Title: Strong in the Broken Places
Rating: M
Fandom: TVD/MCU
Genre: AU/AH/Crossover
Pairings: Bonnie Bennett/James "Bucky" Barnes, Bonnie Bennett/Natasha Romanoff, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Bonnie Bennett/Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanoff, Bonnie Bennett/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanoff/Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanoff, Bonnie Bennett/James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson/Natasha Romanoff, Ororo "Storm" Munroe/Thor Odinson, Thor Odinson/Jane Foster, Jane Foster/Ororo "Storm" Munroe, Ororo "Storm" Munroe/Thor Odinson/Jane Foster, Damon Salvatore/Darcy Lewis, mentions of other canon pairings, ect.
Summary: When Bonnie Bennett, inhuman and former HYDRA captive, has to leave the safe haven of the Xavier Institute For Higher Learning to join the battle in DC after the "death" of her father Nick Fury she captures the hearts of four broken people. Over time, somehow, together they make something whole.
Warnings: Polyamorous Relationships, Violence, Language, Mentions of Torture, Minor Character Death, etc.
A/N:So obviously this is an AU fic. I am mostly reposting this here because there is an update for this coming up and because I feel like this is one of the ones I need feedback to continue and I am not getting much on Wattpad. Things that you need to know, all of the MF Gang are human expect Bonnie and Damon for reasons. Also Damon and Grams are the only ones that are guaranteed to appear from MF besides Bonnie for quite a while. Bonnie's father in this is Nick Fury, Rudy is Abby's second husband. This fic is set during CA:TWS shortly after the "death" of Nick Fury, but makes some illusions to the first Avengers movie. I'm using Romanoff as Natasha's surname in this because that is what is says on IMDb and this fic is movie verse. Also, Bucky is more lucid and has more of his memories intact but there is a reason for that that will be explained as you read. Also everyone that ends up in a poly pairing is bisexual in this canon world to save myself a headache. It will be hard enough getting the characters over poly hang-ups without having to write in a crisis of sexual orientation. Lol. Happy reading and all of that. Please review here and again my other stories can be found on Wattpad!
PART ONE: SCATTERED
Bonnie Bennett walked among the flowers in the gardens surrounding the mansion that acted as the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, formerly known as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It was near nature that Bonnie felt most at peace. Outside in the elements. Tonight was a night of unrest and so, peace was even harder to come by.
It was late. The dead of night. A few hours before sunrise. She was supposed to be in the Women's dormitory. Even though the school was said to be a safe haven for her kind, there was still danger lurking and a threat surfacing almost constantly. For that reason, Professor Xavier liked to know where everyone was on the grounds at all times.
Bonnie wasn't worried. If they needed her and couldn't find her in the dorms, the gardens would be the next place that they would look. This was not the first time that Bonnie had wandered the grounds when the nightmares had kept her up at night.
It had been one month since she had arrived at the school. One month and two weeks since she had been rescued from captivity. But those small segments of time seemed inconsequential since she had been held captive for eight months. Had it not been for her father and her powers it would've been longer. And still she felt like a part of her was still there, more than likely because she could not save the one person that had made the time bearable. Ironically it was the same person that had kidnapped her in the first place.
Her father had told her when he had brought her to the school that HYDRA wouldn't look for her here. It was too obvious a hiding spot, even though the school had been outed as a school full of mutants to anyone who had any type of higher intelligence and looked into it a long time ago. It wasn't as safe as it once was but it was safer for her than her home with her grandmother in Virginia. Safer even than the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house she had spent the two weeks in before Charles Xavier had taken her in.
Bonnie's bare feet padded through the short grass and she smiled as her hands reached out and touched the petals of the lilies that she passed. They shouldn't have been in bloom this time of year. But between herself and Ororo, the gardens had become something of an ethereal anomaly all on their own, just like the mutants that tended to them.
She started to hum a Tammi Terrell song under her breath. Her grandmother used to play Motown records when they baked together first when Bonnie was a child and then when she got older. Because of her powers Bonnie's mother had left her and gotten remarried. Her father couldn't raise her, because of who he was and his position she couldn't even carry his last name. When she had developed her powers later in life, her father had been even more dead-set on the decision.
