Steve Rogers watched the tiny child pacing in front of the glass partition of the Helicarrier's medical wing.

She looked like a mini-Natasha. But it wasn't all Nat. There were hints of Bucky too. Whenever her jaw tightened, whenever she evaluated someone, the look was familiar. It was too cool - too Barnes.

'She's a little girl.' He muttered, watching her. If he thought that speaking the words aloud would help him understand, he was very wrong. He was only more confused. He knew HYDRA were evil - but this was beyond contempt. 'What could they possibly want to do with a six year old girl?'

'Don't know.' Natasha sighed from beside him. 'The files were redacted - corrupted. Maybe both. She doesn't know much, either. They were apparently just holding on to her and conducting tests.'

Oh sweet Lord, were they planning to make more?

'You saw Bucky. He just left her with you? Is he...okay?' Steve frowned. That didn't sound like his friend. His friend - well, he'd never talked about having kids. But he knew deep down that Bucky Barnes would have been the best damn father he'd known. He wouldn't just leave his child after he went through such lengths to get to her.

'He was being chased, I think.' Natasha murmured. 'They must've known he'd come through New York. Try to make contact with me. He chose to draw them off.'

That sounded like his friend. Steve's heart ached at the thought. He should be here, with them. Recovering. Not hiding from the people who had kept him prisoner for the last seventy years.

He suspected that Natasha knew more than she was telling him - and she was much less accepting than she was leading everyone to believe.

Having a child dropped on you can do that, he supposed.

'Can she see us?' Steve frowned and watched her little head make her eighth loop of the room restlessly.

'Two-way glass.' Natasha murmured just as the door opened and Banner entered the room.

They'd brought Banner into this? Of course they had. Probably figured his nature would help keep the little girl calm. She was a very recent defector of HYDRA. A calm, caring nature and - not to put Banner down - being small and seemingly incapable of defending himself would work to relax her. No threat - no motivation to attack. The intercom also picked up the conversation happening on the other side of the glass.

'Hello. I'm Bruce. What's your name?'

'Mantis.' It was wary and tried to be measured, but Steve could hear the note of caution in her voice.

'Her name's Mantis?' He demanded and looked at Natasha.

'It was her project name. Project Preying Mantis.' Natasha replied, her eyes never leaving the pale, pointed face.

'I get that but - you didn't name her? Let her pick a normal name?'

'Why would I do that, Steve?' Natasha turned to him and frowned.

'Because she's your daughter?'

Nat scoffed. 'She was genetically grown in a lab and trained to do god knows what.'

'She looks exactly like you.' Steve replied. 'I thought you'd be thrilled.'

'Why? Because I can't have children? Should I be thankful that HYDRA decided to use my DNA and make me a child? I don't trust it.' Natasha replied. Steve corrected himself - she was definitely not as accepting as she was leading everyone to believe. It was too good to be true - but she was here and she was six years old. Surely she should be given the benefit of the doubt?

Back in the lab, Banner had approached her and said quietly 'I'm going to need some bloods-'

Steve could see the shift almost immediately. The little girl - Mantis - had become instantly defensive the second he'd moved close to her. 'Tasha-' Steve warned.

Bruce must've sensed the hesitation too. 'I'm trying to help you.' Bruce said gently. 'I'm a doctor.'

Steve watched as the child's hand shot out across the nearest table and grabbed a glass beaker - thankfully empty. Natasha had already sensed what was going to happen and immediately launched herself for the door just as the sounds of glass shattering erupted from the speakers. Faint but getting louder - and more insistent - was the sounds of Bruce's heart-rate monitor.

Steve overtook her easily and burst into the room first as Mantis picked up another and reared back to throw it.

There was no way he was tackling a six year old little girl. Instead, he stood in front of the crouched Banner and ordered her to put it down. The situation paused, but Steve could still see she was calculating behind those big brown eyes. She just hadn't settled on a move yet.

Bruce's watch slowly began to calm it's incessant beeping as he controlled his breathing. The last thing anyone wanted - least of all Bruce himself - was a full on Hulk out. The Helecarrier couldn't take another one. Had barely survived the first.

Natasha came up behind him and Steve could hear her talking to Bruce in a low voice, keeping a lid on the situation.

Which left Steve to deal with the unstable and seemingly afraid little girl.

'Why did you do that?' He asked gently.

She remained silent, glaring, calculating.

'I can't help if you don't tell me what's going on, Mantis.' The name sounded so odd when applied to such a small, wiry thing. She reminded him of the way he and Bucky used to be. All stick, no muscle - and a tendency to get into fights bigger than them. 'Tell me what's wrong.'

Not a muscle twitched.

Steve sighed, resigned to getting nowhere but he wasn't going to be satisfied until he could get that second beaker out of her hand. 'I know…. I know you must be scared -'

She sneered and reared back to throw the glass when Steve asked - mostly in desperation - 'How about Florence?'

For the first time she actually spoke, her face full of genuine confusion. 'What?'

Hardly witty repertoire. But he'd gotten her to talk at the very least. Getting someone to talk was far harder than encouraging them to keep talking. 'A name. You need a name. I was thinking Florence.'

The beaker lowered a fraction and he risked glancing backwards to check on Banner and Natasha. She was frowning at him with her signature 'If I wasn't busy, you'd be getting your ass kicked' but was too engrossed in Banner to really focus on Steve - for now.

'I like art. And I saw a painting the other day of Florence - that's in Italy - in the autumn. It was covered in warm browns and reds - all the trees and the coloured tile shining in the sunlight -'

She really did look like Natasha - she had that incredible ability to look at you in complete confusion and incredulousness and still think you were an idiot on top of that. He supposed it was a family trait.

'What do you think?' He persisted. 'Put the beaker down Florence.'

That - that was a mistake. He knew as soon as he'd done it - it was a mistake. She reared back to throw it when Natasha came out from behind him and floored her. The beaker shattered across the floor but Nat had more than enough of a handle on the small girl to ignore any possible shards slicing her way.

He'd have felt that Natasha was perhaps being overly zealous with her restraint, was it not for the fact that the girl's parents were Winter Soldier and Black Widow and up until then, Steve was about to be hit in the face with a beaker going at speed.

When Natasha looked up at him, he knew that this wasn't over.

A/N: I have about a dozen of these all sitting in my folder all waiting to be finished. Unfortunately, Mantis is being stubborn.