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Daisy Johnson kicked her feet up on the empty chair across from her own. She took a sip of the beer that was just set in front of her by a spectacularly gorgeous and muscular bartender. Exhaling sharply, she tried to relax. Even though she missed her SHIELD family, she had to get away. She needed to be alone for a while, to try and put whatever pieces were left of her back together again.
Nobody on her team could really understand what it felt like to be controlled by someone else. To do things that you would never do otherwise and to hurt people that you loved. Mack said he forgave her for almost killing him, and maybe he did, but how could she forgive herself for what she did to him, to Fitz or to Lincoln? Oh god, Lincoln. Damn it. She wasn’t going to cry again. She tried to push thoughts of him out of her mind as she took a long draw of her beer.
She was distracted when the door to the pub opened and two men entered, laughing together like old friends. One had light colored spikey hair and the other appeared to have much longer brown hair, pulled back and tucked under a baseball cap. She recognized the light haired man instantly from photos and stories that D.C. shared with her about STRIKE Team Delta.
“Damn if Cooper didn’t punch the kid right in the face for it too,” Clint Barton, Hawkeye, exclaimed to his companion as they took a seat at a nearby table. “Laura tried to blame me for it, but while I was proud of him, I didn’t have anything to do with it. I told her it was probably that biography that he read about Cap.”
The other man threw back his head and cackled. “That’s Stevie for you. He couldn’t stay out of a fight to save his life. I can’t count the number of times I had to drag his sorry ass home and put some ice on his face to keep the swelling down.”
Daisy gasped as she realized exactly who the other man with Clint was. The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. She drained the rest of her beer, pulled her knit hat down and her black leather jacket tightly around her. She was about to leave when she found a man blocking her path.
“Hey sweet thing,” the man drawled as his eyes roamed over her. He reeked of whiskey and he was swaying a bit where he stood.
“Sorry, not interested. I was just leaving.”
“Why are you in such a hurry? I thought maybe we could get to know each other a bit better, seeing how you’re alone and so am I.”
She tried to move around the man and he just moved with her, blocking her way again. “Excuse me, please. Why don’t you back off and leave me the hell alone?”
“Is that any way to talk to someone trying to make friends with you, darlin’?” He reached out and grabbed her arm firmly.
What happened next seemed like slow motion, but it was over in seconds. Almost as soon as the man’s hand made contact with her skin, he yelped loudly as he was yanked back away from her. She saw Bucky dragging the man toward the door, and Clint was at her side.
“You okay, Miss?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. What a drunk jackass,” she mumbled and rubbed her arm in the spot where he grabbed her.
“Well, my buddy’s escorting him out of the building, and I don't think he'll be too keen to try and come back, so he’ll be leaving you alone. I think you might be better off waiting to leave though, in case he hangs around. You’re welcome to join us if you’d like?” Clint pointed to an empty chair and invited her to sit.
Daisy knew she should leave, but she felt like she at least owed the two men a thank you, and possibly a round of drinks. Besides, how would they have a clue who she was? They didn’t even know SHIELD still existed.
As she sat down, Bucky returned from outside, but he wasn’t alone, there was a woman with him. She was taller than Daisy and she had a black leather jacket similar to the one Daisy was wearing, with a large gray infinity scarf wrapped around her neck. As they approached the table, Clint stood to greet her.
“Hey Jess!” He wrapped his arms around her and she uncomfortably hugged him back.
“How many times do I have to tell you that I am not a fucking hugger, Barton?” The woman grumbled as she began peeling the infinity scarf off.
“Well, I am and it didn’t kill you did it?”
“Might kill you one day,” the woman teased him. She then turned her focus on Daisy. “Is this our damsel in distress? She got a name?”
Clint looked back at Daisy and shrugged. “Hadn’t gotten that far yet.”
“Oh, I’m uhhhh, I’m S-S-Samantha,” she finally spat out.
“Are you? You sure about that?” The woman raised an eyebrow in her direction. “Well, Samantha,” she emphasized the name, “nice to meet you. I’m Jessica. Jessica Jones.” She didn’t put her hand out to shake. “Don’t worry, I won’t bother asking you to make up a last name.”
Clint chuckled beside her. “I’m Clint Barton,” he added, before nodding his head in Barnes’ direction. “This is James Barnes.”
“Bucky,” he corrected, “and that guy won’t be coming back any time soon.”
“Thanks,” Daisy replied awkwardly.
“So are we getting drunk or what?” Jessica waved toward the gorgeous beefy bartender. “I’ll have two shots of whiskey. Better make it four, it’ll save you a trip later.”
“Please, let me get this round for you all. I feel like I owe you for getting that creep away from me,” Daisy insisted.
“You don’t owe us anything, but I’m not gonna turn down a pretty dame who wants to buy me a drink,” Bucky smirked, and the look on his face made Daisy understand exactly why he was rumored have been quite a ladies man back in the 40’s.
