Her lungs burned. Pain. She opened her eyes. She saw what looked to be a white ceiling. This isn't right. The ceilings at home are grey. She sat up, but immediately regretted her decision when she felt burning pain down her spine. It had to be a weird dream inspired by drugs that kidnappers gave her. Yes. Logical. She looked around the room. Her eyes froze in place when they landed on what looked like a man, but he was red. And silver too?

"What? Who are you?" She started moving backwards towards the top of the bed.

"Relax. I am Vision. There is no need to be alarmed." He started moving towards her very slowly. He put his hands in a defensive yet surrendering motion. "Are you alright?"

She was still shocked. The past 5 hours was a shock. She looked to her left, then to her right when she saw a clock on a white nightstand. Scratch that. 12 hours. How long was she asleep?

"Yeah." She was still skeptical, so her answer was as well.

"Are you hungry?" The accented voice came back.

This time she just gave a simple nod. It sorta hurt to speak.

"This way." He gestured towards the door and let her follow him out. She was a little wobbly standing up but she was okay. When she reached the door, he opened it. He let her walk through the opening first. There was a small hallway that they passed through, and they started walking down a thing of spiral stairs. She hesitated for a moment, but only when she heard people talking. They stopped when she made a creak in the second to last step. She couldn't see anyone, so she looked behind her towards 'Vision'. Granted, she didn't know him, but she felt as though he could be trusted. He was the first person to ask if she was okay in a long time. He gave a small smile and nod and she finished her way down the steps. She saw 7 people standing or sitting around a room. She saw Vision walk out from behind her. She couldn't tell if the chill in the air was because it was cold, or because she was uncomfortable. A man walked up to her. Blond hair, blue eyes. Very buff.

"I'm Steve. Better known as Captain America, and this is everyone." My god. She was standing in a room full of Avengers. They did really save her. That was no dream. He introduced everyone. They all gave a small gesture when their name was called. She only listened to their real names. This was honestly a dream come true for her. Being saved by the Avengers.

"Did you hear me, kid?"

She didn't know that she was zoning out. She looked at Tony Stark. "Pardon?"

"What's your name?"

"Carter. Carter Tonish."

"Well nice to meet you, Carter."

She would have said something back, but she was somehow more confused now.

"What- what-" carter tried to speak but she just couldn't. Stark seemed to understand.

"What happened? Well a lot of things happened. You we're essentially controlled by aliens that nearly killed us."

It took Carter a moment to let the words sink in. She remembered what happened leading up to this moment, but she just didn't have all of the information.

As Tony began to speak again, Steve took over. He knew that Tony was never one to sugar coat things that needed it.

"Carter, we need you to stay here for at least a little while. Bruce and Tony need to make sure that you're in the clear. Is that alright with you?"

His smile that he gave at the end of his sentence was sincere. Carter liked that smile.

"This is all just moving really fast. I have my dad back home. Have you tried calling him? He must be so worried." Carter placed a hand on her head and started pacing a small circle near the stairs. When she hadn't said anything, Steve took that as a cue to speak. He felt so bad all of a sudden. He stiffened, but she needed to know.

"Carter... maybe you would like to sit for this."

She had made her way back towards the kitchen island. She took a seat on the middle stool.

"There's no easy way to say this but...sweetie...your dad didn't make it."

Carter kept a straight face staring right up at the man that she knew as Captain America. She suddenly cast her eyes down, but only her eyes. No other movement was made. "Better that than the slow death he had a path set for."

Everyone in the room was at least slightly taken of guard by what she had said.

"I don't really even remember the last sober conversation that I had with my dad." She gave a forced, nervous laugh at the end of her sentence. Carter seemed to wipe away a tear or two, and looked back up. Her face was normal. No more pain than expected but also not enough to put them all at ease about the girl's past.

"I will stay here. Pretty cool to be invited to hang out with the Avengers." She smiles and Steve smirked back at her.

Carter went back to the room she was originally put in. She was very weak. Either from what had happened with a universally foreign creature or from not having eaten in over 12 hours she could not tell.

The rest of them were conversing on what to do. The only one of them that had any actual knowledge of how to take care of kids was Clint and he was actually being a dad right now. Hell, one of the Avengers was just a teen herself! They understood that they had natural born talents, but others were still skeptical.

"How long is she staying?" Bruce asked. "We don't know how the invaders work. She could still be harbouring one and nine of us know."

Natasha stepped in. "Are you opposed to her staying, Bruce?"

Bruce fired back. "No. I just want to know how long she is gonna stay. Are we gonna have to send her to school? How is SHEILD gonna feel about this?"

The rest of them were silent for awhile at the mention of SHEILD. Wanda pipped up from her silence.

"I think it'll be cool having her around. So what if SHEILD has a problem with it? Big deal. She doesn't have anyone else and we all know what that's like..." Bucky was the only one to visibly shudder at the words. Wanda continued.

"We have to take care of her for at least a little while. Plus, we never know if the aliens are coming back. They might want her again." She sat back down.

"She's right. If they were telling the truth, they might just hunt her down again." Tony said. He had his arms crossed and was leaning on the conference table. "I'll start hanging up on SHEILD again." He walked out of the room, leaving everyone with small smiles in their faces.