Chapter 4
"What's this?" Pietro asked, as he, Lydia, Wanda, Steve and Sam were all sat around the breakfast bar in the kitchen around midday, eating lunch.
"What's what?" Lydia asked, looking up from her cereal.
"This," Pietro pointed to a faint, thin scar running down the back of Lydia's neck, which could be seen as her hair was tied in a knot at the top of her head. His fingers briefly brushed her skin as he pulled his hand back, and he flexed his fingers slightly.
Lydia glanced at Steve as she dropped her spoon in her cereal shrugging. "Had an accident on a mission a few years ago. I needed surgery," she then cracked a grin, "At that point, Dr Cho's amazing cradle tech hadn't been invented yet so uh, I was left with actual evidence of an injury."
"What happened?" Wanda asked, curious. Sam leaned forward, also interested, while Steve's mouth formed a tight line. Lydia shifted in her seat, grabbing her spoon again.
"Oh, y'know, head trauma, bullets, hospitals, that sort of thing," she said vaguely.
Natasha strode into the kitchen before anyone could push her any further. "We've got a lead on Banner," she said, "We need to move quickly or it could go cold."
"Brilliant," Lydia said, filling up her spoon with cereal, "Where is he."
"Last we know of, Suva, in Fiji," Natasha answered. Lydia stalled her spoon halfway to her mouth, looking at Natasha incredulously.
"Fiji?" She asked. Pietro snorted and she rolled her eyes at him as Natasha shrugged.
"This obviously isn't a full mission," Natasha said, "So we won't need a full team but a few people coming along with me would be helpful."
"I'd love to help," Steve said, "But me and Sam have somewhere to be." Lydia and Natasha glanced at each other while the Maximoffs looked confused.
"We'll keep you updated on anything we find," Natasha nodded to them.
"Same with us," Sam replied, before standing up along with Steve.
"Good luck," Lydia told them, finally sticking her spoon of cereal in her mouth.
"Thanks, you too," Steve said.
"Fiji… why Fiji?" Lydia muttered to herself in the pilot's seat a few hours later.
"Maybe he likes Fiji," Pietro replied from the co-pilot's seat. Lydia rolled her head over to look at him, raising her eyebrows, and he shrugged. "So, uh," he faltered for a second, eyes flicking to look out the window, "Where are Steve and Sam? What are they looking for?"
Lydia knitted her eyebrows together, her mouth forming a tight frown. "I'm… not too sure I can say," she answered, "It's not really my place."
"Oh," Pietro said, as Wanda came over to them, leaning against her brother's chair.
"Have you ever been to Fiji before?" she asked, looking at Lydia.
"Nope," she replied, "Honestly I still can't quite really believe we are going… Fiji why would he go to Fiji?"
"Perhaps he likes Fiji?" Wanda suggested.
"That's what I said," Pietro told her.
"Do you not think Banner likes Fiji?" Wanda asked Lydia, curiously. Lydia stared at the two of them, both of them watching her curiously, before snorting and shaking her head.
"I dunno, I guess so," she replied, a laugh lacing her voice.
Banner was not in Fiji. At least, if he had been, by the time they'd gotten there and scoured the city, he had already gone, taking all trace that he'd ever been there with him. Back on the jet, flying through the night, Wanda and Pietro sat quietly at the front while Natasha and Lydia sat in the shadows at the back. Natasha stared at the wall, her mouth pulled down into a frown.
"We'll find him," Lydia said, taking Natasha's hand and stroking her thumb over the top, "he can't run forever."
Natasha shook her head, "Last time we tracked him down he didn't know we knew where he was. Now he knows we're trying to find him. He's going to be extra careful."
"Everyone slips up," Lydia said, bending her head down to look Natasha in the eye, "He'll make a mistake and we'll be there to make sure we get him before anyone else."
At the front of the jet, Pietro and Wanda watched the two women quietly over the edge of their chairs. "Everyone is looking for someone," Wanda murmured.
Pietro looked at her, "What?" Wanda dipped her eyebrows and turned back to face the window, looking down at her lap.
"Natasha is looking for Banner," she said, counting on one finger, "the Captain is looking for… someone," she counted off the other finger, "Lydia is looking for people who have SHIELD information…" she counted off the third finger, "how can so many people be lost?"
Pietro sighed and shrugged, looking back over the back of his chair. Natasha had closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. Lydia still held her hand, running her thumb over it slowly and rhythmically. She pressed her free hand against her leg and cracked her knuckles, looking up and catching Pietro's eye. She sent him a soft smile, and his lips quirked back, before he turned back around in his chair.
He looked to his side and saw Wanda watching him, curiously. Confusion slid over Pietro's face. "You have been talking to Martinez a lot," Wanda stated. Pietro frowned and shrugged.
"I suppose," he answered, "she is easy to talk to. She does not force me into conversation like many of the others."
Wanda smiled, "It is good. This is… hard," she looked out of the window, "coming here. Learning. Interacting. It is good that we have both found a person we feel comfortable with to help us."
Pietro scoffed, "Yes but at least mine is a person," he said, throwing her a lopsided smile, "Yes, but at least mine is human. Yours is a robot."
Wanda rolled her eyes, "Vision is as much a man as you," she defended, "and he is very helpful. We have been navigating the world together. It is new for him. And someone I need to re-find."
Pietro looked down at his lap, "So do I."
