Author's note: Thanks to Cariana, jerseydanielgibson, "Guest" reviewers (lots of them this chapter for some reason — welcome, everyone!), Apex85, Nimrodel 101, kingmanaena Guiltypleasure82, girliemom, codedriver, LilyAnneBlack, MagicLia16 and distanceincrowdedrooms for your reviews.

December 26, 1991

It was a strange and somber Christmas season for the whole family, beginning with the public fallout over the death of the Starks and the subsequent funeral, a day Peggy struggled to get through — not only because of her grief but also because of the lingering symptoms of her concussion, explained away to her colleagues at S.H.I.E.L.D. as the result of a fall in her home.

It was the kind of incident that would have prompted calls for her retirement, given her age, if she hadn't already announced her departure would take place just before the holidays. And so she gritted her teeth and powered through a retirement party that should have been a joyful celebration of her accomplishments over a long career, if not for her sadness over the Starks and her fiercely aching head.

Steve was more worried about her than he would like to admit. One of the consequences of growing old was that injuries just didn't heal as fast as they used to, and something inside him recoiled every time he saw the discoloration of the bruises on her head, not quite hidden by her waves of silver hair. He could not stop himself from fussing over her at home, and for once she let him do it without insisting that she was fine.

He let himself grieve for Howard, careful to take for himself the same advice he'd been giving to others for so many years. He had the time for it; the VA had hosted a retirement party for him earlier in the month, although his looked very different from Peggy's, with far fewer attendees and no VIPs. Just an intimate group of grateful patients, and a handful of fellow therapists and friends. It was bittersweet to close the door on that chapter of his life, but now he could give his full concentration to his family, something he'd been looking forward to for a while now.

Mike came home from the hospital in time for Christmas. If there was a silver lining, it was that Tien bounced back from her injury quickly, and she was able to care for him and keep the home running with her usual quiet competence, calming her children's worries and making sure they had a merry Christmas despite all the upheaval. Sarah, too, recovered quickly enough to host the combined family dinner after everyone had spent Christmas morning in their own homes opening their presents.

It was a subdued celebration for the adults and the older children who had been involved in everything that happened, but the joy of the younger children made them all smile, and they were quietly grateful that Tony had been spared, and that their own family had made it through alive, if not unscathed.

They got together again the day after Christmas to hold a follow-up meeting of the Captain America Club, but first they had to wait for Dave and Sarah to usher their younger kids out the door to visit a neighbor's house while they met. Steve got Peggy settled in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea and then left her and Tien making plans for writing Peggy's memoirs. Feeling restless, Steve wandered around the house instead of joining them.

He passed Mike in the hallway, who was pacing back and forth while talking on the phone — with his car insurance company, it sounded like — and had the same look on his face that everyone has when they talk to insurance companies. Steve had worn the same expression himself a few days earlier, and he gave his son a sympathetic look and a pat on the back as he passed him on his way to the front room.

There he found Natty alone, sitting on the window seat with her arms wrapped around her knees, looking at the snow falling outside. Steve went to sit by her and put his arm around her shoulders. She looked up at him and smiled a little sadly.

"So what did you think of Tony?" he asked her, guessing what was on her mind.

Natty took a long time to answer. "He was a mess," she said at last. "And I liked him. Very much."

"Yeah," Steve said with a small smile, squeezing her shoulders. "That's Tony, all right."

She sighed deeply. "He must have had a miserable Christmas."

"I know," Steve said softly. "But he wasn't alone. Jarvis will take good care of him. He'll be okay."

"I know."

The snow continued to drift down, blanketing the houses, and they watched it in silence together for several minutes.

"Do you think I'll see him again?" Natty asked softly then.

"I don't know," Steve said slowly. "I'm not sure when you would have the chance."

Just then they both heard footsteps coming, and looked over to see Sarah enter the room.

"Dad?" she said, and Steve immediately noticed she had an odd look on her face. "Can you come upstairs for a second? Steven wants to talk to you."

