Author's note! I own nothing of Marvel-verse except my OC character, everything else belongs to the amazing Stan Lee, may his wonderful self Rest in Peace, Jack Kirby and all the other amazing men and women who helped bring about the Marvel-Verse in Comic AND live-actions well as cartoon and animations. All my work and creativity put in here is purely fictional and fanfiction based on the MCU-verse. All my work here and creativity put into this storyline is purely fictional AND fanfiction based on the MCU-verse. Thank you, and have a wonderful adventure! also have a great Day/Afternoon/Night.

Chapter 5

Frozen in place, Bianca felt a cold tear slip from her left eye as she breathed out a dreaded breath of panic. She stood there for what felt like an hour in silence, nothing and no one moved. But someone had to be there because she didn't turn the lights off. Sucking in a breath as a shiver rolled down her spine, Bianca slowly began to back up, from the countertop and the only way out of the kitchen, unless she went over the counter, which was a very big option at the moment, and the fact she decided against wearing her skirt that morning and went with her dark blue skinny jeans, a burgundy t-shirt with a light sweater and a pair of mid-calf black buckled boots. Something comfy.

Terrified as to what was going on, Bianca covered her mouth to keep from screaming when the light flipped back on, and she let out her panic, sucking in a breath of relieved air as she saw Brock Rumlow. "Commander Rumlow, you scared me," she breathed, moving her hand over her pounding heart. Trying to calm herself down, Mr. Rumlow slowly made his way into the kitchen, she began to get unnerved, seeing Jack Rollins come around the corner from her and her uncle's bedrooms. Her brow frowned in wonder. Something was not right here. Because they were in her home in tactical gear and guns. Big guns. Did they really have to have those if they were 'baby-sitting'? Looking back and forth between Rumlow and Rollins, Bianca was not a fan of the latter, the guy was a jerk, but Rumlow seemed to be able to keep the guy in order rather well. "Wh-what's going on?"

"Package has been secured," Rumlow said into his earpiece to whoever was on the other side of it. For a moment she thought it was her uncle until a man came around the corner of the hall behind Rumlow, he stepped back and off to the that she hadn't seen him clearly. It was then she caught sight of the mess that she could see the few bullet holes in the wall and a mess on the floor just behind him, a mess his men were trying to hide from her. "Rumlow-"

Holding up his hand to her, Brock nodded to her, seeing the fear in her turquoise eyes, "Bianca, it'll be okay, but I need you to come with us, this man is going to take you to your uncle." He said as the Winter Soldier walked out from the hall to face the child.

Her stomach knotted and her fear surged. He did not look like someone you wanted to cross. Least of all someone her uncle would have brought her to him. Steve would have come himself. But she fought the knotting sensation as best she could. Swallowing her panic as best she could, Bianca looked between Rumlow and the man standing there, his long brown hair, his black goggles and the tactical mask around his mouth and nose, the gear he wore, and his metal arm was intimidating. Something her mind instantly thought of an Assassin. Like Natasha. Looking him up and down, Bianca felt herself shiver. 'Forget the outfit being intimidating, he'd huge!' The man was a freaking tank! But then again, so was her uncle and Rumlow compared to her 13-year-old self.

Knowing she was completely outmatched. Bianca felt her body shiver as she nodded. What the heck was she going to do? She jumped at being startled by her phone going off in her pocket, she forced back a smile when she noticed it was her uncle's ringtone. Clearing her throat, she pulled her phone from her pocket to answer it, but she jumped back as Rollins moved past the most intimidating man there towards her, "I have to answer this, it-it's my lab partner, we have a really big project we're supposed to be working on," she said slamming back against the metal fridge away from the guy. He was a total bully and a jerk. She knew her uncle wouldn't have sent him to come pick her up. And that was a fact. Heck, Natasha wouldn't have even sent this guy. The scary guy, yeah maybe, Rumlow, another possibility, but Rollins? Heck no.

"Rollins, back down!" Rumlow shouted at the man, he was fully annoyed with the guy. Nodding his head to Bianca, he sighed and glared at Rollins. "Man, you really need to ease up, she's thirteen years old."

