Lost at Sea
Chapter 19
Once Upon a December
"Hold on, let me make sure I got everything," Clint ran a shaking hand through his hair. "You are telling me that Alene, your adopted sister, is Mariana Elizabeth Rogers? The daughter of our one and only Captain America," He gestured to Steve. "And you have known for a good week but didn't tell anybody? I don't know about you guys, but if I found out such important information such as that I would tell everyone as soon as possible, but you waited!"
"She had a good reason," Tony defended Wanda. "We had more pressing matters to handle at the time and informing us of Alene's- eh...Mariana's identity could have jeopardized everything."
"What do we do now?" Natasha asked. No one answered, but at the same time that was an answer. No one knew what to do in this situation. There wasn't a handbook that gave them step-by-step instructions on how to deal with discovering a person you thought had died ten-years-ago is actually alive. And is currently staying in a room on the other side of the building. The ex-assassin directed her next question to the Sokovian sitting quietly in a seat. "Does she even know?"
Wanda did not take her eyes off her hands that were fidgeting in her lap. "No, as far as I am concerned." Her voice was weak as she spoke. Vision patted the woman's forearm in an attempt to comfort her.
"But shouldn't she be remembering soon?" Clint asked. "She is surrounded by people who watched her grow up in the short years we had her."
"Not exactly," Vision spoke. "The human brain is a complex system. You beings have only grasped the surface of its capabilities and are nowhere near close to fully understanding how it works. And while you are thinking on the right track, in terms of triggering her memory by surrounding her in familiar surroundings or people, given her age when she was taken-"
"She may not have any memories to remember." Sam finished his sentence. Understanding quickly dawned on the other Avengers.
Tony took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "Well, poop,"
~{++}~
It was somberly quiet in Steve Rogers' room. The only sounds were the low buzzing of the air conditioning and the sound of deep, heavy breathing. Elizabeth sat next to him on the bed, rubbing comforting circles into his back as the supersoldier held his head in his hands. The two were silently mourning. Mourning the loss they have suffered, and mourning the time they have lost with the living. His heart was squeezing and pulling. If it hurt, he didn't feel it. He couldn't, even if he wanted to. He couldn't feel anything. His whole body was numb; sparing him from feeling the ache of his broken heart.
"There's no way you could have known it was her," Elizabeth softly said to him.
"But I should have." His usually strong voice cracked like that of a twelve-year-old boy going through puberty. "I should have known she was my pumpkin; my precious daughter." As he spoke, his heart clenched painfully in his chest and this time he felt the pain. At that moment, he realized what his heart had known for ten long years; his daughter was alive. He now knew that every tight clench and throb of the muscle had been a signal; or a calling to him. A wrenched sob tore through his entire body like a bullet. "I abandoned her." He spoke so slowly Elizabeth barely heard him.
"No!" The strawberry-blonde quickly said, "You did not abandon Mari."
Steve shook his head, dismissing her words. "But I did. I didn't look for her."
"I did," Elizabeth said, but Steve cut her off.
"I didn't look hard enough. I knew there were still some HYDRA thugs rummaging around, but I didn't consider them a factor in the crash."
"Nobody did. It seems so clear to us now because we know the truth, but ten-years-ago we did not." She said to him. "You did not abandon her, Steven, and I'm sure she knows it." Steve did not answer her and the room turned silent once more. The two sat there for a while longer until Elizabeth had to go. It had gotten late and she needed time to rest and process all the new information. His thoughts slowly turned into the what-ifs for the millionth time in his long life. He made a mental list of all of the what-ifs for the situation. He had listed many of them for the past ten years, but there were a couple of new ones. Notably, what if she and I had never crossed paths again..?. Strangely, the thought threw him into a loop of realization once more.
If Wanda had never search through his daughter's mind for her biological family, then she would have never taken her siblings on a transcontinental journey to find their younger sister's family- him. However, if that had never happened, then the three would still be in Sokovia at the mercy of HYDRA. And to him, that life compared to living in Hell.
A knock on the door interrupted his internal conflict. "Hey, Cap," Clint's voice was muffled through the door. The door slowly opened and the archer popped his head into the room. "Um, I know this is sudden, but she is in her room if you would like to see her."
Internally, he started to freak out again. Am I ready to see her, he wondered but he quickly pushed those thoughts away. "I'll be out in a second." Clint nodded his head, and before he closed the door he gave the supersoldier a sympathetic look over. If he had noticed his disarray, he did not show it.
Steve cleaned himself up a bit before leaving his room and making his way to his daughter's room. What do I even say, he asked himself. How will she react when I tell her? Various questions of the like swirled around in his head as he walked. Before he realized it, he had arrived at her door. His heart was beating frantically inside his chest and he wondered if she could hear it. He felt like he was going insane, but no one would really blame him for that. After all, he had just found out that his presumed-dead daughter was actually alive after ten years, was held captive by the very people he fought to rid the world of; and they gave her abilities he has never seen or heard of before. But the icing to the imaginary cake of crazy shit is that she doesn't remember him and has no idea that he is her biological father.
He has finally accepted that they all live in a fucked up world and there isn't anything he can do to change it. Why does everything have to be so complicated, he fussed in his mind while externally exhaling a sigh of defeat. He ran his hands through his blonde hair before rolling up the cuffs of his button-up shirt. "Okay, you got this, Steve." He mumbled under his breath. He moved to knock on the door, but he nearly threw the door open when a sound of breaking glass came from the room.
"Mariana!" He instinctively shouted as he entered the room. He braced himself for combat, but he relaxed his stance when he found no signs of danger. He did, however, find his daughter standing in front of her dresser, staring intently into space. He realized his mistake earlier of calling her by her birth name. He called out to the teenager, but he used her adoptive name. "Alene," The name felt unnatural on his lips.
She perked up a bit at her name. She slowly snapped out of her daze and turned to face the supersoldier. Steve made a step in her direction, but his movements were halted as soon as they made eye-contact. Her mouth was agape in shock and her emerald green orbs that she inherited from her mother swam with shock and disbelief.
Steve opened his mouth again; preparing himself to make the revelation known to her, but she beat him to it with a shocking revelation of her own.
"I remember."
Steve felt all his organs stop functioning for half a second upon hearing those three words come out of his daughter's mouth. The room was thick with tension as the two stared at each other. They studied one another, waiting for the other to speak. Finally, Steve managed to speak. "What?" The word tumbled out barely a whisper.
She visibly gulped. She appeared to be shocked as well. Like she couldn't comprehend what was happening. "I remember." She breathed out. "You..." She trailed off as she tried to gather her thoughts. "You're my father, correct?"
Steve's throat tightened at the question. He couldn't get any words out to answer her, so he just nodded his head. At his confirmation, all her defenses broke. She choked out a sob and dashed towards him. Without thinking, he opened his arms and caught her. They held each other in a tight embrace as they cried. They relished the familiar feeling of one another.
"Shhh, it's okay," Steve whispered into her hair. "Daddy's got you now. And I'll never let you go ever again." She cried harder into his shoulder. As he held her, he looked up towards the Heavens. He knew Emily was watching over them, probably crying too as her husband and daughter properly reunited after over ten years apart.
Steve's wish has been granted. After so long, he finally got to hold his daughter in his arms again.
Word count: 1,623