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Keira Knightly as Athena Pierce.
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Steve parked his motorcycle in the big gravel driveway of the house. The surrounding meadows swayed lazily in the soft breeze.
He didn't remember it being this idyllic and calm.
Taking a deep breath he walked to the dark wooden double doors of the facility.
It began drizzling softly as he rang the doorbell, but Steve found himself enjoying the cold drops of rain rather than getting annoyed with the lousy autumn weather.
"Mr. Rogers! What a surprise! She'll be over the moon when I tell her she has a visitor!" Steve smiled at the older lady who opened the door for him and ushered him inside.
As usual, it was the head nurse, Eleanor.
The house smelled characteristically like hospital and grandma, but it was warm, bright and had a lot of natural light because of the many ceiling to floor windows.
Most of the furniture was wickerwork and it was almost as green on the inside of the building with all the houseplants and flowerpots as outside in the gardens.
"Is she doing alright?" Steve asked as he looked around at some of the other patients and their caretakers. Some of the patients were older, some of them were young. Eleanor had told them when they visited the first time that the age range was like that, because they took in veterans with both mental illnesses, such as PTSD, depression and anxiety, but also physical illnesses or problems that made it impossible to take care of themselves like multi-amputees and for some of the older residents, illnesses like Alzheimers or Parkinson's.
"She hasn't had an episode since Sam visited a couple of months ago. He used to come here regularly, but he's been so busy he's been calling instead and leaving small messages for her the last couple of weeks, sweet young man that one." The old lady said fondly.
Steve nodded and smiled at Eleanor. He knew Sam had visited at least once a week since they'd admitted her there. It was quite the drive, but Sam was used to handling veterans with PTSD and insisted that he might be able to help her.
"I think she's out by the old oak if you wanna see her. But Steve.. that nurse, Caroline, said she may be having a bad day." Caroline was the assigned nurse Fury had sent to take care of her. If he had the time he would probably have been her nurse himself, but unfortunately for Fury that wasn't an option. So the sweet, slightly chubby brunette was the second best.
"How bad?" Steve asked slightly concerned. "You can ask Caroline yourself, she's on the bench keeping an eye on her." Steve nodded and opened the sliding double door leading to the backyard.
The backyard was more of a huge field, with tall grass, soft hills, flowers and a single big and lonely tree landmarking one of the highest points, though it was only elevated approximately one or two meters over the rest of the landscape.
"Caroline." Steve greeted as he sat down on the bench on the porch beside the chubby woman. A single ray of sun warmed that exact spot though the drizzle was still going. "Steve." Caroline greeted in a friendly manner as she put down the book she was reading.
"Eleanor said she was having a bad day?"
"Just a bit, nothing major. She's by the old oak listening to the radio. You'll probably cheer her up when you tell her the news." Caroline smiled and pointed in direction of the tree on the hill. "Thanks." Steve excused himself politely and began walking.
Caroline was the only nurse in this place that knew the truth about everything. She was the only one Fury really informed about things, so Steve wasn't surprised she knew about the news.
As he got closer to the oak, he could slowly begin to make out a woman under the tree spinning on a homemade rope swing.
Steve jogged up the hill, but slowed down considerably when he heard the radio static.
"Athena?" The woman didn't look at him immediately but kept spinning in the swing. "Athena?" He called again. Athena stopped spinning abruptly as she harshly put her feet to the ground.
"Steve? That explains the song." She said delighted, as she hummed a melody like was she imagining the song playing along on the radio.
"What song are you listening to?" Steve asked playing along with her little fantasy.
"Don't you recognise it?" She asked incredulously as she began singing the familiar words to a song Steve had heard a million times before. "–Never thought that you would be, standing here so close to me. There's so much I feel that I should say, but words can wait until some other day~" Steve smiled at her as she got up from the swing and took his hands softly in hers and spun him around.
Her hands had gotten thinner since he had last seen her, he was almost certain.
"Care for a dance my brave soldier?" She smiled sweetly and Steve didn't have the heart to tell her that there really wasn't any music. "Always." He said swaying to her humming and the rain's gentle tapping on the oak tree's leaves.
"So, why are you here?" Athena asked, still resting her head on his chest as they kept slow-dancing. In her head, the song had stopped and it was now occupied by the same static as the radio played, but she didn't mind. As long as there wasn't quiet.
"I just wanted to visit my best girl." Steve shrugged trying to stall her for as long as possible, afraid she would freak out.
Athena chuckled softly, "A real player are we Rogers, I bet you say that to all the girls." She joked shaking her head. "How is she by the way? Peggy, I mean." Athena asked quickly becoming serious.
"Worse.. but it's alright. The doctors say to be prepared. So, she doesn't have long, but Peggy is strong, you shouldn't worry.." Athena stopped dancing and looked up at Steve with such empathy and care. "Steve.." Athena didn't have to say anything else. The silence she left after saying his name said everything that was too hard and complicated to put into words.
"I'm fine." He said smiling softly at her. "Don't lie to me." Athena scolded him. Steve chuckled at her gently.
"I wouldn't dare."
"Damn right you wouldn't." She said sitting back down on the swing. "–So, Sam mentioned Tony got all of you into a big mess a couple of months ago?" Athena said digging for some exciting information. Steve sighed leaning against the old oak.
