Jade woke up to a very annoying beeping sound. She bolted out of bed and was standing in a second. Her instincts told her to run, but something in the back of her in mind told her to stop for a moment. Her eyes adjusted to the dark, and she realized where she was. Her bedroom, in Stark Tower.

"Sorry to frighten you, Miss," J.A.R.V.I.S. said. Jade flinched a little, startled, she wasn't expecting the sound.

"No, it's fine. Thank you for waking me up," She said to the ceiling. The shades came off the window and the lights came on.

"You're welcome. Diner will be ready soon. May I suggest a wardrobe change?" Jade looked down at herself. Did she look that bad? Yes, yes she did. She hadn't brushed her hair for over two days; it looked like a rats nest. Her clothes, that had been clean when she got them, now were covered in mud and something she couldn't place.

"Good idea," She said. She walked over to the closet and picked out a new outfit. A grey shirt and jean shorts that came to her knees. She went into the bathroom, that J.A.R.V.I.S. had so kindly pointed out to her.

She changed quickly and began a search for a brush. She found one and after fifteen minutes of pulling the knots out of her hair she was finally satisfied. She debated on what to do with it. She decided that there was no point on putting it up so she left it down. Curious she opened the drawers to see what could possibly be in them.

Combs, nail polish, hair ties, more brushes, headbands, and a few sparkly stickers Jade had no idea what the stickers were even for. She picked up a bright yellow headband and slid it on. She looked in the mirror. She took the headband off and tried putting it back on. After what felt like forever she had gotten it in a position that didn't make her hair stick out in weird angles.

She felt her wristwatch buzz, and she looked down to see what had happened.

Diner has arrived - T. She read. She grabbed Natasha's jacket from off the counter and headed out the door and out into the hallway.

She remembered the way to the elevator and got on. She pushed the button for the floor she had originally been on, and hoped that was the right one. Considering that J.A.R.V.I.S. didn't correct her it probably was.

When the door opened she was greeted by Thor. He smiled at her and motioned for her to come out. She walked with him to the kitchen where everyone else was. Tony and Bruce weren't there she noticed.

''How was your afternoon?" Natasha asked. She was sitting on a bar stool, Steve was leaning on the counter, and Clint was sitting on the couch in the adjoining living room. Natasha motioned for her to come sit by her. Jade crossed the room and Thor went and sat beside Clint.

"It was good," Jade said while climbing onto the tall seat. "Here's your jacket?" She held out the article of clothing to Nat. Natasha shook her head.

"You keep it," She said. "It looks good on you." Jade's eyes lit up. Nobady had ever given her anything, well, anything other than trouble. Natasha then looked over at Steve like she was expecting him to say something.

"What?" Jade asked looking between them.

"We were wondering if you would be willing to take a test tomorrow?" Steve asked. Jade tilted her head and looked at him sideways. "Not a written test. More of a check up, just to make sure you're in good physical health. The thing is Dr. Cho would like you to use your powers to see if she can figure out why they make your head hurt," He clarified. Natasha put her hand on Jade's back.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," She said quietly in Jade's ear.

"No, no." Jade shook her head. "It's fine." A smile spread across Steve's face and Natasha grinned slightly. She wouldn't mind using her powers if it meant she could get rid of the splitting headache that came with them.

Jade felt weird to see people happy, smiles were so few and far between from where she came from. She decided she liked it. It made her feel like she belonged.

"Can the injured get some food over here?" Clint called from the couch. Jade spun her stool around to face him.

"Are you alright? You didn't look very good in the forest," Jade said. Clint smiled at her.

"I'm alright, kid. Except for the fact that my stomach is now eating my intestine, I'm good." Steve smiled shook his head at Clint's ridiculous statement. A small ding brought everyone's attention to the elevator. The door opened and out came a beaming Tony. He was carrying a least twelve boxes of pizza and a large basket of bread sticks.

"It looks like I'm feeding a small army," He complained with a smile as he entered the kitchen.

"Where's Bruce?" Steve asked. Tony put the food on the counter and Natasha grabbed two bread sticks and handed one to Jade.

"He's working on something with me. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to work," Tony answered before taking a pizza box and running up a flight of stairs and out of sight.

"What is he working on?" Jade asked between bites of bread stick. Natasha shrugged.

"We stopped asking, it was to confusing to understand when he told us anyway." Jade nodded.

"Food please," Clint said from the couch. Jade grabbed a pizza box and hopped off the stool.

"What? You almost die and you think you get to order us about?" Jade teased. She plopped down beside him and opened the box. Clint took a piece and Jade followed his lead and took a piece of her own.

"Have you never had pizza?" Clint asked. Jade shook her head.

"Nope, just a bunch of pills and flavorless mush where I come from." Jade did her best for her statement to sound light. Clint smiled at her.

"Well then, let me show you how it's done." He rolled up his piece like a rug and continued to try and fit the whole piece in his mouth. Jade widened her eyes at him. Natasha erupted in laughter.

"No, no you have to do it like this," Nat insisted. She took two pieces of pizza and put them together like a sandwich and started to eat them that way. Clint took it as a challenge and grabbed another piece of pizza and tried to stuff it in his mouth. Jade started to laugh and Steve did his best to calm them down to no avail, he eventually gave up and started to eat pizza, the way Jade assumed to be, the normal way. Thor joined in on the fun and started to try to stuff three pieces of pizza in his mouth.

