(Winter's P.O.V.)
"Daddy?"
When I looked at the girl under the bed I saw my own eyes and looked to Steve before asking "who are you darling?"
"Mom said I had to wait here until she came back to get me. Or until you did."
"Your mom?"
"Yah, she was one of HYDRA's beat assets."
"Do you mean Silver?"
"Silver Death. Also known as Jessica."
Reaching under the bed I pull the child out as carefully as I can and set her on my hip. "How old are you?"
"I'm seven."
"Seven, wow you seem pretty strong for kid your age."
"Mother always trained me. She tried to keep me away from all the other agents so I wouldn't get hurt." She looks over my shoulder then back to me "who are they?"
Turning around I see the whole team standing still, Nat has her hand covering her mouth and Wanda has a look on her face that makes me think she's already went through this child's head, Steve has no emotions and so does the rest of the members other then Clint and Thor, who both are tensed but trying to keep a smile on their faces.
"They're my team."
Her face lights up "mom told me I had to read a note with all of you!" She starts patting her pockets and pulls out a folded paper.
Natasha walks up towards us and holds her hands out to the girl "why don't we go to the living room and read that?" As the girl leans towards her Nat grabs her under the armpits and sets her on her own hip, brushing hair from the girls face as they walk out of the room. No one else follows them, they all look at me. I don't know what to say so I just shake my head and walk out.
The two girls are sitting on the couch discussing Natasha's hair. "Why is it red?"
"Because my parents hair was red"
"Why is it curly?"
"Because I decided to make it curly"
"How did you make it curly?"
"With a curling iron"
As everyone files into the room the little girl looks around and asks "is this everyone on your team?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Mom said that I had to wait and read the note with everyone."
"Okay, then let's read the note."
She smiles and pulls it out "I can't read, can any of you?"
"Yah, I got it." Nat reaches for the paper but before she can get hold of it the girl- we really need to find out her name- runs over to me
"Here! Mom probably knows that you can read!"she thrusts the paper into my metal hand and runs back to Nat, sitting on the floor between her legs.
It takes me a few seconds to look at the paper and start reading.
"My dear Aly Natalia Wanda Barnes." I read what's on the paper and translate it, not bothering to look up at the faces of everyone else. "I know you never had a proper name so I now give you one. You have no birth certificate ask Tony to make you one." This is in Romanian, when did she learn that? "I love you and I know you will not remember me forever, but know I will do my best to remember you. As you grow old I may not, if I can I will watch over you, keep you safe. When I first saw you I looked into your eyes and saw a scared child. You were not looking at me but behind. Anatoly is the one who is arranging transportation for you an I. You will stay and I will come back here to Germany, I love you my daughter. When or if we meet again be prepared that I might not be your mom but a mindless killer. Carry a knife with you always."
"She's switching languages, first it was in Romanian now it's in German. But she says 'Steve? I know this will come to a shock to you but but take care of James and Aly. I told her about you, she asked why talking about you made me cry. It's because I didn't get the chance to tell you that I love you."
I glance around the room to the people it's addressed to, Wanda is still starring at Aly and Nat is braiding her hair. "Natalia and Wanda." They perk up and look at me "You two are to be her mothers now. I won't be there for her and now she will have people to care for her. Please keep her safe."
Reading the next part I keep silent and decide not to tell anyone what she says to me. 'James. If I would have remembered we had a child I would have said something, and tried to find the said child. I was told that when I came out of surgery for my new arms that we were both wiped after my pregnancy and that during it we were kept at separate facilities. Keep our daughter safe. She has your eyes.'
"Um, next she says 'Dr. Banner she might have a hard time trusting you due to her past, but I need you to make sure she's healthy, and not going to get hurt somehow by something within her.
Sam, keep her mind healthy let her know I'm not abandoning her, let her know that she is loved. And that goes for all of you.' That part was in English, Tony can you get Pepper?" He looks at me oddly "there's a section in here for her."
He sprints out of the room.
Staring at the page blankly I realize I do not know this language. "Who knows this language?" I show the paper around and Nat starts reading "Clint, you are the only parent on this team. You now kids best, you are her stone. You are her rock, you are the one she might fall to and become more comfortable with. Bring your kids in one day once you trust her for a play date please?" Her voice stays monotonous and many feet shift and hands rub together. Tony and Pepper come back into the room.
Nat continues "Thor you are good with kids play with her, share your pop tarts here and there. Play, laugh, tickle, poke."
