The rain made it slightly better. I could feel the raindrops running down my face and neck. It was a pleasantly cool feeling on my bare skin. My clothes and hair were already drenched. It had been raining for days. I had to stifle a laugh as an absurd thought crossed my mind. Maybe the weather was reflecting how I felt these last couple of days? … Yeah right.
Nick Fury had told her more than once that she made a good spy. It was meant as a compliment. But it also meant that she had a natural talent for lying and deceiving the people around her. That also meant her family and friends. She always had a knack for lying to her mother during her childhood. Who would've thought that she would make that her profession? She had always dreamt of a career in science, working together with her favourite professor on projects to make the world a better place. Naïve? Yes, but it had been the dream of a young woman fresh from university. She ended up in a top secret project funded by the government. That's how she caught the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D.. That's how it all began.
Now – years later and a dozen scars richer – she stood in the rain, not far away from her parents' house and watched as her mother was told of her daughter's death. It was better this way. At least that's what she had told herself. She knew it was for the best. But knowing what's best didn't change the fact that she felt miserable. She felt a sharp pain piercing through her chest as she watched her mother's legs give way under her. Her brother rushed to her side. At least she wasn't alone.
"Avoid patterns. Stay a hard target", Nick Fury's words were barely audible over the steady pattering of the rain. She turned around, slowly walking away. "And pray no one ever thinks to dig too much into your past."
"I'm not the praying type."
"Now's a good a time as any to start, Morse."
"It's Mockingbird." Her back was to Fury and to the place she had called home for most of her life. "As far as anyone around here knows, Bobbi Morse is dead."