His Detka

1. Meeting Bucky

DATE: April 4, 2019

"Come on, Blaire, we're going to be late! I told everyone to meet us at Tooties for 7:00 P.M., and it's already 6:45 P.M. and we have a 15-minute drive!" shouted Maria across my apartment.

"I'm coming!" I exclaimed as I ran out of my bedroom with my shoes in hand trying to make it out the door.

Maria locked up and we got into my car and headed out for my birthday celebration. We got there in the nick of time since we drove slightly over the speed limit. I had a really heavy foot when it came to driving.

There are only a select few people who ever called me by my first name. One of which was my dad, Phillip J. Coulson, and the others being my adopted mother and father, Clint & Laura Barton, as well as my godmother whom I call "Nanny", Natasha. Clint, Laura, and Natasha only called me by my first name when I did something bad growing up. Everyone else calls me Blaire. 

When my dad died, my whole world fell apart. My birth mom died from complications during childbirth. For a majority of my childhood, it was just dad, Nick Fury, Natasha and Bruce, or Clint & Laura. After dad died, I pretty much told everyone to start calling me Blaire instead. Only dad had really called me Isla and it was weird having anyone else do so.

When we entered the bar there was a big banner that said "Happy 21st birthday, Blaire!" and I instinctively knew that it was Maria's doing. All of our colleagues and my fellow cadets from the academy that she had invited were there and ready to have a good time. My fiance', Jameson "Jamie" Reagan, was waiting at our table with my favorite margarita prepared by my favorite bartender, Peter. Peter also had a shot of Tequila waiting for me. I took the shot and chased it with some of my margarita, received my birthday kiss from Jamie, and started greeting and thanking everyone for coming.

We had been here at Tooties for about two hours when this tall, built, dark-haired, blue-eyed man walked in. He looked vaguely familiar. I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. It was almost like a magnet was drawing me in. The long almost shoulder length hair definitely didn't hurt either.  Thankfully, Jamie was in the bathroom when this man walked in. Not that I would ever do anything to jeopardize mine and Jamie's relationship. I wasn't that kind of woman.

He walked right up to Peter at the bar, shook his hand with a smile, and ordered a beer. Peter looked over at me since I was back at the bar top for another beer and this handsome man looked over and threw me this knee weakening smile and started walking my way.

"I'm assuming you're the birthday girl, Blaire?" he asked.

Alright, I'm a puddle. I looked up at him, flashed him a smile, and said "What gave it away?"

The man was flirty, you would give him that. I was hooked, there were no questions about it.

Just then, Jamie walked back and came to my "rescue" at the bar top. He gave me a kiss on the cheek, and looked over to the dark-haired man and put his hand out for a hand shake and said "Jamie Reagan, nice to meet you."

"James, nice to meet you. I was just wishing her a happy birthday."

"Do you work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or are you here with a different group?" Jamie asked.

"I work for a specific department within S.H.I.E.L.D. but I'm not allowed to disclose which one."

"Well thank you very much, James, it was good to see you again." I stated, which was a lie considering that I had never met the man let alone seen him before, but I didn't want Jamie to know that.

After James walked away, Jamie looked at me with the biggest smile and we just enjoyed each other's company. Before I knew it, I heard my name being called up to the stage and I had no idea why because I hadn't signed up for anything. As I got closer to the stage, I looked over and saw Maria trying to stifle a laugh. This was all her doing. The DJ looked at me and handed me a microphone and said "Break a leg."

I was walked over to the middle of the stage near the karaoke lyrics screen and the bar fell silent as "It's All Coming Back to Me" by Celine Dion started to play. I can't believe Maria would do this to me, but it's almost predictable of her. That was the first song that Maria ever heard me sing, mostly because she heard me singing in the shower one time after she got back from a mission and just waltzed into my apartment with her "Emergencies ONLY" key. To this day, it was still a favorite of hers for us to sing to. 

The only two sets of eyes that I could clearly see on my anxious body was Jamie & James' staring up at me. When the song was over, I looked out into the crowd and I saw James give a smile accompanied by a small wave before he left and I never saw him again. 

Well, until a year and a half later anyway.