Author's Notes

A Sunday afternoon motorcycle ride turns sour for Jesse when an unexplained accident sends him off the road.

Did he encounter a local ghost or is there another explanation for what the young agent says he saw?

Wanda, Clint and Natasha investigate while Clint expresses his concerns for Wanda's health.

Meanwhile Jesse deals with the emotions and memories stirred by his recent accident.

Marvel Characters are based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and are copyright to Marvel and Disney. Their use here is for purely non-commercial entertainment purposes.

Reference to road traffic accidents and accidental death

Reviews and comments welcome

"Thank you!" said Wanda, popping half a strawberry into her mouth from the growing pile of fruit on the kitchen worktop. Jesse look at her quizzically

"For the smoothie? Was making enough for two anyway; three's no bother" he chuckled and gestured towards the blender "I'll swear Piet could hear that thing from ten miles away"

"For being Pietro's friend. He hasn't had one before, not a real one anyway." She smiled impishly "Clint doesn't count, he's too old…"

"Piet's a real good guy…" said Jesse with a grin, feeling a twinge inside at the pain revealed by Wanda's words. Even before HYDRA used them for their experiments, the twins must have had a rough time growing up as orphans in the shattered ruins of Novi Grad. "…and it's kinda nice to have folks my own age to hang out with"

He winked at her. Jesse, Wanda, Pietro and Darcy were definitely the 'kids' of the Avengers Compound and had quickly formed a strong bond. Wanda and Darcy were already firm friends and, once Darcy had stopped drooling over him like a slab of prime steak, he'd realised he really enjoyed the company of the quirky, funny, young intern as well.

Jesse had tried hanging out with some of the other S.H.I.E.L.D. FieldOps personnel rostered to the Compound but discovered there was more than a bit of ambiguity and ill-feeling directed towards the Avengers Initiative, and anyone associated with it, from the regular S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. One guy made the mistake of referring to the twins as 'fucking freaks' in his earshot. According to the reports both men later filed with their S.O.'s; that agent had subsequently fallen down a flight of stairs with such force that Jesse had badly barked his knuckles trying to stop him breaking his face against the floor.

You might beat the crap out of a fellow agent but you never ratted on him; that was the inviolable FieldOps code.

Jesse finished heaping chopped and diced fruit into the blender, added a couple of dollops of yoghurt and topped up with coconut water before closing the lid. He winked at Wanda again and flicked the switch.

"Three… two… one…"

There was a familiar flash of blue and silver; Pietro leaning on the worktop beside his sister.

"Smoothie time?" he grinned expectantly. Jesse laughed and filled three glasses

"All yours Piet; chug it down!" Jesse glanced at his watch and quickly swallowed his own, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand "Gotta run, Steve'll get snarky if I'm late."

###

Jesse wasn't sure why he was upside down, or why his shoulder hurt so bad. Through the visor of his motorcycle helmet he could see Steve and Sam leaning over him with anxious expressions. Their lips were moving, though he couldn't hear what they were saying because of the ringing in his ears. He tried to move but his foot was stuck and Steve put a hand on his good shoulder, his lips forming the words 'Don't move'. Jesse tried to say something in response but nothing came out and he felt himself slipping into blackness.

This wasn't his bed, or his room. Too white, too bright and a faint smell of antiseptic. Jesse realised he was in the medical lab, his left arm in a sling and a support bandage on his right ankle. Steve drowsed in the chair beside the bed, stirring and sitting forward as he heard the young man start to wake.

"You gave us quite a fright there, Jesse!" Steve said with a nervous smile, handing him a glass of water "Any idea what happened?"

Jesse furrowed his brow, trying to remember. He'd been riding along with Steve and Sam; a Sunday afternoon motorcycle trip the three men had been planning for a while. They'd just reached the Plainsville road; a long, straight, clear stretch where they could really open up the throttle. He'd been out front, enjoying the sensation of speed and power when…

He grabbed Steve's arm, a look of panic on his face

"Steve, what about the kid?" there was a frantic edge to Jesse's voice "Tell me I missed him!"

###

"And there was nothing in the road at all?" asked Natasha, as Steve finished recounting Jesse's story.

