Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 4 of Black Sheep. I want to thank those who have left reviews for this story and have taken their time to read this story. It truly does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying it. I hope to stay on a set schedule on updating. There is a surprise in this chapter and I hope that you guys will enjoy this little surprise that I have in here because I'm kind of excited to be writing this next part out. We have an Avenger showing up that we haven't quite seen in this story just yet. Also I'm posting on my birthday awesome. I hope that you guys enjoy this next chapter I hope that this next chapter will be just as good as well. Without further ado Chapter 4. ENJOY!
Chapter 4
The next morning she had gone to work like she had planned. But what had scared her the most was that Steven hadn't messaged her back. And her messages were unread by him. A sinking feeling inside of her chest made her feel sick to her stomach. Did he find out who she was? And if he did, why didn't he message her about it so she could explain to him.
She was dressed nicely for the museum visit and her hair was surprisingly done up into a bun thanks to her hand finally working with her even though there was going to be few and far between of it working properly. She walked up the stairs to where the Avengers exhibit would be and saw Regina Abbot waiting for her.
"Ah Miss Kozlov." Regina said with a smile upon her face.
"Hello Ms Abbot." She said replying with a small smile that she needed to force. After a long night before she was worried about Steven. Maybe something did happen to him and she didn't even know it, which made her heart clench in her chest.
"Now we have the place figured out how we want them… but the questions are: did you ask the team?"
"Yes, we wanted them to resemble our true heights and sizes. And we're alright with the plaques that say who we were and how we became heroes." She said softly shifting her weight a bit on her feet. Sometimes she wondered if it was better if Natasha was the one that was able to do this. She would have been so much better than what she was at that very moment.
"Alright." Regina said with a growing smile. "I'll contact the wax figure makers and I will see you very soon. We'll get the information together if you're up to it to make the plaques?"
Valeriya swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded her head. "Of course." She said, forcing another smile upon her lips. "I'll gather up the information for each one."
Regina smiled and put her hand on Valeriya's shoulder. "Thank you so much for this."
Valeriya nodded her head. "Of course." She said softly trying her best to not chew on the inner part of her cheek. "I'll get started on that now."
Regina nodded her head.
"Oh…"
"Yes?"
"Has Steven Grant showed up today?"
"Steven who?" Regina questioned blinking.
"He works in your gift shop here."
"Oh." Regina hummed softly thinking. "I don't honestly know who all works there. But I'm sure that he showed up."
Valeriya swallowed the lump in her throat unsure of the whole thing. "Thank you anyways." She said softly as she pulled her phone out. Her heart once again clenched in her chest not liking the idea that Steven hadn't answered her yet.
"Are you alright?"
"Of course." Valeriya said, looking up at Regina.
"Are you certain?"
Valeriya nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll get to work on the plaques." She said softly as she moved quickly towards the stairs. Her eyes wandered to her cell phone before she stopped. She opened the text messages on her phone and clicked on Steven's name.
Message me as soon as you can. I'm worried about you since I haven't heard a single word from you.
She took a breath sharply through her nose as she put her phone in her bag as she began to walk. Her hands went to her pockets as she walked. Perhaps Steven was avoiding her for a reason? But she hoped it wasn't because she lied. Her heart ached in her chest as she tried to figure out what could've happened.
MOONKNIGHT
Her phone began to ring as she walked into her flat. She let out a soft breath as she pulled the phone out wondering who was calling her. She noticed that it said Steve. Her heart wrenched inside of her chest remembering what had happened that day when Steve decided to stay behind with his one true love Peggy Carter and she remembered that Peggy had passed away peacefully in her sleep over five years ago and he was now an old man. She quickly answered her phone. "Steve."
"Hey kid. Heard from Tony that you were overseas in London." Steve's voice came over calmly reminding her much of a grandfather figure even though not too long ago that was a young man fighting alongside one another.
"I kind of figured he would tell you that I would be over here." She said as she put her bag down onto her table. She let out a soft breath. "So what do you think of this idea of them wanting to make such a thing for us?" She bit her lip softly wondering what Steve actually was thinking on this whole thing.
"Honestly, are they going to do it tastefully?"
Valeriya swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yes. They are… they're making us true to size so the people that come to the exhibit will feel more like they can see us as humans and not the heroes that we are."
"And what else were they going to put with the exhibit?"
"Plaques of each one of us with our histories."