That had left her grandmother, Sheila Bennett, to handle her care. By the time Bonnie had started exhibiting "gifts" at the age of sixteen things had taken a turn for her. She had always isolated herself. She had had a few close friends but found it hard to trust people because of her parent's abandonment. When her grandmother had found out about her powers she had had no choice but to take Bonnie out of school and begin to home school her. Bonnie became isolated even further as a result. Her grandmother was her one constant and she hadn't seen her in months. Not even after she had been rescued. Going to her would've put her at risk and put Bonnie back on HYDRA's radar and so she stayed away.
Bonnie tried not to think about it as she continued her leisurely walk. But the more she tried, the darker her thoughts became. Her mind dwelled on her nightmares. Memories of her time alone in a cell. On a lab table. The experiments. Tests and torture to assess her limits. Determine her use as a weapon.
Bonnie swallowed as she stopped and stared at the flowers that were as much of a reminder as they were a comfort. Persephone. That's the name they had given her in the files. A dark joke. After the maiden goddess of spring, the queen of the Underworld. The name had been in part because of her powers and in part because of the relationship that she had developed with her abductor. The Asset. The assassin damned to death and darkness. James Buchanan Barnes. The long thought dead killer that had dragged Bonnie down to hell with him unwillingly and without being ordered to do so.
At first when her powers had developed at the age of sixteen they had been elemental in nature. Simplistic. She had been able to manipulate and control the elements. Earth. Air. Fire. Water. They had all bent to her whim in one way or another. But there had been limits, or at least she had thought that there were.
By the time that she was seventeen they had grown. She had been able to take the form of water. She had been able to shift into air in the form of fog, mist, and gas. She had been able to teleport, sometimes using wind and air currents. Sometimes elements of the earth. She had been able to create and manipulate dark winds. She had developed lung adaptations that allowed her to breathe freely under any condition. Some powers her father had her tested for on the rare occasions she saw him. Some she discovered by accident and still they grew.
By eighteen she had developed deoxygenation and dehydration abilities. She could suck both air and water out of anything, people, animal, plant, and the list went on. If she wanted to she could deprive the whole environment around her and as she would still be able to breathe she would be the only one left standing.
The fire related abilities heightened at eighteen as well. She had learned how to breathe fire. Manipulate and control the sun and solar power. She had gained the ability of self-denotation. Something she had discovered when her father had pissed her off and she had literally exploded and reformed in the same space a moment later to find it in flames and ruins.
By nineteen her powers had extended to light and shadow. To crystals and minerals. Metal manipulation. Golem creation. She also gained control of heavenly wind and the ability to create, manipulate, control, and reshape divine earth minerals.
Electricity and energy came next at twenty. Along with psychic abilities, precognition and mind manipulation.
By age twenty-one Bonnie had mastered the element of aether and she was classified as a divine life form. Just as easily as she could take a life with her abilities in many different ways, she could also resurrect the dead.
In the beginning she had been scared of herself. Of her powers. She had resented them. She had resented her parents for producing her and then leaving her alone to deal with the fallout. She had hated what she was. She had hated everything about it. They were dangerous, her powers and they kept her apart from everyone around her.
Her attitude had become a sort of bitter acceptance and then her father had come to her for help. She had been called on to resurrect Phil Coulson after the battle of New York. It was then that she realized that she could not only use her powers for good, but as a way to get closer to her father, Colonel Nicholas "Nick" Joseph Fury.
Bonnie hadn't mastered her powers by any stretch of the imagination by then. She would be lucky on most days if she could manage control. But her father had trusted her. He had had faith in her, even if his words had sounded as if he felt otherwise.
"He's already dead," he had said when he and Maria Hill had come to collect her from her grandmother's quaint Virginia home, "It's not like you can make it any worse."
Hill had given him a death glare, probably the only person who would have bothered or had the nerve to do so.
But Bonnie had long sense gotten used to the dry sense of humor. She had simply grinned and said, "Well I could end up accidently setting his body on fire."
"Then his family will get a free cremation out of the deal," her father had responded with a shrug and a smirk of his own. But the smile didn't reach his eyes.
Hill had shaken her head and had asked Bonnie if she had reconsidered going to college. Maria Hill was one of the few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that knew of Bonnie's existence. She was her father's best kept secret. The fact that he had risked Bonnie's being discovered in order to save Coulson spoke volumes about what the man meant to him and to S.H.I.E.L.D.
The problem was that although Bonnie had managed to bring Coulson back from the dead, she had also managed to make herself a target in the process.
