"Director Fury!" Hayley called from across the room. Everyone but Captain Rogers had gone home already. Hayley, however, was roughly 1300 miles from home and had no way to get there save her own two feet.
Fury turned from his conversation. "What do you want now, Parker?" he asked wearily. The last several days had been hard on everyone.
Hayley cleared her throat. "I'd like to go home, but I need a car or a jet or... Something." She trailed off awkwardly.
"Really?" Fury sighed. "Fine. Hey, Cap!" Hayley rolled her eyes at his back, smiling quickly when he turned.
"Rogers will drive you."
〰️〰️〰️
They drove in icy silence for an hour before Hayley spoke up.
"We need to stop in Starling." she said, falling silent once more. Steve glanced over at the assassin.
"Why?" he asked. Hayley sat up straighter.
"I have family there who weren't told I was leaving." Hayley replied. "And they deserve to know that I'm not dead." Her mind unexpectedly launches a memory of her Starling City family.
"Just shoot the damn arrow so we can all go home."
"Shut up Diggle." Deep breaths. "How the hell do you do this, Ollie?"
"Just breathe, aim, and relax." Oliver's voice is strangely soothing. Breathe.. Pull back. Aim... At the target. Release... At... Felicity?
"Oops."
"I'm okay!!!" Felicity yelps.
"Soooo..." Oliver's glare is strangely terrifying. "Told you I wasn't an archer." I'm vaguely aware of Dig snickering in the background. "I'll just go pack up."
"No. Do it again."
"I don't know how to get to Starling City." Steve says, breaking Hayley out of her thoughts.
"Take the next right." Hayley pipes, closing her eyes as another memory takes over.
"Take the next right, Diggle." First words I hear walking into the foundry.
"What are we doing?"
"I sent Diggle to a tech store." Felicity pipes.
"Ahh." I do a double take. "Why?"
"I spilled tea on my keyboard."
"Hey, Hayley, where did you get-" Oliver gasps in pain. Felicity and I whip our heads to find he cut himself. On my knife. The idiot.
"Where's your miracle herb?" Felicity hands it to me, I shove it down Oliver's throat with no preamble. "Don't play with my knives. They're coated in a fast acting poison called Thanatos. It's a deadly mixture of the fifteen most lethal poisons in the world. They're Nazi/HYDRA manufactured. No known cure."
"Why are they just lying around?" Felicity demanded.
"I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to go and cut themselves on one!!!"
Oliver groaned. "I don't think I'll be touching your blades ever again."
"I won't touch them ever!"
"I can't leave you people for fifteen minutes. What happened here?" Diggle says from the stairs.
I start to laugh, leaning on Oliver for support.
"Hayley? Hayley, we're here" Steve shakes her shoulders roughly.
"Whaaa?"
"We're here."
〰️〰️〰️
To be perfectly honest, Hayley should have known better than to walk into Thea's closed club unannounced. She completely deserved the lecture. Steve, not so much.
"Look, Thea, you're terrifying when you're angry, but we're kinda on a tight schedule, so can you just tell us where Oliver is?" Hayley interrupted the ranting girl.
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Thea yelled. "Let me remind you, you broke into my club, four days after you ran off to New York, where no one could reach you! We had no idea if you would come home alive and in one piece!"
Hayley cringed. She had just left with no explanation.
"That's why we need to find Oliver." Steve cut in. Thea looked him over, silently judging whether or not he was good enough for her surrogate sister.
"He's at the office." she sighed.
With a fast word of thanks, the two Avengers were off.
〰️〰️〰️
Hayley placed a hand on her partner's chest. "Before we enter, I should warn you that my sister is a tad bit, um, babbly." she whispered. "Don't be alarmed. It's her natural state."
Steve grinned down at her. He thought it was cute how nervous she was. None of the team had seen that nervous side of her. It was...nice.
Breathing deeply, Hayley pushed open the door. Steve pushed her inside gently, and followed, shutting the door behind him.
A loud shriek pierced the quiet atmosphere.
"Ohmygod, that's Captain America!!! Diggle, that's Captain America!!" Felicity pronounced.
"Oh, yeah, ignore my presence." Hayley muttered under her breath. Diggle shook his head fondly.
"Yes, Felicity. I see that." he sighed. "I also see Hayley."
Hayley leaned around Steve, giving a little wave. Felicity opened her mouth to start babbling again. A hand covered it, much to the relief of Hayley.
"Where the hell did you run off to?" Oliver demanded. "And who's this?" Hayley cringed when Steve held a hand out.
"Steve, sir, Steve Rogers." Oliver looked over at his adopted sister, eyebrows raised. She shrugged.
"We can't stay, really." she cut in. "We're on a schedule. Fury's charging me fifty bucks an hour for the car." She glanced up. "Cmon people, chop, chop. We have a time limit here. Steve, you go do whatever. I'm taking Felicity. You've got an hour and a half."
With that, the assassin was out the door and Felicity was gone.
Steve looked at the men in front of him.
"What do I do?" he asked. Oliver clapped him on the shoulder. The man called Diggle grabbed his keys.
