Wakanda - Waterfalls Near Villa
Very Late At Night
After sitting through numerous meetings, T'Challa was finally returning to the villa by taking the long route through the jungle while needing to get outside for a bit after sitting inside for the past few hours. There was a lot to do between his father's funeral and secretly approving the setting up of the facility necessary for Sergeant Barnes' request.
He'd spoken with him earlier today not long after Steve and Natasha had left for their escape mission about going into cryo-freeze again after learning that they had the technology. His only stipulation had been that Barnes be the one to personally tell Steve that he wanted to do so. They had only been reunited and he knew that Steve was not going to take the news very well. Barnes had assured him that he would tell him after dinner if everything went as planned today, which it had.
Most of the night creatures were down at ground level, leaving him the trees as a free pathway. Springing from tree to tree, he quietly made his way through the forest until he reached the villa's gardens. It was very late at night and he figured that all of his new guest should have been asleep for a few hours by now.
Reaching the edge of the jungle, just before he leapt to the roof's edge, from the corner of his eye he noticed a shadowy figure near one of the small natural waterfalls that had been included in a secluded garden area behind the villa. Deciding to make sure that there was nothing to worry about, he silently made his way through the tree's canopy without the figure being any the wiser.
Crouching down on a high limb, T'Challa watched the lone figure as they glided their feet through the pool of water while lying on their back, face up to the stars. Activating the sensors in his mask, the image of the person cleared so that he was able to make out that the lone individual was Polly. He could also now tell that there was a springhare on the ground next to her allowing her to stroke its small furry body. The gardeners had such trouble keeping the small rodent creatures out that he finally relented to having them fed and cared for as pets, so now they were used to human interaction...especially when food was involved.
T'Challa watched her for a few moments to make sure that everything was fine, remembering how she had reacted earlier to being outside, and it seemed that she just wanted some quiet alone time. He could not imagine what she had gone through, over a decade of not seeing even a sliver of sky. Even only knowing what he was sure was only a small portion of her story, he worried about how she was going to fare over the next few weeks to months. If Sam was correct with his initial assessment, she was going to need whomever was with her to have a lot of patience as she acclimated back into society.
"Any reason you are making me wait for you instead of being able to finally go to sleep?" Shuri's voice sounded through the speakers in his helmet.
"Do you actually think I believe you would not be in your lab even if I wasn't late?" he replied to her as he turned away from his guest, sure that she was safe on the grounds. If she intended to leave, she would have done so long ago. He would guess that she'd been alone out here for a couple of hours already.
"Well the joke is on you because I'm not in my lab, but you are making me wait," Shuri taunted him as he quickly began to move back across the villa on the roof. "What were you checking on?"
"Just one of my guests taking a late night stroll in the gardens. I was making sure that she was fine," he told her leaping up the side of the villa towards the private wing for the royal family. The others were not far away in the guest wing.
"One of the colonizers that you let into our country?" she asked but he could hear the playfulness in her voice.
If she hadn't been so occupied in her lab when he had contacted her with his request to join him for the meeting earlier, she would have been introduced to the rest of the group this afternoon. So far, Steve, Natasha, and Bucky were the only ones she had properly met. After learning about the situation with Bucky's mental faculties thanks to Hydra's manipulation, she had instantly begun to work on a couple of possible solutions, quickly lost to the puzzling task laid before her. Knowing that she was so focused on helping him, there was no way he could be angry at her being distracted.
"Yes, but they will only be strangers for as long as you hide in your lab," he told her landing outside of the upper suite's door.
Removing his helmet, he stepped inside of the large living room which was shared by the family. There were only a few dim lights still on around the edges of the room, just enough to allow people to walk around without tripping over the furniture.
"I am not hiding," Shuri voice sounded from somewhere nearby along with the clicking of a keyboard. "I was just a little busy."
"You need friends. All you have are schematics, devices, test, and data," he jokingly told her as he came up next to where she typing away at a laptop while lying on a couch off near a far window.
On the screen, not only were there scans of Bucky's neurological pathways, he could see that Shuri had pulled up one of the security camera over the private garden and was now watching Polly who was still at the waterfall. It did not seem as if she had moved at all in the past few minutes.
"Why is she out there at this time of night?" Shuri asked zooming in on the small springhare which was still next to her. "I do not recognize her from the news as one of the Avengers. Who is she?"
