Present
Third P.O.V.
" How's the kid doing? " Tony asks as he walks into the living room where Bruce is currently going over some information regarding Dorothea-Lavern.
" She's doing okay...except, " If Bucky wasn't listening before, he's surely tuned in now that Bruce said except. " she won't talk to me. She won't answer anything I ask. She just stares at her hands and murmurs some song I've never heard before. She keeps asking about you, Bucky. Wondering when you'll remember. She seems pretty confident that she knows you. Are you sure you don't remember anything about this girl? " Bruce asks the soldier.
" Yeah...I'm sure I don't know her. I don't remember her. Maybe I met her? " Bucky says, really confusing himself. " I don't think so. "
" Well, she seems to know you. I don't know what to do. I can't help her, because she won't let me get near her with any supplies. She completely freaks out. " Bruce shrugs. " The only way I'm going to be able to help her is if she calms down, or I sedate her again. I really don't want to do that though. There are so many risks. Since I don't know anything about her state right now, who knows what those drugs could do to her. " Bruce sighs while rubbing his forehead.
" What about her family? Have you found anything on her biological parents? " Steve asks while turning down the sound on the TV.
" Nothing yet. It'll take me a little while to match her DNA to her parents. I do know that she has absolutely no record as a person in the entire world. " Bruce shakes his head. " She was never born in a hospital, she was most likely a toilet baby. I can't believe this. That little girl, " Bruce points in the general direction on the infirmary area. " she doesn't exist, meaning, she has never been to a doctor, a good, properly educated doctor, never had the proper shots or check-ups. Who knows how bad her immune system is. I did manage to hack into the HYDRA information base, well, one of them, and I did find a little on her. I found the transaction pages on her. " Bruce says with disgust. " I still haven't translated all of it, but I do know this. She was sold to HYDRA, not even three hours after birth. She never had a life outside of HYDRA. She never had a chance, never. She's never seen a flower, or an animal, or a car for pete's sake, in her entire life! She's never felt rain or grass. She's never been around other children or slept on a proper bed in a home. Her life was taken away and held hostage before it could even begin. Everything a child should have, a little kid's needs, was stripped away and replaced with a cage. " Bruce clenches his fist in order to remain calm. " Who could do that? Who could sell their child, the little person they created, their responsibility, to someone, let alone HYDRA? "
Not fully sure what to say, but agreeing with Bruce's anger, Tony responds. " There are very horrible people out in the world. The important thing is, that now we can help Dorothea. Now we can change her life, help her live the life she never had. "
Bruce sighs. " I guess. I just...I'm so angry. I'm angry that a person could do that to their kid. I just...we take our everyday life and parents for granted, every day. We're lucky to have at least parents who kept us and didn't sell us away like a loaf of bread. We don't even realize how bad our lives could have been if our parents had given up on us or thrown us away. Some kids...some people never even meet their parents. I feel terrible. "
The four men in the living room sit and think. They think about Bruce's words. Each one of them, wondering what the little girl in the infirmary's future is.
Bucky's heart hurts, more than it should. More than he thinks possible, as he thinks about the little girl. A strange anger bubbles in him, overhearing that she was just sold without a second thought, scaring him.
He knows this girl, somehow.
And he's going to find out how.