Chapter Text
A girl - no older, or younger, than fifteen - approaches the S.H.I.E.L.D. director, “Fury?”
“Nat?”
“Yes, Slater?” the one-eyed-man asks.
“Yeah?”
“Maria said you needed to-” the blonde begins to say, but pauses when she sees two other figures in Fury’s office standing in front of his desk, looking at her. “Hi, May?”
“I just got a text from Clint, said you needed to-”
“Agent Romanoff, this is Cali Slater. The Operations instructors call her ‘Snapshot,’” Director Fury states. Cali smiles sheepishly, looking down at the mention of her nickname.
“Agent Slater, this is Steve Rogers and Wanda Maximoff,” Fury interrupts as Cali’s eyes widen tenfold, “Captain American, Scarlet Witch, this is Cali Slater, codename Snapshot.”
“Snapshot, huh? Where’d that come from?” Romanoff - Black Widow, as Cali and the rest of the world know her - asks.
“Snapshot? I like it,” Captain America comments.
“I have a photographic memory,” Cali explains. She leaves out the minor fact that she holds the record for the quickest reload and fire time.
“Photographic memory…” Cali absently whispers, “What’s going on?”
“Fury…? May?” Cali asks timidly.
“Agent Slater,” Fury begins, “I think you and Agent Romanoff should have a word.”
“Romanoff, I think we should give these two some space for a moment,” Fury suggests (though it's more of a demand), already patting Cali gently on the back as he walks past her. Romanoff follows, giving Cali a small smile as she passes.
Cali looks at him, a stern gaze reserved only for him as her eyebrows furrow in confusion and worry. Before she can catch up with everything, Captain American, Scarlet Witch, and Fury all leave the room, but not before Captain America gives her a small nod.
Cali looks at May incredulously, watching as the older woman just stands there, inspecting Cali’s facial expression. Her question goes unspoken, but May knows what it is.
“Nat, what’s-” Cali begins, but stops herself when she sees Natasha smile, a genuine, proud smile.
“Cali, how would you like to train under Agent Romanoff’s supervision?”
“How would you feel about meeting the Avengers?”
“What!?” she all but shouts, causing May to roll her eyes and laugh a little.
It takes everything in her to not scream her next question, managing to force it out as a quiet, craven “What?”
Nat repeats her question verbatim, which earns her a glare from Cali.
“This… you’re joking, right? Did Clint put you up to this? This is his idea of a joke, right?” Cali asks, pacing around the conference room.
“As hilarious as that would be, and so very Clint, no. It’s not a joke. How would you feel about that?”
Rather than answering, Cali stops pacing and wraps her arms around Nat’s neck, who laughs as she returns the hug.
“Is that a yes?” Nat asks as they end the hug. The others re-enter the room soon after.
“What do you think?” Cali retorts.
“Congratulations. Get this back to me by the end of the day,” Fury deadpans, dropping a seven-inch-tall stack of papers in Cali’s unexpecting arms, feigning an innocent smile when she almost drops them.
“Fury!” Cali whines as Natasha takes the papers from her. Like taking a leash off of a hyper puppy, Cali runs after Fury.
“Is Fury… laughing?” Steve asks when the two are out of earshot.
“He pretty much raised her,” Nat explains, watching as Fury and Cali argue (while trying to suppress smiles) over the paperwork.
•••
This is actually happening, Cali’s thoughts continue to run wild as she and Nat sit in the back of a limo with Captain America and Scarlet Witch.
“Calm down,” Nat orders without looking up from her phone.
Cali looks at Nat, who raises an eyebrow but continues to not look at Cali as the blonde deadpans, “Guatapé.”
“This is Columbia?” Cali asks Natasha as they exit the taxi.
“Yeah, whatever you do, don’t mention Pablo Escobar. It’ll piss off the locals,” Nat explains. Cali nods in response.
Hours later, the two are sitting in a small cafe. Cali bounces her leg up and down nervously, trying (and failing) to seem nonchalant.
“Calm down,” Nat deadpans, looking over the menu for the fifth time.
“On my three,” Cali whispers. Nat looks over and sees their suspect - a middle-aged caucasian male from Denmark with a bear head tattoo on the left side of his neck - checking out a souvenir shop selling hats and other accessories.
Nat and Cali carefully approach the man. Cali stands about six feet away to the right of him, looking at something from another store while keeping her eyes on the target. Nat stands directly to his left, watching as he (not-so) sneakily places a small glass plate - Cali doesn’t understand how something so little and mundane can be worth so much - in a small bag.
The plate - according to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files - is dated back to fourteenth-century Slovakia, worth about eighteen-million dollars. It was stolen from a (completely legal) auction filled with historians and American one-percenters. The man they’re tailing, Nikolaj Povlsen, is just a courier but is still high up on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar.
Cali watches as Nat starts a small conversation with the man, enough to distract him from his task. After a few minutes, Natasha says something causing him to run. Cali trips him as he passes her, causing the plate to go flying into the air. Cali catches it, but immediately almost drops it again, distracting him long enough for Nat to grab him.
“Cali, calm down,” Nat states as Cali catches the plate mid-air again.
“But, I got it!” Nat rolls her eyes in response as she directs Povlsen forward.
