As soon as they step foot into the lab, James urges Bianca to take off the armour and upper clothes. She does so with a huff, a bit irritated by how bossy he's being.
"Relax, will ya? It's nothing serious." She complains as she lowers the zipper and unbuckles the armour, letting it fall to the tiled floor with a soft thud. Then she takes her gloves, revealing a pale, rosy hand and a silver one. The metallic fingers spasm and she hisses. "Ok, I think I pulled something." She tries to raise her hands to take off her long sleeved shirt, but the fingers spasm again and a whimper escapes this time. "You're gonna have to help me, James."
"'Relax' she says, 'nothing serious' she says..." mutters the redhead as he steps closer and takes the shirt off for her, revealing her toned stomach and a black, simple bra. He can see the edges of the X scar peek form her back and into her sides, but he's seen her so many times already that the sight doesn't even faze him anymore. It used to bother him, seeing the permanent mark her rising had left, but now he's just grateful; because the other option was death and that wasn't an acceptable one.
Bianca hisses again when he tugs the sleeve over the wrist and he apologizes, taking greater care in disentangling her unresponsive fingers from the fabric. As soon as her whole arm is revealed and he scans it, he can see the problem. There's a broken screw that is pinching a couple of nerve-cables a few centimetres above her elbow. He makes her sit on the table to examine it closely.
"Ok, I can see the problem. It's not that difficult to fix. You don't think Uncle Tony has a 2-35 vibranium screw lying around, do you?" she chuckles and shakes her head, looking around the room to see if she spots something that can play stand-in until they get back home and replace it.
"No, but I'm sure there's something similar we can use, it doesn't have to be vibranium." James looks too before making a little sound. He starts digging around in his pockets until he utters a victorious Aha! And holds up the screw in question triumphantly. Bianca raises a brow at him and he ruffles his hair nervously.
"I was planning on changing the screw on the vambrace, and it's the same model, so we can use it on you instead."
He puts it on the table and turns back to her. He grabs her spasming silver hand and squeezes, not sure if she can feel it but needing to give her the support. He puts his other hand near her armpit, gripping tightly and when she gives him an affirmative nod, he presses over both joints, twists and pulls. Bianca cries out in pain as the arm comes free from the socket. He lays it down on the table and puts his hand over her thigh. She grips it with her right hand and gives him a strained smile.
"It's been nine years, you would've thought I'd be used to it by now..." James shakes his head and pats her leg.
"You are connecting and disconnecting nerves, there's no way to get used to something like that." She releases a shaky sigh and lets go of him so he can fix her arm. He looks over it before locating the troublesome screw again. "You have your kit, right?" She chuckles and digs into one of the pant pockets, producing a little box and handing it over to the boy.
" 'Never leave the house without it, моя маленькая львица*, you never know when you might need it.' " Mimics Bianca, changing slightly the pitch of her voice to make it huskier and James laughs, taking the box and sitting on a chair to start with the repairs.
"God, you sound just like Mom." He breathes as he uses a laser cutter to break the crushed screw and release the nerve cables. He sets the cutter aside and takes the pieces away, leaving them on the side. Next he puts the screw on its place, twines the cables around it and rolls it tight.
"What do you think they'll think when we tell them?" asks the girl, her eyes locked on how her big brother fixes her arm as he's done so many times before. There's an almost silent ding in the background, but both are too distracted to hear it.
"I don't know, how would you react to being told that you're pregnant when you weren't supposed to be able to and then meeting the baby when he's already nineteen years old and that, on top of it, you adopted a girl that is the love child of the Red Room and the Winter Soldier programs?" she snorts and looks at him fondly, permitting herself the childish act of swinging her legs when he grins at her.
"Love child? Really, James?" she rolls her eyes and chuckles. "Like those psychos were capable of love, anyway." She ruffles his hair and he bats her hand away, giggling.
"Ok, all fixed! Let's get this bad boy running again." He jumps from his seat and picks the arm up and is about to put it into position when he sees a familiar flash of gold and red. He looks up and freezes; there, just outside the elevator, are their parents. Steve is looking at them both with a shocked look on his face, but Natasha's eyes are glued to Bianca's back, wide with horror.
"James? What are you–?" she turns her head, and the smile she has on her lips disappears instantly. She gasps and she's hiding behind James in a second, pressing her back to his as if it would erase the image from her parents minds.
