The next few days were a confusing time for Evaline as her personal and work lives smashed together like she had never expected them to before.

It was a rare night when there wasn't at least one other Avenger at their dinner table - most often Sam, who found a cooking competitor in Genevieve and loved sharing war stories with Jeremy and Gabe; or Natasha, who doted on Daria and Henry so much that at least one of them woke up every morning asking where Auntie Nat was. However, perhaps the biggest change in daily life was the inclusion of Marley in many of their activities, as she and Gabe continued to get closer despite Evaline's glare both of them received when they got a little too handsy. Still, it was nice to have another female around the house to balance out the gender ratio, and Marley fit into their family like a puzzle piece none of them had realized they'd been missing.

Just as she had a week prior, Evaline found herself lulled by the comfort and complacency of their situation. Although her team would report in everyday with what headway - if any - they had made on locating Luke, or identifying the Mystery Man, or figuring out what was going on with Evaline's brain, Evaline found that she was distancing herself from all of it once more as she continued to play house with Steve and her family.

So that was when, naturally, it all came crashing down over them.

It had been a long day, as Steve, Evaline, and Genevieve had spent a large portion of it helping Henry and Daria cultivate the garden that was just beginning to sprout some fall vegetables. Evaline found herself wondering several times why anybody gardened as a means to relax, but realized belatedly that perhaps it was because they usually did it without small children wielding the tools beside them and pretending like the weeds were invading aliens they had to attack.

When the two kids began to tucker out, they moved them inside for their naps as Evaline and her mom curled up with books to relax, and Steve exited the cabin to meet with Sam. The former Spec Ops soldier had taken up a role as a de facto leader in Steve's interim absence, handling a lot of the Avengers business alongside Tony and Natasha.

The kids woke before Steve had even come back inside, and Joana and Genevieve moved effortlessly in the kitchen to prepare them all dinner with the fresh vegetables they had picked during the day. Meanwhile, Evaline remained reading her book while Gabe played some game with the kids on the floor and Jeremy typed away furiously on his laptop.

When Steve came in, he did so without announcement, and he earned very little attention from anyone else in the house beside Evaline, whose eyes were instantly drawn to him as they always were. As she caught sight of him in his worn jeans, rolled up flannel, and work boots, Evaline felt a pang of bitterness, not for the first time, that this regular life would likely never be an option for her and Steve.

Stuck in her melancholy mind, Evaline hadn't even noticed that Steve had crossed the room to stand in front of her, giving her a playful smile. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Don't you know pennies aren't worth anything nowadays, old man? I'm going to need a more enticing offer," she responded teasingly, tilting her head up as he leaned down to kiss her, followed by a chorus of "ew's" and giggling from the floor behind him.

"God, you two are like a bunch of teenagers," Joana commented lovingly from the doorway standing between the kitchen and the living room. The door opened again, garnering all of their attention as Marley stepped through, sporting a few recyclable bags' worth of groceries as Gabe immediately leapt up to help her. Rolling her eyes, Joana commented with a smile, "God, it truly is becoming a hormone fest in here. Reminds me horribly of high school."

"Ah, yes, the glory days," Jeremy said brightly, jumping up from his table to give his own wife a peck, much to the chagrin of their children. "Oh, hush, you two."

Smirking at his older brother after greeting Marley with a kiss on the cheek, Gabe mockingly asked, "'Oh, hush?'"

"Auntie Marley!" Henry shouted gleefully from the floor, ignoring the exchanging of barbs between the adults around him. Instead, he gesticulated wildly to his toys in front of him, shouting, "Come look at my soldiers! They're like you, and Auntie Eva, and Uncle Steve!"

"Wow, it looks like you've got a real battlefield set up!" Marley exclaimed as she grinned down at Henry, squatting to get down to his level as she perused the play field in front of her. Feigning seriousness, she asked, "Can you tell me how many soldiers you have lined up here?"

While he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he counted the figurines Marley had helped him set up, his family watched with loving smiles until his expression cleared to make way for a joyous one, his bright voice calling out, "Nine!"

Almost instantly, a wave of nerve pain shot through Evaline's brain, lighting all of it on fire as she felt Steve grab her. She instantly went to go fight back, her own body betraying her as her hand reached out to chop at Steve's solar plexus, bringing the super soldier down to his knees with a nearly silent gasp of pain.

As one, Gabe and Jeremy slipped in front of her, both looking terrified at whatever expression they saw on Evaline's face. She watched in horror as her hand reached out to grab her younger brother, who her subconscious recognized as the larger threat and who her conscious screamed was not a threat at all, as she felt her mind fracturing at the warring thoughts.

