Apologies for the long absence. Work became hectic. But now that it has calmed down I am back. I hope you all like this chapter and I promise not to be so long with an update.

Kayla sat in the corner of the room, throwing darts at the wall. After Thor took Loki back to Asgard, the Avengers went their separate ways. It had been a few weeks since she had spoken to them, spoken to anyone really. She had called the Dean of the school and explained about her uncle and he gave her some time off.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to teaching. Not everyone at the school knew she had powers, but now everyone knew now. It was stupid to think she could hide her powers forever.

A knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts. She threw the dart she had in her hand and stood up. As she passed the table she grabbed her dagger. She was in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Who would be knocking on her door?

Raising her dagger, Kayla opened the door.

"Expecting someone?"

Kayla sighed as she lowered her dagger. "Director Fury, what are you doing here?" Kayla walked inside.

"Checking on you." Fury said as he followed her in.

"I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

Fury glanced at the wall with the many darts sticking out of it. "I see that." He looked back at Kayla. "You have a habit of distancing yourself from people when you lose someone close to you."

Kayla shrugged. "We all have our own ways of coping." Kayla sat on the stool.

"I know how you get when you're alone and grieving."

Kayla said nothing.

"I brought some of your uncle's things." Fury said as he placed the box he was carrying on the table. "I thought you might like to have them."

"Thanks."

"Kayla, don't be alone forever."

"In case you haven't noticed I have no one. My parents are gone. The only boyfriend I had, gone. My uncle...gone. I have no other family."

Fury sighed. "Kayla, you're a very smart person, but sometimes you can be stupid."

"Excuse me?"

Fury smiled as he turned away. He opened the door, but before walking out he looked back at Kayla. "You know, when your uncle told me he thought you would make a good addition to the team he wasn't talking about being an agent just to bring in Loki. He thought you'd make a good Avenger." With that, Fury left closing the door behind him.

Kayla sat stunned. Not only did Fury call her stupid, but he also said that she was an Avenger. Why would they ever consider her?

Kayla glanced at the box Fury had left. Kayla stared at the box as if it were a bomb, ready to explode at any moment. Her hands hovered over the lid. Taking a deep breath, she lifted the lid.

What Kayla saw in the box made her want to smile and cry at the same time. There were many pictures of her and Phil together. She picked up one. It was when she was about five; she was dressed as Captain America. She smiled at the memory. It was Halloween and Phil was taking her trick-or-treating. She couldn't remember if dressing as Captain America was her idea or if it her uncle's.

She put the picture aside as she shifted through the other contents of the box. Kayla stopped when she saw the Captain America trading cards. She stared at them for a moment before quickly putting the lid back on.

Why was everyone she cared about taken from her? Before she could dwell much on that, there was a knock at the door. Kayla gave an annoyed sigh. It was probably Fury again. Why he would be back so soon though was beyond her.

Kayla stood and made her way to the door. "Director, you aren't going to…" she opened the door "Steve? Um…wh-what are you…how did you know where to find me?"

"Fury."

"Of course." Kayla went to sit on her stool. Steve took that as an invitation to come in "What part of seclusion do people not understand?"

"I was worried about you."

"I'm a tough girl. I can handle myself."

"I don't doubt that. But you did just lose your uncle."

Kayla said nothing as she stood and walked around the table to the other side.

"So, is this a Shield safe house?"

"No. It belonged to my parents. We used to come here just to get away. It's the one place I've always felt safe. Fury makes sure this place stays in good condition."

"That's nice of him."

Kayla shrugged.

Steve glanced around. His eyes landed on a kid's drawing of a panda. In the bottom right corner were the words drawn by Olivia. "Who's Olivia?"

Kayla glanced up. "Someone who died a long time ago."

Steve looked over at her. "I'm sorry."

"All right, so, you saw me. You know I'm fine."

"Why do I get the feeling you are trying to kick me out?"

"It's not that I'm not happy to see you. I am, really. I just want to be alone."

"And I will respect that. Can I just show you something first?"

"What is it?"

"You will have to come and see." Steve said as he made his way out the door.

Kayla just stood there for a minute. Finally, she followed Steve out.

"This place really is out of the way." Steve said as the two of them made their way through the trees.

"That is what I like about it. Though I have been having a lot of visitors for being so far out here."

"Everyone is just worried about you, Kayla."

Kayla said nothing.

After a few minutes of silence the two of them finally walked into a clearing where a jet was.

"Finally. I was beginning to wonder if I should come and get you two."

Kayla looked up and saw Clint standing at the top of the jet.

"So, you two decided to come all the way out here to check on me? Kayla asked. "I am fine. Really."

"Who said it was just us two?" Clint walked back into the jet.

Kayla glanced over at Steve who motioned for her to go in. The two of them then made their way up the ramp and into the jet. When Kayla walked in the jet she was surprised to see Natasha, Bruce, and Tony.

"Why do I feel like this is an intervention?" Kayla asked.

"Kayla, I know what you do when you lose someone close to you and I was worried you would do that again." Clint said.

"Well, as you can see I am not going out and picking fights. I'm fine. You can go."

"That can't be a healthy way to cope." Bruce said.

"It helps."

"Wouldn't being with family and friends help more?" Steve asked.