The movement seems to break the redhead from her stupor and she runs to them. She grabs the boy's hand and yanks him away to see his sister. She keeps them both controlled, one hand around James' arm and the other gripping Bianca's hand. Steve approaches slower, letting Natasha take it out of her chest in her own way but being close enough in case she overwhelms them.
She tugs the girl closer, turning her around to both siblings are side by side. She gazes at the girl, long, brown hair tied in a messy braid and deep, black eyes, like a moonless and starless night. Plain, but beautiful, gorgeous in their own way. She's her same height, strong built and obviously uncomfortable with being shirtless in front of her parents. She ignores it for the time being and turns to the boy.
Tony was right, he really is Steve's carbon copy; endless blue eyes, high cheekbones, straight nose and wild hair. The only difference is the color; it's red, the same deep, blood red she had when she was his age. He's taller than her, slightly shorter than Steve but he's still growing, he'll probably reach him in the next couple of years.
She feels Steve step closer and touch her lower back.
"Nat, you're making them uncomfortable." She releases the teens and steps back against his chest, letting his warmth envelop her and calm her down. They watch silently as James shakes his jacket off drapes it over Bianca's shoulders. She grips the edges with her hands and looks down at the floor. They weren't supposed to see, they weren't supposed to know. Not like this.
"I assume you heard all we said?" whispers Bianca and Steve hates the cautiousness in her tone. Natasha ignores the question.
"You never told us your name…" the girl looks at her and Natasha can see herself at her age almost twenty years ago when Clint found her. There's something in her eyes; a wisdom, a hard glint that shows her that this child has gone through too much.
"Bianca."
"Bianca… I always loved that name." Murmurs Natasha and the girl gives her a little smile, a little more comfortable and relaxed.
"I know, you named me." Steve smiles. They had talked about it, if they could've gotten pregnant, the boy would've been called James and the girl Bianca. Looks like they followed through it.
Natasha nods and extends her arms to the teens. They both fall into her embrace immediately, Bianca curling her arm around Natasha's waist and hiding her face against her shoulder, while James envelops both in his arms and buries his face in his mother's hair. Steve watches as they settle and then he moves, circling around them until he's facing Natasha and hugs them all, keeping their children caged between them.
When she looks up, she gifts him one of her crooked smiles and he kisses her forehead, dropping another one over James' head and finally one on Bianca's. He breathes in and rests his head on James'. God, this feels nice.
Once they disentangle themselves, James set's about attaching Bianca's arm to her body again. Steve and Natasha step aside and watch as the girl sits back onto the table and drops the side of the jacket that's covering her left shoulder. The prosthetic attachment is similar to Bucky's; you can see the scarred tissue at the edge of the metal and the attachment that imitates the shoulder socket. They see as she takes a deep breath and tenses her body. Steve frowns and tightens his hold around Natasha's waist.
"Does it hurt?" he asks, and James pauses to look back at him.
"Yes, of course. You are connecting and disconnecting new nerves to the system, the body has to test them. Pain seems to be the only way to do it. Uncle Bucky has one too, you've never seen how they set it?" he gives them a confused look and Natasha blinks.
"I thought Bucky's was permanent…" she whispers and both teens frown and then look at each other before Bianca gasps.
"He broke it, remember? Uncle Tony still jokes about it. Something about Dodger?" and then something clicks in James head and he starts laughing, doubling over and almost dropping the metallic arm.
"Oh, God, I forgot about that! Uncle Bucky fell asleep on the floor and Dodger pissed on it! It was hilarious!" they both start laughing and the sound has their parents smiling.
"Who's Dodger?"
"Our dog. He's the cutest! We'll show you a picture later, I'm sure Piper has some." James picks up the arm again. "C'mon, let's get this over with." Bianca inhales deeply before letting it all out slowly.
"Ok, I'm ready." She nods to her brother but before he can move Steve steps forward and offers her a hand. She smiles and takes it gratefully. Natasha moves around Steve and sits herself next to her daughter. James get's the arm in position and locks eyes with her.
"Ready? One… two… three!" he sets it in and twists it into place. Bianca cries out and tears gather in her eyes; she grips her father's hand tightly and her mother holds her steady, soothing her with quiet whispers in Russian.
