The next morning, Clint was awakened by music. It wasn't loud, but he could hear the thump, thump, thump of the bass. Or maybe it was just his head. He stood out of the bed and started on his way into the kitchen. He found Molly sitting at the bar nursing a cup of coffee. She and Wade were talking about something in code. Clint caught onto this immediately as nothing they said made sense. Wade stood in front of the stove wearing a tall chef's hat and an apron. Mountains of pancakes surrounded him on the counters. Steve was piling his plate full of the pancakes before thanking him and walking away.
Wade took some pancakes on a plate and slid them in front of Molly. She looked up to Clint when he walked in and her eyes lit up.
"Good morning, Clint." Clint sat next to her giving her a small grin.
"Still a morning person, I see." Wade and Molly locked eyes, and then busted out laughing. Clint gave them a weird look.
"I've killed Wade three times already." Clint could do nothing but stare. Wade slid a stack of pancakes in front of Clint. A knife and fork were sitting on each side. Clint stood to grab a cup of coffee. He tried to make out what Molly and Wade were talking about, but he just couldn't figure it out.
When Clint sat back down, his silverware was missing. He looked over at Molly immediately blaming her. She quietly ate her pancakes paying no mind to him.
"Give them back," Clint sat holding out his hand. Molly gave him a strange look.
"Give what back?" she asked. Clint looked back down at his plate and a spoon was resting on the pancake. Clint grabbed it showing it to Molly.
"Really?" Molly grinned her grin. When Clint looked back down, his pancakes were half eaten and Molly had a fresh stack. He slowly looked to her. She was back to having the coded conversation with Wade.
He grabbed his plate from Molly and walked over to Steve. Steve had watched the whole thing and was trying not to start laughing. After Wade had decided he had made enough pancakes, he teleported out of the room. Molly grumbled.
"Ass hole," she said. "Leaves all the mess for me." She stood to start cleaning." He always did this to her. She could kill him for it, but he always took off before she could. Tony and Pepper walked in and nearly fell over at the sight of stacks of pancakes that completely covered the counters.
"Did someone drop a pancake bomb in my kitchen?" Tony asked picking up one of the pancakes.
"They're the best pancakes I've ever had," Steve said coming back into the kitchen to grab more.
"You're still here?" Tony asked sending a fake glare to the super soldier. Steve ignored him. He had discovered that was the best way to counter Tony Stark. Tony turned his attention back to Molly.
"Do you think we can get somewhere on those tests today?"
"Sure, why not?" She threw down the towel she was using to wipe up four with and walked over to Tony who covered his pockets protectively. They started to walk out, but Molly stopped looking back at Clint.
"Aren't you coming?" Clint stood and followed them. They went to the same room and Molly changed back into the scrubs she had on the day before. She sat up on a bed waiting for whatever tests Tony and Bruce wanted to administer.
Bruce pushed over little tray on wheels over next to the bed. It was filled with needles, rubber tubes, and test tubes. Something flashed in her head. Something like a memory or a nightmare. She shook her head to get rid of it. She felt a hand touch her arm causing her to jerk. She looked over to see Clint.
"Are you okay?" he whispered. Molly nodded quickly.
"Yes, I'm fine." She felt the rubber strip go around her arm to raise her veins. More things flashed in her head. There was a bright light shining in her face. She was lying on her back. She couldn't move. Something was holding her down. Straps. Too tight. She couldn't breathe. She could hear voices. Panic made her not understand them. Needles penetrating her skin. Excruciating pain. What were they doing to her? Why were they doing this? This was a memory. Molly knew it.
She heard her name. The voice was familiar and soothing. She knew it so well. Fear shot through her. She lashed out when a hand touched her. She grabbed the back of Bruce's head and slammed it into the tray causing the contents to fly across the room. She pushed him in the floor and jumped off the bed.
"Molly!" she heard the voice say.
"Stay away from me!" she yelled running to the nearest corner with shadow. She tried to use her powers to hide, but they didn't work. "Not now!" she whined a tremble on her breath.