"Steven?" Steve frowned. "I thought he was going to your friend's house while we had our family meeting." Dave and Sarah's younger two, Amanda and Joe, had just gone over, and could be seen across the street and two doors down, bundled up and gleefully building a snowman with some other kids in the neighborhood.

"That's what he wants to talk to you about," Sarah said.

So Steve left Natty sitting on the window seat and followed Sarah up the stairs and into the room Steven shared with his little brother Joe. Dave was already waiting, sitting on Steven's bed. Steven himself was pacing back and forth in front of his bed, hands clasped behind him, clutching a rosary that he was going through methodically, pushing bead after bead along the string with his thumb, eyes distant.

The walls of his half of the room were almost completely papered over with sketches that he had done over the years — the more childish ones were mostly covered now by the more recent, better-executed ones — but the desktop was neatly organized and the floor didn't have a speck of clutter on it. Not like Joe's half of the room, which looked like a tornado had struck. But Steven liked his things to be as orderly as his thoughts, rarely spoken out loud but always carefully considered. He didn't have as many friends at school as the other kids, something Sarah and Dave worried about sometimes, although he never seemed unhappy about that. At 12, he hadn't quite hit his big growth spurt, but he had always acted older than his age and didn't seem to belong in the same category as his 8-year-old brother anymore, even if he wasn't built like a teenager yet.

Sarah came in behind Steve and closed the door, then shoved aside the pile of blankets and toys on Joe's bed so that she and Steve could down.

Steven looked at him seriously. "I want to come to this meeting, Grandpa," he said matter-of-factly.

"Your birthday is coming up pretty soon, and then you can join the Captain America Club," Steve said, although he suddenly felt an odd rush move through him. Steven didn't have any of his little sister Amanda's brash, demanding personality, but that had been more of a statement than a request.

"The thing is," Steven said, slowly and deliberately, "I think I kinda already joined."

Sarah glanced at Steve. "He asked me if you were Steve Rogers, Dad," she said quietly. "And, uh... that was when I came to get you."

"You don't really have to answer, Grandpa," Steven said calmly. "I know."

Steve looked at him with wonderment. "How?" he asked.

Steven shrugged one shoulder. "There were a lot of things, I guess. A while back I stopped sleeping like I used to. I wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning and can't get back to sleep. But I'm not tired. My mind just explodes with ideas, and my body itches to move, and I can't stay in bed anymore. Sometimes I get up and sketch until it's time to get ready for school. But sometimes, I-" He looked at both his parents a little sheepishly, and then admitted, "Sometimes I go down to the track at the high school and sprint it out for a while."

"In the middle of the night?" Dave exclaimed.

"It isn't as hard to see in the dark as it used to be. I did crash and burn on the asphalt once, trying the hurdles, but that was just because I'm a klutz." He shrugged again. "And it barely even hurt; the scrapes were gone by morning. That was when things really started to get weird. That, and the fact that when I was up in the middle of the night, I could hear you guys awake sometimes too." He looked at Sarah, and clarified: "You and Bram. Going down to the basement and doing I don't know what. I could hear the weirdest things. Kind of a crackling or hissing sound. I haven't figured that part out yet. I hear Maggie in her room at night too, but she just crinkles paper. Which probably explains how she always gets her homework done even when she babysits all day."

"Wow," Sarah murmured under her breath. "That happened so early for you."

"I don't mind," Steven said quickly. "I kinda like being alone at night. There's time to think. Get things done without people interrupting me. You know that series of sketches I've been working on? Heroes through history? I did most of those at night. And that's actually what helped me figure out what was happening." He took a deep breath. "After I did St. George I decided to draw Steve Rogers. He was kinda an obvious choice, since I was named after him. But as I was drawing him, well..." He glanced over at the sketch in question, which was stuck to the wall above his bed. "-it was hard not to notice that Captain America and Grandpa have the exact same profile. I had sketched you the month before, Grandpa, when I did everyone in the family. I have everyone's face pretty well memorized now. That was another thing that happened to me. My memory is crazy good now. I can see something once and be able to draw it right. I couldn't do that before."

