"Hello?"

Steve thought it was odd to get calls from unknown numbers at this time of night. He wasn't even going to answer for fear of waking Wanda up. Bucky and Natasha left not too long ago to get Alya, and he finally got Wanda in an emotional place where she could drift off, so he didn't want to risk it by answering.

But something told him that he should.

"Are you Cassidy's uncle?" The voice on the other side of the line asked.

"I am." Steve sat up from his place on the couch. "Who is this?"

"It's Ned, I'm a friend of hers."

"Oh, Ned. Hi." Steve relaxed a bit. "I've hear a lot about you. What's going on?"

"She needed me to tell you something….she said you'd get it."

"What is it, son?"

"Alya wanted to see the pigs."

Alya was right to say that Steve would get it, because as soon as the words were out of Ned's mouth, he stood up, being careful not to jostle Wanda as he did, and paced across the floor.

Alya was going to see her grandmother and something truly was wrong just like Wanda told them.

"Thank you." His voice was a little clipped from the stress. "I appreciate it."

"You're welcome."

Ned barely finished his sentence before Steve hung up and flew through the list of his contacts as Rebecca made her way downstairs.

"I heard your phone ring and I thought it might be Nat or Bucky." She explained, eyeing his frantic movements with caution.

"No, that was one of Peter's friends." He shook his head. "Alya gave him a message to give to me."

"What did she say? Is she okay?"

"I don't know." He ran a hand of frustration through his hair when he tried to dial Natasha's number. "She said she wanted to see the pigs."

"What?"

"It means she's going to her grandmother's in Russia." He clarified. "But if it was as simple as that, then she would've told me herself." He sighed in relief when he finally got ahold of Natasha. "Hey, she's going to Melina's."

He could only hope that they'd get to her in time.

"Alya?"

"Mm…"

"Alya, wake up. C'mon, get up."

As Alya began to regain consciousness, she heard Peter's voice filling her head.

"C'mon, Alya. This isn't funny, get up."

With every word he spoke, he sounded like he was getting closer and closer to her. Either that, or she was breaking the surface.

Because it sounded like she was underwater. Which was odd, because the last time she checked, she hadn't gone swimming in a while.

So why did Peter sound so muffled?

She felt a light tap on her cheek, but didn't move. She didn't think she could. But Peter persisted, this time, gently shaking her arm.

"Atta girl." He praised when she groaned and tried to move her head away from him. "You're doing so good, open your eyes, Buggeroo."

At his persistence, Alya's eyes fluttered open and she blinked away the blurs in her vision.

"Oh, thank goodness." Peter sighed as tears of relief gathered in his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I….I think so." She slowly sat up straight, wincing at the pain in her ribs and her right arm. Her eyes darted around the room to find that they were both in an overnight holding cell with three other people. "What's this?"

Had they done something illegal?

Alya really couldn't remember breaking any laws that would land her in a place like this.

"They found us passed out on the train and brought us here." Peter supplied her with a vague answer.

What Alya wanted to know was, how did they even get on a train? What happened after Beck messed with their minds?

"I'll explain everything later, but right now, we have to get out of here." He stood up with a bit of difficulty before helping her do the same.

He made sure that he could manage to walk before he even thought about slinging Alya's good arm over his shoulder to support her.

"Uh, guard?" He called, though it seemed like there was no one around to hear him. "Guard?"

When he received no answer, he reached out of the bars of the cell and broke the lock without a struggle.

As the two made their way out, they found the guard wearing Peter's mask while speaking on the phone. Alya caught the language he was speaking and recognized it as her own native tongue.

If they were in Russia, that made this whole thing easier on them.

"Uh, excuse me?" The two found themselves in the middle of what looked like a market. Peter was trying to get someone to tell them exactly where they were.

"Peter, I have an idea." Alya grimaced when her ankle rolled a bit. "I know where we are and I have a place we can go."

"Where are we going?" Peter asked, following Alya's limping form with his own.

They had been walking for what felt like hours and his feet were killing him. Not to mention that all this movement was aggravating his injuries.

"You see that house over there?" Alya pointed in the distance.

Peter squinting in an attempt to block out the sun's rays before he could properly see the house that she was talking about.

It was a wooden structure with a lot of land around it. Apparently, whoever lived there was home, because there was smoke coming out of the chimney.

"Yeah."

"That's where we're going."

That wasn't too far. Peter could make it there.

"So, what happened today?" Alya asked now that they were alone. "I know we went to see Fury and I remember Beck using his illusion tech on us, but I don't know what happened after that."

"We got hit by a train."

"We got hit by a train?!" Alya shouted incredulously, immediately regretting it when her sides ached.

She couldn't imagine actually getting hit by a train. The thought of it was so out there and unusual that she couldn't really wrap herself on the fact that it was a reality.