Taking a calm breath, Bianca forced a thankful smile and nodded to Brock, and answered the phone. She was honestly lucky none of them knew her like they thoughts, hell, they hardly knew Steve or Natasha as well as they thought they previously did. Because no one really knew that Nat was one of her teachers. Had they known that this now would not be happening. She was definitely counting her blessings right now. "Peter, hey, I actually can't talk right now, my Uncle's friend had a heart attack at the apartment, so I'm kind of out of it…" she started with a lie for those in the apartment with her, "Yeah, I guess." She said with a shrug, looking down to her feet she did a nervous shuffle, "Okay. No, the apartment is not on fire, um… Five p.m., I think. Okay, well I have to go, the place is a disaster. Yeah, okay, bye Pete." Hanging up, she took a nervous breath that rattled her body. Her uncle was five minutes out. Now all she had to do was either distract them or find a way to get the heck out of there.

"So, this Peter guy, you like him?" Rumlow asked her, his eyes looking at her curiously.

Looking from him to the man with the metal arm, Bianca nodded as she looked back to the Commander, "As a friend though."

Grinning as he studied her, Rumlow softly chuckled as he nodded his head at her. "It always starts that way kid," he teased her.

Slightly blushing at his statement, something he would know more about than she would, but hey, what the heck. Bianca took a small, unnerved breath and released it with a nod, and messed with her fingers after sliding her phone into her pocket. "Okay, let's go," she said suddenly. Their collective shock had her breathing somewhat easy, but she held her breath as she passed the silent man and made her way around the corner and picked up her non-school backpack by the door, and eased it over her shoulder. When she moved for the stares, she gasped with sudden panic when her backpack was grabbed and calmly pulled back, walking her into the elevator, she was shuffled into the center, with the metal armed man standing in front of her. Forcing her breathing to calm down, Bianca, shuffled her backpack in front of her, holding it to her chest and hoping that her heart would stop pounding in her chest.

He watched her closely as she stood beside him, she was nervous, obviously from the fright they gave her. But something else had her pulse thumping. "Why don't I take your bag, it's been a long day for you," Rumlow told her, moving to take the burgundy backpack from her. When she stepped aside from him, he and the others got curious.

"No, it's okay, I'm just worried about Uncle Steve,"

"You haven't gotten any calls or anything, no texts, nothing?" Rumlow asked her. Knowing exactly why she hadn't.

Shaking her head with a deep breath in, she sighed it out, nervous she'd be cough in her lie, "No, nothing." She answered, forcing the lie to be true to her as well. And honestly, she hadn't gotten any of the texts or calls or voicemails until she'd gotten home, so, it wasn't technically a lie. 'And that is what a chronic liar sounds like,' she scolded herself. Feeling the elevator slightly jolt once they got to the bottom and the doors opened, Bianca walked out with them before easing past and around the metal-armed guy. When his metal arm grabbed ahold of her arm and eased her back beside him, she closed her eyes with disappointment. These guys were not stupid, she figured they already knew she knew they weren't there to help her or her uncle because this guy completely said bad news.

"Prodolzhay divgat'sya," The man said coldly.

Shocked beyond words, Bianca's head snapped to look at him, her heart dropping, and her bones chilled. Looking back to Rumlow, she saw his nervousness at the man speaking, out of English and glancing back to her, they all stood shocked, the metal-armed man froze instantly, and his grip released her as he looked down at her. They now had full confirmation she knew they were not friends here and now. She just knew he was glaring cold eyes at her.

"Bianca," Rumlow started, he looked down as he heard a little metal clink of something small and heavy metal hitting the concert outside, confused because he'd never seen it before, he wasn't sure what the hell it was until a blue light around the bottom rims blinked blue and a quickly paced beeping sound scared the shit out of them. "Bomb!" He shouted. One of his men shoved another onto the metal ball, an electrical noise gave them pause, and someone grunted. The next thing they knew, Bianca Rogers was running down the street and cutting an alley corner. Looking around he looked at his men with confusion. The ball hadn't gone off like a bomb at all, but wondering where the electrical sound had come from, he looked to the Winter Soldier, and Rumlow paled. The Winter Soldier was on a bent knee.

