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The faucet ran, water rushing into the sink in a steady stream.
Hawk stood there, brow furrowed, staring at the flowing water. Lost in thought.
Gwen didn't notice at first. Not until she'd finished plating the pasta and turned to see him still standing at the sink, motionless.
"Hawk?"
"...Yeah."
Hawk looked up at the sound of her voice, meeting Gwen's eyes.
Gwen studied him with suspicion.
"What's wrong?"
"Japan is 13 hours ahead of New York."
"What?"
Gwen blinked in confusion, then shook her head. "It's past midnight here, so yeah, it's one in the afternoon tomorrow over there. What's the problem?"
Hawk's expression turned thoughtful. "But when Anna called me earlier at the New York SHIELD branch, she said 'good evening.'"
Gwen frowned.
"It is evening here. So she said good evening. What's wrong with that?"
"Something's off about Anna..." Hawk's mind raced as he turned to Gwen. "I think someone just played me for a fool."
Gwen couldn't wrap her head around it.
"You think you got played... because you said good evening and Anna didn't say good morning? That's it?"
"Yes."
Hawk nodded, looking at Gwen as he explained his reasoning. "Because whenever Anna and I talk on the phone, we always greet each other based on our respective time zones."
He and Anna hadn't spoken often.
But every single time they did, without exception, Anna greeted him according to her local time. She never matched his timezone.
It was one of Anna's little quirks.
But earlier, when Anna—supposedly in Japan—had called him at the New York SHIELD branch, and he'd greeted her, she'd followed his timezone instead.
Bottom line, It didn't feel like Anna.
Gwen listened to Hawk's explanation, opened her mouth to respond, then looked at him. "Why don't you just call Anna again right now?"
Hawk shook his head.
"I'm starting to think the person I was talking to wasn't Anna at all."
"If it wasn't Anna, then who was it?"
"No idea."
Hawk's eyes gleamed with determination. "But once I get to Japan and confirm it, I'll find out."
Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"Japan? Now?"
"Yes."
Hawk thought back to the "Anna" whose greeting hadn't matched her usual pattern, then recalled Dr. Zola's final words before going offline. He looked at Gwen with a faint smile. "Of course, after we finish the midnight snack."
He really wanted to fly to Japan right now and see for himself.
But Gwen had already made food. If he just vanished without touching it and ran off to see another woman, Gwen would lose her mind.
Fortunately, Gwen wasn't petty like that.
Soon enough, She watched as Hawk demolished the carefully prepared meal in record time, then looked up at her expectantly. She shook her head with a helpless smile.
"Go. Come back soon."
"Will do."
Hawk didn't hesitate. His form vanished from the high stool in an instant. The moment he reappeared at high altitude, he transformed into a streak of light, shooting across the sky at incredible speed toward Japan.
Calling wasn't an option.
If he already suspected that the "Anna" he'd spoken to wasn't the Anna he knew...
Then there was only one way to dispel that doubt.
Seeing is believing.
Back home, Gwen blinked at the now-empty seat where Hawk had been sitting just a second ago. She stood, started cleaning up, and headed upstairs to bed.
But just as she was rinsing the dishes and loading them into the dishwasher—
The doorbell rang.
Hearing the sound, Gwen instinctively glanced at the clock on the wall.
It was almost twelve-thirty.
Just then, Sharon's voice called out from outside.
"Gwen!"
"Sharon..."
Gwen recognized Sharon's voice immediately. She wiped her hands, walked to the door, and opened it. Her eyes lit up when she saw Sharon standing there—then her gaze shifted to the man and woman standing beside her.
She recognized the woman.
Natasha.
But what surprised her was the man standing next to Natasha.
"Captain America!"
Gwen looked like she couldn't believe her own eyes. Pure delight crossed her face as she stared at Steve Rogers standing in her doorway. "Oh my God. It's really you."
Once again, Captain America Steve Rogers' childhood home in Brooklyn had become a tourist attraction with daily reservations booked solid months in advance.
Put it this way: If Cap decided to run for president right now, his approval rating would be astronomically ahead of everyone else.
Gwen wasn't a fangirl, but Cap was different. He was a living historical figure. And now that historical figure was standing right in front of her.
Gwen invited all three of them inside, then dashed upstairs. A moment later, she returned carrying a copy of Captain America—the biography written by a famous federal author—along with a pen. She held them out to Steve Rogers.
"Captain, could you sign this for me?"
"...Of course."
Steve blinked in surprise, but when he saw the book, he quickly recovered. He took the pen with practiced ease and signed his name on the title page.