Watching for a bit longer, he was able to see that she was ripping pieces of a roll, probably one that had been served at dinnertime. Considering what he had learned about her, T'Challa realized that for her to have ready-access to food was new. He would make sure to tell the cooks that while the group is still here to always have fruits and snacks easily available in the dining area so that anyone could just grab something if they wanted it. Knowing that she was going to be cautious around anyone, he didn't want her to be afraid to request food if she was hungry.
"The only name we know her by is Polly, but it is not her real one. Up until today, she has been held as a prisoner for the past thirteen years. One of the cruel things they did was not allow her to see the outside during that entire time," he explained to her stepping over to remove his suit.
Shuri looked over at him as if to see if he were lying. The serious expression he gave her confirmed his tale.
"She does not look to be very old," she told him as he saw on the screen that Polly finally stood up. Wondering if she would head into the jungle, taking advantage of the late hour to leave the compound, he continued to watch the screen.
"Hydra took her when she was only eighteen," he answered his sister's comment.
Coming back to stand next to Shuri, together they watched as Polly outstretched her arm and managed to touch every single plant on the path back to her room's porch. She picked up her shoes from the ground and then headed inside, hopefully to get some sleep. The glass wall of her room then frosted over but they could tell the lights did not turn off immediately.
"Why did they want her?" Shuri asked closing down the screen.
"She is an enhanced. Polly can make someone tell the truth as well as make them do her bidding," he explained and the look on Shuri's face told him that she didn't like to hear that.
"Then maybe you need to stay away from her," her voice was instantly defensive.
"Why do you say that?" he asked curious to her worries.
"She could command you to do anything that she wanted, give away our secrets, even force you to give up our vibranium."
"Polly knows nothing of vibranium, that I know of, and I do not believe her to be a person who would do such things. Right now, all that she possesses is the borrowed clothes on her back, which she was happy to receive," he told her stretching out his sore muscles. He was ready to head to bed himself. Tomorrow would be just as busy as today, but at least there should be no more emergencies to deal with, like in medical earlier. "Steve and his friends will be watching over her until they leave here, trying to earn her trust. She was taken from one prison and put into another without anyone trying to help her. Polly has not had anyone to look out for her, so we need to prove that we are better than those who held her. And she just learned today of the Accords and how because of them that she cannot go home. But right now, she is still too scared of us to even tell us where that is."
"Maybe someone needs to do something for her," Shuri's voice was low and he could see the look she usually got when trying to figure out a problem.
T'Challa was glad that she seemed to be feeling more at ease now. He knew that she had been hesitant about letting in the strangers that surrounded them. Wakanda had been secluded for maybe too long, making everyone who had not traveled outside of their borders a bit too suspicious of colonizers.
"Well, until we know more about her, there is not a lot except for giving her the freedom that she has not known for so long," he stated as he watched Shuri's fingers start to type away on the keyboard. Knowing that his sister had an idea, he finished their talk with, "Why don't you join me with the others for breakfast in the morning, if you can remember to? Maybe getting out of your lab and meeting new people will do you some good. And whatever you just thought of, don't do anything illegal."
As he then began to walk away towards his bedroom while giving a large yawn, Shuri called out to him, "Even if I did, you'd never know because I would never get caught!"
/…there was total darkness in her cell on the Raft...
…her hands flew up to her face and found nothing there, no devices…
...footsteps pounding on the metal floor gradually getting louder as they approached…
...pushing up from the cot she put herself into the corner…
...the door opened to a figure in dark shadow holding the rod…
...trying to raise her hands they refused to lift from her sides…
...he stepped inside and jabbed the collar on the rod towards her throat…
...the cold metal clamped down hard around her bare neck…
...now her hands raised but it was too late…
...he lifted the pole, forcing her to stand, the collar choking her…
...her bare back impacted hard with the cold metal wall…
...her body left the ground as he lifted her high by her neck...
...her arms reached out to try and touch him, to tell him to let her go, but he was too far away…
...looking down, light from the hall showed that her entire body was naked…
...he took a single step forward and his face touched a light beam that had not just been there…
...Keeling held the other end of the pole with that nauseating smile of his…
..."There's the tool that I lost. Welcome back to Hydra…"/
Her breath hitched in her tightened throat moments before she screamed aloud. Her arms tried to flail in front of her, trying to keep Keeling away. Instead, they became tangled in the soft bed sheets, making her still feel trapped. Kicking out with her legs pulled the fabric away, finally freeing her.
Sitting upright, there was just a hint of moonlight coming in through the large, frosted window to her left. Was this real or was she back inside one of her dream worlds? It felt real...
