Liar

Kennedy slid into the seat across from Rocko, her blue eyes glancing up at him as his gaze lifted. A thin, wry smirk split her lips as he didn’t recognize her. He hadn’t seen her new hairdo, hadn’t know that her black hair was just a wig now. She couldn’t exactly afford to run around like herself after the events last night.

“Have you ordered already?” Kennedy asked, brows rising slightly. “And it’s Kylie.”

“Kylie?” Rocko asked with his own brows raised dubiously. “What the hell?”

“Did I tell you that I was going for a new look?” Kennedy asked casually. “I didn’t want anyone to recognize me. I needed a change when I got…promoted.”

“It’s official,” he laughed in disbelief. “You are the most insane person I have ever met.”

Kennedy smiled, her lips splitting over her white teeth. “Don’t be so sweet. I’m blushing.”

“Insane. You are out of your mind insane,” he muttered.

“I told you that I got on someone’s radar in a bad way,” she muttered under her breath. “I need to be as inside as I can get though to get what I need.”

“What happens if they catch you?”

“I’ll be gone for a while.”

Kennedy pushed her bangs from her forehead to meet his gaze. She didn’t have to put emphasis on any word in the sentence to get her point across. If she get caught, it was unlikely that Rocko would see her again. It was unlikely that anyone outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. would ever see her again.

“How did you know my studio was empty?” Kennedy asked curiously, just to change the topic.

“I hadn’t heard from you in awhile. There was some blonde chick there when I went,” Rocko shrugged.

Kennedy’s eyes narrowed slightly and she pulled her phone out. “Her?”

She extended the picture of Freyja to Rocko who peered at it for a few moments before nodding. “Yeah, it was her. She was leaving as I was going up. She looked like hell. You know her?”

“My sister,” Kennedy spat, lips curling in distaste. “Lying bitch.”

Their waitress came up then, ending that particular conversation right there. They both ordered their usual orders; a dripped coffee with a double shot of espresso for Kennedy and a black coffee for Rocko as well as two orders of beignets. She really needed to put some hours in at the gym before long.

“I want to meet your guy,” Kennedy said once their order arrived. “He did a good job here.”

New York City was once more in a slightly more hectic than usual state because of yesterday’s events. Whoever Rocko had gotten to do the job here was good. She liked his work.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Rocko nodded. “If he wants information on you, then he’ll find out whatever he wants. It’s best if you don’t lie to him.”

“I’ll worry about that when the time comes. I’ve got enough people breathing down my neck,” Kennedy shrugged before taking a sip of her coffee.

She excused herself halfway through, ignoring Rocko’s skeptical looks that he kept throwing her way. He was looking out for her, she knew that but it rubbed her skin the wrong way. Getting in and out of sticky situations was her specialty. This wouldn’t be any different when the time came around.

Kennedy walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her before lifting the hem of her lightweight sweater. She turned, peering over her shoulder at her back in the mirror. The stitches were holding up nicely and the cut on her back had almost healed. The bruises were beginning to look more green and yellow instead of black and purple.

She dropped the hemline before washing her hands and leaving the bathroom. Really, she didn’t have much to do until later this afternoon when she was meeting Steve. But that was hours away. She’d probably spend most of the day with Rocko.

They, Rocko and she, had been friends for several years and had worked together just as long. They’d been lumped together on a mission, mostly out of spite from their boss. Women weren’t uncommon in their profession but women weren’t usually ground-level mercenaries. Kennedy didn’t have any desire to seduce a creepy old man. She was more than happy to stick to tactical attacks.

She was small and looked like weakly next to the guys on the team. Rocko had messed up on a previous mission and had been given the short straw of being her partner by the rest of the team. It wasn’t until Kennedy took out a man almost twice her size on her own as well as taking a bullet or two to her vest that Rocko had given her some credit. She worked hard to gain respect.

Since then, she and Rocko usually worked in teams. The role of brains and brawn changed between them for whenever certain strengths were needed. Kennedy enjoyed being the muscle. That job was simple. And she was underestimated all too often. That part made it fun.

Rocko and she were on and off, with on being an extremely loose term for them. They just got together whenever they were both free. It was never a serious relationship, never anything more than two friends. Rocko always had her back and he always had her back regardless. Keeping feelings out of it was the easiest thing to do. People died all too easily in their line of work.

Her phone vibrated against her thigh as she made her way back to the table. Her personal use phone was in her bag at the table; this was the phone that she used for S.H.I.E.L.D. Fishing it out of her pocket, Kennedy looked at the caller. Fury.

She almost debated letting it go to voicemail but in the end she didn’t. Kennedy answered it on the third vibration and slipped to the back of the café once more. That was where she stayed until the conversation ended.

“I have to go,” Kennedy said as she finally reached their table.

“Radar?” Rocko asked, brows rising slightly as she stood up from the table.

“Mmhmm,” she nodded, blue eyes flicking up to his face. “Don’t be a stranger anymore, okay?”

“So are we on then?”

Kennedy caught Rocko’s wry grin as they walked out of the café. A thin smile split her lips briefly as well. Flicking her tongue over her lips, Kennedy glanced around the sidewalk while walking.

“I’ll let you know after dinner at your place Saturday night,” Kennedy smirked. “I like Italian, don’t forget.”

“If you could eat double your weight in Italian food, you would,” Rocko teased dryly. “I’ve never forgotten that you like Italian.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Is that everyone then?” Fury asked as the door closed behind Kennedy.

