Fated Marks

Will once said that the truth will set you free, at the time he was drunk after taking shots off some random guys stomach at a bar so I didn’t really think much of it. Now after airing out all my dirty laundry I felt almost at peace. I was half expecting some one to yell or to get kicked out not get pulled into sci-fi movie marathon and cuddling on the couch with my soulmates switching who got to hold me every hour or so.

By dinnertime it was like the past few days had never happened. Almost.

“We still haven’t figured out what we’re going to do about your brother.” Steve said.

“Yeah, that’s not going away anytime soon.” I said. “He’s watching me, hence the exploding Lamborghini.”

“We could always…” Natasha started.

“Don’t go there.” I said. “I have a deadline and a job to do. As long as I look busy I should be good.”

“You were doing your job and he blew up a car.” Tony said.

“To let me know he was watching. If he wanted me dead I would have been in the car when it blew up.” I said. “I know how he works and I cloned his phone so I know exactly where he is at all times.”

“You what?” Bruce asked.

“I cloned his phone. Figured if I was going to find Delilah I should look at what he already knew and go from there. She was living in Miami before they disappeared. There was an incident with an arms dealer and she left.” I said. “And I don’t think she’s coming back considering her husband killed her entire family.”

“That’s it, you’re telling us his name and where we can find him.” Clint said.

“I’m not telling you.” I said.

“Hayley I know you think you have this handled but you really don’t.” Steve said.

“I’ll admit it looks pretty bad…” I started.

“He tried to kill you twice in the last three days.” Natasha deadpanned.

“Key word tried. Look I just have to make it through the next few days then I’ll go lay low in Europe until I can find Delilah or think of something else.” I said.

“Running, that’s your solution?” Steve said.

“If I was going to run I would have done it when he first showed up again this is just buying some time until I can think of a way to make him go away.” I said.

“That’s why you decided to go to Europe for the year.” Bruce said.

“It was either leave for a year or leave and disappear for good.” I said. “Rebekah gave me the brilliant idea of tracking down Delilah and using her as leverage which is the only reason Jack the ripper hasn’t decided to kill me yet.”

“What does he want with her?” Tony asked.

“Don’t know and frankly I don’t really care. Those two deserve each other.” I said.

“Who exactly is she?” Bruce asked.

“Delilah Roman, Thief, assassin, The Romani’s golden child prodigy. At least she was until they shunned her.” I said.

“Why’d they do that?” Steve asked.

“She broke off an arranged marriage to an arms dealer. The marriage was supposed to solidify a deal between the two families who had been at war as far back as anyone remembered. Delilah broke it off when she met my brother and they were obviously against it.” I said.

“Very Shakespeare.” Tony said.

“Mom thought so too.” I said thinking back to the good-bye message. For someone who used to be seem so strong and fearless, she sounded scared. For a second I could have sworn it sounded like she was begging.

“Hales?” Clint said.

“Hm?” I said snapping out of my train of thought.

“Did you hear what we said?” Clint asked.

“Uh no sorry, zoned out for a second. You were saying?” I asked.

“You can’t be alone while he’s out there.” Clint said.

“Guys, I know how he works and I know how to watch my own back. I’ll be fine. You three should go back to DC.” I said.

“No.” Steve said.

“We’re not leaving.” Clint said. “You’re in danger Hales.”

“I’ve been in danger my whole life, this is just a slightly rougher patch than normal. It’s…”

“If you say it’s handled one more time I swear by Thor you’ll have one of us next to you even when you’re in the bathroom.” Tony said.

“No one is going anywhere until we figure this out.” Natasha said.

“It’s all pretty much worked out. I have three potential locations which I’m checking out. A phone filled with potentially incriminating information I’m working on decrypting and Tony’s penthouse has a state of the art security system.” I said.

“You’re going to be on your own for a year, in another country where he can get to you whenever he wants.” Natasha said.

“He could have gotten to me months ago. Hell he could have killed me during brunch on Sunday. Point is as long as I’m still useful to him or he thinks I can help him he won’t actually kill me he’ll just torment me.” I said.

“And you’re okay with that?” Bruce said.

