So what do you guys think about Hannah getting to visit S.H.I.E.L.D. New York HQ? You'll find out soon enough!
One Direction. "What Makes You Beautiful." AZLyrics. MUSIXMATCH, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.
Chapter Fourteen
I woke up, but I groaned as I wanted to do just the opposite. It had been a long night of playing cards with the Avengers and we hadn't gone to bed until three in the morning. Surprisingly, Uncle Clint and Aunt Nat had stayed up on a work night. I bet they called in sick today. The clock beside me read 4:30 and I groaned. Really?!
I kept trying to go back to sleep, but it was a futile effort. I decided to pick up my guitar and play a few tunes. Deciding that I wanted to play in the living room (I figured no one would hear there), I sat on the couch in my pajamas, cross-legged, and started playing. The first song to pop into my head (and at 4:30 in the morning of all times) was "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction.
Baby you light up my world like nobody else,
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,
But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,
You don't know,
Oh, oh,
You don't know you're beautiful (One Direction).
I wasn't about to burst into full out concert mode, but I kept the notes light and slow. It continued on until about five, but I still wasn't sleepy.
"I didn't know you played." Bruce yawned as he came in, looking just as bleary as I was. He was dressed in a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt that said "Gamma Nerds Rock." I tried hard not to giggle.
"Did I wake you up?"He shook his head.
"I don't know what's keeping me up. I think I had one too many Twinkies last night." Yeah, we had kind of built up and devoured a stockpile of Twinkies. That and poker were a great combination. Who knew?
"I don't think I'll touch one ever again." I said, letting out a small burp. It tasted of Twinkies. YUCK! He chuckled.
"They stay inside you for seven years, you know." I rolled my eyes.
"And I thought you were a doctor."
"I am. However, I never did completely specialize in the medical field." He then switched subjects. "So, who taught you to play?"
"My dad." I said, running my hand over the guitar. "He knew everything about guitars."
"Would you play it again?" He asked. "I think it might put me to sleep."
"Any requests, Doctor?" I asked.
"Your Kiss is on My List." He said and I raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Oldies music?" His expression flattened.
"I'm not old." He defended. "And I love that song."
"I've got to get you associated with real music."
"Like what? "Call Me Maybe?" Forget it." He said and I laughed.
"Alright, alright. I'll play it for you." I started strumming the notes, remembering that it was one of Dad's favorites as well. I remember him playing it for Mom once when I was little.
However, as we got to the middle of the song, another person stumbled into the room. Bruce was already half-asleep, but Steve's voice woke him up.
"You play?" He asked, walking in a pair of sweatpants and white tee, the tight shirt accentuating his muscles.
"Since I was young." I responded as he sat beside me.
"And she was just about to put me to sleep." Bruce said in frustration as he closed his eyes to return to sleep mode, but to no avail as more friends entered.
"Can anyone else around here not sleep?" Tony asked, in both a tank and some sweatpants, rubbing his eyes furiously.
"I think it's the Twinkies." I proposed. Come to think of it, he had had five or six.
"How many did you have?" He asked us.
"Four." Bruce said.
"Five." I answered.
"Ten." Steve responded and we all stared at him in disbelief.
"Geez, Cap, you can lighten up on the sweets." Tony said, taking a seat in a big chair. "And who was playing the music?" I raised my hand.
"Would you keep playing? It makes me sleepy." He said, throwing his head back. The thought of playing loudly next to his ear entered my train of thought, but I thought better of it for this hour of the morning.
"Friends," Thor's voice said, clearly in some sort of pain. We looked over and saw him leaning against the wall, hand on his stomach.
"How many?" I asked.
"Of those Twinkies, she means." Bruce clarified.
"Twelve." He groaned, shaking the couch a bit as he sat down. "Did they keep you up as well?" Our moans confirmed an answer.
"Hannah was just about to play us some music so we could go to sleep." Steve said as he turned his attention to me. "Would you please?"
I nodded and started to play. It didn't take long before I saw Thor start to drift off. Then Bruce, then Steve, then Tony. And I, slowly, started to drift off. Before I knew it, I was out like the light.
A Few Hours Later...
"Awww, aren't they cute?" The sound of my aunt's voice startled me and my eyes shot open. I found that my head was lying on Steve's shoulder and Steve was drooling onto the couch.
"Wh-what?!" I heard Bruce shout in surprise. He bounced off the couch and nearly toppled onto the floor before catching himself. There was my aunt and uncle with huge smiles on their faces. Aunt Nat was holding a camera.
"No." I said in horror as I saw the camera. "You didn't."
"Oh, yes." Aunt Nat replied with a wicked grin. "We did."
"That's mean." I said as Steve started to rub his eyes.
"What's mean?" He asked groggily.
"We saw you all on the couch asleep and decided it would just be adorable to share it at work." Uncle Clint responded.
Demons.
"What time is it?" Tony asked, his watch long forgotten somewhere.
"8:30." One of the agents replied.
"Whoops!" He said, jumping up from the chair. "I'm already thirty minutes late for a meeting."
