When Steve made it back to the common room he found Rebecca, and Wanda in the kitchen, trying to pull some semblance of a meal together. Wanda was the only real cook between the two of them, but Rebecca was eager to learn. When Rebecca saw Steve she sent him a smile.
"Smells good. What are you two making?" He asked, sitting at the bar, watching them work.
"Something called Goulash," Rebecca said as she finished browning the ground meat.
"It's something of a comfort food," Wanda told him.
"Can't wait to try it," Steve said with a smile, watching his girls work. When it started to become more of Wanda working and Rebecca watching, Steve chimed in.
"Mind if I steal Rebecca for a little bit?" He asked, getting Rebecca's attention.
"Anything in particular?" She asked, moving to wash her hands, cleaning up.
"Something… private," he told her.
"Oh," she said. "You got this?" She asked Wanda.
"Yeah, go talk," She said. Rebecca nodded, grabbed her gloves and followed him. He walked to his room. He opened the door and let her walk in. She felt a little nervous because she's never been in his room before. She saw his bed, a reading chair as well as a computer desk.
"Take the chair, it's pretty comfortable," He offered. She nodded, sitting there. He took the computer chair and rolled it closer to her, before sitting down.
"So what is so important?" She asked. He sighed.
"I'm not sure where to start…" He said honestly. He took a breath, getting his thoughts in order.
"Before I became Captain America, I had a friend. His name was James Buchanan Barnes. I called him Bucky," He started. "We both planned on enlisting in the war. He joined up but I was rejected at first. I kept applying until someone noticed. He saw something in me and accepted me. It led me to the super soldier program. To becoming Captain America." He explained.
"Once I joined the war, I found out the Bucky was captured by HYDRA." He said, hearing her breath hitch, but he continued. "I rescued him and we joined up. We formed a group with a bunch of men called the Howling Commandos. Having Bucky there, right by my side, was a dream come true. He was such a good man, one of the best. Eventually though, like all dreams, I guess it was time to wake up. On one of our missions… I had to watch Bucky fall off a train to his death," Steve explained.
"I am sorry to hear that," She told him, not sure why he was telling her this.
"But the thing is… he didn't die. HYDRA had experimented on him. He survived the fall, somehow. HYDRA found him after that and experimented more on him. Programmed him. Turned him into another super soldier, just like me. They slowly turned the greatest man I've ever known into their weapon," He told her.
"Just like me," She said, thinking this was the reason he was telling her about his friend. He nodded to her.
"They froze him, thawing him out whenever they needed that weapon." He explained. "A year ago, they set him loose on SHIELD. We had to fight, but something happened. Just being around him, something broke in his programming and he went from trying to kill me to saving my life. Then he vanished. I've been looking for him ever since," He told her.
"Have you found him?" She asked. He shook his head. "Then why are you telling me about this?" She asked.
"When he was trying to kill me… He left some… blood, hair, things like that behind. Because of that, we were able to get a sample of what the scientists call DNA?"
"DNA?" She asked, not sure what that was.
"I'm not sure either, but it can apparently tell a lot about a person. Like the fact that you have super soldier markers, just like I do. Just like Bucky does…" He said. She looked at him strangely, not sure if she could wrap her head around what he was hinting at.
"Dr. Cho took those samples from Bucky and ran them against yours. They were able to find out that he is your father," He said, spelling it out for her.
"So… your best friend from the war, is my father?" She said, not quite ready to grasp that. He nodded. "I guess it could be worse, you said he was a good man, and he broke through HYDRA's programming." She said, sounding hopeful.
"It's a little worse than that," He told her.
"How?"
"His code name… is the Winter Soldier," He told her. Her eyes went wide and she started to panic at that.
"No… that cannot be…" She said, as her breath quicken.
"Hey-hey let me in. Let me see it. Let me help you through it," He begged her, moving over to her now. She looked at him through panicked eyes, nodding. He moved his hands to her cheeks, feeling himself slip into her mind.