More hands flew at her causing her to lash out once more. She ran from the room unsure of where she was going. All rational thought had left her as she ran through the halls. She knew this place, but she couldn't think of how. Ever time she found some type of shadow, she tried to slip into it, but her powers refused to work. She could hear her name being called behind her, but she refused to acknowledge it. She could smell pancakes. The smell reminded her of familiar ground so she decided to follow it.
"Molly? What's wrong?" she heard another familiar voice say. She saw the man the voice belonged to, but it wasn't the man she was expecting. The man wore a long lab coat, dark glasses covered his eyes, gloves covered his hands, a cloth cap covered his head and a mask covered his mouth. He moved towards her, hands out, saying reassuring words.
She started moving backwards to get away. Hands grabbed her shoulders from behind and she tried to get away, but they wouldn't let her go. She tried to fight, but she felt weak, vulnerable. The next thing he knew, she collapsed.
Clint caught her before she hit the ground. He picked her up and carried her into the living room putting her on the couch.
"What the hell just happened?" Tony asked entering the room.
"I have no idea," Clint said brushing her hair out of her face.
"It had something to do with the needle obviously," Tony said kneeling down next to Clint. He grabbed Molly's arm. His fingers rubbed over several needle holes in her arm. Tony looked up at Clint who was staring at her scarred flesh.
"Did she have a habit before she lost her memory?" Clint rolled his eyes.
"No. Her powers weren't working. That's never happened to her before."
"That may explain why she didn't use her powers that day in my apartment. And it could explain why Wade has a gps tracker on her." Clint ran his fingers through her hair. Molly had always had control of her powers. She had tapped into them at a very young age. She had many years to learn them completely.
"Where the hell is Remy?" Clint wondering aloud.
"He left late last night," JARVIS said. So many different emotions went through Clint at once, he froze. What could possibly be more important than this? Molly slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She closed them again then raised her hand to her head the way someone would if they had a headache.
"Where is Wade?" she whispered as if it hurt to talk too loud. Clint let out a hopeless sigh. Of course, the first person she had to ask about was Wade. He calmed his nerves as much as possible and answered, "He left this morning/"
Molly's eyebrows knitted together as if she was trying to remember.
"Oh yeah," she said finally.
"What happened back there?" Tony asked standing beside the couch. Molly's attention to them.
"Do you know where these came from?" Molly slowly sat up. She locked eyes with Clint.
"A little. I saw things. Felt things." Clint covered her hand. "Just pain. And people in lab coats."
"Lab coats?" Tony wondered out loud. "They were doing tests on you? Why?" Molly rolled her eyes.
"I'm a mutant. Pick your cliché." Clint stood and began walking around the room. He knew damned well experimentation on mutants was never good. It could mean cloning, gene splicing and about fifty other different things that could only lead to disaster.
He stopped dead in his tracks when a sudden realization hit him. He slowly looked over to his would-be wife. His mouth became dry. His palms became clammy. What if this woman in front of his wasn't his wife? What if she was a clone? A simple mirror image of the woman he loved. That would explain why she had no memories. That would explain her powers randomly quitting on her. Panic rose in his throat.
"Could you be a clone?" Clint asked. Molly shrugged.
"Unlikely," Bruce said. Everyone stared at him wondering when he showed up. He had an ice pack on his forehead. "She has a scars and a tattoo. Those can't be genetically copied." Clint relaxed a little. "Molly do you have a navel?" Molly blinked in confusion. That was an odd question to ask. She leaned back and pulled her shirt up to reveal her navel.
"And why wouldn't she have a belly button?" Steve asked his face twisted in confusion just as much as Molly.
"Because, my dear Captain," Tony started, "if she was a clone, she wouldn't have been born from a womb. Therefore, no umbilical cord, therefore, no belly button."
"That… actually makes sense." Tony patted him on the shoulder.
"Good job." Steve glared at him.
Molly started rubbing her temples. Her head was throbbing. All the panic and fear had taken a lot out of her. At this point, she would rather have a hangover. She slowly laid back down on the couch and closed her eyes. She just couldn't take the throbbing anymore. She prayed for sleep to ease her pain.
