In the Shadows

Chapter Nine

Season Two, Episode Eighteen: Frenemy of My Enemy 

Kara and I stood by the payphone in the back of a random diner while the woman called her mother. Although she could have gone out alone, given that Ward and I were both well aware that she could handle herself, Ward had some business to attend to today, and he wasn't fully comfortable with the idea of leaving Bakshi and I alone, mostly due to my recent vendetta against Hydra. 

In the weeks that had passed since finding out what Hydra had done to me, as well as us kidnapping Bakshi, I had spent most of my time contacting sources from the Rising Tide to suss out any potential leads for where Hydra bases and members were located. Specifically, I was looking for the scientists who had experimented on me. Although a fair amount of the leads were dead ends, I had killed more Hydra agents than I cared to admit. 

The first time I found a real lead, I was terrified. I wasn't a mindlessly vengeful or violent person by nature, it simply wasn't who I was, but after reading what they had done to me, I couldn't help the fury that had sparked within me at the mere mention of the organization. The first target was a scientist, someone involved in the same program as my mother and eventually helped the program that experimented on me. He had tried to talk his way out of the situation, defending himself by saying that he did what he thought was right, that he was always on the right side of history, and didn't regret what he had done to me. Hell, he didn't even remember who I was. The fact he had the audacity to defend himself caused my rage to consume me, and I emptied the clip of my gun into him without a second thought. 

The feeling of someone smacking my arm repeatedly caused my thoughts to drift away. I opened my mouth to speak but whatever bitchy comment was about to come from me halted when I looked over at Kara, noting the panicked look on her face. I immediately knew that something was wrong, the phone call she had made was just to her mother, and it was clear that the woman had said something that spooked her daughter. 

"She said someone called her, asking where we were," Kara spoke, wrapping her hand around my wrist to pull me forward as she began to walk. "We need to go. Now." 

My eyes roamed the diner and its patrons as we weaved our way to the front door, looking for anyone or anything out of the ordinary. I wasn't sure if it was Shield or Hydra that was looking for us, but I wasn't particularly fond of the idea of being found by either, at least not yet. 

"Agent 33." A familiar voice caused my breath to halt as my gaze stopped searching the diner and I forced myself to turn around, facing Coulson who had come up behind us. "Melanie." Kara's gaze shot off to the side and mine followed. Mike was standing there, staring us down and guarding our only way out. As my gaze shifted back to Coulson, I knew he could see the confusion hidden in my eyes. "You two are looking well." 

"Coulson," I spoke, trying to steel my nerves as I looked at him, making it appear as though his presence didn't spook me in the slightest. 

"Give me your phone." He held out his hand toward me, gesturing to put it in his hand. When I didn't make a move to oblige the order, I heard the mechanical whirring of something on the Deathlok suit. Even though I didn't want to hand over my phone, I also wasn't in the mood to be taken down by a half-cyborg man, so I reached into my pocket and plucked out my phone before setting it in Coulson's open palm. I watched as the man scrolled through the contacts before finding who he wanted. There were a few moments of silence as he held the phone to his ear before speaking. "Hey, sweetie. Why don't you drop by? I'd love to catch up." 

***

Coulson sat directly across the table from me, one of his arms slung over the back of the booth as he stared at me, even as I avoided his burning gaze. He had Mike watching Kara at a table at the other end of the diner, waiting for Ward to show up, but in the meantime, I was stuck with him in the deafening silence. There wasn't much I could say to him and I wasn't sure I wanted to look him in the eye, not after everything I had done since joining Ward. Although Coulson and I hadn't been close in the first few months after Skye and I had joined SHIELD, we had begun to bond after Ward's betrayal, and I had started to see him as more of a friend than the director, even after what I had found out about him and my father.