New Chances

I don’t know how long we sat there, waiting. It felt like hours, but time messes with you when you’re locked up. It seems to drag on for way longer than usual. Which is mostly just because being locked up is so incredibly boring. You’d think it would be scary, but most of it is just sitting in a cell and going hungry. Sure, you’re wondering when your captors will come back for you, but the longer they make you wait the more you start to anticipate it and the less scary it gets. You could almost say it’s science. Almost. But not really.

“Hey, Maria, do you have any idea of where your friends were when you texted them?” Yelena asked her, clearly already done with the whole being a prisoner thing. “Nick said they were in a safehouse in Nice.” “Hmm… they shouldn’t take too long then.” “Yelena,” she sighed, “We’ve only been here for a few hours, please be patient.” “Fine, I’ll try. I’ll just amuse myself by counting ceiling tiles.” She laid down on her back and actually started to count the ceiling tiles. “One. Two. Three…” Maria sighed. “Four. Five. Six.” “Is she always like this?” Maria asked me. I shrugged. “Well that’s a clear answer.”

Yelena continued to count the ceiling tiles. When she reached 394, suddenly the wall burst open. We all looked up in shock. “Well… that’s low profile,” Yelena said sarcastically. “Also, how come this doesn’t set off an alarm, huh?” “Because I hacked into the system and turned it off before I broke the wall,” a female voice sounded from behind the hole. “Why didn’t we think of hacking into the system?” The person behind the hole climbed through, it was a biracial woman with light brown hair with purple streaks and dark brown eyes. I had no idea who she was, but Maria seemed to recognize her, cause she looked relieved. “You should ask that question to your boss,” the woman said. “Yeah, well, he’s being held captive somewhere else.” “Shit.” The woman’s hand went to her earpiece, “Mack, they’re holding one of them somewhere else.” Three people filed in behind her. Only one I recognized. The Cavalry. Melinda May. She looked us over and smiled. Well, that’s new.

“Long time no see, Romanoff. Heard you were dead.” “I was,” I said. “Emphasis on was.” May nodded, “Let’s see if we can get you out of here and then we’ll look for your lost friend. Elena, you take the other two cells. Daisy, what’s Mack saying?” The other two agents ran off. One of them faster than the eye could see. “He’s saying that he’s scanning the building for heat signatures… Oh, Fitz is asking if there’s anything special about this guy we’re missing.” May turned to us again, “Is there?” “It’s Rogers,” I told her. May turned back to the woman she had called Daisy, “It’s a super soldier.” “Damn,” Daisy said before relaying the message to Mack, whoever that might be. Then she replied a little while later, “Good, Jemma knows what to look for now, she says super soldiers should have a slightly higher body temperature. May nodded. Then Daisy walked over to us and looked at the lock. “You couldn’t have picked it while I was talking to Mack?” “And I thought you got such joy from breaking locks.” “It can be fun, yes.” We watched as the woman put her hand on the lock and… well I’m not sure what she did, but it burst open. Yelena’s eyes went wide, “Wow, how did you do that?” She asked in awe. Daisy shrugged, “Ever heard of Inhumans?” Yelena thought for a bit, “Might have heard something about it on the news once or twice.” Daisy nodded, “Yeah, we’re on the news quite a lot. Anyway, let’s just say we all have crazy power and I can control and manipulate vibrations.” “Wait, you’re Quake,” I said. Daisy smiled at me, “That’s me.”

“Guys, you won’t believe this. This dude has a metal arm,” the male agent said as he came back with Bucky, Alexei and Melina. Daisy rolled her eyes, “You never heard of the Winter Soldier before, Hunter?” Yelena, Maria and I had just come out of our cells and suddenly I realized that I recognized this guy. Yelena seemed to recognize him too, but from something else, “Aren’t you the guy who killed who killed the Russian minister of Defence?” Yelena asked him. “That was my girlfriend, actually.” Hunter replied. “She sounds badass, “Yelena said.” “She is.” May rolled her eyes, “We don’t have time for this. We got a super soldier to save.” Suddenly another woman was there and I could here two pairs of footsteps following behind her. “Has Jemma found him yet?” the woman asked.” I detected a Colombian accent. Daisy shook her head, “Not yet. She’s afraid they might have moved him. Especially since we’re the only people in the building…”