"You've always thought you were alone, Kayla, and had no one, but that's not true." Clint said.

Kayla looked at everyone and she finally realized what Fury meant; what Clint was trying to tell her.

"You guys came all the way out here for me." Kayla said more to herself. A faint smile appeared on her face. "You're right, I'm not alone."

"And she finally gets it." Tony said.

"So, I am a bit slow."

"All right, now that that is all settled what do you say we go back to the Avengers tower?"

"I take it Stark tower is now our base of operations?"

"And home."

Kayla smiled. "Oh, let me go grab my daggers first." Kayla took a step off the jet, but Steve spoke up first.

"What is the deal with the daggers?" He asked.

Kayla looked back at him. "A professor of mine gave them to me." She then took off running.

It did not take her long to get back to the cabin. She grabbed her daggers and strapped them to her boots. She then quickly put some clothes in her bag and was ready to head back to the jet. Before she walked out the door, she glanced over at the box. After a bit of hesitation, she grabbed it, then ran back to the jet. Once she was on, Tony took off.

"So, now that we are not in a life and death situation anymore and trying to save the world, I have a question." Tony said as he put the jet on auto pilot and turned toward Kayla, "What is the story behind the name Sparky?"

Kayla groaned. "We are not going to tell that. I was hoping you would have forgotten."

"I don't forget stuff."

"I don't mind telling it." Clint said, which earned him a glare from Kayla.

"I am curious about it as well." Bruce said.

"Come on, Kayla. It is an interesting story." Natasha said.

Kayla sighed in defeat. "Fine."

"All right, so this is mine and Kayla's first mission together." Clint began.

"I should mention that Clint did not know I was a mutant." Kayla added.

"It was supposed to be an easy mission. We were just supposed to get intel and get out. Getting in, that was the easy part. By the time we got what we needed more people showed up and getting out became complicated."

"Long story short," Kayla said. "we were spotted and started running to get out of the building. We eventually did make it outside, but more were waiting for us so a fight ensured."

"There was a generator a few feet from us. I thought if we could hit that then it would explode and give us a chance to escape except the bad guys weren't making it easy for me."

"I had a clear shot of the generator if I used my powers. It took me a while to actually get the courage to put my plan in motion because that would mean exposing my powers and I wasn't sure how Clint would react."

"I knew she was hesitating about something. I actually thought she was inexperienced and was going to get us killed."

Kayla couldn't help but laugh a little. "Yeah, he asked me how many missions have I been on. How much training I've had. Who I trained with."

"And she asked if I was conducting an interview. When I said no she then told me to shut up and if I had any concerns regarding her experience to take it up with Fury. I glanced over at Kayla and noticed her doing something with her daggers. They were giving off these sparks. She then sent out an energy pulse, knocking the rest of the bad guys and taking out the generator."

"And that is when he found out I was a mutant. I didn't look at him for a while, afraid he would hate me. All he said though was that was awesome."

"So, because her daggers were giving off sparks I decided to call her Sparky. Also, when she gets-"

Kayla quickly jumped over to Clint and covered his mouth. "And that's enough story telling." Kayla gave him a look; Clint shrugged in defeat.

"Wait, I want to hear that last bit." Tony said.

"No, you don't."

"How are you able to send out energy?" Bruce asked.

"My shield is made from energy so I can just focus that energy and send it out in a blast."

"I'm assuming you can send a blast through your hand." Tony said. "I've seen you deflect attacks. Why use the daggers?"

"Does it hurt to send a blast using your hand?" Steve asked.

"It used to when I first realized I could do that. Even now my hands tingle sometimes. It's just easier to channel my energy through an object. Anyway, time to change the subject."

Kayla was grateful when Steve had changed the conversation to something other than superpowers and saving the world. And for the first time in a while Kayla didn't feel so alone.

When they finally arrived at Stark Tower, Kayla noticed that it was no longer damaged. Tony hadn't wasted anytime in getting it repaired.

Once they landed, Steve went to help Kayla with her things and grabbed the box. Kayla quickly stood and took the box from him.

"I'll take this. You can take my bag if you really want to help."

"Ok."

Kayla had expected Steve to ask why she didn't want him carrying the box but luckily, he didn't. These were her uncle's things and as silly as it sounded, she didn't want anyone to take them.

As soon as Kayla walked inside, she was greeted by a woman with red hair. "You must be Kayla. I'm Pepper." She held out her hand.

Kayla shook her hand. "Yep, that's me. So, uh…" Kayla tried to think of how to phrase her question without coming off as rude. "What do you do?"

"I run Stark Industries."

"Tony couldn't handle the responsibilities, huh?"

"Hey, a lot was happening when I passed the company to her." Tony defended.

"Huh-uh. Excuses, excuses."

"She's also my girlfriend."

"You found someone who can actually put up with you? Don't let her go, Tony."

"I'll show you to your room." Pepper said. "You're welcome to stay here for as long as you want."

"Thanks, Pepper."

Once Pepper showed Kayla her room, she left so Kayla could get settled. Kayla put the box on the bed and looked around. It was just a basic room with a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand. Kayla was fine with it; she didn't need much.

Kayla walked back out where the others were and stood there for a moment, watching them talk with each other. She was lucky to have friends like them who cared for her and she couldn't wait to see what life had in store for them next.