Timeline | Bucky Barnes x OC | (1)

Chapter 7-A Blast From the Past

It had been two years since Phil's death. Just as Clara had suspected, she had been drafted off of the Avengers initiative. After all, it had been Phil who had managed to secure her a place. What she could never have seen coming was how, after the funeral, Fury had given Clara a level 9 clearance in order to draft her onto a highly top secret project. Phil had left her a highly recommended reference. Everyone wanted to honour the last wish of a dead man; no one had argued except her. Clara had liked working as a personal assistant. Her new project, Project Insight, was the opposite of her previous job. Clara's new boss was also the opposite of her old one. Alexander Pierce was as stern as they came. He was a highly respected agent who had references from Fury himself. He was the only person on the project who treated Clara like the incompetent agent she was but it was on Fury's orders that she had been assigned to this project, and not even Pierce could overrule that.

For the hundredth time this week, Clara had been called into Pierce's office for a disciplinary meeting. They were all the same. Pierce would accuse her of not giving the project her all and Clara would raise her concerns only for them to be swept aside. The clock in Pierce's office ticked ominously behind her. The door opened with a click and Pierce entered. He silently sat down in front of Clara, rested his elbows on the desk and laid his chin on his hands as he always did when he had something to yell at Clara about.

"Agent Lewis." He said formally, his gravelly voice grating against each syllable of her name. It was enough to make her wince. "It has been brought to my attention that you could be putting a little bit more effort into your job here."

Clara was about to speak but was given no opportunity.

"It was so gracious of Director Fury to offer you this job and, may I remind you, that you did accept. It was your choice to come and work on project insight. But, as of late, you have been falling behind your coworkers by quite a dramatic amount."

Again, Clara went to speak but was cut off.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Yes, sir. I've been more than a bit troubled by the ethical implications of this project for a long time now. Programming weapons to take out potential threats before they happen... And if the wrong people were to get their hands on this-"

"Agent Lewis," Pierce said monotonously, "Directory Fury drafted you to this project to abide by the wishes of the late Philip Coulson and you repay them both by quitting?"

"No, sir, that's not what I-"

"Then what were you going to say? You don't want to work here anymore so you'd love to take on more responsibility?" He said sarcastically, patronising her, manipulating her.

"No, sir."

"Then we don't have a problem."

Pierce waved his hand in dismissal. He didn't even turn to watch her leave.

As soon as Clara returned to her office she was greeted by the melodic chiming of her phone's ringtone. It flashed up with the contact and she was met by the smug face of Tony Stark. This was the third time he had phoned today. Since Phil's death he hadn't been able to leave her alone. He rang countless times and left countless voicemails expressing his concern for her and how sorry he was he his involvement. The truth was that Clara didn't blame him. She didn't blame any of them. It was Phil's decision and she had to accept that. But she didn't want Stark's constant reminders everyday. How he managed to keep it up for two years was beyond her. Soon enough, her phone stopped ringing and she received yet another voicemail bringing the total up to four in one day. A matter of minutes later a text alert flashed up on her screen. It was from Stark- 'Clara, we're all worried about you. You need to let me talk to you. You can't hide away forever.'

She couldn't hide away forever, she knew she couldn't, but that didn't mean she had to see Stark. She could carry on working, doing what she could on Project Insight then go home and come back the next day to do it all again.

After a grovelling 8 hours working on project insight, Clara was finally allowed to leave. The Triskelion, a S.H.I.E.L.D building and highly top secret was never very busy for the simple fact that hardly anyone knew it existed. She walked down the empty stairs and out of the main entrance, planning to walk to the nearest main road and hail a cab. However, she was met with a sleek, black clar plastered with the Stark Industries logo. Clara rolled her eyes at how low Stark could stoop and was just about to walk past it when the door swung open and Stark hoped out.

"Clara, wait." He said a hint of desperation mixed with pity in his voice.

"What is it Stark? What do you want?" Clara said bluntly.

"You hadn't replied to any of my calls, you didn't leave me with much of a choice."

"If a girl ignores all of your thousands of calls, maybe she doesn't want to see you." Clara quipped and was about to walk away when Stark grabbed her arm.

"Can I at least give you a lift back?"

Clara stopped, she was going to wriggle free from his grip and spend the next half an hour trying to hail a cab in the deserted wasteland the Triskelion seemed to be built on.

"Fine." She agreed, it would save her a lot of time.

Neither of them had said a word for the duration of the journey. Unfortunately got stuck in traffic only a few minutes walk away from Clara's apartment.

"You should talk about it to someone." Stark said, breaking the two hour long silence at last, "Do you have anyone to talk to?"

In all the years Clara had known Stark, he had never sounded so serious. It was somewhat alarming. Clara didn't respond. She was staring out of the tinted windows trying to see along the road at what was causing such heavy traffic. She was used to waiting a while but nothing had moved for about 50 minutes. At this rate, it would be quicker for her to walk. She opened the door with a click and swivelled out, shutting it with a heavy thud behind her. She was swiftly joined by Stark. She felt his grip on her wrist spin her around.

"You can't keep going like this Clara. It's not good for you."

"How would you know!" She bellowed. "I'm doing fine on my own Stark! I'm not your project that you can turn to and fix to sort out your guilty conscience! Leave me alone." She yelled as she wriggled free from his grip and marched away from him down the length of the road where she knew would be a crossing.

Clara never made it to the crossing though. She had only to walk 20 paces before she could see what was holding everything up. It was a black SUV, a S.H.I.E.L.D car, lying in the middle of a cross roads, completely smashed to bits. Four police cars surrounded it, no doubt having smashed it up. The door opened and a bloody figure crawled out. It was Director Fury. There was no doubt about it. There was another figure on the scene that Clara instantly recognised to although she hadn't seen them for eight years. They were completely dressed in black, from head to toe. Their face was covered by a mechanical looking black mask, she couldn't make out any of the facial features. But the one defining feature that made Clara sure it was that same assassin that had targeted her all those years ago, who had made that mission her last one in the field, who had shot her and left her to die, was the metallic silver arm.

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