A silence hung between all of us. I looked at Yelena, who looked back at me. I turned to Daisy, “What do you mean?” I asked. “Well, she detected more heat signatures just a few minutes ago but… they seem to be gone now. It’s like they vanished.” “How could that have happened.” Daisy shrugged, “How the hell would I know? I’m not scientist.” I sighed, “Clearly, yes.” May rolled her eyes, “Let’s just get out of here.” I shook my head, “We can’t leave without Steve!” May sighed, “Well, he’s not here, so then you’ll have to stay here. Is that what you want?” I shook my head, “No… but we can at last look for clues as to where they might have gone.” “Sharon’s an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.” Maria reminded us. “She wouldn’t have left any clues behind.” She was right. Why in the hell was she right? I sighed, “Fine… we’ll go then… but… we need to get on finding Steve as soon as possible. I have no idea what Sharon is going to do to him but… well it can’t be good. She might drain all his blood to create more super soldiers…” “Been there,” Daisy whispered, “it sucks.” “She could brainwash him and turn him into a mind controlled slave,” I continued. “That sucks too,” Yelena said. “You’ve been mind controlled?” Daisy asked her. Yelena nodded, “Yeah, it was very uncool.” “I can imagine that,” Daisy said while nodding. “I thought we were going to get out of here,” May said impatiently. Maria sighed, “First we might want to think of someplace to go.” “I have an idea,” I said. “But… well I’m not sure if it’s a very good idea.” “Any idea is better than no idea,” Maria replied. “So, what are you thinking of, Nat?”

*

Once on the plane, which the agents called the Zephyr, I gave May the coordinates. “Really? Are you sure of this?” She asked me. I nodded, “He’s my friend. He has the right to know that I’m alive. Don’t you think?” “Hmm,” she seemed to think about that a little longer than one would deem necessary. “Yes, maybe,” she eventually said. “Maybe.” May sighed, “There’s something I need to tell you.” Well, that was unexpected. “I… S.H.I.E.L.D. has been keeping a secret from you. From the Avengers that is.” “What?” “It’s about an agent that… some of you might have seen as a friend.” “Which agent?” “Coulson.” I sat down to listen to whatever it was, “What’s up with Coulson?” Both Clint and I had worked under Coulson. He had given us most of our assignments. “Well… let’s just say that you… might run into him on this plane.” “What? I… I thought he died.” “He did. Nick had him resurrected with a drug that turned out to be a component of alien blood.” “What?” “Does this really surprise you?” “Well… no, not really but… I just thought there were lines even Nick wouldn’t cross.” May sighed, “So did I once.” She told me more about what had happened to Coulson. How he had been dead for days and how project T.A.H.I.T.I., which had revived him, had been set up by Phil himself to revive one of the Avengers in case they would have died.

I left the cockpit to look for Yelena and found her talking to Daisy. There were two other agents with them as well. They looked vaguely familiar to me. As I tried to figure out who they were, Yelena saw me standing there and watching them. She smiled and got up, “Natasha, look, I’m making friends. These two nerds here are Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons.” They turned to me and looked me over. They seemed mildly awestruck. The young woman, who must have been Jemma Simmons, walked up to me, “Miss Romanoff, it’s an honour to meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you,” she spoke with a British accent. Leopold nodded, “Yeah, especially from May and Coulson. They usually kept saying how you and your friend Barton wouldn’t complain as much as we did,” he said with a Scottish accent. Daisy rolled her eyes, “Seriously, guys?” Jemma turned to her, “Well, it happened a few times.” “Coulson also said you guys never had an extraction plan,” Daisy said. I nodded, “That’s true. The other part… well Clint usually complained when Coulson wasn’t around.”