Scrambling over the bed, she ended with her back against the headboard. Her eyes kept darting around the dark room, looking for him. Listening for footsteps in the hallway, they would tell her that he was just outside of the door waiting for her to fall asleep again. She needed light. What had she been told earlier...?
"Lights, all on!" she loudly and firmly demanded and they immediately drowned out all of the shadows where he could be lurking…waiting to get to her again. She found herself alone in the room. But that did not mean she was safe.
There was no was that she could stay here where he could get to her so easily. The others had no reason to protect her from him so there was no point in going to them. That meant that her only option was finding a secure place to sleep. There were only two options in this bedroom, a closet or the bathroom with a window, and she knew which one to head to.
Gathering all of the pillows from the bed and the blanket up into her arms, she slipped from the bed and hurried across the room to the open closet door. Tossing the items on the floor, she slammed the door closed behind her. Feeling the handle, she cursed as she found that there was no lock...but why would there be for a closet. So, she piled the pillows up against the door and laid down with her back to it. Now, anyone who wanted to get to her would have to open the door, and when they did, it would wake her up and give her time to stop them.
Magical would be how she'd describe how she fell asleep in the fluffy bed, just like she would have years ago, tucked under the covers with the lights off. The moonlight had been much brighter earlier so that it lit her room enough for her to be comfortable. But since falling asleep, the clouds had returned and dimmed it too much for her. Even with the closest being as small as her cell, as long as the lights were on, she knew she could handle being inside.
It was the darkness that she feared more than the small space.
Grasping the blanket tightly in her hands, she pulled it up over her body, stopping only when it reached her chin. The shame of being so frightened by a nightmare and the dark as if she were still a child eventually became too overpowering. After trying to hold herself together for so long, she finally gave in and let herself break down.
This was one of the best dreams she ever had created...or was she really free?
No...this time it had to be real. But she was only physically free, the memories would always haunt her. Keeling would always be there waiting for her when she closed her eyes.
The tears on her face had dried by the time that she managed to fall asleep again.
The Next Morning
"Sam," Steve called out to him as he was headed through the den towards the dining room where some of the others were already gathered and eating breakfast. He stopped to wait for Steve who was approaching with a tablet in his hand. When Sam saw Steve glance over his shoulder to make sure they had privacy, he got worried.
"What's up?" he asked hoping that it was something good.
"T'Challa had something brought to my attention after his medical staff approached him with the information from Polly's scans, not sure what to do with it," Steve told him as his eyes cut down to the device. "You had requested a copy of Polly's medical records, and she agreed to it, but as they were compiling their findings…some things caught their attention."
Sam already felt his body tighten at hearing that. Then there was the fact that Steve wanted to keep this quiet from the others for right now.
"What did they find?"
Steve glanced over his shoulder towards the hallway where Polly would be coming from for breakfast. He was making sure that she was not anywhere around. He then offered the tablet to him. Turning it on, there was a file already pulled up.
The full body scan they had taken was visible and there were numerous parts of it that were highlighted in red listed as previous injuries. Zooming in, he was able to see that both of her hands were marked as such. Tapping it to enlarge the detail showed that all of her fingers showed at least two, and some three, previous breaks that had healed. Four more circles indicating her shoulders and elbows were also marked, the bones' joints showing stress signs of having been previous dislocated…possibly numerous times according to the notes. Her arm muscles were designated as being at a state of atrophy, as if they had not been used on a regular basis for very long periods of times…more than just what Ross had done to her.
"They tortured her," his voice was solemn as he said it aloud.
"Yes," Steve simply agreed. "Those are only the things they did that didn't heal properly."
"I noticed yesterday at dinnertime that she moved her hands a bit irregularly. I thought that it had to do with them being in the cuffs for so long," he told him moving on to the next document.
Now on the screen was a listing of the numerous scars and needle track marks that he had already seen. But there were a lot more that had been covered by her clothing. It seemed that she had undergone numerous medical procedures as well, some of the notes so technical he didn't understand their meaning. There were other notes off to the side indicating what the doctors believed had been done: numerous tissue and organ sampling, and including the signs of multiple spinal taps.
"They did cut her open, just like she mentioned," he said turning the device off, not wanting to see anymore right now. "This explains why she panicked so when she was down in medical."
"Knowing Hydra, they were probably trying to figure out where her power came from," Steve stated and Sam guessed he was right.
Hearing soft footsteps approaching, they saw Polly walk into the den, cautiously looking around as if making sure it was safe to do so. Now he understood why she was so paranoid about people, especially the medical staff. There was no telling what all had been done to her during those eleven years.
