THERAPIST | JACK THOMPSON

TWENTY FOUR

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Jack had his arm casually slung over Evelyn's shoulder, her hand resting on his chest. To someone just passing by, they would look like a happy perfect couple, especially with the way they were looking at one another. But to the agents, they were just Jack and Evelyn.

"Hey, look, Agent Sousa found Howard Stark." Jack taunted as he motioned to Sousa who was leading a man into the interrogation room. "We can all rest now!" He joked as all the other agents laughed.

Evelyn gave Jack a disappointed look, rolling her eyes at the man. Only for Jack to out his bottom lip and give her the puppy dog eyes that she just couldn't resist.

"Doc, I need your assistance." Sousa said, causing Evelyn to pull away from Jack's side to go and help the man.

Jack furrowed his brows and grabbed Evelyn's hand, pulling her behind him before leaning on the wall as Sousa shut the door to the interrogation room.

"No wonder we couldn't find him. He looks rough." Jack commented, shaking his head to Evelyn, she wasn't going to go in there with a complete stranger, who knew what he would do. "What are you doing, Sousa?"

"He may have seen something at the wharf before we arrived." Sousa responded, he then turned to look at Evelyn. "I need you to go in and do an assessment."

Evelyn nodded, she was more than happy to help, but it appeared Jack had other ideas as his grip tightened.

"The only thing that that man has seen is the bottom of a bottle. Evie isn't going in there." Jack paused before going to walk off, he slapped Sousa's arm. "Great job."

The girl made no effort to move, instead she just raised her brows and looked towards Jack. The man pulled himself to a stop as the girl didn't move.

"Agent Thompson, my job is to assess the people who need assessing as well as he there for people to talk to." Evelyn paused, she spoke softly so that she didn't appear to be undermining him. "I'm going to do my job."

With that, Evelyn pulled her hand out of Jack's before entering the room. She smiled towards Frank as she took a seat. She linked her hands together and leant forward slightly.

"Good afternoon, Frank." Evelyn smiled sweetly. She knew that both Jack and Sousa would be watching from the interrogation room. "I'm Doctor Barnes, but you can call me Evelyn."

"Look. Doc. I don't talk to cops." Frank said. Evelyn had to hold her breath so that she didn't inhale his foul smell.

"It's a good thing that I'm a doctor then." Evelyn chuckled to herself. "Now, Frank, Agent Sousa has tasked me with assessing your mental state. You were in the army, correct?"

Frank furrowed his brows, he wondered how she knew that. She didn't appear to have a file or any sort of previous knowledge of him and he was sure that they hadn't met before.

"Correct." Frank nodded. "How did you know that?"

Evelyn chuckled and motioned to his dog tags that hung loosely around his neck. Instinctively, Frank brought his hand up to touch them. He smiled at the memory of the days he was fighting for his country side by side with his friends.

"My brother and best friend fought in the war too." Evelyn found it best to be open and honest with the man. It seemed as if nobody had been honest with him in a long time.

Her eyes flickered down to his ring finger, he wasn't wearing a ring anymore but there was a small indent of where a ring once sat. It pained Evelyn to think that something happened between his wife and himself.

"And where are they today? Probably eating up the glory am I right?" Frank questioned with a raised brow.

The girl chuckled and shook her head. She wished that he was right. She would love to return home to her brother and Steve. It would be a dream come true.

"Unfortunately, they're not." She whispered, her voice cracking as she spoke. "My brother and Steve died in '45."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Frank leant across and lightly tapped Evelyn's hands as an apology. She could tell that he genuinely meant it, which caused her to smile in response.

Evelyn let out a deep sigh before turning to face the double sided mirror. She nodded towards where she just assumed Jack and Sousa would be sitting.

Frank was in the right frame of mind and seemed considerably stable to talk to either one of them, whether he would actually tell them something though would be a different story.

"Excuse me a moment." Evelyn whispered as she slowly stood up, causing the chair to scrape against the floor. She made her swift exit and was greeted by Sousa and Jack at the door.

Jack pulled the girl into his chest almost instantly, knowing that just the mention of her brother and Steve, she would be upset. Evelyn rested her head on Jack's chest and closed her eyes, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

"What did you find out?" Sousa questioned impatiently.

"Give her a minute." Jack snapped, feeling the way she clung tighter on to him. He rested his head on top of hers and closed his eyes.

His fingers began to trace patterns on the small of her neck. Evelyn let out a small sigh, feeling instantly comforted by the man. He always knew how to help make her feel better.

Evelyn cleared her throat and pulled away from Jack. She quickly wiped her eyes to make sure that her makeup wouldn't smug from the tears ready to fall. She then turned to face Sousa and said,

"He's an alcoholic, you can smell the alcohol on his breath. He seemingly hasn't showered in a long time, probably sleeping wherever you picked him up from." She paused. "He has an indent on his finger from a wedding ring, I don't think she's dead. Most married men don't take their rings off if they're left a widow. He served in the war, so I wouldn't push him too harshly, he may be used to taking orders but that doesn't mean he likes to do it."

She could tell that Sousa and Jack were impressed with the amount of information she had received within such a short amount of time.

"He's probably hungry too, we should get him some food." Evelyn whispered looking down to the ground almost guiltily.

Jack used his thumb and index finger to lift her head up to look at him. He smiled down at her and whispered,

"Great work, Doctor."