The Hawk Lands
Tony, Steve, Bucky, and Bruce sit around a table spit balling ideas after determining that the search for the missing woman was going nowhere. When Fury enters it is in a moment of utter silence as the four men seem to have run out of ideas.
“Well?” Fury asks, arms crossed and brow furrowed. “How goes the search?”
No one bothers to answer.
Finally, Bruce speaks up. “It isn’t going anywhere.” Taking off his glasses, he rubs his eyes. “We have nothing to go on since the facility was destroyed. No witnesses because the scientists aren’t talking. And no clue what this person even looks like!”
“Seriously,” Tony adds with his usual snark. “Why no pictures? How the hell do you expect us to do anything with not even a partial picture? You don’t even remember what she looks like. Besides, we’re not even sure why she’s dangerous except for the destruction of the base.”
“In which she was imprisoned,” growls Bucky.
Steve shifts uneasily in his seat. “With all due respect, Sir, we don’t have any reason to be hunting this woman. Nothing has happened since her escape. As you can see both Barton and Romanov have taken a vacation since this seems so unimportant.”
“Can’t you give us anything?” whines Tony.
“Why is she so important?” Bruce inquires as he slips his glasses back on. “Why are you so afraid?”
Fury stares at them all for a moment. Nothing is said and no one makes any move to break the silence. Then, he speaks. “I’ve seen a lot of darkness in my time. Some people get lost in the darkness. But others are built from it. She is the darkness. There was a little town in South Dakota where it all started. A small town. A quiet town. The kind of place that time forgot and people rarely venture to or from. The population was four hundred and twelve people. Men, women, children of all ages that lived in peace. Until she arrived. We’re not entire sure how it occurred, but we got lucky. An agent was from that small town and happened to go home for holiday, so he was the first to discover the chaos.”
“It was a slaughter.” Fury sits down heavily in a chair, unable to keep standing. “From what we could tell people simply turned on each other. Mothers literally smothered daughters. Sons beat fathers to death. Neighbors burned down each other’s homes with families inside. The police shot the fire men and a fire man’s axe was found buried in the sheriff’s head. All four hundred and twelve people were dead.”
“My god,” murmurs Steve, horror written across his face.
“We sent a cleanup team along with a team to try to piece together what occurred. That’s when we found her.” Now Fury looks vaguely sick. He’s clutching the arms of his chair with a force that looks painful. “An agent discovered her swinging on a playground surrounded by the corpses of children and parents. She was simply swinging, and when the agent approached she looked up and spoke to him. Words that haunt me to this day and they were not even spoken to me, “Do you think a plague would kill people off quicker?” and that’s all. He took her in for questioning, but the agents monitoring her succumbed to the same force she used on the town and killed each other. After she escaped a spree of unrelated, sudden crimes occurred which we used to track her down. She was sedated and locked away for study. It has been decades since she was put to sleep. After the incident, we covered it and the world forgot about that tiny town and those four hundred and twelve people who were murdered. Yes, murdered because that woman made them kill each other.”
“What is she?” asks Tony, ever the inquisitive one.
Fury releases his grip on the chair and flexes his fingers. “We don’t know.”
~
You hate begin nervous. It makes your skin itch and your shadow jump around behind you. Today is the day Laura’s husband comes home for a visit and it makes you want to vomit. It makes you want to run. To slip into the shadows and lie in darkness until the potential danger has passed. However, there will always be another threat. Threats that you can’t predict and a few that you can. You know what’s coming… It is only a matter of time until she sends someone to deal with you. You shudder, thinking about how the past will be coming to haunt you.
“Aunty?” calls out Lila as the sound of her feet pounding on the floorboards upstairs can be heard.
“Coming, ladybug.” You yell back, standing and stretching before heading toward the stairs.
When you reach the top floor, she’s standing with her hands on her hips. She’s wearing the dress Laura bought her the other week with the daisies on it and has on some pretty white sandals. It is clear she’s dressing up for her father’s return. A bittersweet smile crosses your lips as you try to imagine doing this for your father. He’d have swooned.
Lila pouts, “I can’t tie the bow in the back.”
“I can do that, ladybug.” You twirl your finger and she turns around so you can fix the bow in the back for her. “There you go – now you’re ready!”
Off she goes, downstairs and outside to where Cooper is playing in the yard with Laura watching over them. Your stomach clenches, and you try to calm it down as you recall what Laura recently decided. Instead of telling her husband about your nonexistent past, she’s already told him you’re the nanny she hired. It’s a thin cover, but she says he won’t question it once he sees you with the kids. And when she mentioned a family friend, Aunt Nat coming… well that didn’t help your nerves any.
Gliding toward the back bedroom, you enter the nursery to watch Nate sleep. Standing over his crib and watching his even breaths makes you smile. His face is peaceful and blank while his arms and legs occasionally twitch. Reaching down a hand, you stroke his baby fuzz and grin. He’s adorable awake but when he’s sleeping there’s something special about him. The amount of peace a sleeping child has never registered with you before. But, then again, how many sleeping children had you seen?
It had been a long time.
You hear the car long before the kids start squealing. Then you hear the giggles and shouts of “Daddy!” as they run out to meet the car. For a moment, you continue to watch Nate sleep, then as if he’s aware his father is home and he should go greet him, he wakes up. A big baby yawn and some sleepy babble, the he’s raising his arms demanding to be held. Picking up the little prince, you carry him down the steps while rubbing his back while he giggles. He’s a happy baby and loves his cuddles.