The single moment of indecision was enough for Gabe to corral her, flanked by their older brother as he managed to push Evaline back into the kitchen. Distantly, she heard Henry ask worriedly, "Uncle Stevie?"

"Evaline," Gabe said, his voice low and his hands tight on her as he tried to meet her wild gaze. "Evaline, calm down, sis. You're safe, nobody here is a threat to you."

Despite the fact that Evaline's mind distantly agreed with him, her mouth formed the words, "You are."

She managed to slip one arm out of his grip and reach behind her to the counter, where a knife sharpener was laying on the counter. As her fingers circled around the hilt, she heard Jeremy shout, "Marley!"

Evaline's head whipped around to face the newest threat, the agent who stood in the doorway with a focused, cold gaze and a gun pointed at her. Just as she reached out to leap toward Marley and disarm her, noting the agent didn't even flinch as Evaline's muscles moved, she felt a force slam into her body, pinning her to the cabinets

Steve's voice nearly ruptured her ear as he shouted, "Now, Marley!"

Feeling the electric shock ride through her from the electrode bullet Marley had shot into her thigh, Evaline gave into the blackness that came quickly, only distantly hearing Henry's voice calling her name in distress.

—

When she woke, she noticed she was in the room she was sharing with Steve at the cabin, although she was the only one in the room. As she got up, she felt the aftereffects of the Stunner that Marley had used to deter her, and the memory of her raging caused every atom of food inside her body to come up in rebellion.

After emptying her stomach of all of its contents, Evaline stepped to the door to exit and brush her teeth, but she found that the doorknob wouldn't turn. As she jiggled it and inspected it, sure that it was merely broken as the result of a cabin that was older than she was, she noticed it seemed caught on something: the lock.

That's when she realized that they - that her team, her family - had locked her in, because she was a risk they couldn't trust.

Sure that an incessant amount of bile was about to make the same journey her meals from the last day had moments before, Evaline instead looked around the room for any way she could get out of what now felt like her prison cell.

Finally, her eyes zeroed in on the one potential exit: a smallish window facing out toward the lawn and forest. She quickly opened the glass pane, popping the screen out of its frame and resting it gently on the floor behind her, before stepping up to the ledge and looking out to measure how high the drop would be. Even without her S.H.I.E.L.D training, Evaline had snuck out this way in the summer of her fifteenth year, to meet up with a boy from town before Jeremy had used his telepathic older brother powers to find her and ruin the moment.

Sneaking one foot out to test the sturdiness of the ledge, which held underneath most of her weight, Evaline wasted no time at all throwing the rest of her weight out of the window. She quickly scaled the ledge, her fingernails digging into the shingles on the side of the house, before she made it to the large gutter and slid down it, getting a small plastic burn on the soles of her palms.

She streaked toward the forest, not really sure what her plan was, but knowing she needed to get out of the house and get some distance from what she had done and the consequences of her mental break. Stumbling almost drunkenly over roots and stones and twists on the path, Evaline felt none of the scratches or bruises her body suffered as her mind whirled incessantly in a cyclone of emotion.

Finally, her body brought her to a stop as her chest felt like it was going to implode if she took one step further. She even went so far as to put her hands on her knees and heave, spitting up only bile and trying to catch her breath without aspirating on whatever remained.

Her near heart attack almost resumed when a voice asked, "Where are you going?"

She turned quickly to find the source, unsurprised to find that her boyfriend had followed her through the forest. Despite the fact that she knew she had a long head start on him, his chest was barely moving with exertion although hers felt like it was going to burst.

Speaking between breaths, Evaline ignored his question and asked one of her own, saying, "How'd you know I got out?"

"Vision was flying overhead and alerted me that you were trying to escape," Steve said, stepping closer to her as she realized he was keeping his left foot always in front, a sure sign that he was on the defensive. Concern etched into every line of his face making him look a little bit closer to his real age, as he repeated, "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," Evaline admitted, shaking her head. "I just knew I needed to get out of there and distance myself from you all. I was so stupid to not think about how I could put them in danger by my own actions." She clutched at her still-roiling stomach as Steve watched with a look of anguish on his face. "I was so busy trying to protect them from the Mystery Man that I forgot what a threat to them I was."

When Steve tried to reach out to her, to presumably hold and console her, she scuttled backward like a startled deer as he paused, looking like he was going to be sick himself. His voice shook slightly as he said, "It's beyond your control, Evaline. Nobody blames you."

