Chapter 15
I didn’t know if Thor had believed me or if it would do any good but I had to at least try. He lost a lot in the movies and maybe if Frigga lives she’ll be able to see right through Loki’s farce and maybe prevent Ragnarök.
I wasn’t too far from the mansion so I walked back.
Of course no one was happy I had gone out drinking again.
“Hanna.” Steve started.
“Okay for the record I wasn’t going to drink but then Thor showed up…” I started.
“Thor?” Natasha said not exactly believing me.
“Yeah he popped in.” I said.
“Thor, the guy we fought aliens with that’s on another planet came to Earth just to have drinks with you?” Tony asked.
“Mhmm.” I said swiping Clint’s coffee and taking a sip. “It was his birthday so his mom got him the night off.”
“How much did you drink?” Tony asked.
“Guys I’m being serious. Thor was here, we drank, we celebrated his birthday, had a nice long talk about something called a bilgesnipe and dragons and other mythical alien creatures on the beach before he went home because he’s cleaning up the nine realms.” I said.
“You’re drunk.” Natasha said.
“Yes but not drunk enough to hallucinate that.” I said. “He’s a great story teller and drinking buddy.”
“You can’t keep doing this.” Steve said.
“You’re not the boss of me.” I said dropping the mug in the sink. “I’m calling it a night or technically day. Laters.”
A Few Hours Later…
“Sleeping beauty still out?” Tony asked as he came out of his lab for a coffee break.
“Like a light.” Clint said.
“We need to do something about her.” Steve said.
“It’s one thing for her to party like she normally does but now she’s hallucinating Thor?” Steve said.
“That part could be true.” Bruce said.
“You really think so?” Steve asked.
“She hasn’t been wrong so far.” Clint said.
“Is it really so bad that she’s letting off some steam?” Tony asked.
“It wouldn’t be a problem if she was letting off steam, the problem is she’s not. She’s spiraling.” Natasha said.
“Can’t really blame her? She got dealt a pretty shitty hand.” Clint said.
Days Later…
I had stopped lying to myself saying that I was only going to the bar to be alone and think. I was definitely going to drink. Not because I had to but more like because the alternative was stay at the manor and be constantly reminded about how things were a mess.
To avoid anymore lectures I had taken to using Jarvis to sneak in and out of the house. I would leave without anyone noticing. I’d set up my pillows in bed and I recorded a few phrases for Jarvis to play out in case anyone knocked on the door to get them to leave. I would sneak back in before anyone woke up or before Tony came out from the garage for his morning espresso sleep in late and repeat.
Almost a week with this new routine and I thought I had was off the hook.
That is until one morning when I was sneaking back in everyone plus Fury were sitting around the living room.
“Uh… morning?” I said.
“Good of you to join us Miss Marin. Take a seat.” Fury said.
“Sure.” I said sitting in the armchair and kicking off my heels.
“Thought you were in your room?” Clint asked.
“I took a walk.” I said.
“Sure you did.” Tony said.
“I did some digging see if there was anyone to see how deep Hydra is in SHIELD.” Fury said.
“And they’re everywhere.” I finished for him.
“It’s not just SHIELD, World security councilman Malick…” He started. “Senators…”
At this point the conversation just felt sort of repetitive. There was a lot of yelling and back and forth. My head was pounding and I just stared at the wall not bothering to say anything because nothing was going to be done until they did they got their fighting out of the way.
“It all has to go.” Steve said.
“I’m with the old man, it needs to go now.” Tony said.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Fury said staring at me.
“Does it really matter?” I asked.
“If there’s anything you haven’t told us now might be a really good time to do it.” Clint suggested.
“Won’t make a difference.” I said. “Has anything really made a difference so far?”
“What are you talking about?” Natasha asked.
“Is she drunk?” Fury asked.
“Why yes, yes I am.” I said.
“Okay Blondie.” Tony said getting up and pulling me to my feet. “I was going to let you get whatever is going on with you out of your system but we need you sober right now.”
“What for? Life sucks either way.” I said.
“It’ll suck less when you’re sober.” Tony said.
“I don’t wanna.” I whined dragging my feet.
“Nope let’s go.” He said not letting me turn around and leading me out of the house.
“But I don’t even have shoes on.” I whined.
“We’ll go through the drive thru.” Tony said putting an arm around me to steady me before leading me downstairs into one of his cars before speeding off.
We passed through to pick up some donuts before pulling over to the side of the road somewhere where he got as much coffee into me as he could.
