Iron Soul [2]

Chapter 23

2 MONTHS LATER

Ada sat in the park underneath a tree while she watched Steve finish his early morning run. She breathed heavily and took sips of her water bottle as she cooled down from her run. After meeting with Dr. Jabavu several times, they decided that a good effort towards her becoming more mentally stable would be finding a hobby. She admitted that she probably was a little hostile to her previous therapist at times. Steve attested to her sometimes hostile behaviors after showing off the claw marks she gave him after she had a nightmare. 

It took a while for Ada to fully admit that she had a problem, that was the issue of Tony having her put in therapy after the Mandarin incident when she was still in a state of confusion  over the whole ordeal. So, she began joining Steve on his early morning runs and began training with Natasha for future mission. After all, Ada had powers now and trying to suppress them was not working in the long run. So now, every morning she would get up and joining him on his runs. Of course, Captain America would want to run by all of the national monuments that congregated together. 

How patriotic of him, Ada thought to herself. 

Steve ran close to five miles every morning. For the past two months, Ada would join him for the first three miles, but she would tap out before she got to that point. Sure, it was great that Ada could do what she could, but she was still no where near the physical shape that the star spangled man with a plan was. She had claws and fangs, not super soldier endurance. About that time, a dark skinned man collapsed next to Ada as he tried to catch his breath. 

"You good?" Ada chuckled as she noticed the sweat that darkened his clothes as he took heavy breaths. 

"Not really," he shook his head.

"Need a medic?"

Ada looked up to see that Steve had decided to take a break from tormenting runners and join the two.

"I need a new set of lungs," the man heaved. "Dude, you just ran, like, 13 miles in 30 minutes."

"Guess he got a late start," Ada butted in. "I overslept."

"Really? You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take lap. Did you just take it? I assume you just took it," the man joked with exaggerated hand motions. 

"What unit you with?" Steve asked as he noticed the sweatshirt the man had on. 

"58th Pararescue. But now I'm down at the VA," the man lifted his hand to stand from the ground and shake Steve's hand, while also asking for help. "Sam Wilson."

"Steve Rogers," Steve helped him up.

"Yeah, I kind of put that together," Sam stood up. "And that would make you...?"

"Ada Stark." 

"Must have freaked both of you out, coming home after the whole defrosting things," Sam noted as he tried to hold a conversation with the two celebrities in front of him.

Ada finally stood from her sitting position and stood between the two men. 

"It takes some getting used to," Steve admitted.

"I wasn't away that long, so..." Ada trailed off. "But it was weird."

"It's good to meet you, Sam," Steve smiled as he turned to leave. 

"It's your bed, right?" Sam called out.

"What's that?" Steve turned back around. 

"Your bed, it's too soft. When I was over there, I'd sleep on the ground, use rock for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, in my bed, and it's like-"

"Lying on a marshmallow. Feel like I'm gonna sink right to the floor," Steve admitted. 

"How long?" Ada asked Sam.

"Two tours," he answered. "You must miss the good old days, huh?"

"Oh yeah, he a hundred percent does. He refuses any modern technology, pulls out old times phrases all the time and calls me a spoiled millennial. He always brings up how he fought for my freedom," Ada pushed the ninety year old's shoulder as she walked past him. 

Steve rolled his eyes at the younger Stark. 

"Well, things aren't so bad. Food's a lot better. We used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot, trying to catch up," Steve answered.

"You don't even know how to use a laptop," Ada muttered under her breath as she began to watch the people around them. 

Her eyes darted as she caught a weird scent. It was chemical, metallic. She picked up small traces of sulfur. She saw an ever so slight glint out of the corner of her eye. Her head darted to see what was responsible for the slight burst of light, but she found nothing. She just saw regular people milling around them, completely oblivious to the super-soldier and heir to a billion dollar company. Her brows furrowed as she wondered if she was going insane, but shook her head as she tried to rid her senses of whatever she was picking up. 

"Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack. Everything you missed jammed into one album," Sam recommended. 

"I'll put it on the list," Steve pulled out his notebook and jotted it down onto the pages. Ada and Steve's phones dinged as they each received a text. 

MISSION ALERT. EXTRACTION IMMINENT. MEET AT THE CURB :) 

Ada smiled as she saw the red head's name pop up on her phone.

"All right, Sam, duty calls," Steve shook the other man's hand. "Thanks for the run, if that's what you want to call running."

"Oh, that's how it is?"

"Oh, that's how it is."

Ada enjoyed seeing Steve joke around with Sam. He rarely did that with her, mostly because he picked up the responsible big brother role with her. 

"Okay," Sam chuckled. "Any time you want to stop by the VA, make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk, just let me know."

"I'll keep it in mind." 

The roar of an engine filled Ada's ears as Natasha pulled up in her sport's car. 

"Hey, fellas. Any one of you know the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil," Natasha spoke to the three. Ada sat in the back with no issues, as she knew Steve could not fit in the back. Most of the time she wound fight with him for the front, but she had no issues this time around. 

"That's hilarious," Steve shook his head as he reluctantly got in the back. 

"How you doing?" Sam asked Natasha. 

"Hey," she acknowledged him.

"Can't run everywhere," Steve looked at Sam. 

"No, you can't."

Steve rolled up the window as Natasha pulled off. 

"You okay? You seem off?" Steve turned back to look at her.

"No, no, I'm fine," Ada tried to assure him and herself. "Just thought I saw something. It was nothing though."

Steve raised a brow as he knew Ada could pick up a lot of things that his senses could not. Ada had been learning how to master using her senses in missions, and she had been getting really good at it. It was not like her to make false judgements.