Kennedy’s blue eyes skimmed around the room as Maria Hill nodded to Fury. Stark Tower didn’t have a meeting room currently undamaged apparently so they were gathered in Tony’s living room from what she could tell. Most of it had been repaired except for the giant crater-like impression on the floor. She could only wonder what made that.

She listened as Fury talked as well as taking in everyone gathered. The only people sitting were Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, and Erik Selvig. Fury had his back to the glass windows behind him. Everyone else was either standing or leaning against something.

Thor and Freyja were standing behind the couch occupied by the three scientists. Kennedy noted that Thor’s hammer was in his hand. Maria Hill was standing near Fury, watching them watching Fury. Romanoff and Barton were on the opposite side of the room, arms folded across their chests. Banner and Stark, she’d missed them because they were also sitting, were watching Fury quietly. Steve was standing just to Kennedy’s left.

“Is there any evidence that the two events were correlated?” Jane asked once Fury had finished speaking.

Kennedy wondered why this briefing wasn’t done last night. She was glad that it wasn’t done last night but she still wondered. It was possible that whatever she’d ordered done to keep the key players here had kept them tied down for several hours. A second glance around the room revealed that most of those gathered were running low on sleep and high on caffeine.

“It would be an awfully big coincidence that an attack on New York keeps Thor occupied while Freyja’s sister goes after Thor’s girlfriend,” Banner spoke up from beside Tony.

“They’re related somehow,” Freyja said finally. “Kennedy had someone keep everyone tied down around here while she took over that observatory.”

“Except for Charlie’s Angels,” Tony muttered quietly though Kennedy heard it as did most of the people gathered.

Kennedy glanced over at Steve to see his mouth twitch into a slight scowl but it soon disappeared. The comment didn’t appear to have ruffled either Natasha or Freyja. Freyja just shifted her weight and folded her strong arms across her waist. Those strong arms had kept Kennedy from plummeting to her death last night.

“She had a bunch of guys with her last night,” Darcy added in.

She was the one who carried a taser around. Kennedy made a mental note to watch out for her. There wasn’t any desire on her part to get a random tasing because someone had a happy trigger finger.

“According to the statements made last night, Kennedy didn’t make known who was the boss until later in the attack,” Fury supplied. “She made a comment about her boss when Doctor Foster made a comment about Kennedy’s sanity. We’re to assume that Loki is the boss she’s talking about.”

“And there’s no record on this wacko?” Tony asked while Kennedy bit down on her tongue to keep from snapping at him. “No list of who has possibly employed her in the past? What is she?”

Loki, along with his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, had gone to great lengths to erase Kennedy’s identity from the known world. To her knowledge, she had simply never existed. There was no information on her that S.H.I.E.L.D. could gather from files or from the internet. It was a weird feeling to not exist.

“From the way she acts and does business, I’d say she’s a mercenary,” Clint said. “She’s got the gear and the skills for it.”

“What types of skills, Agent Barton? You’ve spent the most time with her when she’s being…herself,” Tony spoke up, turning to look at Clint.

Kennedy saw a mischievous glint in Tony’s eyes when he said that. His question was a loaded question. She had to give him some credit for the somewhat subtle question about the relationship she and Clint had shared. That relationship had been platonic.

Clint, apparently, had caught the real question beneath Tony’s words because he merely glanced at Stark before looking away.

"She knows how to use her guns, knows how to take care of them. She’s quick on her feet and she’s a boxer. But her style changes to fit whatever scenario she’s in,” Clint shrugged before looking at Steve as Kennedy was torn between inwardly preening and worrying about her fighting style being recognized. “When she got into that scuffle with you in Germany, she went in with some cracked and bruised ribs. You broke four of them and then you tackled her in that trap she set for us in Central Park. Every time she’s gone up against you, she’s been beaten up pretty badly but she doesn’t hold back.”

She watched as Steve mulled the information over in his head. It was true. Every time Kennedy had had the misfortune to run into Steve, she’d been in less than stellar physical condition. The mission last night hadn’t been as bad for her because they hadn’t fought and she was somewhat healed up.

“Was she aiming when she shot you?” Steve asked Natasha.

Natasha seemed hesitant to answer at first but she shook her head. Kennedy didn’t think that one of her wild shots would have found a mark somewhere. It, obviously, hadn’t done too much harm to her because she looked to be okay. There was the bulk of what looked like a bandage wrapped around her upper arm.

“In the video from Germany, she fired into the crowd when Freyja went after her,” Steve said, looking around. “She shot at you last night when she felt threatened. She lashes out in the most destructive way that she can when she’s feeling threatened. Last night, she tried to kill Freyja by forcing her off a cliff. She’s looking to kill where she can.”

The conversation continued on like that for several more minutes. Kennedy stood there quietly without saying anything as her character and actions were continuously ripped apart and analyzed. It was almost sickening to stand there and listen to it. But interesting as well.

“No offense,” Tony said as the conversation began to wind down, “but what’s with the lurker in the back?”

Kennedy felt several pairs of eyes shift onto her at once. Her head lifted, jaws pressing together lightly as she looked out from beneath her bangs. Fury regarded her for a moment before speaking.

“Agent Anderson is going to become a more permanent fixture in your lives. As Captain Rogers’s handler, she will be working alongside him as well as the rest of you as we search for Loki. She will also serve, temporarily, as a bodyguard for Doctor Foster and Miss Lewis while they are in the Tower alongside Thor.”

Kennedy nodded slightly though her stomach clenched. She was going to be working in the Tower on a regular basis. She was going to be near people that might be able to recognize her face if they got a close enough look. This couldn’t end well.