Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the long wait, life has been busy lately and I've hardly had time to write and then of course once I do get around to writing, I forget to post what I've written. I finally got time to post today so I'm going to stop rambling and let you all get on with the chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story that you recognize.


Her mother was in a cot, blankets piled over her. Her skin nearly blended in with the white sheets. She was shaking, but she smiled when she saw Gwen. Gwen rushed over and took her mother's hand. It was cold and clammy.

"Gwen," her mother's voice was faint, barely a whisper. "Thank the gods above you're safe. I'm sick Gwen so I'm going to go to sleep for a little while. Oz, Gwen." A few moments later, her mother passed out.

Gwen searched the room and pierced the first person she saw with a look that said she wanted answers. "What's wrong with her?" she demanded.

"She took a bad hit to the head and the people who had her weren't very nice to her," the man said, obviously screening his words.

She was sick of people thinking she was a kid and couldn't handle a little bit of violence. She'd seen both the best and the worst of what the world had to offer, whatever had happened to her mother wasn't going to be the worst.

Gwen changed her glare to a look that she had seen her mother wear when someone was talking in circles or wasn't giving her what she needed fast enough. She figured it would work just as well for her as it did for her mother.

"Me and my mother have been separated for nearly three days," Gwen said, her voice level. "I am with people who I don't know and I am scared both for myself and my mother who is lying passed out on the cot. I don't care if the full explanation is too technical for me to understand, you are going to give it to me before I throw a temper tantrum."

The man looked at her like he was torn between laughing at her or taking her seriously. He looked like he was leaning towards the first thing. Gwen clenched her jaw and sucked in a big breath of air.

Someone spoke before she could let out her scream.

"Don't even think about doing that," a stern voice said from behind her. Gwen turned to see the man in black from the night before, minus the sunglasses. He had an eyepatch over his left eye. There was something about him that spoke of authority. As if he expected the air around him to do whatever he commanded.

"Well I want to know what's wrong with my mother and he wasn't going to tell me," Gwen said.

"That's because you don't need to kno-"

"She is my mother and I've been worried sick about her for three days," Gwen cut the new man off. "I am seven, not four. I've seen people die in front of me in gunfights, my mother hurt is nothing. I have a right to know."

The man who had been in the room from the beginning looked concerned with her announcement.

"Last time I checked, you were not in charge here," eyepatch man said.

"No, I have a feeling that you are," Gwen said. "Tell me or I'll scream."

"If you scream, you'll wake your mother up," eyepatch man countered. "She'll be mad at you for it. She needs her sleep."

"She knows I wouldn't scream without a reason. In fact, she'll probably be more mad at you that you didn't just tell me in the first place."

"Fine. Daniels, tell her." Eyepatch man turned on his heel and strode out of the room, the other man close behind.

Gwen went to the doorway so she could hear the heated argument playing out just down the hall.

"She's just seven, Fury. She doesn't need to know. We don't know how she'll react-"

"Her psyche is not at the top of my priority list right now Daniels. Right now we need to get both her and her mother ready for transport and that'll go a hell of a lot easier if we don't have to deal with a screaming brat. Just tell her."

With that, the man stalked away and down the stairs, shouting orders as he walked. Gwen went over to sit on her mother's bed as the other man walked back into the room. He looked at her, as if it pained him to have to tell her this.

"She has a severe concussion," he began. "That's when you hit your head really hard. They hurt her a lot. They hit her so she has some pretty bad bruises." He paused and Gwen knew he was still choosing his words carefully. "They stabbed her in the leg so she's lost some blood. Once we know her blood type, we'll be able to give her more."

"O negative," Gwen said.

The man looked at her, then shook his head and spoke again. "Once we can get some of that, we'll be able to give it to her. She's got an infection from the wound so she's going to need medicine. We're going to be going to the nearest airport and flying you both to the United States."

Gwen nodded. Her mother would survive. She might be out of comission for a few months, but she'd survive.

