Ah! I finally got it up! I am extremely sorry! I procrastinate way too much when I don't have anything going on at home, and never managed to get this up before I went on vacation. But I'm back, and I finally got the next installment of this story up. Sorry for the long wait! I'm going to immediately work on the next chapter now, so that you won't have to wait as long. This chapter's a bit short, but I felt it had a good stopping point.

I sat nervously in the police station. Steve had called them and reported what he had wanted to do. I had dreaded the day I'd be caught in the police station for a long time; I had been running from the law for so long, and now I had to finally face them. At least it wasn't Hydra. Eventually, we were brought to the back to be interrogated by one of the officers. Steve had passed his background check with flying colors, as he was a man who had never caused trouble and helped people. However, I was a much different story. The officer couldn't find anything on me, as I had no biological family, and, to my dismay, he recognized me. He grabbed my wrist and glared furiously at me. I looked away and struggled to get free, flinching at his touch, as the last human to touch me had tried to drag me back to hell.

Steve widened his eyes in shock, "What's the meaning of this?"

The officer turned to Steve, "I apologize, Mr. Rogers, but this little girl is a wanted criminal."

Steve looked completely stunned at that statement, his gentle blue eyes as wide as an owl's at that, "S-Seriously? Wanted for what?"

"Thievery, pick pocketing, trespassing, harassment, and vandalism."

My almost family member stared at me in complete, silenced shock. I shrunk back sadly. I wanted the ground to just open up beneath me and swallow me whole. There was no way that Steve would adopt a criminal, and then I would never get out of here. I was tempted to lie and say that it wasn't true, but he'd be more likely to believe a trained officer than a street urchin like me. I sighed and stared at the ground, laughing with nervous dismay, "Heh-heh . . . guilty is charged. . ."

Steve looked to the officer, "So . . . what has to be done?"

The officer replied, "She'd have to serve some time in Juvenile Prison for the trouble she's caused here."

I looked to the officer with frightened eyes. I couldn't be caged again! I'd have nowhere to run if Hydra found me there!

Steve obviously noticed my expression because when he looked at me his eyes softened to that gentle warmness that was foreign to me, "Isn't there something else we can do?"

"Like what?"

"What if she returns all of the items she stole and pays off the fine?"

"How would she manage to pay off the fine?"

"I can cover that for her. Would that work?"

The officer paused for a moment, "Hmm . . . I suppose that could work. Very well," he turned to face me, "Show me where you hid all of the stolen goods."

I sighed in both relief and despair. I was glad that I wouldn't be locked up and astounded that Steve would do this for me, but now I had the issue of the writing on my walls. What would the officer think if he saw the messages? Would I have to deal with even more problems? I finally relented and stood by the entrance, Steve was sitting in a chair not too far away, but he was out of the line of sight for the alley entrance. The officer took out a flashlight and turned it on, shining it into the dark, gaping maw of my home. He widened his eyes in shock at what he saw, and then stared at me. I cleared my throat and said, "You'll find all of the stuff in there . . . so, eh, yeah, that's it." It was an extremely awkward situation for me, and a nerve wracking one.

The officer walked in, picking up my throwing knife set and giving me a suspicious glare.

I raised my hands in defense, "I didn't use them on anyone. I'm a thief, not a murderer." Not anymore. . .

"And the blood on the walls?"

"My own. I had nothing else to write with."

The officer scraped off a bit of the blood, most likely to test that it was mine in case I was lying, and then called in some back up to help move all of the stolen items. Once that was taken care of, the officer Steve and I had been talking to that entire time confronted us again. "So, about that fine. . ."

Steve nodded, "Of course." He took out his wallet and handed the proper amount to him, still somewhat stunned at how I had managed to steal so many items.

The officer accepted the payment and then continued, "That has at least part of it taken care of, then. We'll have to keep her in our custody until we know for sure that she is fit for adoption."

Steve replied, "All right. How long will it take?"

"It's hard to know exactly for sure. We'll be checking up on her health, and checking for any family members that are left before we can even work on putting her up for adoption. Hopefully it won't take too long."

I sighed and stared at the ground. It looked like I would still be in the uncomfortable presence of the cops for a while yet. I wasn't too keen on having doctors poke around me to see if I was okay, especially if they saw my scars. Some of them were so large that there was no possible way of me getting them on the streets. I'd have to come up with a good explanation for that, half-truths might help on that part, and filling in the false details shouldn't be too hard for me. After all, it's not like I haven't lied before. I glanced at Steve, and then to the cop before relenting and letting the cop lead me back to the station. Damn . . . all of this shit we would have to go through better pay off once I reach America.