Author's Note: Teagan will speak a bit of the Irish/Gaelic language in this chapter. Definitions are at the bottom, but you'll get their context in the scene. If you know a term or phrase is not correct, please let me know and I'll fix it.

South Dakota - Nearby Larger Town
Late The Next Morning

Slowing the small, nondescript truck down, Sam looked around the large town they had just arrived in. It had taken them about twenty minutes to drive here down one of the longest, straightest, most boring roads he had ever had the pleasure to have been on. There was nothing but flat open fields for as far as the eye could see. There was nowhere for a police officer to hide for a speed trap, he had noted. The only thing that broke the landscape up were small clusters of trees that would surround houses to give them a bit of privacy, just as their own safe house's did.

Glancing over, he saw that Teagan's eyes were darting around as if trying to take in every single face, worry lines creasing her brow, almost as if she were looking for someone. Then it dawned on him.

She was searching for Keeling.

"You're not going to find him here," he told her turning onto the main street. Here there were lots of different types of shops with a scattering of people walking around. None of them even seemed interested in them as they drove past.

"Can'na hurt to look," she told him, her accent coming out a bit. "Especially since I have no idea where his base is."

The small town looked like it had not chanced since the 1980's, giving it a quaint, homey feel...like nobody was actually a stranger. Just down the street, he could see a large park making up the town's center. Large oak trees were everywhere with benches under them to sit on and just watch people pass by. There was only two traffic lights on the main road, and limited cars driving around. It was such a nice place that there was no way Hydra had ever even stepped foot close to here. He hoped.

Pulling into a small parking lot for a grocery market, Sam grabbed the baseball cap he had found hanging near the back door. It was the best disguise he was going to get. Getting out, he looked around just to make sure that everything was still good. Teagan's worry had him a bit paranoid now, but he felt secure in his original assessment that they were safe.

Then he saw her expression brighten as she spotted something.

"Sam," Teagan got his attention as they both stepped onto the sidewalk. "There's something that I want to do before we get groceries. Is that all right?"

"Of course," he told her as he looked towards the business she was staring at. "You want to see if that salon can fix your hair, don't you?"

Teagan bit her lower lip as she began to eagerly nod her head. She had put on a bandana over her hair this morning, almost reminding him of a cancer patient sometimes would look. He knew that she was just trying to cover the shapeless mess that Ross had left her with.

Reaching into his back pocket, Sam drew out his wallet, but Teagan got his attention, "I already have some money."

"You do?" he asked a bit surprised.

"Yeah," she said, and he saw her shoulders tense up some. "Shuri did something with some Hydra funds and gave me a lot of cash that is untraceable."

Sam smiled, guessing he knew what had happened.

"She gave it to you in the backpack right before we left yesterday, didn't she?"

"Yeah," Teagan sounded hesitant. "Is that alright?"

"Yes, it's fine that you have your own money to do or get whatever you want," he told her sure that he understood her worry. "I was just going to give you some of the emergency funds that we have access to."

Hearing that she was allowed to keep the money for herself, Teagan calmed back down.

"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked wondering if she would be alright to be alone for that long with strangers. This was her first real outing.

"Maybe, just at first," she told him as they started to walk towards the salon. "But if they can seat me, then I should be fine for a while."

It sounded to him as if she was having very similar thoughts to his own. She had always been around someone except for at night while alone in her room. At least she was willing to try, and that was a good step forward.

Stepping inside the small salon, there was only one other older woman in the waiting area. The only stylist he could see stepped away from her client after a few seconds to meet them at the counter.

"What can I help you with, dear?" she asked Teagan, eyeing the scarf.

"I…ah…want to see if someone…one of you…could help me with a problem," she sounded a bit unsure of herself as her hand drifted to the scarf, but the lady only smiled.

"What have you got under there?" she asked with a knowing grin. "Home perm gone bad?"

"No," Teagan looked over at him, as if needing help. Then he caught on that she couldn't tell them what had really happened to her hair, but she also had not thought of a story for it in case she was asked.

"We've been traveling for the past few months," he stepped into help her, "and she hasn't had a chance to take care of her hair since she shaved it on a dare."

The shock on the woman's face was very noticeable, and he wondered if she had also considered the cancer excuse at hearing that her head had been shaved.

"Can I get a quick look at what we have to work with?" she asked.

Teagan reached up and worked at the knot holding the scarf tight. Once it was free, the stylist sucked in a breath, shocked at the horrible shape of the exposed hair. With her arms up, he also saw her noticing Teagan's tattoos, a slight smile then appeared.