"So you knew just from that?" Dave asked with puckered brow.

"Well, I read Grandpa's comics with a different eye after I noticed how similar they were," Steven said coolly. "And it all made sense. That he didn't die-" He paused, and corrected himself, locking eyes with Steve. "-that you didn't die in the ice. All those adventures with the Avengers... they had the ring of truth to them. I didn't see it before. And it explained the changes that were happening to me. But Grandpa, you pretty much admitted it over the summer, when you told Joe that you and Grandma were the founding members of the Captain America Club."

Steve smiled ruefully. "I guess I did."

"You mean you've known for months?" Sarah asked incredulously. "Steven, why on earth didn't you say something?"

"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "I just wanted time to have it to myself, I guess. Figure out what it all meant. I wasn't scared anymore once I knew what it was."

"You're a funny kid." Dave pulled Steven down to sit on the bed next to him and gave him a rough hug with one arm. "Too smart for your own good. I'm proud of you."

"So you're okay with all this?" Sarah asked him, going to sit by his other side and putting her arm around him too.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Steven looked around at all of them. "Our family's pretty cool, I think. And I can't wait to find out what you and Bram were doing in the basement, Mom."

"Oh, that," Sarah said. "We were practicing magic spells."

Steven flashed a rare full-watt smile. "Ha, ha, Mom, very funny."

"You goof." Sarah reached out and messed up his hair. "You read Grandpa's comics, didn't you? Did you or did you not see people doing magic in them?"

Steven paused. "You serious?"

"Yeah."

Steven blinked several times. "But... why would you need to? I thought maybe you were secretly working for S.H.I.E.L.D. too, like Uncle Mike. I mean, what was all that stuff that happened a couple weeks ago? When you kicked us all out of the house and then when we got home, Aunt Tien and Uncle Mike and Grandma had all been in car accidents, and Natty and Harrison and Bram were all freaked out about something but not talking about it. That was something for S.H.I.E.L.D., wasn't it?"

"It's a long story," Sarah said. She quickly explained about their serum research and its magical component, and everything they had done to protect the Starks from Hydra. Steven didn't say much — his rare burst of talkativeness had already subsided — but he absorbed it all with deep attention and seemed to be tucking it away for future pondering. Finally, when he understood enough, the four of them headed back downstairs to begin the family meeting.

"What's he doing here?" Harrison asked when Steven settled down on the couch across from him.

"He's just been inducted into the club," Sarah explained.

"What, early?" Bram asked with a frown.

"He figured it out himself," Dave said simply.

"Way to go, bro," Maggie whispered to him with a delighted smile spreading across her face, as Bram gave his little brother a high-five.

"We need to talk about Tony Stark," Peggy said briskly, capturing everyone's attention despite remaining in her seat, knowing better than to push herself too hard after her head injury. "He's safe for now, but we need to make a long-term plan. Hydra seems to have regarded Howard Stark as their golden goose, and it's only a matter of time before they realize that Tony could be useful to them for all the same reasons."

"I promised Howard and Maria that I would keep him safe," Steve said quietly. "For now, that means keeping him out of Hydra's reach."

"Didn't you say Jarvis was going back to work for him?" Steven piped up from his mother's side.

Peggy nodded. "He's one of the few people we know we can trust. I didn't tell him absolutely everything, but he knows enough to keep an eye out for Hydra infiltrations."

"But that isn't a permanent solution," Mike said. "Jarvis is nearly 80, and he has his limits. He can handle Tony's household and personal affairs, yes, but he won't be deeply involved in the business."

"We should embed someone at Stark Industries," Peggy agreed. "An employee, someone who works with Tony closely enough to keep him safe even from the dangers he isn't aware of."

