Previously:
I got into bed and said "JARVIS, lights off."
"Of course ma'am." he said and followed my orders.
"Oh and JARVIS?"
"Yes, Miss Hill."
"Tell Rogers to stop killing punchbags. They might be getting a little tired of being beaten up."
I woke up to the sound of my own heavy breathing and the feeling of cold sweat dripping down my face from my forehead. There was a large bang at the door and I scrambled backwards to the headboard of the bed, grabbing the gun under my pillow as I did. "Don't hurt me!" I screamed. "Get away. I'm armed." Whoever the intruder was, I wanted them to leave me on peace. I haven't done anything.
"Ria?" I heard a quiet masculine voice ask.
"Clint?" I said and slowly lowered my gun as he stepped into the light.
"It's okay. No ones gonna hurt you." He said, holding his hands up and walking towards me.
"I'm safe?" I asked, shakily returning the gun under my pillow.
"Safe." He nodded and sat on my bed. He held out his hand and I took it, pulling myself forward to hug him. Clint always made me feel safe. He is like the brother that I never had and he is the only person apart from Natasha that I would trust with my life.
"Did my screaming wake anyone?" I asked, returning to reality.
"Natasha might be awake. ASL and all." He said, smirking.
"Assassins Sleep Lightly." I smirked.
"Something to live by."
"Indeed it is."
"I didn't see anyone else wake up in the corridor than them. Vision doesn't sleep, so he might have heard you. I came running."
"You always do." I smiled.
He pulled back to look at my face. He placed a loose strand of hair behind my ear and whispered "go and take a shower okay?"
I nodded and he got up, giving me room to get out of the covers. I looked through the peephole and saw three people in the corridor. I went to the bathroom as Clint opened the dooor and told Vision, Natasha and Steve that everything was alright and I was okay. Maybe he had to tell them that I had nightmares, but hopefully he didn't.
I read the bathroom clock. 4:57. For god sakes, I've got to stop waking like that. I have only been in the tower for a couple of days and this is the first time I have had a nightmare here. The other times were on the helicarrier, where I basically slept twenty four seven anyway. Clint or Natasha always came for me, sometimes even Coulson. I would also trust him with my life, but he was a father to me, not a sibling. As I got into the shower, I thought about how we were always such a good team, not just in the field.
Flashback
"No way!" Coulson complained, throwing his cards down on the table.
"Sorry, but you know what you got into. I told you that I've been playing this since a kid." I said, smiling.
"Fucking rummy." Clint complained.
"I need another drink." Natasha said and got up. "Anyone else want one?"
"Shot." Clint said.
"Shot." Phil said.
"Water." I said.
"Water?" They all asked at the same time.
"You're having water when we're meant to be having a good time?" Clint asked.
"You can have a good time with water. Water fights, log flumes." I started.
"Electrocuting enemies." Natasha said, pouring out the shots.
"You just love thinking about death don't you!" Clint said, his words slightly slurred from the drink he had. He was always such a lightweight.
"It's my speciality." She said, smiling.
"But really no drink?" Coulson asked. "Wait you're not..."
"Not what?"
"Pregnant?"
I raised my eyebrows. "You're joking? When would I have time for a relationship."
"The question is, when wouldn't you have time for a relationship ship?"
"I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Relationships and S.H.I.E.L.D don't mix. Someone will end up getting killed."
"Hey, doesn't Coulson have a wife?" Clint asked.
"Yeah...so..." I argued.
"I have time for a relationship." Coulson said. "So you should too! Promise that you'll find someone?"
"Fine...I'll find a man...when you meet captain America."
"But that's never."
"Well I'll never have a relationship then." I said, smiling. "Now...another round?"
They smiled as I dealed out the cards. "I'm gonna beat your ass hill." Clint said, collecting each card as I handed it out. It was one of his habits.
"I hope your hungry Barton, because you're going to eat those words." I said, smiling, as the others groaned.
"Such a bad joke." Natasha said, downing a shot.
Present day
As I brushed out the remaining conditioner in my hair, I noticed the line of marks from where I had been abused as a child. That's what my nightmares are always filled with. I imagine everything the same apart from being saved by Fury, back when he did missions, and Coulson.
15 years ago
I lay on my bed, brain scrambled from the years that I had spent here. I guessed it was three or four but I couldn't tell. There were scratches on the wall from where I had tried to bang against the wall and scrape them, begging any God to allow an escape route.
I heard a crash from outside and I stood up quickly, every muscle in my body aching from beatings and training. The noises got closer and closer, the gun fire getting closer and closer. I pulled my shackles, that were attached to the wall, trying to get loose, but as always it never worked. The people, whoever they were, were right outside my door. I stopped resisting knowing that I was going to be killed, and stepped backwards so I was against the wall.
Suddenly, there was a large gun firing against my door and I screamed, curling up in a ball to stop it from hitting me.
When the gunfire stopped, the door was pushed open by a large man, wearing an eyepatch, and a skinny fellow, who looked like he needed to be wrapped up in cotton wool.
"Hello." The skinny man said. "What's your name?"
"Tell me yours first." I insisted.
"Well, she's trained well sir." He said impressed by my skills. I liked this man. The other one seemed too serious.
