Fated Marks

The Next Morning-

As the light came through the floor to ceiling windows of the room I pinched my eyes tight trying to block the light. I rolled over before cracking my eyes a bit. The first thing I saw was Bruce snoring softly and looking the most relaxed and at peace I had ever seen him. I smiled and gently put my hand on his.

His breathing hitched a bit and he slowly opened his eyes and groaned when the light hit him.

“Hm,” He groaned.

“Morning.” I whispered.

“Morning.” Bruce said giving me a sleepy smile. “How long have you been up?”

“Not long,” I said. “It’s still early.”

“Is it?” He asked. “We can sleep in.”

“The lab can wait.” I said lying back down. Bruce moved behind me and put an arm around my waist as he spooned me. I felt him kiss his soulmark on my shoulder making me smile. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

I don’t know how long we were out for but it wasn’t until Jarvis woke us up that either of us got up.

“Doctor Banner, Miss Adams sir and everyone else are worried about the both of you. It is past noon and neither of you have been seen since early last night.” Jarvis notified us.

“Guess you were right. This was the last place they would ever look for us.” I said.

“We should get up.” Bruce said.

“Yeah.” I said. “We should also start looking for clothes.” I said reaching for something on the floor only to see what was left of my torn slip.

“Sorry.” Bruce said when he saw the look on my face.

I put it down before turning around and moving to straddle him. “I said it last night and I’ll say it again. You have nothing…” I said kissing him. “To apologize for.” I finished with another kiss. “Of course I’m gonna need to borrow some clothes.”

“I’ll grab you something just uh…” he said. I kissed him one last time before moving off of him. Bruce sat up and moved to the edge of the bed and slipped on his boxers before walking to his dresser. “T-shirt and sweats okay?” he asked.

“Perfect.” I said getting up and taking the offered clothes. I slipped them on and picked up my dress and shoes.

“Are you going to head down to the lab?” Bruce asked.

“I think I’m going to go shower and then grab breakfast… or lunch.” I said. “Hey Jarvis is Tony having another New years brunch this year?”

“He is Miss Adams. I believe the caterers have just arrived to set up.” Jarvis answered.

“Awesome. I’m gonna go upstairs and shower meet you in the common room?” I asked.

“See you up there.” Bruce said before I walked out.

I hopped in the elevator and made my way up to my apartment. I walked in and went straight to my room only to be greeted by Clint and Natasha who were both sitting on the bed with their arms crossed and smirks on their faces.

“Morning… Happy New Year.” I said awkwardly walking in and going straight into the walk in closet.

“Happy New year.” They said at the same time.

“Have fun last night?” Clint said obviously amused.

“Yeah Tony sure knows how to throw a party.” I said.

“Liar.” Natasha said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“So how long did you actually stick around before sneaking out?” Natasha asked.

“Like an hour. I’m sorry I just wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate.” I answered.

“I can’t believe you made it past all of us without anyone noticing.” Clint said.

“I waited for a distraction.” I said. “Wait… how long did it take you all to realize I was gone?”

“After midnight.” Clint said.

“Wow, Over three hours and no one noticed. Are you sure you two are spies?” I asked teasing them.

“You’re a lot sneakier than we thought.” Natasha said.

“I had help.” I said.

“Did that help come in the form of a scientist that occasionally turns into a green giant?” Clint asked.

“Maybe.” I said trying to play it off but I couldn’t stop smiling. Natasha smirked and looked me up and down before her eyes widened and her smirk turned into a grin.

“Really?” She said.

“I’m going to hop in the shower before heading up for brunch.” I said before stopping and going to sit down between them. “So this is probably the worst time to bring this up but Will did bring up a good point before you know, he wished he never met me.”

“Hales…” Clint started putting an arm around me.

“Not what I was going for. I cleared out a few drawers and some closet space in case… you know, you two want to bring some of your things down here so you don’t have to go all the way to your floors for clothes every morning.” I said. Neither of them said anything and I started thinking maybe this entire thing was redundant. I mean we live in the same building.

“You know clearing out drawers and closet space is a big relationship milestone. The one right before moving in.” Natasha said.

“I know and that isn’t as terrifying as it seemed ten months ago.” I said. “Also we kind of already live together. I love you guys and as weird as our relationship is I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

They both smiled and hugged me. Clint pulled away first and Natasha kissed me. I smiled as I kissed her back. When she pulled away Clint pulled me into a kiss and another hug.