"We're taking you for lunch." Oliver answered. "I want to get to know my sister's teammate better."
~〰️〰️〰️
"So."
"So."
The two girls sat across from each other at a Big Belly Burger. Neither one wanted to look away first. Felicity broke, making Hayley the champion of their staring contest.
"You win this time." Felicity grudgingly admitted. Sticking her fry in ketchup, she added, "What's up with Mr.Freedom?" Hayley choked on her smoothie.
"Nothing! Nothing. We're teammates. Nothing more."
Felicity raised an eyebrow. Hayley flushed.
"I want to hear about you, though, Flicker." Hayley said.
"Well, not much has changed since we last spoke." Felicity replied. "Although with a timeline of four days, that wasn't really likely."
"Right." Hayley mumbled, staring down into her fries. Felicity was like her sister. No matter what she knew that she could count on Flicker. It was just that there was no easy way to breach the topic, aaaaaaaand she'd been staring into space for far too long.
Felicity watched her surrogate sister stare at the wall. When she reached two minutes, she took a breath, ready to start babbling.
"I lied to them." Hayley stated abruptly. Felicity blinked slowly.
"Lied to who?" she asked.
"To Barry and co. Who else?" the assassin stated as if it were obvious.
"Oh. I... Have absolutely nothing to say to that."
Hayley snorted. "Finally."
〰️〰️〰️
Meanwhile, on the other side of the restaurant sat a nervous Steve.
"Relax. I don't bite." Oliver said. "I just want to know what happened to my sister while she was gone."
Steve had no idea how to answer. He was very certain Hayley would not like her brother to know she'd almost died. The Diggle man had left and to be perfectly honest, Oliver reminded him of Director Fury.
"She helped with stopping the attack on New York." There. That was a good answer.
"Okay." Oliver said. "We should get going. Knowing Hayley, she's probably waiting for us."
〰️〰️〰️
Hayley had a new least favorite thing. Goodbyes. They were, in her unbiased opinion, unnecessarily soppy. For example, Felicity was cry-babbling.
"...Singh angry. Make sure you call every day and come visit me. Don't forget to check on on your fish. Fish need food too." Felicity was rambling. Hayley looked at her weirdly.
"Fel, I don't have a fish. I love you too, but we really need to go. Bye!"
Hayley ran to the car, Steve laughing at her as he drove off.
〰️〰️〰️
"Where are we going first?" Steve asked. Hayley thought for a moment. CCPD could wait.
"STAR Labs." she stated. "Time to face the music." She pointedly ignored Steve's inquisitive look.
Five minutes of anxious silence later, Hayley strolled into the Cortex.
"Miss me?" she asked. She was met with stony glares. "Honestly I'm surprised you all survived without me. Kinda hoping you'd fall apart."
"Rude." Cisco stated. And not ginger, she added mentally. The Tenth Doctor was her first 21st century crush. She lived for Doctor Who.
"You lied to us." Barry added. Hayley cringed.
"If it helps, I brought a friend?"
Steve chose that moment to walk in. Perfect timing.
"Captain America does not help, Hayley." Caitlin reprimanded.
"He seems to be helping Cisco." the assassin pointed out. The engineer had dragged Steve off to Odin knows where. Hayley had gotten an enthusiastic grin of what she assumed was forgiveness.
"I will now explain my life which I have hidden." Dr. Wells motioned for her to continue.
Okay. Deep breath.
Several times.
"You already know most of this you know. I'm an assassin, and yes, I've killed people. SHIELD has sorta kept me on call. I'm still technically a SHIELD agent, but unlike Nat, I get to have a life.
What you don't know is that I'm the heir to a fortune. My parents were filthy rich and my brother would have gotten the inheritance, but he's dead, so. When I was ten, my parents packed me up and shipped me off to Ravenwood Institute for Exceptional Girls, America's version of the Red Room in Russia. I was trained to be an assassin and that's what I was till I met Howard Stark, my brother, best friend and father all in one. He, uh, he died.
And I can't talk about this." Hayley spit out.
〰️〰️〰️
Barry watched Hayley's eyes during her recount. He'd noticed that emotions weren't really prevalent in them before, but now he could see anger and pain and grief that shocked him speechless.
〰️〰️〰️
Caitlin felt like crap. Hayley, in the time she'd been there had managed to befriend her and she had thrown out her friendship. She envied Cisco his ability to move past it.
〰️〰️〰️
That could have gone worse, Hayley decided. They totally could have just been done with her. Captain Rogers- Steve, she mentally corrected- had left about an hour ago, orders to keep in touch with him called over his shoulder. She now sat at her desk in the lab at the precinct, waiting for Barry. The team had insisted she come out with them to be caught up on what happened while she was gone.
"You ready to go?" Barry called from the door. Hayley stood, grabbing her coat.
"I can't wait to hear about your adventures." She smiled as she locked the door. It really was good to be home.
〰️〰️〰️
Harrison Wells was angry. The team's easy acceptance of Hayley back into the group put an unnecessary kink in his plan. The Avenger was well known back home for her unwavering loyalty and protection of her family. She would never allow anyone to hurt Barry. If he was ever to succeed, she had to go.