"It sure is coming down out there."

I nodded, completely at ease with my warm mug of hot chocolate clasped in both hands as I watched the rain continue to fall in heavy sheets. "Good thing we made it back in time."

He made a quiet noise in agreement, broken when I heard him sip from his own drink. "We'll have to visit that area again soon."

There was a flash of lightning followed closely by the crackle of thunder and then the continuous stream of rain. "I'd like that." I closed my eyes, listening to the storm outside and then to the quiet breathing, slow and steady beside me.

"Dawn." I was abruptly pulled from my daydream by Eric as he called my name loudly.

Sitting up straighter, I turned to face him as he stood in the doorway leaving the dining area. "Sorry, I was just thinking." I quickly gulped down the remaining hot chocolate from my cup and placed it on the tray, picking it all up as I stood.

"Hurry up. We're going over a few new weapons today and then you'll be up in the lab." And with that he was gone, leaving me to catch up to him.

Admittedly I was distracted that morning, but I learned it was more of an annoyance for Eric who would by no means hold back during training. By lunch he'd decided to switch tactics and actually sit down for a little chat. "What's going on? I can tell when you're actually trying and putting your all into training and that wasn't it."

I narrowed my eyes, pausing to see if he was serious. It was rare that he didn't just tell me to suck it up and keep moving. There was never sympathy in those eyes, but once in a blue moon I saw a slightly less rigid side to him. "I didn't sleep much. It's nothing new." Slowly I found the words, wondering what he could possibly want to know. As far as I knew, I was the person he was tasked to train and go on the occasional mission with that was the extent of our relationship. We weren't friends no matter how you looked at it, but there was a level of trust as far as missions were concerned. Beyond that I'm sure it didn't matter in the slightest if I were around as far as he was concerned.

"If it's not new, why is today different?" His eyebrows weren't knit together in frustration and he wasn't fiddling with the small gauges in his ears. I think this is one of the few times, while regarding me anyway, that his face didn't resemble strictly business or was completely emotionless.

"Don't you ever have an off day?"

"I know how to keep things from affecting my work."

"Yeah, I gathered that much."

"To do that, I have to get a grip on things and remember that my work here is important and I can't afford to be distracted. You can't be distracted either."

"It's just, I know it's been two years since this all started for me, but everything is still fuzzy in a way. I keep getting these little bits and pieces of memories or dreams and I can't even remember who's there with me." He was listening; I suppose it was a good sign that he didn't dismiss me already, "I feel like I'll never remember things clearly from before. There's this nagging feeling that I'm missing something, but I don't even know what it is or what to do."

"You know who you are now."

It wasn't enough. What I'd become over the span of two years wasn't even close to being enough. I cared about the goal we stood for, the want for a better existence for all, but I was far from complete beyond that. "You were there in the beginning with Dr. Sterns. Do you know anything about me from before?" I'd asked many times before, but I'd never gotten a clear answer from either of them. All they told me was that the world had been tough on me and that I'd gotten too close to some information that almost cost me my life that was about it.

"No." He frowned, sitting back as he prepared to leave it at that.

"I don't believe you." He sighed, but I continued, "Please."

"We've told you anything that could be useful."

"So there's more then?"

"No." He was on his feet, "Eat something before you go up to the lab."

I jumped up, trailing closely, "Look, I know you don't like me, but I'm only asking for this one thing. I'm here to help, that much I know, but I just feel like-"

"Whatever it is that's bothering you is irrelevant to what we're trying to do here. There's no room for you to keep dragging this out. You're going to have to accept that." Just like that I'd hit a dead end with him. "Do you know why Project Insight failed? It failed because he was weak and doubted our mission. You can't do that. All of these distractions can't be your priority." On that note, he was gone.

Project Insight failed? This was the first I'd heard of it, but it made sense with the stress he and Dr. Sterns had been under recently. Despite his words, he'd unknowingly just added fuel to the fire. I couldn't think of anything else now.

"Be careful out there. We're not sure who was actually SHIELD or Hydra yet." Steve cautioned from his position in a hospital bed.

"Yeah. Just get well soon Cap. We'll be down to visit soon." Tony ended the video call, the screen abruptly closing to reveal a crystal clear window once more. "I'm going to fly down to D.C in the morning. Do you want to tag along or do you want to wait for things to settle down a little?"

Bruce sighed, with the falling of SHIELD all of their intelligence had been released to the internet, his identity included. "No, I want to go too."

The billionaire nodded, "I'll have Happy put together a security team to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. The world's just going to have to get used to it. I mean it's not like you helped save everyone from an alien invasion or anything." He smirked, attempting to reassure his friend.

"Fingers crossed." Bruce made his way to the elevator to turn in for the night. "Goodnight, Tony."

"Night, Big Guy."

He made it to the room, going through his nightly routine, but something besides the obvious was preventing him from relaxing as much as he thought he'd at least be able to come close to. "Jarvis?"

"Yes, Dr. Banner?"

"I need a favor. Will you look up where Rachel was buried? It'll probably be in a SHIELD file."

"One moment."

If SHIELD had been compromised from the start, there could be a lot that had yet to come to light. Just how much didn't they know? What had been covered up for years?

"I'm sorry; I couldn't find anything in regards to where Ms. Brooke was buried."

"Can you find her parents?" He frowned; there was a sinking feeling that this fleeting thought could actually be a reality.

"The mother, Catherine Brooke, is deceased. The father, Benjamin Brook, is currently living in Maine." There was a dim blue glow illuminating the otherwise dark room as the information was displayed for Bruce.

The question was burning in his thoughts now. He'd been told—when he'd returned the next day—that Rachel's body had been sent back to her relatives to be buried. It was possible that she'd been cremated, but the absence of a least a little note on her file was enough to make him wonder. He reached for his phone and began to dial the number floating in front of him.

"Hello?" A gruff male voice was on the other line with a hint of annoyance.

Bruce pulled the phone away from his face to check the time and replaced it quickly, "I'm so sorry about my timing. Is this Mr. Brooke."

"It is, may I ask who's calling?"

"My name is Bruce; I was a friend of your daughter's. I was hoping to visit her, but I don't know where she was buried."

There was a long pause, "I think you have the wrong number. I was just emailing my daughter the other day."

"Oh. I'm very sorry for the mix up. Thank you."

"Good luck to you."

Bruce hung up, he felt like everything was closing in. "Jarvis, are you sure that was her father?"

"I'm positive, sir."

"Yeah…I was afraid you'd say that." He didn't know what to feel. She was alive, he should be happy, but where was she? What happened to her? He'd been there in the hospital with her when he'd heard the heart monitor stop. Was this a trick?

Who was writing emails to her father? Where had she really gone? What did this mean? She was alive, yes, but where would this go? Somehow he couldn't help but think something terrible happened and all because he wasn't able to stay and actually check on her. He'd been so close to losing control that he couldn't be there right after he thought she'd died, but now he wondered what the repercussions of that would be.