A thirteen-year-old girl had got him on a knee! Until he took notice of the man looking at his limp metal arm before rounding it out and listening to the groan of it reactivating. Approaching him, he held up a hand to the man, "Just wait, okay?" Seeing he wasn't going to go after his throat, Rumlow pulled a little flat round device off the man's metal arm and glared at it as he examined the thing. "The little bitch is being trained by Widow," he growled with burning anger. "Fuck!" Kicking the little ball against the building's wall with pure outrage he looked to his men angrily and glared a mean look to Rollins trying to glare a look of 'I told you so', "Shut up," he snapped at the man, "Go get her! Now! Move it!" He shouted at them before looking to the soldier, "You, get back to the lab so they can fix that- wait, what the hell are you doing!"

"Securing the package," he said coldly. He was angry. He'd been played by a child. Him. The Winter Soldier.

Running down the alley, Bianca ran down several different paths, until she found herself at a dead-end, "Crap,"

"Hey, miss me kiddo?" Steve said from the rooftop.

Smiling with glee as she looked up and found her uncle, Bianca sighed with relief and shuffled through her bag until she found her hook gun, "Give me a sec, I'm coming up," she huffed. Aiming upward she prayed she got the shot. Unfortunately, she missed and got three feet below where she was aiming, "Well, that's embarrassing." She mumbled.

"Better than last time, come on Bee, I'll pull you the rest of the way up," Steve laughed. When she managed to get up to the end of the hook, he reached down and pulled her up with ease then into his arms. "Don't ever-"

"Scare you like that ever again? Trust me, I got that cov-" She grunted with sudden shock of something that had jolted her off her feet and forward into her uncle had her curious about what it had been.

Blood splatter across her uncle's neck and part of the lower half of his face, and his shirt and part of his pants had her curiously confused. He'd been at her level when this silent bullet had gone through her. Looking down, wondering where all that blood had come from, she found a hole in her ribcage between ribs five and six rather than her heart, but it was a quarter-sized hole. Her body trembled with adrenaline and fear, what scared her though, was the fact she had obviously been shot, yet she felt no pain. Looking back to her uncle, "Uncle Steve?"

They hadn't heard anything, nothing at all. But the echo of the gun moments later that they heard had Steve enveloping her in his arms and dropping them to the rooftop as he called in for life-flight. Steve was in a panic as he watched helpless over her, the tears that rolled down the sides of her face, the painful grunt she gave when he applied pressure to the wound. He had to say that while he was not a fan of her being shot at all, he was grateful it hadn't gone through her chest. "It's okay, it's gonna be okay Bee, just-just don't close your eyes, okay? You have to stay awake." He wasn't sure how long they'd been there, but when he heard a loud noise coming close to them, he saw a life-flight helicopter coming their way. He smiled with relief and dropped his head to Bianca's brow as the three medical rescues jumped off the craft with a lift and their bags. Letting them work he watched them do their job until she was secured on the helicopter and made his way to figure out what the hell was going on. No doubt Natasha was going to have a field day with this.

Nightmares, that's all she remembered, and being cold and pain. But the nightmares never changed or were they memories? Her memories maybe? No, that was impossible.

'Fix her,'

'Who is responsible for this mess!'

'He is dead, the body is taken care of,' A cold voice answered. She knew that voice. It was that soldier. The one with the metal arm, except the last time she heard his voice, he'd spoken Russian. Her heart skipped up with fear, her adrenaline rushing through her. That was right! She'd gotten away from them, her uncle's strike team, one of them must have come after her. But why did they need her? She was just a kid!

Her memory returned to flashing lights, voices muffled in the background, strange and scary imagines, and someone's screams. Was it her screaming? She couldn't remember it all straight. What happened?

Lights flickered above her wherever she laid, her arms strapped down, she could feel the cold leather straps and a musty smell. And pain, she felt sudden pain radiated from every molecule of her body, mostly focused around her scalp and someone calling for another person to shoot someone, more screaming and more pain, her eyes burned as if she had acid dropping into them, and she smelled a nasty stench in the room. Then everything was quiet, calm, no more screams, no more pain chorusing through her, but even though she knew her eyes were open and blinking, her face covered in sweat and tears, she couldn't see anything, just shapes, and fading colors, but she felt what she swore was cold wet metal touching her face like a thumb was being brushed across her cheek as she looked up trying to find whoever this was. "I can't see," she heard herself whimper, her throat felt dry and hurt, raspy with pain, her lips chapped and splitting. Now she could panic, right? Even if the cause of the pain was gone and her pain was subsiding, the screaming was quiet, she was safe now, right? But she couldn't see anything.