Mike lifted an eyebrow. "You mean, someone like Happy Hogan? Or Pepper Potts?"

"They'll come along in their time," Steve said. "Not as quickly as I'd like. We need a stopgap."

"Maybe the person we embed is the person who made sure those two crossed paths with Tony to begin with," Mike suggested.

"It's certainly possible," Peggy said. "Our man, or woman, whoever we get, could steer the correct people toward him, and do what they can to keep any bad actors at arm's length. So we need to choose carefully. This is a high-stakes, long-term assignment."

Mike sighed heavily. "This is the same problem we had with protecting Howard. Someone with S.H.I.E.L.D. training would be ideal for the job, but it's hard to know for sure who we can trust. Especially considering the kind of insider information we'd have to share with them. It's going to be hard to explain to them how we can foresee certain events without telling them our family's whole story... and that would endanger both them and us."

A short silence fell, which was broken by Harrison.

"Let me do it," he said, leaning forward with eyes intent. "And don't tell me I'm only 15," he added fiercely before anyone could react. "You said you wanted someone with S.H.I.E.L.D. training, Dad, and I have been trained by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, one of the best."

Mike opened his mouth and then closed it again, shooting a sideways look at Tien. Everyone else turned to look at her, too.

"He wouldn't start until after high school?" she asked after a beat.

"It would give me time to get him ready," Mike said. "He can already fight, so getting him onto the security detail at Stark Industries seems like the obvious choice. Mom can start working with him at the targeting range, too. And before he retires again Jarvis could put in a good word, help him get a prime assignment with-"

"I don't want Jarvis to hand me the job," Harrison interrupted. "I want to earn it."

"You'll have to," Peggy said flatly. "Whether I recommend you to him or not, he'll want to make certain you're ready himself. And he's military trained, so there'll be no faking it. You'll have to work hard."

"That's what I want to do," Harrison said firmly. He shot a questioning look at his mother, who nodded slowly.

"You'll have to keep your grades up while you train," she said.

"I can do that," he promised, and the expression of disbelieving joy that crossed his face was priceless; he clearly hadn't expected his parents to agree to this without a fight.

Peggy looked at Steve. "Tony's your friend, your responsibility. Are you comfortable with this?"

Steve nodded, smiling slightly. From his earliest years Harrison had shown a readiness to throw himself into any task, no matter how challenging, and keep at it with a will until he succeeded. He had a single-mindedness that reminded Steve more than a little of his own. He would do fine.

"That settles that, then. And now we have one more decision to make," Peggy said, and she leaned forward to open a briefcase that was sitting on the coffee table, revealing a thick stack of papers and a bundle of floppy disks inside.

"What's all that?" Natty asked curiously.

"Howard's notes on his serum research," Peggy explained. "Jarvis found it in his most secure hide-away, at a different Stark property. Howard had the sense not to store it with the serum itself. It's all here: the instructions on how to make it from scratch."

"What are we going to do with it?" Tien asked.

Steve stood up and picked up a sheaf of papers, rifling through them with his thumb thoughtfully. "Technically, it belongs to Tony. He inherited everything of Howard's. The company, the inventions, the patents. All of it."

"But you're not going to give it to him," Sarah guessed.

Steve nodded, setting down the pages and rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger briefly. "The trouble is that Tony isn't ready to run the company on his own, and won't be for years. We wouldn't really be giving the serum to him. We would be giving it to Obadiah Stane, and I think it goes without saying that he can't be trusted with something like this."

"I think we can all agree on that," Peggy said.

"What, then?" Maggie asked. "Lock it away somewhere?"

"Howard wanted this research to be used to save lives," Steve pointed out. "Not sit in a safe somewhere moldering in the dust. And I think Tony — at least, the Tony I knew, the Tony to come — would have wanted that, too. Right now, I think we're the only ones in a position to put it to its intended use."