The bartender took their orders and the three of them fell into small talk while Daisy just listened silently, not wanting to trip herself up again. When he delivered the drinks, the bartender wrapped his arms around Jessica.
“I’m out of here, baby girl. Make sure you lock up when you all leave, and don’t drink all my liquor.”
“Be careful,” she nodded, allowing him to kiss her cheek.
“See ya Luke,” Bucky waved as the man turned to leave.
Daisy finally found something to say. “He’s your boyfriend?”
“Maybe? It’s a shitload of complicated right now,” Jessica replied. “He’s got plans with a lawyer friend of ours tonight.” Daisy didn’t miss the knowing look she gave to the two men at the table. “His bar blew up about a year ago and although he opened this place, he’s still dealing with the fallout from all that mess.”
“Odd hours for a lawyer, isn’t it?” Daisy knew that Jessica was covering something up, and she also knew that she should let it go, but she was more than a little curious.
Jessica shrugged. “Odd Lawyer.”
Guessing that was all she was going to get from her, Daisy let it go and the conversation fell back into small talk. Unfortunately for her, eventually their attention turned solely back to her.
“What brings a gal like you out to a bar by herself?” Bucky gave her a curious look.
“I was supposed to meet a friend here tonight. We were in an orphanage together in Hell’s Kitchen when we were kids, and we’ve kept in touch,” she shrugged. “He had to cancel at the last minute, but I was already here.”
“So how long have you been Samantha?” Jessica had finished her shots and walked over to the bar to retrieve the bottle. “My guess is about fifteen minutes. You didn’t have a name planned out in advance? Shit, no wonder SHIELD fell.”
Clint and Bucky looked at her with surprised expressions, but Daisy tried to look confused. “I, I don’t know what you mean.”
“Holy crap. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.” Clint was staring at her wide eyed. “You’re Coulson’s girl right? Rose or Lily or something?”
“Daisy, Daisy Johnson,” she sighed. “How did you know?”
“I’m a private investigator, and I read the papers,” Jessica responded, downing another shot. “There were a couple of blurry pictures, but clear enough for me to recognize you, even with this Goth Girl Barbie thing you’ve got going on.”
“Coulson has been a little crazy looking for you,” Clint shrugged. “Showed up at the Avenger’s facility, revealing that he was alive to ask us for help. He took a lot of punishment for letting us think he was dead, but said you were worth it. Nat and Tony have been looking for you. You’ve done a great job staying off the grid.”
“I sleep in a van and let’s just say I am really good at hiding my tracks. You aren’t gonna call Coulson on me, are you? I’m just not ready to go back quite yet.”
Bucky shot a warning look at the other two. “No way. We aren’t going to call Coulson unless you want us to. What are you running away from, Daisy?”
She looked between them and decided that at this point, she didn’t have much choice but to trust them. “Myself I guess. Some things happened and I suppose I’ve had a hard time dealing with them. My team, they tried to make me feel better, but because of my actions, one of my team mates is dead.” She took a deep breath, deciding not to mention that he was also her boyfriend. “He sacrificed himself to save the world.”
“Lincoln, right? He flew that Hive guy that used to be Grant Ward, into space.”
Daisy nodded to Clint. “Yeah.”
“I remember Ward back from when I was at SHIELD. Smarmy little bastard if there ever was one. He was obsessed with beating Nat and my records, but he never quite managed it. Got close to my sniper score, though. This guy,” Clint waved his hand in Bucky’s direction, “might have been able to do it, but we’ll never know.”
“Oh, I think we know, Barton,” Bucky smirked in response.
“Grant Ward died on an alien planet. As awful as Ward was, that thing, Hive, was much worse. He was a parasite. He, well, he took over my mind. Mine and three others, and it was euphoric. Like being on drugs. He had us convinced that we were doing a good thing for the world. That turning everyone into Inhumans was the right thing to do. He meant mindless Inhuman drones that would do what he wanted though, and I helped him try to do it.”
“Well, honey, you’ve found the right place for brainwashed regrets,” Jessica shrugged. “Welcome to the club. Mine was an asshole that called himself Kilgrave because Kevin Thompson wasn’t a cool enough name. He had the power to convince people to do anything he told them to. He thought he was in love with me and when I didn’t love him back, he kept me a prisoner for months by controlling me. I’ll spare you the rest of the details, and let you use your imagination.” She downed yet another shot, and slid Daisy one across the table.
“We’re not doing this again, are we Jess?” Clint rolled his eyes at her before turning his attention back to Daisy. “Remember when the Chitauri attacked New York a few years back?”
“Yeah, Thor’s brother Loki brought them down here. I actually ended up with SHIELD as a direct result of that.”