“I’ll manage.” I said.

“Hales just let us…” Clint said,

“No, No one here is going to go after him or try and find him. He’s insane on a normal day, him fully pissed off is a whole other shit storm.” I said leaving no room for argument.

“Why are you protecting him?” Tony said frustrated.

“He’s not the one I’m protecting.” I said.

“We can handle him.” Natasha said.

“You don’t know him like I do, leave it alone.” I said putting an end to the conversation. “I’m tired and still freakishly sore so I’m going to call it a night.” I said kissing Nat’s cheek before walking out.

Third Person’s POV-

“I didn’t see that coming.” Steve said.

“No we did not.” Bruce said.

“She told me about the Triad but I didn’t expect everything else.” Clint said.

“I thought I had issues with Howard but Hayley’s mom… damn.” Tony said grabbing a drink.

“Yet she didn’t say a single bad thing about her.” Natasha said. “Does explain a lot. Going though all that at that age, you don’t come out of that the same.” She said thinking about her own past.

“That brother…” Steve said.

“Really want to shoot an arrow into that asshole’s eye.” Clint grumbled.

“Get in line.” Tony grumbled. “Why the hell won’t she just tell us?”

“She’s scared.” Bruce said.

“She grew up with him and knows what he’s capable of fairly sure she skipped over some of those details.” Natasha said.

“So what do we do, she’s obviously not going to tell us anything.” Bruce said. “I’m still surprised she told us all of that.”

“She can’t go to London, she can’t be on her own.” Tony said.

“You want to be the one to tell Hayley she can’t do something?” Steve said remembering the fight from the day before.

“Her brother blew up a car to get her attention, I don’t want to imagine what he’ll do if he’s in a bad mood. She can’t go. She can be mad all she wants but she’s not going.” Clint said.

“That won’t stop her.” Natasha said. “And it still doesn’t solve anything.”

“Maybe we should just take her somewhere and keep her safe until we figure out something else?” Steve suggested.

“Too bad Thor isn’t here, he could have taken her to Asgard.” Bruce said.

“Not like he left a phone number or anything.” Tony grumbled.

“It’s been a long day. Let’s just call it a night and figure this out tomorrow.” Steve said.

Steve went down to his floor while Bruce and Tony went down to the lab. Natasha and Clint stayed in the common room a bit longer.

“We have a lot more in common than I thought.” Natasha said.

“Yeah you do. She reminds me a lot of you when we first met.” Clint said.

“Why’d you do it?” Natasha asked.

“Same reason knowing everything Hayley did in the past doesn’t bother either of us right now.” Clint said.

“She was just a kid, she didn’t have a choice and she’s done everything she could to make things right. She fought for her second chance and her douche of an older brother wants her dead for it.” Natasha said.

“Yeah.” Clint said thinking of something. “Did the name sound familiar?”

“Delilah Roman? I’ve heard rumors about her family. Drugs and human trafficking, at war with the Czechs until they were all found dead one day. Husbands, wives, children all killed.” Natasha said. “No one ever figured out who it was, until now.”

“I’m a bit impressed over how calm Hayley is about this.” Clint said.

“I don’t think she’s as calm about this as you think.” Natasha said getting up.

“She’s focused on doing this.” Clint said as he got in the elevator. “It’s distracting her.”

The elevator doors opened and They both walked into Hayley’s apartment.

Hayley’s POV-

I walked into my apartment and walked straight into my room. I through myself onto the bed and quickly regretted that decision. I was still too sore to even try that. I didn’t want to do anything tomorrow just lie in bed and sleep the day away. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to take me. I ran through everything that happened to day and remembered the phone. What did the decryption find?

I quickly got up and went to grab my laptop and the phone from where I had left it on the coffee table. I opened it up and quickly started scanning through it. Besides some emails about paperwork there was nothing new. The decryption had failed.

“Shit.” I muttered. I started skimming through to see what the problem had been and couldn’t find any thing. I ran it again except this time the answer was instant.

Decryption Failed

No way in hell was this phone going to beat me. I started hacking manually but there was so much data to sort through. I started typing out a new code. I heard the elevator ding and then footsteps. I figured it was probably someone coming to check up on me.

