Games of Deception (Hawkeye/Avengers)

Chapter 7 - Situations

I feigned a look of slight recognition. "Oh! Right, Mariah. You must be Bryan, she used to talk about you a lot before she quit."

"She...quit? Where is she now? What do you mean she talked about me?" I had confused him, good.

"I think she lives out on Long Beach now." His expression showed signs of realization, and he backed off a bit. I kept myself from smirking; I'd completely made that up.

"She did talk about moving out there..." I could now tell in his voice that he was practically drunk. A flash of sadness came over him, but he changed almost instantly and jerked his head back up to face me, gritting his teeth. "Fine. But if you tell anyone you saw me here today, I'll come back for you."

I nodded quickly. "Um, o-okay. Have a nice day, sir. I hope you find her."

"Yeah, you'd better," he mumbled, cursing as he walked out the door as swiftly as he had come in. I looked around, silently thanking God that no customers had been inside at the time to see anything.

"He's gone, Mariah," I said, letting out a breath. Mariah stepped out from behind the door and grabbed my wrists. She was still shaking slightly, and she stared at me with eyes wide.

"Shit, Jacqueline, that was him. I-I called the cops and told him where he was headed...how the hell did you know he was coming?!"

A silence went between us before I answered. I couldn't just tell her the truth, she'd think I was even more crazy. I didn't really know how I had known. And why was this happening to me now? It was obvious I had some sort of abilities I hadn't been aware of before. Was this the reason for those weird headaches this whole time? There had to be more to it than this...

I shook my head when I realized Mariah was still staring at me, waiting for a response. "I-I saw him, coming down the sidewalk. He hadn't seen you yet so I wanted to get you inside before he did. You showed me a picture of him once, remember?"

Mariah released her grip on me and sighed, nervously running her hands through her straight red hair. "Jacqueline, oh my God. Thank you. I don't know why that creep's out on the streets again. You handled that so well." She pulled me into a tight hug. "God, I owe you big time."

I reflexively tensed, apprehensively putting my arms around her. "Mar, you know I hate hugs...you can start by letting go of me."

She pulled back quickly. "Oh, right, sorry. I'm still kinda freaking out."

"I noticed," I said, smiling in an effort to make her ease up a bit, "Calm down, he's gone. The cops are probably after him right now. Why don't you go back outside and chill for a minute, I've got it covered here."

Mariah nodded, smiling weakly as she walked back outside and sat down at the same table we'd been seated at earlier. Once she was outside, I sighed, leaning on the counter with my arms and with my head resting on a hand, immediately losing myself in thought. I needed answers, and soon.

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-Clint's P.O.V-

Well, that was interesting.

I was standing inside a small shop across the street and a few buildings away from the cafe where Adams was working. She had been sitting outside along with the red-haired woman that had been there both times I had stopped by. I had originally gone into the store to actually buy some other clothes to wear since I would be stuck here for a while, and going around in my S.H.I.E.L.D uniform probably wasn't the best idea. Why they had not prepared me for this previously, I had no idea. I had to take any possible opportunity to monitor Adams's daily actions however, so I stood in front of the window, far out of sight from her or her friend.

I had only been looking at the two for a few seconds when Jacqueline stood up and began to walk inside, then stopped abrupty, grabbing the other woman and pulling her in along with her. A few moments later, a man stormed into the cafe. I focused my vision and saw through the window that the man had confronted her. I tensed, unsure of how she would react to this and prepared myself to respond, but she seemed completely calm and after about a minute the man stormed back out. I stayed inside the shop and watched as she spoke briefly to her friend that had made herself visible again, and then saw her slump onto the counter, clearly distressed.

Even I hadn't seen that guy coming until he was already inside. It was odd, the way she had reacted. She wasn't even looking in the direction he was coming from when she realized. So how the hell did she know? Fury had suggested that she may have some sort of underlying abilities, and I made a mental note to tell him about what I'd seen as soon as I returned to the place I was staying. I had been moved from the hotel to one of the nicer apartments there, where S.H.I.E.L.D agents who needed to be in the area typically stayed until they had completed whatever was necessary. It was quite nice I had to admit, but I'd still continued to tell myself I'd rather be back on the Helicarrier; it was more of a home to me than anything at the time. Not that that really mattered now.

I turned around and after looking for a few mintues bought a few things in the store, then stepped back outside onto the busy streets. I looked up; Stark Tower could be seen clearly from here, despite all of the other skyscrapers crowded around it. I couldn't help but roll my eyes; that was Tony Stark for you, taking any opportunity to show himself off. And to think we almost allowed him to help us out with...

I interruped my own thoughts and went back to what to do about Adams; did I walk across the street to speak to her, or did I try to get some more information on my own? I wanted to talk to her again, which I still didn't entirely understand, but I felt like it was unlikely that I'd find out anything new. I quickly decided on the latter, being as that I was almost certain the redhead had caught a glimpse of me as I was walking and I didn't want to cause any further suspicion.

As I walked back to the apartment, I began to plan out what I'd be doing next. Tonight Fury would update me on what information Adams had hacked into so far, and what I needed to be doing based on what she currently knew. I also knew that I would be monitoring her in a different environment on Saturday; she had invited me to watch one of her performances at the bar where she worked occasionally. Sure, that was where I had initially seen her, but that night I'd only had time to take her phone and leave before I was noticed. This time I would be watching her every move, studying how she reacted with the people around her to find out if they knew anything about her that she wasn't telling me. There had to be someone that at least had a hint of something. There always was. Honestly, I found myself looking forward to that night. There was no harm in that, right?