The first sign of there being a moles within S.H.I.E.L.D walls had been Bonnie's existence getting leaked to HYDRA after Phil Coulson's miraculous resurrection (though her father and the others had termed it a recovery). But they hadn't known the information had gotten leaked until it was too late.
After resurrecting Phil, her father had made it clear in no uncertain terms that Bonnie was not going to be involved in anything else related to S.H.I.E.L.D's ongoing fight to protect the civilians of their nation. She had gone back to her grandmother's house but what she hadn't known then was that she had been followed.
She had been followed by a dead man. A dead man with the orders to take her and take her alive. When Bonnie had first encountered him she had been blindsided. She had heard and saw nothing before he had allowed himself to appear out of the shadows, masked and dangerous, metal arm gleaming in the night. She had had no time to react or even try to use her powers to fight back before she was knocked unconscious.
The next time she had woken up she had been restrained. Strapped to a lab table, samples of her blood being drawn. That was the first time that she had seen his face and recognized him from her history books.
Sergeant James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, soldier of the 107th Infantry. Sniper. Former member of the Howling Commandos. Childhood friend and speculated lover of Captain America, or Captain Steven "Steve" Grant Rogers. Super soldier. Superhero and American icon. Whom Bonnie had never met in spite of the man's ties to her father. Because he didn't know Bonnie existed and Bonnie had discovered in that moment that S.H.I.E.L.D weren't the only ones good at keeping people buried.
But S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't done a good enough job and Bonnie had paid the price for it. At first she had tried to escape. Most of the time in the beginning they had kept her heavily sedated. But every waking moment she had spent trying to get free.
She would have made it out on her own within a week with her powers, even with the guards and The Asset. The problem was that they had found a way to prey on her that her powers could not stop. There were other captives. Other prisoners that they tortured every time that Bonnie had tried to escape.
Among them was Damon Salvatore, a mutant with vampiric attributes and who was for all intents and purposes immortal. He was also from the same town as Bonnie. Before, Bonnie hadn't known him well, and what she knew of him she hadn't liked but being held prisoner had brought them closer. That was why she had helped facilitate his escape along with her own and why he had been brought to the institute along with her.
In the beginning Bonnie hadn't had enough control over her powers to save them both and she hadn't wanted blood on her hands and so after a while she had stopped trying to escape. Things were bleak in a way that she didn't want to remember but she had learned things from the experience. They had groomed her and honed her into something new in hopes of making use out of her.
They had taught her control. They had taught her how to fight physically as well as with her powers. The first time that she had sparred against someone else it had been the Asset. Before he had gotten the better of she had broken his flesh arm and she had fractured his ribs in three places. All without the use of her powers. After that, whenever he was sent out on a mission, when he came back, James always brought Bonnie flowers.
James. That was what she had called him in her head. It was too weird to think of him as Bucky but thinking of him as James had made her think of him as human. He was just as much of a prisoner as she was. Even if he was farther gone. He was still there. Just scattered and in pieces. It was the flowers that gave him away.
The flowers were almost always dead. When he had first used the key pad locking her cell to get in Bonnie had wondered how the hell he had known the code. Then she had wondered what the hell he had wanted. She had expected some sort of attack or to be manhandled into another room where she would be poked and prodded at but instead he had just held out a wilted bunch of daisies in his flesh hand.
Bonnie had stared at him in confusion. His face had been blank. His expression empty. His blue eyes had been as cold as they were when he had first taken her. She had blinked several times before taking the offered flowers. When he had continued to stare at her she had concentrated on them until they were no longer wilted and were in full bloom and given him a muttered, "Thank you. They're pretty."
He had left without a word. The next time he came it had been bits of wisteria. The third time a bundle of baby's breath. The fourth time pink tulips. He hadn't said his first words to her until he brought her the orchids. "They're your favorite," he had said. It hadn't been a question.
He had watched her before taking her she knew. She was his target and so it made sense. But she had never expected that he would pay attention to details. After that she began to talk to him. Sometimes he talked back and sometimes he didn't. He was the only one who she was able to have real conversations with outside of Damon, and she rarely ever saw him. Though, sometimes she heard his screams and she was sure he had hers.
It hadn't taken long for their handlers to find out about James visiting her. They hadn't taken it as she had thought. It seemed to her through observation that they had stripped him of everything that tied him to his humanity. His name. His memories. He was a weapon. They liked to keep it that way. At any sign of anything else they stripped his mind and started over again. But it had been different when they had found out about his sudden fondness for her. Bonnie hadn't known what else to call it.