"We'll talk more after breakfast," Steve told him trying to put on a smile for her, but knowing him the way that he did, Sam could see that there was something more bothering him than just this report.
What other bad news had Steve received?
She sat at the breakfast table with the plate of food in front of her. The cooks had gone for more of an American style menu and the others were enjoying it immensely. She, on the other hand, was trying to be grateful but it only served as a reminder that unless something dramatically changed, she was never going to eat with her own family again.
How was she to be sure that this new group was not trying to bide their time and make her think that she couldn't go home? They could be telling her all of this information in hopes that she would stay with them so that they could use her like Ross and Hydra.
But since yesterday, they had all been very nice to her.
She had been a bit worried that the group would take simple precautions to stop her from quickly using her powers, like making her wear the dark lens glasses. But nobody seemed to consider that, and if they did, not one of them had mentioned it. Sam had even come over to tell her good morning, his eyes never once leaving hers. When he had asked how she had slept, she hated that she had lied to him, saying only 'good' as an answer. At least she had not screamed aloud and woken everyone up. That would only help to alienate them more.
Picking at the polenta they had called grits, she slowly ate in silence as the others around her chatted away with each other. She didn't think that they even noticed that she didn't join in. Steve was the only other one that seemed a bit out of it, as if something was bothering him. Was it her? Was he regretting bring her with them? She hoped not. After watching the sunrise over the waterfalls this morning, she had walked around the entire villa, learning that they were out in the middle of nowhere next to a jungle that seemed to have no other type of city nearby. If she ran from here, there was nowhere for her to hide from them.
The only stranger at the table today was the female T'Challa had introduced as his sister, Princess Shuri. She seemed friendly for the most part but Polly had learned to pick up on body language with all of the interviews and questions that she'd been forced to ask. There was no mistaking that she was uncomfortable with this group. But she had heard the other mention that visitors were not common here so maybe that had something to do with it.
Every so often, Shuri's eyes would linger for a few seconds too long, telling Polly that she was watching her specifically. The few times she'd caught her doing so Shuri had only given a polite smile. Polly knew that if she was uncomfortable with the group that her brother had allowed to come here, then she, as an unexpected guest, was definitely not wanted by the princess.
Maybe she should just talk openly with them and then have them see if it would be safe to take her home. If they were really the good guys, then her family would be safe from them. And Ross would hopefully not be a worry to her.
"I have something that I…we need to let you all know about," Steve's first words of the meal had heads turning to listen. "When we leave here tomorrow, Bucky will not be joining us."
There was a mumble from most of the group at hearing that.
Bucky then told them, "I'm going back into cryo for a while."
"What? Why?" Sam asked.
"With Zemo having my activation words, and him being questioned by NATO, there's no telling how long until they get out," Bucky said. "Using the cryo technology that T'Challa has here can keep anyone from getting into my mind again and controlling me like Hydra did."
She couldn't stop her stomach from dropping at just the thought of him volunteering to be locked away just to hide from practically everyone. Was Hydra still looking for him too? There was no guarantee that they wouldn't come here. And he would be helpless to stop them. Was what they did to him so bad that he felt it was really his only option?
"And I will be working on the way to remove their significance from his mind permanently," Shuri then told the group. "It will take some time and he should not have to live in fear of someone just walking up to him and using him like a tool again."
Hearing Shuri say the word tool made her drop the spoon from her weak hand, letting it tink loudly onto her plate. A few looked thinking her just clumsy, but they had no idea of the significance of that horrible word to her thanks to Keeling's fondness of it.
The group began a discussion about the procedure and giving their support for his decision but she couldn't concentrate on their talk. Sitting there all she could do was try to mentally scream the memories away from the surface of her mind that were trying to drown her. Keeling, her cell, her arms being locked down, screaming for help that never came. The only one who seemed to pay any attention to her was Wanda for some reason.
The others were still talking but she could not concentrate on the actual words. She forced herself to try and focus on the here and now.
"I was able to find out about the rest of us going home," Natasha stated bringing the entire table's attention to her after a few minutes.
"What did you find?" Scott was the first to ask.
"For you, it turns out that Ross had already questioned Hank Pym after Germany. He informed Ross that you had stolen the suit and demanded to have it returned to him after charges were brought up against you for theft," Natasha told him, making Scott smile and drop his head.
"Yeah, he's going to be mad at me for a few days," he then looked up, "But he's probably just worried about Stark getting his hands on the suit."