“Open up.” He said trying to feed me a donut hole.
“Really?” I said.
“You need carbs.” He said. I just glared at him.
“I’m 26, I can feed myself.” I answered.
“Then eat.” He said.
I ignored him and just drank more coffee.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Tony asked.
“I’m really not in the mood to talk.” I said.
“But you’re in the mood to drink.” He said.
“Pot meet kettle.” I sarcastically.
“Fair enough.” Tony said. “So if you don’t want to talk to me, definitely don’t feeling like talking to Rogers… Do you want to maybe talk to someone?”
“Someone?” I asked confused.
“An expert… maybe a therapist?” He suggested though by the way he said it I could tell even he didn’t like the idea.
“I’ll talk to a therapist when you do.” I said.
“I don’t need a therapist.” Tony said.
“So you’ve actually been sleeping in the lab this whole time?” I said.
“I sleep.” He said.
“Six to eight hours a night.” I retorted.
“Something like that.” Tony said.
“Hm.” I said not buying it.
“Hanna I get that seeing your…” he started again.
“No.” I said. “We had a deal. I don’t want to talk about them and we’re not.”
“I get that but we need you and right now you’re not you.” he said.
“You’ve known me for slightly over a month, do you really know the real me Tony?” I said.
“I know that you cared enough about doing the right thing that you warned us about Hydra.” He said.
“Not really sure that was the right thing to do.” I said. “It would have worked out if I hadn’t said anything.”
“How many people would have died?” Tony said.
“People are still going to die.” I said. “My life sucked before in my other world and this one… it’s kind of a mess, want to know what they both had in common? They’re both better without me in it.”
“That’s not true.” He said.
“You don’t know what I know.” I said. “Can we go back already? I want a nap.”
“A nap before you go out again?” Tony asked.
“I don’t judge your coping mechanisms you don’t get to judge mine.” I said.
Tony sighed but drove me back.
Everyone was still sitting around trying and failing to come up with a good plan. I just walked in grabbed a marker that was lying around for some reason and started writing on the window.
“Hanna what…” Bruce started.
“You need to take out all of SHIELD but you need to be smart about it. SHIELD is the country’s main covert intelligence agency, You do this wrong you screw up all foreign relations and you won’t see the next threat coming until it’s too late.” I said. “You need to minimize the fallout of this or else you’ll be cleaning up this mess for years.”
Once I was done with the list I turned to them.
“First thing you need to do find Loki’s scepter.” I said. “If they figure out how to use the gem that powers it, they won’t just have an army, they’ll have a super powered army. Next Bucky, find him he’ll lead you to point three, identify and isolate all the senators, diplomats and potential next heads of Hydra, and then point four take it all down.”
“That’s your plan?” Fury asked.
“It’s not really a plan so much as a suggestion. Do with it whatever you want.” I said capping the marker and throwing it on the table. With that I headed upstairs.
Once I was out of the room…
“What the hell is wrong with her?” Fury asked.
“She’s spiraling.” Natasha said.
“She’s not spiraling.” Tony said. “She made a list. Would she have made a list if she was spiraling?”
“You spiraled and created a new element.” Natasha reminded him.
“It’s a good list.” Tony said gesturing to the list on the window.
“Does give us somewhere to start.” Clint said.
“It’s better than anything we had before.” Bruce said.
“So do we know where SHIELD took the scepter?” Tony asked.
“It was supposed to go to the Sandbox.” Fury said. “But someone from above ordered it to be rerouted to an undisclosed containment facility.”
“Hydra?” Steve said.
“Pierce signed off on it.” Fury confirmed.
“Where do we start looking for it?” Natasha asked.
“I was hoping Hanna would know where to start looking.” Fury said.
“You can ask her when she wakes up.” Clint said.
“Unless she sneaks out again.” Bruce said.
“How has she been sneaking out?” Tony asked. “Jarvis?”
“Pardon me sir but privacy protocols prevent me from disclosing that information.” Jarvis answered.
“She found a loophole.” Tony said. “Smart.”
That Night…
I woke up and went through the usual routine. I set up a pillow dummy, made sure had the recording set to go, made sure my way out was clear and that there would be a taxi waiting for me at the usual spot.
The summer heat wave was hitting California pretty hard so I decided to ditch pants in favor of a two piece black lace dress with black heels. My hair was up in a braided messy bun and I kept my phone and wallet in a black leather wristlet.