"What exactly did you want to do with it? Pixie cut?"

"Maybe, I'm not too sure what could be done with it so I'm open to suggestions," Teagan admitted. "Can you fix it?"

There was now a prominent smile on her face, "No, but, I have the perfect person who can."

She quickly headed into a back room, making the two of them wonder what was going on. A few seconds later, she reappeared followed by another woman, unlike anyone he had thought to find out here in the middle of nowhere.

The young girl eyeing Teagan had what he thought were dreads in her hair, but as she drew closer he could see they were actually tight hanging twisted spirals. The top of her head was blond while the bottom half was a light pink. She had a lip piercing as well as a nose ring. Her arms were covered with tattoos of black and white flowers and patterns, from her shoulder to wrist. Her eyes were done up in purples and black makeup. Glancing down, he found the pink combat boots he expected to find.

Glancing at Teagan, he could see a wide smile appear on her face.

"I'm Antoinette," she said coming around the counter with a grin, reaching out to take Tegan's hand. "Looks like we are going to be having some fun."

Sam felt more hesitant to let Teagan go to the chair than she was. He sat in a free chair in the waiting area as he watched the two of them chatted and compared tattoos. Then they both began to run hands through her hair, but he couldn't hear what they were talking about.

Glancing over at the older lady that was here before them, he realized what might have happened, "I'm sorry. Did we cut in front of you?"

She looked up from the magazine in her hands, saw Teagan and Antoinette, and began to shake her head.

"No, I only let Betty do my hair," she pointed to the lady that had helped them when they arrived. "Antoinette's a bit too much for me to handle. Not that she's ain't a good person, but she likes…funky hairstyles."

Hearing that, Sam looked back over to where Teagan was sitting. She looked happier right now than he had seen her over the past few days. It seemed that she might have found a kindred spirit in Antoinette.

Seeing the stylist heading to the back room for something, he quickly made his way over to Teagan.

"Think you'll be fine if I head across the street to the hardware store for a few items?" he asked as she continued to play with her hair.

Nodding, she smiled at his reflection.

"I think so."

"Then I'll head on over there and grab a few things," he pointed at the store through the front windows. "If you get done first, you can either come find me, or wait in here if you don't want to go outside alone."

"Alright. I'll decide what to do once we're done."

Sam nodded and turned to head away, hoping that she did fine being alone.

The store was a smaller family-run one but it was a good size considering that it may be the closest one around for many miles. It didn't take him long to gather up the few supplies that they needed…light bulbs, nails for a few loose floor boards on the porches, and a hammer. But knowing that Teagan would not be ready yet, he began to wander down the aisles, taking a mental stock of the items just in case they needed something.

"Having trouble finding an item?" an older gentleman came over to help him as Sam realized he'd been staring at sandpaper for about 5 minutes.

"No," he glanced at the front of the store out the window. He could just make out the front of the salon and knew that if Teagan needed him, that he would know. "I'm waiting on a friend while she gets her hair cut."

"Then you're probably going to be here a while," he grinned while patting Sam's shoulder. "Let me show you where all the fellas hide out while waiting for their gals."

Sam didn't want to point out that Teagan wasn't his gal but that would probably bring on more questions that he didn't have answers for.

Leading Sam back towards the front of the store, he saw the wooden checker board set up on an old barrel with two chairs across from each other.

They rang up the few items he had selected before both of them took a seat at the board. For the next twenty minutes, Sam and Jonathan, the store's owner, sat and played checkers while he kept an eye on the salon's door. Seeing it finally open and catching sight of red hair, he knew that Teagan was finally finished.

Sam pointed out that his wait was over and said his goodbyes. Making his way across the street, he was stopped in his tracks about half-way by the glowing female who had emerged from the salon.

Teagan was glancing around, and he got a good look at her new hair style. The most notable change was that from an inch above her ears all the way behind her head had been shaven down to almost nothing. The top was already a few inches in length but it had been shaped, cut, and styled so that chunky tendrils of red hair fell all around her head. It was a bit curlier than it had been this morning, and he wondered if it was natural. Overall the new style was stunning and he really liked how she looked with it.

He somehow felt that the bold style was a reflection of the personality that had been squashed by Keeling and Ross for so long.

Seeing him standing still in the lane of the road, Teagan made her way towards him and then pulled him between the parked cars out of the not-very-busy street.