"Not even a rabbit or a bird" he said "We had a clear route in front of us and suddenly Jesse just veers right, comes off his bike and ends up head-down in a gulley."

He shuddered slightly, remembering the sight of the young man's body bouncing over the road; fearing the worst as he and Sam raced over to where he'd come to rest.

"Thought he was a goner for a second, coming off at that speed."

"They breed us country boys tough, Steve" grinned Clint, handing him a coffee "You soft city kids wouldn't understand"

Clint's characteristic levity masked the traces of the anxiety he'd felt when Natasha called him and Laura to tell them Jesse had been in an accident. He was relieved the boy was okay but still concerned over the peculiar circumstances.

"Could it have been a seizure, something like that?"

Steve shook his head

"Bruce is checking the MRI scan to see if there's anything there, but he doesn't think so. Everything looks the way it should…"

"Found it!" called Darcy, round a mouthful of muffin. She'd been sitting in the kitchen area, snacking and surfing in silence for so long they'd almost forgotten about her. She spun her laptop so they could see the website; it looked like an amateur job, done with more enthusiasm than technical skill.

"The Plainsville Ghost Boy?" Sam asked, putting down his beer and looking at the screen "What the hell is that?"

"A local legend" said Darcy "Supposedly some kid was killed by a speeding biker back in the '50s; ever since he keeps appearing to bikers on the same stretch of road and causing them to crash."

"You're saying Jesse saw a ghost and that's what made him crash?" scoffed Scott "What's in them muffins and why ain't you sharing?"

"Forty-three reported sightings in the last twenty years" Darcy retorted, turning the laptop back round and continuing to type "They're blueberry and I don't share food."

"Never get between Darcy and her snacks" Clint warned him with a laugh "Nat almost lost a finger in the Pretzel Incident last year."

"Seriously though…" Scott grinned as Darcy, still intensely chasing references, flipped a casual bird in Clint's direction "Jesse must've seen a rabbit, or a plastic bag, or something and thought…"

"I know what I saw" Jesse was coming into the room accompanied by Pietro and Wanda. His arm was still in a sling and he limped slightly; otherwise he seemed fine, if a bit shaken up. He settled himself down on the couch, gratefully acknowledging everyone's greetings and accepting the beer that Sam passed him.

"It was a kid" he said emphatically, closing his eyes and forcing himself to recall the details of what he'd seen "Eight, maybe nine years old; about four-foot tall, pudgy face, brown hair cut straight... Wearing black shorts and a blue and white stripe shirt. Just standing there in the road staring right at me…"

He could feel himself starting to shake again with the shock of it; turning the bike sharply to one side in a desperate attempt not to hit the kid, his shoulder hitting the road hard the car bouncing and rolling down the hillside, Megan screaming and then nothing until he was in the gully with Steve and Sam bending over him.

Wanda took his hand

"It's all right, Jesse" she assured him, "You're safe, we'll get to the bottom of this."

"Kid's name was Joey Rutger" piped up Darcy, still chewing on her second muffin "Eight years old, hit by a biker on the Plainsville Road, May 9th 1954."

She turned her laptop again to show the photograph she'd found

"You're a sketch artist's wet dream, Jess!"

Jesse caught his breath, the grainy picture on the screen looked exactly like the boy he'd swerved to avoid. Wanda felt his grip on her hand tighten; and something else, a familiar tingling sensation. Normally she made it a rule to carefully avoid slipping into the minds of her friends and team mates, even by accident, but some things were so strong she couldn't avoid picking them up…

"Except!" continued Darcy with a hint of triumph "Joey Rutger didn't die; he broke his leg and collarbone, made a full recovery and died of a coronary in August 2008. Also, road accident reports show that the Plainsville Road has fewer than the national average of motorcycle accidents or fatalities every year."

"So how come I saw that kid right in front of me then? I ain't crazy or lying!" Jesse was trying not to sound angry or defensive but he wasn't prone to flights of fancy and was badly spooked by the whole affair.