“Now why does that not surprise me at all?” A voice spoke up behind me. “FitzSimmons, Daisy… uh… what’s your name?” “Yelena.” “Yelena, can you all please leave us alone?” They all looked at the man standing behind me. Daisy and the duo, that was apparently the famous scientist/engineering duo FitzSimmons, left. Yelena was a little more hesitant. She looked at me, one question plain on her face. “Are you okay with this?” I nodded, “Go. I’ll be fine. He’s an old friend.” She nodded and walked off.

“May already told me I could find you here…” I said as I turned to face Coulson. He hadn’t changed much. His hair was grey now, and thinner. Apart from that not much had changed. He still had this seemingly always serious look on his face. He still wore a suit and tie. It was almost as if he had never died at all. “I think she might not have told you everything.” “Well, she told me you were dead… for days. And that you were revived by this project T.A.H.I.T.I.. She also told me that it… was originally set up to… revive an Avenger… in case… one of us died.” Phil nodded, “Did she also tell you I was at the head of that project?” I nodded, “She did.” “Well?” “Well what?” “How do you… feel about that?” “About what?” “About the uh… reason why the project was set up?” “Well… it’s quite… shocking. I mean, I know that Nick… did some sketchy stuff. But… This… I never thought he would do something like this.” Phil nodded, “Yeah. It’s horrible. But it was my idea really.” “He set you up to do it.” “Hmm.” “Were there any side-effects?” “For a while, yes. I almost went insane, until I found this ancient Kree city here on Earth.” “Kree?” “Blue aliens, they’re a pain in the ass. We fought them in space in the future.” “That… would surprise me if I hadn’t time travelled in space myself.” Phil chuckled, “Why am I not surprised?”

“So, what else should I know about you, huh?” I asked him. “Well, I died a few more times.” “What?” “Yeah, the drug that revived me was burned out of me by what we think might have been the Devil. But we call him Ghost Rider. He currently resides in our friend, Robbie Reyes.” “How are you alive, then?” “Well… technically I’m a robot.” “What?” “Yes. It’s strange to me too. I mean, I’m not exactly a robot. I’m a… Chromicon. We’re… well, some kind of alien species that are quite like robots. It’s… hard to explain. FitzSimmons built me… they gave me all the memories I had. Most of it backed up from a hard drive of what we called the Framework.” “The what?” “That’s quite a long story that involves a crazy robot that was in love with Fitz.” “I hate robots.” “Ah, yes, we heard about your spat with Ultron.” “Yeah, that.” “We secured that Helicarrier for you guys. The one Fury and Hill used to help you in Sokovia when Ultron was bout to bring that city down.” “Really?” “Yep.” “Well… thanks for that I guess.” “You’re welcome.”

*

“Put on your seatbelts, we’re landing in five!” May’s voice sounded over the intercom. I sighed, “Five minutes. That’s soon.” Yelena put a hand on my leg, “You okay?” “Yeah, just a little nervous. That’s all. It’s been a while since I saw Clint, you know. And… well I kinda died the last time we saw each other.” “Kinda?” “Okay, I died the last time we saw each other.” “I tried to kill him the last time I saw him.” “And you’re not nervous about seeing him again?” “No. I’m cool. Cool as ice.” I rolled my eyes, “You’re an idiot is what you are.” “Thanks. I wonder if my good friend is there too.” “Your good friend?” “Yes.” “Who’s your good friend?” “You’ll find out.” “I… I guess.”

We landed not long after. Five minutes, to be exact. As we walked down the ramp we found Clint waiting for us. “Alright, what the hell is this?” He asked annoyedly. “I haven’t even had my morning coffee yet and now there’s a plane in my backyard.” “Yeah, sorry about that,” Maria said as she walked down and stood in front of him. “Hill. Why am I not surprised it’s you? Where’s Fury?” “Looking after Parker with a few agents. I think he’s in Spain at the moment. Not that that’s really relevant.” “Why are you here? And… are that Sam and Bucky and… Y-Yelena?” Maria nodded, “Yeah, it’s kind of a long story.” Yelena waved at him. “Yeah, uh... hi.” Daisy chuckled, which drew Clint’s attention to the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. “Who are they?” “They’re my team,” Phil said as he walked dow the ramp as well. “Well, technically they’re Mack’s team now, but I picked them.” Clint stared at Coulson with his mouth slightly agape. “Coulson?” “Hi.”