"You know what not to put right?"
Valeriya took a breath running her hand through her hair. "You don't want to say that you went back in time."
"That would be correct."
"I promise you Steve I wouldn't even think of doing that." She admitted softly as she sat down letting out a soft breath.
"I'm glad that you wouldn't do that."
"They don't need to know that you went back in time… you are a free man now." She admitted softly knowing that was one of the things that Steve had always wanted.
"I'm glad that you are taking the time to talk to this old man." He mused softly, sounding like he was smiling.
"I would take this phone call no matter what Steve. You were one of the best friends that this Widow could ask for." She said softly with a small smile.
"Tell me, how you're doing over there kiddo since you weren't good that last time I saw you with that left arm of yours."
Valeriya took a soft breath. "Honestly, I feel out of place over here. I met a guy here, but he literally vanished on me. He hasn't said a word to me… it's as if…"
"As if he what?"
"Found out that I'm the Red Widow of the Avengers."
"Hey Riya you know that could be possible, but no man could block you away. You are stunning just like the other widows."
Valeriya let out a soft chuckle leaning back in her chair.
"But I can tell that you're not comfortable over there… Did you tell Tony that?"
"Tony was the one that offered me up on a silver platter so to speak. I'm stuck over here trying to make this exhibit even though I don't have a clue of how to do this." She admitted the truth softly, taking a soft breath and bringing her hand up to the bridge of her nose pinching it.
"He didn't think that Natasha would be a better choice? Or even that Sam?"
"Everyone was either busy or retired… he kind of just tricked me into this… He said it was something that I needed to do. Or at least sounded like I needed something to do. I think he was afraid that I was going to slip off into oblivion or something." She said softly letting out a soft breath.
"And are you feeling that you don't want to be around?"
"No, of course not." She said softly into the phone. "I just didn't expect to be here trying to do this."
"You have this. I know you do." Steve said softly.
"How do you know?"
"Because Valeriya I know you and you do well with this type of thing." Steve pointed out. "You took so many points of cases when we've done them together."
"And we almost had Hydra wipe you, me, and Nat off of the map, Steve."
Steve let out a soft chuckle. "That may be true. But we made it through that."
Valeriya let out a soft chuckle running her hand through her hair once again. "I want to thank you for calling me Steve. I didn't know if you remembered us or not…"
Steve let out a soft hum. "Sounds like Sam didn't talk to you."
"Steve, Sam is scared of me when he could see that I could almost handle Bucky when he was in Winter Soldier mode, which I have no idea why that is." She admitted softly.
"Well perhaps not knowing is a good thing." Steve mused softly.
"I suppose." She admitted softly. "All I know is that you gave him the shield. Which he's still rather confused with the whole thing. He thinks he's not worthy of holding onto that shield. Even though most of us think otherwise."
"Of course he would." Steve let out a breath. "You be careful over there alright kid?"
"I promise Steve."
"Call me when you want to talk to me."
"Oh I wouldn't want to bother you."
"It's alright kid." Steve said, letting out a soft chuckle. "I miss those talks that we had."
"Is that all you miss?"
"So much more." Steve mused softly. "Miss your hugs too."
"I can always hug you when I come back."
"I'll be looking forward to that kid."
"I'll talk to you later Steve."
"Talk to you later Kid."
Valeriya hung up her phone and bit her lip softly. Her heart clenched in her chest. She really did miss Steve and ever since he had gone back to live with Peggy and grown old she was stuck with the memories that she had from a few months ago now when he had gone back. Some of them were good and some were bad. The ones bad dealt with Hydra and the troubles that Hydra caused for everyone.
She looked at her phone to see if there was a text message from Steven but her heart lurched in her chest noticing that Steven hadn't messaged her yet. It hurt to know that he was now ignoring her as they had gotten along so well. Perhaps he was busy with something or something came up that stopped him from coming in. She couldn't just think that it was him finding out that she was an Avenger. Steve had even told her that. There was no way that no one would ignore her. She could only hope that Steve was right.
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This is the end of Chapter 4. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. We're getting closer to the start of MoonKnight. I'm excited to show you guys what will be happening next in this story. I have a lot to unpack with this story and I hope that you guys will enjoy this story. Please leave a review and let me know what you think of this chapter. Reviews help me keep going when it comes to writing out this story and many of the other stories that I've written. I hope that I will update soon with the next chapter. Until next time.