Nat looks up at Pepper and reads her section for her "Pepper I know you don't know me but trust me please? Help her become a normal child. Or at least as normal as she can get now." Pepper looks like she's going to cry.
"James, you read the last section for her" as the note makes its way back to me I tense if Nat doesn't want to read it something has to be up.
Once the paper is in my hands I read it out "Aly my dear." I pause and look up at the girl "I love you but now I must break my promise to keep you safe. I must leave you. I love you all. Keep safe stay together, don't hurt each other and above all, always have someone's six and someone will have yours. The mission is now complete. The mission was to get you to-to safety."
Looking at Aly I see her starting to cry. Making my way over, I wrap my arms around her, little hands grip onto my shirt, I look to find Clint. He moves to sit beside Nat motions what I should do- he wraps his arms around her, rubs her back and kisses the top of her head before looking at me and muttering "talk to her."
I copy his actions "you know what? Your mom has always been a smart woman. She learned how to fight quickly, learned how to keep people she cared about safe. She loves you even if she's not here."
"She-she left m-m-me!"
"Only because she didn't want you to get hurt."
"I wouldn't ha-have gotten hurt!"
"Hey, what was your favourite thing to do back in um" I look up at the others who all mostly shrug "back at the base."
"Germany."
"Germany?"
By now she calmed down a lot "where we were. Where I was trained." Tony sprints from the room with Bruce on his heels. "You hungry?"
"Yah."
"Why don't we get you something to eat?"
"Like what?"
"Do you like spaghetti?"
"Spa-whaty?"
"Wanda, you mind helping us with making some spaghetti?"
Wanda smiles "with meat sauce?"
"Yah," looking down at Aly I pick her up slinging her over my shoulder making her laugh "with meat sauce."
(Silver Death's P.O.V.)
It's done. My mission is done, my child is safe with her father and his team. She's going to be fine.
Then why do I feel so empty inside?
Numbly turning the plane to auto pilot one at least an hour from New York I slowly make my way to the back of the plane, where the bathroom is, where a mirror is.
My eyes have no light to them, I allow my hair to do what it wants, it turns black, and so do the irises of my eyes. I may as well have black out contacts in. My forehead meets the cool glass as I start so sob, sobbing because I had to break my promise. My promise that I wouldn't leave her, that I would always be there for her. She has a family now, one that she can always rely on to keep her safe and happy unlike what I would be able to do. I couldn't even remember to get her food when she needed it, all I was able to do was pull her out of a boxing ring.
I feel numb. This is a feeling I don't like, maybe it will pass quickly like it did when I realized I had left James alone in the facility.
By the time I noticed the numbness the last time I had been out of HYDRA for three months, had crossed the border, created a fake alias, found out who I was, and made a passport for myself. In those three months I was busy, moving around and just not able to pay attention to anything else other than my survival especially emotions.
Buying that house in Canada made me feel something. Unfortunately that something was vengeance, it was old, starting to fall apart. By one year out of HYDRA that house was in perfect shape, but the shed was only starting its raise to glory, to create the basement I had to move pipelines, wires and a skull. It looked human but I wasn't even fazed, if there's no skeleton to accompany it most likely a Halloween prop.
It was a lot of labour works but I didn't care, by the time it was finished it had been two and a half years away from HYDRA. Two and a half years from my own personal hell, and from James. Even though I had seen him after the D.C. incident and knew where he was for most of the time I still wouldn't have expected this feeling to come back again. I need to figure out a way to get rid of it. It makes me want to cry but crying is weak, and the weak get killed. In my life I can't afford to be weak, if I'm weak I'll die in a training room.
Leaving the small bathroom I sit in the pilots seat with a laptop on the seat beside me, currently hacking through FRIDAY so I can hear what's going on within the tower.
Access Granted.
Switching to the security cameras I find Tony and Bruce in the lab going through radars and charts. Everyone else including Aly are in the kitchen eating what looks like... spaghetti and meat sauce. Wanda must have remembered the recipe for the sauce. To bad that the family recipe wasn't shown to Aly by her birth mother, her new moms will make due though. Probably better than I could.
They look like one happy family, even Pepper is smiling at her.
Zooming in closer I see Aly tense and her eyes flit over the room making me worry that something is wrong. She bursts out laughing, but her eyes keep sweeping the room, she's canvassing the area, expecting a threat to come any minute.