She woke up with a start, beeping monitors ringing her ears, she felt groggy, then suddenly woozy. Her stomach ached and twisted, and her chest and abdomen throbbed, almost like someone had jumped on her. Maybe an elephant sat on her?

"Steve!" a woman shouted from wherever, the heavy feet that slammed against the floor and a multitude of voices as people shuffled into the room.

'Mom?' Trying to blink her eyes open Bianca moaned with annoyance when her body wouldn't work, she realized that her eyes weren't blinking open because of a compress over her eyes, and it made her curious what the hell happened to make them think a compress would do anything? Unless she had a fever? Did she hurt her eyes? Did she fall and hit her head and that was why her skull felt like it was split in two? Either way, it was annoying. Reaching up to the compress she attempted to remove it, but the warm hands and the soft shushing of someone's voice soothed her down from it. "What-"

"It's okay, we're going to remove this in a moment, okay? Nice and slowly, alright?" someone said.

Confused as they slowly peeled the compress off her forehead and eyes, she flinched at the brightness that saluted her closed eyes.

"Hypersensitivity is going to be a result of her being out of it for as long as she has been, that includes the damage that had been done to her eyes, and the experimental surgery Doctor Cho performed to fix whatever they did in the first place. She will also, more than likely have nightmares, due to the possible lost memories she suffered from the ordeal, it's possible she'll slowly recover those over time." The doctor said weakly, his tone was worrisome.

'Ordeal? What ordeal? Why do my eyes hurt? Oh my God, my head.'

"But to be honest, I hope she never gets those memories back. Not in the condition she was found in. Any human would be traumatized by what those monsters did, I can't imagine what a thirteen-year-old girl is going to experience." The Doctor told them. He could not stress enough how worried he was for this girl.

She was really confused. She had been on the rooftop one second then the next thing she knew she was on the ground with her uncle looking down at her, telling her everything would be alright. "Traumatized?" She asked, her voice was horse, painful. She hurt everywhere as she slowly woke up. But God did her head hurt. She heard a woman calmly shush her, but it didn't change the fact that Bianca was completely confused. Blinking her eyes several times, when someone lowered the blinds of her room, she sighed with relief. "Thank you," she said. But she still hadn't opened her eyes, leaving them closed for the time being, even the dim room hurt her eyes. She figured to slowly get used to it, ease herself out of it at a time. What the hell had happened?!

"Okay, anything we could expect to be a little… Weird?" Someone else asked. It sounded like Tony, but she wasn't sure at the moment.

"Other than the obvious signs of torture that she endured, not that we are aware of. Really all we could find was that they patched her bullet wound up several times. It will most likely scar, and not the nice kind either. Whatever means they used to torture her, they destroyed her eyes. We're lucky Doctor Helen Cho was here when she was, she's working on tissue regeneration we explained to Mr. Rogers and Mss. Romanoff, it is an extremely experimentally procedure the Doctor did, but they wanted to give it a try. Thankfully it worked, but Doctor Cho wanted to take her time, to be precisely careful. So, the young lady will be very, and I stress very hypersensitive, nothing in her has been altered to our awareness," the doctor answered.

'Nothing has been altered in me to their awareness? What!?'

"I will give you all a moment with her, but Mr. Rogers, please, do not upset her, putting her into a potential cardiac arrest is not going to help her recovery in any form. The amount of stress and… well, after everything they put her through it is possible if she is upset enough, she can go into a cardiac arrest." The Doctor said as if he had to say that at all as a freaking warning.

Finally blinking her eyes open, she felt her eyes burn with tears as she looked at her uncle and the rest of the team members, but she saw a new face, and she couldn't help but wonder who the man was. He was cute though. Was she allowed to think that at thirteen about a grown man? She wasn't sure but she was thinking it anyways. Her uncle looked terrible. Baggy eyes, a shadow beard, all in all, dead exhausted. "Uncle Steve? What happened?" she asked him when he smiled a smile that said he was purely relieved she was even alive.

Sitting by her bedside, Steve took her little hand into his as he sat in the chair and held her hand to his mouth, thanking God she was alive. "HYDRA took you... Bee, do you remember anything?" He asked her.