She was valuable to them as well. However, her powers protected her mind and kept her safe in other ways, much safer than most prisoners. She was harder than he was to break. So they used him against her along with the others. A sort of system of rewards and punishments. When she was good she got flowers and conversations. When he followed orders they got time alone (though as they were always under constant surveillance they were never well and truly alone). On the bad days they got to watch each other suffer.
Bonnie liked to think of the good days. The days that she had gotten to hear the low rumble of his voice. The days that she had learned that she could shield his mind and protect what memories that were still intact to a certain extent.
She remembered when he had brought roses. Remembered on the same day, fingers both metal and flesh gently tracing her jawline. Cupping her cheek. Outlining her lips with the tip. All in an effort to memorize her face in preparation for the day when she couldn't protect his mind anymore. That had been the same day that he had helped her and Damon escape.
They had run for days, not stopping until they were able to contact her father. Then James had left. Leading the trail away from them so that they could have time to be found by S.H.E.I.L.D before HYDRA realized that they were no longer with James and picked up the chase.
They had been picked up by Hill and Black Widow. Bonnie had told them everything. About James. About the true identity of the Winter Soldier. But no one had believed her. Not even when Damon backed her up. There were always excuses. She had seen wrong. It was a side effect of the trauma. It was a trap to lure in S.H.I.E.L.D agents that would be sent in for the rescue.
After a while she had stopped trying and silently made a vow to find him herself. But there had been her recovery. There had been Hill calmly restraining her when something triggered her and her knee jerk reaction was to attack. There had been her father's voice reassuring her that he was real and she was free. Then there had been Natasha.
Natasha stroking her hair after a nightmare. Natasha sitting with her in the garden when she didn't want to talk to anyone or be near anyone else. Natasha and whispered conversations in Russian. Natasha sparring with her when she had needed to get out pent up aggressing. Natasha making jokes at Damon's expense and giving Bonnie a reason to smile. Natasha who had seen beyond her power.
It was funny that Bonnie would readily admit to loving James Buchanan Barnes. But she hadn't been there with Natasha. She probably could have come close. They understood each other in a way that no one else understood Bonnie outside of James and Damon. But their time together had ended as abruptly as it had started.
Then Bonnie had been escorted to the institute and she had regressed all over again. The only thing that had saved her was Damon's presence, because he knew her suffering and Ororo Munroe taking her under her wing because her powers were so like Bonnie's own in some respects and because Bonnie held her up on a pedestal almost on sight.
Ororo was beautiful and powerful. Confident and poised. She was a leader. She understood the pressures of being a black woman and a mutant. Oppressed on all sides. She had been the one to give Bonnie her new name. Bonnie had not planned on joining what Charles Xavier called the X-Men even if she had wanted to be in the thick of the action when it came to S.H.I.E.L.D and her father most days. She was supposed to keep a low profile and that was what she would do until she could figure out a way to leave and hunt down James.
But Professor Xavier had said that to lay low she would need a codename. Bonnie had reluctantly agreed. Storm had suggested a moment later that they call her Infinity, because her powers and potential were limitless. Bonnie had taken the name with pride and had accepted the woman as a mentor soon after.
"I knew that I would find you here," a smooth feminine voice said from behind her.
Bonnie smiled as she turned to face Ororo. It seemed as if her thoughts had scared the woman up. "I couldn't sleep," Bonnie responded.
Ororo ran her fingers through her long white hair and looked away as she spoke. "You will not be getting any sleep any time soon I'm afraid, sweetheart," she said.
Bonnie frowned. Ororo's face was suddenly stoic and serious. She sighed as her blue eyes came back in contact with Bonnie's green ones. "Charles was contacted by Maria Hill today," Ororo said carefully, "Your presence is required in Washington. Your father is in need of your assistance."
Ororo was trying to be delicate but Bonnie could read her too well. Besides that she already knew that there was only one reason that Hill would ever contact her and get her involved in whatever was going on at S.H.I.E.L.D. "My father," Bonnie whispered, "He's dead isn't he?"
Ororo's eyes locked with hers and she gave a stiff not. "Yes," she said, "I am sorry, Bonnie. But we both know that you can save him."
"What if saving isn't all he needs?" Bonnie asked seriously, "What if he needs me to help him fight what killed him in the first place?"
Ororo walked up to her and wrapped her arms around her in a brief hug before she spoke. "Then you will not be alone, my dear," she answered.