“What is going on here?” Another familiar voice sounded. Not long after Laura arrived in my field of vision. I was keeping quiet, staying on the background. Neither of them had noticed me yet. “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s what happened,” Clint sighed. “Can you please tell me why you guys showed up here in the middle of January?” “January?” I whispered. Yelena nodded and whispered back, “Yeah, January, what month did you think it was?” “Steve and I thought we… arrived somewhere at the end of 2024.” “Well you weren’t too far off.” Clint squinted at Yelena, “Who’s she whispering to?” “Myself, I do so like my own company.” Yelena said quickly. Clint seemed to believe her. Then he noticed Alexei and Melina, “You brought the whole family, huh? Or at least what’s left of it.” Yelena nodded, “Yeah, but weren’t you questioning… uh, what’s her name again?” Clint nodded and turned to Maria and Phil again, “So why are you here?”

Maria sighed, “Well. Let’s just say… we were captured by K.O.P.E., the Power Broker’s new gang of ragtag criminals. This team got us out.” “How were you captured?” “Mission gone wrong.” “Hmmm.” “Yeah.” “And why were thy there?” “They’re after K.O.P.E. because they’re after super soldiers.” Clint nodded, “Right, they want Alexei.” Alexei nodded. “I see… well since there’s only two super soldiers on this planet, one of them being here and the other one being on tour with… I hope a lot of security… I take it they don’t have what they want… yet.” “Well… about that,” Maria said. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me. Who do they have?” “Steve.” “Steve?” Maria nodded, “Steve.”

Suddenly a young woman showed up, looking at the plane as if she saw water burning. “Uh… w-what the hell is going on here?” “KATE BISHOP!!” Yelena yelled enthusiastically. The young woman looked at her as if she had seen a ghost, “Yelena?” “Yes, Kate Bishop, it’s me. Did you miss me?” “You’re seriously going to continue calling me Kate Bishop all the time?” Yelena nodded, then she walked down the ramp and put an arm around Kate Bishop. “So, did you miss me?” “Well… I have wondered how you were doing a few times. Especially during the holidays.” “Aawww, that’s so sweet of you Kate Bishop.”

Suddenly I heard Clint gasp. I only now realized that, now that Yelena was gone, I was visible to the people standing outside. “No, that can’t be,” Clint said. Laura seemed surprised by his reaction. Then she looked up at me as well, “N-nat… Natasha?” “Hey,” I said softly. Clint walked up the ramp with quick strides. He didn’t stop in front of me, instead he choke slammed me into a wall. “Who are you? Natasha is dead so who are you?!” I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how to explain. Luckily Maria helped me out.

She put a shoulder on Clint’s arm, “Let her go, Clint. It’s her. You just saw Coulson, who you presumed dead. You heard that Steve is back… is it really that crazy to assume that Natasha is back too?” Clint looked me over, he didn’t seem entirely convinced but he did loosen his grip. Then suddenly Yelena whistled our secret whistle. The whistle I had told Clint about. I whistled back and I saw the realization in his eyes as I did so. He dropped me and immediately helped me up. “Natasha…” “Been a while huh?” “Yeah, technically the last time we saw each other was all the way back in 2014.” I chuckled, “Yeah. More than ten years ago. Wow.” “You didn’t seem to have aged at all.” “You aged a little.” “Is that your way if telling me I look old?” I smirked at him, “Maybe.” He shook his head and smiled, “Yeah, should have figured you’d say something like that. Typically you.” “Ah, but you enjoy that, don’t you?” He nodded, “Yeah, occasionally.” Then he hugged me. Tightly. “You won’t believe how much I have missed you.” “I missed you too…”

We all entered the house, where I explained what happened to Steve and me. Maria explained how she, Sam, Bucky and Leah had been set on the job. Clint and Laura listened carefully and asked a lot of questions. Kate was… mainly very fascinated by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and eventually spoke up. “You’re Quake, right?” Daisy nodded, “Yeah, I am.” Kate nodded, “Cool. One of my friends has a crush on you.” Daisy didn’t really seem to know how to react to that so eventually she just went, “Cool…” “yeah, she thinks you’re hot.” “Well… tell her I said thanks.” “Wow, that really made you uncomfortable, didn’t it?” Yelena asked Daisy. Daisy smiled sheepishly, “Maybe.” “How about you, Kate Bishop, do you think anyone here is hot?” “That… that’s really none of your business, Yelena.” “Aaawww, come on. I could totally help you out of you did.” “Ladies, we got more important things to discuss,” I reminded them. To which Yelena replied with a softly muttered, “Fun sucker.”

