Two years later

"Nikki," Clint Barton yelled from the other side of the large cafeteria. He was the only one that called you that, a holdover from your days as Nicto. Everyone else called you by the name you'd chosen when Phil Coulson adopted you a year ago.

You waved your hand in the air so he could find you and kept eating your lunch. Phil was on mission so you were staying at the base until he got home. Even when he was around, you spent more time on base than anywhere else. You didn't like to be alone so he had a tendency to take you with him wherever he went.

Clint stopped in front of you panting and you glanced up at him with lifted brows. "What's up?"

His answer died on his lips as he frowned at you. "What the hell happened to you?"

You winced at the anger in his tone and ran a hand down your face which bore a smattering of dark purple bruises. You also had a scar on your side. It had all shown up a couple of hours ago. Coulson was going to flip if he got home before they healed. You sighed. "Soulmate."

One morning about six months ago you'd woken up with a ragged scar encircling your left shoulder just above the arm. Some other scars and fresh bruising when you hadn't been sparring made it pretty clear that you possessed a soulmate. Phil offered to help you find them but you weren't interested. Not yet, anyway.

Whoever they were, they got banged up fairly frequently but they healed fast. Faster than you'd thought possible. Of course, they probably thought the same about you, if they thought about you at all.

"Well, they got the shit kicked out of them this time, huh?"

You nodded. "Did you need something?"

He looked startled for a moment. "Oh, yeah. Nat's in the infirmary."

You were on your feet in a second and following Clint through the halls. There were four people in the world that you cared about. Phil, Fury, Clint and Nat. You assumed Nat wasn't in serious danger or Clint wouldn't give a shit about your face. "What happened?"

He shook his head. "She got shot. She'll be fine but I figured I'd come get you while they were fixing her up."

"Thanks."

"Sure thing, kid." He draped an arm across your shoulders and pulled you into his side.

You shook your head and rolled your eyes. He was the only one that got away with calling you that. Come to think of it, he was the only one that got away with a lot of things.

The two of you didn't have to wait long before they let you in to see Nat. She smiled when she saw Clint but it faded as her gaze slid to you. She held out a hand. "Come here."

You did as she instructed and let her turn your face to look you over.

"When did you get these?"

"Earlier today. Soulmate." Nat hissed in a breath and you jerked your head in her direction to look her over. She appeared fine but her eyes were worried. Her fingers found the edge of your shirt and lifted it to ghost over the scar that appeared with the bruises. Your brow furrowed as you frowned at her. How had she known it was there?

She dropped the shirt as if she'd been burnt before shifting her attention to Clint. "So, how's her training going?"

The archer huffed a laugh. "She kicked my ass. I've resorted to teaching her archery."

"Of course, she kicked your ass. She's been doing that for months."

He rubbed a hand over the back of his head. "I thought maybe it was a fluke."

You grinned as you crossed your arms over your chest. "A fluke doesn't happen multiple times, Barton."

"Hush, you."

Nat laughed at the two of you then groaned. "Okay, get out of here so I can get some rest."

"Hey," she called stopping you at the door. "Tell Phil I need to talk to him, would you?"

You shook your head. "He's on mission. I don't know when he'll be back."

She pursed her lips in thought. "Okay. Tell Clint I need to talk to him then."

Clint waited in the hall for you and you jerked your thumb over your shoulder. "Nat wants to talk to you. I'm going to finish my lunch. See you later, Barton."

***

Coulson returned that evening. Usually he found you as soon as he was boots on the ground but this time you watched from the shadows as he hurried past everyone. You followed. That's what Hydra and Nat had trained you to do after all. Somehow you weren't surprised when he disappeared into the infirmary.

Rather than pretend you didn't know anything, you leaned against the wall with your arms crossed over your chest and waited for him to come out. Nearly an hour went by before he emerged. His steps stuttered when he saw you waiting. "I was just coming to find you."

"Gonna tell me what has Nat freaking out over the soulmate shit?"

He started down the hall and you fell into step beside him. "She's just worried about how often he seems to get beat up. She's worried about who he might be."

Bullshit. You weren't stupid. You also knew you wouldn't get it out of any of them if they didn't want to tell you. You were better off biding your time. "You look tired," you said instead of pressing the point.

He sighed as he unlocked the door to his office before stepping aside so you could enter first. "I am. Nothing went the way it was supposed to. I'm exhausted."

"Sorry. Want me to drive home?"

He snorted. "Keep dreaming, sweetheart. No one drives Lola but me. Besides, you're not old enough."

You shrugged one shoulder as you dropped into one of the chairs in front of his desk. He sat across from you and started thumbing through the files on his desk. "Clint lets me drive."

Phil groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course, he does." He didn't say anything further as he went back to his paperwork. You watched him in silence for about fifteen minutes before he flipped the folder closed and leaned back in his chair. "Let's go home. I'll work on this tomorrow. After we sleep in."