"What do you think?" she asked with a genuine smile on her face.

He could see that she really liked it too.

"Very unique. It looks good on you," he told her as they made their way to the truck. "I am a bit surprised that you shaved the bottom again though."

"But this time it was because I wanted to," she told him, running her hand over the smooth area.

"Are the curls real?" he opened the truck to put the small bag inside the cab.

"Yes, but Toni was able to use this gel that helped to bring them out."

"Toni?" he asked. "Sounds like the two of you hit it off."

"She reminds me of my friends from back home," she told him, making him curious. "Also, my cousin Quinn is a bit of a hooligan, and so he dated punk girls."

"Really? I kind of pictured you with a lot of older men that looked like sailors hanging out in the pub."

"Trust me, there were a plenty of them around, but me music group was made up of younger musicians. We were learning the older songs so that we can eventually pass them along. When I first got taken, I had my hair cut into a Mohawk and wore it as a long braid."

Sam then recalled the picture from her Hydra file when she was first taken. Her hair had been loose, not braided, and it fell oddly around her face. Not understanding what he had been looking at, knowing it was a Mohawk made a lot of sense now.

As they walked down the sidewalk, something else then caught her eye.

"Sam, could I go in there for a minute?" she asked pointing at a second-hand clothing store.

"Sure," he said looking around and not finding another clothing store that sold new ones nearby. "Do you want to ride around and try to find a place that sells new items?"

"No," she told him. "Wearing something with a bit of ware might help to make me not stand out."

Lifting his hand, he let his fingers slide around one of the curls hanging over her ears, finding it as soft as he imagined it to be.

"Isn't this a bit opposite of that?"

"If I need a disguise, I can always put a ball cap on," she pointed out as they headed inside the store. While nudging his side, "Then I'll look just like you."

"Sure, we'll practically be twins," he said rolling his eyes and earning a laugh from her.

He hoped that Teagan was able to keep the happy feeling she was exuding right now. For the first time, she didn't look like anything could worry or frighten her.

"What took the two of you so long?" Steve asked as he walked out the back door after hearing the truck finally pulling back up to the house. By the start of the second hour of them being gone, he had started to think that maybe he should have headed out with the two of them, even if he had sat in the vehicle so he wouldn't be spotted. That way, if they needed him, he would have been close by.

Sam had already gotten out and was lowering the tailgate.

"Just a bit of extra shopping," he was told as the passenger door opened up.

Seeing Teagan as she exited the truck, he stopped in his tracks.

"That's…not anything that I was expecting," he managed to say looking at the strange haircut.

Somehow, with the carefree smile she now had, it fit her.

"I had to do something with that mess that Ross left me with," Teagan told him, sounding much happier than she has been.

"It looks nice, definitely much better than it did," he told her as they all began to gather the bags of food. He did notice a few extra ones of clothing, guessing that they were Teagan's.

They put away the groceries before he decided to let them know about the information that Nat had contacted him while they were gone. He stood off to lean on the counter as he asked Teagan to take a seat for a moment. She was about to become disappointed.

"Nat contacted me while you were gone," he started. "Her search for Keeling came back with a bit of bad news."

Teagan's eyes widened a bit but it was Sam who finally asked, "What did she find?"

"Unfortunately, it was what she didn't find. Keeling was not one of the Hydra agents captured with their fall."

Her entire body seemed to collapse in on itself as she absorbed what could only be devastating news to her. The single man that had caused her so much pain was still somewhere out there.

"Is there any sign of him?" Sam asked, making her look over at him. "Any way that we can help one of the authorities get their hands on him?"

Steve hated that he could only continue with the bad news as he shook his head.

"I asked Nat the same thing and somehow he's managed to stay off all radars. There's not been any sign of him since D.C."

"Is it possible that he's dead?" Teagan's voice had just a bit of hopefulness.

"I don't think so," he told her. "All of the bodies recovered from the Triskelion after Project Insight failed were identified. The only other possibility would be that Keeling wasn't his real name, and that he went by a different one. Did you ever hear someone call him by anything else?"

She shook her head, "No, never."

Picking up the tablet from behind him, he asked, "Can I show you a picture of him, just to make sure that the one Nat was able to find is correct?"

Now her entire body tensed up at just the idea. Sam moved from where he had been standing near the sink so that he was right behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"It's just a picture, but we need to know that it's really him and what he looks like so that we can be on the ready…just in case," he told her.