Clearly, This wasn't his first time doing this.
Gwen accepted the book, staring at the signature on the title page with obvious joy. "My dad is going to be so jealous when he sees I have a book with Captain America's autograph."
After all, this book had been the first one George ever bought for her.
Most native-born Americans' first biography was Captain America.
Of course, Orphans were the exception.
Books were expensive in the States. Most families rented them instead of buying. And for someone like Hawk, who'd grown up in an orphanage? Forget it.
Hawk's first book had been the Bible.
Yeah.
A gift from the priest at the church that had taken them in. If that priest ever found out that Hawk's first book had been the Bible, and he'd still ended up with the nickname "Demon King," he'd probably spend a week in the confessional begging God for forgiveness.
...
A little while later.
After Gwen carefully returned the signed Captain America book to its place upstairs, she came back down and looked at Sharon curiously, asking why they'd shown up so late.
Sharon explained. "It was the Captain's idea. He came looking for Hawk. He's hoping Hawk can help us."
When she'd first been at the hospital, she hadn't fully processed what Hawk had meant by his parting words.
But after she returned to the New York SHIELD branch and thought back to what he'd said in the hospital room—"The rest is up to you guys"—it became clear.
Hawk wasn't planning to get involved in what came next.
Sharon didn't push it. After telling Victoria Hand, the commander agreed that Hawk had already done more than enough. From here on out, they needed to handle it themselves.
And then—
Cap and Black Widow had shown up. They'd informed them of HYDRA's ultimate plan—intel they'd gotten from Dr. Zola—and then they'd heard the news that a short-range ballistic missile had destroyed the abandoned military base where Zola's servers had been housed.
So, Cap had gotten Hawk's home address from Sharon and decided to pay him a visit. The plan was to invite Hawk to join them tomorrow, travel to the capital together, set things right, and stop HYDRA's plot to destroy the world.
Except, Gwen listened to their explanation, opened her mouth, and looked at Sharon. "You're too late. Hawk's not home."
Natasha spoke up.
"Hawk hasn't come back yet?"
"No, he came back."
Gwen shook her head, looking at Natasha. "If you'd gotten here ten minutes earlier, you would've caught him."
Sharon frowned. "Hawk went out again?"
Gwen nodded.
Cap leaned forward slightly. "Did he go to Washington D.C.?"
"No. Japan."
"Japan?" Sharon looked genuinely curious. "It's this late. What's Hawk doing in Japan?"
Gwen shrugged.
"He said he thinks someone tricked him. So he's going over there to confirm."
"...Alright then."
Sharon didn't quite understand what that meant, but the bottom line was clear—they were too late.
Natasha looked at Gwen.
"Can you call Hawk?"
"There!"
Gwen gestured toward the phone lying on the couch across the room. "His phone's dead. He left it here. His words, not mine: 'I don't have international roaming, so the phone's useless in Japan anyway. Plus, I don't really use phones much.'"
Sharon nodded reflexively.
That tracked.
Before Hawk had gotten together with Gwen, he hadn't even had a driver's license. In the information age, he'd been a ghost among ghosts.
Natasha glanced at Steve.
"Captain..."
"Alright."
Steve Rogers, seeing that he wouldn't be able to meet with Hawk, didn't press the issue. He smiled, stood up, and shook Gwen's hand. "If Hawk comes back, could you let him know I stopped by?"
Gwen smiled warmly. "Of course. I'll tell him the second he gets home."
Steve thanked her, nodded to Sharon and Natasha, and headed toward the front door.
Gwen walked them out.
The moment she opened the door—
Her eyes widened.
A line of SHIELD's signature black Chevy SUVs sat parked along the street, one after another.
Gwen's mouth fell open. She stared at the scene, then turned to Sharon.
"..."
"The New York branch has been liberated. But D.C. SHIELD is still in HYDRA's hands. And they're planning to activate their world domination scheme tomorrow morning. We're going to stop them."
Sharon's smile was casual, almost relaxed.
Even though this trip to SHIELD headquarters might be dangerous—
They were SHIELD agents.
And they had Captain America.
When these SHIELD agents had heard that Captain America himself was planning to march on the capital and take it back, almost every single one of them had volunteered without a second thought.
Don't ask them if they were afraid of dying.
This was Captain America.
...
As one Chevy SUV after another—each equipped with signal jammers to prevent HYDRA from detecting their approach—pulled away from the neighborhood, Gwen stood in the doorway, slowly turning her gaze away.
Standing there in the doorway, Gwen's eyes shifted toward the direction of Japan.
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