Chapter 4

Recovering

It had been exactly three days after Lily had had her surgery. The very day she agreed to it, Tony had called in Doctor Strange to his now operating room laboratory. As the surgery went on, Vision hovered outside the door to the lab, monitoring Lily's mind to make sure that she was calm and wouldn't lose control of her powers. The surgery had taken five hours, which seemed long for everyone else, except for Doctor Strange. Lily now sat in her room, looking out the brand new windows that had been installed the prior day. She smiled as she saw birds and butterflies gliding around on the gentle breeze that blew. Suddenly there was a knock on her door, she stood up and walked on much stronger legs to answer it. To her surprise, it wasn't any of her usual guests. It was Tony.

"Hey kiddo." He greeted as he stepped into her room. "I see you finally started decorating, though I am getting a sense Vision and Wanda helped you a bit."

Lily nodded, knowing that Tony wasn't as comfortable with her telepathy as some of the others on the team. He just sat on her bed, patting a spot next to her. She walked back over and sat beside him.

"So I know you never got the chance to be a kid and you've been kooked up in here since your surgery." He started to say. "So I thought it would be a good idea if you went out with someone your own age. Hey Peter, come in already!"

On command, Peter Parker rounded the corner of the door and walked into the room. Lily blushed lightly at the goofy teenager before her, standing up to greet him. She just waved and smiled the sweetest smile she had in a long time.

"Hi Lily." Peter waved back. "I'm Peter. Mr. Stark told me that you can't talk because you had surgery and I thought… well Mr. Stark and I thought it would be a good idea if we went out… well I mean if I showed you around the city not like on a date because that would be weird since we just met… not saying that you aren't pretty, because you are really pretty."

Lily laughed silently at Peter's rambling, which she found to be very cute. Tony couldn't help but smirk at the interaction unfolding before him. He would need to keep an eye on these two in the future. Lily kept her telepathy to herself, not wanting to scare Peter away right after meeting him. Tony stood up and clapped a hand onto Peter's shoulder.

"You get dressed Lily. Peter and I will set up an itinerary for your evening out. Come on Peter." He grabbed him by his backpack and had to basically drag him out of the room.

He guided Peter to the couch in the living room, sitting him down. He sat across from him as he noticed Peter was still looking down the hall to Lily's room.

"Hey Earth to Romeo." Tony teased Peter, hoping to snap him out of his trance like state. "We need to know exactly where you are going to be taking Lily. She may be with us now, but there are probably still very bad people that want to capture her. Peter? Are you even paying attention to me?!"

Peter finally snapped out of it, looking slowly back to Tony.

"Yeah, I uh…. Was going to show her around Queens." Peter explained. "Maybe go to Central Park since you told me she likes to look at nature."

Tony smiled. Peter was the perfect choice for this excursion. Just then, the barely audible footsteps of Lily pattered down the hallway. She came down the stairs dressed in a plain burgundy tank top with black shorts. Over her tank top she wore a black cardigan and had decided to wrap the whole outfit together with a pair of simple black boots. She smiled as she stood in front of Tony and Peter.

"Well, now that she's ready," Tony stood up, "Let's get you both to Queens."

In Wanda's room, she was just finishing putting her hair up into a ponytail. She glanced in the mirror in front of her to see, staring at a now pale, blonde hair and blue eyed Vision. She hadn't seen this version of him since their time secretly meeting for two years. He caught her staring at him in the mirror, his new pale skin reddening a bit.

"Is something on my face?" He asked, as he changed the color of his clothing to more match her's.

"It has just been a really long time since I last saw you like that." She smiled as she turned to him.

She tiptoed up to kiss his cheek, a smile curving onto his lips. He extended his arm to her, which she gladly wrapped her's around as they exited the room. Tony had asked the two of them to watch over Lily as Peter showed her around. Tony had noticed that Lily seemed more attached to the witch and the synthezoid. Vision guided Wanda out to the garage where Tony kept a few backup cars, in case the Avenger's ever needed one.

"Now… Which one should we take?" Vision asked.

Lily sat outside at a table as Peter had grabbed them some food. She had never had any of the food on the menu so she took out her notebook, courtesy of Tony so she didn't have to use her telepathy, and wrote down that he could pick whatever for her. She smiled as she saw Peter expertly balancing two paper plates while holding two cups. She clapped as he set everything down on the table, sliding a vegetarian slice of pizza toward her and a cup with soda in it.

"This is my favorite place to eat here." Peter told her as he started eating.

She followed him, folding her pizza in half exactly as he did before taking a bite. She smiled as she chewed it, savoring the exquisite flavor of all the vegetables mixed with the cheese. She grabbed her notebook.

"This is amazing!" She wrote on the page. "I've never had this before."

Peter smiled back. He loved making people happy, but something was different when he made Lily smile like that. She took another bite before sipping on the soda, giggling silently from the carbonation that tickled her throat as she drank it.

