Chapter one: To new beginnings 2nd draft added on:

Elise let out another mournful sigh as she sat cross legged on the floor of her apartment. Today would be the last day she spent in a place she had finally started to call home, SHIELD had taken it upon themselves to relocate her again. She sat amongst her bags and checked her phone for the time, the agents picking her up would be here soon. Her phone buzzed to life when an E-mail from the local college came in, another sigh escapes her. Elise had been settled in for so long that she had deemed it safe enough to enrol at the local college, she would have been starting a textiles course where she would learn about fashion and make clothes, after all she had always been a girl who chose creativity over academia- but SHIELD of course had a different plan for the 18 year old.

As the minutes went by she secretly hoped that Agent Phil Coulson would be collecting her again, she had grown rather fond of the man whenever they travelled together in the past. However she knew that it would be unlikely that she would lay eyes upon the man another long while considering everything that's happened after the fall of SHIELD, thankfully Director Fury kept Elise's existence top secret and only trusted a small number of people with the knowledge which kept her safe from the hydra double agents.

Elise also started to think back to everything that had happened at the battle of New York. If Loki had not invaded Earth then Hydra would never have gotten his sceptre and she would still be at home in Paris living happily and more importantly, peacefully with her mother and father. She knew she had to keep her mind off of such woeful thoughts and all of the "what if's?" so instead she tried to think of what her new home would be like, which was almost impossible considering she had no idea where she would be heading once an agent came to collect her; But she hoped that it would be somewhere with a good view and an even better garden.

She started to imagine the types of flowers she could grow if she had access to a garden or not when a sharp knock brought her out of her reverie. Elise jumped to her feet and slung her back pack and satchel over her shoulders, she then grabbed her suit case and walked to answer the door while trying to ignore the fact that her whole life fit into three small bags.

"Maria!" Elise chirped happily in her subtle French accent, "It's been a while since I last saw you, no uniform today?" she asks.

Agent Hill, who usually kept a stoic, unreadable face shared a rare, easy smile with the young woman she had quickly grown fond of in the past, "Well since Hydra infiltrated SHIELD," Elise winced at this, "We've gone dark, so I'm on the down low right now. I've been working for Stark Industries." She explains, "But hey, look who's grown!" she exclaims and looks Elise up and down.

Elise laughed lightly as a blush graced her cheeks "Thanks, I don't think I've grown too much though." She was right. Elise was still around 5"3 and Maria easily towered over her small frame.

Maria reaches over and takes the suitcase from the brunette, "Well we best be on our way, we have a long journey ahead of us." She says and leads Elise down the cobblestone path of her front garden. Elise accidently slams her front door behind herself and receives a sharp glare from her next door neighbour, Veronica Fletcher, an old grumpy woman who can be seen when not glaring at the young woman to be glaring at said young woman's garden. Elise smiled whole heartedly at the woman anyway, "Good morning Mrs Fletcher! I say it's a bit too late to prune that rose bush Mrs Fletcher." She says in an overly sweet voice, followed by a shit eating grin. Elise would like to think that she's usually a very nice person, but when ones neighbour decides to throw their dogs poop over the wall and into her garden out of jealousy, she takes offense.

The old woman makes a noise that can only be described as a hiss in return, and proceeds to snip at the rose bush with a bit more violence than when she first set out. Elise smirked to herself as she passed her now ex-neighbour and spotted her little spaniel, Elise squints at the dog and moves on. Safe to say she would not be missing that old bat and her flea fiend.

Maria stands by the car with the boot open with a brow raised in amusement, Elise blushes and laughs a little "So where are we going exactly?" she huffed as she lifts her bags into the back of the black SUV. She then went around to the passenger side door and looked at Maria in questioning.

Maria smirked "You're coming back to New York with me." She says and slides into the car.

Elise's jaw drops open in disbelief, "Seriously!?" she squeals in excitement, "I've always wanted to go to New York!"

Maria smiles and starts the engine, "The flight is going to take a while so if there's anything you want to get for it we can make a quick stop."

Elise nods and flips the sun visor open to see herself in the mirror, she tilts her head back and takes out her brown coloured contact lenses and places them in their case; and is met by brilliant gold eyes with flecks of amber running through them when she looks back into the mirror. Her eyes were another reminder of her fateful time at a Hydra base in Poland. She either wore her colour contacts or glasses to hide her vibrant and unusual eyes so as to not draw attention to herself. A year ago she was rescued by a team of SHIELD agents that were taking out HYDRA bases with the Avengers, she never actually met the Avengers when she was liberated- she was being rushed away to receive medical attention. While she was being seen to, the Avengers discovered that Loki's sceptre had been moved to another location a few days prior to their arrival.

