AN: Thank you to the anonymous guest who posted a review today that reminded me to get back to work. I have no excuse for the delayed-ness of this chapter other than procrastination. Sorry. Please enjoy!

Chapter Nine

Seven Years Later

Wanda knew she was supposed to have a bodyguard with her at all times, but she had never been a fan of any of the large men that Dad had hired to keep an eye on her. She had slipped out of the back doors of the high school where she learned with all of the other children of the important figures that ran America and ran through the streets of D.C. toward the White House where she lived with President Walters.

The president would be mad that she had left the guards behind yet again, but she had grown quite adept to dodging his wrath in the seven years she had lived as his daughter.

When she reached the gates, she flashed a smile at the security guards and the one on the left eyed her suspiciously. "If I'm correct, Wanda, you're supposed to have guards with you and you were supposed to come home from school in a protected car."

"You're, correct, Jim, but since when have I done what I'm supposed to?" Her accent was still as present as the day she had arrived in the US.

Jim frowned, but opened the gate for her. "You need to be more cautious. Plenty of people would love to take a snap at you to get to Walters."

Wanda frowned back and nodded. He was right, she knew, but it didn't stop her from disliking her hired guards. "I take a different route home every day and the guards are welcome to join me if they can keep up with me." She stepped through the gates and made her way up the long driveway toward the White House.

Stephen stood at the door and held it open for her with a smile dutifully. She had insisted that he come with them when Walters became president six years ago and he had insisted that he wanted to remain a doorman. "Wanda, running home again, are you?"

"I couldn't stand the guards and their serious faces a moment longer, Stephen."

"You're father will be unhappy. He worries about you."

"I know. I'm going to see him now."

She dropped her backpack in her room before making her way to the Oval Office where President Walters spent so much of his time now. "Hi Dad," she greeted him and walked in as soon as she saw that he was neither meeting with anyone or on the phone. Back when she had only begun dodging the guards and running home, she avoided seeing him right away, but he always worried when he got a call from the guards saying that she was missing. She had refused to stop dodging the guards, but agreed to come see him and prove she was safe right away whenever she did.

"Wanda, what am I going to do with you?" He asked as he stood up to hug her. She was still much smaller than him, but she had grown a lot since he had first brought her to America with him. She was no longer the tiny child she had been. "You cause me to worry so much."

"Sorry, I know I shouldn't." She suddenly regretted her rash decision as she always did when she saw her dad's face after she left the guard behind. "I always just happens before I have time to think."

The president sighed. "Can you at least call me next time?"

"If I call you, you'll warn the guards just like you always do."

"Maybe you shouldn't be avoiding them when they're there to keep you safe. I swear I'm going to have to have them start picking you up from your last class and walking to your locker with you before taking you home."

"And I would resent you for not allowing me to be a rebellious teenager." She responded quickly. This argument was not new to either one of them.

"Which would make you no different from any other teenager in the country."

"Except every other teenager isn't the adopted daughter of the president. Don't worry so much, Dad. I can take care of myself."

He was young, but his hair had grown gray from the stress of running the country and seeing the look of concern in his eyes, Wanda backed down.

"Okay, I'll stay with the guard, I promise. I've got to go, I have a lot of homework to do." She headed for the door.

"I'll see you at dinner, Wanda." He called after her. And I know you'll break your promise in about a week or two.

Wanda spun around at the voice she heard. I was definitely the president's, but it didn't seem to have come from his mouth, it had sounded in her head. "What did you say?"

"I said 'I'll see you at dinner.'" Walters looked taken aback.

"No, after that, what did you say after that?"

"Nothing," Walters frowned at her, concerned.

"Oh, I guess I'm hearing things." Wanda paused awkwardly. "I'll see you at dinner." She hurried out of the room, trying to dismiss what she had thought she heard.

…

They had added a TV in the Sokovian boys orphanage and every night, at exactly 8:00, it was tuned into the world news broadcast. Pietro had expected the other boys to object to this, but when he told them he was watching for his sister, the remote was handed to him with no objection.

"If we had a family to watch for," Max, one of the older boys said, "we would want to watch, too." Max had lived in the same apartment building as the twins. He had been out buying bread for their dinner when the building had been hit. He lost both of his parents and his baby brother. He and Pietro had become good friends during their time together.

He never expected to see anything, she was just one girl of the millions that lived in America, now, but it was his only link to the strange country she had been sent to and he was willing to sit through many pointless news stories for the slight chance that his sister might be a part of one.

The first time he saw her, he had been fifteen and the president of the United States was being sworn into office for the second time, having won the presidential race that put him into office for another term. Standing next to him was a teenage girl in a beautiful dress. One of the boys sitting next to him nudged him questioningly. Pietro sat in silence. The president spoke, but the words washed over him with no meaning, his eyes were fixed to the girl next to him who he had feared he would never see again.

As quickly as this news had come up on the screen, it changed to focus on another country where a war was raging. "Wanda," Pietro had whispered.

He had never stopped trying to escape, not really, though his attempts were less frequent than they had been before. He had been running out of ideas for a long time and the guards knew all of his maneuvers by heart. They were always ready for him.

…

At 17, he was only one year from leaving the orphanage as an adult. No one had even come close to adopting him. He had promised Max, who had left only a month ago that he would find him when he was released back into the real world and they would find a way to America together. He rarely saw Wanda on the news, but he still watched for the chance that she might show up and also to keep an eye on the man who was acting as her father. When he did see her, she seemed happy. Part of him wondered if she ever thought of him or why she never tried to contact him. She was the adopted daughter of the president, surely she had enough influence to send him a letter. He stayed up late many nights wondering and worrying about why she hadn't.

It was on one of these late nights that he was pacing around his small room, deep in thought when suddenly, he felt himself jerk forward. Though he had felt that he was only walking slowly, he ran into the wall suddenly. And just as soon as he hit that wall, he ran into another wall. It took him a few tries before he was able to crash down onto his bed.

He checked the clock to find that it was 3AM and decided that he was overtired and maybe a little bit crazy. Because it seemed to him, that he had been traveling super fast and that was definitely impossible.

…

It took Walters longer to finish up his project than he had thought and he and Wanda ate dinner late than evening. Their argument from earlier had been forgotten and they chatted amiably about the affairs of the country and the latest chemistry test that Wanda would have to take in a few days.

"I'm afraid I'm no good at chemistry, otherwise, I would help you study. I seem to have forgotten everything I learned in college except for politics."

"It's no big deal. I'm not that worried about it, anyway." Though what did worry Wanda was the strange snippets of words that she kept hearing in Walters' voice when he wasn't talking out loud.

"Are you okay? You're eyes look a little strange." He noted, watching her carefully. She had been acting strange the whole meal and he swore he must be going crazy because he kept thinking that he saw his daughter's eyes flashing red.

"I'm fine, Dad. It's been a long day and I think I might be catching a cold or something. I'm gonna go to bed." Wanda pushed away from the table and headed for the door, mentally begging the voice in her head to be quiet.

"Well let me know if you need medicine or anything." He called after her.

Wanda was overwhelmed suddenly with a strong sense of worry that was not her own, but it passed as she moved further from her dad. I must be going crazy, she thought.