The next day, Mike drove Heidi to New Amsterdam Hospital first thing in the morning so she could finally get rid of the cast that had been stuck on her arm for the past hundred days.
The removal went smoothly, and after examining her arm, the doctor said she had recovered very well.
He did warn her, however, to avoid lifting anything heavy with her right hand for the next week.
Heidi was delighted to finally have both hands free again.
As they walked out of the hospital toward the parking lot, she raised her right hand, flexed it a few times, and said, “I feel like this arm is full of power now.
I could probably punch a cow to death.” “Don’t.” Heidi turned toward Mike.
“What?” Mike glanced at her.
“If you actually tried that, the cow would probably beat you senseless.” And she was supposed to be a S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent.
Did she seriously have no idea what level she was at?
Punch a cow to death?
What was she thinking?
Mike looked at Heidi, who had clearly mistaken the illusion of recovered strength for actual combat ability, and briefly wondered whether the supervising agent who recruited her had been blind or whether Heidi had somehow gotten leverage over them.
Heidi rolled her eyes at his response, then suddenly smiled.
Before Mike could react, she raised her right hand and slapped him on the shoulder.
The sound was crisp and loud.
Heidi withdrew her hand and met his gaze.
“See?
I just hit a stubborn bull, and I’m perfectly fine.” Mike stared at her in silence.
It took him a moment to understand what her smile had meant.
Apparently, he was the bull.
Then he went quiet.
What else could he possibly say while looking at Heidi’s brilliant smile?
She was family.
He could only indulge her.
“Heidi.” “What?” “I’m really glad you’re my sister.” Because if you weren’t my sister, you’d already be dead.
Mike smiled faintly as that thought passed through his mind.
Seeing the forced and helpless look behind his smile, Heidi burst out laughing.
“All right.
To celebrate my recovery, dinner’s on me tonight.
We’ll eat out.” Mike looked at her with immediate suspicion.
“Seriously?” “Of course.” Heidi frowned.
“When have I ever lied to you about something like this?” Mike’s expression didn’t change.
“May eighth, 2003.” Heidi froze.
“What?” “That day, you told me you’d take me to a Mexican restaurant three blocks from our house for dinner.
I waited at home until seven, and you still hadn’t come back.” Heidi blinked several times and tried to remember.
Nothing came to mind.
Who could remember something from that long ago?
Still, she looked unconvinced.
“I lied to you that day?
No way.
Are you sure you’re not remembering it wrong?” “I’m sure.” “Then where did I go?” “You were out on a date with Dylan until nine.” Heidi stared at him.
“…Who was Dylan?” Mike fell silent again.
He looked into Heidi’s genuinely confused eyes and realized she had completely forgotten who Dylan even was.
Back in 2003, Mike had been eleven and Heidi sixteen.
Just as he had mentioned before, Heidi used to save her own allowance and then spend his along with it.
That day, to make it up to him, she had promised to take him out for dinner.
Mike believed her.
Instead, he waited until nine at night before Heidi finally came home after losing track of time on her date.
More importantly, she never made up for the missed Mexican meal the next day.
Instead, Mike ended up buying Heidi a chicken wrap near Central Park.
That was because Heidi had broken up with Dylan the following day.
Mike’s memory was exceptionally good.
Heidi’s clearly wasn’t.
Looking at her expression, Mike sighed, though he wasn’t sure whether he was mourning the Mexican dinner he’d never received or poor Dylan, whose name Heidi had completely forgotten.
Since Mike sounded so certain, and Heidi knew his memory had always been excellent, she quickly changed the subject with a laugh.
“Fine.
Mexican food tonight.
Happy?” Mike narrowed his eyes.
“You’re not going to stand me up again, are you?” “I swear.” Heidi raised a hand solemnly.
Mike chose to believe her.
She was family, after all.
His only family.
The two of them drove home together.
But Heidi didn’t even make it inside.
The moment they reached the garage, she received a phone call, switched into her black Dodge, said she needed to head back to the office for something, and drove straight out of the neighborhood again.
Clearly, her career still meant a great deal to her.
Mike walked out of the garage and watched her Dodge disappear down the street.
S.H.I.E.L.D., huh?
He mentally worked through the current timeline and couldn’t help wondering what Heidi’s expression would look like when she suddenly lost her job in the near future.
It was already late July 2013.
In just a few more months, Hydra, which had been hiding inside S.H.I.E.L.D., would begin its second major uprising.
The result, naturally, would be failure.
But S.H.I.E.L.D.
wouldn’t escape unscathed either.
After Hydra’s second attempt collapsed, the World Security Council would dissolve S.H.I.E.L.D.
outright.
At that point, some elite agents would be absorbed into agencies such as the CIA or FBI and given new positions, but most ordinary S.H.I.E.L.D.
personnel would simply become unemployed.
Mike had no idea what rank Heidi held within the organization.
But he doubted it was particularly high.
So he found himself wondering how someone as career-driven as Heidi would react to suddenly discovering that she no longer had a job.
As for whether he planned to interfere in the conflict between S.H.I.E.L.D.
and Hydra because Heidi was a S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent?
Not at all.
He had absolutely no intention of doing that.
Mike didn’t care whether his actions completely derailed Marvel’s original timeline, but he also respected other people’s destinies when they had nothing to do with him.
The same rule still applied.
If the Reality Stone hadn’t been useful to him, he never would have taken it before Jane Foster could obtain it.
More importantly, when Hydra made its move, it would mainly target high-ranking agents.
Ordinary lower-level personnel were unlikely to be killed as long as they didn’t do anything reckless.
After all, from Hydra’s perspective, even if their takeover succeeded, they would still need people—a great many people—to work for them.
So Mike wasn’t particularly worried.
Worst-case scenario, when Hydra finally made its move, he could simply take Heidi and leave before things became dangerous.
And this time would be different from the previous year, when he had tried and failed to take his adoptive parents away from danger.
This time, Mike had both the confidence and the strength to protect the people he wanted to protect.
That afternoon, Mike stayed at home, quietly monitoring the progress of the Phoenix imprint forming within his Cosmo while waiting for Heidi to send him the address of the restaurant where they were supposed to have dinner.
Then he heard the engine of Heidi’s Dodge outside.
But it wasn’t the only car he heard.
A short while later, the front door opened.
Mike, sitting on the sofa, looked toward Heidi as she stepped inside.
Then he saw Sharon Carter standing behind her, the same woman he had met once at the hospital.
Mike smiled.
“So this is why you’re taking me out to dinner tonight?” He looked from Heidi to Sharon.
“You’re setting me up on a blind date?” …