"How is that any different from your usual tardiness?" Aunt Nat asked sarcastically.
"It just so happens that I have an important Skype meeting for my company, thank you very much. And it just so happens that Pepper needs me there."
"To what? Pass love notes?" Bruce teased and I giggled.
"Well, yes, that, and...I don't know, just my presence I guess." He said before steering off to his room.
"I bet he'll be staring at her the whole meeting." Bruce commented before getting up and trudging off towards his room to get around. Steve and I started to follow suit, before something triggered in my mind.
"Wait." I said to the group. "What about Thor?" We all looked to see the huge Asgardian hogging about half the couch. He was still passed out. He had to be a heavy sleeper.
"Let him sleep. I wouldn't dare try to wake him up, lest he mistake us for intruders and take us out with that magical hammer of his." Steve wisely advised.
"Agreed." Before I could leave, my aunt spoke.
"Hannah," my aunt said, "did you make any plans with the team for today?"
"Nope."
"We were thinking..." My uncle started, a small smirk on his face, "since you know all that we do, we were kind of wondering if you wanted to see where we work."
My eyes grew wide, not with surprise, but excitement.
"Really?" I could see them bothsmirk.
"New York headquarters. What do you think?" As if they didn't already know my answer.
"That would be awesome!"
In a half hour, I was ready. In the car, I kept imagining what it would be like. Was it hidden in some secret underground area? In a seemingly-old abandoned building? Did all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents dress like those who had come into the apartment or like normal people to hide their organization. The possibilities were endless!
I was somewhat disappointed when we pulled up to a regular building in Times Square. And the agents? They were all in suits. Can you say boring? We walked in and the first thing that happened was that a huge guy dressed in black (okay, maybe one guy was in black) put his large hand on my shoulder.
"And who are you?" His deep voice immediately scared me. I could easily see why no one could sneak in here unnoticed.
"Chill, Randy." The man, Randy, I presumed, looked at my uncle. "That's my niece."
"The one that took out the guy in your apartment?" My uncle nodded. Randy smiled at me and raised a hand in the air. I presumed it meant he wanted a high five. I awkwardly gave him one.
"Way to go, kid. Everyone here's been talking about it."
"I'm guessing you don't get too many teenagers taking out assassins?" He laughed.
"She even talks like you." He turned to my uncle. "They were right. You are a Barton."
"That's right." My uncle clapped his hand on my shoulder. "Now if you'll excuse us, we thought we'd give her a grand tour of the place."
"Go right in."
There was a flurry of suits bustling in and out the halls. They walked in and out of doors, some carrying brief cases, some cell phones, some, to my surprise, had guns strapped to their sides. My aunt and uncle took a sudden turn to a dark wooden door, and I was met with a narrow, deserted hallway.
"Not exactly the Taj Mahal." My aunt smirked.
"We don't exactly want a secret government agency building that screams 'Come in!' now do we?"
"Agreed." We continued down the long stretch of hallway. I couldn't help but feel like the hallway was sloping downward. After a long walk, we were stopped by a metal door and a silent, but dangerous-looking guard. The muscles under his black uniform were huge. He didn't look at us as my uncle swiped his identification card and we headed through the door. The next hallway was shorter and the hallway was definitely sloped downwards. I didn't know how far we were underground, but it had to be pretty deep for no one to know that there was a hallway down here.
"You okay back there?" Uncle Clint asked. We had all been quiet for so long, he probably figured I had gotten lost or something.
"Yep. Still here." He chuckled.
"Don't worry. We're almost there."
"Almost where?"
"You'll see."
Sure enough, we met another huge door. This door had no guards, just an I.D. scanner. He swiped it, and behind the door there was a massive room. The walls were of dark grey metal, the floors matching the ceiling. This room was filled with people, all dressed in blue one-piece uniforms with the S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle on the shoulder. They were busy as they scanned their computer screens or looked through hundreds of files. It was impressive, watching them as they worked. I imagined they were all looking for clues, evil terrorists, anything that threatened the security of the world. It gave the room a sense of importance and noble purpose.
"What is this place?" I asked curiously.
"This is the main room of our investigative department." My uncle answered. "They're the ones who do the face trace and all that."
"Like the F.B.I. and C.I.A., right?"
"Kind of."
"Agents Barton." A lady appeared out of nowhere. She was wearing a black suit, unlike the others. Her hair was brown and pulled into a ponytail. She was very tall and she looked authoritative, but a friendly face all the same.
"Agent Hill." Both my aunt and uncle replied. She looked at me.
"I didn't know we were expecting visitors."
"Just showing the kid around." I was going to protest to being called kid, but I didn't get a chance.
"You know Fury wouldn't like to see her in here." Agent Hill replied. "He's already on edge about you not sending her to..." My aunt cut her short.
"Actually, Agent Hill, we were just wanting to show her the archives." There was a look she gave my aunt; confusion, maybe? But she quickly replaced it with steady smile.
"Of course. Go on ahead." She pointed to a door far off to our left and we headed off in that direction.
