"You need to come in."

Five words. Five syllables. Only five, but they hit Barry like a bullet. Whoever Hayley was, whoever the redhead was, Hayley was leaving. Maybe for good.

"Why?" Hayley asked. Natasha sighed. Why did she have to bring in Parker?

"Fury's getting together a group of... special people. Unfortunately, that includes you." Hayley smirked.

"Still don't like me, Romanoff?"

Barry shook his head.

"Wait, wait, wait. What is going on here?" He spoke what everyone was thinking. Hayley and Natasha looked at each other, some sort of silent argument passing between the two. Apparently Hayley lost, because she was the one to sigh and begin explaining.

"I'm an assassin." She mentally groaned as the room broke out in exclamations of disbelief.

"I'm kinda on call for SHIELD." she continued. A thought occurring to her, she turned to Natasha.

"Why exactly do I have to come in? Fury's already got two master assassins." she pointed out, immediately regretting her words. From the look on Nat's face, she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Barton's been compromised." Nat said quietly. And there it was. The answer she didn't like.

Turning to face her friends, she clapped her hands together.

"So sorry, but I need to leave. I'll explain everything when I get back." Hayley started to run out, then turned

around and pointed at Barry. "Better yet, call Oliver. He can explain."

〰️〰️〰️

Outside, Natasha stopped Hayley, with a look of what Hayley would call embarrassment if it was anyone but Romanoff.

"You actually won't be leaving until Friday." Natasha said, adding that Fury just wanted to make sure Hayley would come in. Hayley stared.

"Really, Nat?" The Russian nodded. "Well that's great. Thanks for nothing. See you in Friday then." Without waiting for a response, the girl spun on her heel and marched back into the lab.

〰️〰️〰️

The last thing Barry was expecting was for Hayley to walk back in. He stil trusted her, after all she lied to Joe for him.

"I know this is kinda awkward, and you don't really trust me anymore, but I can't leave yet, and my bag is still-" Hayley's words are cut off as she takes in the room around her. Barry expects her to be angry that they looked her up, but all she does is plop down in chair and prop her feet up. Gesturing at the screens, she adds casually, "You know that's a federal offence, right?"

Cisco and Caitlin look awkwardly at each other.

"What is?" Barry asks. "Googling people?" He prayed she hadn't paid much attention to detail.

"Hacking into a government database to find out information about a level nine classified agent." she responds drily. "Because sorry, sweetie, but I know SHIELD when I see it."

Dr. Wells scoffs. "What do you plan on doing about it, Miss Parker? We've already been shut down."

Hayley visibly winces. "Yeah, sorry bout that. Pretty sure it was actually SHIELD who shut you down." She shrugs in response to their incredulous looks. Straightening, she puts on a patented Hayley smirk. "I could just alert the proper authorities. I've got enough information to bring a cow to its knees."

Everyone looks to her in confusion.

"Yeah that sounded much better in my head. But don't worry. I won't turn you in. You guys are the only things I've got."

Cisco faces her. "Then why'd you lie? I mean, you're not even 24. You're 92. Why didn't you just tell us the truth?"

Hayley sighs.

"It's not exactly an easy thing to talk about. I didn't even tell Oliver until he confronted me."

Caitlin frowned. "Why did he confront you?"

Hayley laughed nervously. "Oh. Um, my.. Sister, Flicker, she hacked into SHIELD." Not waiting for an answer, she stood and brushed her hands off. "Welp, I should go. Things to do, stuff to pack." Smiling, she grabbed her bag and strutted out, heading home to pack her stuff.

--time skip--

Hayley sat sullenly on the jet. Natasha had failed to mention that she would be riding alone with Agent Coulson. Coulson and Hayley didn't exactly get along. It was more than a little awkward. Which is why the moment they landed, she practically ran off the jet.

Only to crash into a very nice looking man.

"Sorry, sorry." She patted the man awkwardly.

"What did you do now, Parker?" She looked at Coulson before running off, yelling, "Run away, run away!!!"

The two men are left staring after her, wondering what the hell just happened.

Inside the Helicarrier, Hayley stops to listen to the man talking. She wanted to make an entrance. They made her come last, well, she was going in fashionably late.

