The bright lights of the garage came on as Carter walked out of the elevator, happy to be in another familiar place the young Stark let out a breath she hadn't even been aware she was holding. "Well, now they're one up on themselves in my time – Dad and Pops don't know about my meetings with Nick or they'd flip," she murmured to herself. Shaking herself, her right hand curled in on itself as she walked out into the main car bay area to survey the cars. Immediately, she walked over to the silver Audi Q7 and ghosted her hand over its hood, a genuine smile lighting up her features. "You got your license?" asked Clint as he walked toward her flanked by Pepper and Nat. Carter nodded, "I learned to drive in this car."

"Is it yours now?" Pepper asked gently, curious about the girl's response. Carter shook her head, "I wouldn't take it. That was an awkward moment to say the least; I didn't want him to just give me things…." She trailed off as if realizing that other people could still hear her. "So, shopping nice diversion."

"I figured you needed sometime that wasn't devoted to exposition," replied Pepper, "Shall we?"

Carter nodded as Clint tossed a set of silvery keys to her, "You passed your tests right?" she nodded again, "So get in." Another real smile painted her face and the four of them peeled out of the garage as radio blasted Only the Good Die Young. Carter lip-synced along to the song as she drove, grateful for the comfortable silence presented by her companions as she took several turns away from the tower heading into the shopping district. As Never Can Say Goodbye came on the radio Carter pulled into a spot off of Fifth and parked, "How often do we do this?" asked Pepper looking at the young woman via the rear view mirror from her position in the back seat.

"Pretty often, though I'm not a big shopper – I'm loath to spend money – but when I'm having a bad week or something you three will pile me into a car and we will find ourselves on Fifth Avenue as if by magic," responded Carter as she unbuckled her belt and exited the car. After locking it she tilted her head towards the avenue as if suddenly unsure Clint took her by the arm and they walked into the closest store, Saks.

Once inside Clint and Carter charged off together while Nat tagged along with Pepper who took up a perch outside of the fitting rooms. As the archer started pulling blazers and dresses for the young woman who was rapidly speaking to him about a specific shirt cut the two other women relaxed marginally.

After their initial success Pepper and Nat were relegated official bag holders despite Carter's insistence that she had two working arms, Clint dragged her into store after store. "I'm glad you suggested this," Nat said to Pepper, turning away from watching Clint and Carter debating over a pair of red pants, "It hasn't been easy for any of us hearing that horrible things happen to her in the future but she can't keep being the one with all of the secrets. We're going to have to get to the bottom of it soon."

"But Tony and Steve will have to be calm enough to accept it before she says anything," continued Pepper, "She's afraid of hurting them."

"Yes, but we can't help her if she continues being self-sacrificing," responded Nat who brightened up her frustrated tone to one of interest as Carter and Clint came into earshot, "I think you've succeeded in your mission to make her colourful as heck Clint," she said. Pepper smiled at the stack of purples, blues, and reds that stood out in the young woman's clothes pile as she walked into a dressing room after blushing slightly at Nat's comment.

As Carter pulled on a black sheath dress and topped it off with a red blazer she shut her eyes in an effort to convince herself that she was back home, in her time just out with her favourite shopping trio. Her illusion was shattered as she left the dressing room to see their expressions and despite her attempt to hide it she knew Nat had sensed her distress. The assassin stood up from her chair and smoothly requested that Clint go with Pepper for make up as he was the best suited for such a task and Pepper had Tony's credit cards. She promised to oversee Carter's fashion show and be there when they returned. Then as the other two moved to another part of the store Clint shooting her concerned looks as they left Nat returned Carter to the dressing room she sat the woman down on the floor and sat opposite her, back against the room's door.

Carter struggled to breathe normally as Nat ushered her back into the dressing room but as soon as she made contact with the floor she felt better. Her breaths became deeper and less hurried. Nat stayed opposite her, close enough that she could reach out if need be but far enough away to give Carter her space.

Carter put her head in her hands ashamed that she couldn't even handle a simply shopping trip while all everyone had done since she came through the portal was try to be kind to her. "Is this how you repay kindness? By being a f**k up? Stands to reason I suppose considering that there's nothing else really special about you," the lilt of Natasha's accent, which only came out when she was angry, was unmistakable in Carter's mind. Natasha and Clint were sometimes a package deal when it came to her manipulated mind but sometimes she was treated to them separately – being separate always signalled something worse than usual.

"No," hissed Carter, nails digging into her palms until a careful hand pried her fingers away from the soft skin, "Carter?" said Tasha quietly, "Carter, can you hear me?" The young woman tried to nod but couldn't, she was falling into another 'memory' and she could do nothing about it.

In the memory

Carter found herself in a ballet studio, every square inch of the room was covered mirrors and Nat stood in a corner watching her, mouth in a thin line.