"So." Gwen looked up when the man spoke. "I hear you've had a rough couple of days. I'm a doctor, is it alright if I take a look at you?"

Gwen eyed the man as he came over to stand by her. She didn't like people touching her.

"All I've got are a couple of bruises from Mr. Clark and the man he saved me from," she finally said. "I'm tired and weak because I haven't eaten or drunk anything for a few days. Other than that, I'm fine."

"Can I at least check your temperature?" the man bargained. Gwen thought it over and then nodded slowly.

The man took a thermometer and put it in her ear. When it beeped, he took it out and looked at the number. "One hundred," he said. "You've got a slight fever. I'm going to give you something to bring that down. You need to swallow it with some water."

"Ok," Gwen replied. "When are we leaving?"

"In about half an hour," he replied, handing her the pill and a cup of water. "If you stay quiet, you can stay in here with your mom."

Gwen nodded and settled in to wait. People rushed around, in and out of the room she was in, packing and organizing. Finally, it was time to move.

The man, he'd told her to just call him Mr. Jim, made sure that her mother was wrapped snugly in the blankets before her picked her up. Gwen hopped off the bed and followed him downstairs and outside. Beside the house was a huge boat. Mr. Jim lead the way onboard and Gwen followed him down to a little room below deck with some cots.

He carefully placed her mother down and then turned to Gwen.

"Do you need anything?" he asked her. "It's going to be a couple of hours till we get to the airport and about eleven hours from there before we get to the states."

"I'm fine," Gwen replied. She sat on the edge of her mother's bed.

Five hours later, Gwen felt anything but fine. She was hungry again, and thirsty. Her head hurt her and she was cold. She was also bored. Mr. Jim kept on asking her if she needed anything but she kept telling him she was fine.

They were all in the back of a plane. There were three other people besides Eyepatch man, Mr. Jim and Mr. Clark. They were part of the team that had saved her mother. All of them were asleep except for eyepatch man. He was sitting on the bench across from her, reading through a file.

"Are you a pirate?" Gwen asked. The man looked up at her.

"Am I what?" he asked.

"A pirate. You're wearing an eyepatch, pirates wear eye patches," Gwen explained.

"No, I am not a pirate," he answered stiffly, then looked back down to the papers in his hands.

Silence reigned in the airplane for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry."

Eyepatch man looked up at her. "What?" he asked.

"I'm sorry I was being such a brat earlier," Gwen explained. "I was rude to you and Mr. Jim and Mr. Clark and I'm sorry."

"Accepted," Eyepatch man said. He looked down again, then sighed and looked back up at her. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Most likely, but I can't," Gwen said. "It's too enclosed here, no way out. If something happens me and mom are sitting ducks."

"I didn't just send my team in there to bail your mother out of trouble just to kill you," he said.

"There have been people who pulled my mother out of the path of a bullet just to hold a different gun to her head," Gwen said.

"Are you sure you're only seven?" Eyepatch man said after a few moments of silence.

"I turn eight in a few months," Gwen said. "Mom says I'm jaded."

"She would be right," Eyepatch man said. "You haven't eaten anything in awhile, I've got a few energy bars in my bag."

Gwen looked at him, considering her options. She trusted him, to a point. Mom had said she could. That's why she had said Oz. It was their code word for someone that, for the moment, you could trust. It also meant that there was a possibility they could turn on you later on.

"Get over here and eat, kid," Eyepatch man said. "I'm not gonna poison you. But I'm sure as hell gonna make sure you eat and sleep."

Gwen hopped off the bench and went to sit next to the big man. He put his hand into his pocket and revealed something wrapped in a silver wrapper. He reached under the bench and came up with a fresh bottle of water.

"Eat and then try to get some shut eye, kid," Eyepatch man said, going back to his reading.

Gwen tore open the wrapper and took a bite. Energy bars were good normally, to Gwen it was like eating a five star meal.

After the food was gone, Gwen looked at the man beside her again. "Will you wake me up?" she asked.

