" I'll wash this cloth" Wanda announced amiably, after picking up the softest piece of fabric she had ever seen, that the nameless lady used to clean the little baby's mouth when he had let some milk spill from his mouth . The strong eye contact that Wanda held with the lady during that milisecond made her realize how broken and vulnerable this woman was. The pain that her light orange eyes carried was unimaginable for anyone to even comprehend and to remember what sort of abuse those orbs have witnessed gave the witch legit goosebumps.

Wanda had just straightened her body when she heard a very soft yet unsure request.

" I… I need to use the bathroom. Could you please watch over him while I'm away …?" The soft lips of the abused woman muttered after keeping her sleeping baby on the bed.

"Sure…" Natasha replied, surprised that the lady asked them for help, "of course".

The redhead noticed how sorrow appeared and vanished from the woman's bruised face as a response and she slowly got up from the mattress with the help of Wanda, who held her arms gently, while Natasha sat on the edge of the bed to give her child company.

"Do you want me to accompany you to the washroom?" Wanda asked the lady.

" No… I'm fine... thanks" the lady replied, not meeting the witches' eyes and walking away from Wanda's helpful grip, slowly and carefully not to fall down .

Wanda did not really want to let go of her, but insisting would make the matters worse, so she watched the woman approach the washroom all by herself. However, the suffering woman stopped her pace and changed her feet ' direction when her eyes fell on the full body size mirror that was just 3 feet away from the bedpost.

Curiosly, her feet approached the mirror, stealing both ladies' attention. At this moment, Bucky entered the room to make an announcement.

"Ladies lunch is ready!" He mouthed excitedly, and being the first person to see the amber eyed woman in front of the reflective object, he forgot that he had a world surrounding him.

Surprised, she was staring at herself as if she was unable to believe what she was seeing... her eyes becoming cloudy with a warm painful mist that covered the color of her eyes making it seem almost like they were made of glass .

The Amber eyed woman contemplated her bruisy reflection in the mirror for a couple of seconds more before her hand lifted up to rest on her blemished cheek.

" I've changed ... so much" She whispered , still unable to believe her eyes, moving her fingers downwards on her complexion until it vanished from the sight. The woman was holding back sick droplets of salty water in her lower eyelids as she glared, glared and continued to stare at her face in the glass.

The comment fell on everyone's ears, shaking some souls and freezing others as they processed this sentence silently in their respective minds.

" Changed ? In what way?" Bucky muttered slowly, taking a couple of steps towards the lady, yet only being able to reduce some of the distance between them, as he was still standing roughly four feet away from her.

"I'm taller now … before the ground used to be so close to my face. I can't recognize myself… my face, how can this be the same little girl that used to play with her friends in the playground?" She shared… all these words coming from the deepest corners of her heart.

This honest confession stunned every breathing creature in that room. The lady once again brought her fingers on her face, this time, touching one of the knife cuts on her temple.

" This was never here… all these bruises... they were never there" She spoke , heartbroken and teary eyed, but composed herself as she stared at the mirror up and down curiously.

"This is an incredible thing. I once saw it when I was a child. What is it called?" She asked, looking back at the audience for a reply.

"It's a mirror" Bucky replied, as he was the only one capable of responding and letting the silence reign again.

By and by… his brain was putting all the little bits and pieces of information about this woman's background together.

"She was a little girl when she fell in the hands of that monster who kept her in a room.Wait... that means that she was sexually abused since she was a child… God…tell me this is not true " Bucky thought, silently and stopped before an urge to vomit overpowered his stomach as he began imagining this fairy-like creature with a monstrous being in the worst of the misdeeds that could be committed on the human species …by another human.

"A mirror" she whispered, bringing the brunet back to reality, making him step even closer to the lady and stand barely a step away from her now , staring at her with eyes drowned in impossibility masked with genuine adoration. His hands eventually tucked themselves inside of his jeans pockets as the staring became more intense.

"Will this mirror… be always here ?" The lady innocently asked Bucky.

"Yes… it's fixed on the wall. You can stare at it whenever you want. One uses it on a daily basis, when we get ready in the morning or at night" The Winter soldier explained, seeing that this object provoked a great amount of curiosity in the woman and was no less than a discovery for her, to which the lady smiled in contentment, however still shyly at his reply.

For the first time, his eyes got glued to this woman's complexion carrying a very different emotion in them, producing a very deep passion driven adoration that made his eyes forget to blink making them heavier than usual. When he finally blinked, he consciously moved his gaze away from her gorgeous face and began looking everywhere but her trying to think why on earth did he come here in the first place.

"... it's lunch time... food's ready... I just came here to tell you guys that"Bucky finally, thankfully remembered his motivation to re-enter the room and he spoke these words looking at Natasha, Wanda and then finally steading his glare on the big round ember eyes that met his light blue ones briefly.

"Again?" The woman in front of him asked genuinely puzzled.

"What do you mean?" Buck enquired back.

"They gave me food in the hospital, in the morning"

"But that was breakfast, it's 2:00 now…" Bucky replied, trying to find his answers in the lady's ambers.

"It's still bright outside" The lady mumbled in a lost manner, turning her head towards the window.

"Yeah"

"But it did not darken after I finished my breakfast"

Notes:

hi guys! Hope you are enjoying this story. This chapter was filled with implicit mentions of our protagonist's past and her far from normal life. I dearly pray that I do justice to the way of storytelling I am going with. I have never written anything like this before in my life. So I hope you like it. Please share your thoughts about this story, I dearly appreciate it.