Sorry about the long wait. I'm one of those people who is writing a lot of different things at once: I'm writing another fanfiction on this site, I just finished a fanfiction I haven't posted, and I'm typing up an original story I'm writing so I have a hard copy of it. But here is the next update! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited!

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Enjoy!

Wanda wouldn't talk to anyone for the rest of the drive back to the base. A couple of times Pietro tried to reach out to her but she ignored him completely and eventually he simply gave it up as a lost cause.

By the time they got back, it was after midnight. Steve suggested that everyone try and get some sleep-and the other members of the team were happy to comply.

Pietro lay awake for a long time, just thinking. Over the course of one day, his life had been completely and totally turned upside down. He had his sister back but she didn't remember him. And even he was beginning to wonder if it would be better just to keep it that way.

Don't think like that. She needs her memories back.

But if she didn't remember anything, she wouldn't remember the shelling or the experimentation (which had been more like torture now that he thought about it) or their life on the streets. Would it be better just to spare her all of that-let her start over? What if he had that chance? Would he take it? He didn't know-and it was driving him insane.

Just then, there was a soft knock on the door that adjoined the twins' rooms. Wanda eased the door open on near silent hinges. "Pietro? Are you up?"

Pietro sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah. What's up?"

"What were you talking about with the other members of the team?"

"Where to go from here. How to get your memories back. You do want them back, don't you?"

She threw him a look as if to say You're kidding me, right? "Of course I do."

"We'll find a way to get them back." At that moment, Pietro made a silent promise-not just to her but to himself as well. If it was what Wanda really wanted, he would find a way retrieve the memories.

"I had…strange dreams." she confided, tossing little bits of magic back and forth and from hand to hand experimentally. "Bits and flashes of things I should remember…but I don't. Can you tell me one of the memories you have? It doesn't matter what it is, honestly, but it could trigger something."

Pietro wondered what to start with. He'd amassed hundreds of memories over the years and it took him a few minutes to sift through them all to find an appropriate time for this moment. Finally, he decided to start at the beginning. "One day, our parents took us to the park to feed the ducks in the pond. It was a beautiful summer day-one of those days where it's impossible to stay inside because it's so beautiful out.

"There was a family of rabbits taking shelter in a hollow log. You loved those rabbits-especially the baby ones. The mother rabbit even let us pet them for a little bit, running our fingers over their downy fur. We come up names for them too, though I can't remember them now. You even asked our parents if we could keep them. Of course they said we couldn't-our apartment didn't allow pets-but we spent a blissful afternoon in that park, petting the baby bunnies and playing with them in the soft green grass." This was the first clear memory he had; before that time the world had only come in flashes of faces of bits and sound. They'd been only two or three; too young to know what a bomb was or what it could to homes-to families.

Wanda stayed quiet, turning his words over and over in her mind. "It all sounds so innocent."

"It was. There were times…for a short period of time in my childhood, I thought the world was pure. I didn't know that bad things could happen to anyone other than comic book characters-and with comic books you can choose to stop reading whenever you want to and shut the story out."

"Obviously something changed that. What happened?"

"The government was overthrown. We were six years old. In fact, the revolution happened that very day, while Father was getting off work early and Mother was baking us a three layer birthday cake covered in chocolate and heaped with whipped cream. We had a lot of leftovers when all was said and done-that cake was so rich and decadent, but it was delicious. I managed to finish my entire piece, though I got sick later. We didn't know what was going on until the next morning, when members of the new government came through the city streets in their brown boots and shiny cars, ripping down all the old flags. We stood on the doorstep and watched them pass. It was almost exciting; everyone was singing the national anthem and celebrating in the streets. We didn't know where things were headed. We didn't know what was coming: the food shortages, the air raids, the rebellions…and eventually open war."

"What happened to those rabbits?"

Pietro shrugged. "I don't know. We never saw them again. Maybe they got the message before we did and got out of the city before things got bad. That's what I like believe, at least."

The night was quiet-so different from the nights they spent in the city, with its constant sounds of traffic and car alarms. Out here in the country-or as Rhodey liked to call it 'the middle of nowhere'-there were no houses, no people, and no enemies. Just the crickets with their nighttime sonatinas and the millions of stars looking down from above.