"Спасибо, мамa**" murmurs the girl and Natasha feels warmth fill her chest before she drops a kiss on her daughter's hair. James moves her arm, bending the joints until Bianca starts to do it on her own. Her head bobs and she rests it against her mother's. The redhead sees his father frown, confused and worried by the sudden sleepiness that grips the girl.
"Don't worry, Dad, it's normal. Making the connection always takes a lot on the body. She just needs an hour to sleep it off and she'll be back." When they turn to the girls again, Bianca is already asleep on Natasha's shoulder. She looks up at them and smiles.
"We should get her into bed." Steve nods and steps forward, taking the girl into his arms. Natasha jumps from the table and takes her son's hands, relishing in the smile he gives her.
"Do you already live in the north-west wing?" asks the boy, looking between his parents. Steve nods as he leads the way to the elevator. They get inside and Natasha presses her free hand to the scanner.
"Agent Romanov, were do you wish to go?" asks FRIDAY as the scanner light up with the restricted places Natasha has access to. She looks at it for a second.
"Home, FRIDAY."
"Right away, miss." And the elevator starts, going one floor up and then changing to the side. The woman sighs and lets go of James' hand to finally take her gloves off. She then takes it back, lacing their fingers, and looks up at Steve with a warm smile. While his parents silently communicate –something that he's used to but frustrates him to no end–, the boy looks down at his mother's hand, the one that's twined with his, only to frown.
"You're not wearing your ring…" they both turn at him, confused. They've heard him talk, but haven't listened to what he's said. "You told me you'd been married for over a year before I was born, but you don't have your ring." Natasha smiles then, and lowers the zipper of her tactical gear a little until she can squeeze her fingers inside and take out the chain with his father's dog tags. She moves them in her palm and then he can see the ring hidden between them.
"Nobody knows we're married yet, so we can't wear them around the facility; or ever, for that matter." She chuckles sadly and fiddles with it before tucking the tags inside and raising the zipper back up.
"We were planning on telling everybody next week, when the Bartons were supposed to come and everyone was here, but I think it's gonna happen sooner that we thought." Says Steve, chuckling in amusement. James looked at him. "They're coming to meet Nathaniel, well, your Nathaniel." James' eyes almost bug out.
"Will they bring baby Nate?" Natasha chuckles and nods.
The elevator dings and the doors open. They walk in and James relishes in the fact that the living room is the same he remembers form his early childhood days. The leather couch Dodger destroyed when he was eleven, the white coffee table that they had to paint when he dropped grey paint on it when he was seven, the potted plants, the bookshelves, the dinning table, the terrace already styled to look like a regular lawn. He looks around, searching for the family photos before remembering they aren't here yet. Oh, well, they'll come around soon enough.
"Ten bucks that Nate will say something cheesy like 'Look! I'm holding myself!' " They laugh at his imitation of his BF and Steve leads the way to their room. He lays his daughter on the bed and Natasha sits next to her, skimming her fingers over Bianca's metal arm. She looks up at James; there's something in her eyes.
"How did she loose it?" he takes a deep breath and motions them out. They walk in silence down the hall and he sits on the coffee table, gesturing for his parents to sit on the couch. They do and he smiles when they link their hands, lacing their fingers together.
"I don't know if you heard me before, when I said that Bianca was the love child of the Red Room and the Winter Soldier programs…" they nod, both their eyes going hard. "She was part of a new elite of soldiers, the K Soldiers. It was the latest and last program from HYDRA." He pauses enough to look first at his mother's, and then at his father's eyes. "That K stands for two things: for killer and for kid. The soldiers from that elite, instead of being recruited when they were children like with the Red Room, they were recruited from the womb." Steve inhales sharply and Natasha tightens her hands into fists, squeezing her husband's hand until he returns the pressure. "They kidnapped pregnant women and kept them until the child was born. During gestation, they injected a watered down version of the super soldier serum into the amniotic liquid, that way they guaranteed that the baby would be healthy and ready for training as soon as possible."
He pauses to let them absorb the information and gather his thoughts. He feels like he's fifteen again, listening to Bianca tell him what she'd gone through in the K Compound after one of her tough nightmares and their parents were gone for a mission.