"I blame myself," Evaline shot back, shaking her head so hard that tendrils slipped out of her previously tightened braid. "After everything that happened in Wakanda, I should have had you all lock me up and - "

Steve's voice was hard, insistent, as he said, "We never would have."

"Then I should've done something to have not given you all the choice," Evaline spat back. "You saw what I almost did to Bucky before you all got there. Just because I may not be physically modified like he is, it's like the psychosis that takes over makes me slightly less human as well. All my senses heighten, all empathy drains away, and every lesson I've learned while I've been with S.H.I.E.L.D becomes my religion. Nothing else matters."

"Ev," Steve said slowly, as he started taking small steps toward her.

"And," Evaline continued on, undeterred, "you saw last night how I didn't even have anyone giving me directions. Just as soon as I was triggered, I turned into a killing machine. What the hell was that?! Even Bucky needed commands to be turned into a murderer, and yet I -"

"Ev," Steve said, more insistently this time as he reached out and grabbed Evaline by either arm, holding her still and forcing her to focus on him. He paused a moment, an array of emotions flashing over his face before he settled on determined and he said honestly, "I don't have the answer for you. None of us do, and I'm sorry about that. But what matters is you didn't hurt anyone, and we are going to figure this out. For now, rely on us - on me, on your team, on your family - to take care of you and protect both you and ourselves."

Steve's grip had loosened enough on her arm that both of Evaline's hands shot up to cover her mouth as she gasped, "Oh. Oh, my God. Henry. What does Henry think of me attacking all of you? I can't - "

"Jeremy and I explained it away as a training exercise for a mission we have coming up, and he bought it. Daria doesn't even know what happened since she was with your mom and Joana," Steve said, shaking his head at the excuse. "All he was, was worried about you when you didn't wake up for breakfast this morning. We told him you had gone on a run and were taking a nap, but I think that's when he sensed the lie."

Fondness for her nephew began to override the sickness Evaline had over the whole incident, as she imagined Henry questioning Jeremy and Steve about Evaline's whereabouts and doubting not the fake play from the day before, but the fact that she was taking a nap. Steve sensed that she had finally come down off of the ledge a bit as he gently asked, "Can we go back inside now? I'm sure everyone's wondering why I sprinted off in the middle of lunch without explanation."

Taking a deep breath, Evaline nodded as she took his hand and let him lead her out of the forest and back into the light.

When they exited out from the tree line, Steve moved his arm protectively around her waist when they saw that Jeremy, Gabe, and Genevieve were waiting for them out in the lawn. While they were still a good distance away, Gabe called out, "Everything okay?"

Evaline wanted to tell her brother the truth: that everything was very much not okay. She saw the fear and suspicion that Jeremy was trying to hide on his face, and she saw that Gabe had covertly stepped directly in front of Genevieve, seemingly acting as a barrier between her and Evaline if it was needed. She wasn't sure when she had lost the trust of her family, but she knew that it was one of the few things that wouldn't be able to handle.

Sensing her emotions as she took in the scene in front of her, Steve wrapped his arm tighter around her waist for more support as he called out, "Just needed some air."

The silence that enveloped the five of them was thickened with tension until Steve and Evaline came to a stop about four feet away from the welcoming committee. Realizing that all of her family members' eyes were heavily on her, Evaline decided to start the conversation she knew they needed to have as she said, "I am so sorry for last night. I don't think I have to tell you all that I was triggered by… by the word that Henry said. Admittedly, that response was a little stronger than what I've had before, and if I had known it would have been that severe, I would have never put you all in this situation."

"We love you, Ev, and we know you didn't mean it," Jeremy said, his gaze inadvertently going back to the house, no doubt to where Joana was watching them and making sure Evaline stayed far away from her kids. "We just… we just need to figure out what's going on with you before you're back around the kids."

Evaline felt Steve stiffen next to her, his temperature rising by a few degrees, as her mother said in admonishment, "Jeremy Philipe!"

"No, he's right," Evaline said, standing up for her brother, who looked relieved at her intervention. She stepped out of Steve's grip, practically feeling the pity and anger at Jeremy's wording radiating off of him, as she said, "I put you all at risk, at risk of being attacked not only by strangers, but also by me. I am so, so sorry. I think it's time that I leave, to protect you all and to truly spend all my energy on finding out what is wrong with me."

Jeremy blanched as he saw the guilt that flooded his younger sister's features, but it was Gabe who stepped forward and said, "Ev. We don't blame you. But we are worried about what we saw and I think… I think you need to focus all your energy on healing yourself right now, getting the answers you need and figuring out what to do next. Stop worrying about us."