We tried to come up with plans about howe we could get Steve back. We had to, because time was of the essence. We tried hard, but we couldn’t come up with anything. No matter how long we sat there. And we sat there for a really long time. So long even that Clint’s kids came home from school while we were still sitting around the table. “Mom, what is going on here?” Lila asked as she looked us all over. Laura immediately got up, “Let’s go to the kitchen. I totally forgot to start with dinner and could really use your help.” Lila rolled her eyes, “Why are you always keeping us out of everything?” “Yeah, why?” Cooper asked. “I mean, I get why you’re keeping Nate out of it, but Lila and I, we’re old enough to understand.” Laura looked at Clint who sighed and got up. “One of my friends got kidnapped,” he said. Then, as Laura was leading Nathaniel to the kitchen while telling him what he could do to help her, Cooper and Lila both spotted me. The looked at me, at Clint, at each other and back at me. “Yeah, I didn’t believe my eyes either,” Clint said as he saw their incredulous faces. “But trust me when I say it’s really her.”

The kids walked over to me. “Hey,” I said. They looked me over for a second, then Lila jumped at me and wrapped her arms around me. We fell over together and hit the floor pretty hard. “Ow,” I mumbled. “You’ve gotten a little big for that, kid,” I told her. Lila chuckled, “Sorry. I just missed you.” “Yeah… missed you too. Doesn’t mean I’m squeezing you to death while almost breaking your wrist… or shoulder.” “Right…” “No, seriously, I’m gonna have some serious bruises tomorrow.” “Weak,” Yelena mumbled somewhere above me. “Quiet, Yelena.” “No.” Lila rolled off of me and got up. Cooper helped me up and hugged me like a normal person. “Damn you. You’re taller than me now.” He smiled, “Well, considering how small you are that’s not that much of a feat.” “Hey… True, but hey!” He just laughed. “It’s good to see you again, auntie Nat.” “Yeah, good seeing you too.”

“So, what’s the emergency?” Lila asked after her brother let me go. “We lost Steve,” I said. “Wait, Steve? As in Steve Rogers? Captain America?” Cooper asked. I nodded, “Yes, that Steve,” I confirmed. “Thought he was dead,” Cooper said. “I mean, they made a musical about him and everything.” “Please do not mention that musical,” Clint mumbled. I looked at the three Barton’s, “We’ll… get back to that later.” Clint sighed, “You need new material to mess with the Captain, don’t you?” “I always do,” I said with a smile. “But right now we need to find him first. And I don’t think the power broker left his phone on to lure us in. She did with Maria but that’s simple because she wanted to get her hands on a super soldier.” “Wait, she?” Clint asked. “Yeah,” Maria said, “She. The Power Broker is agent 13, Sharon Carter.” Clint sighed, “Bitch.” “Yeah, you could say that again,” I mumbled. Clint grinned, looked me in the eye and went, “Bitch.” I rolled my eyes, “Really?” “You asked for it, Romanoff.”