The memories flashed in her head. Why did it have to be this kind of memory she remembered? Why couldn't it have been of Clint, Remy, or Natasha?
She rolled facing the back of the couch. She heard footsteps walking away from her. Finally she was alone. She was getting a little sick of everyone talking about her like she wasn't even there. She knew they were trying to help her, but it had been three days and nothing had happened except an image and a bad memory worthy of a night terror.
The throbbing in her head was not subsiding in the least. Not even the coolness of the leather couch was working. She slowly opened her eyes. Maybe it was just too bright in the room. She got up from the couch and started walking to her room. The closer she got to her room, she heard murmuring. It wasn't coming from her room, but it was coming from somewhere near her room. Maybe from another bedroom.
She saw some shadow and decided to find out what it was they were talking about. Something was telling her it was about her. She slipped into shadows and traveled around until she found who was talking. Everyone was in, what Molly imagined to be, Tony's spare lab. Clint paced nervously.
"There's got to be something you can do," he pleaded. Bruce sighed.
"I don't know, Clint. If that is how she reacts to just getting prepped it's hard to tell what's going to happen when we put her in one of those machines and she freaks out. I don't think I'll be able to hold the Big Guy back if she hits me again."
"Then Tony will perform the tests." Tony crossed his arms.
"I'm not going to get my face smashed trying to help someone whose sanity is questionable. I hardly believe she is still the same woman. Wade has turned her into a female version of him. She could up and kill us at any given moment. Hell, she's already tried. She didn't even care when Wade threatened Pepper." Clint glared at him.
"We can't give up on her so soon. You haven't even run any tests and she's already remembered things." Molly's heart fell. They thought she was crazy. Maybe they were right. Wade and television were the only things that had influenced her for the passed three years. That was normalcy to her. She wasn't swooning over every single good-looking man like Wade was doing with women. She just didn't agree with those actions. They just didn't feel like her.
"Yeah, we see how that worked out," Bruce said rubbing his forehead.
"There's got to be another way. You can't just knock her out whenever you want to run a test."
"It's not like we're going to beat her with a frying pan.," Tony defended. Steve absentmindedly rubbed the back of his head. He swore he could still feel bumps on the back of his head. It didn't feel too good being beaten with a frying pan. "We'll gas her or have you sneak up on her and hit her with a tranq dart."
"I am not shooting my wife with a tranq dart, Tony."
"Either way, it's got to be Tony doing it. If she goes and has another flash back, I might rip her apart," Bruce said. "It took everything in my power not to do it the first time. We can't risk her life and everyone else's just because of Tony's ego." Clint locked eyes with Molly in the shadows long enough for chills to crawl up her spine.
"I agree, I just got done rebuilding the tower a week ago." Tony said crossing his arms. Clint sighed knowing Bruce was right. If Clint would have known Molly was going to react like that, he would have never allowed Bruce near her.
"So, what happens if we can't put her under?" Clint asked. Tony shifted his weight and crossed his arms.
"Then there's nothing we can do." That statement weighed over Clint. Molly's words echoed in his head. If you can't help me, I'm gone. He looked back at Molly, still concealed in the shadows. He couldn't risk it. He couldn't lose her again.
"Then we have to make it work," he said still watching Molly. Ton kept looking between Clint and the area he kept staring at.
"She's in here, isn't she?"
Molly allowed herself to slip out of the shadows.
"That is so cool," Tony said with true admiration. "It does, however, make you very rude. Didn't you mother ever tell you it was rude to eavesdrop?"
"I don't remember."
"Oh yeah," Tony said as if he had really forgotten. Molly rolled her eyes.
"I was just curious. I am going to go lay down though. I feel like I have drunk an entire brewery." She turned and left the room.
"Do you want me honest opinion?" Bruce asked standing next to Clint. Clint looked at him. "I really don't believe we can help her. Science can only do so much. The brain is the greatest mystery. I can't imagine what she's been through. It is a high possibility that she blocked everything out. We may be able to find out why she has a mental block then you could go from there." Clint let those words sink in for a moment.
"I don't care as long as I get my wife back."