The Son

SIXTEEN ~ A Sister

Clover held the door open as Kylie and I both entered the room. Once we were in she closed the door and it beeped signaling something that made Clover content. The room we just walked into was a mix of a mission control room and a backstage dressing room. It was like SHIELD if an interior designer came to spruce it up. Meekly, Kylie spoke up.

"Umm, I'm kinda getting the feeling that that's not even a quarter of the whole story." Clover only raised an eyebrow at that.

"I wanted to wait until we were totally secure before filling in the blanks." Clover gestured to the couches in the middle of the room. Kylie went to sit but I stood right where I was, processing what she was telling me.

"It's bad isn't it? The rest of the story?" Clover looked anywhere but my eyes before nodding. I nodded back before sitting next to Kylie on one of the couches. Clover sat on the opposite couch, sitting comfortably before continuing again.

"When the bad guys shot you in the Levine home they kind of...flipped a switch, the same kind of switch the Winter Soldier has. It makes you comply to the orders of whoever's in charge. Your switch wasn't completely programmed yet so your mind went to its default setting which was to..." Clover couldn't finish the sentence but I knew what she was going to say.

"Kill." I finished. "My default setting was to kill. So who did I kill?"

Clover looked into my eyes this time not giving me any reason to doubt her. "Everyone."

"Maybe elaborate on that a little bit?" Asked Kylie, and so she did.

"Long story short they shot you, flipped your switch, and you went all assassin on the intruders and killed them. Then Cole Levine comes downstairs to see what all the commotion is about, by then you've acquired the guns the assailant had and emptied the clip into him— or so the ME report told me. Next Kiera Levine comes down the stairs but you've run out of bullets. She runs but you catch her and almost choke her out. Mom and Dad come in at the last second and pull you off of her which is great for Kiera but not for them.

"You fight both of them and you fight to kill. Surprisingly Mom goes down first— not dead obviously but you still had Dad to worry about. Luckily he's been in the same position before and knocks the hell out of you. Apparently he did it for Mom once." She finished.

"Where do you fit in all of this?" I ask whereas Kylie asks:

"What happened to the girl?" Kylie's question must have been the easiest to answer because she answered hers first.

"Kiera Levine died on the way to the hospital because of a crushed trachea. She couldn't breathe." Clover answered and I tried not to think about how just earlier that night I was painting the girls nails.

"Where do you fit in all of this?" I asked again, Clover sighed. "You said you repaired the chip but that's not all."

"I may or may not have been on the team that helped control you on the missions after that." She said sheepishly, avoiding my eyes once again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kylie look at me to gauge my reaction and to her disappointment I took a deep breath and moved on.

"Is that it?" On the scale of betrayal, one being eating her last candy bar and ten being Phil Coulson coming back from the dead, Clover's actions were between a three and a four,

"Well I was one of the only people you had contact with when you were lucid. Not even Mom and Dad had access to you, they put a few people in the medbay because of that. That was the first time I met them too, they're... interesting people." I bit my lip before asking a not so relevant question.

"Did you have trouble calling them Mom and Dad at first?" I asked, Clover seemed surprised at the question.

"Yeah I did, in my mind I already had a mom and dad. They were SHIELD agents but they raised me. I... I'm really sorry you weren't treated like you should've been. SHIELD's no place for kids, they could've at least sent you to the academy like they did to me." Clover said, guilt in her eyes. I shook my head and shrugged.

"Don't be. Besides all the physical and psychological torture, I had fun." I said with a small smile, Clover returned it.

"So what now?" Asked Kylie, "Our plan was to find you and protect you from Clark but um..." Kylie took a look around the secured room. "It doesn't seem like you actually need us."

Clover laughed, "Oh yeah I'm fine. I can protect you two though, you can stay here as long as you want." Claire tilted her head.

"And at what cost?"

"Honestly I think we're even, sisterly discounts and all-- not even mentioning the fact that I learned neuroscience to bail your ass out but the fact that you brought a SHIELD agent into my base of operations." Said Clover, narrowing her eyes at Kylie.

"What? No, Kylie's cool." Said Claire with a frown.

"I know she's cool, I wrote the algorithm that told me everything about her. I'm talking about the the guy thats been following you since you left Seth Grove's house and is currently drinking club soda at my bar." Claire and Kylie looked at the blonde in awe. "Yeah I make it my business to know everything that might become my business."

Kylie snapped out of her awe. "I'm sorry, I should've been—"

"Hey, don't sweat it. It's been a long week, I'll sort it out." Said Clover.

"Wait, um... the guy. Who is he?" Asked Kylie, knowing she wouldn't like the answer. Clover stood and picked up a tablet from a nearby table. A few clicks later and Clover was showing the two the screen.

"He's kinda cute, probably SHIELD."

"That's ___. He's definitely SHIELD. May must have sent him after me." Kylie voiced. Claire wasn't surprised, May was a cautious person when it came to people she cares about. May might never admit it but she had a soft spot for Kylie.

"Okay well I'll tell my guys to hold off for now if you go talk to him." Kylie's eyes brightened at Clovers words and she rose out of her seat without another word and bolted out of the room. Clover chuckled as she poured two glasses of champagne and handed one to her sister.

"What's so funny?" Claire asked, taking the glass. Clover propped up her tablet.

"I'm not a stalker, I swear but I've been watching these two dance around each other since they picked him up." She said taking a sip. Claire raised an eyebrow took a sip of her own glass, watching how Kylie finally reached the agent and the argument ensued.

"Well I won't say anything of you won't."

___

Heh...yeah...sorry.