She gave him a weak smile. "You say that like it's easy."

"It's not," Gabe admitted, "but it's the only way to say it."

Simply staring at her younger brother, Evaline asked in disbelief, "When did you get so smart?"

"Purposefully when you weren't watching so I could catch you off your guard with my sage advice," Gabe answered, supplying her with a shit-eating grin that seemed to right Evaline's skewed world for a few much-needed moments. The moment was quickly over, however, as he lost his smile and cleared his throat, turning his head for a second to look back at the house. "Henry's been asking non-stop about you. He thinks Marley hurt you somehow, even though he believed us about the training exercise bit."

Again, the nausea peaked in Evaline's stomach. "I'll go talk to him."

The five of them walked in uncomfortable silence back toward the house, and Evaline couldn't help but wonder at the fact that her mother, who normally had something to say about everything, obviously had no words to offer during this situation. None of it was made better by the scene they walked into when they made it inside: Joana barely able to wrangle her son and daughter from running toward Evaline, looking incredibly distressed in attempting to do so.

"Jo," Jeremy spoke up, his voice strained. "It's okay."

She gave him a quick look of disbelief, relaxing her muscles enough that Henry broke away and ran straight at Evaline's calves, screaming, "Auntie Eva!"

The weight of him nearly knocked her over, but her training helped her balance recalibrate to the small human now attached to her. As Henry began throwing question after question at her about where she had been and what she had been doing, Steve leaned over and whispered to her, "I'll go pack up our stuff."

Genevieve and Gabe disappeared with Steve up the stairs, presumably to go help Steve with packing up all their belongings, as Evaline squatted down to get down to Henry's level, motioning Daria over as well. Her niece looked up at her mother questioningly, who nodded once and let her go, before pulling her husband to the corner of the room and demanding answers in hushed tones that Evaline tried to ignore.

Henry, oblivious to his parent's fight in the corner, put his chubby hands on Evaline's cheeks as he frowned in an adult manner and asked, "Did Auntie Marley hurt you? I saw her hurt you, but you said you had no owies, but then you weren't at breakfast."

"So, you know how yesterday you saw me and Uncle Steve practicing some super cool moves?" Evaline asked, attempting to keep her voice light although she felt the tightness in her throat that was a sure sign of the tears building up in their ducts.

Daria and Henry nodded in unison. Their trusting and curious looks were the only thing that kept Evaline's front intact, the only thing that kept her strength from wavering, as she told them, "Well, Auntie Marley mistook me for hurting Uncle Steve, so she just stepped in to help. She didn't hurt me at all; everything's okay, and she proved we still have some work to do. In fact, we have to go on a super secret mission, so I'm going to leave you all and I might not see you for a while."

Frowning, Henry tilted his head as he asked, "Why not?"

"Because we need some extra time to catch the bad guy," Evaline said, her stomach a little sick at the fact that she was lying so easily to them, and that they were buying it so easily. "But we'll be back before you even realize we're gone."

Without missing a beat, Daria asked breathlessly, "With Auntie Nat and Uncle Sam and Auntie Marley and Auntie Wanda and Uncle Tony and - ?"

"Yes, with all your aunties and uncles and in tow, so they can spoil you," Evaline interrupted gently, with a patient smile. She took in a deep breath to stabilize her feelings, looking at her niece and nephew each fully and remembering their faces before she put out her arms and said, "Come give Auntie Eva a hug."

The two kids complied, nearly barreling into her as she wrapped both arms around them. She held them tightly to her own body, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter to keep the tears from falling, knowing the sight would only upset them.

Only when she was sure she had a control over the tears did she let them go out of her embrace. They heard loud footsteps from the stairway and looked up to see Genevieve leading Gabe and Steve down the stairs, both of the men hefting large suitcases as Evaline's stomach dropped and the tears threatened to spill. Henry, his voice emitting in a whine, asked, "You're leaving right now? But Uncle Steve told me he'd teach me how to throw his shield, and he hasn't yet!"

"They'll be back," Joana said tightly, smiling as nicely as she could to keep the kids in oblivion of how much danger they were in. Still, her eyes moved furtively toward Evaline, keeping stock of where she was in the room as she spoke every word slowly, fearful of triggering her once more. "Uncle Steve can teach it to you next time."

Henry was about five seconds away from full meltdown mode, but Steve quickly dropped his suitcase and swung in front of him, grabbing him by the shoulders and giving him a disarming smile as he said, "I'll be back before you know it, bud. I'll teach it to you next time. I have to go practice it on a bad guy, though."

