Deception || Steve Rogers Daughter

Chapter Twelve

Emma continues to crawl as fast as she can with one arm, her shoulder was beginning to ache but she forced herself to keep going. Fury was surly going to murder her for disappearing and calling him out in front of her dad, actually her dad was going to murder her when he discovered that it was Emma yelling. 

She grunts and stops to rest for a few seconds, Emma had lost Fury when she fell down a vent that led her down a few floors and in a large circle (at least that's what she assumed on the way down). Whenever she peaked through the cracks, Emma couldn't tell where she was and that made her not want to get out and get caught by another agent. She'd have no way to escape and her greatest fear (at the moment) would come true. 

The vents around her groan causing Emma to freeze up in fear, they were just settling right? Not crushing under her weight? Oh for the love of god if something broke! Emma slowly looks to her left and then to her right, trying to see if anything was breaking. 

To her relief, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Emma sighs and lets her head rest against the vent wall, her breathing now slow and steady. Another loud crack fills the air and Emma stiffens up, this couldn't be just settling. 

All at once, the floor beneath her gives way and all Emma can feel is air. A small screech escapes her lips before she's tumbling towards the ground. To her surprise, Emma lands on something soft and bounces a few times before going still. Slowly, she pushes herself up with her good shoulder and looks around.

Whatever conversation that had been going on had long ceased and everyone in the room was staring at her. After a few seconds of silence, realization dawns on Emma. This wasn't just any old room, she was in the Avengers section of the base. Natasha Romanoff sat in a chair to her right, Clint Barton was standing behind the couch, Sam Wilson was on the couch, Bucky was in the kitchen, and others were scattered throughout the room.

"Damn, this isn't the cafeteria." Emma awkwardly coughs while standing to her full height, her cheeks going red from embarrassment.

"You know, Fury has sent out a base-wide APB." Clint announces, stopping Emma from leaving. 

"Has he now?" She questions. "How much is it going to cost for you to not see me." 

"Why are you running?" Natasha questions. 

"Didn't you just get here?" Bucky adds, a tinge of worry in his voice.

"Turns out I know Fury." Emma crosses her arms. "And almost everyone here-"

"What happened to your arm?!" Bucky interrupts. Maybe Emma had been subconsciously hiding it from the group, crossing her arms (well her good arm) was just messing it up for herself. 

"It's no big-"

"I knew you broke the vent!" Fury's enraged voice cries from the doorway where he, Maria, Coulson, and Steve were standing guard. "I should've followed that damn heat signature."

"I did not break the vent, it was built wrong." Emma argues.

"I take offense to that." Tony Stark announces while walking into the room. "I helped build that." 

Everything seemed to be crumbling at once. Emma had fallen into the Avengers hang out area, shown off her injury, allowed herself to be caught by Nick, and insulted Tony Stark. Could this day get any worse? Actually, yes it could, her best friend and former partner died from a bomb after threatening to kill Emma. So yeah, maybe things could get a lot worse. 

"Emma, you're running." Fury states, a slight warning in his voice this time. 

"I can't do this today, Fury." Emma states while staring into his eye, trying to get any sort of pity from the man that had helped pull her out of the hole she had dug herself years ago. "Please."

"If you don't do it now, then when?" He questions while taking a step forward. "You'll never be able to push yourself because you'll always use the 'I'm not ready' excuse-"

"He died." She whispers because by now, the two were standing face to face in the middle of the room. Emma didn't want to have a breakdown, one that she'd been holding inside for so long, in front of the Avengers but she knew if Fury pushed her anymore, she wouldn't have a choice. "He left me and wasn't there to protect me at my worst moment, I prayed every night after they took me that somehow my dad would come back and get me or that I would die just to see him again. Fury I was seven and begging to die." 

"Forgiveness is a powerful thing, Emma." Fury sighs while placing his hands on either of her shoulders. "Not only to make the other person feel good, but to heal you." (Richard Webber for the win)

"I'm not ready to forgive him." Emma hisses back. "I can't." 

"This just turned into one of those drama TV shows." Tony whispers while leaning towards Steve, who jumps because he'd been paying such close attention to Fury and Emma. How the hell had Tony walked over so silently? Why did this girl look so familiar? What drama TV show was Tony talking about? What about the dead agent? Why was Bucky slowly eating in the kitchen like he was afraid to miss something important? What was happening?!

"He has looked for you for years." Fury mumbles under his breath. "Every day, he asks an agent to track you down in hopes that you'd still be alive. Peggy never told him about you disappearing because she couldn't, no one else has the heart to say anything." 

"Wait wait." Clint puts his hand in the air, causing everyone to turn and look at him. "Steve doesn't know? He doesn't know about....that?" He questions while gesturing towards Emma. 

"How the hell do you know, Barton?" Fury demands while turning to him with a glare.

"Well, I was casually looking through files and Emma's was just....there." Clint shrugs. "You know that's open to anyone to read, right?"

"You put it on my file?!" Emma shouts while taking a step away from Fury. "You told me that it was under the radar! No one knew!"

"That's what I thought!" Fury argues.

"Obviously not!" She cries. 

"Okay, whoa!" Steve shouts while stepping forward. "Someone tell me what is going on right now or I swear I will....-"

"What are you gonna do? Throw a cup?" Tony scoffs while crossing his arms.

"Stark." Natasha warns.

"No, no, I want to know what he's planning to do with that threat." Tony replies while putting his hand in the air to silence the assassin, despite her glare. 

"I will throw that cup....at you." Steve glares at him before turning back to Fury and Emma. "So tell me what's going on."

"I don't really know Tony, so I'm cool if we don't say anything." Emma shrugs.

"Wow, two blows in two minutes." Tony places a hand over his reactor. "You're on a roll, kid."

"Thank you." Emma smiles while tipping her head to the side, though it drops after a few seconds. 

"Fine, you want to know?" Fury questions while pulling a file out of his jacket. "Here." 

"How do you do that?" Clint whispers under his breath. "Did anyone else notice that?"

"Clint, shut up!"