"You have not been very respondent in that learning recently," Wanda said, softly. Pietro looked up at her, his face drawn.
"You know you've always found it easier to adapt to new people and new places." He said. Wanda nodded.
"Yes, I know. But I am glad you're finally adapting. And Lydia is a good person to help you," she glanced over to the back of her chair. Lydia had rested her head on Natasha's shoulder, dozing off, "We train together often. She is good at both pushing you and making sure you are still comfortable."
Pietro made a sound of agreement, kicking his feet up on the dashboard and leaning back, closing his eyes. Wanda waited to see if he would say anything more, but after a moment of silence, she sighed, and curled up in her chair, closing her eyes as well.
A week passed as normal. Steve, Lydia and Natasha trained the New Avengers when they were all available. Steve and Sam disappeared off to search for the Winter Solider. Natasha tried to track down Bruce. Wanda and Pietro continued to train and relearn how to live. Lydia spent countless of hours with Maria attempting to find The Last Resort.
"Wait…" Lydia said one afternoon. Her head had begun o ache from staring at computer screens for so long, but she squinted and looked even closer at the screen in front of her. Zooming in, she focused on a young woman with a round face and straight brown hair. "FRIDAY can you run a scan for any matches on this face?"
"Of course, Ms Martinez," FRIDAY responded. There was a moment of silence, in which Maria walked over to Lydia, looking at the screen. "The image is a 99.6 percent match to Caroline Hord," FRIDAY said.
"Thank you FRIDAY," Lydia said, closing the laptop sharply and nodding to Maria before leaving briskly.
The next day, Lydia knocked on a green door in the suburbs of San Francisco, smoothing down her blouse, and then slipping her hand into her bag, closing her fingers around the cold handle of her gun. When an elderly woman with a round, smiling face opened the door, her grip relaxed slightly.
"Mrs Hord?" Lydia asked.
"Yes," the woman replied, nodding. Lydia plastered a smile on her face and let out an artificially nervous breath.
"Hi, I'm Cassie Lowe, I'm a friend of Caroline's?" Lydia said, her voice a notch higher than usual, "She invited me round for coffee the other day, I don't know if…"
"Oh, yes of course come in," Mrs Hord beckoned Lydia in, and then called up the stairs, "Carol dear, your friend's here!"
"My friend?" A voice called back, and footsteps made their way across the landing. Lydia gripped her gun tighter again.
"Yes, Cassie Lowe?" Mrs Hord looked at Lydia, and she nodded, smiling.
"Cassie Low- Oh…"
A young woman, no older than eighteen, came down the stairs. Her face still held the remnants of baby fat, and the bright pink, fluffy hair band tying back her hair, plus the cartoon dog on her jumper, didn't help to make her look any older. Her fingernails and toenails were all painted different colours, and she had multiple elastic and beaded bracelets running up her left arm.
"Hi… Cassie," Caroline said, her voice flat and her face emotionless.
"I'll get you some coffee, yeah?" Mrs Hord suggested.
"That'd be great mum thanks. Why don't you come up," she nodded to Lydia, who followed her up the stairs. Caroline's room looked just as young as she did, with various posters of TV shows and bands around the walls, and photos scattered around between them. Lydia looked at a family photo of when Caroline must have been about fifteen, with Caroline in the centre, her mother next to her, and her father on the other side. Mr Hord seemed to be in standard army blues, but Lydia spotted the SHIELD insignia on a patch on his shoulder.
Under that photo was another, half tucked behind a Rihanna poster. In it stood five people; Lydia, Jessica, Jonathan, Caroline and Evan. They were in an almost empty hospital room, crowded around a bed which Jonathan sat in. Lydia's face was covered in bruises. Jessica's arm was in a sling. Evan's head was completely shaved.
"What do you want?" Caroline asked, sitting on her bed. Lydia turned around, sucking in a breath and frowning.
"Do you want the long answer, or the short answer?"
Three hours and five cups of coffee each later, both Caroline and Lydia sat on Caroline's bed, frowning.
"I'm sorry about Jessica," Caroline finally said. Lydia shook her head.
"Not your fault." She said. Caroline nodded, fiddling with the empty mug in her hands. She looked up, looking Lydia in the eye.
"I don't want to be a part of this," she confessed, "You know I was always… less than enthusiastic about it to begin with. It was all my dad's fault, if he hadn't put me in danger I would have just thought he was just a normal grunt. I don't want to do this," she was beginning to rock back and forwards slightly.
"I know," Lydia muttered, crawling forward and pulling Caroline into a hug, "That's why I need you to come with me. We can extract your information, and then you can come back. Maybe I could swing a deal and get you back into school."
Caroline watched Lydia for a while, thinking, chewing on her bottom lip. Finally, she nodded. "Ok," she said, "ok. Anything to get me out of this mess."
Hey! I'm really sorry for taking so long to update. I had a week full of revising and stress and exams, and then I had to pack up my uni room to come back home for the summer, and I also hit a bit of a writer's block, but hopefully I'll be back on track now
I kinda feel like I'm not doing Wanda justice or giving her the time she deserves; she's such a massive part of Pietro's life and I'm trying to avoid the whole "wanda's conveniently not there when romance stuff is happening", so if anyone's got any advice on that front, I'd be really happy to hear it :D
And, like, any comments really. They'd be awesome to hear :D