“Kastoria,” Nat responds. Cali’s eyes widen before she looks away.
“So, Apostolos Kairiades. Remember the profile?” Nat asks as they sit in a Quinjet.
“Kairiades is super-rich, likes blondes, whiskey, and scotch. And oh! He’s a total criminal. Nat, I’ve got this. Plus, if something goes wrong, you’ll be there,” Cali replies.
“What makes him a criminal?” Nat asks.
“Apostolos Kairiades is wanted for embezzlement and espionage in five countries, including his home country, Greece, the US, and England,” Cali repeats the S.H.I.E.L.D. file verbatim.
“Landing,” Nat alerts a few minutes later.
Cali, dressed in a skin-tight navy blue dress (picked by Nat, of course, since Cali’s idea of fashion is a leather jacket, a pair of ripped skinny jeans, and combat boots), exits the Quinjet and enters a limo S.H.I.E.L.D. has waiting. As soon as she gets in, the driver (an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) brings her to the venue - an old dome-like building dating back to Ancient Greece.
As soon as she enters, Cali checks in with Nat, who’s waiting by the bar. Grabbing an offered glass of champagne, Cali walks around looking for the target, who just so happens to be the host. Not seeing the target, she walks up to an unoccupied table in the corner of the large room, giving her a perfect view of any and all exits.
“What’s a girl like you doing sitting there all alone?” a man with a subtle greek accent asks. Cali looks up from her phone to see the target approaching her with a cocky yet charming smile. “Looking for some company?”
“Depends on who it is,” Cali responds teasingly. She flashes him a small smile of her own.
“Will I do?” Kairiades questions, his tone now serious.
“Depends,” Cali says simply.
“On?”
“Do you have a name, Mr. Charming?” Cali says. She can imagine Natasha’s rolling her eyes right now.
“ Seriously, Cali? ‘Mr. Charming?’ ” Nat questions on comms.
“Apostolos, my dear,” Kairiades responds. Cali hums thoughtfully as he offers her his hand.
“Calypso,” she responds as he gently kisses her knuckles. She resists the urge to scoff and roll her eyes.
“Like the nymph, from the island of Ogygia?” Kairiades questions, his curiosity clearly peaked.
“Yes, my father is quite a mythology enthusiast,” Cali answers.
“‘There dwells Kalypso, the goddess of braided hair and of strange powers and of human speech,” Kairiades recites.
Cali smiles, though her eyebrows are furrowed with interest, “ The Odyssey, by Homer.”
“ And she’s smart. Are you sure your name isn’t Athena?”
“Goddess of wisdom, courage, strategic warfare, among others. The other version of her name, Athene, is my middle name, actually,” Cali says the last part with a subtle laugh.
“ Cali, time to wrap this up. We got our ID confirmation, ” Nat warns.
“You know, it’s getting a little crowded in here. Is there anywhere more… private?” Cali runs her hands near the sleeve of his jacket, suppressing an exult when he nods his head and offers for her to follow him.
He leads her to an eloquently decorated staircase. At the top is a long, two-way hallway with a few doors on each side. He stops at the third door on the right end of the hall and opens it, waiting for her to enter first. She whispers her thanks as she steps past him.
He offers her a glass of white wine, making her realize she left her previous drink downstairs. She takes the glass cautiously, noticing a small trace of some sort of powder in it. He seemingly trusts her enough to drink it as he turns his back to her to pour himself a glass. He turns back around and makes a quiet toast to something. She’s not entirely sure what he said, she’s too focused on figuring out what’s in the glass and how to tell Nat without making him suspicious.
“Cheers,” she responds, then takes a prudent sip. Immediately, she feels the effects of whatever drug he spiked her drink with. Some sort of roofie, her slightly addled brain deduces.
“ Cali? What’s going on? I lost you for a minute, where are you? ” Natasha asks, bringing Cali’s focus back to the mission.
“So, do you bring all the girls you meet to a private second floor, or am I special?” Cali asks playfully, ignoring the drug’s effects for as long as possible. She tries to remember the codeword she and Nat came up with to signal she’s ready for infiltration, but her current state is making it hard to remember.
“What’s it to you?” Kairiades playfully fires back.
Bragger, her thoughts exclaim.
“I dunno, maybe I just like being a bragger to my friends?” she responds, raising her left eyebrow teasingly.
“Okay, heading in,” Nat informs.
Minutes later, Natasha knocks the door down, startling Cali and Kairiades. He goes to make a run for it, but the older agent shoots a garrote at his feet with her Widow’s Bite. The target falls with a loud thud when his head hits the ground, rendering him unconscious. Two more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents come in and take him away while Nat runs to Cali, who’s struggling to stay on her feet.
“Cali, hey, what’s wrong?” the redhead asks.
“He… he drugged me… ‘dunno what it… what it was…” the blonde slurs in response. Nat tries to help her, but the half-empty glass of wine slips from Cali’s hand.
Nat catches it before it can hit the ground and playfully remarks, “Klutz.”
“What just happened?” Maximoff asks quietly. Rogers shrugs in response.
“Long story. Just don’t trust Cali with anything fragile,” Natasha supplies. Cali closes her eyes and buries her head in her hands.
“It was one time…” Cali whispers.
“Twice,” Nat rebuts.
“He drugged me!”