The redness in Henry's face cleared before he nodded, although still pouting. Steve pulled him into a tight hug before pulling away and mussing up his hair, saying, "You take care of your sister now, alright?"

Huffing, Daria said, "I can take care of myself!"

"I know you can, ma'am," Steve said seriously, earning a giggle from Daria, who practically swooned every time he called her ma'am like she was fifty years older than him. He cracked a small smile before giving her a hug, too, saying, "We can do some shield swinging lessons when we come back, too."

Daria beamed, before Steve hoisted up his suitcase again and headed out the door, followed by Gabe carrying Evaline's suitcase. Evaline turned to face her sister-in-law, who tensed underneath her gaze, especially when Evaline moved toward her.

Hugging her as lightly as she could, Evaline whispered in her ear, "I'm sorry, Jo. I won't hurt any of you anymore."

When she pulled away, her sister-in-law had tears in her eyes but remained silent as Evaline turned and quickly ran after where her brothers, Steve, and mother had disappeared out the door - although the sight of them waiting for her at the car, waiting to say goodbye, almost broke her just as much as the scene with Joana had.

Her elder brother stepped forward first, embracing her as he slid his head underneath her chin. She wrapped her arms tightly around him, closing her eyes and feeling his solidity, as his chest rumbled when he said, "You've been through a trauma, Ev, and you need to heal on your own before you try to fix everything else around you."

"I know," she muffled into his shoulder before she pulled away. "I just thought that part of my healing might include you all."

"It will," Jeremy confirmed, nodding his head as if to convince himself as well, "but I think we tried too much all at once. You need to focus on fixing the cracks in your mind before you try to put more pressure on it with worrying about all of our nonsense."

"I wouldn't be your sister if I didn't worry about your nonsense," Evaline cut back petulantly.

"And I wouldn't be your big brother if I didn't insist you worry about yourself first," Jeremy responded easily, giving her a sad smile. "I love you, Ev."

She dug into her brother once more, fitting her head right underneath his chin and shutting her eyes for a few moments as she embraced him tightly, muffling into his chest, "I love you, too, Jer."

When she pulled away, Jeremy quickly turned and walked inside the house, presumably to join his family and help corral the kids in case they decided to make an escape back into the yard. Next, Evaline turned her attention to her younger brother, who gave her a more confident smile than the one Jeremy had departed with.

Meeting his eyes, Evaline asked, "You'll protect them?"

"You know I will," Gabe said, nodding once before reaching out and hugging his not-so-much bigger sister. "They're in good hands, sis. Now, focus on yourself."

"I love you," she muffled into this brother's chest as well.

Still wearing his comfortable smile and holding all the strength of their family for their day, Gabe promised, "I love you, too."

Lastly, Evaline turned to embrace her mom, Genevieve folding her only daughter into her arms. Evaline swore she could hear the sound of her mother's heart breaking, and she felt the droplets trickling down her cheeks now as both of their tears mixed on her skin.

Her mother's voice rumbled through her chest as she said, "Maybe someday, we'll stop saying these goodbyes."

"Maybe," Evaline said, pulling away as she looked up the inch only difference between her mother and herself. She saw so little of herself in her mother, but so much of Gabe and Jeremy in her mother's face that it was like saying goodbye to them all over again as she felt new tears springing down her face.

"Well, we'll see you when you're better," Genevieve promised, wiping away her daughter's tears like she had when she was five and she busted her knees on the pavement after falling off her bike. Her eyes roved across Evaline's face, in that loving and measuring way that only a mother's cold, before she stroked both cheeks with her hands and said, "I love you, and I am so proud of the woman you have become."

Evaline knew if she hugged her mother once more that she would never leave the embrace, so instead she just squeezed her hands and gave her a watery smile, telling her, "I love you, too. I'll see you soon."

She glanced at her brothers and mother one more time before turning abruptly, feeling like the dam inside her chest was going to break if she looked at them for one more moment. With every step she took toward the car and toward Steve, she replaced one brick in that wall, and by the time she made it to where her boyfriend was waiting, the tears had stopped flowing at least.

Steve tried to reach out for her, but she pulled away from him, knowing his touch would unravel her as well. She instead turned to get into the car as she slammed the door, then he kept her eyes resolutely away from the cabin. Steve started up the car and began the drive back to the Tower, his eyes flickering over to her every once in a while but mostly staying on the road for the several hours long drive.

They spent the entire ride home in silence.