Fort Sill
“Captain America, little league baseball, and corvettes,” Maria squinted at the man seated next to her “Coulson I hate to break it to you, but we had very different childhoods.”
The man only smiled wider, “That’s exactly why I’m telling you about how I grew up. This guy isn’t like me, you aren’t like me, Hand isn’t like me, we're all from these extremely diverse backgrounds. And yet we find our way to SHIELD.”
She nodded, understanding what the agent meant but still after 5 hours, unsure that the outcome of their trip would yield Director Fury's next sharpshooter.
“You sure you don’t want to take a look at his file?” the man held up a stack of papers.
“No,” Maria shook her head, “I like to go in with a blank slate, let people build their own reputation with me.”
Coulson smiled, “got it.”
The captain announced their arrival and Maria only had to remind herself to unclench her jaw twice before they were safely on the ground. Her apprehension to flying hadn’t lessened over the last year and she silently hoped it wasn’t overly noticeable to the man next to her.
Phil didn’t let on if he had realized her anxiety was through the roof and instead got up and rushed the wrinkles out of his slacks.
“Ready to go see the future face of SHIELD,” he picked up his bag.
“I think that if he does his job right, he won't ever be seen, that’s the whole point of a sharpshooter,” the Commander corrected as she let out a deep breath.
“Semantics,” Phil waved her off and joined the other few agents lining up to get off the flight.
Maria didn’t say much else during their exit, nor as they got into the rental vehicle SHIELD had issued them. In fact, she stayed quiet for the entirety of their time together as they traveled together to the ever-familiar base.
“Ever been?” Phil asked his first question in an hour.
“No,” Maria ground out, “but I’ve lived on enough to know everything about it.”
Which was unfortunate given her current headspace. If it was currently up to her, she would be 100 miles away and fighting the urge to drown out memories with whatever she could get her hands on.
Luckily, it wasn’t up to her so she said, “There will be a Pizza Hut and a Popeyes somewhere over there.”
She pointed to the PX and then to a large brown brick building, “Any and all documents you have to sign in there.”
Finally, she pointed to the last building on the street, “We’re going to want to go to that one.”
Phil looked at the address in his hand and then at the building number, “damn Maria, that was impressive. How’d you know?”
She took a deep breath and reminded herself to go in with a blank slate, “Because Coulson, that’s where they put the troublemakers.”
Now it was Phils turn to remain silent for the rest of the drive to the legal office.
Maria showed them both into the small facility and used her new ID to check them in at the reception desk. They waited for 10 minutes until they were finally shown to an office in the back that was little more than an interrogation room.
The man they were there for sat with his head on the metal table, his arms crossed out in front of him. Maria was immediately disappointed but tried her best not to show it as she walked through the door. Her disappointment shifted to annoyance which became more noticeable when the man still kept his head down as they took a seat across from him.
In fact, the blonde only looked up as Phil scooted his chair in, the screech of the metal causing the soldier to jolt upright, somewhat startled.Had he been sleeping? Maria could already feel the $10 she was about to win from Coulson.
“Hello Mr. Barton,” the Agent smiled at the man across from him who sighed and stuck out his hand, “I’m Agent Coulson, this is Agent Hill.”
It still felt weird, as weird as wearing a new uniform on a military base, she wondered if it would ever feel normal to be introduced as an Agent. Maria didn’t think about it any further and refrained from fidgeting as she looked the man over and stuck out her own hand.
The man took it and gave an overly tight shake, the calluses on his hand dug into her own. He was thin, the blonde hair he had was lacking in a healthy shine, and even though she knew he was a few months out of boot camp, he still looked haggard. Maria looked into his eyes as they gazed at her uniform and then darted back to Coulson who spoke again.
“You might be wondering why we're here today,” chipper as ever the agent started.
“I swear I didn’t know that kid was somethin’ special,” the blonde immediately became defensive, “or related to someone high up.”
“Oh?” Maria raised an eyebrow, she’d take any information he was willing to give, “want to tell us your side, Private Barton?”
