TRIGGER WARNING: Mild mentions of abuse

Chapter 19

[Emily's POV]

"A what?" I asked incredulously, looking at Tony with disbelief. The older man rolled his eyes and pointed a screwdriver at me. For some reason, I swore off time in order to connect more with the middle-aged mechanic, but right now, I was realizing how stupid of a decision that was.

"Sort of like a family potluck," said Tony, sitting up. "We invite friends and family over in order to have a good time."

"Tony, you know about my strained relationship with my mother, obviously," I added darkly, rolling my eyes. I plopped down onto a spinning rolly-chair and yawned. "Why would I want to invite her to come be with the people who I told was a finishing school?"

"Take it from a guy who understands," Tony said, cursing when one of his machines zapped him. "You seriously don't want to keep secrets from your parents. It always comes back to bite in the end." He turned and stared at me. "You know, for a while, I start thinking you're normal and then realize you're hiding a pair of invisible wings."

"The better to distract you with, my dear," I mumbled, rolling my eyes. "So what, I invite my mother and then she finds out I'm a mutant who is being hunted down and that my best friend is an assassin who is okay sometimes but other times wants to kill me? Oh, and don't get me started that this group was the reason that Chitauri came down to Earth and the reason my father is dead." Tony winced and set his tools down, rubbing his eyes with his hand.

"Did you know I got nightmares?" asked Tony, tilting his head. When I shook my head hesitantly, he continued, "Yeah, every single night I always briefly dream of flying up into that vortex to shut the portal down. Sometimes, it's only a flash, and other times, it's the whole night. And, every night when I fail, it's always a different person who dies."

"I have nightmares too," I gulped, suddenly feeling dizzy. "About my mother." Tony nodded, his usually sarcastic self gone. "You read my file?"

"Who hasn't?" he snorted. I giggled and sobered up.

"My mother abused me," I put simply, licking my lips. "When my father died, she just...went off the deep end. Sometimes, it would be once every day, other times it was in the morning and then at night..." I felt one lone tear fall from my face. "So...when I was fourteen, an angel appeared to me. He told me of this boarding school for gifted youngsters, like myself. I took the chance. Stayed there until I was sixteen, when I was forced to go back home. My mother instantly started back up. A week before I left to join the Avengers, she seemed to be getting better, but..." I shrugged. "Life intervened, it seems."

"Do you have any scars?" Tony asked suddenly, and I shivered in my seat.

Way too many to count, bub.

"Some."

"Have you showed anybody?" Tony asked, grabbing a hammer from a nearby cart.

"My best friend, Lizzy," I told him, biting my lower lip. "I went to her as soon as my mom started again when I was sixteen. I still get some...phantom pain, as Lizzy calls it, from the scars. The nightmares are about her discovering my wings and..." I licked my lips and used the heel of my palm to wipe away the tears. "You know what? This is stupid. I'm going to my room."

"Jarvis, seal all the doors to the lab." As I reached for the door, it clicked and I turned and glared at Tony.

"Unlock it."

"Once she found out about your wings, what did she do?" growled Tony, setting the hammer down. "Emily Salgado. Answer me."

"She cut them off!" I screeched, turning to him. My wings were fully emerged and they were arched angrily. I was panting and more tears were in my eyes. "Every single week, sometimes every day, I feel her using a knife, a saw, her freaking hands to tear about my wings. Sometimes, she doesn't even do that." Wearily, I murmured, "Why have a freak for a daughter when you can have no daughter instead?"

"She killed you?" gasped Tony, narrowing his eyes in disbelief.

"Why does it surprise you?" I hissed, taking a deep breath. "She already cut me and hit me. Why not kill me and get it over with?"

:/:\:

[Bucky's POV]

I stood, speechless, my ear pressed up to the lab's door.

Emily was abused?

My Emily, the one who treated me like how I wanted every person in the world to...she was attacked by the woman she called a mother?

I knocked on the door, and I heard some unladylike cursing from the other side. The latch clicked open and I gently pushed it forward, revealing a tear-stained faced Emily and a pissed off looking Tony.

"How much of that did you hear?" Emily demanded, stalking over to me. She jabbed me in the chest accusingly. "Tell me."

"Just the last part," I whispered quietly. The silence was overwhelming. Emily just stood there, looking like she couldn't decide whether or not to kill me or to cry. "It's my turn to grab takeout and I was wondering if you wanted to tag along?"

"Do you two need a chaperone?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes. Back to his sarcastic self. Nothing like the man I had just heard earlier. "Well, have fun."

"You and Wanda," Emily said, rolling her eyes. "What is this? An official Emily-Bucky fan club?"

"There's a Winterlace fan club and nobody told me?" Natasha gasped, suddenly emerging from behind Bucky. Emily jumped but Bucky just sidestepped to allow the redhead into the room. "I want to be a founder of this fan club."

"Winterlace?" I said slowly, pronouncing each syllable.

"You know, Winter Soldier and Solace," said Natasha, sticking her tongue out at Emily and I. Emily and I looked at each other in confusion.

"Who's Solace?" she asked hesitantly.

"You are, silly," Tony said, giving Natasha a 'can-you-believe-her?' look. "Figuring all the junk you've had to go through, we decided that Solace was the perfect hero name for you."

"Solace," Emily whispered, clicking her tongue. "I like it. Sounds better than Iron Man." She grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room while Tony yelled at us how prestigious his name was.

A/N: Hey everybody! Man, I am dishing out chapters faster than you can say "Winterlace" (that's a lie).

Soooooo...how was it? I feel like it's a little rushed, but that could just be me.

Anonymous: I read your comment and started laughing so hard. Like, retarded seal silent clapping kind of laughing. Now you can understand by reading this chapter why.

What do y'all think of the name, Solace? And, better yet, the ship WINTERLACE!

Please leave any comment, questions, concerns, or conspiracy theories. Also, some of you have been mentioning (very briefly) how I put Loki as a main character and yet he hasn't shown up in the story yet. I beseech thee for thy patience. The best is yet to come.

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