"That's what I said." Peter confirmed. "He used his illusion tech to get us both onto the tracks and the train smashed into us. I grabbed you and I pulled us both inside of it and passed out."

He made it sound a lot more simple than it was.

Being that he was closer, he took the brunt of the hit. It was probably a good thing because he wasn't sure how much worse Alya's injuries would've been if the train had hit her head on.

Once she felt the impact, Alya was out cold. She would've fallen if Peter hadn't grabbed her and hoisted her up onto his back before climbing inside of the train.

"So, that's how we ended up in that cell." Alya concluded. "Thanks."

He was always looking out for her, whether she was fully conscious or not.

"Don't worry about it."

"It wasn't really Fury, huh?"

"No." He shook his head. "You were right about all of this. EDITH, Beck, everything. I screwed up."

"I'm not upset." Alya shrugged. "We just have to find a way to stop Beck before he does any more damage."

After a few minutes, the two finally made it to the from door of the house and Alya took a deep, calming breath before she raised her hand to knock.

Peter looked around as they waited for someone to answer and noticed all the pigs running around. This was probably what Alya meant when she said she wanted to see the pigs.

When the door opened and that familiar blonde opened to door, her eyes widened at the sight of the two kids, but before she could say anything, Alya beat her to it.

"Tetushka, we need help." Is what the twelve year old said before she fell into her arms.

All the adrenaline she was using to keep herself upright was gone, forcing her legs to give out under her now that her body knew she was somewhere safe.

"Dad!" Yelena called, causing Alexei to rush over and scoop Alya up into his arms.

He did it so gently that the movement didn't make her feel any worse than she already did.

"What happened?" He asked, looking at both her and Peter. "Who is this?"

"This is Peter." Yelena helped the teen inside the house, his arm slung over her shoulder get some of the weight off of his leg. "They need help."

"Sorry." Alya apologized as Alexei carried her over to the couch and laid her down.

Now that she was in her grandparents' house, she was starting to feel like she should've called ahead instead of jus dropping by. Though, there wasn't anyway she could've contacted them because she didn't know she was going to get hit by a train.

"None of that, солнышко." (Sunshine.) Alexei clicked his tongue to gently chastise her. "You were right to come."

"What happened?" Melina rushed into the room with what looked like a first-aid kit before sitting down and taking Alya's mask off. "How did you get so injured?"

"We were on a school trip and we were attacked." Peter gave her the condensed version.

Neither of the two felt like going into detail about it.

"You what?!" Yelena had fire in her eyes. "What have you two been doing exactly?"

When Natasha and Bucky asked her to keep an eye on the two, she figured they'd do something childishly stupid, like get drunk, or sneak out after hours, not this.

"It was my fault." Peter spoke up first. "I trusted someone I shouldn't have."

"It wasn't your fault— OW!" Alya gasped when Melina felt her ribs before her eyes narrowed.

"You hush." The woman gave her a look. "You're lucky your ribs aren't broken, just bruised. Where else are you hurt?"

"My arm."

"This is broken. I will have to set it." Melina told her. "One, two—"

"—Ow…" Alya winced quietly as her arm was cracked back into place. She watched as Melina took some bandages and created a makeshift sling for her.

It would've been nice if Melina had waited until she got to 'three'. That way, she could've prepared herself a little more.

Melina didn't like to give warnings because it would've made Alya tense up more than necessary, which would only increase the pain.

"Do not move this arm. Have you called your mother?"

"…..No."

"Honestly, Alya. Sometimes I wonder." The brunette stood up and began working on Peter, who cringed at his injuries being poked and prodded at.

"Call your mama." Alexei gave Alya a look.

She wasn't looking forward to explaining this all to her parents. She wasn't sure how they were going to react, but she could bet her last dollar that they wouldn't be pleased once they were brought up to speed.

"But—"

"—Ah, ah!" He cut her off with his loud voice. "Where is your phone, huh?"

"Broken." She sighed. There was no way that thing survived the train.

It was probably a good thing. Mysterio couldn't track her now.

"I'll call my sister." Yelena pulled her burner phone from her back pocket before leaving the room.

She knew that Alya was going to beat around the bush and avoid the elephant in the room anyway.

"Ow." Alya winced when she tried to sit up, putting weight on her ankle.

She hadn't felt this much pain in a very long time and she didn't recommend this.

Literally, 0/10.

"It's all my fault." Peter flinched while Melina stitched up his wounds. "I'm the one that screwed up. Big time."

"I'm sure it isn't all bad." The older woman assured him.

"No, it's worse."

"Can any of us help you?" Yelena asked, entering the room once again.

Her conversation with Natasha had been short and to the point. Steve had told her and Bucky about Alya's message and they were set to arrive shortly.

