The room was slow to react except for Nat who watched as the Jarvis powered elevator took Carter down. "Jarvis direct her to the guest room next to mine," ordered Nat.
"I have done so Miss Romanova," replied Jarvis, "I am however, concerned for young Miss Stark's health as she seems to be suffering from some sort of attack."
"It's a hallucination,' responded Nat, her voice was like steel, "Keep her there Jarvis. If she shows signs of suicidal tendencies alert me as soon as possible."
The Avengers all looked at her in shock as she dealt with the situation with all of the emotion of an iceberg.
"I've seen this before," she said shortly, her hand shaking as she went over to Tony and Steve. The former was white, shaking almost uncontrollably while the latter had blank eyes trying to understand, "Where?" asked Rhodey.
"Hydra," spat Bucky, Nat nodded and added, "The Red Room."
"Memory manipulation?" Bucky asked her through gritted teeth and again she nodded.
"How?" asked Phil, "I thought we dropped them all last Fall."
"It doesn't have to be them, someone could just have cracked the code, but that's not important," said Nat, firmly redirecting the conversation.
"The point is that our daughter is hurting," said Tony, his voice surprisingly level despite all of his shaking, "We need to know what they did to her. We need to know what she's seeing."
"Jarvis can pull up surveillance and audio can he not?" stated Clint, staring fixedly at the elevator where Carter had disappeared.
"Yes, I can sir but I must warn you - Miss Stark seems to be in great distress and Sir, Captain she's referencing both of you…I thought you should know before…"
"Pull it up Jarvis," demanded Tony taking on the steel of Nat's voice.
"I'll canvass the area," said Clint, "Climbing towards the air vents. Jarvis pipe into my comm please," he requested as he settled his combat earpiece that doubled as a hearing aid into his ear. He winced as he listened to the sobs of the young woman but continued on his journey upwards.
Once in the vents he progressed quickly toward the room Carter was in while the others watched the television set in the common room.
Carter had barely made it into the room before she realized what she had done and then her dad's voice was upon her.
"I cannot believe I created something so useless," and she curled in upon herself on the floor trying to block out the words. She could hear and the uneven footsteps walking toward her. A crash sounded. A bottle, a glass she didn't want to know but she could smell the alcohol. 'No!' screamed her inner voice, 'He doesn't drink. You've never seen him drink let alone get drunk.' Her rationality was permeating her mind and she began to unroll realizing the stupidity of her actions when a palm connected with her face. The memory grabbed hold of her again. Her face burned, "Please Dad," she pleaded trying to avoid antagonizing him further.
"Shut up. God can't you just shut up for one minute! It's bad enough that you've failed something but now you want me to just let it go? No, I don't need this - get out of my sight."
Carter didn't move, afraid of triggering another slap, but then came the kick. She buckled forward hands out in front to break her fall. Glass tore into her palms making her bleed. He hadn't seen yet so she struggled up toward the door. But upon reaching it the doors wouldn't open and by then he noticed, "Stupid B**ch. Get out!" and he shoved her against the glass. She fall backwards and cracked her head.
Carter fell and all she could she see were the doors closing behind the retreating figure of her father.
In the common room Tony stumbled back as a force overtook him and he fell into what Bruce would later identify as a vision.
Then it all shifted, just for a minute but Carter found herself sitting on the steps outside of Tony's lab. Watching but nor daring to enter. Of course he saw her and came to the doors, extended his hand, and pulled her into a hug. "You're always welcome here sweetheart."
She was holding a letter in her hands, "What's that honey?" asked her Dad.
"I'm not smart," she said showing him the letter from the IQ testing place Pepper had suggested they send Carter in the interest of learning more about their daughter.
"This doesn't mean that," said Tony rather angrily, he wasn't happy with Pepper at that point.
"Yes, it does," she argued, "I'm sorry," she added.
Her Dad took her by the shoulders, knelt down to look her in the eye and told her, "Never apologize for not being like anybody else. You are smart Carter. You read that entire letter with all of its complicated words and understood it. You are smart. And I will always be proud of you."
In the common room Tony snapped back to reality to see his teammates and boyfriend trying to wake him. He looked at Natasha, "You saw it," she said.
"Some of it, it wasn't…" he was unsure of how to proceed.
"You saw the real memory," Bucky told him, "They'll be fighting in her head for dominance right now. That's not odd."
Tony blinked back tears at how his daughter had been so easily persuaded of her uselessness. "Tony," Natasha said gently, "We're going to need to go over what you saw and compare to what she experienced before." He nodded, then noticed that Bruce was nowhere to be found.
"He went to her, she cracked her head rather hard on the wall. She'll be given a sedative that'll see her through till tomorrow," Steve answered his unasked question.
Again Tony nodded. He stood, still shaking when Bruce returned, "Clint is still in vents. He volunteered to take first watch, Nat will be next, then Phil, and then Bucky," the Doctor rattled off the list, "Not you two," he apologetically told Steve and Tony, "Not until we know what triggers her. You have to sleep, for her if not for yourselves."
"We can debrief tomorrow Tony," Nat confirmed, "Go sleep - all of us should go sleep. Take a sedative from Bruce if you need it." She tossed a bottle of pills at Steve and Tony, "We will figure this out," she promised.