Chapter 95
Third Person’s POV-
Marcel looked out towards the back exit where Nik waved to him signaling that their job was done.
“Cal I have to get going, remember what we talked about.” Marcel said looking for the best way to get out of there undetected.
“Will do.” Hayley said before hugging him.
“Love you kid.” Marcel not knowing when would be the next time he’d see his daughter.
“Love you too dad.” Hayley said those words bring a smile to his face despite the unfortunate circumstance they were in.
Marcel turned to look at his daughter’s soulmate who watched the entire exchange between them with confusion and concern evident on his face.
“Take care of her.” Marcel told Clint before walking away.
Walking around the dance floor avoiding the rest of Hayley’s soulmates’ gazes he took the kitchen exit and met up with Nik in the back alley of the venue.
“I managed to stop Hayley before she took a drink, did you get him?” Marcel asked.
“Of course I got him.” Nik said opening the trunk of the car to show Marcel the dead body of the Russian assassin. “A bit ironic that they’d choose to poison the vodka just to get to Hayley.”
“It was just the one bottle and Hayley was the first to order. We’re in the clear.” Marcel said.
“Did you tell Hayley?” Nik said.
“No, she has enough on her plate with Hadrian being in New York.” Marcel said.
“Would explain why she went straight for the top shelf vodka.” Nik said. “Think she’ll be safe now?”
“This was Oleg trying to get one last hit in to get the last laugh. He’s not going to try again.” Marcel said closing the trunk. “We can ditch the car on the way to the airport. The farther away from Hayley we are, the safer she’ll be from Oleg.”
Hayley’s POV-
I followed Clint back to the table where everyone else was sitting down with the exception of Tony who was currently shaking down some of his business connections for donations.
“Everything okay?” Steve asked.
“Yeah.” I said taking a sip of water. The band chose that moment to start playing music and couples slowly started making their way to the dance floor.
“May I have this dance?” Thor asked.
“Of course.” I said taking his hand and standing up to follow him to the dance floor.
It was a waltz so I put a hand on Thor’s shoulder and he put one on my waist while we held on to each other’s other hand. We didn’t really waltz so much as just sway around slowly.
“Forgive me if I am not a good dancer. Mother tried to teach me but I did not catch on as easily as Loki did.” Thor said.
“Thor you’re doing great.” I said reassuring him. “The dips and spins are fun but I think I’d rather stay close like this.”
“I’ve never enjoyed dancing quite as much as I am right now.” Thor said with an adorable smile.
“It’s not really about dancing as it is about having the right partner.” I said as the song ended.
“Mind if I cut in?” Tony said not really waiting for an answer before moving me away from Thor.
“I shall wait for my next turn.” Thor said taking my hand and kissing it before letting go.
“That was rude.” I said.
“Sorry just needed to get away from…” He said nodding toward a bunch of women sitting at a table on the edge of the dance floor.
“Your harem?” I asked.
“They didn’t get the memo that I’m a taken man.” Tony said as his hands started drifting a bit lower towards my hips.
“Oh no you don’t. Boss employee etiquette. Hands on my waist and two textbooks space between us.” I said correcting our positions.
“Hales.” Tony whined.
“Even if we’re not at the office this is work.” I said.
“Give me one good reason why it’s a bad idea to go public.” Tony said.
“I’ll give you five.” I said nodding towards the table where everyone was sitting.
“No fair pulling the soulmates into this.” Tony said.
“No fair using me to avoid dealing with the gold diggers and one night stands of your past.” I said.
“Are you jealous?” Tony said.
“What? No.” I said. “We all have a past. I’m the last person who will ever judge anyone for theirs.”
“We still haven’t gone on our vacation.” Tony said.
“I’m still dealing with you know who.” I said.
“But afterwards, I was thinking a nice private island in the Bahamas or Tahiti. Just the two of us. You wearing nothing but a coconut bikini.” Tony said.
“Sounds nice.” I said in agreement. “But until then, song’s over.” I said stepping away and walking back to the table.
“Food just got here.” Steve said.
“You should eat, You haven’t had anything to eat all day.” Natasha reminded me as my stomach started growling.
