr Romanoff. Your sister speaks highly of you.'

Nikita gave a half-smile. 'I'm sure. Please call me Nikita. So, what's going on here?' she pointed to a machine which was beeping frantically.

'Well – call me Erik, by the way – yes, this is a…' he launched into a long scientific explanation. Clint rolled his eyes and moved away.

Erik and Nikita got on well. He found her well-informed and deeply interested in just about everything. He found he preferred her to Natasha. Nikita was less perfect, more human. She wasn't cool and calm and in control. She was clumsy; she knocked things over with her elbow and tripped over and the like. She even laughed at his spectacularly bad jokes.

Days passed and turned into weeks. Nikita lived on the premises and ate, breathed and slept her work. She hadn't spoken to Maria Hill or Fury since the first day. She'd seen them again, from a distance. Fury looked through her and Maria tried to pretend she couldn't remember Nikita. Clint seemed to spend his time perched up out of sight, she could usually spot him, and he always seemed to be watching her intently. They got on well; Nikita soon got used to his gruff, sharp manner. He even brought her a cup of tea every now and again (she didn't like coffee).

Erik watched and smiled.

'Did you know agent Barton before you came here?' he asked one day.

Nikita shook her head. 'I didn't know anyone here.'

'Well, he seems to like you. And he's not a particularly friendly person.'

'I suppose I remind him of Natasha. I heard they're pretty close.'

Erik shrugged. 'Not that close.' Truth be told, he thought agent Romanoff would be rather displeased with how much Clint seemed to like Nikita, when she finally came back. Natasha had had monopoly of Barton for far too long. She'd always taken him for granted, and Erik felt almost sorry for Clint. He didn't really deserve to be treated like that, and after all he'd done for Natasha.

'I meant to ask you,' he began, changing the subject, 'doesn't your name mean something in Russian? I'm presuming you were born in Russia, like agent Romanoff.'

Erik would never have dared to even ask that sort of question to Natasha or Clint, but he felt comfortable with Nikita.

'Yes, I lived there till I was…nearly eight, I think.' She replied thoughtfully. 'After…well, then I lived with my father in London. My name means 'people's victory'. It's a Russian boy's name.'

Erik snorted.

'It's not funny! My mother was absolutely convinced I was going to be a boy. She picked the name, got all the blue clothes and little toy cars and goodness knows what else. Then I came along, and surprise! Mama decided to stick with Nikita, and every single photograph of me when I was a child is me in blue with short hair.'

Nikita grinned, Erik was laughing himself sick.

'Fortunately,' she continued, 'my favourite colour is blue, and I was never a girly girl.'

Clint was poised on a narrow railing high up, directly above Erik and Nikita. He wasn't eavesdropping exactly, but he couldn't help overhearing. He gave a little smile to himself. The weeks he'd spent getting to know Nikita…well, he'd enjoyed himself more than he had for a long time. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but he didn't want Nikita to go. He wasn't just being nice to her because Natasha asked him to; he was getting to know Nikita for her own sake. Uninvited, a little voice piped up in the back of his head, 'You haven't thought about Tasha at all since she's been here.'

He shook his head to get rid of the annoying voice. Then his attention was distracted by the cube. What distracted him he couldn't tell. Nothing was changed, yet the atmosphere seemed…he couldn't put his finger on it. 'Better keep an eye on that cube.' Clint thought.