“I’m going hop in the shower, meet you upstairs?” I asked.

“See you there.” He said as I walked into the shower.

I slipped on some black leggings and an over sized grey pull over with some black booties before walking out of the bathroom. Twenty minute of working on my hair so I’d be presentable and I was ready to go.

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I made my way up the common room where everyone was already sitting down.

“So what exactly happened last night?” Tony asked Bruce.

“We talked and watched a movie.” Bruce said with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on his face.

“That’s all?” Natasha asked in a playful tone.

“Morning.” I said walking in before they embarrassed Bruce too much.

“Sunshine!” Tony cheered.

“Don’t call me that.” I said in a sing song voice with a forced smile. “Happy new year.” I said kissing him. I was about to pull away when he pulled me back in and kissed me again.

“Happy New Year.” He said. “I got the first one!”

“First what?” I asked.

“The kiss of the New Year!” Thor said.

“A new year’s kiss? I never really saw the point of it but either way you’re not first you’re fourth.” I said.

“What?! Who was first?” Tony asked. I smiled and Bruce almost choked on his tea.

“That explains why we couldn’t find both of you last night.” Steve said.

“Or this morning.” Clint added.

“You two spent the night together?” Steve said.

“Wow that French toast looks yummy.” I said going to sit next to Bruce while trying to change the subject.

“You didn’t just spend the night together, you slept together!” Tony said.

“Tony.” I said in a warning tone.

“Wait, how did you two if…the other guy…” Tony started and everyone went quiet before turning to stare at us. While we both ignored them and chewed on our food.

“Is there any bacon?” I asked.

“Here you go.” Bruce said passing me a plate.

“Thank you.” I said kissing his cheek. “More tea?”

“I’m good.” He said.

“Are we really not going to talk about this?” Tony asked.

“I don’t share details about any of our time spent alone, why would this be any different?” I said daring them to even say another word. Instead they all sat back down and started serving themselves.

“So any new years resolutions?” Steve asked making small talk.

“Making sure Hadrian ends up six feet under. Maybe eating healthier while I’m at it.” I said taking a bite of my French toast. Everyone just gave me concerned looks. “What?” I asked.

“You want to kill your brother?” Steve said.

“What did you expect to happen once we found him?” I said.

“That’s not what he meant Hales.” Clint said.

“It’s the first time you said you wanted him dead.” Thor said.

“Hadrian’s not my brother, Even though he isn’t talking to me Will is and he was right. Josh, Max, Delilah the list of people who would still be alive if I had let you all kill him months ago goes on. I have just as much blood on my hands as he does and it has to stop. No more running, no more hiding and no more cutting deals. You get the shot, take it.” I said taking a sip of my mimosa.

“That’s a big change of heart from the last time we brought it up.” Tony said.

“Well a lot of things have happened since then.” I said. “I’ve learned.”

“That still leaves us with the same problem as before, how are we going to find Adler?” Natasha asked.

“I’ve been over all the intel Jarvis gathered on the list plus everything else I managed to find on my own and none of it leads anywhere.” I said.

“Then there’s nothing there.” Steve said.

“No we’re on the right path we’re just missing something.” I said.

“You want to try and talk to Hanson again?” Natasha asked.

“No I got everything out of him the first time around. Besides I’ve got nothing to leverage against him anymore now that his family’s gone.” I said.

“What about the blacked out name?” Bruce asked making Steve clench his jaw.

“As far as I could tell he did stand trial after the war and got sent to prison only to be released later for an undisclosed reason. He died in the early seventies.” I said.

“Cause of death?” Tony asked.

“Lung cancer.” I answered.

“Anything about what he was doing before hand?” Steve asked.

“I couldn’t find anything.” I said. “Do you think Peggy might now something?”

“She could but I don’t think she’ll remember anything. The dementia’s progressing faster than expected.” Steve said.

“Sorry.” I said.

“So we’ve got nothing?” Tony asked.

“Well not exactly.” I said.

“You just said…” Steve started.

“I said I went over everything Jarvis could find online and in very database he could get into. There’s one place that I haven’t looked. The files on Project paperclip would be so old that they probably wouldn’t be in Shield’s database but they might have more extensive hard copies in their archives.” I explained.

“Then let’s go to SHIELD.” Clint said.