"Ross' men also questioned your ex-wife and her husband. He told them that if he even suspected that you were in town that he would have you arrested for breaking parole," Natasha told him with a smile.
"Great! That means that I can go home," Scott looked way to happy at hearing that.
"Didn't you just hear what she said?" Clint asked him.
"That's just Paxton," Scott said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"What about home?" Clint then asked Natasha.
"Still off of the grid," she told him with a certainty in her voice. "Fury's procedures held up very well against Ross' attempts to trace you. All it did was redirected him to an old Shield safe house in Iowa."
Clint then looked over at Wanda, "Feel like coming to stay a bit with the family? I know the kids would love to see you again."
"You would not find my presence an intrusion? Laura is going to be very mad at you for getting arrested," Wanda told him.
"And having a guest in the house will keep her too distracted from yelling at me," he told her giving her side a nudge since they were sitting next to each other. "Besides, you know that they all consider everyone in the group family. Well, maybe not Tony right now."
"I will think about it," Wanda told him.
"And I'm not even going to bother asking you," Clint said looking across the table at Natasha. "Lila was mad that you backed out last month from coming and seeing her before all of this started. If I don't bring you with me, then I might as well not even bother going home."
"I think I can spare a few days or so to see my number one fan," Natasha then gave such a genuine smile.
Steve then looked over towards the head of the table where T'Challa was sitting.
"It seems that we have at least part of a plan to keep you from being discovered as our protectors," Steve told him.
"An unnecessary precaution but I thank you nonetheless," T'Challa informed them but then he looked down the table to where she was sitting. "Polly, have you decided yet as to if you trust us enough to tell us your name?"
She saw every set of eyes around the table now focused on her as she was put on the spot. If she was going to trust them, then this would be the time to do it. Could she trust them to not hurt her family? Some of them had their own family, so they had to be good people, right?
Instead of answering with her doubts she sat there quiet.
"Then I may have some information for you too," Natasha then said, getting their eyes drawn to her. "Teagan Aoife MacKenna."
Her breath hitched in her throat at hearing her name spoken aloud for the first time in years.
"Where did you get my name from?" she barely managed to ask aloud.
"I used your fingerprints from the inside of the cuffs that Ross had on you. I searched the normal databases for a match and came up empty. The same as all of Ross' searches," she told her. "But then knowing how Hydra worked, I ran a search through a database that I'll guess he never did."
"What one was that?" she asked a bit worried about the answer.
Natasha looked around the table before answering, "Ireland's Civil Registration Deaths Index."
Teagan looked at her trying to figure out what that would exactly mean.
"What did you find?" Bucky was the one to ask, his voice weary as if he knew what to expect her to say.
"I used the story that you told us about how Hydra took you that morning and matched it up against a set of prints entered into the database by a local coroner's office. It seems that after they removed you from the car, they had it driven off of the road and into a deep bog. It took a few days before local police were able to find and recover the car. They pulled fingerprints from the steering wheel trying to see if there was signs of foul play but only found your prints. But when they didn't find a body, the coroner's office still listed you as deceased guessing that your body had sunk deeper and would never be recovered. You were listed as the victim of a simple traffic accident."
The entire table was quiet at hearing Natasha's story, but she couldn't hear anything past the slow beating of her own heart.
For years, Teagan had always imagined that her family was out there looking for her. That somehow, someday she would get free and be able to show up at home into their waiting arms and she would be with them again.
But instead, Hydra had erased her from the world.
Her family thought her to be dead. Not only that, they have thought it for almost thirteen years! They'd had mourned for her and then moved on with their lives without her. They never continued to look for her. They never even expected her to knock on the door.
She had nothing and no one to go home to.
Her face felt flushed, her throat tight, and she barely managed to hold back the tears trying to escape and embarrass her in front of everyone. Ducking her head down, Teagan hid her face with a hand, trying to steady her breathing to remain calm.
After she had been sitting there for a bit too long, Sam gently touched her right arm, getting her attention, "Teagan?"
Rubbing her eyes, she looked up at him, and couldn't help but smile a bit a hearing her name again.
"Yeah," she responded with a soft chuckle. "I always hated the name Polly."
Clint gave a loud snort, "You and me both," guessing someone had used it as a joke due to his codename of Hawkeye.
Now that she knew who she was, it left her wondering, "So what does that mean for me? I could'na go home because of that stupid Accord thing, and now if I show up my parents would think that I'm a Thevshi or something."
"Thevshi?" Sam asked her.
"Ghost," and the moment the word left her, Teagan knew that to them it sounded superstitious. But most smiled and accepted the term.