"Bianca was the strongest of her platoon and she was soon set aside to perform on her own. By the time she was seven, she'd made her twentieth kill." This time the one that makes a sound is his mother and he sees his father close his eyes in despair. Such a young child… "That's when she got into SHIELD's radar. Of course, nobody knew the assassin was a child."
"Wait, James." He looks at his mother, confused. "She said I named her. How is that possible if she was over seven years old?"
"She didn't have a name until she met you. She was just a serial number: KS-247." She breathes in shakily and nods, giving him the cue to continue.
"They sent a STRIKE team to take her out. Needless to say, none of them returned. That's when Grandpa Nick took the threat seriously and send you two after her." Steve raises a brow at the 'grandpa', but decides to keep it to himself. "A month and a half later, you returned with a dirty, malnourished ten-year-old child and told me that she would be staying with us for a while."
He smiles sadly at the memory.
He was playing with Uncle Tony's latest drone when he heard the sound of the elevator arrive and the familiar ding echo into the living room. He ran from the terrace ready to smother his parents in hugs and kisses until he saw the dirt covered lump cuddled in his father's arms. His mother urged him closer and they both kneeled on the ground, Natasha enveloping him in her arms from behind and Steve shifting the lump until he could see a dirty face and black eyes. A girl that looked like a three-year-old but in reality wasn't much younger than him, with sleepy eyes and a thumb inside her mouth as if she were a baby.
"James, this is Bianca. She's going to stay with us for a while, ok?" he nodded, not taking his eyes from the little girl. She just sucked on her thumb and pressed closer to his father, away from him. Her eyes where alert now. Natasha took notice of it and extended her arm to run a hand through the unevenly cut brown hair. "Бьянка, милая, все в порядке. Это Джеймс, мы рассказали тебе про Джеймса, помнишь? Он не повредит тебе, девочка. ты здесь в безопасности, хорошо? мы защитим вас.***"
James blinked, so the girl was Russian. He mentally flipped the switch in his head to pass from English to Russian.
He caught her eyes and smiled at her, his nose crinkling just like his father's. "Привет, я Джеймс! Приятно познакомиться!****" He raised a hand to shake hers and Bianca tensed, going completely stiff in his father's careful hold and his mother was quick to press a hand over his arm to lower it. He frowned, confused, and looked up at his mother.
"Why doesn't she want to be my friend?" she smiled sadly.
"She's just scared, sweetie. Give her some time, ok? She'll come around." She kisses him on the cheek and ruffles his hair before getting up and taking the girl into her arms. "Don't worry, ok? She's really tired and had a really tough day. I'll put her in bed and then you can tell us what you've been up to while we were away." She pats him in the back and walks away, down the hall and into a guest room. He's pretty sure it won't be for guests for much longer.
*- моя маленькая львица"moya malen'kaya l'vitsa" - my little lioness.
**- Спасибо, мамa "Spasibo, mama" - thank you, Mom.
***- Бьянка, милая, все в порядке. Это Джеймс, мы рассказали тебе про Джеймса, помнишь? Он не повредит тебе, девочка. ты здесь в безопасности, хорошо? мы защитим вас "B'yanka, milaya, vse v poryadke. Eto Dzheyms, my rasskazali tebe pro Dzheymsa, pomnish'? On ne povredit tebe, devochka. ty zdes' v bezopasnosti, khorosho? my zashchitim vas" - Bianca, sweetie, it's ok. This is James, we told you about James, remember? He won't hurt you, baby girl. You're safe here, ok? We'll protect you.
****- Привет, я Джеймс! Приятно познакомиться! "Privet, ya Dzheyms! Priyatno poznakomit'sya!" - Hi, I'm James! Nice to meet you!
So… what do you think?
PS!- I won't be able to work on Back in Time –or anything for that matter– in the next week. I'm going to an end of course trip and I won't be taking the computer with me. Please don't ask me to hurry or when I'll update, it'll just make me antsy and I'll want to write but I won't be able to. Really frustrating, I don't recommend it. I just wanna focus on the trip and if you wanna see the photos of what I'll visit, I'll upload them on my Tumblr account, starting on Wednesday, maybe Tuesday. Let's see who guesses where I am first and I'll reward them with a surprise (probably a private sneak peek on the next chapter or making a scene of your choosing)! XD