Bonnie nodded. She had figured as much. As alone as she had felt in her life before captivity, it wasn't the loneliness that she feared anymore. She had been isolated before she had been taken. But through HYDRA she had met James, she had grown closer to Damon, she had met Natasha, and Ororo and the other inhumans like her. In some twisted way she had them to thank for the people in her life that understood her most. But that didn't mean that she would show any mercy if they were responsible which was exactly what Bonnie suspected.
:::
Natasha Romanoff didn't do breakdowns. But the closest thing that she had had to a father was now dead and it was hard to keep the walls up. Still she held them intact. Focusing instead on discovering the secret that Nick had left with Rogers that he was trying hard to keep hidden.
But a part of her wanted to corner Hill. Wanted to ask her about the girl. The mutant. The one that they had saved and escorted to the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. She wanted to know if she could really do what the HYDRA files had claimed. If she could bring the dead back to life.
But Natasha kept her mouth shut. As much as she wanted Fury back she didn't want the girl involved. She had only been with her a short time. Had only known her by her first name, Bonnie, which she had only been told because the girl hadn't wanted to go by the name that HYDRA had given her. But she remembered the girl's lost look. She remembered rubbing her back after nightmares. She remembered her hiding her tears from everyone but Natasha. Remembered being the only person she had let get close to her outside of Hill and Fury.
She had known without being told that Natasha would understand. That she had lived through a similar hell.
The girl was safe now. Away from danger and Natasha didn't want to get her involved and in the line of fire again no matter what the reason.
Bonnie had been at peace only when near nature, Natasha remembered. Whenever she was near flowers, particularly orchids, she was stare off into space. She would go into a sort of daze. Into a world all of her own.
Majority of the time when they had been together they hadn't spoken. They had just sat next to one another quietly. Natasha missed those silences. She hadn't admitted it at the time but she had grown rather fond of Bonnie. More than fond actually. When she was in her presence, for some reason she had been at peace. Peace was unimaginable for someone like her but it had been there in the garden at the safe house. In the silence.
Natasha wondered as she bought another pack of gum from the vending machine that Steve had hid the hard drive in and waited for it to fall if she would ever know peace again. She thought about Fury and the condition that S.H.I.E.L.D was in. Thought about the amount of people after Steve and her by extension. Sighing, Natasha stuck a piece of gum into her mouth. She doubted it.
:::
The Winter Soldier let his mind wander as he sat through his debriefing. Even though it was dangerous to do so. He knew the consequences were he to be discovered but he had to focus on the memories that were still intact before they wiped him. Just like his girl had taught him when she had started to protect his mind.
He had a girl. They had called her Persephone but that wasn't her name. He couldn't remember her name. But he could remember her face. Her eyes were green. She could fix things that were broken like him. Bring dead things back to life. She liked flowers. Orchids were her favorites. She had a pretty singing voice and a crooked smile. When the war was over and the missions were done he could go home to her.
That's what you did when the war was over. That's what his pal had said. When the war was over they could go home. His memories of his friend were more fragmented but they were there. He had had a friend. But sometimes he had been his fella. His eyes were blue. His hair was blonde. But his name. What was his name?
Bucky came out of his thoughts as he felt the familiar touch of his handlers. He shut his eyes tight. Blue eyes. Green eyes. Home. He repeated the fragmented thoughts in his mind like a mantra even as the mouth guard was shoved into place. Orchids. Blonde hair. Home. When the war was over. He shut his eyes tight. He would find them when the war was over.
:::
The trip to DC had been a fast one for Bonnie at least. She had wasted no time teleporting there and Hill had escorted her to the safe house where her father's body was being held in an armored truck.
Bonnie had only brought a meager amount of belongings with her. A duffle back with a few changes of clothes. Her cell phone and the communication device that Professor Xavier had given her. She had tried to talk them out of it but both Ororo and Damon were on their way as well. Their means of transportation a lot less conspicuous as they were taking Damon's Camaro.
For all intents in purposes they were civilians as far as the rest of the world was concerned. In spite of her stint in captivity Bonnie had remained off the radar before and after. No one would be looking for her as, as of right now she wasn't the target.
Besides until Hill gave her orders, and her father was resurrected she wouldn't be leaving the safe house.
