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That evening—
The Stacy apartment.
"Helen."
"Oh my God!"
The moment Helen opened the door and saw Hawk following behind Gwen, she let out a gasp of shock. "Hawk, what happened to you?"
Hawk, whose left arm was encased in a cast and suspended in a sling, kept his tone light. "It's nothing. I fell off a ladder while changing the curtains."
Helen gasped again, her hand flying to her mouth.
Hawk met Helen's genuinely concerned gaze and suddenly felt a stab of guilt.
This was all Gwen's fault.
Hawk shot a sidelong glance at his fiancée, who had already walked inside ahead of him.
Gwen ignored his look, keeping her eyes straight ahead. "It's fine, Mom. The doctor said it's just a minor fracture. A month of rest and he'll be good as new."
George, hearing the commotion, came down the stairs from the second floor.
Helen quickly waved him over. "George, come quick! Hawk's hurt!"
George walked over, his gaze landing on the cast and sling wrapped around Hawk's left arm.
"What happened?"
"It's nothing."
Hawk kept it brief. After all, Gwen hadn't briefed him on all the details, and he had no idea what she'd actually told George over the phone.
So, The less he said, the better.
Besides, his whole persona was supposed to be quiet and reserved anyway.
"It's like I told you on the phone. He was changing the bedroom curtains, lost his balance, and fell. We went straight to New Amsterdam Hospital after that."
Gwen picked up the thread, looking at George. "What did you think we were doing at the hospital that night? Sightseeing?"
That's right.
The night they'd taken Sharon Carter to New Amsterdam Hospital, someone had spotted them. Or more accurately, someone had seen them on their way back from the hospital. And the patrol officer who'd seen them just happened to be from the 21st Precinct. Which meant George found out.
His daughter at the hospital late at night?
That was unacceptable.
George had immediately called Gwen to ask what was going on.
Tell him the truth?
Absolutely not. If George found out she'd come face-to-face with the infamous HYDRA—and dodged their threats twice—he'd lose his mind.
And at the time, Commander Victoria Hand and the others had still been at the house. If George had shown up, there would have been no way to explain any of it.
So in a split second, Gwen had come up with a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Hawk had fractured his left arm. They'd gone to the hospital to get it set in a cast and sling.
That was why Hawk looked the way he did now.
When Hawk had first heard Gwen say that, he'd been completely blindsided. And a little annoyed. "Why do I have to be the one who's injured? Why not you?"
Gwen's reasoning had been airtight.
"I've lived in that house for years and never gotten hurt. Then less than a year after getting engaged to you, I suddenly break my arm? What do you think Dad's reaction would be?"
"...He'd drag you back home."
Hawk had gone silent for a moment before giving that answer.
Put yourself in his shoes.
If he ever had a daughter, and she ran off with some guy, moved in with him, and then less than a year later broke her arm and ended up at the hospital in the middle of the night?
Hawk would explode.
No question about it.
If Gwen had said she was the one who got hurt and went to the hospital, George would have absolutely lost it.
But Hawk had been conflicted at the time, looking at Gwen. "Do I really have to wear this cast for a whole month? Can't I just fake wearing the sling? Or I could just avoid seeing George for a month?"
He was Hawk Phoenix, for crying out loud.
The Demon King certified by both SHIELD and HYDRA. The guy who single-handedly crushed HYDRA's second bid for world domination and scared Strucker so badly he ran for the hills without looking back.
One second he'd just foiled HYDRA's conspiracy, and the next he was wearing a cast?
Did that make any sense?
Hawk had been torn, but Gwen's explanation—once again—had convinced him to go along with it. She'd willingly accompanied him to New York SHIELD headquarters to fake a broken left arm.
Gwen had said just two things.
First—
"Dad's an experienced cop. If he doesn't see it with his own eyes, he'll probably go to the hospital himself to check."
Second—
"Look on the bright side. Yeah, you have to fake being injured for a month. But for that entire month, you don't have to do any chores. And I mean any. Even in bed."
"Deal!"
Hawk had agreed without a second's hesitation. The moment Gwen finished those two sentences, his conflicted expression turned dead serious as he looked at his fiancée. "Let's plan this out."
And planning was definitely necessary.
Because just like Gwen said, George was a veteran cop. There was no guarantee he wouldn't suddenly decide to swing by the hospital and check Hawk's medical records.
But that wasn't a problem.
New York SHIELD would handle it. They'd not only taken care of the hospital's internal records, but SHIELD agents had also personally helped set Hawk up with the cast.
Lightweight, breathable, and completely lacking the suffocating, heavy feeling of the standard-issue casts that made up ninety-nine percent of what was on the market.