Confused, Bianca thought for a moment then shook her head as she looked at her uncle, "No… No-not exactly. H-how long have I been in here? How long did they have me?" she whispered with fear. With her voice being unused for so long she figured it had been a while with her voice hardly above a whisper and a slightly raspy throat, it was likely they had a tub in her for a while.

"You've been in the hospital for four months baby-girl," Fury said walking in. He smiled when she gave him a look of total confusion and displeasure at his casual clothing.

"What happened to the leather?" She teased him.

Softly laughing at her verbal poke, Nick nodded as he walked into the large room that felt tiny now with just about everyone in there. "Retired, well, technically I'm dead, but retired is good too." He answered.

Taking a leveling breath, Clint's hand rested on Natasha's shoulder for comfort.

Natasha looked back to Bianca and softly combed the girl's hair with her fingers, "Ellie? Sweetheart, we have to ask you some questions, okay? We know you're tired, and a little scattered, but we have to ask you these questions. Is that okay?" Natasha said standing beside Bianca's bedside, her nails gently combing through the girl's strawberry blonde hair.

Nodding as best she could, Bianca looked at each of them, "Okay?"

Taking in a breath of courage to even do this to her kid, Natasha showed Bianca a few photos. Rumlow, Rollins, the rest of the Strike team, doctors who had been affiliated with where they had found her, and Pierce. She saved the masked Winter Soldier for last.

Nodding as she looked at them, she carefully shifted uncomfortably, her hand trying to grip her uncle's hand holding hers' as she looked away from the pictures for a moment and took deep enough breath as she could without hurting or coughing. Her eyes watered when she saw them, memories flashing through her mind she didn't want to remember. Looking back to the pictures, she wiped away the tears that rolled down her face with a trembling hand and looked away from the photos again. "No,"

"Come on baby, I know this… This isn't easy-"

"No," she cried, pulling her hand from Steve's, her monitor started to beep with warning.

Unable to help it, Sam eased over to the kids' bed, "Bianca, hey, hey, look at me, I need you to look at me- sorry Steve," Sam said squeezing himself over to her between Steven and the girl's bed. She was pulling away from both Natasha and Steve, that was never a good sign. When Steve moved, Sam nodded and took the chair Steve had just been sitting in and quickly gathered the pictures off her bed Natasha had tried to show her into his hands away from her. "Okay, hey, they're gone. Bianca? Bianca, can you hear me?" he asked her, taking hold of one of her little hands into his as she turned away from Natasha onto her side and pulled herself further away from that bedside and closer to Sam as she faced him, her little hand squeezing his hand in response as the tears spilled over. "Okay, that's good, now, deep breaths, in and out, slow breaths." He couched her in a breathing exercise for a moment before smiling with an approving nod as she slowly calmed down and her monitors came easing to a calm pace. "Good, okay, you're doing great Margie, can I call you that?" he asked, laughing a little with her when she nodded, her bottom lip trembling as she tried to laugh. Nodding, Sam gently rubbed the top of her hand. He'd only poked playfully with the little name to get her to laugh since it was some part of her name. He was honestly shocked she'd even agreed to let him call her that. "Okay, Margie it is kiddo. Margie, my name is Sam, Sam Wilson." He introduced himself, to let her know who the heck was invading her space while he held her hand. "But we have to know what you remember. Is that okay?"

Blinking past her tears, Bianca forced herself to nod after a moment of calming down. But she was still scared, trembling in her bed as she looked at the man.

Looking over to Natasha and Steve to get the go-ahead, Sam nodded in response and took a deep calming breath to level himself before looking back to Bianca. "Okay, Margie, I am going to show you a few pictures, one at a time, okay?" he needed her to understand that whatever she knew, whatever she remembered was important no matter how little it was. "No one is going to hurt you, okay? You are very safe here." He needed her to get that sunk in, that she was safe there. "These are just pictures. These people cannot hurt you. You understand that right?" he questioned her.

Slowly letting his words sink in, Bianca nodded, but she couldn't help it when she gripped his hand just a little tighter, fearing to look at the photos. And they were just pictures.