"Did you think training with Nick could protect you from me?" Natasha asked casually as she twirled a knife in her right hand, "Seriously, you'd think you'd know better by now." She approached Carter with all of the grace of a panther moving in on its prey. As she came up behind the woman who was frozen in place by fear she whispered in her ear, "Nothing can make you better – you'll never be beautiful, or even mildly talented – you'll never be like me." Carter shivered at her words unable to keep herself from reacting and Natasha smiled with all of her teeth, "Now say it back to me," she began tracing a word into the girl's left arm with her knife as she spoke, "so that I know you've learned your lesson."

Carter's mouth opened but no words came out and Nat tut-tutted in disapproval while the knife dug a little deeper breaking the skin, "Speak," she hissed, "Come on Carter, I know you can," she sing-songed in a sweet voice, "Just tell me how no one will ever love you. Tell me you're ugly, inside and out. Tell me and all of this stops, come on Carter…"

"Come on Carter," whispered Nat as she tried to wake the girl from her memory when the young woman's eyes flew open and she tried to scramble backward from her. Natasha let her go, not wanting to scare her off anymore when her eyes took in the thin line of dried blood on the girl's left wrist. "Carter, it's me Nat, we're still in 2015 and you're going to be okay alright?" said the assassin trying to remain calm, "I need you to take off the blazer right now okay Zvyozdochka? The term of endearment seemed to register within Carter's mind though Nat could never remember having called anyone 'Little Star' before that day. Carter gradually pulled the blazer off and stood as if on auto-pilot to hang it up. With the blazer clear Nat was able to make out the source of the blood and felt herself go lightheaded as she recognized the Russian characters for the word ugly were scratched lightly yet professionally into the girl's arm. Nat's sharp intake of breath brought Carter who was coming out of haze back to Earth as the young woman quickly took stock of herself and saw the knife work she grabbed her sweater to cover herself up despite chafing the wound. "Tasha," she whispered quietly, "I'm sorry I thought I could handle this," receiving nothing in return Carter tumbled along with her sentences, "Please, don't say anything, please Tasha."

At the girl's final plea Natasha met her eyes and Carter knew she would not keep silent, "Oh Carter," breathed out the assassin, "I can't keep this from them." A knock on the dressing room door signalled Clint and Pepper's return, "Hey friends you won't believe what we found," as the door handle turned, Nat's doing Carter was sure Clint and Pepper were greeted by Carter's pale face and Tasha's ashen one. "We have to go," said Clint taking his cues from Tasha, gathering the bags up he shepherded her to the front of the store with Pepper as support while he went in for Carter. The young woman wouldn't meet his eyes and when he went to take her left hand she didn't withdraw it fast enough for him to miss the dried blood. For a split second Clint eyes went from concerned to ice chips, hard and unforgiving, and Carter shrank from him. As if realizing what he was doing Clint shook himself, "I'm won't hurt you."

"I wish I could believe you," responded Carter who slunk past him to follow Pepper and Nat to the car. The drive back was tense as Carter curled up in the backseat and wouldn't take her eyes off of Nat's head except for when the assassin looked back at her to take stock of their charge, then Carter would find her hands extraordinarily interesting. Once Clint pulled into the garage Pepper slipped from the backseat and pulled bags from the trunk. She vanished upstairs after a sad look at Carter and a word with Clint.

As soon as she left the garage became very quiet except for the click of seat belts being unfastened but the doors of the car stayed closed. Carter tried to make herself look as small as possible as Nat and Clint both turned to her, folding down their seats as they did so, of course Stark would upgrade his cars to suit his needs.

When Nat's turned to speak with Carter her heart felt like it was breaking, the woman who that morning had confidently shown up the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D was curled into herself, like a small child. Clint was the first one to speak, his voice level, neutral – giving nothing away, "Carter," he spoke in a hushed tone, "Carter can you look at us?"

Carter did not want to disappoint them anymore than she already had that day and so she tried her best to respond to Clint's question but it was much more difficult to fight her desire to hide than it should have been. Her head began swimming in nausea as she actually fought with her body to uncurl and look at Clint, as she reached a half sitting position a visible sweat had broken out over her face. "Carter," Clint's voice cut into her thoughts sharply, "Stop," but she didn't stop, it was a test it had to be.

When the archer's calloused hands stilled her actions making Carter aware that Clint had crawled over to her she went stock still – unconsciously afraid of what would happen next. "You should apologize!" screamed a voice inside her head, for what she was apologizing Carter wasn't sure but words started tumbling out of her mouth without any real reason, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to I swear. I'm sorry Agent Barton please, I'm so sorry." She continued to rattle off apologizes as if they were the only thing that could keep her alive but the most disturbing development for Nat and Clint was the use of their surnames, Carter continued to refer to them as

Agent.

"Get Bucky," Clint said to Nat, "We're out of our depth," he told her as he tried to pacify the woman who was working herself into more of a state as the seconds ticked by.