Sure enough, After Hawk showed up with his cast and sling, George softly told him to be careful, wished him a speedy recovery, and left it at that.
But Hawk was certain that if Gwen had been the one walking through that door with a cast and sling—
The second she stepped inside, George would have had a Glock 19 pressed to Hawk's forehead.
Still, at least they'd managed to pull it off.
And because Hawk was "injured," after dinner Helen didn't try to keep them around. Instead, she urged them to head home. Right before they left, she made a point of telling Gwen not to take advantage of Hawk just because he was hurt.
Hawk smiled.
Gwen was speechless.
By the time they got home, Hawk had already climbed into bed early. Losing his left arm so suddenly was a little awkward, but when he thought about the compensation he'd be getting for losing said arm, it didn't seem like a big deal at all.
Gwen walked out of the bathroom, saw Hawk lying in bed with that eager, welcoming smile aimed straight at her, and couldn't help rolling her eyes. But remembering her promise, she untied her robe and walked over.
The next day, Hawk was in high spirits, lying on the living room couch in nothing but a pair of shorts, a satisfied smile on his face.
Of course, His left arm was still in a cast.
Gwen came down the stairs rubbing her lower back, looked at Hawk sprawled on the couch like a beached whale, and her mouth twitched. "I'm starting to regret letting you get 'injured.'"
Hawk grinned. "Then tell George the truth."
Like he'd always said—
Playing weak to catch someone off guard?
What kind of nonsense was that? Dominating in public, crushing everyone with overwhelming power—that was how modern transmigration novels were supposed to go.
That was what he believed. And that was how he'd always acted.
But other people didn't see it that way.
Like SHIELD.
Or Gwen.
SHIELD didn't want him exposed to the public eye. Not even now, when Thor had already made his debut.
But Thor was an alien at the end of the day. No matter how powerful he was, the people who knew about him would only feel envy and jealousy at most.
Hawk was different.
He was a born-and-raised human from Earth. When people found out about him, sure, some would be envious. Some would be jealous. But most of them would hate.
Hate that he had it. Hate that they didn't.
Human nature leaned toward evil. That was the mainstream.
SHIELD had no doubt that the moment Hawk was exposed to the public, the first reaction wouldn't be worship like it was with Thor. Instead, people would immediately start scheming—wondering if they could replace him, capture him, and figure out the secret to his power.
Hawk didn't care about any of that.
One sentence summed up his feelings.
War... He loved war.
But SHIELD couldn't afford that risk. After all, who could guarantee that some genius wouldn't provoke Hawk into destroying the planet?
The odds were low. But what if?
That was why SHIELD actively helped Hawk keep his identity hidden.
As for Gwen—
Gwen looked at Hawk, who clearly didn't give a damn, and rolled her eyes again. Then she said seriously, "Your secret can only be known by me."
Hawk knew that wasn't what his fiancée really thought.
"Fine. Whatever you say. I'll listen to you."
"Good boy."
Gwen's smile brightened. She sat down beside Hawk on the couch, glanced at his leg now casually draped across her lap, then looked at him and changed the subject. "Hawk, HYDRA's second uprising—something that huge just gets swept under the rug like that?"
Hawk let out a dry laugh. "Was it really that huge? If Sharon hadn't shown up at our place asking for help, you probably wouldn't have even known anything happened."
HYDRA's second uprising had taken place inside SHIELD.
And SHIELD was a secret organization to begin with.
On top of that, because Hawk had intervened this time, Natasha hadn't dumped all of SHIELD's intel onto the internet.
So, Yesterday's biggest news story had been the Insight Helicarrier that crashed over Washington, D.C., and the return of Thor and Iron Man Tony Stark.
But the official explanation had already been released.
It was a joint training exercise organized by the Pentagon, Iron Man Tony Stark, and Thor. The goal? To improve humanity's defensive capabilities for future ventures into space and any dangers they might encounter.
Sure, the explanation sounded like bullshit.
But most of the public believed it.
After all, seventy percent of Americans followed the "blissfully ignorant" approach to life. These were people who believed injecting disinfectant could cure diseases. So when faced with a slightly more reasonable explanation from the Pentagon, why wouldn't they buy it?
Gwen blinked.
"So does that mean Sharon and Commander Hand are fine too?"
"No idea..." Hawk shook his head, thought about it, then looked at Gwen. "But they probably won't be shut down by the Big Five."
After the whole HYDRA mess, it was impossible for SHIELD to come out completely unscathed.
But no matter how the Security Council dealt with SHIELD, they definitely wouldn't do what happened in the original timeline—downsizing SHIELD and letting it fade into obscurity.
The most important reason?
Hawk.
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~# 70 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
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