Chapter 8

The stunned silence that followed was expected and it gave Zaria a moment to collect herself and loosen the muscles she had tightened with the stress of answering the question. There was no more hiding, the truth was out there now and she couldn't retract it.

"Your grandfather..." Fury said finally.

"You're not dumb; you heard what I said correctly." Zaria nearly snapped she was baiting him which wasn't the best idea.

Fury glared. "From the account he was pretty young, roughly the same age as you. So tell me how that makes him your grandfather."

"How is it that Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, appear to be in his mid-twenties and has been that age for the last seventy years?" The look Fury gave her was as close to stunned as he would ever allow himself so she continued. "Look, I'm not stupid. I can put two and two together. I have a project I had been working on for months at the museum when I met Steve. I didn't see it at first, something about him seemed so familiar and yet I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought maybe he was some model or sports player or something I had probably seen in passing once.

"I have this... gift? ability? "superpower"? Call it what you want, but I can remember perfectly every single thing I come across. My bubulya didn't defect to the States empty handed. She came over with papers from the Russian government, really important stuff, and when I was little I saw those papers. I was young, I didn't understand them but as I did some digging after the first time I saw Steve, trying to see if I could figure out why he was so familiar I found those documents. I thought, no way, it wasn't possible. There was no way that that project could have even worked, but the Russian project was based on one that had originally been in work in the US. So when Steve came to the museum with me and I showed him the project I worked on I noticed something. He looked exactly the same as the man in the pictures. How is that possible?

"It isn't unless the project done in the US was a success. And 'when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth'. So I found him. Steve Rogers was the original Super Soldier. The one the Russian equivalent was based off of. That man, that thing is, like it or not, my grandfather.

"You asked me if I was in on the whole thing, I guess I should have answered, yes, I am or was anyway. I knew about him, I found out he was looking for my family. He wanted my dad actually but he died all because of this stupid "super soldier" stuff; thinking he was better than anyone else. I left, disappeared when I knew he was looking. I knew when he found me; they basically rubbed it in my face just before they took me. I don't know what he wanted with your people, or if they have anything to do with this, knowing him there's some secretive plan that has to do with the Avengers, it just happened that it worked well with finding me I guess." She hadn't realized how much she was going to tell but once the figurative floodgates opened everything came tumbling out. Her mouth closed and she looked down and away from Fury suddenly feeling very small and vulnerable. She wanted to stand, to pace and get angry, but instead she was confined to a bed and the bitter truth. She'd stopped being angry somewhere in her rant, her body relaxed and her hands unfurled from their fists.

"It looked more like you ran right to him after he "kidnapped" you." Nick commented after a long moment of silence.

Samantha looked astonished at the accusation and appeared to be on the verge of saying something, but Zaria answered.

"Yeah, it looks that way, huh? Like I pretty much did exactly what I said I hadn't done." She ran a hand through her hair as she sighed.

"If that wasn't what it was then what was it?"

"A death wish?" She shrugged. "I wanted him to pay for it all. For every single thing that's happened because of his DNA, but I pretty much knew I was walking to my death. At that time I kind of hoped I would have died. Would have made all this a-hell-of-a-lot easier to deal with, don't you think?"

The look she received from Fury for that comment was none too friendly.

"Look, if you're done here can I just go home? I've missed I don't know how many days of work and I have hospital bills to pay. I probably even have to look for new jobs thanks to all this."

"If he's really your grandfather and you honestly want nothing to do with him how about you tell me his name."

Zaria glared at him. "Steve can answer that question."

"I'm not asking Steve I'm asking you."

She huffed and released her hands, they had clenched into fists again without her really noticing. "Last I checked to date he's been going by The Winter Soldier, but you all should recognize him by the name James Buchanan Barnes or Bucky Barnes."

Fury didn't seem fazed by the name, but somewhere Steve was probably feeling like he was hit by a train. She wondered how he was taking it, if he hated her for lying to him, not that she had actually lied about anything he had never asked questions like these, she just had never told him the truth. Inwardly she felt crushed, her heart ached and everything felt cold, all she wanted was a normal relationship with a guy who happened to be extremely attractive and also the nicest person she had met in a long time; outwardly she probably looked as cold as she felt.