“There’s your daddy.” You whisper in his ear when you step onto the front porch and watch a man with short brown hair lifting Cooper over his head. A red-headed woman is carrying Lila while she gives Laura a hug.
A loud squawk comes from a crow in the tree closest and you feel all the tension leave your body. All of a sudden, you’re reminded of all the shit you’ve lived through. The pain you’ve faced and people you’ve lost. If this man wants to kick you out that’s fine. You’ll survive another broken heart.
“There’s the baby,” coos Laura when she sees you holding Nate. “Come here, (y/n). Was he crying?”
All eyes snap to you as you bounce Nate a couple times and bring him down to hand to Laura. “No, he was good. He woke up and started talking so I figured I could bring him down since naptime is obviously over.”
Laura hands Nate over to the man, whose eyes flit from you to his wife then to Nate.
“Clint,” Laura says, her voice taking on a tone that broaches no arguments. “This is (y/n), the nanny I hired. (Y/n) this is my husband, Clint Barton.” She turns and points to the redhead who has joined you all. “And this is our closest friend, Natasha Romanov. Nat this is (y/n).”
The judgment in their eyes is clear. Each newcomer holds themselves with a tension that could be cut with a knife. Ah, judgmental stares… if there are death threats later you’ll feel right at home. Maybe even an assassination attempt to make everything seem homier.
You paste on a smile that fools everyone, “It is nice to meet you both.”
“Likewise.” Clint states with forced calm. “I’ve heard very little about you.”
It was awkward and tense but somehow dinner was managed. After, you cleared dishes and stood at the sink rinsing and loading the dishwasher while the others were putting the children to bed. A soft whisper of shadow behind you alerted you to the presence of the woman, Natasha, in the room.
“Lila adores you.” You muse as you punch in the washing machine settings and begin to hand wash the last few. “She talks about you daily, and her greatest dream in life is to be a warrior like you. It is sweet how much she admires you.”
When Natasha props herself against the cabinet next to you, it is easy to see the apprehension and surprise in her face. “You aren’t what I expected. You don’t seem nervous or afraid of us even though we’ve been icing you out and here you are… being nice or trying to butter me up?”
You let out a light laugh, “I’m not a huge butter fan – too many carbs. And as much as I adore the kids and love working here I understand that I’m not part of the family and would hate to make things awkward for them.”
“Practical,” she nods. “Oddly, I like you.”
“Thanks,” you throw her a genuine smile. “And Lila is right, you have the stance of a warrior. I can see why she aspires to be you.”
She lets out a snort, “Now I know you’re flattering me.”
A smirk flits across your face for her to see. “Hey, it can’t hurt my case any. Besides, I find being friendly can work wonderfully in such situations.”
You chat for a while longer as you clean up the kitchen and she helps. By the end, you both are laughing and talking like old friends even though she’s been stealthily trying to question you about your past while you smoothly dodge. Lying can be exhausting, but you’ve had years of practice.
When Laura and Clint finally come down she makes her leave, firmly taking Laura with her. Natasha throws you one last look over her shoulder before she and Laura head outside to sit on the porch, far out of earshot.
A tension builds in the room and you can see the swirls of darkness that accompany Clint. Biting in the inside of your cheek, you refuse to be the one to break the silence.
“So,” he crosses his arms and takes a stance that seem as immovable as a mountain. “You’re the nanny Laura hired.”
You take on a relaxed pose of nonchalance. “I am.”
His mouth turns down in a deep frown. “Laura likes you. A lot. Me on the other hand… Meh.”
This time you quirk a smile and shrug. “Listen, I don’t want to disturb your family or make trouble. If you don’t like me that’s fine, and if you want me to leave I will. Family is important and this one is yours. Not mine. Yours. Laura is wonderful and your kids are amazing, but I’m just the nanny. All you need to do is say the word and I’ll take my stuff and leave. You can even blame it on me when you tell Laura. It doesn’t matter, you need to do what’s best for you and your family. And if you think I’m not best for them, then so be it.”
Mentally you’re calculating what few possessions you’ve collected in your time here. The collection of thrift store clothing Laura had bought you and the newspaper clippings you kept of articles that seemed to speak to you. That yummy cake recipe, the picture of the rescue dogs, and those silly little poems they put in on Fridays. It wasn’t much, but to you it was the world. It had been a long time since you had wanted to hold onto trinkets.
Clint sighs and runs his finger through his hair, clearly agitated. “Dammit! I didn’t want to like you. A nanny seems weird and impersonal. Who the hell wants a stranger to watch their kids? When Laura told me I roped Nat into coming so we could scare you off and now this! Nat seems fine with you. Laura loves you, she threatened divorce if I make you leave. And the kids adore you. Fuck. Even I kinda like you after that whole spiel. That’s just not fair.”
By the end, he’s practically whining and it’s both amusing and endearing to watch in a grown man. Then he starts to sign instead of speak and you watch rapidly as he curses and rants in ASL. After a while he looks back up at you with a sheepish expression, as if expecting you to have some sort of reply to the stream of chatter that just occurred.
Do you prefer I sign instead of speak? You ask hands moving and lips remaining pressed together.
His eyes widen in shock and then soften into excitement. You sign? This is awesome!
You offer a shrug, It’s one of those skills I picked up throughout life.
“We are so keeping her!” Clint practically yells while he wraps an arm around your shoulder and leads you outside to join a laughing Laura and Natasha. “How do you feel about dogs? I’ve always wanted one for the kids.”