When everyone was done eating Jade looked around and noticed some board games on the shelves of the nearby TV stand.

"Do you want to try one?" Clint asked. He had seen her looking at them and wondered if she even knew how to play.

"I've never played a board game before, but if you want to try I would like to too," Jade said. Clint smiled and sat up straighter. He motioned for her to pick one, she leapt off the couch and over to the shelf.

'Shoots and ladders, Sequence, Chess, Cranium, Sorry,' Jade read the names on the boxes to herself. She eventually picked one called 'Battleship'.

"What about this one?" She asked Clint as she was carried the box over to the couch.

"Mmm, battleship, good choice, kid." At that sentence Natasha perked her head up.

"You don't want to play that," She said. Jade gave her a questioning look.

"Clint's the master at that game," Steve explained. "I've never seen him loose." Jade took that statement as a challenge.

"Well, it's time someone put him in his place." Jade smiled. She knew that she probably had no idea what she was getting into, especially since she had never even played the game before.

"Oh, it's on now you little punk," Clint teased. He quickly explained the game and handed Jade the blue board. When she asked about it Clint said that red was his lucky color. Jade decided not to question his methods; he was the master after all.

-o-X-o-

"J-10." Clint said triumphantly. Jade starred at her board in amazement. He had completely obliterated her, it hadn't even been close. Clint looked at her expectantly.

"Hit and sunk," Jade mumbled. Clint gave a small shout of victory and shot his hands on the air, only to cringe a little from his injury. Steve laughed a little and Nat joined in.

"Don't say we didn't warn you," Steve teased. Jade ran a hand through her hair.

"I can't believe it. You weren't joking when you called him the master." Clint shrugged at her statement a huge smile on his face.

"Consider it payback for when you ditched me in Brazil," Clint said to her. Jade rolled her eyes.

"That was two days ago. You have got to get over it," Jade said sarcastically. She couldn't believe how easily they accepted her, how they didn't hold her running spree against her. Forgiveness was the word that came to mind.

"You know, you're way different than I thought you'd be," Clint said to Jade in a more solemn tone.

"What did you think I would be like?" Jade asked. She smiled and tilted her head at him.

"I thought you were smart, and I was right about that. You'd have to be to get away from Stark, but I thought you'd be more..." Clint waved his hand searching for the right word. "Damaged, I guess. You seem to light-hearted to be a Hydra experiment."

Jade thought about the statement. Light-hearted? It was just her personality, she didn't feel that you had to be mean and cruel to be a part of Hydra, though, it most of the time it helped. She was also pretty optimistic, which in her book, was a good thing.

"It might help that I'm missing some of my memories too," Jade decided. She noticed Natasha nod her head back and forth.

"We should get some rest," Steve said with a sigh, changing the subject. "We all have things to do, and it's already ten o'clock." Natasha wasn't one to openly tell others when to go to bed. She assumed that they were grown up enough to make that judgement themselves, but she did agree with Steve on this one. Mostly on the fact that Jade should rest, Nat hadn't forgotten what had happened earlier, though, she still had yet to approach the girl on the matter. Nat thought some solid sleep would be good for the girl.

"I agree," She said. Steve raised his eyebrows at her statement. "Don't read into that," Nat said pointing at him. "Come on, chic, I'll walk you to your room." She reached her hand out to Jade. Jade shrugged and got up.

"Okay, see ya'll later," Jade said in parting. Her and Nat walked out the room and to the elevator.

"Don't feel bad," Natasha said during the ride. "Clint beats people at that game all the time." Jade smiled up at her.

"I'll beat him eventually, I just need a good strategy plan." Jade rubbed her hands together and did an evil laugh. It made Natasha smile a bit.

"What happened on the Quinjet?" Natasha asked. The mood shifted immediately. Natasha felt Jade tense beside her, but didn't retract the question.

"I don't really know," Jade admitted. "I always had to take pills before I went to sleep when I was with Hydra, they might've been the reason why I've never had that problem before. I also didn't have nightmares there either, so I can't come to a solid scientific conclusion."

Natasha noticed how the girl avoided the real reason behind her question.

"I meant the nightmare," Natasha explained. Jade looked at the floor. She knew what Natasha meant the first time, she just didn't know if she was ready to talk about it. Jade was saved by the ding of the elevator, signaling that they had arrived.

"See you tomorrow," Jade said and tried to walk off the elevator, but Natasha put a hand on her shoulder.

"Jade," Nat said her name carefully.

"I know, I'll talk about it when I'm ready. Promise." Natasha nodded. She didn't want to chase the girl away, but she didn't want her to keep putting off dealing with it.

"Okay. Have a good night."

"You too." Jade walked off and didn't look back. She found her room no problem and shut the door behind her. She collapsed on her bed not bothering to change out of her clothes.

"Did you have a nice night, Miss Jade?" Jade heard the voice ask. Jade nodded to the ceiling.

"Ya, I did. Clint destroyed me at Battleship, though." Jade smiled at the thought. It had been her first game when someone didn't end up injured or almost dead. She liked the Avengers version of a game better than Hydra's.

"I saw. You did quite good for your first time." J.A.R.V.I.S. said. Jade sat up.

"You saw it?" She asked a plan formulating in her head.

"Why, yes. It was a good game," J.A.R.V.I.S. said. Jade grinned at the revelation.

"Could you see his board?" She slyly asked.

"Yes, I could," He answered. Jade let a wicked smile spread across her face.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., I think I have a plan."