"I don't give a damn what Fury says when he wakes up," Hill said, as she lead Bonnie to the basement of the house, "We need you in on this one. And when I say in I mean all the way in. Your inhuman friends too if they're up to it. We're running out of people to trust so it's all hands on deck."
"He won't like it," Bonnie commented as she stopped in front of a lab table with what was obviously her father's body on top of it beneath a white sheet.
"Since when does that bother you?" Hill asked, one eyebrow raised.
"It doesn't," Bonnie said, looking down at the body, "I'm just warning you because we'll have a fight on our hands." Bonnie swallowed as she lifted the sheet, her hands shaking.
She didn't like seeing him like this. He was too still. Too cold. Nothing like the formidable man that could intimidate anyone with just one look even if he only had the use of one eye. Bonnie reached out and touched his cheek. For once she was grateful for her powers. She wouldn't have been able to stay this calm were she not able to rescue him.
Her father was stubborn. He was a hard ass. He was distant. He cared more about the greater good than he did his relationship with his daughter but she loved him. She always had. Even when things were at their worse. Even when part of her blamed him for her being taken and when she resented him for not believing her about the identity of the Winter Soldier. She loved him.
"I can handle, Fury," Hill said, breaking into her thoughts, "So can you for that matter. The question is are you ready for the fallout from all of this if you come into this? You're not going to make it out of this unscathed. No matter what happens, one way or the other, you're going to be back on the radar."
Bonnie thought about who they said had killed her father. The Winter Soldier. The Asset. James. Bucky. He knew who her father was. Knew she was alive as he had helped her escape. She had to believe that a part of him had known that she could bring him back.
But even if he hadn't. He wasn't in control of his actions. And she was here in this city for him, just as much as she was for her father. Though, she would never admit it out loud.
"I'm ready," Bonnie said aloud.
Hill nodded and they both looked down at the body as Bonnie placed her hands on either side of her father's temple. She concentrated her powers. She felt through his body with her mind. Willed his heart to beat. Willed his lungs to take in air. The powers had used to put a strain on her body but whatever HYDRA had done to her had taken care of that. Some of the scientist at S.H.I.E.L.D. had speculated that she had been given some version of the super soldier serum. But they had never tested the theory. Her father hadn't allowed it. The test reminded her too much of captivity.
Bonnie heard Hill gasp and then let out a sigh of relief as her father started breathing. "You're stronger than you were with Coulson," Hill commented, "He took hours."
Bonnie shrugged. "HYDRA is good for something I guess," she replied. Hill frowned. She hated when Bonnie made light of her captivity. But it was Bonnie's way to cope and so she never commented on it.
Bonnie worked on healing her father's injuries next. Once she was done he opened his good eye and looked up at her. "I knew you'd come," he said.
Bonnie smiled a sad sort of smile down at him. "Did you miss me dad?" she whispered.
"Like a thorn in my side," Nick said, but he was smiling. They were quiet for a moment and then Bonnie helped him sit upright. The sheet covering him pooled up on his lap. "I suppose now that your old man's out of commission for the time being you're going to want in on this one?"
"Are you going to fight me on this?" Bonnie asked, not bothering to answer his question. They both knew the answer anyway.
"No," he said, and then, "I need you." Bonnie couldn't appreciate the way Hill's eyes widened comically at the admission because she was trying not to cry. She knew what it had taken for him to say those words and she didn't take them lightly. "But," he continued, "You end up on the news then you're the one who's explaining this to your momma."
Bonnie laughed, even as she wiped at her eyes. "And to think I was glad I was able to bring you back just a second ago," she sighed.
"I love you too," he replied, his smiled widening. Bonnie blamed his sudden sentimental behavior on coming back from the dead. He didn't say "I love you", especially not in front of witnesses. "Now if you two would excuse me I'd like to get dressed," he said.
Well, Bonnie thought laughing, it was nice while it lasted.
She and Hill shared a looked. "Good to have you back, Director," Hill said and Nick nodded. Hill turned and Bonnie turned with her as they went upstairs.
As they made it upstairs Bonnie frowned at the sudden chill. Both she and Hill turned at the same time to see that the front door was ajar. Bonnie immediately took a defensive stance as Hill pulled her gun out of the holster on her hip and did a quick sweep of the house.
Bonnie looked around and ignored Hill's movements as she noticed something sitting on the table in the kitchen.
She walked forward and her eyes narrowed. She barely heard Hill come up behind her and murmur, "All clear," as she walked over to the table, her eyes never leaving the bundle of wilted orchids on the table top.
