Just A Normal Kid

Chapter 23

The tab slipped out of her grip, crashing to the floor with a thud that she barely heard due to the blood pounding in her ears. Her mother hadn't been killed in a mission gone wrong. She had been deliberately set up and murdered.

Oh yes, Rosie had no doubts that the mission had been a trap. She had long since suspected foul play on her mother's last mission and this was just confirmation.

There was none of the satisfaction attached to this discovery, though. If it hadn't been for those HYDRA scum, her mom might have been alive today. Thanks to them, she had lost her mother so young that Rosie hardly remembered what the woman had looked like. The fact that she couldn't even grieve her mother properly was the final straw. The stress from the last couple of weeks of work, the exhaustion from the late nights she'd had to finish up her thesis and this bombshell; all combining to completely overwhelm her. She was crying within seconds.

"I'm so sorry, Rosie." Steve murmured, ignoring his distress in the face of hers. His big strong arms wrapped around her, guiding her to sit down on the squishy couch nearby. His solid warmth was infinitely more comforting than words and she couldn't help but cuddle closer to him.

He patiently sat with her, rubbing comforting circles into her back until she regained some of her composure. Sniffling a little and wiping the last of the tears from her face, she asked, "It was a set-up from the start, wasn't it?"

Steve sighed, "You're not wrong, kiddo. All evidence points to HYDRA orchestrating the whole thing. From what I understood, it was supposed to be a covert mission to gather intel on a ring of arms dealers so that a bigger team could take them out later."

"What went wrong?"

"We actually don't know. Your Ma was on radio silence the entire time and the place was nothin' more 'n rubble when SHIELD went in. Best they could figure was that a fight broke out an' Marlene contained three bombs with her powers before a fourth one destroyed the entire building."

So her mom had died alone, exhausted and betrayed by her own superiors. Rosie let the fact that she hadn't suffered for long comfort her.

Steve continued, "She was specially requested to handle the 'time-sensitive' mission by an unknown higher-up who must have been HYDRA. Her powers would have made her a hell of a threat to them if she found out." Grimacing, he said, "They cornered her and let the Soldier do the dirty work." The fact that they had brought the Winter Soldier out proved how wary HYDRA was of her mother.

And that right there was their mistake - thinking that Marlene Carter had been the one to beat. Her mom might have been a mutant and a fully-trained agent, but Rosie could wreak havoc all on her own. HYDRA was going to regret the day they had decided to murder her mom.

The Winter Soldier pulling the trigger meant nothing to her. She had seen what had been done to the poor man; there was no way in hell he was responsible for what he had done. Her sights were firmly and irreversibly set on the people who had used the Soldier as their puppet. 

Steve and Sam had just gained an ally who was going to help them crush HYDRA to dust. HYDRA had killed her mom, and HYDRA would pay for it. This was the extra motivation she needed to get her head into the search and raze those scum to the ground.

Now that she had made up her mind, the anger and grief faded away, leaving behind bone-deep exhaustion. Steve's warm presence radiated comfort and safety, coaxing her to sleep. Too tired to fight the losing battle against her closing eyelids, she laid her head on Steve's shoulder. His beefy arm automatically curled around her as she whispered a "Love you, uncle Steve," before drifting off.

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Steve froze in shock. He didn't dare to move too much for fear of waking Rosie up; leaving him with more than enough time to sort through his thoughts.