"Archives?" I questioned.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps a ton of them." My uncle replied. And indeed, they did. From WWII to present day, anything and everything that could be related to S.H.I.E.L.D. was there. I laughed as I saw a Captain America headline framed on a wall with Steve in his uniform storming some far-off place.
"This is impressive." I said as I glanced around at the hundreds of prints in the one room we were in.
"That's nothing." My uncle commented as he led me over to another room. This one was filled with old weaponry and gadgets. I was quickly attracted to a bow and arrow that had been broken in half and was laying in a case, untouched probably since its old owner had broken it. There was a small name plate that read "Hawkeye."
"Did you break this?" He nodded.
"It was my first S.H.I.E.L.D. bow." He smiled at the object that had so much sentimental value. "I broke it over an enemy's head." He was dead serious.
"Wow." I realized it had to take a lot of force to do that to a bow like that. It could probably even kill aperson. My eyes shifted to some other articles, particularly some old S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms.
"You've got to be kidding." I said as I looked at the ugly uniforms. The old short skirts for agents from the seventies stuck out like a sore thumb.
"No, they're not." My aunt said as she looked in disdain at the garment. "I feel sorry for the poor woman that had to wear that."
"No kidding." I glanced at an old photo beside the uniforms. There were some men in a training room in shorty-short shorts.
"Oh please, tell me you never had to wear those."
"No." My uncle responded quickly. "But I think Coulson did, didn't he, Nat?"
"Who's Coulson?" I asked.
"Our old handler. He's...moved to a different department." My aunt informed me.
That's when Uncle Clint's phone rang.
"Barton." He replied. I heard a few words on the other end before he replied. "Alright. We'll be out in no time." More talking followed. "Wait, what?! What person...ah, geez, never mind. I'll take care of it. Thanks, Hill." He hung up and looked at Nat and I.
"Fury's on his way. Some agent told him we were in here."
"He doesn't know about..?" She looked at me.
"Don't think so. But I really don't want to give him a chance to..."
"Chance to what?"
"Nothing. Just...nothing." He looked around for something.
"Hannah, I need you to hide here." He directed me to an old closet filled with cleaning supplies. "Stay here and be quiet until we get Fury to leave."
Not really wanting to mess with the man in the eye patch again, I did as I was told. Sure enough, the moment my uncle closed me in, I heard voices.
"Agents Barton." A loud voice echoed through the room.
"Director." My uncle responded.
"I presume you've given more thought to my offer?" Offer? What offer?
"No more than yesterday, I'm afraid." He replied, although there was not a tone of sadness in his voice.
"Don't be a smart alack with me." The Director snapped. "You know I'm only thinking of you and your family."
"With all do respect, sir, it's our decision with what happens." Director Fury sighed.
"The man still isn't talking, is he?" Aunt Nat asked. She was referring to the guy from the apartment.
"Not a word."
"I really believe we're safer where we are." She said.
"I can't guarantee anything, which is why I'm suggesting that you..."
"Director, please. We've been through a lot in the past few months." Aunt Nat cut him off. I could hear an edge in her voice, one that said to drop the subject. Why was she being so defensive?
Another sigh followed.
"When he starts to talk, I'll let you know. Until then, continue on to your duties as usual."
"Yes, sir." My uncle replied. There was an echo of footsteps from the room and then, silence. For a moment, I thought perhaps they had left me. But in a minute, they opened the door.
"Sorry about that. Had to be sure he was gone." My uncle assured me.
"What was that about?"
"I'll tell you when we get to the car." He replied. We took off back to the main floor of the building, barely getting a chance to say goodbye to Agent Hill, and getting back in the car.
"He's wanting us to move out of Avenger's Tower." Aunt Nat explained. "He doesn't think it's safe for us there."
"That's crazy!" I exclaimed in indignation. "That's the safest place there is." My uncle huffed.
"That's what we've been telling him."
"And he still hasn't stopped badgering." Aunt Nat told me.
"Don't worry. We're not moving anywhere." My uncle replied. And I knew we wouldn't. We couldn't leave our friends behind. They were like family. And you never left family.
Clint's P.O.V.
Nat and I had just dodged a bullet. Actually, several bullets. Hill almost blew our secret of Fury wanting to send her to a foster home to Hannah. And if Fury had seen her, I was afraid he'd bring up the subject as well. Even though we knew we weren't going to send her there, just giving Hannah the slightest inkling that that could happen made me on edge. What if she believed that we would? She could run away again. Or we could have lost her trust for good. No, it was better that she didn't know. We had worked hard too hard to gain her trust, only to have it broken by Fury.
"I think she liked it here." Nat said as we drank some coffee in the break room the next morning.
"I didn't realize what such a risk it was to bring her here, though." I replied.
"I thought Fury was off in Washington for some business meeting. He got back earlier than I anticipated." She took another sip of coffee. "We did cut it really close, though."
"I'm glad Hill warned us before he came in."
"I just didn't want her to know...about the foster care idea." She had the same fears as I. So she had lied to protect Hannah from the truth. Hopefully, this situation with the Dark Hand would blow over and we'd never have to tell Hannah.
Hmmm...do you think Hannah is going to find out? Please review!