"Yea. While the rest of us have been working on taking down the last remaining Hydra bases, Tony created this army of robots and an A.I. with the tesseract. They were supposed to protect earth. To quote Tony he described it as 'a suit of armour around the world.' But as you can probably imagine, things didn't go as planned. We ended up levelling a whole city. We saved as many as we could, but it was just.. there were so many who didn't make it.."
"I'm so sorry for asking. That must've been.. horrible." Athena said, finding it hard to put words on her sympathy for him and the others, and everyone else in the city that had been killed or had family killed for that matter. "The worst thing was just the guilt.. Knowing that I wasn't able to save everyone.."
"You can't always be able to. Life is just like that. You did your best, no one and especially not you, should blame yourself for that." She was clever, and she always surprised him with her words. She was also clever enough however to see that he was stalling. "–now, tell me, Rogers. Why the hell are you really here."
Steve sighed, "I'm bringing you home. Sam says your anxiety attacks are a lot less violent and the nurses say that they're less frequent too. You're well, well enough to come home." Athena looked at him surprised. She'd been at the facility for so long, that she'd totally forgotten where home was, who home was.
"Now?" Steve chuckled at her confusion. "No, we're spending the night, I'll help you pack, and then we leave tomorrow morning." Athena didn't know how she looked, probably really surprised and a bit confused.
After spending two years or so in this place, she'd begun wondering if she would ever leave, and now she was.
Depending on other people, wasn't something Athena particularly liked or enjoyed. Doing nothing all day was infuriating, and being confined to that one place, although it was a big one, was beginning to make her feel claustrophobic.
"I don't know what home is anymore Steve.. My father is dead. I don't have anything to come home to." Steve's expression saddened at her words. "Of course you do. Your father, he actually left the house and everything else in your name."
"I don't wanna live in a house were the Winter Soldier knows the address." Her voice was cold and her eyes were even colder. "If that's where you're planning on dropping me off, I'm staying here."
Steve nodded understandingly, "Actually, I was thinking you could stay at the Avengers compound with some of the others."
"The others?" Athena raised an eyebrow wanting him to elaborate. "I'll explain tomorrow on the long drive. Short version is, we've gotten a few new members on the team."
"I don't know if it's a good idea to move in with a bunch of strangers Steve. I'm not the best bunk-buddy. I kind of have a habit of waking up and freaking out because I don't remember where I am." Athena said, clearly ashamed about not being able to take care of herself. "You would have your own room. I could probably even pull a few strings and have it placed next to mine. Just try it out, give it a chance and see if it works."
"And if it doesn't?" Athena asked looking up at him. "Then I'll help you find an apartment or something close by." Steve promised and shrugged.
The soft ringing of a bell made Athena's head snap up. "Lunch is ready." She grinned looking mischievously at Steve. "–You ready for recipes from your childhood?"
"My childhood?" Steve asked doubtfully. But Athena just nodded tiredly. "The place is gorgeous but the food is horrible. They boil everything, Steve." The super soldier laughed at his friend. "You wouldn't have survived back in my days." Steve said jokingly.
"You're right. If I hadn't been burned at the stake for witchcraft because I'm an independent woman. I would've probably killed myself because I couldn't get a decent meal." Steve laughed loudly at Athena's clearly over dramatic and sarcastic statement.
"I'm not that old." Athena chuckled at Steve's need to defend himself. "–You're actually older than me if you don't take the years I was frozen into consideration." Steve added a couple seconds later. "Only by one and a half year or something." Athena rolled her eyes and chuckled.
"What's age anyway? I stopped counting at twenty-one." Athena snorted making Steve laugh in agreement. "Well you were the one who started this by calling me old."
"We're going to live till the age of two-hundred because of the serum anyway." Athena said looking heartbrokenly at her hands. "–I guess Hydra didn't stop after taking away my childhood.. I won't ever have the possibility of growing old with the man I love, I'll probably even survive to see my own children die.. if I can even have them.." Steve looked at her concerned before she shook her head and stood up. "Got a bit dark there huh? I'm sorry." Athena chuckled before she gave Steve a small reassuring smile.
"Let's go eat lunch."
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"You ready?" Athena looked back at the facility over her shoulder.
It had been a nice home in those two years, and a good place to lay low while she recovered, found herself and dealt with whatever traumas, triggering the memories from Hydra had given her.
"I'm ready.." Athena said adjusting her arms around Steve on the motorcycle. "–Let's go home."
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Here's the very first part of the second book.
(To anyone who's confused; this will be a trilogy but I'm too lazy to make three different books.. so they will all be gathered in this one.)
Remember to fav, comment follow and whatever! I love hearing your thoughts and opinions.
Also here is Bucky and Athena's words! I guess the books title will make more sense to you after reading this lol.
Bucky:
Longing (желаниe)
Rusted (pжавый)
Seventeen (семнадцать)
Daybreak (рассвет)
Furnace (Печь)
Nine (Девять)
Benign (Доброкачественные)
Homecoming (Возвращение домой)
One (Один)
Freight car (грузовой вагон)
Athena:
Loving (любящий)
Bone (кость)
Nineteen (девятнадцать)
Daybreak (рассвет)
Mother (мама)
Nine (Девять)
Family (семья́)
Homecoming (Возвращение домой)
One (Один)
Pure (непорочный)