Redeem | Bucky Barnes x OC | (3)

Chapter 3- Agent 4

2005- S.H.I.E.L.D academy.

Clara never thought she'd ever wear a graduation gown, let alone to her very own S.H.I.E.L.D academy of communications graduation. She didn't think gowns and caps were really S.H.I.E.L.D's style yet here she was. She walked up on that podium and bowed lowly as she was handed a bound scroll. She smiled out at the crowd. It was mainly the student's mums and dads but Phil had come to see her graduate on account of her parents passing away. He smiled back at her as she looked out across the crowd. She'd graduated with highest honours and was ready to start her life as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

Phil approached her after the ceremony. The other students were filing off with their friends and family. That left Clara alone with Phil.

"So? Ready to wow S.H.I.E.L.D with your presence?" Phil asked, clasping his hands together in front of him.

"Only if S.H.I.E.L.D is ready for me!" Clara retorted, still beaming and clutching the roll proudly.

"With the right senior officer, you could be the next agent 4!" Phil laughed.

"Agent 4?" Clara askes sincerely despite Phil's shocked raise of an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me they never taught you about agent 4!" Phil asked, shocked. Clara shook her head. "How did graduate top of your class?"

Clara laughed and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Agent 4 was the fourth ever S.H.I.E.L.D agent. She fought in the war alongside Carter, Phillips and Stark but mysteriously disappeared one day. Then turned up again a couple of years later and revolutionised the SSR into the S.H.I.E.L.D we know today. No one knows who she really was or what happened to her. As soon as she got back, she disappeared again. She's a legend. Director Fury himself idolises her! Don't tell him I said that."

"Don't worry your secret's safe with me." Clara laughed, "Who do you think I'll get as my senior officer then." Clara wondered. Phil smirked at her raising his eyebrows. "What?"

"He's a great S.H.I.E.L.D agent. In my humble opinion, the best you could get paired with."

"It's not you is it?" Clara teased.

"Got it in one!"

*

2013- S.H.I.E.L.D base, location unknown.

"Clara!" Phil greeted as the door to the quinet he'd sent to pick her up lowered.

"What's up?" Clara asked as cheerfully as she could. It wasn't everyday a secret organisation sent for you. It certainly put a damper on things.

"Come with me. We need to talk- in private."

Phil lead her through the bleak corridors of the underground bunker where he was currently based. He'd been slowly building S.H.I.E.L.D back up but, based on current events, the government didn't seem ready to know about it yet.

"I've been looking over all these old S.H.I.E.L.D files Fury sent me but there's one I just can't work out." He said, pacing his office. It was almost as cluttered as their office was back at S.H.I.E.L.D HQ.

"What do you need my help with?" Clara asked, perching on the edge of the least cluttered table.

"I was hoping you could tell me."

Phil slammed down an old fashioned, brown file crammed full of sheets of paper, newspaper cuttings and black and white photographs. On the front was a big red stamp saying: Agent 4.

Phil slid it towards her across the desk. Clara stopped it with a gentle hand, delicately moving her fingers over the softening paper. She opened the file tentatively and took out a handful of papers. The first couple where a collage of old newspaper cuttings. The date: 1945. The headlines: In Memoriam. They were all in memory of those who went missing behind enemy lines. They all consisted of a passage or two about the great loss the country and the world faced after the second world war, the rest was a list of names. One name on every single newspaper cutting in the file had been underlined. Nurse Clara Lewis.

She pulled out a series of photographs. It was her, in her nurses' uniform. She remembered all of those photos. Maggie had just received a camera from her parents and was taking photos of everything. She held aloft the first ever photograph Maggie had taken. It was of her and Holly, a matter of days before Holly's death. They were smiling at each other, both clutching cups of tea while the rain poured down outside their tarpaulin shelter. There was another, it was her and Bucky. She didn't know Maggie had taken this one. Clara smiled, choking back her tears. They looked so happy.

There was an old, a really old, S.H.I.E.L.D file at the very back of the folder. It still had the old SSR logo on it. It was some sort of statement or issuing. It was a long file so Clara skimmed through the bulk of it. At the bottom were three signatures, Howard Stark, Colonel Chester Phillips and Peggy Carter. There was a formal statement written next to a photo, Clara's photo, at the bottom of the page.

'We, the founders of the S.H.I.E.L.D, ceremonially appoint Miss Clara Lewis as an agent, available to take up her position if and when she returns. Miss Lewis will always have a position in our organisation.'

"Phil is this some kind of a joke?" Clara asked. Up until the file she believed everything. She'd heard the rumours, Agent 4. Everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D academy knew, just as well as agent 13 or agent 33, but no one believed it. It was just a myth, a memory from the past. It couldn't be real.

"That's what I thought." Phil said solemnly, "This is you, Clara. How is this you?"

"It's not me! It can't be me! I never went back! You read the file on it, you must know!" Clara protested. Time travel got confusing sometimes but Clara was very sure that she had only gone back once and that was to the 40s. She had come and gone and this Agent 4 stuff had never happened to her.

"Did you read the file?" Phil asked and Clara shook her head.

"Why would I? It's my life. I think I know my own life." She protested, her voice raised.

Phil stopped pacing for a second and stood deep in thought.

"Maybe you're right." He began softly, staring at Clara now, "Maybe it hasn't happened...not yet."