Glancing over her shoulder at Sam, she then turned back to him and nodded in approval. Turning the device on, he pulled up the photo she had sent over, along with the Project Cherry Tree file that Nat had found dumped online. From what she found, there was a lot more to what Teagan had been through than they had so far learned from her. But after hearing from Nat about a few other video clips of her 'training', things they had not heard about in Wakanda, it was understandable that she would not want to speak about them.

Turning it for her to see, the expression on her face told Steve that it was indeed Keeling. Sam was intently staring at the shot, as if trying to memorize the face. Her hands began to visibly shake so she balled them together and put them into her lap to stop the involuntary action of punching the screen's image of him. He turned the tablet away from her so she didn't have to see the man anymore.

"I take your reaction to mean that was Keeling. I'll ask Nat to put a more active trace out on him, that way if he does turn up, then we can see about putting him into his own cell for a very long time," he told her, bringing out a slight smile from her. "Since he was a project head for Hydra, maybe even the Raft."

"You can do that?" she asked.

"I don't see why we should let him miss any of Ross' hospitality," Steve told her with a smile. "I'll let you know if Nat does get a hit on his location."

"Thanks," she told him while standing up and grabbing the bags of clothes she had gotten earlier. "I'm going to go put these up."

"Still want to go for that walk to the pond later?" Sam asked her.

She nodded as she went towards the stairs, and he guessed that she was lost in her own thoughts right now.

He waited until he heard her bedroom door shut before turning to Sam.

"How do you think she really is?" he asked.

Sam tiled his head to the side and gave a heavy sigh.

"I think if Keeling had been captured, or even better, dead, then she would be a lot happier."

"There was a lot more in the project file that that Nat uncoded which you might want to go through. She only told me a bit before I needed her to stop," he admitted, bringing Sam's eyes to his.

"I meant to try to get to it on the flight here but never got around to it. Is it worse than that training she told us all about the other day?"

Steve could only nod and hoped that Sam was able to help her.

"You heard her crying during the night, right?" he asked, getting a nod from Sam.

"Since it wasn't too long after we went to bed, I think the fear of being in a new place got to her a bit. It only lasted a few minutes, but just as I was about to go and talk with her, she calmed down and went to sleep," Sam told him while looking over the heads to where her room was. "But today, I noticed in the grocery store that she got winded and tired about half way through it, just like she did yesterday with our walk around the place. She's not had a lot of exercise for the past decade and I think that she needs to start walking around the property to help her body get used to moving again. That's why I suggested a walk to the pond on the ride back here."

"That's a good idea. We need to watch that we don't push her too hard at first. In a strange way, her frailness reminds me of how I was before the serum. I could only do so much before needing a break."

"Even if she is as weak as you were, I'm sure she's a lot prettier now than you were or will ever be," Sam joked with him while walking into the den, but he didn't miss the tone in his voice talking about Teagan.

Something that Steve had never heard in Sam's voice before.

The Safe House
Three Days Later

Returning from their afternoon run, Sam and Steve both stopped at the screened backdoor when the wonderful scent of the meal Teagan was cooking reached them. She had been worried since it had been so long, but if the smell was any indication, she didn't have anything to fear. He looked over at Steve whose eyes had a strange foreignness to them.

"Are you alright?" he asked Steve as they slowly stepped further into the house.

"I know this smell," he was letting his nose guide him over to the large covered pot sitting on the stove top. Lifting up the lid, Steve closed his eyes as he deeply inhaled. "It's been so long…"

"Get out o' there," Teagan's stern Irish voice reached them as she came in from the den. "It still needs ta simmer for another hour."

"What is it?" Sam asked peeking over Steve's shoulder to try and get a look.

"Beef and Guinness Stew," she informed him, taking the lid out of Steve's hand and putting it back on the pot. "Now leave it alone."

"You put beer in the stew?" he had to make sure he'd heard correctly, as he opened the fridge for a bottle of water, tossing one to Steve.

"Guinness stout," she told him, "not that weak piss-water that you make here in America and call beer."

Sam grinned at hearing a bit of Teagan's original personality trying to come through with her crude humor. Even Steve chuckled at her.

"So your mother used to give you beer stew as a boy?" he then asked Steve.

"I guess so," he had a large smile on his face, probably remembering her.

"Maybe she was trying to knock you out so you'd stop getting into alley fights."

Giving a firm huff, "I see that you and Bucky talked at some point," Steve grumbled but with mirth in his tone.

"How was the run?" she asked walking into the den.