“Well, Loki brainwashed me. I told him everything I knew about SHIELD and where their weaknesses were. I killed fellow agents for him and tried to kill my best friend. Lucky for me she kicked my ass and got me back, but not before Loki had enough information to almost destroy a SHIELD Helicarrier and attempted to destroy the world.”
“I didn’t kill anyone, but I choked one of my closest friends and almost killed my partner, Mack, when he tried to save me.”
“Kilgrave tried to kill everyone I remotely cared about when I got away from him. Even controlled Luke and tried to get us to murder each other,” Jessica added, before taking yet another shot.
“I let Hive practically bleed me out because we discovered that my blood was an essential part of the formula that created zombie Inhumans.” Daisy downed her own shot.
“I told Loki all about my family and where to find them. We had to uproot my wife and kids and move them afterward just in case he came back.”
“I murdered Luke’s wife while under Kilgrave’s control.” Daisy looked at Jessica with a shocked expression. “It was before I met him, but you can see why things are complicated.”
“Ahem,” Bucky, who had been mostly silent to this point, cleared his throat loudly, causing them all to turn toward him. “Not only was I pretty much reduced from a human being to a weapon for Hydra, I was frozen and thawed out repeatedly for over 70 years and sent out to murder people at their whim, including my best friend.”
Jessica looked like she was going to argue, but Bucky silenced her. “I’m 99% positive I’m responsible for the death of President Kennedy.”
Clint held his glass up to Bucky. “As always, you win, buddy. You win.”
“So you guys actually get together because you were all brainwashed in one way or another?” Daisy couldn’t believe her luck that she’d just stumbled on to this.
“We do. Bucky and I met through the Avengers. We decided to go out one night to wallow in our mutual misery, and ran into Jessica here.”
“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, they walk into mine. Well, Luke’s,” Jessica smiled at the two men fondly. “Luke was brainwashed by Kilgrave too, so he joins us sometimes, but not tonight. Shuts the bar down for us, though.”
Clint nodded to her. “So anyway, Daisy. We try to meet when we can to catch up and keep tabs on each other. We also keep in touch electronically. We have a shared life experience that few understand, and now you’re one of us. We’re sort of our own little dysfunctional AA meeting for brainwashed Superheroes.”
“Ex-Superheroes in some cases,” Jessica shot back.
“You aren’t EX anything, Jess, and you know it. We’re gonna get you and Luke both on the Avengers soon, if we can get you away from your other activities.”
“Yeah? I think I might still have that Jewel costume lying around somewhere.”
“I think Tony can come up with something better than that,” Clint grinned.
They spent the rest of the evening comparing experiences and how they’ve learned to deal with it. Daisy mainly listened, but she would speak if she had something to add. She could tell that the three of them had formed a bond based on their experiences and Daisy realized that she was glad that something had come up and that Matt couldn’t make it tonight because this was exactly what she needed. It was nice to sit and talk with people who understood what she was feeling, but soon, it was time to go.
“You should come back to the Avenger’s facility with us, Daisy,” Bucky suggested as they stood to leave. “No need to sleep in your van when we have a few great guest rooms. Besides, it’s still early enough. We can watch a movie or something if you’re not tired. There are always people around that are up for a movie.”
Clint nodded in agreement. “Don’t worry, no one will send for Coulson or your team, and you can hang out with us for a while. Maybe train with us too. You can leave when you want, you have my word. I don’t like the idea of you sleeping on the street.”
Daisy considered it for a moment. The idea of sleeping in a real bed was tempting, and who would believe that she sat up watching a movie with the Winter Soldier and any other Avengers that happened to be around? “Will there be popcorn? Popcorn is super important for movie watching."
“That place is tricked out with everything you could possibly want,” Jessica chuckled. “It was nice meeting you, Daisy. I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon. See ya later Bucky and you too Clint.”
Clint grabbed Jessica and hugged her tightly again. “You too, Jess.”
“Asshole,” she mumbled as he let her go, but Daisy saw the corner of her lips curling up into a slight smile. “Now, you all get the hell out of here. I’ve got to lock the place up before I go upstairs or Luke will kill me.”
They all said another round of goodbyes and waited outside to make sure Jessica got everything locked up. Bucky followed her to her van to ride with her to the Avenger’s facility.
For the first time in months Daisy was feeling hopeful again. She knew she had a long way to go, but she was grateful to have found a group of people who understood what she was feeling and maybe she could start to heal and finally get back to her team, if they even still wanted her.
As he got into his car, Clint took out his phone and quickly typed a message into it.
Hey Coulson. Just wanted to let you know that we found her and she’s safe. Spending the night at Avengers Central. Promised her you’d stay away, so don’t you dare show up there. Will let you know when she’s ready to come home. She seems like a good kid, just a little lost right now. We know what that is like.
The response was swift as Clint started up the car.
Thank you, Barton. Glad to know she’s safe. I know she’s in good hands. Take care of her.