*

As we stayed at the Barton’s house that night I found out Clint had taken the time to build a barn that he later transformed in a place for ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to stay at in case they needed a safe place to stay. There were bedrooms and even a bathroom. I however got the privilege of spending the night in their house, where I shared a room with Yelena. “So you were hired to kill Clint, huh?” I asked her as we were laying in bed staring up at the ceiling. “Yep.” “By who?” “Kate Bishop’s mom.” “What?” “Yeah, that was quite a plot twist to Kate Bishop too. Her mom’s in jail now.” “Oof.” “Yeah, must be hard for a 22 year old.” “And what’s with the dog?” “Oh, she saved it from traffic… WAIT!” Yelena suddenly shot up straight, “Oh no!” I propped myself up on my elbow, “What?” “FANNY! She’s still at the hotel in Paris!” “Oh shit.” “I totally forgot about her. We could have picked her up. Now she’s all alone in this cold hotel room. What if hey kick her out because we haven’t come back? Or worse, what if they bring her to an animal shelter?” “Yelena, please calm down, okay? We’ll convince the team to go look for her tomorrow.” “Hmm…” She didn’t sound very pleased. “What if they don’t care?” I shrugged, “Then we’ll make them care. There must be at least one person who’ll be willing to help us out.” “Kate Bishop, perhaps. She seems to like dogs.” “Are you… really going to continue calling her by her full name?” “That’s not her full name. But yeah, I am going to continue to call her Kate Bishop.” “Why?” She shrugged, “Mostly just to mess with her little.” “You’re weird, you know that?” “Got it from you.” I rolled my eyes, “I’m pretty sure you got it from Alexei.”

I couldn’t really sleep that night, despite being in a familiar place. A familiar room. All I could think about was: What are they doing to Steve? Would they be hurting him? Would they be taking his blood? And how much of it? Would Sharon dispose of him once she’s done with him? Would she kill him? I shivered. “Nat?” Yelena’s sleepy voice sounded next to me. “Yeah?” “You still awake?” “Yeah.” “Why?” “I’m worried.” “Hmm...” She tried to lighten the mood, “About Fanny?” “No, well maybe a little, but…” “It’s about Rogers, isn’t it?” “Yes…” “Was to be expected. You were all really close, weren’t you? The Avenger I mean.” “Well… yes…” “And well… you seem a little closer to him than… one would be to an average friend.” “Yelena…” “What, it’s true. And you denying it is just kinda annoying.” “I’m not denying anything. Steve and I are close friends, yes, but nothing more than that. We know each other really well. We’ve been trough a lot together… He even saved my life once…” “Hmm… Well… we’ll find him.” “I hope.” “We will. I know how determined you can be when you set your mind to something. And when you got me to support you well,” she shrugged. “We’ll be unstoppable.” I turned to her, “Really?” “Yeah, we’re an awesome duo.” “You… might actually just have a point there.” “Of course we also have a chick that can break walls on our tea, now. That’s pretty cool.” “And don’t underestimate agent May.” “Is she really that dangerous?” “Yes.” “Cool.”

The next morning a few more agents arrived at our “hideout” in two Quinjets. And they weren’t alone. With them were Nick Fury, Peter Parker, Parker’s aunt and two of Peter’s friends. However, the last three people coming out of the Quinjets might have been the biggest surprised. One of them was Happy Hogan, Tony’s old bodyguard. Then there was a man, whom I swear I had seen before. He walked up to Fitz and stomped him on the arm in a friendly manner, “Hey Fitz, you missed me yet?” Fitz rolled his eyes, “You wish.” “’Sup, Hunter?” Daisy asked the guy. “Ah well, I think that’d be the sky. Or a few minutes ago, us.” Daisy smiled and rolled her eyes. “Oh, how I’m doing? Yeah, I’m good. How are you guys?” “Yeah, we’re good.” “So who are the new friends?” Hunter asked as he looked us over. “That’s Natasha Romanoff,” Daisy said as she pointed towards me. “And we have Clint Barton, Yelena… uh, what was your last name again?” “Belova.” “Right, Yelena Belova. Then there’s Alexei and Melina. Kate Bishop. Uh… you might know agent Hill already. And Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes.” “You’re hanging out with the Avengers without me?” He asked pretending to be hurt. “Yeah, we’re sorry, mate,” Fitz said. “But we didn’t want to wait till you showed up. You tend to uh… take your time.” “One time. One time you let your friend stay in jail because you have a hard time figuring out his clues and immediately he accuses you of being slow.” “Well, you can be a little slow.” A blonde woman spoke up from behind Hunter.