"Someone made you…" Wanda said, looking at the space around Jesse's head, her voice a little vague and distant. "Someone made you see him"

"How can you tell?" asked Natasha. The full extent of Wanda's abilities was still a mystery to the team, and to her, it felt like every time she used them some new subtlety revealed itself. If Bruce were here he'd have his notepad out in an instant and be scribbling away.

"It's like… cobwebs around his head…" it was hard for her to find the words to explain, but telepathic interference with a person's mind could leave a sort of trace signature. It faded over time but another telepath might sometimes be able to detect the signs of recent intrusion. The 'feel' of Jesse's energy field was as familiar to her as his face and there were definite hints of something 'not-Jesse' still lurking round the edges.

"I don't know if I could manage something as focussed as a single image" she admitted "that would take a lot of effort and concentration."

"Clint, I think you and Nat should head up there at first light and have a look" Steve suggested "Wanda, you okay to go with them, have a poke around?"

Wanda nodded, her attention still on Jesse who seemed to be slipping into a state of mild shock

"You're safe, Jesse" she repeated "You're with friends"

"Why me?" the young man asked quietly, almost a whisper

"We don't know" Nat told him "but we're going to find out."

Steve sent Jesse off to bed shortly afterwards; he looked drained, exhausted and badly in need of natural sleep. Once Jesse had gone, Steve turned to the others and repeated the question.

"Why him, why not me or Sam?"

They didn't have enough information to draw a conclusion yet; they couldn't even be sure that whoever, or whatever, was responsible knew who the three men were. It might be they were just the first bikers to come along and Jesse happened to be out front. Natasha in particular disliked speculation in the absence of evidence, it clouded judgement and set up false suppositions, she would wait until they'd had the chance to have a good look at the site before.

Wanda didn't take much part in the discussion; the brief flash of Jesse's thoughts, and the things he'd shared with her and Pietro in private, gave her an idea of why her friend might have been more susceptible to this sort of attack, but that was something it didn't feel right to reveal without his knowledge or consent. Besides, as Natasha said, in a scenario like this they shouldn't be jumping to conclusions in advance. Part of her wished it was morning already, so they could be out there and seeing what was to be found.

She glanced over at her brother. Pietro slouched in his chair, his face clouded with anger and confusion, fingers drumming rapidly on the arms while his foot beat a rapid tattoo on the floor; so fast to be almost a blur. He was never good at hiding his feelings at the best of times. Wanda leaned over to him

"Go, run…" she murmured to him, in Sokovian "then sleep"

He looked at her for a moment, then got up and left in silence. It was the only thing that would calm him, she knew, he would run until he couldn't run any more then collapse into an exhausted sleep. It frightened her, even more than the paradoxical and barely understood powers that flowed through her, deep down she feared one day her brother would burn up too much of his energy and never wake again.

"Well, I think it's safe to say I'm officially freaked out…" Scott grinned up at Sam as he handed the other man a beer from the fridge and got another for himself "I'm gonna need at least a couple more before I'll be getting any sleep tonight."

Sam laughed

"Man, you can shrink down to the size of an ant; woulda thought that could prepare you for anything!"

"That's science, I kinda understand about 1% of that on a good day," Scott stood up and opened his beer. He'd only been involved with the Avengers Initiative for a few months, still finding his feet around the strange bunch of people he had to work with. Coulson hadn't given him much choice in the matter, but it was better than the other options. "All this twilight zone stuff…"

"Does get some getting used to…" Sam nodded, taking a drink and sinking back into his thoughts. All this psi stuff unsettled him as well. Wanda and her abilities never bothered him, she was a sweet kid with a gentle heart, but the idea of others like her out there who might not be quite so congenial; well, that was an uncomfortable thought. He wasn't the only one that was spooked, everyone seemed on edge and Big J looked scared to death.

Sam was good at recognizing the signs of combat stress and PTSD, he saw enough of it in the field and working as a counsellor. Jesse was definitely showing some of them and not just as a result of recent events; he'd noticed it a couple of times before. Maybe he should take some time out for a quiet chat with the kid.

###

"This is the spot!" Steve said. The skidmarks were still visible, and they could see the broken bushes where Jesse's bike had ended up. The young man's treasured Indian Chief was salvageable, but would need a lot of work to get it roadworthy again.