"Are we done now?" She asked finally.

"For now." Nick consented as he turned and left the room.

Silence descended, only broken by the sounds of the machines. Zaria nearly jumped when Samantha stood up from her stool and dragged the rolling cart to one side of the room.

"What are you doing?" Zaria questioned as the honey blonde clambered up onto the cart after putting the brakes on. Then she noticed a small spot up in the top corner. It was so obscure that she couldn't tell what it was but clearly Samantha knew what it was.

"Jackasses." Samantha grumbled to the spot as she reached up and yanked, pulling the object free. It was a camera, extremely small and high tech. The Doctor had just yanked the camera out of the wall, somebody was sure to come into the room any minute but Zaria was so relieved that she just didn't care anymore.

Her breath caught, her eyes began to burn, and she fisted the blankets as she tried to regain composure. She hadn't had a true cry since her father died, even then she hadn't honestly let herself feel the pain of his death, she had just shut it all in. It left a deep hallow pit inside her and even when her grandmother died she hardly shed a single tear; yet here she was on the verge of tears. The bed dipped and she looked up to see Samantha sitting there, concern marring her features.

"Life has not been easy for you, has it?"

Zaria laughed, it sounded bitter. "That's one way of putting it."

"I don't think my life compares to yours, especially right now, but I can relate in a way. I was in love with this wonderful man, I'm not sure I really ever stopped loving him. We met when he was brought into the ER I worked at the time. I was the doctor on call, young, foolish, naive, and I thought I could help him. It was easy to fix the physical wounds, but the emotional ones; those are hard. We dated, I was so crazy about him, but he had secrets, secrets that I wasn't happy about. They were so many that I foolishly told him it was me of the secrets, and he chose them." Samantha bit her lip, as she took a deep breath. "That was tough. I moved on, it took me awhile but it happened, and I met my husband.

"This time I fell in love for a dying man. His previous wife had died in a car accident and it was just him and his daughter. He knew that he was dying, cancer does that, and he didn't want to leave his daughter without anyone so he asked me to marry him. I didn't want to, I didn't love him as dearly as I did the first man, but he wouldn't back down. He told me once that he knew that I didn't love him as much, but that he would be a good husband, so I relented." Samantha looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. "I had six months with him."

Zaria had no idea what to say to that so she kept her mouth shut and let the doctor continue.

"I adopted his daughter during that time, so now I have a six year old who starts kindergarten this year." She shook her head with a little laugh. "I think I got off topic. My point was that that first love, that real deep burning desire, never really goes away and when that person hurts you or you feel like you hurt them... That's the hardest part."

Zaria's vision swam making her blink several times in a vain attempt to keep them from spilling out as she turned her head away from Samantha. Silence followed Samantha's story as both girls sat there, the older one letting the younger deal with her emotions. Finally, Samantha laid a gentle hand on Zaria's leg as she stood up.

"I think you've deserved some time alone and seeing as they have not rushed in here after I destroyed their camera I don't think they'll be coming in for a while. Besides, I should probably relieve the Agent on babysitting duty." She smiled then went to the door, slipped out, and disappeared down the hallway by the sound of retreating heels on the hard floor.

In the stillness that followed Samantha's absence Zaria tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling as she struggled with her emotions. She thought about Steve. About how he must feel with her revelation. About his friend still being alive, and a traitor. About her withholding information from him. She wondered if he would forgive her or if he hated her.

She tried to be petty, to think about whether or not she still had a job, or both of them precisely, or if she had been replaced. She even thought about her grandmother's desk and her little project at the museum and if she would get them back or if they would keep them. It made her a little bitter about it all, but in the long run her heart still ached for the idea that Steve probably hated her.

And so, for the first time in a long time; she cried. She cried about the unfairness of her father's death, she cried for the pain she felt when her grandmother looked at her with disdain because she looked too much like the man that had abandoned her babulya when she was with child, she cried for the painful death of her grandmother went through because in the she still loved her family, and she cried for the first broken heart she ever had.

And finally, she just cried.