“Right.” I said grabbing a fork and knife to dig into the miniature sized slice of chicken and braised carrots with potatoes fondant. I wasn’t really full afterwards but at least my stomach wasn’t really growling. The rest of the gala went off without a hitch. I danced a bit more with my soulmates, played a riveting round of guess what he said with Clint, and nannied Tony a few times about behaving and the proper conduct at work events.
It’s about midnight when the party dies down. The Stark Foundation managed to collect a couple million in donations.
I wanted to stay and help clean up but Thor quite literally threw me over his shoulder and carried me out to stop me from working. Normally I’d be a bit upset about being given a choice but I was oddly turned on. He only puts me down so help me get in the limo.
“I don’t know about you guys but I could really go for a cheeseburger.” Tony said.
“Make it a bacon cheeseburger and I’m in.” I said everyone agreed.
“Happy take us to the usual place.” Tony said.
“Yes boss.” Happy said before driving off.
We end up in a small restaurant who’s entrance is in an alley and if I had been looking for it I probably never would have found it. The walls were decorated with photos and autographs of celebrities that had visited. I’m not at all surprised to see a photo of Tony in his suit with his hastily signed name on the corner.
“How’d you find this place?” Clint asked.
“Eh, don’t remember it was after an all nighter a few years ago. Way better than any fast food chain.” Tony said.
“Hi what can I get you all?” The waitress asked.
“Yeah, bacon cheese burgers and fries all around.” Tony said.
“Chocolate shake too please.” I added.
“Strawberry for me.” Adds Clint.
“Cherry coke.” Steve says.
“I too shall have a chocolate shake.” Thor says.
“Water’s fine.” Bruce said.
“Oreo shake for me.” Natasha says.
“I’ll go with a regular coke.” Tony says handing over his credit card.
We all take a seat and wait for our food to be brought over.
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Clint had his leg stretched out behind Nat. Steve was tired and was leaning his head on his arm. Bruce looked uncomfortable in his suit and was shifting awkwardly. Thor sat down and waited patiently. I was just about to sit down between Thor and Tony when Tony surprised me by pulling me onto his lap.
“Wha!” I yelped surprised before Tony kissed me.
“Sorry, not sorry, I’ve been wanting to do that all night.” Tony said with a smirk.
“Sap.” I said giving him one last kiss before sitting down on a chair.
“Feeling better?” Thor asked.
“I’m…” I started getting ready to give out the usual lie but decided to cut the crap and tell them the truth they already knew. “Tired, scared, stressed, irritated and freakishly hungry but slightly better than I was before the severed arm got delivered.”
“But at least you got out of the tower.” Natasha said.
“And nothing happened.” Steve said.
“Yeah, no one died.” I said.
“Here are your drinks and fried. Your burgers will be right up.” The waitress said.
The first thing I did was grab a fry and dipped it into my shake before eating it. Clint did the same thing and everyone looked at us like we were growing second heads or something.
“Ew.” Tony said and Natasha had a look of equal disgust but didn’t say anything since she had probably seen Clint do the same thing before.
“What?” I asked.
“Don’t knock it until you try it.” Clint said.
“Hm.” Thor said grabbing a fry and dipping it in his shake. He hesitated before taking a bite. “This is delicious!” He exclaimed before dipping in another fry.
“I’m not going to try that.” Tony said.
“Suit yourself.” I said dipping a fry in and taking another bite.
“Everyone get their Christmas shopping done?” Tony asked.
“I finished last month.” I said. “Did you all remember to stick to the price limit?”
Everyone just looked away and continued eating their food.
“Guys!” I exclaimed.
“Did you stick to it?” Natasha retorted.
“Touche.” I said.
“How far out of the limit did you go?” Clint asked.
“Don’t worry about it.” I said with a smile.
“You’ve been saying that a lot today.” He said and I knew he was talking about my run in with Marcel.
“Ignorance is bliss.” I retorted shooting him a look to drop the subject.
“Isn’t that what got you where you are now?” Steve said and I shot him a look.
“Trying to enjoy the moment guys.” I said. “Mh wow this is a good burger.”
The little diversion worked for the moment second dinner was by far way better than the first. Once we were done we got back to the tower and all went our separate ways.
I was sitting in bed looking through photos Will had taken of us and sent to me when Clint walked in.
“What are you looking at?” Clint asked.