***

Two additional years later

You sat in a conference room with Nick, Phil, Clint and Nat. You'd been called into a meeting and now they were all just sitting around staring at you.

"Is anyone going to say anything or can I go?"

Everyone turned to look at Fury. He sighed. "Fine. We know who your soulmate is."

They had for some time if your suspicions were correct. You licked your lips. "How long have you known?"

He made an annoyed sound. Obviously, that wasn't the question they'd been anticipating. "That's not important."

Your gaze shifted from him to Nat. "Since you got shot. You told Clint to call Phil." You looked at the agent in question. "And you came home early from your mission."

"How could you possibly know that?" Nick snapped which told you that you were correct.

You leaned forward and tapped your finger on the table. "You have a habit of forgetting who I am, Fury. Where I started. I observed and put pieces together. I'm not stupid."

He sighed. "No one said you were. How much do you know?"

"Exactly what I just told you. Who is it?"

Phil moved chairs so he was in one right beside you. He laid his hand over yours and ran his thumb back and forth. Dread settled in your belly. Well, this couldn't be good. When he hesitated, you pulled your hand out from under his and leaned away from him. You crossed your arms over your chest. "Just tell me."

"Soldat," Natasha answered for him.

You kicked your chair back and jumped to your feet. You leaned on the table with fisted hands. "You're lying."

"What would we have to gain?" Phil asked, his voice quiet.

You clenched your teeth together, flexing a muscle in your jaw. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I know you. I wasn't about to let my kid go after an assassin. And you would have. I wouldn't have been able to stop it." Phil sounded so desperate that you calmed considerably. The fact he called you his kid didn't go unnoticed either.

You watched him for several long moments before turning to face the rest of the table. "How do we use this?"

"We already are." Nick pressed a button and several posts from various soulmate boards appeared on a screen behind him. They all read as though you'd written them in a search for your mate.

"Hydra won't let him find me," you stated the obvious.

Nat shifted in her seat. "No, but Hydra has responded. Several times. They keep hoping to finally reach you, I guess."

"We figure they want to use you to help control him. They apparently got tired of losing agents though because they haven't responded to the last three messages," Clint said.

You stood straight and ran a hand across your mouth. "So, you all knew. Who else?"

"No one," Fury answered. "The agents that went on the missions only knew we had intel that Hydra would be present."

"Maybe he's dead." A thread of hope flowed through Nat's voice and you couldn't help a small smirk.

"Sorry to disappoint but I still have the scars. He's very much alive. How do we fix that?"

You knew Soldat had been brainwashed into who he was, but you had trouble believing he couldn't fight what they made him. Perhaps, it was because you'd always been able to retain what made you who you were. It wasn't fair, you knew that. Your mother had given you superhuman abilities at least that's what Hydra claimed. If he was no more than Hydra had made him, he was too dangerous to be allowed to live. If he kept more of himself than he let on, then he'd made choices that he needed to answer for. Either way, he needed to die.

"We want to use you to draw him out," Nick said.

Phil was on his feet in an instant. "Absolutely not. You never said anything about using her as bait. We agreed to tell her so she'd be aware of the danger."

"No. That's why you agreed to tell her. I'm giving her a choice," Nick said with a glare. You'd think with one eye it wouldn't be as intimidating but it totally was.

"How stupid of me to think you wouldn't pull your usual shit with my kid. I really should have known better."

You kept your gaze locked on your boss. If you looked at Phil you might give in. "Just tell me what I need to do."

"Damn it. Don't do this," he said, a plea in his voice. "It's too dangerous."

You arched a brow and finally glanced at him. "So am I. So is he. If we can stop him, we have to try."

He hit the table with his fist. "They aren't going to send him. They are going to come after you with agents who will recognize you. Then they'll be relentless trying to reclaim their asset. It will never stop."

You gave him a small smile. "Eventually they'll run out of men. Until then, I can make them regret that they ever touched me."

His jaw was set as he ran his gaze over your face.

"Let me do this." Your voice was soft. "Let me take them apart."

Finally, he sighed and dropped back into his seat. "Fine. Fine. Just do whatever you want."

"Frankly, Coulson, it's not up to you. She's old enough to make up her own mind. Hell, she's not even your kid." Fury wasn't used to being questioned, particularly by Phil Coulson, and he was pissed.

"Don't," you said. Your voice was still quiet but now carried an undertone of anger.

"Don't what?" eyepatch snapped.

"You want to be pissed, be pissed, but don't you say I'm not his kid. My mother's dead. My father treated me like an experiment. So don't you tell the man who tried to erase all that, to replace it, that I don't belong to him. If you're going to pull that shit, you can fuck right off."

Phil was always on you for your language. When you glanced over to apologize you were surprised to find tears welling in his eyes. He surged to his feet and wrapped his arms around you. "I love you, kid."

You relaxed immediately. And as you hugged your dad you looked around the room and realized this was your family, however odd and fucked up it might be.