I was pretty much on a first name basis with the doorman and most of the staff at the bar. They even had my usual app and drink order for me ready when I got there.
I went to my usual spot to contemplate the exact same thing I had been doing for week. Staring at the ledge wondering if maybe I should do it again. Maybe it would stick this time. Did I actually want that. What if I ended up in another universe again?
I think I got to my third drink before someone interrupted my thoughts.
“Hey good looking wanna…” they started.
“No.” I said not letting him finish.
“Hey I just wanted to know if…” he started again.
“No.” I repeated.
“Uptight bitch.” He mumbled before storming off.
“Dick.” I mumbled finishing my drink before signaling the bar for another.
My drink was brought over and I was enjoying it as I went back to my silent contemplation when someone came over again. This guy could not take a hint.
“In case I didn’t make it clear, Fuck off.” I said.
“That’s not really nice.” Natasha said taking a seat across from me.
“Really not what you say to someone that buys the next round.” Clint said sitting next to Natasha.
“Seriously?” I said. “You two followed me. Again.”
“You really should keep a better eye on your surroundings.” Natasha said.
“Is this supposed to be an intervention?” I said. “Or are you just going to drug me throw me in the trunk of your car and keep me there until I promise not to drink anymore?”
“Depends do you need one?” Natasha retorted we stared at each other neither of us backing down until finally Clint called it.
“Relax if this was an intervention I wouldn’t have bought us all overpriced drinks. Who pays 15 dollars for a cocktail?” Clint said.
“It’s LA.” Natasha and I said.
“This is where you come every night.” Natasha said. “Nice place.”
“Good view.” Clint said.
“You’ve been here before? In the other place?” She asked.
“Yup.” I said. “This is the bar.”
“The bar?” Clint asked confused. “You mean…”
“This is the bar you fell from?” Natasha said in disbelief.
“Yup. The very same.” I said stirring my drink with straw. I was really feeling the buzz. They over charged for the drinks but they did not hold back on the booze. “And that corner over there… That’s where I jumped.”
Natasha and Clint choked on their drinks.
“Y-you jumped?” Clint sputtered.
“Did I forget to mention that part?” I said. Yeah I was really feeling the booze this time.
“Yes.” They both said.
“Whoops.” I said before I went back to chugging my drink. Natasha and Clint exchanged looks before turning to stare at me.
“Why did you come back here?” Natasha said.
“It’s a nice place.” I said. “Good view. And the drinks are strong. Good spot to think.”
“To jump again?” Clint said.
“Maybe. It didn’t really work out the first time.” I said. “If I do it again I might end up in the universe where Steve is Hydra and he’s on my case enough as it is.”
“Yeah okay time to go.” Clint said.
“Laters.” I said waving them off.
“Oh no you’re coming with us.” Natasha said grabbing my hand and pulling me up.
“Uh no I’m not.” I said.
“Yeah you are.” Clint said throwing me over his shoulder.
“Wah!” I shrieked. “What are you doing?!”
“We’re going home.” Natasha said.
“No. Clint put me down.” I said squirming around trying to get free but he had a really tight grip on me.
“Not happening.” He said.
“You can’t do this to me. I have rights!” I said.
“Not anymore.” Natasha said as we walked out of the bar and into the elevator.
“You’re such a jerk.” I said.
“And you’re drunk.” Clint said.
“Not fair.” I said. “But you do have a nice butt.”
“Back at ya.” Clint said. “Still not letting you go though.”
“Ah!!” I groaned in annoyance.
I wasn’t put in the trunk of the car but Natasha did put the seatbelt on me rather tightly. No one said anything the entire drive back. This was worse than having breakfast with my parents after a fight.
I was not looking forward to what was waiting for me at the mansion.
So I have to say what came next was not one of my proudest moments.
I waited until the car slowed down as we approached a stop light and I tried opening the door. Key word was try because apparently Clint and Natasha had expected that and had the child lock on.
“Really?” Natasha said looking back at me though the mirror.
“Had to try.” I mumbled.
Since jumping out of the car didn’t work out I resorted to stalling for as long as possible. I started by refusing to get out of the car. Of course Clint called my bluff threw me over his shoulder and carried me in.
At first I thought they were just going to go straight into the intervention but to my surprise they dropped me off in my room and told me to sleep it off.
Like that was going to work.
I tried sneaking back out but Jarvis had me on lockdown. I couldn’t open the door and if I needed something he would tell someone to bring it up for me.
Yeah I was not going anywhere anytime soon.