Wednesday
August 31, 2016
12:30 PM
~~~~~
"So wait...you mean to tell me they're still out there trying to get to her?" Nat asked confused as she sat staring at the laptop the pair borrowed from Sam.
"So remember when Bucky called last month to speak to Ivory, and I told you what he said about German Special forces?"
"Yeah..." Nat says confused.
"Well I did a little bit more digging, and I just found out that they're not the only ones looking for her..."
"I don't understand...Why Can't they just back the hell off, and leave her be!?" Natasha says frustrated.
"Just look at the article..."
"I really don't want to, but if you insist..." Natasha sighed staring at the computer screen.
She read the article's headline and it read:
"Bucharest Community Joins together to aid in Search for Missing girl Who Disappeared at Birth"
"What the hell..." Nat whispers to herself.
"See, what'd I tell you!? Keep reading...you'll see which part I'm talking about." Steve sighs. Natasha eyes continued to scan the article until she hits the key information that changed the whole game.
"It says, 'Search conducted by Ivy Lee...a Local in the Bucharest area who claims to have been the grandmother of the missing child. Lee claims that the infant disappeared at the hands of her daughter, Enrieta-Maria Cristian-Lee who passed away shortly after the infant's disappearance..' Oh my gosh..." Nat said looking at Steve.
"Go on, Keep reading..." Steve says.
"It goes on to say 'Allegedly two years prior to the search, the young infant was never found by law enforcement, and the case went cold and the infant ended up being assumed dead...' So here's what I don't understand..." Nat says chuckling and shaking her head.
"So...Ivory's alleged grandmother really didn't put in that much work to find Ivory when she was a baby...so now that her face pops up in the news all of a sudden Grandmom and the whole student body wants to go looking for her?"
"Yep, sounds about right..." Steve says. "They're a bunch of idiots...so I say all this to say...they have to be teaming up with the grandmother. They probably figured if there was family looking for her too, that would flush her out into the public eye, also flushing Bucky out of hiding..." Steve concluded.
"The last line says 'Lee refuses to put the search to rest until the child is either found or turned in' Well that sure as hell isn't going to happen." Natasha says earning a laugh from Steve.
"Yeah seriously...I know it sounds awful but Ivory's not going anywhere, I wouldn't allow it." Steve says.
"Yeah, before you know it, we'll be handing her back to Bucky..." Steve says sighing.
"We're not going to talk about that day..." Nat says chuckling, looking at Steve.
"Yeah I try not to think about it...it's going to be hard..."
"I think it's going to be harder on us than it will
Be for her. She's become family to us Steve...so it's definitely going to be hard, but we have to be strong for her."
"For Ivory." Steve says with a smile.
"Exactly, for Ivory. Wait...it's actually been really quiet...where is Ivory?" The pair looked at each other and then rushed to the kitchen and Ivory was no where to be found. Natasha then looked out the window and sighed in relief to see Ivory was outside under a tree in the backyard, a stack of books at her side, sitting quietly with one in her hands.
Sam had also been out back with Sarah and the boys, helping Sarah cook food on the grill while the boys had been running around playing.
"False alarm, she's fine Steve...She's out there with Sarah and Sam..."
"What's she doing?"
"Look at her..." Natasha says chuckling as she points out Ivory reading her book. She had been sat under the tree with her 'Yaya' tucked tightly under her arm while she had been reading what looked like 'The very Hungry caterpillar.'
"She's literally in her prime right now..." Natasha chuckled.
"Man...I know her and Bucky aren't blood related but she sure acts exactly like him." Steve chuckles.
"I assume she reminds you of the 40s Bucky?" Natasha asks.
"Oh yeah, big time...In the 40s Bucky was super into books and technology the same way that she is now..." Steve chuckles. "I'd say he's probably read her every book there is to read. That's something I noticed with her when I first took her, was that she loves to read, and loves being read to."
"I think she also just responds very well to being here...I've never seen her this content being alone..." Natasha says surprised.
"I mean, Sam used to be a Trauma counselor back in DC..." Steve points out. "I think Sam's been able to talk her through a lot of things..."
"That Sam-I-am..." Natasha says jokingly. "I've never seen her click with someone as fast as she did with Sam..."
The two of them are interrupted from their conversation at the sound of Ivory crying and they looked into the backyard confused to see Ivory intensely scratching at her legs, and screaming.
They saw Sam and Sarah quickly run out to the girl but they still both ran out to the yard too, worried about what happened. Sarah had been holding Ivory on her hip while Sam had been examining her legs.
"What happened?" Natasha asked concerned.
"She got stung by two bees..." Sarah explains trying to calm Ivory down.
"I-I w-wan Nana hold me!" Ivory cried sadly looking at Nat.
"Aww are you okay sweetheart?"
"Uh-g-got owies." Ivory said continuing to cry.
"Where'd they get her at?" Steve asked.
"Her right leg...one's on her calf and the other ones on her thigh." Sam says. "I checked to make sure nothing else got her, but she's good. They were just honey bees, they both left stingers so that's a good sign."
"Thankfully she doesn't seem to be allergic." Nat says.
"I'll go get something to get the stingers out..." Sarah says quickly running into the house.
"Did those mean bumblebees sting you?" Steve said rubbing Ivory's back. Nat went and sat down at the picnic table nearby and sat Ivory in her lap, trying to get her to calm down.
"Uh-huh...uh-bees not nice." Ivory said shaking her head as Nat wiped her tears away. Sarah quickly returned with a set of tweezers and gave them to Sam.