"I was thinking after this that we could go to Central Park?" He asked her, hoping he liked her idea.

She nodded. The rest of their meal was spent eating their pizza and talking/writing. Wanda and Vision sat a few tables over, Wanda also enjoying a slice of pizza as Vision observed the two teenagers. He had only met this Peter Parker a couple of times before, but he knew from Tony that he was a very trustworthy young man. It pleased him to see Lily having a good time.

"She seems to be having a good time." Vision turned his attention back to Wanda, who had already finished her slice of pizza. "As do you."

Wanda smiled. "I honestly really missed this Vizh. I missed going out with you." She reached over and rested her hand over his. Suddenly, her eyes darted away from him as she caught the glimpse of a troubled mind nearby. A mind that was thinking of their mission to capture a target.

"Wanda? What is it?" Vision asked with a concerned look on his face.

"It seems we aren't the only one's watching the kids." She explained as she stood up. "We need to keep them close."

Peter had bought him and Lily a cab, telling the driver to take them to Central Park. The driver nodded, slowly making his way through the busy New York City traffic. Lily looked over at Peter, who was staring out the window at all of the other sights out the window. She smiled, being happy to get this chance to be... normal. Wanda and Vision followed the taxi in their car closely. She was keeping her mind open to see if there were any other traces of the mind she had felt earlier, but no such luck. Suddenly, after the taxi had crossed an intersection, there was a car crash right in front of Wanda and Vision's car. The taxi then pulled into a darkened, secluded alley way.

"Um sir this isn't Central Park." Peter stated, holding onto Lily's wrist.

"Sorry sir, my mistake." The driver finally spoke with a heavy eastern European accent. "But I am afraid this is the end of the trip for you."

Lily's eyes went wide as she saw him reach for something. Her hands glowed as she pinned his hands with her energy before launching him out the wind shield.

"Lily run!" Peter exclaimed as they both got out of the taxi.

Lily took off running without a thought, running into the crowded sidewalk. She weaved her way through the crowd as she could sense others were following her. Just then, a shot rang out from the street. She froze and glanced back only to see several HYDRA agents with guns chasing her. Her hands and eyes glowed as she turned and started running again. The people on the sidewalk parted and ran in fear as more shots were fired at Lily. She looked up and saw more men rushing at her from the front. She froze, panicked and looking around for any way out. She ran down the alleyway to her left, seeing a large green park in front of her that way. She thought that if she could just get there then she could someone keep innocent people from getting involved. She panted as she hid behind a tree in the park, trying to focus her mind to see just exactly how many men were chasing her. After a moment, she had pin pointed 10: 9 behind her and one… above her? She looked up just as a man pounced on her from the tree, trying to get what looked like a collar on her. Golden energy surrounded him as she launched him higher than the tree before running into an open field of the park. She knew she couldn't out run them much longer, so it was now or never. She summoned all of her courage and turned to face the men who had stopped a few yards away from her.

"Now Lily…" One of them spoke. "That wasn't very nice of you. You know Henrik is just following orders."

'I will never go back with you…' Her voice echoed in all their heads as her golden energy began to swirl around her.

The first few men charged at her, but she used her telekinesis to slam two of them together. The third one still charged forward. She flicked her wrist and a ribbon of golden energy wrapped around his ankles. Once she pulled back on the ribbon, she tripped him and looked amazed at what her powers could do. She readied herself for the others, however she found some of them covered in what looked like spider webs to a tree, completely knocked out, or tangled up in scarlet magic. Lily turned around to see Vision, Wanda, and someone she had never met before. She lowered her gaze as she approached the heroes, Wanda running and hugging her.

"Are you ok? They didn't hurt you did they?" The witch asked hurriedly as she leaned back and checked over Lily.

'No… I'm not hurt…' Lily telepathically spoke, her gaze still low. She was embarrassed that this had happened. Was she never going to be free of her past? She sniffled as tears began to well up in her eyes. 'I'm so sorry that I'm so much trouble.'

Vision walked over, resting a hand on top of her head and ruffling her hair. He shook his head before kneeling down to look at Lily face to face. He took out a handkerchief and handed it to her so she could dry her tears.

"You are not trouble Lily," Vision explained to the girl, "None of this was your fault."

Lily dried her tears before returning the handkerchief to Vision, who tucked it into his pocket. She stood there silently before she looked at both of the Avengers before her. Her eyes went wide as she had just remembered that Peter was with her. She searched for his mind. Surprisingly, it was very close by. She looked over at the person dressed in red and blue, confusion overtaking her expression.

'Peter?' She asked him telepathically, wanting to confirm her suspicion.

Peter nodded, not really sure how she could tell. Lily turned her attention back to Wanda and Vision. Her hands tightly grasped at the hem of her shirt. All of these people were protecting her, because she couldn't protect herself. She shook her head.

'I want to be an Avenger.'