"Again!" she heard her tormentor say in German. She felt the metal hand go across her face, as she tried to block it, sending her back. She tried her best to fight against her assailant. Trying to outwit him, trying to better herself against him, but he was just too strong. She felt a hand on her shoulder, the only person who showed her anything close to kindness in this horrible place, her trainer.
"You can do this, find his weakness, get in there, and use your powers." He encouraged her.
"He is too strong," She said nearly in tears. 'How could she fight this strong man? She was just a child,' she thought to herself, looking up and seeing the cold eyes of the Winter Soldier looking down at her.
'Oh, my… I'm so sorry you had to go through this,' she heard Steve's voice push past the memories that plagued her, the only memories she had of her father. Steve couldn't stand that. Couldn't help but think of moments of his own.
'Read my mind, Rebecca,' he asked her. He felt her reach out into his mind. Flashes of his memories appeared before them:
Of Bucky and Steve at the Stark Expo.
Bucky smiling.
Of Steve getting beat up and Bucky coming to his rescue.
Of them as kids, staying over at Bucky's house.
Of the war, rescuing Bucky.
Of them fighting against HYDRA.
Of Bucky falling off the train.
At that Steve let go of Rebecca, falling to the floor, exhausted.
"Steve!" She screamed, reaching out to him, tears in her eyes.
"I'm fine… I'm fine…" He breathed out.
"I am sorry… I am so sorry," She told him, hugging him.
"I asked for it. I knew this was gonna happen…" He told her. She helped pick him up and carried him to his bed. "I wanted to help you through those memories…. And show you who Bucky really was…" He said.
"Rest… you are tired," She said, tucking him into bed, before quickly leaving his room, despite his protest that he was fine.
She quickly made it back to her room, thankful no one was around to see the tears in her eyes. She leaned against the door before sliding down to the floor, starting to cry. How could the bastard, who beat the shit out of her repeatedly for days, in the guise of training her, when she was only sixteen, be her father… be Steve's best friend, be everything to everyone but nothing to her. She felt the tears flow but she also felt the anger well up inside her.
'It is not fair,' she thought to herself. She stood up, starting to pace around the room, like a caged animal, as she sorted through the memories, hers as well as his. How kind he was. How much he looked after Steve and Steve returning the favor.
"It is not fair!" She yelled, anger boiling over, her memories sweeping back to how it felt when he hit her, over and over. She wanted it to stop. She wanted it to be over. She lashed out, her fist pushing forward, hitting the wall with all the anger she felt, punching a hole into the wall.
She looked at it for a second, shocked, before she saw the red around the hole, pulling her hand back. She looked at her fist, seeing the skin and blood breaking through the fabric of her gloves. If she was anything less than what she was, she would have worried she broke her fist. As she moved her hand, she suspected she may have still done it, from the force of the impact.
"Becca? Are you ok?" She heard Wanda say through the door. She went to her drawer to pull new gloves out. She pulled off the one she damaged, gasping in pain.
"Becca…" She heard Wanda say, worriedly before opening the door. "Oh god… what happened?" She asked as she came up to her injured friend.
"Nothing… I just lost my temper," she admitted. Wanda took her wrist, careful to not touch her skin. She used her powers to start the healing process, causing Rebecca to wince. She was thankful to have the pain stop so quickly. She flexed her hand, seeing bruises but no broken skin.
"Thank you," She said, before putting a new pair of gloves on.
"What happened to get you that angry?" She asked, waving her hand over the wall, fixing it as well.
"You are good at that…" Rebecca said, trying to avoid the question.
"I learn too. You are not the only one with anger issues," Wanda said. "But it does help to talk about it," She added. Rebecca sighed, sitting down on her bed.
"Steve told me something… hard to hear. I freaked out a little, so to try and calm me down… he used my powers to help me deal with a bad memory. He held on too long. He will be fine, but he is going to wake up tomorrow, with a splitting headache, wishing he had not helped me," She said with a sigh.
