Pietro set Lailah down on her bed. Her hands held onto his shirt when he tried to pull away. He attempted to pull her hand off, but when he tried she would only hold on tighter. Pietro sighed and picked Lailah back up. He sat in her bed and held her. Her head rested on his shoulder, with this time he had, Pietro studied the features of her face. Of course she was beautiful, that was not in question, but up close he could see scars lining her hair line. He wondered who could have done this too her, if only she would recover her memory. Pietro tried not to think too hard about what Lailah had gone through, it made him angry and when he gets angry he runs. He could not run at the moment. He didn't want to. So, he took a deep breath and leaned he head against the wall.
Stark had looked up every Lailah, with every spelling imaginable in Texas over the past eighteen years and none of them looked like her. Of course there was a possibility Lailah wasn't even her real name. Lailah said the only thing she remembered was a file titled 'The Lailah Experiment', that's it. Nothing on that title anywhere either.
The worst part was that Lailah didn't seem worried or concerned. She just accepted what Dr. Cho had said that her memories might come back, or they might not. This especially made Pietro mad, he didn't like not knowing.
Lailah arrived in New York one month after Loki's attack, she was dressed in a green dress that she kept under her bed. Her first memory was walking and being picked up by a fireman and asking if she had been in the attack, of course she had no idea what he was talking about. She was taken to a hospital, there she waited a full day to speak to a doctor that never came. She left the hospital and hitch hiked her way to Texas. Why? She had no idea, just a feeling.
In the next four years she found no new information, only one memory had returned, the folder with her 'name' on it. A part of Pietro was glad she didn't remember, if she was an experiment she probably went through what he did, and he wished he could forget. The agony felt endless, he did not want that for her. With one last look at Lailah, Pietro laid his head back and closed his eyes.
Pietro woke to Wanda knocking on the door. Lailah was still in his arms, she had not moved.
"Stark needs everyone downstairs." Pietro nodded. "Or I could tell him you're busy-"
"No, no." Pietro whispered to his sister as she laughed. "We'll be there in five minutes." Wanda nodded and closed the door. She had liked Lailah from the first time they met, Wanda was close to death and Lailah saved her. And if she made Pietro happy, then all the better. Wanda only wished she could help her get her memories back, she had tried before. To get inside her head but there was a force field of sorts keeping her from excessing them. It had hurt Lailah and Wanda in the process of trying to access her mind. The only other thing that she could try was use her power of nightmare, try to see if Lailah's greatest fear was her experimentation, but no one told Lailah of it. Since the last time Wanda had used it had silenced the Avengers for almost a week. No one wanted that for Lailah.
Lailah entered wrapped in a fluffy, pink, robe. Her hair was messed up, her eyes were half open and she ran into her chair before pulling it out and sitting down. She propped her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.
Pietro opened the door with his back, he held two cups of coffee. He sat down next to Lailah and slide the cup over to her. She picked it up and sipped it, the team talked quietly until a man in a grey suit entered the room. Pietro had no idea who it was, but Tony rolled his eyes so it was probably a politician.
"Avengers, such a pleasure. My kid loves you."
"What is this about, Walter?" Natasha asked, she crossed her arms and flipped her hair away from her face.
"It's about her." Walter gestured to Lailah. Lailah looked up from her cup, the rest of the team sat up a little straighter. This did not seem to be going anywhere good. "There are people who are questioning her loyalty." Lailah dropped her legs down and pushed her hair out of her face, she didn't like it when people had a preconceived notion of her.
"Who's the people?" Lailah asked, her voice, which was normally light to the sound was now lower.
"Important people. Now, we don't mean to imply anything rude, we just want to ask you some questions." Lailah smiled involuntarily. Her, Pietro, and Wanda had recently been watching the television show Bones and this is what Booth said to the men who he thought was guilty. "Did I say something humorous?" Lailah shook her head.
"I'm sorry, I'm tired and confused." Lailah leaned forward. "Why is my loyalty in question? I think I've only been helpful, and I'm learning about my powers, I'm not hurting anyone." Walter grabbed an envelope from his jacket pocket and slid it over to Lailah.