He glanced at Wanda who nodded at him and walked forward slowly, stilling her mind and attuning to the environment. If she could identify the natural background atmosphere it should make it a little easier to tell if something else had intruded. Steve, Clint and Natasha hung back near the car, watchful and silent as the girl they codenamed Scarlet Witch went to work.

Wanda took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose, relaxing and feeling with her mind for the subtle shifts and ripples in the energies of the place. As she identified and familiarised herself with them, it became possible to differentiate the faint psychic residues left by recent travellers. It wasn't a busy road, and it was relatively easy to isolate the remaining traces of Jesse's thoughts; energised as they were by the shock of the accident.

She felt his thrill at the speed and power of the ride, sudden gut-wrenching terror at the sight of the child in front of him, the desperate swerving and then flying through the air; sharp pain and the breath knocked out of his body as he hit the road…

Clint caught her before she fell and held her steady as she recovered her breath and brought her mind back to the present moment.

"You okay, Wanda?" She could sense his anxiety, the fear he always felt for her when she exerted herself like this. Wanda pushed her hair back from her face. It was damp with sweat even though she was chilled to the bone.

"I'm fine" she promised him, seeing that he clearly didn't believe her. "They were nearby, in line of sight."

Even with specialised training and intense concentration, a single projected image of that clarity and solidity couldn't have been sustained over a distance. Wanda turned to Steve

"Did you see anyone in the vicinity, or hear anything?"

"We were more concerned with Jesse" Steve admitted "If anyone else were around it wasn't obvious"

"Well, it had to be on this side" said Clint, staring up the slope to the right. The ground to the left dipped sharply down, the road wouldn't be visible from that side. He turned to Natasha with an eager grin "Strike Team Delta are go!"

In soft-soled shoes and with years of acrobatics and free-running behind him, Clint covered the ground swiftly and lightly, his sharp grey eyes darting from side to side as he searched for any hint of disturbance on the ground. Natasha couldn't help but smile as she pursued her own course. Even after all these years she never failed to feel a hint of surprise at how different her friend was in the field. The amiably lazy, sports and music-obsessed, country boy disappeared to be replaced by someone focussed, purposeful and dangerous. Despite all her insight into the human character she still couldn't be sure which one of those men was the real Clint Barton or if the truth of him lay somewhere else.

"There's a maintenance track up ahead" he called "Looks like recent tire tracks"

They looked like they'd been made in the last couple of days, Natasha thought, still sharp in the mud and overlying the more weathered tracks made by maintenance vehicles. A 4x4 they both reckoned, not possible to tell the make but they'd get a forensic team up to take a closer look. Having located where the tracks ended, finding the footprints was child's play for their experienced perceptions.

"Two men, heavy set, between 5'11" and 6'2" judging by the stride" said Natasha "and… a child?"

The third set of footprints was much smaller, someone less than 4'6" by the looks of it. They ended at a small ridge by a fallen tree. Anyone standing there had a clear view of the road through the trees but would have been well screened from anything but the most intense scrutiny.

"A child…" she mused and then glanced at Clint "we should get Wanda up here to check it out before we call in forensics."

It was why she was here, but Clint didn't look too happy as they called for Wanda and Steve to head up.

"I don't like it when she overtaxes herself" he said quietly "we still don't know what effect it really has on her."

"You're not her father, Clint" Natasha winced as she saw the expression on Clint's face, she hadn't meant for it to sound like that.

"Someone has to look out for her, and Pietro. They're still just kids, Nat."

"We can't change what HYDRA did to them" she reminded him "and the more we know the better chance we have of helping them."

Clint still looked dubious, this was an ongoing bone of contention between the friends.

"I worry about them as much as you" Natasha sighed "But they're not children and we can't keep them wrapped in cotton wool…"

The possibility of yet another argument about the wellbeing of the Maximoff twins subsided as Wanda approached with Steve, both careful to avoid stepping on the tracks and contaminating potential evidence.

"There's a clear image of the car, and both men" Wanda said at last "But the third one; that's hidden, blurred somehow. Like they're being shielded…"

She shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts

"…They didn't know who you were, I can tell that at least. It was just a test…"

"That's a relief, I think" said Steve, glad that his people hadn't been deliberately targeted but still concerned at the idea of a controlled telepath in potentially hostile hands. "I'll call in the forensic team and we'll get back to the Compound."