“I,” he scratched the back of his neck, “ah jeez. Alright, so this is how it goes yeah? I see this kid, Private Clarke moving real quick through the mess hall. I know the kid cuz were both on double rations.”
The man motioned to his body, it was concerning if this was all the weight he had put on during 10 weeks of boot camp with double the food everyone else got.
“He’s a little weird but not in a creepy way, just kinda weird,” he shrugged, “your guy, Private Bygott or whatever, trips him as Clarke got his hands full and movin’ mach Jesus.”
Barton clapped his hands together to emphasize the point of impact and then winced as he continued his story, “Foods goin’ everywhere, his little henchmen start laughin’, Clarke’s got potatoes all over his uniform lookin’ like he's ‘bout to cry and Bygott goes to spill the water from his tray on the poor kid.”
“We don’t actually-” Coulson started, only stopping as Maria raised her hand.
“So, what’d you do, Private Barton?” The Commander pushed.
“Took a milk carton, chucked it at him.”
“How far out were you?” she leaned back in her chair.
“50…” the blonde shrugged, “60 yards?”
“And it hit him,” she didn’t let the impressive distance show on her face.
“No,” Barton shook his head, “Cartons too heavy, it’d leave a mark. Dropped it right perfect in front of him. Exploded everywhere, coverin’ him and his goons.”
“You don’t like bullies,” Maria was barely able to keep the admiration out of her voice.
“Nah,” the blonde shook his head, “hate ‘em.”
“You think there’s a lot of bullies in the Army?” The Commander asked.
“Think there’s a lot of bullies everywhere,” the man shifted his gaze as Coulson sat up a little more.
“There are. Which is why we're here,” the agent clasped his hands in front of him, “We're from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. At SHIELD we make it our job to stop bullies at the global level.”
Private Barton furrowed his gaze, “how important was this kid?”
“No,” Coulson chuckled slightly, “we’re here because we want you to join us at SHIELD. We were told you have a knack for hitting targets.”
“Sometimes…” the blonde narrowed his gaze.
“How about you show us some of those skills,” the agent continued, “and we let you know a little more about SHIELD. You’d be set for years.”
“You first,” the young man was bold, bold enough to think his skills would be a guarantee for what Coulson wanted.
“SHIELD would like to send you to the Operations academy for two years,”as soon as he said the first sentence, the Private was already disinterested, Coulson could see that too and stopped.
“I don’t do school,” the private shook his head and looked ready to leave.
“It’s not school in the way you think it is. Operations isn’t like book and paper-” The man was drowning.
“You know Ranger school?” Maria cut in, she had read enough about the three branches of the SHIELD academy.
The blonde nodded, a touch more interested.
“It’s like that, for 2 years,” the brunette watched as Private Barton’s eyebrows rose, “it’s a lot of washout.”
“It’s a lot of physical work, but something tells me you’re used to that,” the agent next to her recovered, “you go, you learn damn near every form of combat, physical, mental, you name it.”
The marksman nodded for him to continue.
“You would learn everything you would need to know to survive in any situation you find yourself in as you work for SHIELD. And let me tell you, you're going to find yourself in a lot of situations.”
Coulson continued to explain the ins and outs of SHIELD and where Private Barton would fit, “two years in the academy, four-year contract after, good pay, low-cost housing, guaranteed 3 hot meals a day and medical care.”
The last two words had the blonde skeptical, but still he listened.
“But not until we get a taste of what you can do,” the agent once again clasped his hands in front of himself, “you’re- well you’re a gamble, Private Barton. But you were also hand-picked by my boss who tends to have an eye for the right people.”
Maria snorted at the joke, or at least she thought it was a joke, she quickly quieted herself.
“Weapon of my choosing?” the blonde tilted his head to the side.
“Sure,” Coulson shrugged, “but we're going to need to see you also operate the selection we brought.”
“I ain’t gotta stay here right? Not really in trouble?” Barton looked at the door behind them.