She opened it, and looked up at Walter. "What is this?"
"Ever since you signed the Avengers contract we have been searching for where you could have gotten your powers, since it seems it wasn't HYDRA we are…interested in you. In your powers. These are eye witnesses who have stepped forward claiming they have seen you performing…unheroic acts." Lailah looked at the list, she flipped the page.
"There are dates here that cannot be true. I couldn't have…set fire to a hotel in California and…killed a man in Arizona in the same day." Lailah could feel the energy reaching the surface. This was one thing she had trouble controlling, her temper. She had worked with Wanda, who use to have the same problem, but Lailah has yet to master the art. Lailah clenched her fists and placed them in her lap, she took a breath. "Anyway, these dates are all before my memory."
"Yes, your memory. A very convenient thing that is, isn't it?"
"That's enough." Steve stood. Walter immediately backed down. "When is this interrogation going to be?"
"Next Wednesday, my office. Three o'clock." He walked past Lailah as he exited. "Be more appropriately dressed." Lailah rolled her eyes and pushed her hand together, attempting to keep the energy inside her.
"What the hell was that?" Bucky asked. "Lailah isn't a threat."
"He just doesn't like not knowing everything." Steve put his hands on his hips.
"If he doesn't know something he has no control over it." Natasha stretched her neck. "That guy has been a pain in our ass since the beginning of time."
"There is a simple solution." Vision leaned on his forearms across the table. "Lailah will go to the interrogation and tell the truth. The truth is that she is no threat and is a valuable member of this team."
"What about her memory?" Pietro asked. "What if he tries to use it against her?"
"That sounds like something he would do." Clint put a hand to his chin, rubbing the scruff that had started to grow.
While this banter was going on, Lailah sat in the chair, she had no urge to drink her coffee, which usually took her two minutes to finish. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine life before the hospital that she had run away from. Think, she thought, what happened before?
"If she got her memory back, would scary suit man leave her alone?" Scott asked.
"Only if he liked her memories." Natasha said. "If she did something he doesn't like or agree with he could-"
"Nothing." Steve sat back down. "He couldn't do anything. We are a team, and none of us want Lailah to leave. We all trust her, correct?" The whole team agreed.
"What if I did this?" Lailah asked quietly.
"Lailah?" Wanda hoped she heard her wrong.
"What if I did all these things? What if I…" She looked at one of the incidents, "murdered a man, or stole a reactor of some sorts, or…killed another man? What if I'm a bad guy?"
"Our past doesn't define us." Bucky stated. "It's what we do in the present with our current mind that does."
"It seems to matter to him. What if I did all of these, or just one of them. What will he do to me?"
"Nothing." Steve repeated. "We won't let anyone take you away, okay? I promise."
"We'll protect you, we're family." Natasha took her hand and squeezed it lightly.
Lailah nodded but the pep talk didn't lift her spirits. She was the first to leave the room. She didn't bother to notice that no one had followed her out. She turned back to see what was the hold up, they were talking.
"-if we tried-" Wanda said quietly.
"No, we don't know what that will do. We don't even know if it'll work." Pietro seemed pretty convinced on his standpoint, whatever it was.
"Pietro, if it'll get her back her memories, maybe it's worth a shot." Natasha offered. Lailah opened the door. Everyone shut up.
"Whatever it is I'll do it."
"Lailah-" Pietro started.
"I want to. If it'll help." Everyone looked to Steve. He sighed and put a hand to his temple.
"Lailah, there is one aspect of Wanda's powers that we have been keeping from you. She doesn't use it on people anymore, because…because it makes them see their worst fear. Makes them live it." Lailah looked to Wanda who was busy picking at her nails.
"And you think my worst fear would be when I was experimented on?"
"It might. If you don't want to, we will understand. A few of us have been on the receiving end and it is not easy."
Lailah spoke without hesitation, "I'll do it." Pietro dropped his head.
"Think for more than a few seconds about it."
"Fine." Lailah took more than a few seconds to think about it. "I'll do it."