"What if I never get my memories back?" Wanda asked, twining her fingers in the quilt that covered his bed.

"You will. I promise."

She smiled ruefully. "You like to make promises, don't you?"

"I always keep my promises."

She sighed, glancing out the window at the dark fields of corn and the tall grasses that stood like sentries against the inky black night sky. "I hope you can keep this one."

~V102~

The next morning, Pietro gave his sister the full and unofficial tour of the Avengers base.

"Here's the kitchen." he said, waving to Sam. The Falcon was expertly flipping pancakes and pouring frothy glasses of orange juice. Pietro honestly thought that if he hadn't decided to join SHIELD he could have gone to culinary school.

"And here's the den." Rhodey was playing Grand Theft Auto and trying to explain how the game worked at the same time. Vision was watching in confusion as Rhodey crashed cars, swam in rivers, and occasionally hunted deer.

"There's the briefing room…the game room…and these are all conference rooms." The base was still so new that everything smelled like wet paint. Some of the furniture Director Fury had ordered was still coming; a few rooms simply contained long wooden tables waiting to be surrounded by chairs.

"This is the rec room." He indicated a room filled with a huge plasma screen TV and surround sound. "It's really just the TV room though. This is where we have our movie nights." The team ran on weekly movie nights and shawarma runs.

They met Natasha as they were passing yet another conference room. She nodded to the distractedly; she was on a phone call with someone and it didn't look like things were going away. The twins passed through as fast as they could.

Finally, they came to the training center. It was Pietro's favorite room in the entire facility-long, low, and filled with all manner of weapons. Guns hung on the walls; none of them were loaded, of course. Staffs and knives either hung in rows near the door or were in clearly marked bins on either side of the doorway. Best of all were the small cupboards; one for each hero where they could keep the gear that was strictly theirs. This was where Sam kept his wings and Steve kept his shield; in fact, Rhodey had the only empty space because his War Machine armor wouldn't fit inside of it. Pietro had a small revolver he'd been training with in his own space; he carried his Swiss army knife with him at all times. "We have training six days a week for about an hour each time. Our goal is to achieve fluency with many different kinds of weapons-like Steve says, you never know what situation you could find yourself in."

Just then, Steve strode in from a morning jog. He was steadily draining his water bottle as he grabbed his shield and practiced a few warm up throws. The shield soared around the room and back into his hand with the precision of a boomerang.

"That looks difficult." Wanda said, watching him practice.

Steve grinned as he caught the shield with practiced ease. "it's all in the wrist. You get used to it after a while. So, did the two of you get enough sleep?"

Pietro nodded. "How about you? How is it out there?"

"Beautiful-cool and sunny. I was thinking about grilling out tonight-maybe inviting a few people over for a housewarming party. What do you think?"

"Sounds great to me." Pietro had no quarrels with food as long as there was enough for his super metabolism. "What do you think, Wanda?"

"I'd be up for it." she replied. "Would we have corn on the cob?"

"You can't have a proper grill out without some. Listen, I'm late for a meeting with Natasha and a couple other SHIELD agents. Apparently, we need an inspector to come and make sure the base is completely sound. Does it look like this place is about to fall apart to you?"

Pietro laughed and knocked on one of the heavy steel walls that encased the training room-built to withstand missiles, bullets, and errant super powers. It was the one place he could remember feeling completely secure in. "I would say it's in pretty good shape. Well, we'll leave you to that meeting."

"Yeah. Hey, if the two of you ever want to work on skills or anything, the training room is always open. See you later."

"See you." Pietro led Wanda onto the back porch so they were facing mile upon mile of meadow, field and forest as far as they could say in any direction-except for a tiny road far in the distance. At times like these, it was hard to remember that they were superheroes fresh from saving the world-at least the twins were. The others had had a year to readjust, but Pietro was still having a hard time remembering that the battle had taken place in very early spring and now it was late summer-almost eighteen months later. Normally, he'd be able to talk things over with Wanda-but she was in even worse shape than he was.

"He seems nice." Wanda said once they were situated at a table and chairs set.

"He is. Steve is pretty much the leader of the team-and you can see why. He's really friendly and understanding-not to mention he can do a lot of cool things with his Frisbee shield. Everyone here is pretty nice-once you get to know them that is." He was still in the process of getting used to the way things worked at the Avengers base himself.

