Chapter Ten: Names

"I made a choice, this is my path."

-Peter Parker

Katerina. The name slipped on Katherine's tongue easily. She knew that the name wasn't American, maybe European. Katerina. It was such a pretty name, the man that had been chasing her in her memory had called her that, Katerina. Was that her real name?

Katherine shook her head. No, it wasn't, it couldn't be. Her name was Siren, there was no way that her name could be Katerina.

Katherine bit her lip as she took a sip of her coffee, not caring if she burned her tongue. At first receiving these memories and flashbacks had been a sort of a gift. She had been wondering if she could tie the pieces together, maybe know more about her old life, but they only just left her horribly confused.

Katherine felt her anger growing, what did all of this mean? She was loyal to HYDRA, HYDRA was good to her, those people were her family, and there was nothing wrong-

Smash. She looked down and saw that she had broken her mug. Half sighing she picked up the pieces, but no matter how much she pushed aside the memories she couldn't hide one thing. At one point she had, had fangs.

"I'm back." Bruce said as he came in through the door of Avengers Tower. He only saw Tony lying down on the couch with one of his gadgets.

"How was your stalking trip?" he smirked.

Bruce rolled his eyes. "It wasn't a stalking trip."

"You went to the awards ceremony of your old girlfriend, but you didn't bother talking to her. That my friend is a stalking trip."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Fine, it went well besides I'll find the courage to talk to Betty someday. What have I missed?"

"Well, Natasha kicked Barton's ass at arm wrestling no surprise there, Pep wants to adopt a dog no way in hell, there's a serial killer on the loose, Steve's random obsession with HYDRA-"

"Wait, back up." Bruce frowned. "What about a serial killer and HYDRA?"

Tony lazily told him about Siren and Steve's belief that she is working for HYDRA. Bruce sat down weakly on the opposing chair. "And none of you thought about telling me this?"

"That's because it's not a big deal, you know how Steve is he's lonely and bored he probably obsess over things all the time." Tony frowned. "Don't tell me you're actually worrying about this. Because being a worrier is Steve's job."

"Peter, can you stay behind?" Katherine said after class one day. "I want to talk to you about your paper on Great Expectations."

"Oh, sure." He nodded once to Gwen who nodded her head, indicating that she would be waiting outside. Katherine closed the door as Peter sat on top of one of the desks, his skateboard firmly in his hand.

Katherine stared at Peter through the corner of her eye. HYDRA had very little info on Peter other than he had been bitten by a spider in the Oscorp lab, so Katherine had no idea how to test him.

"Is there something wrong with my paper?" Peter asked. He wasn't a very big reader, but Gwen had helped him out a lot, she was in love with the book.

"Not at all," Katherine said. "I was rather impressed with the way that you defended Pip's desire to change into a gentleman to win Estella's love."

Peter grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, it was rather corny, but in a way trying to be a gentleman and failing in the process taught Pip a lot and he became more grateful for what he had in his life."

Katherine slid the edge of her cup with her fingertips until it fell to the floor. Or almost until Peter catch it before she could even blink. "Watch out."

"Impressive, Mr. Parker."

"Um, no big deal," Peter said suddenly nervous. "Is that all Miss Peyton I have to go?"

"Yes." Katherine said staring at the edge of her tea cup where it was slightly covered with a sticky web. "Yes, Mr. Parker that would be all."

Jogging calmed Steve down most of the time, it was his form of relaxation, he couldn't get drunk like Stark even if he wanted to. So jogging was the next best thing, he was glad that he had his apartment so closed to Central Park.

He enjoyed jogging in the early morning when there weren't a lot of people and he could clear his thoughts, or anger might be better since he still wasn't pleased that Fury had dismissed his idea of Bucky so early and he hadn't told them about Siren.

"Hey, you." A curly mass of chocolate brown curls and a black jogging suit greeted him as it began running next to him. "Aren't you an early bird?"

"Hi," he blurted out amazed that Katherine seemed to have an easy time jogging next to him. Most people had difficulties keeping up with him. "Miss Peyton, right? Peter and Gwen's teacher."

"Please Steve call me Katrina, I must admit, it's nice seeing a familiar face." Katherine said.

"You're new?"

"Yes," Katherine pouted using her best damsel in distress voice. "I just move to the city, and I don't have a lots of friends, it's nice to have someone I can talk too at least during the weekends."

Like a sucker (and like Katherine had expected him too) Steve had fallen for the poor-me act.

"We can go out for coffee," Steve suggested, surprised at himself for being so bold. "I could show you a few things, I don't know the city that well like I used to, but I could show you a few spots."

Katherine smiled. "That would be lovely."

-End of Chapter Ten-