He turned to face her, “Says the woman who took five minutes to exit a Quinjet.” She shrugged, “Well, someone had to turn it off.” Then she turned to us, “Hi. I’m-.” “You’re tall,” Yelena said. “Like… really tall.” “Don’t mind her,” I said. “She’s a little weird sometimes.” “Does she hang around with you a lot? Because that would explain it.” “Heh,” Yelena said. “Thanks… Barbara,” I said, addressing the blonde by her full name. “It’s Bobbi.” Daisy seemed quite fascinated by our conversation, “You two know each other?” Bobbi nodded, “We went of a few missions together.” “And we went to clubs together after those missions.” “Sometimes we managed to drag Maria with us,” Bobbi said with a smile. “Yeah, when she wasn’t too busy working.” “Or when she wasn’t under Trip,” Bobbi added. “Excuse me?” Daisy asked. “Did you just say under Trip? As in… under Triplett?” Bobbi nodded. Maria glared at her. “Hey, you know it’s true, Mar.” “Doesn’t mean I like to be reminded of it.” “Sorry,” Bobbi said. Then she turned to Daisy, “It ended badly. Thanks to yours truly over there,” she said with a nod towards Fury. Maria sighed, “Okay, that’s enough about my virtually non-existent love life now. Let’s try to focus on what’s really important. We need to get Steve back.”

“Hi,” a voice suddenly sounded behind us. “Sam told me you guys would be coming. Well… I mean he told me Fury would be sending a team. I’m Leah Meyer.” Maria rolled her eyes. “Hi,” Bobbi said politely. “Bobbi Morse. And my partner, Lance Hunter.” “Wait, his first name is Lance?” Yelena asked. Hunter nodded, “Yep.” “Huh… that’s… kind of a stupid name. I’m sorry for you.” Daisy and Kate chuckled as Lance looked at Yelena with what could only be described as an offended look on his face. “I was named after the mighty knight Lancelot.” “So… your name is actually Lancelot Hunter?” Hunter nodded. “I’m not sure if that’s better,” Yelena said. “I mean, isn’t Lancelot actually a fictional character?” “No… the knights of the round table actually existed.” “According to who?” “Well… this uh… professor at a museum told me.” “A professor at a museum?” Yelena asked sceptically. “And what was the name of this professor?” “She uh… didn’t tell me.” “And are you sure she was a professor?” “Well she… was lecturing her students.” “So she was a teacher?” Lance decided this conversation wasn’t worth his time anymore. He rolled his eyes and looked at Fitz, “Women, right?” Fitz smiled, “Angry cause she got the best of you, Hunter?” “Please, she couldn’t get the best of me even if she tried.” “She’s a Black Widow.” Hunter looked Yelena over. Then he looked at me, “Are all of you so tiny?” I nodded, “Closer to hell and less room to contain our rage.” “Explains May,” Hunter whispered. Daisy laughed, “Oh God, it does.”

A little while later, Bobbi pulled me and Maria aside. “So, what’s the deal with that agent Meyer. You both seem to dislike her.” Maria shrugged, “Not much, really. I just don’t know her, so I don’t really trust her.” “Same goes for me,” I said as I watched Yelena throw a tennis ball. Daisy then quaked the ball away and Kate shot an arrow straight through the centre of it. The dog, Lucky, then retrieved the ball. They kept doing this for a while. “Hey, Nat, you listening?” Bobbi asked. “Hmm?” “That’s a no. I asked if you looked up anything on her.” “Oh, no, I didn’t. Should I have?” “Maybe.” “I don’t want to know anything about that woman,” Maria said. “Why is that?” Bobbi inquired. “Because you’re giving me the feeling that you don’t just mistrust her.” Maria sighed and looked at Sam, “It’s nothing important. Alright?” Bobbi followed her gaze and saw Sam hugging Leah, both with wide smiles on their faces. “Oh… I see,” she said. “It’s a long story,” Maria said. “You wanna talk about it?” I asked her. “Maybe later,” she said before she walked off. “She really has the worst of luck in the love department, doesn’t she?” Bobbi said as we watched her go. “Please, you should see my love life,” I told her. “That’s probably an even bigger mess.” “You’re making me curious now.” “Now’s not the time. I’ll tell you later.”