"We are here to take you away from here." The bigger man explained. "My name is Deputy Director Nicholas Fury. We are part of an innitiative called S.H.I.E.L.D. You may have heard of us."
There was more shouting in the background as I answered "no." My answer made the thinner man chuckle and the other one looked curiously at me.
"We need to get you to safety." He said, gesturing for me to come over.
I shook my head and the older man seemed to reach into his left jacket pocket. The thinner one stopped him and said "Let me talk to her."
The older one looked between me and the man and then nodded. He stepped outside and shot a couple of people that were part of this facility.
The thinner one slowly stepped towards me, cautiously, but he and I both knew that I would not attack him. He crouched down, coming to my eye level, and smiled slightly.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Agent Phil Coulson."
"Who are you really?" I asked, hoping he would get my drift. I said "Who are you to me? Just incase he didn't.
"To put it in simple terms, I'm your rescuer. Now, we need to get you out of here quickly, but I am not resorting to drugging you and dragging you. So please cooperate. I don't want to see you hurt."
"Why should you care?" I asked him, slowly getting to my feet.
"I don't like abusive people and I can see that they have abused you." He said, gesturing to my thighs and stomach. I was only wearing some cheap underwear that i wore, unless I was being punished of course. That was even more degrading. It made me want to throw up the way they treated me. It wasn't just me. There were others too.
"What's happened to the others in the facility?"
"I don't know that information, but we really need to get out of here." He said, his voice straining with urgency.
"One more question...why should I go with you?" I asked, linked with his eyes.
I heard a snapping noise and looked down at my wrists. I didn't realise that he had unlocked off my shakels. I looked back up at him and he answered "because anywhere is better than here."
A couple of hours after being found.
I opened my eyes and saw Coulson sitting there with a man, who had blondish hair, sunglasses and a suit like Mr. coulsons on.
"What happened?" I asked them, sitting up on what looked like a medical chair. We had dirty versions of these at the facility.
"We got you out. You collapsed on the way out so I had to carry you." Phil explained. "The facility has been closed down."
"What about the others?"
"I'm afraid they died in the mission to save you. You're the last one."
"And who are you to say that? I don't even know who you are." I practically shouted.
He looked a bit taken back by my reaction but continued anyway. "My name is Clint. Clint Barton. I tried to save one of the girls at the facility after all the guards were taken down."
"Which one?" That's all the information that I picked up on in they sentence. He did seem sweet.
"She had dark brown hair. I remember seeing a tattoo of a black cross on her shoulder."
"That is Olivia." I said and then changed my wording. "That was Olivia."
"I'm sorry for your loss." He said, smiling sadly, and I nodded my head. She was the one who always told me that there would be an end to the training at some point. She was the optimist of the group.
"Are you comfortable to come to the questioning room or do you need more time? We understand if you do." I was starting to like Clint.
"No, I'm okay. Whatever you need, I'll talk." I said.
"Okay. Let's get you to questioning then." Coulson said, reaching out to touch my arm. What's he doing?
"DON'T!" I shouted and pulled away before he could touch me. I took a breath and said "please don't touch me."
He nodded and just gestured for me to follow Clint who was half way out of the door. Clint announce when we arrived at the questioning room. It was surprisingly light and my eyes took a minute to adjust to the setting. Fury was on one side of the table and there were three chairs on the other.
"Great." I said. "It's Deputy Director Grumpy."
Coulson and Clint chuckled slightly but Furys face didn't move. I sat down in between the two chairs and asked "Would I be able to have some more space please?" The agents looked of the deputy director and he nodded, allowing them to move their chairs about a metre away from me, still underneath the huge desk that I was sitting at.
"Now the facility that you were trained at...do you know who the staff were?"
"We were never given their names...they were either trainers or punishes."
"Okay. And what was involved with those two areas?"
"Training is most of the day - cardio, strength, killing techniques, efficiency in killing. Stuff like that. Punishment was..." I cleared your throat. "Punishment was much more...abusive."
"What do you mean abusive?" Clint asked, anger bleeding through his words.
"Sexually and physically." I said casually. "They used knives, whips and punches to beat us with physically and then sexually...well I think you can guess. Just about everything in the book."
Clint punched his fist into the wall in frustration and was breathing very heavily.
"Barton, get out." Fury said simply and he nodded, quickly opening the door and closing it.
"Now...can you remember anything about your facility? Anything?" Coulson asked.
"It was called the white room. It had a twin."
"The red room?" Fury asked.
"You know it?'
"We are currently tracking someone there." He said, obviously not giving away any more information than that.
"Before we finish this questioning, I wanted to ask for your name." He said, getting a pen.
"Maria. Maria hill." I answered. Liar. I told myself.
Present day
"Have they all gone?" I asked Clint, finishing drying myself off with a towel.
"Yes. Steve was tough to persuade, but they all left eventually."
"Good." I said, wrapping a towel around myself. I opened the door and said "I'll see you at breakfast in a couple of hours."
"You okay Ria? You seem a bit upset?" He asked. I looked at my eyes. I saw as well as felt the tears clouding them up.
"I'm good." I replied and he left the room.
"Okay." He said and I knew he would bring it up later. As soon as he left, I fell on my bed and burst into tears, crying quietly so no one would interrupt.