The television was on one of the news channels that the satellite picked up. Sam had a feeling that it was more than a passing interest. It would definitely be the 'luck of the Irish' if Teagan just happened to spot Keeling during a broadcast.

"He's getting better," Steve commented before heading upstairs for a shower. Calling back at them, "Maybe one day, he might almost keep up."

"Very funny!" he yelled at the disappearing back. Jerking his thumb in Steve's direction, "He shortened the route by half so that he could lap me twice as much."

The giggle Teagan gave made a warm feeling emerge in him, just from knowing that she was doing better. He still heard her crying late at night, but during the day around them, she didn't seem to have any real problems so far. Hopefully it stayed that way, but Sam knew better. He'd seen it first hand back in Washington. He would just have to keep an eye on her.

"Why even try to keep up?" she asked him while picking up the remote to turn the volume up before coming to stand back in the kitchen.

"Why not?" he asked knowing that she was still upset at her own stamina after the past few days. "Besides, I can't give him the satisfaction of quitting. I'd never hear the end of it."

For the past couple of evenings, the two of them had taken to walking around the property to try and help build up her strength. The outlying wire fence gave the house a five acre yard for them to travel. But by about half way each time, she had to stop for a while before heading back to the house. Each day they managed to make it just a bit more, but it would still take another week before he guessed she could make the entire lap.

Teagan headed to the refrigerator and began to remove a mass of vegetables, guessing they were for a salad. Finishing off the water, he tossed the bottle into the garbage. Feeling more beads of sweat starting to run down his face, Sam lifted the hem of his shirt and wiped the remaining moisture from his forehead. Dropping it back down, his eyes met with Teagan's who were focused on him in a strange way, her mouth slight parted as if she had been about to speak then stopped.

Clearing her throat, "Why don't you use my shower instead of waiting for Steve to finish?" her eyes darted from him to sorting through the vegetables.

"You wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not," but he noticed that she was no longer making eye contact with him, instead intently focusing her attention the items on the counter.

It almost looked like her face had reddened just slightly, her freckles slightly more pronounced.

"Thanks. I won't be long then," he told her before heading upstairs.

After hurriedly gathering this things, he took a quick shower looking forward to the upcoming meal that had smelled so good. They had all agreed that they should rotate who would cook each night. So far, Steve had cooked hot dogs on the grill the first night and Sam had treated them to his mother's meatloaf last night. Teagan had been a bit nervous yesterday as tonight would be her first time cooking in such a long time. But it looked like Steve was already a fan of hers. Considering the fact that she and Steve's own mom had grown up in Ireland, it made since that they had both learned some of the same recipes. Steve would probably be looking forward to her next cooking night.

Looking through his clean clothes, Sam realized that he had somehow forgotten to grab underwear. Not wanting to go commando, he wrapped the towel around his waist and opened the bathroom door to head to his bedroom...

Only to find Teagan standing at her nightstand.

"Sorry," she told him as he noticed her cheeks blushing to a lovely dark pink. He then saw that she was holding a paper towel around her left hand. There was a small red stain growing larger. "I was just looking for the elastoplast I remember seeing somewhere around here."

"Elastoplast?" he asked not understanding the term.

Teagan bit her lip as she sought out the term, "A bandage."

"What happened?" he asked crossing the room to her side, his current attire of a single item forgotten.

Taking her hand in his, he removed the paper towel to find a small cut steadily bleeding on her left middle finger.

"I was trying to cut up cucumbers for a pub salad and the knife slipped, that's all," she told him as he led her back into the bathroom. Theirs was stocked with medical supplies for much more significant wounds and he was sure that hers would be too.

Opening up the bottom cabinets, there were enough supplies for a field medical tent. He silently thanked Nat's overly cautious ways...or for her, maybe for her they were normal necessities.

"Are your hands still hurting or bothering you?" he was concerned the injections from Wakanda might not have been as effective and she hadn't mentioned it.

"No, it's not that. It's just that I haven't had to do anything like that in a long while and I was a bit clumsy while chopping."

"Sit," he pointed at the toilet lid while he took out alcohol, antibiotic ointment, and a Band-Aid.

She sat before starting to complain.

"Sam, it's just a small cut," she told him as he began to wipe a cotton ball with the alcohol on it over the area.

"There's no telling how dirty those knives are," he told her as she winced from the sting.