The entirety of the table then turned to Steve, their leader and the one in charge of her, and all of theirs, futures.
"I still want our group out of here before we cause any trouble for T'Challa," he started telling all of them. "From there we will take everyone home who we can, namely Scott and Clint. Nat and Wanda can visit with Clint if they want."
"Why can they go home?" she asked not understanding.
T'Challa was the one to answer.
"There is still a danger of them being discovered of doing so. Even with the incident at the airport, the Raft was only supposed to house enhanced individuals, such as Wanda and yourself. For all purposes under the law, Clint, Scott, and Sam are only human. Their skills rely on machinery or training, nothing more. Technically, they never should have been on the Raft to begin with."
"And that is exactly what the report that was released by the U.N. officials within the past twenty-four hours stated," Natasha continued. "Ross could not cover-up their escape, not when they were still being held while it was decided if charges could be brought up against them. But so that everyone here knows, there is one interesting fact that was not mentioned…your escape."
Teagan thought about that for a moment, "So, nobody but Ross knows that I'm not there anymore?"
"That's what we believe," T'Challa told her. "Unless Ross informs someone off of the record."
"And the U.N. never knew you were there to being with," Natasha continued. "Since you were found on U.S. soil, and captured by local authorities before being passed on to another government entity, they were under no obligation to even mention your capture."
Not only had Hydra made her disappear, it seemed that Ross had managed to keep it that way.
"But if Ross expands his searches to include the same one as mine did, he will figure out who you are and could come for you if you headed home," Natasha pointed out. "But I can go back in and see about scrubbing your records from the system."
Steve nodded his head, "Do that, Nat. No matter what, we can't let Ross find Teagan again. There's no telling what he'd do in retaliation for the escape."
"I'll do it right after breakfast," Natasha told him.
"So then, what is the plan for the rest of us?" Sam asked while looking at Steve.
"Natasha and Clint have a couple of safe-houses set up. For the next few months, the three of us will be laying low…if you want to come with us, Teagan."
Closing her eyes and dropping her head, "What other choice do I have?"
"There is one other," T'Challa then spoke up. "We do not normally allow outside visitors into our cities, but considering the special circumstances surrounding you, I will grant you asylum and find a place for you to reside inside our borders where Ross will not discover you."
Living alone in a foreign country? Not exactly what she had hoped for once she was freed from the base.
"If you can give me some time," Natasha started, "I can see about working on getting you home."
With a bit of hopefulness in her voice, "How?"
"You were only listed as missing before being moved to deceased without your body being found. Giving me a while to come up with a backstory and the corresponding paperwork to go with it, and I might be able to create a plausible account to bring you back to life."
"You could do that?" she asked not believing it.
"I've learned quite a few tricks over the years. Worst case, you might have to give a couple of 'suggestive comments' to anyone who doesn't go along with us," Natasha smiled at her. "But I will need time. Think you could keep Sam and Steve out of trouble for while?"
"While I don't think that I need a babysitter," Sam told her, "Staying with us would be a good option. You'll need a bit of time to acclimate back into society and we can help you with that."
Steve then amusingly asked, "So you think I need a babysitter?"
"For the past ninety-nine years," Bucky then answered with a smile before turning to her, "and I would sleep better knowing that he has others with him."
It had been so long since anyone had asked her what she wanted to do that it was a bit overwhelming. But if what Natasha was offering could be done, she'd eventually be able to go home. Her dream world would become a reality.
"I…I think I'll stay with Sam and Steve," she managed to say aloud before turning to T'Challa to answer his offer. "I know them…or more than I would being left alone somewhere surrounded by strangers. But thanks for even offering it to me. I know that you consider me a security risk."
"You were a victim and need to see that not everyone is like Hydra or Ross," he told her. "But there is something else that I would like to discuss with you in private, after breakfast."
Teagan knew that her eyes were wide at hearing the request. Was this when he asked her to do something for him? Was it to be payment for allowing her to stay with the group?
"Of course," she managed to get out as the rest of the table began to talk amongst themselves.
Author's Note: I hope that you like the name reveal. Of course Natasha would be the one to figure out how to find it. FYI - Teagan's middle name of Aoife is pronounced "ee+fa", meaning 'joyful' as well as being the name of a warrior woman.
I'd like to hear from you as to what you'd like to read about when it comes to events/actions that Teagan might have to deal with trying to cope with normal activites. I have a couple of upcoming chapters with small scenes of coping, and I'll see about putting some of your suggestions into them.