Dave nodded readily. "We know now that Sarah's healing technique works." Tien reached out and squeezed Sarah's hand with a grateful smile as he continued: "With Howard's research, we could finally start mass-producing serum. Start healing people for all kinds of things. Maybe focus on last-chance cases who couldn't get results with traditional medicine."

Sarah's eyes lit up with eagerness. "We've talked so many times about what we would do if we got this far. Quit our jobs, start up our own medical practice. I think it might be time."

"Just a few weeks ago you were horrified at the thought of moving to New York if I applied for that other job," Dave objected with a hint of amusement.

"Who said anything about moving?" Sarah asked him. "We're not going to uproot the whole family. There's no need. We'll just expand the lab out back for the manufacturing side of things, and open up a clinic somewhere in the city for the public to see us for treatment."

"How on earth are you going to advertise, sis?" Mike demanded with a teasing grin. "Come see us, we'll use a magic spell and a non-FDA approved substance to cure your heart disease!"

Sarah looked totally undeterred. "We'll work something out," she said placidly.

"It's a good plan. I think the Starks would have liked it," Steve said with a small smile.

"Wait a minute," Harrison said suddenly. "I thought Tony knew about his dad's serum. Won't he wonder what happened to it?"

Steve opened his mouth, but Natty answered before he could: "Tony knew his dad was trying to replicate the serum. He didn't know whether Howard succeeded. He was only guessing."

"I can have Jarvis tell him something," Peggy said. "That the research hit a dead-end, perhaps, and that Howard gave up on it. Even setting aside the problem with Obadiah Stane, I don't think Tony would have done much with it himself in any case. He's more interested in mechanics than biochemistry, and we know his feelings on the subject of the serum in general, and Captain America in particular."

Steve felt a pulse of sadness at her words. Natty had told them about Tony's last fight with Howard, and the revelation that Tony had overheard Peggy's conversation with Howard about the serum. No wonder Tony had disliked him from the first moment they had met on their first mission for S.H.I.E.L.D.: Steve had been a living reminder to Tony of his father's disappointment in him, not to mention the terrible way they had parted for the last time. The deck had been stacked against the two of them from the beginning. In fact, it was something of a miracle that they had been able to form as much of a friendship as they did, considering the circumstances. Tony had been more forgiving than he had known.

"Hey, Mom," Bram said, leaning forward with a strange gleam in his eyes. "Now that you're finally getting started, I know what your superhero name should be."

"I am not a superhero," Sarah contradicted firmly. "I'll leave that to the more pugilistic members of the family, thank you very much. I'm just a doctor."

"Yeah, you're a doctor," Bram agreed readily. "And you do magic. You know what that makes you?" He paused for dramatic effect. "The Witch Doctor."

"I am not a witch doctor!" Sarah objected loudly over the howls of laughter from everyone else in the room. She had to wait for everyone to settle down before she continued with a hint of indignation, "and besides, that's totally inappropriate for what your father and I already decided to name our clinic."

"I don't know, hon," Dave said, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes. "We might have to change the clinic name to match now. That one's too good to go to waste."

"What were you going to name it?" Steve asked curiously.

Sarah cleared her throat, and instinctively they all grew more serious. "We're going to call it St. Raphael's," she said.

"The angel from the New Testament?" Steven asked from where he sat by his mother.

Peggy recognized it, too. "The one who stirred the waters of Bethesda."

"-and the first person to go into the pool afterward would be healed," Steven finished with a smile. "That's good, Mom. I like it."

"We thought it was appropriate," Sarah said, exchanging glances with Dave. "Especially since we developed everything right here in Bethesda. Just... a different Bethesda."

"Speaking of names, you know what we need?" Harrison said in a musing tone. "Now that we're all in this together? A team name."

"You mean like the 'Captain America Club?'" Natty said pointedly.

"That's our secret-society name," Harrison said dismissively. "Now we're a response team, too. We need something a little jazzier for that."