Tears sprang up in the corners of her eyes as she reached for it. "Whoever it was is gone now but we'll have to find a new place to lay low," Hill said, "We've been compromised. I'll go and tell your father."
Bonnie ignored her as she picked up the orchids and hugged them to her chest. As she smiled her powers subconsciously brought the flowers back into full bloom. They were a message she knew. He was out there and he remembered. How much she wasn't sure. But he hadn't tried to attack or take anyone and that was saying something.
Bonnie looked down at the orchids and realized that she had a message of her own to deliver.
:::
Steve Rogers had barely had time to process the death of Director Fury and the fact that he was now a fugitive of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now he was in an Apple store with someone who was likely the only person he could trust, and the most untrustworthy person he had ever met at the same time, trying to fish for information on a hard drive left to him by a dead man.
When the drive pointed to the location where he did his training he couldn't help but think that the place was no accident. Everything was leading back to him. There was a reason Fury left the drive with him after all.
His thoughts were cut short as their nine minutes ran out and Natasha pulled him in the direction of the exit.
He was thinking like a soldier as they made their way through the shopping mall. His eyes scanned their surroundings. Counting the number of men they were up against. Logging anything that could be used as a weapon or shield. Thinking about the best way to go about their escape that would result in the least amount of civilian casualties. But it was all for naught. Because Natasha Romanoff thought like a spy and all it took was an arm around her shoulders and a fake laugh and they were blending into the crowd.
By the time they made it to the down escalator Steve spotted Brock Rumlow. He found himself distracted as his eyes moved to someone else coming up the escalator on the opposite side. There was a girl, a woman. Young. With soft dark brown curls that stopped just shy of reaching her shoulders. She was wearing a green dress that was sheer in places, revealing tantalizing bits of caramel skin. Steve's mouth went dry as she met his eyes and smiled a crooked smile up at him.
But this was no time for distractions. Natasha's elbow digging into his side reminded him as much. Then she asked him to kiss her and he was distracted for another reason altogether. She made a quick explanation about people being uncomfortable witnessing public displays of affection but Steve didn't have time to argue because in the next moment her lips were on his and he forgot about Rumlow completely.
As she pulled away Natasha looked unfazed. It probably wasn't the first time that she had used similar means to hide in plain sight so Steve couldn't really say that he was surprised. However, the frown on her face as they reached the bottom of the escalator caused some concern.
He watched as she reached into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt and he didn't know what to expect as she pulled her hand out again. His brow knitted together in confusion as she pulled out a flower, eyes widening almost comically.
An array of emotions flashed across her face and then she was closed off again apart from a half smirk and a muttered, "Son of a bitch."
"What's that?" Steve asked.
"A flower," Natasha responded, still smiling, "An orchid to be exact." There was something else that she wasn't telling him and Steve did his best to hide his frustration.
"I see that," he stated, "What I meant was….what's it mean?"
Natasha shook her head distractedly. "Nothing," she said, "Let's go."
"You're a bad liar," Steve commented, throwing her words to him back in her face.
She simply shook her head, bringing the pink orchid up to her nose and smelling it. The smile on her lips brightened and it was unnerving to see such a genuine expression on someone that normally kept their vulnerabilities under lock and key. He hadn't even seen that smile when she was around Clint.
"Only when I want to be," she shrugged, "We don't have time for an explanation anyway. We've got to move."
Steve silently decided to let it go. She was right. There was no time. Still he couldn't help but look over his shoulder in hopes of seeing the girl in the green dress again. She was the first person in this time that had struck him on first sight outside of Sam Wilson. And he had been the first person to do so after Peggy. And before her there had been Bucky.
Now there was just him. Him and chance encounters and lingering possibilities. Flirting conversations after a morning run. A surprise kiss on an escalator. A crooked smile in his direction from a stranger in a green dress. But when Steve looked behind him, the girl was already gone.
Passingly he thought that Natasha treating finding him a date like a part time job wasn't such a ridiculous thing anymore. Whether or not they lived through this, with the life he led, he doubted the job would get any easier.
:::
That night after work Sam Wilson got roped into going to a karaoke bar with a few of his coworkers. It was for his part, pretty much an excuse to drink and kick himself for not giving Steve Rogers his number at some point. Two chances he had passed up. The guy had come all the way down to the VA and he still hadn't had the nerve to even offer.
