Lieutenant - Daughter of the Captain

Chapter 27.0 - Priority

She strapped the wrist guard back on, not wincing as she pulled it a little too tight.

Her gloved fingers gripped the rubber handle tightly, and she felt the weight of the bow in her hands.

She took a deep breath...

The world was a blur around her, and in a second her fingers gripped an arrow and sent it flying.

She rolled to her left, and sent another.

Then back, another.

A twist, another.

Backwards, forwards, sideways...

She stopped in a crouched position, one knee on the floor, her toes propped up in a ready position. She steadied her breath, and slowly lowered the bow.

Her eyes found the targets, and-

"Dammit!" The word left her before she could stop herself, and she rolled her eyes at Clint's scolding look.

"It was better, you're just not spotting fast enough," He offered, deciding to let her scold herself for getting frustrated. He didn't care that she swore...

He cared if she put herself down for her performance.

"You said that last time," She retorted, trying- and failing -to reign in her emotions.

He shrugged, "And it happened again," He went to retrieve the arrows from the targets, which were set in a circle around her.

She'd had the arrows layed out in a random pattern along the floor, and her goal was to be able to grab one from any position and fire off a perfect shot. She could hit the Bullseye every time on a straightaway, but most of these had landed around a half-inch from the Bullseye.

But that half-inch could mean life or death for the Avengers.

"Let's call it for the day, you'll be no good tomorrow if it hurts for you to lift your arms above your head. Do some stretches before you clean up," He joked as he got nearer to her.

She just nodded, taking the arrows from him and going to do the after-training care required of her.

She was learning Clint's skillset inside and out. She knew it was mostly so she would be capable with any weapon or form of defense within reach. And his was the one she knew the least about.

Which was why she would master it first.

She knew the main goal of her training for now would be to not die at all costs. She wouldn't learn the teamwork and strategic aspects until she was much older and they started allowing her on missions.

Clint had also taught her to care for her weapons. She was constantly sharpening and cleaning and re-stringing things.

Of course, she knew how to disassemble and clean a gun. But the point of her training at H.Y.D.R.A. was not to have weapons.

It was to be the weapon.

They hadn't taken much time in teaching her the best way to sharpen different metals, or how to smooth out a knick in an arrowhead.

Safe to say, she was learning a lot.

Some of it was meticulous. Some was tedious. But most just gave her something to do.

Some days when they were off hunting the scepter, she'd spend hours in the training room polishing and sharpening the weapons they kept there. It became something she could do with her hands that required no thought, and no hearing.