Chapter 5: Home is where the heart is
This time when I woke up I wasn't alone. I was back in my cell certainly, but I wasn't alone. Director Coulson was sitting at the edge of my bed with a small smile slowly spreading across his face.
"You and I need to discuss what's going to happen now."
I didn't want to talk. I wanted to ponder my new found fondness for being unconscious. I settled for a small glare to try and smack the small smile off of his face – it didn't work.
"We need to start with a short history lesson. 15 years ago it was announced to the public that Jessica Barton, that's you, had been killed in a car accident, with her parents and twin brother surviving. But it was a cover up. You were kidnapped whilst the avengers were out on a mission. Let's be clear here. In the past 2 and a half years you have killed 27 people, this is a fact SHIELD cannot ignore. Usually, we would put someone like you in a cell very far away and never let them out. But we want to offer you a choice. In 2 and a half years time you will be working for SHIELD, any department, we don't even care where. In the meantime you'll be under house arrest in the Old Avenger's Tower, making up for the time you were on the job. You'll be able to get to know your parents and the rest of your family, which is pretty big by the way. I'll give you 24 hours to think about it."
He got up and left. This was the deal of a life time! Honestly, if I'd been arrested by anyone else, I'd have been sent down for life, but because I happened to be a kid who was snatched as a toddler I'd effectively walk free! I mean, all I would have to do was sit it out for 30 months and then take off. I had an old identity stashed somewhere – hack a few computers, delete a few databases, I'd be free. It would be easy.
I was surprisingly nervous in the car. It only really hit me as we approached the tower what exactly I'd signed myself up for. 2 and a half years was an awful long time. They were all older than I was expecting, even though I knew how old they were. My 'dad' took one look at me, burst into tears then pulled me into a tight hug. I didn't know what to do so I just stood there. My 'mom' was more reserved, but she was still smiling. She too then joined the hug, with me still just standing there. The rest of the introductions were brief. One of them though, Philip, my twin, literally had to be pulled away because he couldn't stop talking about how happy he was to meet me.
I spent the first week cooped up in my room with Philip knocking on my door every 2 hours asking if I wanted to leave my room. When I wasn't getting hounded by Philip, I was getting harassed by Daniel, Stark's eldest son. Everyday he'd come to my door asking for all the different ways I'd killed people. Daniel's younger brother Alex was annoying too, but in a different way. He seemed like a much kinder boy, his most frequent concerns were about whether I'd had enough to eat or if I needed another book to read. My 'parents' also came by every day to try and coax me into talking. Bruce would even use the excuse of having to check my vitals just so he could come in and say hi.
After my first week I was beginning to feel the walls of my room closing in on my so I ventured outside. Of course my 'family' were thrilled, they saw this as major progress so put every effort into making sure I was involved in every single activity. I was finding it suffocating. I was raised with cold indifference, bonding through the death of others. This was not a form of love that I was used to. For the first time in my life I began to get homesick. I missed the training, the jobs, the adrenaline, the stress. I missed my parents. I was only 3 weeks into my stay before the Old Avengers were called out to meet with Coulson on the helicarrier. I broke into Tony's lab, took a circular saw to my ankle to cut off the tag and walked out of the tower. I didn't look back.