In a heavily argumentative accent, "Are ya' suggesting that I'd cook with dirty…"

"No, that's not what I meant," he cut her off, smiling at how cute she looked when angered. "I've just learned to be cautious about infections from when I was out in the field."

Giving a sigh at his answer in understanding, she sat there letting him finish up before wrapping the bandage around her finger.

"How's that?" he asked proudly.

Teagan positioned her hand so that her finger was extended as she examined his handy work.

"Not too bad…see," she then held it up so that she was flipping him off.

"Adorable," he smirked at her, earning him a cute smile. Offering his hand, "Come on."

Helping her to stand, they found themselves holding hands, standing very close to each other in the small space, and he suddenly became very aware of what he was wearing. He could feel a hint of her body's heat as he stared into those green eyes which he really liked looking at. Both of them being barefoot, he noticed how Teagan was almost as tall as he was, just slightly shorter. There was something nice about just standing there with her, wanting to count each of the freckles that cross from cheek to cheek over her nose.

It took a moment for him to realize that he was caressing her injured hand in his.

The smile that she was giving him suddenly began to fall, and he saw alarm quickly take her over.

As the green of her eyes began to glow and sparkle, she demandingly whispered, "Let me go."

Sam instantly dropped her hand as if he had been holding hot coals.

Teagan then stepped back from him, towards the tub. There was a fear on her face like he'd never seen before. It took a few seconds for him to realize that she had used her powers on him.

"Teagan, are you alright?" he asked her, trying to keep his voice calm and level. "I didn't mean..."

"No, I...níor chiallaigh mé. I shouldn't have done that to you. Tá brón orm," she cut off his apology then pushed past him to leave the room, her footsteps pounding downward on the stairs.

Heading into his room, he threw on the first things he could lay his hands on. He had no idea what to say to her. Something about the two of them standing there together had scared her and he was almost sure that it was not actually him. It had to be something from her time with Hydra. Ross didn't frighten her that much, meaning it had to have been Keeling.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he couldn't spot Teagan in the kitchen, only Steve.

"Sam, did something happen?" Steve's firm voice stopped him as he moved from the empty kitchen towards the den looking for her.

"Why?" he asked stopping in his tracks, turning around to face him.

"Teagan just ran through here crying and went straight out the door," he told him, pointing his fingers to the front of the house.

Sam made his way to one of the front windows and was able to spot her running barefoot almost to the closest grouping of trees.

"Sam?"

He then found that he had been ignoring Steve calls to him while watching Teagan until she disappeared inside, hiding from view.

"Sorry," he told him turning around to face him, but not willing to leave the window where he could keep looking out for her. "Teagan cut her finger and came to her room for a bandage. She had let me use her shower. I opened the bathroom door only in my towel and took her into it to clean up the cut. When I helped her stand up after we were done, holding her hand, we…uh, might have almost had a moment. Or at least I did."

Steve's head dropped just a hint without breaking eye contact with him. Was that a slight smile he saw appear?

"And?"

He gave a heavy sigh.

"Then she used her powers on me so that I would stop holding her hand."

Steve's expression changed a bit but it was really unreadable. It was not exactly anger, but not sadness either.

"Did she hurt you?"

"No, absolutely not!" he firmly stated. "I think that it was just our physical closeness that frightened her. That's all. I would never…"

Steve instantly raised his hand to stop him from finishing that sentence.

"I know that, and I would never suggest that you could," he told him, making him feel a bit better. "She's been through a lot. And…I'm worried from her reaction that there might be…more that may or may not be in her file."

Sam felt his entire body chill as he let Steve's possible meaning sink in. Sexual abuse of some form. He had been hesitating to consider it until now. To get through her file, he could only stand to read a little bit at a time due to it being so disturbing at times. There could easily be more that he had yet to read.

"I haven't had a real chance to get all the way through her Hydra file yet. Do you think…" he couldn't finish.

"The fact that she ran out of here crying tells me that something big upset her. And even without having been around a lot of dames, I know that reaction," he nodded in Teagan's direction, "is not just from you holding her hand."

Walking to the door, Sam called over his shoulder, "We'll be back."

Author's Note: For Teagan's haircut, Google "Merida Brave short hair" and one of the first pictures shows her with a shaved lower head while having longer top curls. This was the inspiration for Teagan, just add a bit more tendrils hanging.

Translations from Irish / Gaelic - I'm using Google Translate so please bare with any errors that it gives me. If you find an error, let me know and I'll change it.

níor chiallaigh mé - I didn't mean to

Tá brón orm - I'm sorry