"Like what? The Avengers?" Bram asked with a snort.

"Already taken," Maggie said with mock regret.

"How about Captain America and his Howling Progeny?" Harrison asked.

Bram blew a loud raspberry.

"The Steve Rogers Gang," Steven quipped, getting into the spirit of it.

"The Peggy Carter Gang, more like it," Maggie said. "There isn't a single person in this room with the last name of Rogers... not even Grandpa! Technically."

"Technically, only half of us are Carters," Bram said. "If you want to be accurate, we're going to have to hyphenate. The Carter-Capecci Gang."

"Ugh," Natty said with feeling. "I think we need to be a bit more undercover, guys. Something subtle that only our family understands."

"Well, we have plenty of time to figure out something good," Harrison said, undeterred.

"It's settled then," Peggy said, shutting the briefcase and handing it to Sarah. "Guard it well. Make good use of it. I know you'll make it worth the price that was paid."

"We will," Dave and Sarah said together, expressions serious.

Peggy nodded. "And now if you don't mind, Sarah, your father and I could use a lift to England."

"We're house-hunting," Steve explained. "I've been promising my sweetheart an English cottage with a rose garden for a long time now." He smiled at her tenderly. "It's about time I made good on it."

"Are you well enough for that, Mom?" Sarah asked with a touch of concern as she handed Howard's briefcase to Dave and stood up to fish the sling ring out of her jeans pocket.

"Whether I am or not, we put our house on the market today and we need to get our new home sorted out. It'll be nice not to have to sit on a seven-hour flight to get there," Peggy reassured her. "And if I get tired or my head starts to hurt, you can always get me back home in a trice."

"This is gonna be pretty convenient," Steve said, nodding toward the sling ring. "I used to think it would be a little sad and lonely, living across the ocean from all of you, but now we'll always be a portal away."

"Where to?" Sarah asked as she slid the sling ring on her fingers.

"My parents' home in Winchester," Peggy said promptly. "You have the visualization, of course, and we're hoping to find something near them, anyway. That private little corner of their yard amongst the myrtle should do nicely."

Everyone stood up and gave Steve and Peggy a flurry of hugs, and then Dave closed the curtains so that Sarah could make the portal and send them on their way. Steven watched wide-eyed; he had never seen a portal before, other than on the pages of a comic book.

When they were gone, Sarah cast a sideways look at Mike. "How about you? Should I be speeding you on your way home, too?"

"We'll go home the usual way, since the car's already parked outside," Mike said with a grin, giving his sister a big bear hug.

"Mom, can I go with them?" Maggie asked swiftly. "I want to hang out with Natty."

"Me too," Bram said. "Harrison wants to show me Duke Nukem."

"You'll have to fight Sammy for the privilege," Tien said, pulling on her jacket. "She's probably rotting her brains out sitting in front of the computer right now."

"Sammy? Not Clint?" Dave asked in some surprise.

"She fell in love with that computer even faster than Clint did," Mike said. "And not just the games. She had the operating manual memorized in days, and now she's doing things on Mac OS I didn't even know were possible."

"Huh," Dave said with interest. "Okay, Bram and Maggie, grab your coats and I'll drive you over. What about Joe and Amanda, hon? I could pick them up from Patty's house as I drive past and bring them along, too."

"Sounds good," Sarah said.

"Okay." Dave leaned over and kissed Sarah. "How about you, Steven? You coming too?"

"No, I wanna stay with Mom." Sarah could practically see the questions overflowing in her son's eyes, and she knew he would want to pick her brain the moment the two of them could talk without interruption.

After a few minutes of chaos searching for shoes and coats, everyone spilled out of the house and piled into the cars, Mike driving his rental car slowly on the snowy road and Dave following behind in their minivan. Sarah and Steven were left alone in a suddenly-quiet house.

"So what do you think of all this?" Sarah asked, smoothing his hair.