"When?"

"When we land the plane," she replied. "I don't like waking up in a different place from where I fell asleep." There was a story behind that fear, but she wasn't going to go into it at the moment.

"Alright," he replied. "Just get some sleep."


A sharp poke to her side brought Gwen back to the present.

"Something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" Tony asked.

"Not particularly," Gwen replied. "Just remembering when I first met Uncle Nick."

"She asked me if I was a pirate and then fell asleep on me," Fury replied.

"You made me sit next to you on the bench," Gwen retorted. "You knew I was exhausted and you can't tell me that you weren't expecting it."

"No, but it sure ruined my rep back at headquarters." Fury cast her a sidelong glance with an air of playfulness.

"You got it back. You're Director Fury now, that's got to say something. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you're really just a big softie on the inside."

"You wouldn't dare." Both glared playfully at each other.

All around the livingroom, the rest of the Avengers were in varying states of shock. Tony was still looking like he was choking on something. Bruce was just shaking his head at Tony's antics. Steve looked like someone had just told him Santa Claus wasn't real. Clint and Natasha were having an entire conversation using nothing but glances at one another.

Clint, out of everyone in the room, had known Director Fury the longest and even when they had interacted outside of getting briefed for missions, had never seen the man act like this. Natasha, having been introduced to the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. under less than ideal circumstances, could honestly say that she thought that the one-eyed man would never act like he was now.

At the same time though, she couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of the man. Sure, Gwen might trust them to a point. But judging from the camaraderie coming from the two on the couch across from her, the girl trusted her adoptive uncle with more than her life.

"So Gwen, why are you here?" Fury asked the girl. "Last I heard, you were living with your aunt and uncle."

Gwen went stiff as a board and Natasha could see the walls that automatically went up behind the girl's eyes. Fury noticed and frowned, going on edge.

"Gwen," he said, "Gwen, what happened? What's wrong?"

The girl shot him a look so lacking in emotion that Natasha held back a wince.

"We were with them for all of a month," Gwen said finally, her tone as emotionless as her expression. "Then Norman Osbourne decided that he wanted to adopt us. Things were fine for a few months, then Norman found out about me."

Fury looked like he had swallowed a thunderhead. "What did he do?" the director growled, each word coming out louder than the last till the final word was a roar.

Gwen squeezed her eyes shut, like she was trying to keep out bad memories. When it was clear that she wasn't going to answer any time soon, Peter did for her.

"They did ex-spearmints on her," Peter said in his five year-old voice. "They locked her in white room and I never got to see her. She said they just gave her shots like when daddy used to take me to the doctor."

Gwen's knuckles were white and she was shaking. Peter squirmed in his sister's lap so he could turn around and give her a hug. When she didn't respond, her eyes still squeezed shut, Peter pinched her arm.

His sister flinched and opened her eyes. Peter stared at his sister with a look that Natasha couldn't quite interpret. It was about as close to a glare as Natasha had ever seen Peter give his sister.

"No," he said. "No, you promised Gwen. No bad thoughts."

"I know I promised," Gwen said. "I'm better now Pete, promise. See, no bad thoughts." She gave her brother a small smile that seemed to appease him, but none of the grown-ups were convinced.

"Gwen, are you going to be alright?" Steve asked quietly.

Gwen nodded and stood up. "I need a little while."

Everyone watched as Gwen strode out of the room.

"I believe that is my cue to leave." Director Fury stood up. He focused his gaze on each of the Avengers in turn. "If they weren't already in the safest place I could think of, they would be coming with me. Don't let me down. This is probably the most important mission I've ever given you."

With a swish of his trenchcoat, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. showed himself out.


And that's the chapter! I know it's short but this really was the best place to cut the chapter off at. I'll make every effort to update this Friday. After this weekend, life settles down a little bit for me *crosses fingers* so hopefully we'll be back to a more or less regular update schedule after that. Please review guys and tell me what you think.

Until next time,
CaseClosed621