"Mommy, Mommy!" The boys yelled running towards Sarah.
"Mommy, is Ivory okay?" AJ asks.
"What's wrong?" Cass chimes in.
"Ivory got stung by Bees..." Sarah explains. "...can you give her a hug? I think that would make her feel better."
"Ivory, do you wanna give hugs to AJ and Cass?" Nat asked the girl.
"Uh-yeah, uh-hug!" Ivory sniffled climbing off of Natasha's lap, allowing both boys to gently squeeze her simultaneously.
"Aww, that was so sweet...Thank you boys." Nat says watching the boys hug Ivory. The boys and Ivory played nicely together and the two boys were always very sweet and gentle with little Ivory.
"I know you're not gonna like this, but you have to let Sam pick your owies out..." Sam says sitting the girl in his lap.
"No-No, No Thankyou..." Ivory says trying to escape Sam.
"Ivory, you gotta let Sam help you..." Natasha said. "You can hold my hand if you want..."
"Hold Nana's hand." Ivory said squeezing Natasha's hand with her tiny one.
"Okay, ready? I'm gonna count to three..." Sam warned.
"Kay..." Ivory said hiding her face in Sam's shoulder.
"Okay...1...2...3..."
All in one swift movement Sam took out both stingers, causing Ivory to flinch each time.
"See that wasn't so bad, right?" Sam says to Ivory.
"Still owies..." Ivory whined rubbing her leg.
"Let me take her inside, so I can wash her stings off." Sam suggests placing Ivory down.
"Good call." Steve sighs.
"Uh-no, Sam hold me Pease." Ivory protested, begging Sam to pick her up.
"Okay, come here..." Sam says to the girl shocked at the gesture.
"If she asks you to hold her, It means she's starting to like you..." Nat whispered to Sam. Sam looked down at Ivory and smiled at the girl gently resting her head on his shoulder. He took the girl in and sat her on the kitchen counter beside the sink so he could get something to wash the bee stings with. He wet a paper towel with soap and warm water and gently washed her leg off.
"Uh-Sam?"
"Yes Ivory?"
"Still owies..." Ivory frowned pointing to her leg.
"Will bandaids make it better?" Sam asked.
"Uh-huh..." Ivory nodded as Sam pulled down a box of bandages from the vitamin cabinet nearby.
"Okay...I've got Cars bandaids and bandaids with the planets on them. Which ones do you want?"
"Uh-Cars!" Ivory says pointing to the box with cars on the front.
"Excellent choice." Sam chuckled taking a lightning McQueen bandaid out the box.
"Want this one!" Ivory said pointing to the solar system themed bandaids.
"So you want both?"
"Uh-huh!" Ivory says excitedly as Sam takes out a bandage with Saturn on it. He put both bandaids on Ivory's bee stings and the girl happily smiled up at him.
"Thank you." Ivory smiled.
"You're welcome sweetheart." Sam says putting everything away.
"Are you okay now?"
"Uh-yeah." Ivory says nodding her head.
"Are you happy?"
"Uh-huh." Ivory says staring down at her leg, frowning and using her finger to trace a circle around the bandaid.
"You sure?"
"Miss my daddy." The girl sighed trying not to cry as she continued to look at her lap.
"Aww it's okay. Do you want a hug?"
"Uh-huh..." the girl said earning the biggest hug from her 'Sam-I-am'.
"W-Want daddy to come." Ivory sniffles wiping her eyes angrily.
"Hey it's alright...I know it's hard but you know what?"
"What?"
"I promise you, you'll see him soon."
"You lie." Ivory says not looking at Sam.
"Why would I lie?"
"Dunno." Ivory said still not looking at Sam. Sam couldn't help but smile and hug the girl even tighter in his arms.
"Uh-Sam, uh-Sam!"
"What? What?" Sam replies mimicking Ivory's sudden excitement.
"Um, I-I have a ice pop?"
"An ice pop? You didn't eat lunch yet..."
"M-My belly hungry..."
"Oh no, your belly is hungry?" Sam says lifting the girl onto his hip.
"Uh-huh..." Ivory says nodding, a pout on her lips.
"Okay...I know I'm gonna be on the chopping block for this one, but we'll just pretend it was supposed to be your ice pack." Sam says to himself. Ivory smiled happily at Sam as he paced over to the freezer.
"Let me guess, the purple one?"
"Uh-yeah!" Ivory said excited that Sam remembered purple was her favorite. Sam handed Ivory her popsicle and placed her down and grabbed two more for AJ and Cass.
"Pease open? Pease open?" Ivory asks Sam.
"I sure can open it." Sam smiled, cutting the popsicle open, giving it back. Ivory happily giggled and started eating her popsicle as the two of them were walking back out the backyard.
"Ivory, what do you have?" Natasha asked the girl trying to keep back a laugh.
"Uh-ice pop!" Ivory said excitedly showing it off to Nat.
"I wonder where you got something like that..." Natasha said looking at Sam.
"What? Her belly was hungry...I couldn't say no!" Sam said picking Ivory up.
"It looks like you made a friend for life, huh Ivory?" Nat said, shaking her head at the girl.
"Uh-Huh, My Sam-I-am." Ivory said laying her head on the man.
Nat couldn't believe how comfortable the girl had become in just a number of days. This place felt like home to Ivory and Natasha couldn't help but feel as if she was the most peaceful while she was here. Natasha only hoped to continue to see Ivory remain at peace with herself.