“Photos Will took of all of us. I think he missed his calling.” I said showing Clint a photo of the two of us dancing.
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He smiled and then passed the phone back.
“Nat in the shower?” Clint asked.
“Yeah, just got in.” I said.
“I know you said not to worry about it but…” He started.
“You’re worried about it?” I said already knowing where he was going. I sighed and put my phone down. “Remember when I said that my mom had a lot of loves?”
“You said they were all horrible and it never ended well.” Clint said.
“Most of them were.” I said. “The one exception to that was Marcel Gerard, Bekah and Kol’s adoptive older brother. My dad who you met.”
“Oh, What was he doing at the gala?” Clint asked.
“Checking in before disappearing.” I said.
“Disappearing?” Clint said confused.
“Rebekah wasn’t the only one disappearing. Kol, her brothers, Marcel. They’re gone.” I said my voice cracking a bit. “The Russians started giving them trouble. I negotiated a deal, I got them Hadrian they’d leave New Orleans. Of course they’ve been trying to kill him for over ten years and they still haven’t even gotten a hit in so it wasn’t really a big surprise when he got away in Romania. It bought them all time to get their affairs in order before leaving. I was the last stop before he started his early retirement.”
“I’m sorry.” Clint said hugging me.
“It’s okay, no one ended up in a body bag which is how most people retire.” I said before getting up.
“Where are you going?” Clint asked.
“Downstairs, need to get a couple of hours of work in.” I said.
“Hales, you’re tired and you’ve been down there for days. Get some sleep.” Clint said pulling me back towards him and hugging me.
“I’m not…” I started before yawning. “Okay maybe I could use a couple of hours.”
I crawled into the middle of the bed leaving enough room for Nat. Clint lied down behind me and spooned me. I was out before Nat got out of the shower.
Of course I didn’t sleep through the entire night. I woke up a few hours later gasping for air remember a mashed up montage of all the times Hadrian’s stabbed me or killed someone I knew with the new addition of Max added in. Natasha was still snoring softly and Clint had taken his hearing aids out so he just rolled over and kept snoring.
I got out of bed and headed down to the lab. I wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep so I may as well get started digging up what I could on Hadrian’s potential allies.
He allied himself with Javi, but Delilah killed him and she’s dead.
Besides Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum Hadrian didn’t have any friends. Of course he tried killing them both and actually succeeded in killing Jeese.
There was Rumlow… though for the most part he seemed pretty freaking clueless as to why Hadrian was after me.
Then there was him. The spy ghost story. The Winter Soldier.
If Hadrian was working with some shady organization, the soldier is the link between the two. Now we just had to figure out who he was.
“Hayley?” Bruce said getting my attention.
“Hey, thought you were asleep?” I asked.
“I was for a bit but woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.” Bruce said.
“Same here and I didn’t want to wake up Nat and Clint so I came down here.” I said.
“Any leads?” Bruce asked.
“None and I was getting frustrated with trying to get through the firewall so I’m having Jarvis run diagnostics and come up with new algorithms to see if maybe I missed something.” I said. “That’s going to be a while so I decided to take a new approach.”
“Is that?” Bruce asked looking at the Winter Soldier files Jarvis had brought up.
“I’m getting to know the enemy. Trying to see how those two fit together. The first sighting of this guy was over fifty years ago but on all the reports on file and from the few sightings he’s always described as being in his late twenties or early thirties tops.” I said.
“It could just be someone else who took over after he got too old.” Bruce said.
“I thought so too especially since all the photos of him are really blurry and you can’t really get a good look at him but then there’s the arm. It was years ahead of its time and it still is though Tony’s armor is pretty close to it but not as durable. How many people in the nineteen fifties do you think could be able to pull something like that off?” I asked.
“Of the top of my head, none.” Bruce said.
“Not exactly. Who was the best mechanical engineer and the US’s top weapon’s manufacturer during that time?” I asked.
“Howard Stark, Tony’s dad.” He said realizing where I was going.
“Who also happened to be one of the founders of the World’s largest intelligence organization founded during the biggest arms race in history. Maybe Howard didn’t build the arm but chances are Shield knows who could have.” I said.
“You have a lead.” Bruce said.
“I have a lead.” I said.