Licking his dry lips, Sam felt his stomach knot. He couldn't believe he was doing this to a kid. "Okay, how about this. You don't have to say anything, not just yet. One big squeeze for yes, and…. Maybe, how about you just tap the bed bars for no. How's that?" Sam asked her. When she squeezed his hand Sam smiled at her with a nod. "Okay, picture number 1," he started, and they had gone from there. He was, however, stunned when she took the last picture and tucked it under her pillow. Knowing they were all curious, Sam put the other picture in the folder Natasha had taken them from and handed it over to Fury. "Bianca? Can I ask you one more question? But this one is going to need words though. Is that okay?" He asked the girl. When she nodded after a moment, he patted her hand still held in his and looked towards her pillow. "Why did you put his picture under your pillow?"

Thinking for a moment, letting the memory play out for a moment at what had happened and what she had heard Bianca took a shuttered breath. "He wouldn't let them hurt me. The others from the Strike Team were the ones who came to get me at the apartment with him," she whispered.

Realizing they could likely get answers from her, Fury gripped the end of her bed frame with the hope that she'd keep talking. "Okay, that's good, that's very good, do you possibly know which one of those men could have shot you?" Fury asked her.

Stepping back with a sigh as he paced in a small circle with his own discomfort, Steve huffed at Fury. "Come on Fury, you know she was shot from behind,"

Sitting up a little bit she grunted with small pain from her ribs as she held her hand out for the file. With shaky hands, she took the folder Fury handed her.

The team and Fury watched Bianca then looked at Sam with shock. The guy had gotten through to her. "How in the hell-" each one started to ask their own questions about how he had even accomplished this. Poor Sam was pretty much in shock that they were so curious.

Not listening to them, Bianca pulled the photo's back out and shuffled through them curiously, her hands still shaking, and laid them out in the order she remembered seeing them, if or when she had seen them then studied the pictures and gently took Rumlow's photo and the winter soldier's photo and set them aside, "these two didn't show any signs of aggression towards me. Anyone else is a possibility that can shoot like that," she said softly, "But not this guy," she said holding up the masked Winter Soldier's pictures, "For some reason, he kept me close, they kept calling me 'the package' like I was to be delivered to someone." She said weakly, sniffing back as much of her tears as she could. While the adults were about their own conversation, Bianca's mind was running in circles around what had happened, then the echo of a gunshot bounced around in her mind for a moment. That had been why her uncle had dropped them both to the ground. The first gunshot they'd heard, but the second shot that had been fired. "The gunshot," she whispered.

"What?" Fury asked, Steve's head turned to Bianca, his own memory getting jogged.

Looking at Bianca, Steve thought for a moment, "The gunshot we heard," he answered for her.

"But you said you didn't hear anything, Rogers." Tony snapped.

"No, no, we didn't hear the bullet being fired that hit Bee, but there was a gunfire moments afterward, off in the distance, the second shot fired, but the first one heard." Steve clarified. He couldn't believe he'd completely forgotten about that. "Was there ever a report of a body being found?" He asked, looking to Maria Hill. Walking back to Bianca's bedside he held her hand and helped her lay back into her bed to not stress the injury. However, Bianca hadn't let go of his hand at all, she'd even reached out for Natasha, who stepped back to the girl's bedside and took her hand, and went back to resting a calming hand to the girl's head.

Shaking her head, Maria wished she could say yes, to make this easier for them, but there hadn't been. "No, nothing was reported. But Steve, that was four months ago," she reminded him.

"Which means they cleaned it up," Natasha said, looking at Steve curiously. "So, he didn't fire the shot at her like we thought. It was someone else who was likely killed by him?" While many were confused why Natasha and Steve had that same look about them, a look that said they knew more than what they were sharing, the majority of them left it alone, for the time being.

Not wanting to be here in the hospital anymore, Bianca shifted again, she looked to Natasha with watery eyes then to her uncle, "When can I go home?" she asked, looking over to the man who smiled and leaned over her to kiss her tender forehead.

"When the doctor's release you, do you remember anything else, Bee?" Steve asked her.

Looking deep into her uncle's eyes while he did the same to her, the man was searching for some answers he figured she could give him. Answers she knew she could give him, but answers she knew she probably shouldn't, or wouldn't, give. Shaking her head softly to him, Bianca mentally asked his silent forgiveness, "No," the word had been more of a silent answer since no sound had left her mouth. When he smiled at her and nodded, it was like he was giving her his forgiveness. And she wondered why.