"I'm sure that is not true. Steve's a good man. So what caused the anger, the news, or the fact that you felt like you hurt Steve?" She asked. She wasn't blind when it came to those two.
"Both..." She admitted.
"Would you like to talk about the news?" Wanda offered. Rebecca thought about it for a moment.
"Not today. I do not think I can go there again," She admitted. Wanda nodded.
"I can understand that. Dinner's ready. At least come get some food," She said with a warm smile.
"Sure," She said as she got up and the two women went to have some dinner. The others quickly showed up, the smells of the food drawing them. Rebecca was quiet as Rhodey and Sam joked around. She smiled as she watched her friends.
"Hey, where's Cap?" She heard Sam say.
"I think he headed to bed early," Wanda supplied.
"Huh… that's strange. I've never known him to go to bed early…" Sam said.
"I wore him out training," Rebecca said. Rhodey and Sam exchanged looks.
"So that's what they are calling it now?" Rhodey joked. Rebecca blushed.
"No… really we were just training," she said embarrassed.
"Leave her alone boys," Natasha told them. "What Cap and her do on their downtime is none of your business," She said, giving Rebecca a sly smile.
"You too Natasha," Rebecca whined, getting a laugh from the group.
"Were you training with your powers?" Natasha asked seriously. Rebecca nodded softly. "Do we need to go check on him?" Natasha asked in Russian. Rebecca shook her head.
"He will be fine by morning," she said.
"Oh! Does that mean you're all supercharged on Cap power?" Sam jokes. She nodded. "Maybe we can go a few rounds. I swear Steve takes it easy on me when we train."
"He does, because he could kick your ass in a heartbeat," Natasha told him. "She would wipe the floor with you in seconds." Rebecca let out a laugh at that, smiling at the comment.
"So you agree with her then?" Sam asked.
"Absolutely," She said with a smile.
"OOOOOOO I hear a challenge there," Rhodey said.
"Gauntlet thrown down. Challenge accepted," Sam said. She laughed again before standing up.
"Thank you, Wanda, for such a wonderful meal. Boys, thank you for a wonderful conversation. I am heading to bed now, dobroy nochi,"She said.
"Good night," Natasha said back to her.
Rebecca headed to Steve's door. She knocked lightly on the door, getting no response. She sighed before opening the door. She found him still asleep in his bed. She watched him for a while. She moved to sit in his reading chair, curling in on herself, watching over Steve. It didn't take her long before she fell asleep.
She woke up the next morning covered up in a blanket. She quickly looked over at the bed, finding it empty. She got up, folding the blanket, putting it on his bed. She left his room. She quickly found him at the dining room table, eating breakfast.
"Hey," She said, getting his attention.
"Hey, Thanks for watching over me…" He said with a smile.
"Well it was kind of my fault," She said, sitting next to him.
"I wouldn't say that. If it was anyone's fault it was mine." He told her, taking her hand in his, squeezing it lightly. "I talked to Wanda this morning," He told her. "She's worried about you."
"She just saw me… after," she admitted.
"Wanda sees a counselor. Daily," He admits to her. "She has a lot of issues to work through. She suggested that you might want to do the same thing… work through your issues," he offered her.
"I am not sure, talking to some stranger would work for me," She said honestly.
"Well, I think you need to talk to someone," He offered her.
"You?" She asked.
"I'm willing. Or Wanda, Or Natasha if they are willing. But keeping it in… letting your anger get the better of you… we can't have that here," He explained to her.
"She told you about the wall?" She said. He nodded.
"Not that last night wasn't a doozy, but we need a find a better way to process it," he said. She nodded at that. He squeezed her hand one last time before letting it go. "Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat," He said, getting up and putting his plate away.
"Sure," she said with a smile and watched as he made her breakfast.
Author's notes: Hope your enjoying it. It was an interesting chapter. Reviews are very encouraging!