"I'm all right, honestly" Wanda said to Clint as they made their way back down the hill "It doesn't drain me as much as it used to."

"I worry about you Wanda" Clint pulled a power bar out of his pocket and handed it to her "You and Pietro"

"You really don't have to" Wanda smiled gently as she unwrapped it "But thank you…"

###

Sam found Jesse sitting on the terrace overlooking the lake that formed part of the Compound's campus. Everyone had noticed the normally cheerful and outgoing young agent being a bit withdrawn and silent the last couple of days, spending most of his time in the gym or the pool working on his injured shoulder and ankle. He sat down beside him and handed him a fresh beer. The others were in the Common Room, having a loud and argumentative game of Trivial Pursuit.

"I'm not going to ask if you're okay, 'cause I can see you ain't" he said

"It's not the first time I been in a road accident" Jesse told him "Had a crash last year, a bad one; this just brought back a lot of memories, that's all"

Sam said nothing but watched him quietly. The kid seemed to be weighing up whether to say anything more. No point pushing, he'd share if he felt ready. After a while, Jesse spoke again

"My girlfriend, Megan, and I, we'd been out to dinner, it was our nine-year anniversary…" He and Megan had dated since High School; just a couple of 15 year olds holding hands and stealing kisses. As they'd grown so had their love, deepening and maturing as the young man and woman discovered themselves and each other.

She'd just finished college and Jesse was about to start his final year at FieldOps Academy, lives and purposes beginning to take shape. It was a ten-minute drive from the restaurant to her parents' house, where Jesse was staying; where he was planning to propose marriage to her that evening, the engagement ring secure in his jacket pocket.

"…the guy was drunk, hit us broadside." Jesse took a deep, shaky breath, cradling the beer in his hands "I couldn't keep control of the car; we went off the road, over and over down the hill…"

The beer bottle fell to the floor with a loud clunk as the young man started to cry silently, shoulders shaking as he buried his face in his hands. Sam picked the bottle up and gently placed his arm around Jesse as he worked through the grief renewed and sharpened by his recent trauma. Eventually he sat up, wiping his eyes and taking what was left of his beer back from Sam.

"…everyone says I shouldn't blame myself, there was nothing I coulda done" he tapped his head "In here I know that's true; but I can't stop remembering that I was the one behind the wheel. I walked away, Megan didn't."

They'd all been very kind; the Sheriff and her deputies, the crime scene investigators, everyone involved. He hadn't been drinking, well within the speed limit, an experienced competent driver with an excellent safety record; just plain bad luck he and Megan had been on the road at the same time as someone with half a litre of bourbon sloshing around in him. Just plain bad luck he'd not been able to keep control of the car and come to, upside down with a bruised shoulder and a cut on his cheek, staring into Megan's dead eyes.

Survivor's guilt was the worst, Sam thought as he watched Jesse stare sadly out at the reflection of the lights in the lake; all those scenarios where a slightly different choice would make the difference between life and death for a loved one. The kid had doubtless heard every word of comfort and exoneration that he needed and deserved to hear but none of it would make a difference to the sense of responsibility he'd always feel.

"Life's a fucking bitch at times, ain't it?" he said at last

"Yeah" Jesse nodded, still staring into the night "a real fucking bitch"

###

"The test was a success, but I'm afraid we may have attracted some undesired attention" the younger of the two men sounded nervous, apologetic, "It appears that the motorcyclist we used as a target was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent associated with the Avengers Initiative."

The older man raised an eyebrow but didn't seem overly concerned.

"An unfortunate coincidence" he conceded "but not a significant setback, although we ought to consider precautions."

He looked through the observation window at the fair-haired girl playing with her dolls.

"We don't want any interruptions to our work at this critical stage."

Afternotes

Will the secret of the child and her keepers be discovered? Once Strike Team Delta get on a case they rarely give up before the end.

In the next episode: - A routine shopping trip causes problems for Pietro while Jesse finds himself confronting something unexpected.