"All the other kids are helping, aren't they?" Steven asked. "Do I get to help too?"

"Mmm-hmm. What do you want to do?" she asked. "Bram helps me and Dad in the lab, and he's learning to use a sling ring, too. We could see if the Masters of the Mystic Arts will give us another one for you to try. Or you can take lessons in hand combat from Uncle Mike, along with Harrison, or learn about espionage like Natty just did. Let's see, what else? Maggie helps me keep the house running and the little kids taken care of. Maybe that doesn't sound very exciting, but it makes her happy, and it helps the family every bit as much as what the other kids do. Or you could come up with something else to contribute, something all your own idea. What are you interested in?"

"It all sounds interesting," Steven admitted.

"Well, you don't have to decide now," Sarah reassured him. "Try a little of everything, see how you like it. What do you want to start with?"

He thought for a long moment before answering. "Fighting might be cool, I guess, but I don't really love the idea of beating people up. Can I try helping in the lab first?"

"Absolutely." She flashed him a smile. "I'll tell you what. You go out to the lab right now and get the computer booted up for me. I'm going to run downstairs and get the lab coats out of the dryer. That'll make it official. And then I'll bring out Howard's notes and we can start going through his list of materials. You can help me inventory what we already have, and what we need to get to make the serum."

Excitement filled his eyes. "Okay!" He turned and started to open the back door.

"Hey, kiddo. You need the code," she reminded him.

"Oh, right."

She told him the code, and then he jogged out into the snow while she ran downstairs and got the lab coats. Stuffing them under her arm, she grabbed Howard's briefcase and followed Steven out to the lab. The door had already shut behind him, so she typed in the code again and entered the lab, grateful for the rush of warm air after the chill of the backyard. And then, at the threshold, she froze just as the door banged shut behind her.

There were men in the lab.

Men she didn't know, five of them. One of them was into the cooler where the completed serum was kept, vials clinking as he rooted through them. One of them was going through her computer files while another dug carelessly through the boxes of supplies under the lab counters, scattering gloves and syringes and biobags across the floor.

And one of them was holding Steven against his chest, gripping her son's shoulder tightly, pressing the barrel of a handgun against the side of his head.

Sarah locked eyes with her son. He was speechless with terror, blue eyes wide and glistening with barely-suppressed tears.

Instantly, every muscle tensed as an indescribable sensation swept over her entire body. Her heart suddenly raced, every pulse point throbbing with warmth, mind focusing with a sharpness she had never before experienced. Every cell of her body seemed poised to do... something. What, she didn't know yet.

"Don't move. Don't make a sound," the man holding Steven warned her. One of the other men brushed past him and began to roughly search Sarah. Numbly, she let him, knowing instinctively that whatever happened, she must not startle any of them, not while they had Steven at gunpoint. Not finding any weapons on her, the man next tried to pull Howard Stark's briefcase out of her hand. Instinctively she tightened her grip on the handle, but he leaned close to her and said in a low voice: "I don't need to tell you what will happen if you don't cooperate." He looked meaningfully at her son, and Sarah slowly let go of the briefcase. The man carried it to the counter, opened it and began to rifle through the pages inside.

A fifth man, who had been silently surveying the work of the others with his hands on his hips, strolled over to her. He was a little shorter than her, well-muscled, wearing only a black T-shirt under his bulletproof vest despite the winter weather. He had guns strapped to both thighs and several day's growth on his chin.

"Hello, Dr. Capecci," he said casually. He held up a blue vial and waggled it between his thumb and finger, watching the serum inside slosh back and forth. "This isn't what I think it is, is it? It is, right? You know, you really shouldn't leave something like this just sitting around." He was using the same condescending tone some adults used toward children, a tone Sarah had learned to hate at a very young age, and instantly she could feel a thin thread of anger coloring her fear.

"My name is Frank Rumlow," he continued, "and guess what, doctor? I'm gonna be your new supervisor."

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's note: I welcome feedback!