In his defense it wasn't as if one came across Captain America every day. Besides the guy had ridden off with a redhead who was probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
His thought immediately changed to one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen as he walked up to the bar to get another beer. There was a woman sitting at the bar in a green lace dress, with soft looking brown skin, soft dark brown curls, and green eyes wincing at the stage.
He couldn't blame her for the wince. There was a guy dressed like he was impersonating James Dean, in blue jeans, a black leather jacket, and a white t-shirt. His hair was messy and black, however. His blue eyes looked a little crazed as he stood up on the stage butchering Purple Haze in a way that would probably make Jimi Hendrix want to die all over again.
Sam sat down next to the girl on an open bar stool. "Man, that's just not right," he said, more to start a conversation than anything else, "I'm willing to bet listening to a cat get slaughtered would be less painful."
"There's a nice image to start a conversation with," the girl said, her tone sarcastic. But she was laughing a moment later and Sam couldn't help the shit eating grin on his face. "But seriously," she said, turning to face him fully, "I apologize to your ears on his behalf. I swear I can't take him anywhere."
"Your boyfriend?" Sam asked, one eyebrow raised. He hoped that his smile covered his disappointment. This would be the second time he struck out in as many days.
The question earned another laugh. "No," the girl said shaking her head, "A friend. And I use the term loosely. I actually fear for whoever he ends up with."
Sam took that as an opening and held out his hand. He had been on the radar of so many beautiful people lately that it had to be some kind of fluke. He had to take advantage of at least one opportunity or he would regret it and likely wouldn't hear the end of it if his sister ever found out. "I'm Sam," he said, "Sam Wilson."
Her smile turned warm, inviting, as she took his hand. "Bonnie Bennett," she said, her green eyes glinting a little in the low light.
"Are you from around here?" Sam asked, speaking loudly so that he could be heard over the sound of her friend hitting a particularly bad high note.
She grimaced and took a long sip from her drink as she rolled her eyes at the stage. Turning back to Sam she shook her head. "Virginia," she replied.
"What brings you to DC?" He asked.
She frowned looking down at her hands. "Family drama," she muttered.
It was clearly a sore subject and Sam was about to change it when blessedly the song finally ended. Unsurprisingly no one clapped.
"Now that I've warmed up the crowd," the guy on stage said, "How about we make way for my friend Bonbon?! Come on everyone let's hear it!"
"Seriously Damon?" Bonnie gave a long suffering sigh and Sam chuckled as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "What kind of murder laws you got in DC?" she asked as she looked up, her expression deadpan.
Sam laughed outright then. "Come on now," he shrugged, "You can't be any worse than him. In fact I refuse to believe that anyone could be worse than him."
"That's true," Bonnie conceded, "Besides if I don't he'll never shut up."
She got up from the stool and Sam found the nerve to stop her before she walked away. "You want to maybe have a drink with me after your song?" he hedged.
She seemed to be considering him. There was something closed off in her expression that reminded him of some of the clients with severe trauma down at the VA. It was gone a moment later and she was reaching out and pulling his dog tags from underneath his shirt. Sam coughed to hide the hitch in his breath as her eyes bore into him and he fought the urge to squirm in his seat.
"I'd like that," she said finally, "You could tell me the story behind these."
She dropped the tags and turned, heading in the direction of the stage. Sam couldn't help but watch the view from behind as she walked away.
Everyone in the bar gave a collective sigh of relief as the guy she had called Damon left the stage and handed over the microphone to her. Sam doubted it mattered to anyone what she sounded like or what song she sang. He had been serious when he had said nothing could be as bad as her friend.
They all waited as she picked a song. Sam wondered what her taste in music would be like. Her friend didn't have bad taste, he just couldn't sing.
As the song Bonnie had chosen began to play, Sam recognized it right off. Tammi Terrell's rendition of "All I Do". As she began to sing he wasn't as surprised as he should have been to learn that she had a voice that would do the song justice.
The shit eating grin was back as Sam listened, bobbing his head along. Some of the patrons were swaying and dancing in their seats. Bonnie being that good as much of a surprise as her friend being that bad. But this surprise was a good one and as Bonnie looked right over him and smiled as she went into the chorus Sam decided that there was no way in hell that he was leaving without giving her his number.
End Notes: Hopefully I get some feedback for this one. But thanks for reading as always. If you guys like this I will continued and if not I will just delete this and pretend like it never happened. Anyway wish me luck on my manuscript! Lol