"Wasn't there supposed to be some forensic scientist?" an unfamiliar voice said. That was Hayley's cue. Wiggling her fingers and sending a bolt of Tesseract energy to blast open the door, she walked in. "That would be me." Awkwardly waving to the people at the table, she sat down. "Thor, always nice to see you." she added, tipping an imaginary hat to the blond god standing in front of her.

The man who'd been talking blinked. "Sorry, but who are you?" he asked.

"Parker. Hayley." she answered, ignoring the exasperated head-shakes she was receiving from every SHIELD agent in the room. "So, tell me, Anthony, how's your dad?" Tony paled. The room grew quiet. "What?" Hayley asked. "What's wrong?"

"How do you know my full name?" Tony asked rather shakily. Hayley frowned.

"Truth or Dare, 1940, not to mention it's in your file. You look just like Howie did. Why?" No one answered. "Tell me!"

Captain Rogers finally broke the silence. "Howard died in a car crash. Him and Maria both."

Hayley shook her head. "I need some air." she said, pushing away from the table. Ignoring the protests, she pushed her way out, taking off the moment she was alone.

And Hayley ran. It felt good to run like that again, to let loose and just go. And a part of her, she admitted, wanted to outrun the pain. Howard was gone. Her brother, her best friend, was dead. And she hadn't been there.

Skidding to a stop, she looked around. She'd run to.. to... Where was she? One door, end of the hall. She probably shouldn't be here... Screw it, she was going in.

Opening the door, she's met by a tombstone. No grave, just the stone. A stone with the Howard Stark on it.

Unaware of the cameras allowing the others to watch she sits down in front of it and starts to talk.

"Hey, Howard. They.. They told me you died in a car crash. You and Maria. I don't know know if I believe that, but right now it's all I've got. I met your son, Anthony. He... He is a delightful character."

"What is she doing?" asks Natasha. Fury points to Tony. "Get audio, would you?" Tony nods and goes to work.

Hayley continues, oblivious. "I'm back at SHIELD. Not really by choice, but they needed me, apparently. You'd've been proud though. I'd finally gotten away from all that, found a new family. And there was this guy. I liked him, thought maybe he liked me.

Truth is, I don't know if any one of them will talk to me again. I lied. About everything. Thought it would go away if I didn't talk about it.

I finally met Captain Rogers in person, without trying to kill him. He's actually the one who told me how you died.

A car crash. Even after 65 years in the ice, I know that it wasn't just a car crash. It was HYDRA.

They, uh, they'd been planning it since the day I refused to kill you and Peggy.

God, I should've been there. I... I should have warned you. I should have stopped it." Tony got the audio going and they all listened to Hayley's break down.

"A-And I wasn't, and now you're gone and Peggy.. God, I don't even know if Peggy is alive.

And I need you. You... You were my rock, m-my moral compass.

I don't know where to go from here. I don't what to do. Fury, he wants me to help track down the Tesseract, that he lost, and Rogers and Anthony, they're all saying that I should, but I don't think I can. I don't think that I can go that far and come back to me.

I remember when I told you that I was an assassin, you told me that I could walk away from that. And I did. And they're trying to drag me back in, and God, Howie, I... I just..." She broke off, sobbing.

"Why did you have to leave? Why did you have to leave us behind? I can't do this without you, Howie. I can't. I'll lose myself and you were the only one who could bring me back.

I know, I know. I should find someone else. But the thing is, I did. And I lost him."

"Who did she lose?" whispered Bruce. Tony shrugged.

"My brother, my biological brother, after I woke up, I met him in England. He told me that I should forget you, that I should blame you, that it was your fault I went over enemy lines.

But I want you to know that I could never blame you. Even if there was something you were at fault for, I wouldn't know where to begin to blame you.

You are, and always will be, my brother. My best friend. You and Peggy, you were the ones who raised me. You are the reasons I'm not brainwashed by HYDRA. Because HYDRA doesn't know love. And I will always love you.

And I'm sorry. Because I have to help them stop Loki. And to do that, I can't be the Hayley Quinn you wanted me to be. I need to be someone else. I need to be something else. Goodbye Howard."

Standing, Hayley turned and headed towards the bridge.

The others stood quietly. They'd never seen that side of Hayley before, any of them. Finally Steve voiced the question they were all wondering.

"What did we just witness?"