"Hey, you good?" Maria asked as she noticed a quietness descend upon the girl and could only guess that she was reminiscing.

Elise nods and mumbles, "Yeah, sure… Get me to the US Maria." She says and shakes off her reverie and smiles lightly. The car rolls forward and pulls out of the street, they drive far away from Elise's beloved home once again.

…

Agent Hill and Elise decided to stop at a somewhat quiet coffee shop by New York standards, the coffee shop had a perfect view of Stark Tower when one were to look up out of the window. Elise found herself doing this quite frequently throughout her conversation with Maria.

Elise breathed in a coffee scented breath and smiled happily, "New York is more than I could ever imagine it to be. It almost reminds me of Paris, I didn't realise I had missed the bustle of people in a city." She laughs as Maria looks at her as if she's crazy, "What? It's true! Although it isn't exactly like Paris." Once again she looks at the tower while taking a sip of her coffee that probably doesn't count as coffee, Elise had a big sweet tooth and she happily drank down the cream coffee cupcake Frappuccino. "I still can't believe you work at Stark Tower- It's huge!" she exclaims.

Maria takes a sip of her coffee in turn, black coffee. "Yes, I also work with the huge air-head who owns it." She says seriously.

Elise stares.

"I'm kidding! Tony isn't all that bad, a little irritating at times but I can handle him." She answered, she then pulled her phone out of her pocket and snorted "speak of the devil." Maria answers the phone with a blunt "What?"

Elise lets her take her phone call and looks out at the street, hoping that she could finally stay in one place for a good while. She was rather surprised that Fury had decided to move her to a city in all honesty, with all those eyes everywhere, cameras and a million places to get lost. He must be up to something she thought. After minutes of her wondering what Nick could possibly want her for, Maria ended her phone call.

"Elise, just so you know, this move of location was very sudden and Fury has chosen a… New type of environment for you, and with a small amount of luck it will give you a safer and more permanent living situation." She announces with a hopeful smile on her face as Elise- who is both slightly shocked and bewildered- beams at the news. "That's- that would be amazing!" she marvelled, "Are you sure? I can really stay here?" she didn't want to raise her hopes too much.

She nods, "I am almost positive. Now as I said the move was sudden so there are still a few loose ends that I need to tie up. Ah," she looks over Elise shoulder at a man and woman who have entered the coffee shop, they were dressed as civilians but she recognised them and waved them over, "This is Agent Brown and Agent Morgan, while I will be arranging a few things they will be escorting you to some temporary accommodation- you probably won't even be spending the night so don't worry." She adds as she sees Elise's smile dropped a little.

Elise nods at both of the agents in turn and takes the last sip of her drink and smiles, "So when do we leave?"

Maria stands and grabs her jacket, "Now."

…

The Avengers had gathered around a glass table in Avengers tower, sat before Maria Hill who held a brown envelope in her hands. She emptied to contents of the envelope onto the glass surface and a small photo of a girl along with some papers fell out. Barton, who was sitting the closest, reached out and picked up the photo of a girl in a white hospital gown. She couldn't have been more than 15 years old in the picture, she was unconscious and strapped down to a table, cuts and bruises littered her face and arms. He frowns at the obvious awful treatment of the teen and looks back at the pile on the table where another photo rests. This one looks newer, and the girl is older in the basic headshot which was probably taken for a passport.

"Who are we looking at here?" he asks, and passes on the two photos to his teammates.

"This is Elise Leclair, she's 18 years old and went missing on a trip to Poland with her parents when she was 15. Hydra had taken her for experimentation. You guys were actually responsible for her liberation but since then Fury has kept her moving for her safety." She took a breath and looked at Tony for a second before continuing, "Director Fury also decided that she is to be moving into the tower…tonight."

Tony scoffs "Didn't realise Fury was the landlord too."

Steve's gaze narrows on Tony from across the table "Stark, come on the kid obviously needs a safe place to stay."

Tony opens his mouth to pipe back but Maria gets in before him "Should she choose she'll be joining the Avengers initiative."

You could have heard a pin drop after that announcement.

Oh my goodness it has a WHILE. So I'm finally starting to post the rewrites! I had started rewriting this before doing my A levels and then I had no life and no time to update or even write this. But I have officially finished year 13 and only have to go back to finish exams. So during study leave, I will be writing and posting these new chapters. I hope you all like the new and improved chapter 1 :D 18-year-old me is definitely a better writer than, like, 15 year old me?

But anyway Elise is back!

See ya,

Larissa x