“You do remember I had my clearance revoked. I’m not exactly allowed in anymore.” I said. “I’m also pretty sure Fury hates my guts and doesn’t trust me.”

“Hales Fury doesn’t trust anyone. He’s a spy.” Tony said making Clint and Natasha glare at him.

“My point is if I ask I doubt he’ll actually help. Also I really don’t want to work for SHIELD. My gut instinct isn’t to trust Shield and normally I’m right about these things.” I said.

“Those files shouldn’t be above our clearance levels, we can go check things out.” Clint said.

“You’re probably going to have to wait a few days until everyone’s back from break.” Bruce said.

“So we just have to wait.” I said. ‘And stay alive until then.” I thought.

“Or we can just head over to headquarters and look for the files ourselves?” Natasha said.

“You’re talking about digging through every hard copy of every mission or classified Intel Shield has ever had anything to do with. That’s over seventy years worth of files.” Clint said.

“We wouldn’t even know where to start looking.” Steve said.

“So we wait until Monday. It’s just three days.” Tony said.

So just three days. I was in a tower full of high tech equipment run by an AI. Of course I had already been locked in here for days since the Winter Soldier tried to kill me in broad daylight. Then again Hadrian hadn’t called to taunt me about almost killing me so that meant he wasn’t the one that ordered the hit. He also doesn’t have a problem with killing everyone around me to send a message.

It was going to be a very long three days…

Three Days Later-

“Okay so anything from the SSR, early shield days…” I started.

“Project paperclip or recruitment of any scientist marked as classified.” Clint finished. “Hales we got this.”

“I know, I just wanted to be sure since I can’t be there or even leave the tower.” I said begrudgingly.

“Weren’t you the one that said she could spend the rest of her life without leaving the tower?” Tony snarked.

“By choice, being forced to lock myself up makes me feel like the walls are caving in.” I said.

“It won’t be like this forever, just until we find Adler.” Steve said.

“I know.” I said giving him a small smile.

“We better head out. The faster we get there the faster we can be back.” Natasha said before hugging me. “Stay safe.” She whispered.

“You too.” I said.

“If anything happens…” Steve started.

“You’re on speed dial.” I said. “You should go see Peggy while you’re down there. I’m sure she misses you.”

“Maybe.” Steve said hugging me and kissing my forehead before letting go.

“We’ll be back.” Clint said giving me a quick kiss before following Nat and Steve to the quinjet. I watched as the doors closed and the engines started up before they took off.

“I wish I could be there. I hate just sitting around doing nothing.” I said.

“Perhaps we should not stay here.” Thor said.

“It’s not exactly safe for me to leave the tower.” I said watching the jet disappear from my view.

“It may not be safe for you on Earth but there are eight other realms your brother cannot reach you in?” Thor suggested.

“Ah that is tempting.” I said. “But running away from my problems is kind of what got me into this mess. Besides I’m a little to distracted to enjoy the greatest wonders of the nine realms.”

“Then how about helping us with work.” Bruce said.

“I’m not exactly a bio chemist.” I said.

“But you are a genius programmer and have picked up a few things from yours truly.” Tony said. “You remember that tech start up I bought at the beginning of the year?”

“That one meeting you spent the entire time trying to get me to talk to you about us but I ignored you the entire time?” I said.

“That’s the one. I got some of their nanobot prototypes but there are a few glitches with the programming. We can control one but more than one and they bug out.” Tony said.

“Bug out as in they don’t listen or bug out they stop working?” I asked.

“Why don’t I show you?” Tony said.

“How do you make everything sound dirty?” I asked.

“I don’t but I know where your heads at.” Tony said with a smirk.

“So Asgard?” I asked Thor.

“Oh no you don’t.” Tony said pulling me with him to the lab.

“I’m going to enforce work protocol.” I said.

“That go for Bruce too?” Tony asked.

“Bruce can keep his hands to himself.” I said

“You’re no fun.” Tony said as the elevator to the lab opened.

“We both know I’m a lot of fun boss.” I said in a sultry voice.

“Maybe we should get back in the elevator and head upstairs instead?” Tony whispered in my ear.

“Workplace conduct.” I said in a sing song voice before pulling away.

“Tease.” Tony said.

“So nanobots?” I said getting them back on track.

“Right.” Tony said leading her to his side of the lab. He looked through his drawers before pulling out a slide and putting it under the camera so a magnified image would appear on the screen.

