Everyone stood up and waited. "She's alive. But we won't know the extent of any neurological damage until she wakes up".
You were alive and that was good, but there was still so much worry.
"Do you remember that plate she got on her birthday that she refused to let me take out? The vibranium one? We'll it stopped the bullet from going through her brain. It saved her life".
Everyone was shocked, "god, I'm so glad she's stubborn", Tony breathed out.
"How do we know this won't happen again", Bucky croaked out, speaking for the first time.
"The trigger words? Well I thought it was weird that they worked when she wasn't gone long enough for them to put them in her head. So I started looking and I found a tiny chip Inserted into the back of her brain. I've removed It and they won't work again. She will never been controlled by Hydra again".
Bucky fell to the floor crying with relief. Wanda stroked his back and comforted him until he was calm again.
"So that was why they took her and brought her back?" Said Peter. "So they could put that thing in her brain then make her hurt Wanda and Bucky?"
Bruce nodded, "that's what it looks like yes. But it didn't work, she won't ever be controlled again". He said a second time, just to get the point across.
"Ok, so what happened after you went in to surgery?" Sam asked.
"The vibranium stopped the bullet but it still sent a shock through her, which is why her heart stopped. We managed to re start it and then remove the metal plate. I had to spend a lot of time reconstructing the area above her eye. After jumping off the roof on her birthday and now this it took some time. I had to put a new plate in and she's going to have quite a bit of scarring in that area, but other than that she's physically fine".
Everyone nodded and just wanted to see you. Steve and Bucky went first, crying again as soon as they saw you. "I was so worried", said Steve, speaking for the first time in ten hours.
"Me to", agreed Bucky.
They looked at you until they finally processed you were still there and invited everyone in.
An assortment of chairs had been collected from around the floor and everyone squeezed themselves into the room.
"So whilst we're all here, we should probably catch you up on everything that's been happening because everyone knows bits", Said Tony.
"Me and Bruce have been working for the last week so we're just going to start from the beginning. Charlotte you're part of this family so you can hear it to. Bruce do you want to start?"
He nodded and started speaking, "so the night y/n went missing, the security had been hacked as some of you know. And we got it back but we could never work out how they did it. They seemed to outsmart me and Tony and we were worried they would come back.
Then y/n suddenly appeared again and we had no idea why. She couldn't remember anything and we had no theories on why she was back.
I know some of you were worried about that but never asked. We didn't say anything because we didn't know". He took a breath and carried on.
"And then y/n started getting bad nightmares that she couldn't wake up from and we were really worried. Then the cut on her hand got really bad and we weren't sure if we could save it, it was getting worse by the hour. Eventually we had to make the decision to remove it. And what none of you know is that I got the results to her blood test an hour after the operation. They said the infection had almost spread from the original site meaning if we had waited any longer she wouldn't be here". Everyone stayed silent as they listened. The kids knew about your arm but not about anything else and the three that were away just knew about the kidnapping, so everyone was shocked.
"And then, she had a bad nightmare again. We finally got her to explain it to us and she recounted the night the winter soldier killed Tony's parents", Bucky looked away, still saddened by it but he knew everyone needed the whole story.
"We know now that it was due to the chip in the back of her head that was showing her Buckys memories so they could control her easier when the time came.
The man that broke in was called Petrov. He was the man that owned the house some of you were staking out. He wanted to kill Bucky and Wanda so they could start again with Hydra. They thought if both of them were dead, Then no one in the world could identify them or their bases and they could re build Hydra. Tony found him in the camera room and he's now dead. Is that everything? I think that's everything?"
He glanced around to see if anyone had questions but they all seemed to be processing the information. And then Sam spoke up, raising his hand. "Yea um I have a question? Who's this and what's going on there?" He said pointing to Sarah and Charlotte.
Wanda answered this one, "this is Charlotte, my brother found her after he disappeared 15 years ago and they had Sarah. He died 10 years ago saving them".
Sam smiled, "really?! Wow nice to meet you both. This is crazy we were gone a couple of weeks and everything seems to have happened".
"There's one more thing", said Tony. "Only me and Sarah know but I asked her to keep it a secret until I knew for sure". He seemed so serious as the tension started to rise again.
"Sarah managed to find the lost footage from the night of the disappearance. We tracked it down to four men and the men at the house you were watching. The house was a decoy as the others took y/n.
Thanks to Sarah we found everyone involved and dealt with it. Now I can say for certain that the only people alive that know about Hydra are in this room, and a couple of my agents. It won't be re-built, Hydra is officially dead".
There was a pause before some people jumped up cheering. "It's gone, it's gone!" Shouted Peter as he ran over to hug Bucky making the man smile.
Charlotte didn't have much knowledge on them but she knew bits about what Pietro and Wanda had gone through so she was just as excited.
"It's not usually this stressful around here", Nat chuckled to her.
They stayed and talked for a while about everything. Once everyone was all caught up they talked about all the stuff they'd been too busy for recently. Cooper about his basketball, Lila about her English test scores and how good they were.
They were in the middle of a conversation when your leg moved, instantly everyone was quiet and looked over. Bruce came over and spoke gently, "y/n, can you hear me?"
It was silent for a second, until you said a small, "ouch".
Bruce chuckled, you spoke, that was a very good sign. Your eyes responded well to the light so he sat you up.
You looked around at everyone blinking. "Are we having a party?"
Everyone laughed and Tony ran over. "I'll organise the biggest party for you" he said giving you a hug.
Once you'd smiled at everyone and hugged your dads you looked around again. "Are they gone?"
They looked confused so Bruce asked, "are who gone?"
"Hydra?"
"Yea how do you know that y/n?" Bucky asked, leaning beside you.
You couldn't explain it. The air felt different and happier. The trees outside the window didn't make you nervous anymore and the sky looked less bleak.
"It just feels different".
"I knew it!" Shouted Clint.
"No you thought she could tell the future!" Laughed Bucky making Clint stick his tongue out.
"All this time it didn't feel right, why didn't you say anything?" Asked Tony.
You shrugged, "I didn't know, I thought the nightmares were making me feel weird, not the other way around".
You looked at the other kids, "also, sorry I haven't been a good friend recently", but they just laughed.
"Seriously?!" Cooper shouted between chuckles, "you tried to sacrifice yourself so you didn't hurt any of us! You haven't been a bad friend". You all smiled at each other.
"So y/n". Said peter coming to sit closer, "do you think you can play video games with one hand or shall we make a new controller?"
"Peter!!" Shouted Lila, but you could barely hear it through your laughs.
"I could still beat you with one hand Pete!" You said, laughing together, catching up on everything you'd missed.
Bruce did a few more tests with you, scanning your brain and making you do puzzles and you passed them all.
You started physiotherapy for your arm hoping that when it healed you could have a cool prosthetic like your dad.
Everyone spent all their time together, watching tv and playing board games, getting very competitive. They could finally relax with everyone safe and no looming threat above them.
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There's only one more chapter to go!