“Not as far as we’re concerned,” Phil shook his head.
“Alright, give me 10, gotta go back to my bunk real quick,” the blonde got up and jogged out of the room.
Maria sighed and reached into the pocket of her uniform.
Coulson held his hand open and waited for her to place a crisp $10 right in his palm.
The skills portion of their assessment was something Maria would never forget. Every weapon, every target, every stance, the man ended up hitting a bullseye.
What had shocked her most was that while he was damn near perfect with every firearm in his hand, none of them were his preferred weapon of choice. No, that came from a purple bow that he treated with a reverence typically reserved for religious items.
“Listen I can hit ‘em blindfolded if you wanna see that,” the archer shrugged, “but it’s gonna be the same thing. I don’t miss.”
“A few more, just to make my life easier when I’m filling out the paperwork,” Phil looked up from the clipboard in his hands.
The blonde nodded and hit the target over and over and over again. But this test wasn’t just to see how good of a shot he was, so Maria cleared her throat.
“You were a little to the left on that last one,” she called out.
The man turned to face her quickly, “No, I wasn’t.”
“You were, just outside your cluster,” The Commander pointed down range to the fantom off-target shot.
“I wasn’t,” hints of anger tinted his voice.
“You were,” she pushed.
“I was not!” Barton raised his voice.
Maria went to mark that down but then he did something interesting, the archer took a deep breath and shrugged.
“Whatever, I’ll hit it again,” he faced the target and hit another perfect bullseye.
Phil chuckled and wrote the interaction down.
They spent another 20 minutes testing his physical fitness, making sure he would hit all of the entrance exam requirements before finally wrapping up their assessment.
“So,” the blonde ran a hand through sweat-damp hair, “I make the cut or what?”
“I’m going to have a discussion with your company Captain this afternoon, and should have the final word by tomorrow,” Coulson explained.
It was clear that while the blonde wanted to be excited, he had gone through enough in his life to know not to hold out hope. Maria knew the exact feeling he was trying his very best to repress and stuck out her hand.
“It was truly a pleasure to watch you shoot, Barton,” she didn’t miss the way his hand shook ever so slightly as it gripped her own.
“It’s-” he let go and laughed in a self-deprecating manner, “it’s just about the one thing I’m good at, glad ya enjoyed it.”
Phil gave his own goodbyes and soon enough they were back in their rental car.
“He’s coming back with us, I’m not taking no for an answer,” the man stated.
“Good,” Maria agreed, having felt the exact same way.
It turned out, there wasn’t much convincing that had to be done to get the archer honorably discharged from the Army and into the waiting hands of SHIELD. Most officers didn’t know who Private Barton even was, the ones who did weren’t too sad to see him go.
Two phone calls later and one hell of a tight schedule, they had the archer signed up to start Academy prep classes in the first Summer session available. A session that started in three days.
“You’re sure you don’t want to say bye to anyone?” Coulson hesitated on the dark tarmac as they approached the plane.
“Nah,” Private Barton gave one shake of his head and readjusted his bags.
Maria didn’t think much of it, the fact he could pack all of his belongings in 30 minutes and into 2 duffle bags. Coulson on the other hand was clearly unsure of how to treat the situation, never having been in one like this before.
“Get moving then, plane doesn’t wait for you,” Maria motioned to the aircraft in front of her.
Barton tightened his grip, tried to hide a smile, and got onto the plane. Both agents followed him and took their seats next to him, Phil prepared to explain the ins and outs of the organization on the trip back to DC. He managed to pull out both organizational and academy-specific flow charts before the blonde had fully fallen asleep.
The blonde slept like the dead for the entirety of the flight home, not even waking up as the captain spoke on the speaker overhead. In fact, he didn’t wake up until the wheels hit the ground and jolted him upright.
Maria, who had been focusing on not throwing up because of nerves the whole time, only had a chance to smirk at the blonde as he whipped his head around in confusion.
Phil, being the nice sort of guy he was, smiled softly and said “Welcome home, Barton.”