“Wow the attention to detail on the circuitry is incredible.” I said.

“Yet when they start moving they bug out.” Tony said.

“Can I get a demo?” I asked.

“Of course. So I input the order and respond in… now.” Tony said as the nanobots started moving in unison before bugging out and dispersing.

“Okay, they’re bugging out.” I said before getting to work on solving the problem.

I forgot how much I loved working in the lab on something my life didn’t depend on. Once I got into the coding I started toying around with it to see what else I could get the tiny bots to do. As it turned out the programing wasn’t equipped to work with more than one dozen of the time bots at a time so I had to redo most of it. It took most of the day so by dinner time I was so caught up in I was doing Thor literally had to carry me out of the lab so I’d eat dinner.

Once we were sitting down my phone started buzzing.

“Oh crap!” I said.

“What?” Tony said.

“It’s Nat, kind of forgot they were out of the tower for a minute.” I said before picking up.

“Hey Nat, how’s the search going?” I asked and she grimaced. “That bad huh?”

“The archives are completely out of order, the librarian in charge of this place went out for lunch and never came back, Clint hasn’t stopped whining the entire time and we got pulled into a mission.” She said.

“You knew that was a risk if you showed up and Fury found out about it.” I said.

“It’s only a few hours away but that’s time we could be spending looking here.” She said.

“Hey like you said the archives are a mess and the librarian isn’t around. Just go kick ass like you always do and you can pick up when it’s all over and you’re done debriefing.” I said. “I’ll keep busy until you get back.”

“Clint wants to talk to you.” Natasha said passing Clint the phone.

“Hales…” he whined.

“Clint it’s not that bad.” I said.

“Too many files, all I see are letters.” He whined.

“But now you get to go out and maybe shoot someone. Didn’t you say you got some new arrows you still haven’t tried out?” I enticed.

“Next Christmas, let’s just go hide away somewhere and not come back until February.” Clint said.

“You’d go stir crazy without anything to do.” I said. “Now go gear up and come back in one piece please.”

“I’ll try.” He said and knowing him I knew that was the best I was going to get.

“I’ll see you when you get back.” I said before they hung up.

“I wonder why Fury didn’t call us in?” Tony said.

“It’s probably something they could handle.” Bruce said. “Besides he knows we have bigger things to handle.”

“Perhaps we should look through the archives ourselves?” Thor suggested.

“I don’t have clearance,” Bruce said.

“I’m just a consultant.” Tony said.

“He doesn’t trust me because of who I’m related to which means he trusts me even less to look through confidential Shield files. Not that I need his permission. I’ve hacked into the shield database at least three times in the last week.” I said.

“So we wait.” Tony said.

Third Person’s POV- Undisclosed Location

“We should have called in Thor and Tony, maybe even Bruce to have on standby.” Steve said.

“It’s just a simple infiltration and recon.” Natasha said. “We didn’t need all the fireworks to let them know we were here. Besides we have the best of Strike as back up.”

“The guys are ready to go Cap.” Rumlow said.

“Hawkeye, you find your nest?” Steve said into his com.

“Northwest sector. I have eyes on the exit.” Clint answered.

“Let’s move out.” Steve said.

With that everyone followed Steve and Natasha as they heading into the base. One third of the men with them split up to circle the base to watch the perimeter. The rest of them moved in. Natasha went her own way and started looking for intel while everyone else went to shut down the base.

All was going well until Natasha got to the server room. She started hacking her way in went she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She barely had enough time to move before a knife lodged itself onto the keyboard.

“Fast reflexes.” Hadrian said.

“Adler.” Natasha said.

“How’s Calliope doing? Not everyone survives being shot by the Winter soldier. Guess that’s just one more thing you both have in common.” Hadrian said as he walked closer. Natasha backed away slowly. Keeping an eye on his movements.

“Hayley’s strong.” Natasha said.

“Like a cockroach. She just doesn’t stay down.” Hadrian said trying to goad Natasha into making a move.

“Are you going to keep making small talk?” Natasha said.

“No, we’ve got what we came for.” Hadrian said.

“And what’s that?” Natasha asked confused before she felt something hard hit her behind the head knocking her down. Natasha saw was a metal-armed assassin move to stand next to Hadrian.

Hadrian kneeled down in front of her and moved her hair over her shoulder before jabbing a needle into her neck.

“You.” Hadrian said with a smirk before she passed out.