Picking Up The Pieces

72. Back In The Game

"What changed?" I asked him quietly, and his eyes met mine.

"I realized... I realized that I couldn't keep you forever." The sentence that came from his mouth was heavy, hitting me hard and making my stomach drop. "As time went on, me keeping you safe was just me keeping you under house arrest. Everyone could see that you were growing miserable. I was honestly just digging a bigger hole for myself by not telling the team you existed until you introduced yourself. It scared me, especially when I learned you had a family out there that loved you. Granted, I wasn't the best at showing it. Then you left to come here and started training. I was losing you, and I was afraid you'd be gone. Once you disappeared off the map, I had to accept that if you wanted to come back, you would."

We sat there in silence, both processing what he had said. I knew what he was thinking about was different than my thoughts. It hurt him when I left. I couldn't imagine what it would do when he'd eventually find out about my death date. "What do I do about Hawkes?" I broke the silence. "How am I supposed to beat him? Every attempt I make, he's two steps ahead."

"I can't tell you the answer to that," my father answered truthfully, and I failed to suppress my groan. "You know, enough with that! It's so unladylike." His response caused me to roll my eyes. "Listen, I can't begin to truly understand your powers, and believe me, I tried. You know Hawkes better than anyone. Fox told me you managed to get into his head."

"Yeah, and I saw his 'tragic' backstory."

"It's more than that," he reminded me, his face firm and steady. "You know his motives. You understand him. I bet if you looked more into what you saw, you could figure out his next move." I felt my shoulders release tension as I tried to scroll back into what I had accidentally taken from the man's head. "I can see those Stark wheels turning. What do you see?"

Hawkes sat sobbing on the floor, his eyes covered with his hands. "My Marie," he cried. "Not my Marie!"

"Anthony," Agent Hallow called to him as she approached, baby Colin's hand in her grasp. "Your son wanted to see you." As the three started talking, I spun on my feet, looking for anything that would be worthwhile. Most of the memory was fogged out, the main focus just the conversation between the two HYDRA agents. I was giving up hope until my eyes caught on a small TV on a shelf, playing a news channel. Standing out clearly was a thin date on the bottom of the recording: February 28th.

"We know Fury sent you to watch us," the HYDRA agent said to him, and Hawkes paled. The man's partner chuckled, crossing his arms against his chest. "Relax, we didn't bring you here to kill you. If we wanted to, we would've found a much secure location." He wore a watch on his left wrist, displaying the date along with the time. Sure enough, it was the same: February 28th.

"No, no, no..." Hawkes murmured angrily, papers shuffling across his desk as he searched for something. "This isn't possible, this..." The man leaned back and ran his fingers through his hair, staring at the news reports on multiple televisions in front of him. While each one was different, some with various languages, the topic was the same. "Seven's been under our nose the entire time."

"How did this happen?" Colin asked him, looking exactly a few years younger than when I had killed him. Several IVs were attached to his arms, feeding his frail body with something. "'Tony Stark reveals daughter?' That little bitch!"

"Patience, my boy," Hawkes hissed at him, and Colin flinched as his father stared back at the screens. "She just aided in destroying a country. Perhaps it won't take long before the world turns against her, and she'll be forced to flee again." Colin stumbled into a chair, taking long, shaky breaths before chuckling.