“I thought you were going to bed.” Clint asked probably wondering why I was sitting on the floor typing something into the laptop faster than probably anyone he’d ever seen before.

“Couldn’t sleep so I decided to check on the decryption. Who ever put this in really knew what they were doing.” I said not taking my eyes off the screen.

“I’ve never seen you have a hard time hacking anything.” Natasha said.

“This is like nothing I’ve seen before. I thought it was just a basic military grade encryption firewall but this is on a whole new level. I take down one layer and a new code is put in its place and I have to start over.” I said.

“Come on, take a break. You can try again tomorrow.” Clint said putting an arm around me.

“Just give me a minute, I’m going to run a different program and let it work over night.” I said finishing up the last bit before inputting it. I closed the computer and took the hand Clint offered to help me up. I felt the soreness from my bruises and groaned a bit.

“Sore?” Nat asked.

“Yeah, can wait to get into my warm comfy bed.” I said going into the bedroom. I pulled out my matching black lace tank and short pajamas. I didn’t even bother going t change in the bathroom. It wasn’t like it was anything they hadn’t seen before.

I turned around and saw that they were just watching me with fond smiles. I crawled into the space between them in the middle of the bed. I cuddled into Clint’s side and noticed that he was still fully dressed and so was Natasha.

“Guys, you can get comfortable.” I said.

“We don’t want to…” Clint started and I threw him a glare that made Natasha smile. He got up and took off his jeans and slipped off his shirt keeping the white undershirt he had on. He was about to lie back down but I stopped him.

“Ehem.” I said pointing to my ear to remind him of his hearing aids.

“It’s fine I can sleep with them on.” Clint said.

“You told me it was uncomfortable and made it harder to take them out later. Off.” I said. He sighed but did what I asked. I turned to look at Natasha who had stripped down to her underwear and a tank top. We all lied back down and cuddled. I was hugging Clint and Natasha was spooning me.

I slipped my hand under the pillow and felt the same cold and hard objects from the night before.

“Okay seriously why is there a knife and a gun under my pillow?” I asked.

“Sh.” They both shushed.

“No I’m serious, all weapons out of the room.” I said.

“Hales.” Clint said slightly louder than usual.

“Dude it’s a safety hazard.” I said crossing my arms and giving them both a stern look.

“We sleep better knowing if something happened we’d be ready to protect ourselves and you.” Natasha said.

“Nat we’re in one of the most secure buildings in the world. Jarvis monitors everything. You don’t need to worry.” I said.

“Hales just, trust us. The safety’s on and the Knife is sheathed you won’t get hurt.” Clint said.

“This is because of him isn’t it?” I said.

“Just trust us. It’s better to be prepared.” Natasha said taking one of my hands and Clint taking the other to nudge me forward to lie back down.

“It’s unnecessary but if it’ll let you sleep better fine.” I said getting comfortable again. I was starting to drift back to sleep when I thought of something. “That’s the only weapon you hid in here right?”

“Sh.” They both shushed.

“We’re having a serious conversation about this tomorrow.” I said.

“Mhm.” Natasha hummed and Clint let out a soft snore. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

I appeared in a warehouse with my hands tied above my head. I looked around and there were all my soulmates and my friends.

‘You made a huge mistake Calliope’ He snarled.

‘Hadrian, please. They have nothing to do with this.’ I begged. ‘I didn’t tell them.’

‘I know you didn’t,’ He said with a wolfish smirk.

‘Then why?’ I cried.

‘Because I fucking feel like it!’ He said punching Tony.

“AH!” Tony cried out.

“No, I’m the one you’re angry at. Do whatever you want just let them go!” I yelled as he stuck a nail under Natasha’s fingernail.

“AH! Hayley!” She cried.

“The Black Widow’s not as tough as I thought she’d be.” Hadrian laughed.

“If you want to kill me kill me but let them go.” I said.

“No, I want you to suffer. I want you to watch the life leave their eyes as they take their last breath. I want you to see what you caused Calliope because this is all you were ever good for, death and misery. This is how it will end for you and you only have yourself to blame.” He said before suddenly reappearing next to me. He twirled his knife in his hand before stabbing me in the chest. “I’ll see you soon.”

