"Grandpa?"
"The one who ran a cotton farm in Georgia?"
When Hawk heard Gwen say that, an image popped into his head.
An old-school American blueblood in a cowboy hat, a coiled whip in hand that could crack five times in a single flourish, riding the fence line of his vast, beautiful cotton fields.
White and black shimmering together across the rows.
A lovely picture.
Gwen glanced at Hawk's involuntary grin and couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Don't even think about it. There's no farm anymore. The Fox family is as ordinary as ordinary gets in Falls now."
Hawk sighed, genuinely disappointed, then looked at Gwen, curious.
"What made Grandpa want to see me?"
"What do you think?"
Seeing she had his attention again, Gwen sat up. "We're engaged and he still hasn't met you. I was going to bring you to Falls over summer break, but then we were busy with Peter and S.H.I.E.L.D., so I dropped it. Then Grandpa called and asked if you were afraid of meeting him."
Hawk blinked, offended. "That's not on me. You never told me. If you'd said we were going to Falls, I wouldn't have gone looking for Peter."
"Relax, I explained that to Grandpa."
"Oh."
"Then let's go at Christmas," Gwen suggested, watching Hawk's face. She added, a little sing-song, "Grandpa may not have the farm, but he kept a lot of old Fox-family photos from the days of cotton and watermelon."
Hawk's brows lifted. "We're going. Definitely. I'm not interested in the photos; I'm interested in the man himself. We should meet him and get his blessing."
Gwen nodded. "Deal. I'll call him tomorrow and tell him we'll visit over Christmas."
Hawk hummed agreement. "Good."
"Sleep."
"Mm."
Hawk rolled over, idly wondering how many old photos Grandpa still had.
Beside him, Gwen lay down quietly, and the corners of her lips curled up just a touch as she felt him settle.
The next morning.
Dawn light.
Gwen opened her eyes from what felt like the best sleep she'd had in ages—and found Hawk staring straight at her.
She jumped. He was hovering, literally, still with his left arm in a sling. Her mouth twitched; she took a deep breath. "New rule: no superpowers in this house."
Hawk gave her a soulful look. "You don't follow rules."
"…When did I break a rule?"
"Last night…"
"You didn't remind me."
Gwen forced a calm face and started to throw off the covers.
Hawk didn't budge, still levitating placidly.
She got to the door, hand on the knob, then turned to look. Her mouth twitched again.
"Not getting up?"
"No."
"…"
Gwen stood there, silent a moment, then sighed, turned around, and said with helpless resignation, "Fine. Then lie down."
As soon as she said it—
thunk. Hawk rolled over midair and dropped onto the bed.
An hour later…
No—by afternoon—
Gwen emerged from the bedroom radiant, if slightly hand-on-lower-back.
"Want to go out for a walk?"
"…No."
Hawk's voice drifted from the bedroom—tired, weak.
Gwen smiled again despite herself.
She'd confirmed a simple truth.
As long as she didn't flag, he would. Especially after she banned the use of superpowers at home.
Hawk lay on his back, still slinged, staring at the ceiling in a daze.
Then—
his phone buzzed on the nightstand.
He didn't move.
The ringing stopped.
A second later,
a phone rang outside, and Gwen, who had just gone downstairs, came back up and into the bedroom. "Tony's calling."
She set the phone on speaker and held it by Hawk's mouth.
Hawk kept looking at the ceiling, voice dry. "Hello."
"Yikes," Tony's voice crackled through. "What happened to you—you sound completely drained."
Hawk's voice stayed airy. "I am completely—"
Smack.
Gwen tapped his lips lightly and cut in: "Tony, what's up?"
Tony caught on instantly and pivoted. "We recovered part of the system data from Rhyolite Ghost Town. We've got a decent idea what HYDRA was cooking. If you've got time, swing by S.H.I.E.L.D. New York—you'll be interested."
Hawk didn't answer.
He was in sage mode, mind roaming the depths of his microcosmos, lost in why it was so vast, why it shimmered so bright.
In the end, Gwen took over and said they'd be right over.
She was curious too.
So—
after hanging up, she hustled Hawk out of bed. An hour later, she drove them to S.H.I.E.L.D. New York beneath Times Square.
The car rolled into the masked underground garage. The instant it seemed about to hit a wall, the wall slid open.
Gwen barely blinked as she drove into the hidden car lift. She was used to it.
The wall sealed and the lift began descending.
Soon,
the doors opened again. Gwen pulled into the sprawling underground base, parked, and she and Hawk stepped out.
Sharon Carter was waiting. She led them into the operations hub.
Tony stood at the big wall display, hands moving as reconstructed clips from the ghost town's HYDRA systems—fragmented files, snatches of footage—flashed by in a blur.
Gwen took in the agents filling both sides of the room and whispered to Sharon, "Wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D. New York getting shut down?"
"It was."
"Then…"
"This isn't the New York Operations Center anymore. It's S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Nexus HQ—tech and mission support. Med wing, labs, tactical center—all being rebuilt. Not finished yet."
"…Got it."
Gwen looked surprised, but let it go and glanced at Hawk.
The moment they entered, he'd found a seat and slipped inward again—mind sinking into his microcosmos.
This was a place he had never reached before.
But his Sixth Sense told him this was where the Seventh lay. If he could light this place, he would awaken the Seventh Sense.
Only when he fully dropped into that "sage" calm—mind emptied by exhaustion—had he sunk far enough to feel it.
But…
just like when he found the Sixth, he couldn't find the switch. He knew this was the Seventh's domain, and still had no idea how to ignite it.
And he could feel he wouldn't get to stay long. Time would kick him back out.
There's a saying:
Had he not lucked into this, he'd be a frog in a well, staring at the moon in the sky called "Seventh Sense."
Now, by luck, he'd flown into that sky—just a mayfly beneath the blue, beholding a world he couldn't yet grasp.
He refused to leave. While he could still hold on, he poured his cosmos into it, trying to light it with everything he had.
So…
from the outside he looked glassy-eyed—like he'd been thoroughly drained.
Gwen eyed him and began to wonder if she'd pushed him too hard.
Sharon, staring at Hawk's faraway gaze, whispered, "How many… times?"
Gwen darted a look around to make sure no one was listening and whispered back, "Not many. Just five more than usual."
Sharon blinked. "What's 'usual'?"
"Three."
"In one night?"
"No. One morning. He insisted."
"Whew."
Sharon took a deep breath. No wonder he looked wrecked. "Yeah, he's drained."
She'd seen this once before—on Thor. The day after he and Jane moved to New York, he'd looked just like this—eyes vacant, like he was meditating.
Gwen cleared her throat and steered back. "He'll be fine once he recovers. Anyway—you said you found what HYDRA was doing to target Hawk?"
Sharon pulled her focus back, face turning serious. "Gwen, remember I told you HYDRA launched their push when I discovered that Dr. Merrick—the cloning specialist—had been swapped?"
"Yeah."
Gwen frowned, a thought clicking, and looked at Sharon.
"Don't tell me…"
"Exactly."
"They've been cloning Hawk in secret."
"…"
(End of Chapter)
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