Status: in progress and will be finished this year wohoo and will probably get a sequel

Unravel

XXXVI

Liz woke up alone, feeling cold and missing the space that had been inhabited not too long ago. There was an array of different voices coming in from the kitchen, all familiar to her. But not every voice did she associate with Clint’s safe house. There were the obvious ones, Steve and Bucky. But another deep male voice threw her out of kilter.

Scrambling into a sitting position, she stretched lightly and instantly recoiled as a sharp pain shot through her leg and abdomen. Of course the exertion of the day before would not just vanish into thin air but she needed to get up, see who was talking and why. There were things she wanted, needed to know. So she threw the plaid blanket off of her and worked her way, step by step, to the kitchen.

“She’s emotionally unstable,” she heard a man say moments before she could see his face. Rounding the corner, she came face to face with one person she never thought she would see in that house. Sucking in a deep breath, she swallowed her fear and confusion.

“I think being emotionally unstable comes with being a vigilante. It’s kind of like a prerequisite,” she said, startling those she had just overheard. The guilty looks on their faces were enough to make her blood boil. Sucking in a sharp breath, she hissed, “Care to explain?”

Liz anticipated silence but the familiar man got up and close, facing her directly. His shoulders squared and as intimidating as usual. But Liz really didn’t care for that at that moment. She had been in that situation one time too often during the past months and she was done. She wanted to know why he was there in the first place.

“Agent,” the man greeted.

“Director Hawk,” Liz greeted in return, biting her tongue but willing herself to look straight into his eyes. Despite her confusion and anger she still respected him. Looking past him, she searched for Bucky and Steve, ignoring her boss, “What the hell?”

“It’s alright,” Steve started and Liz laughed out loud.

“Is it really?”

“He knows. We have a plan,” he continued, his voice calm and reassuring but Liz looked on in disbelief.

“This has got to be some sick joke,” Liz answered, pushing past Hawk and pulling herself onto the seat next to the kitchen counter, letting her feet dangle while her head rested in her hands. Breathing in deeply in an attempt to compose herself, she shook her head, looking up again, ready to take in whatever they had to say. She didn’t have many choices anyway. “Spill. How did this happen? When?”

“The apartment fire,” she heard Bucky chime in, his voice low and careful. Searching for Liz’s eyes, he added tentatively in an attempt to make her see, “He let me go.”

“Who is involved?” Liz questioned. The FBI director working with a bunch of vigilantes was bound to make headlines and bring prison sentences with it, if it was ever uncovered.

“No one we can’t trust,” Hawk answered factually and Liz scoffed.

“Does that mean the entire FBI knows?” she asked, trying to hit a sore spot. If Hawk was here that meant he was probably aware of the untrustworthy people within the FBI.

“No, no one else in the FBI knows,” he admitted. “It’s more of a collaboration between people with the same agenda,” he elaborated, his eyes searching hers for any hint of her stance in this verbal battle. But he was out of luck. Despite the obvious betrayal she felt, Liz had forced a blank canvas onto her face. A blank canvas she needed or otherwise they would have seen a screaming and crying mess by now since she knew who “people with the same agenda” included.

“Which is?” she questioned, not questioning the participants for now.

“Finishing what I started,” Steve said. “It’s been over 70 years and Hydra is stronger than ever. This needs to end.”

Liz swallowed the lump of emotions stuck in her throat, unsure of where to start. One part of her wanted to stand up and leave without uttering a word. Another wanted to scream in their faces for being unbelievable dumbasses. But there was also a part which bordered more on feelings of betrayal and, still, submission.

Directing her accusing stare at Bucky, she spoke slowly. “Why? I trusted you and you did this behind my back. Are you so intent on destroying every bit of trust there is? First Ewan and now you?”

“I know this is upsetting to you but sometimes we don’t know people as well as we think we do. By the way things look, Ewan was not just the means to an end, he was a perpetrator,” Hawk chimed in, making Liz’ blood freeze.

“Wait,” she started, turning her gaze from Hawk onto Bucky again, ignoring Steve leaving the room. She had heard those exact words before. “You talked to him. You already tried to sell me this yesterday.”

“Liz-,” Bucky started but was disarmed by the look she shot him, full of disappointment and distrust.

“This isn’t happening,” Liz muttered, pushing her hands through her hair, standing up and turning away from Bucky and Hawk. Her tears were her own and they weren’t worthy of that show of emotions.

“Why?” she asked, quietly and not meeting Bucky’s eyes. He knew it was directed towards him but even he was at a loss for words. Rubbing her eyes with her hands, Liz let herself drop down onto the tiled floor, her back against the wall.

“Buck,” Steve spoke up from the doorway. She looked up and saw his eyes flitting from person to person with urgency. “It’s Sam. Clint and Nat found something.”

Liz could see Bucky’s shoulders tensing at Steve’s words. Looking unsurely to her, he asked, “They need backup?”

Steve nodded. “They need us to suit up.”

Sighing, Bucky reached down for Liz’ hand but she recoiled, ignoring the hurt look on his face. “Go. I can’t do this right now.”

Nodding, his eyes only left hers when he finally exited the room.

Liz didn’t know whether she was right to be upset or shamelessly overreacting. But from all the people they could have chosen to work with, they chose Hawk. Stupid fucking Hawk, whose ties to her father were more prominent than her own, who had apparently known about the Hydra agents within his own agency and still-

“Why did you help him?” Director Hawk interrupted her train of thoughts. Liz scoffed and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. She wanted to stop crying.

Inhaling deeply, she muttered, “I thought my grandpa would have wanted me to. I was lonely. He seemed confused and scared. It was a myriad of reasons.”

She heard him shift then, followed by the creaking of a chair in front of her. “Elizabeth,” he started, “This isn’t bravery.”

“No offense, but that was never what I was after, Director.” she replied, ignoring his attempt at de-escalating the situation. He hadn’t called her by her first name ever since she had joined up with the FBI.

“Even so, this is recklessness in its highest degree,” he continued, pausing slightly. “You’re in over your head.”

Pulling her hands away from her face, Liz looked at Hawk’s blurry face. “I don’t care. I may not have inherited my grandfather’s bravery but I’m not stupid. Is this my father speaking or you, sir? Because I firmly believe that you don’t want to tell me he is a part of this.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know.”

“Then tell me, for God’s sake!” Liz seethed. “I hate to be the outsider in this bunch hyped up on steroids but I can still do my part, even if you just use me as fucking bait! So tell me, since when has this been a thing?”

“Since SHIELD fell,” Hawk admitted and ignored Liz humourless chuckle. “We’re rebuilding it. It’s within all of the grey areas the law allows.”

“No one else knows about it?”

Hawk shook his head no. “Those who work within it.”
Liz swallowed her anger and finally asked the question that had been on her mind since the moment she had seen Hawk in Clint’s safe house.

“Is my father a part of this?”

Hawk knew about their frankly dysfunctional relationship but keeping her father’s involvement a secret would have ultimately resulted in even worse distrust. “Yes. And in his name, and mine, I’m offering you an exit. You’re in over your head. There’s a way out of this. It’s yours if you want it.”

“No offense but I’d rather die,” Liz shot out without thinking. She’d rather die than hide, leave the people she had come to care about. “I got myself into this mess. I’ll see it out.”

Hawk nodded then, vacating his chair and walking towards the door. “Fair enough. But you would have got the right spirit for a position within our organisation. Just remember that dead men can work as they please.”

But before Liz could ask him for the meaning of that sentence, he had already left.