“AAAHHHH!” I screamed as I sat up gasping for air.

“Hayley!” I heard Natasha and Clint shout.

“Hey, hey it’s okay. It was just a dream.” Clint said hugging me and kissing the top of my head as Natasha rubbed my back

“You’re safe.” Natasha whispered. “We’re here, everything’s okay.

I couldn’t hold back and cried as I buried my face on Clint’s chest. Clint moved me so I was straddling his lap as he rocked me. Natasha combed her fingers through my hair and hummed a lullaby I had never heard before.

“You’re safe Hales. We love you and we’ll keep you safe.” Clint whispered. That just made me cry more. I don’t know how long I cried for but I ended up falling back to sleep. I woke up the next morning to Natasha and Clint clinging to me in their sleep.

I don’t know how I was going to do it, but there was no way I was going to let Hadrian hurt them. That nightmare would never come true; I don’t care what it costs me.

“Hey you okay?” I heard Clint whisper.

“Yeah, it’s still early, go back to sleep.” I said. He didn’t have to be told twice. I nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck and put my hand over the hand Natasha had on my waist. I closed my eyes and started making a mental checklist of what I needed to get done today. I needed to make sure that no matter what happened the people I cared about would be okay.

I stayed in bed making sure Clint and Natasha were still asleep before carefully slipping out of bed. I grabbed my phone and sent my Fake ID guy a text saying if he had my order ready.

Lucky for me he was finished with the order and was going to be close to Will and Nate’s apartment. I got up and checked to see if Elijah was going to be in town.

He responded as quick as always and said he had a late lunch opening.

Okay, now I just had to get ready to go without waking up two master assassins and get out of the tower without anyone noticing.

“Morning beautiful.” I heard Clint say as he wrapped his arms around me from behind.

“Shit, you scared me.” I said jumping a bit.

“Sorry, I thought you heard me walk in.” Clint said.

“No I was distracted. Stupid decryption didn’t work. Got to start over.” I said not knowing if it was true or not.

“Maybe you should ask Tony for help?” Clint said.

“And let him taught me for the rest of my life? I think I’ll give it a few more tries before going there.” I said.

“You doing okay?” He asked sounding concerned.

“Yeah, just a rough night.” I said. “I should actually go get dressed. I promised Will a best friend day, says he’s feeling abandoned.”

“Oh, I’ll make you some coffee upstairs for the road.” He said.

“You’re the best.” I said kissing him before he got up and walked out of the apartment. I walked over to the room where Natasha was starting to stir.

“Morning.” She said giving me a smile.

“Morning.” I said giving her a smile. “Clint’s upstairs making coffee.”

“He better be making waffles.” She said.

“Might want to go check he just said coffee.” I said.

“Mh, I’ll get him to make breakfast. Don’t take too long.” She said kissing my cheek.

“I won’t.” I said giving her a peck on the lips before getting up. I quickly got dressed before and grabbed my purse. I still had twenty grand in there from Miami along with all my fake ids. I needed to put that and a few more wads of cash in Will’s apartment along with the order I was going to pick up in a bit.

I quickly got to the kitchen and went to take out the duffle bag full of money. I had to do this while I was still alone. After all this I still hadn’t even put a dent in my inheritance. That is probably about to change. I put it all away and went upstairs.

“Morning sunshine.” Tony greeted.

“Still hate that name.” I said.

“Coffee.” Clint said putting a to go cup in front of me.

“Thank you. I’ll see you all later.” I said.

“Where you going?” Tony asked pretty quickly.

“Friends day with will and to run some errands. I’ll be back later.” I said.

“Mind if I tag along?” Steve asked.

“You want to come shopping with me and Will?” I asked.

“Sure, I missed the city.” Steve said.

“Uh sure… but we’re taking my car and you need to change.” I said. “You know to blend in better.”

“I’ll be back in a bit.” Steve said kissing my cheek as he passed me by. Okay the day got a bit more complicated. I could still make this work… I think.