"What happened to you after the battle?" she asked. "I mean, I know a few things, but I don't have the full story."

"There isn't much to tell. I was shot multiple times during the Battle of Sokovia; eventually, the bullets stopped my heart. I should have died, but through a medical miracle a group of doctors was able to save me. I'm assuming you read about that. Then I went find the Avengers in New York City. It was the only place I could think of to go. Everything I had ever known had gotten vaporized. I thought that everyone I loved was dead. I've been here ever since, trying to forget. Trying to move on."

"I'm sorry you though I died. I didn't mean to cause anyone worry...I don't know why I didn't contact you after all of that..."

"Maybe you didn't know my whereabouts, while everything was still so touch and go." Pietro was braiding a few pieces of grass together experimentally. They held firm under his gentle touch, solid and still. "I've been trying to think of ways we can jog your memory, since a brain scan obviously isn't going to work."

"What have you come up with so far?"

"I figured we could do things you enjoy, assuming you still do. It might trigger something-and even a little memory means progress."

"Sounds good. So, what did you have in mind?"

In answer he led her over to a bower of purple morning glories. "Flower crowns." He showed her how to carefully poke holes in the base of each flower and push a piece of string through. It took her a few tries and a few broken flowers, but she soon got the hang of it. Before long, she was threading flowers like a pro.

"We used to make these for May Day every year." Pietro explained. "We would make a lot of them and distribute them among our friends and the other people in our building. Occasionally someone would pay us a coin or two, but we never asked for anything of the sort. It was payoff enough to see everyone wearing them during the maypole dance later that night. We always went to see the maypole dance, no matter what-though we didn't participate in it ourselves. It was a very old tradition, but the people in our city still loved it. They held it every year in the center of town without fail. All those young woman and girls, dancing around with ribbons in dresses of satin and lace...secretly, I had always hoped you would join them one day, wearing a crown of snow white flowers atop your head." Looking at the finished crown of flowers he now held in his hand, he imagined someone wearing it as they danced and danced to their hearts content, weaving in and out of the maypole's ribbons. "Do you remember any of that?"

For a second he thought he saw a spark of recognition in Wanda's eyes as she strung the flowers and he wondered if she was remembering days when they had cut class early and taken the cable car out of the city so they could go into the fields on the outskirts of town and fill their lunch baskets with colorful flowers. He wondered if she remembered the hours spent lounging around in the soft grass, lying against sun warmed stones and dirtying their school clothes as they picked flower after flower for necklace after necklace...

By the next second, whatever he had seen or thought he'd seen was gone. Wanda shook her head and tossed her string, almost complete, to the hard ground. It lay forgotten as she stood up, wiping dirt off her hands. "No. I don't. We'll have to try something else."

~V102~

They spent the rest of the day outside, exploring the grounds around the base. They didn't talk much; they seemed to be content with their own thoughts.

At lunch (which happened to be Natasha's butchered attempt at grilled cheese sandwiches; all the Avengers took turns cooking but some had more success at it than others) Steve announced his plans for a big grill out. He sent out invitations to all the other Avengers who could be reached and could arrive at the base in the amount of time provided as well as a few important SHIELD agents. The idea was well received with the other members of the team and tasks were soon divvied out in order to prepare.

Pietro ended up being given the task of polishing the grill until it shone. Unfortunately, the grill was older than he was and covered in old char marks. Thankfully, he had Sam to help him.

Out of habit, he glanced across the yard to see Wanda meticulously arranging centerpieces on each of the tables Rhodey was setting out. "Does she seem to be adjusting well?" he asked as he worked at a particularly tough grease stain.

Sam nodded. "At least she's talking to us now. We're making progress."

"Yeah. I guess." But progress was slow in coming-and the memories were even more uncertain.

"How do you think tonight is going to go? I mean, it's our first time hosting a big party here."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. It had to be. This was Wanda's first big social event since she'd come to New York. Pietro wanted it to be special for her. If worst came to worst and she really did have to invent a set of new memories, he wanted the first ones she made to be good ones. Besides, so far the base had managed to avoid being blown up or destroyed in any way.

He kind of wanted to keep it that way. In any case, the grill out was certainly going to be interesting.

Review, follow, and favorite! Thanks for reading!