She was so happy not be in Alya's shoes.

"No. I have to be the one to fix this." He shook his head. "Can I use your phone?"

"Sure." She tossed it over to him and he caught it with ease.

"Baba, I'm thirsty. Can I have some water, please?"

"Alexei, go get her and Peter some water, please. I have my hands full."

"Of course, my love." Alexei smiled, standing up to head over to the kitchen, filling up two glasses with water. He handed one to Peter and sat by Alya's head to help her sip on the beverage. "Drink slowly. Small sips. You don't want to make yourself sick."

Alya watched him carefully. He was much different than the last time she saw him. He was calmer, gentler. He shaved off his beard and combed his hair, giving himself a cleaner look. This time, he wasn't wearing his Red Guardian uniform, instead, he was clad in civilian clothes; a cotton shirt and jeans.

He wasn't so bad.

"Good girl." He smiled as she sipped carefully. "You drink this and I'll see if I can't get you something to eat."

"Excuse me?" Peter interjected, holding the phone to his ear. "Where exactly are we?"

"Just outside of St. Petersburg." Melina told him as she finished up and cutting the excess stitch. "Good as new."

It was a good thing, too. Peter wasn't sure how much more he could take. Just because his strength was off the charts, didn't mean it didn't hurt.

"Are you calling Happy?"

"Yeah, he wants to know where he can land."

"There is an open field several miles from here." Melina said. "He may land there."

It was far enough from the house so that they wouldn't be compromised. The way things were going, Melina needed to be extra careful not to invite unknown people into her home.

There was a lot that the kids weren't saying.

"Are you leaving?" Alya asked, trying to sit up. "I wanna come, too."

"No way." Peter shook his head. "I got you in enough trouble as it is. I can't let you get hurt again."

He made way too many mistakes and if he wanted to try to make things right, then the first step was keeping Alya out of danger.

"Yeah, but you need help."

"You've helped enough, Alya. Please. I can do this so much better if I know that you're safe."

She didn't like it, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. Melina, Alexei, and Yelena weren't going to let her go anywhere anyway.

"Wake up, sweet girl."

Alya's eyes fluttered open with ease and she naturally wanted to move to sit up, which was a big mistake as evident by the look of pain that crossed her face.

"No, don't do that." Her mother soothed her. "Stay right where you are. It's okay."

"Hi, Mama." Alya whimpered when her arm twinged.

When did Natasha get here?

When did she fall asleep?

When did Peter leave?

"Hi, baby." Natasha ran a hand over the child's cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"Everything hurts."

"I know, sweetheart. We're gonna help you feel better very soon."

"Where's Daddy?"

"I'm right here, Babydoll." Bucky walked over with a bowl of soup, handing it to Natasha before he helped his daughter sit up to sit behind her, mindful of the kind of pain she was definitely in. "You really scared us, Buddy."

Neither he nor Natasha were able to relax until they saw that she was alright with their own two eyes.

"Sorry." She turned her head when he mother pressed a spoonful of soup to her mouth.

"You have to eat, sweet girl."

"Don't want any. I'm not hungry, Mama."

"это борщ." (It's borscht.) Natasha clicked her tongue. "Eat."

Alya reluctantly opened her mouth, figuring out how hungry she was when the food hit her taste buds. She didn't complain about her mother feeding her, she knew she was a little too old for it, but that didn't mean she didn't like it.

Bucky tenderly smoothed some strands of hair away from her face, happy to have her in his arms as she ate.

When Wanda nearly collapsed because of how much pain Alya was in, he had been a nervous wreck, but he tried not to show it.

"How did this happen?"

"Peter said we got hit by a train."

"You what?!" Natasha put the bowl down and quickly unzipped the girl's suit.

The cool air against Alya's skin made her shiver involuntarily. Her foot kicked out when her mother's hands ran along her ribs the way that Melina's did hours before.

"Mama!" She didn't appreciate being disrobed for all to see.

"They're bruised, Natasha." Melina informed her, bringing a glass of water over for Alya. "She has a broken arm, which I have already set, and a very badly sprained ankle."

"And just what were you and Peter doing, that you got hit by a train?" Bucky narrowed his eyes, though Alya couldn't actually see him.

Conveniently, Alya kept her mouth shut and only opened it for her mother to push another spoonful in.

"Alyona?"

"If I tell you….you can't get mad at me, okay?"

"I'm not making any promises."

"I don't wanna talk about it right now, Daddy."

It would be safer if she waited a while before telling them the truth. Right now, emotions were too high.

Bucky sighed and allowed her to keep her peace. She had been through a lot and it didn't make sense for him to push her right now.

"Okay. We'll talk when we get back home."

"Okay." Alya was satisfied with that.

That would give her plenty of time to figure out just how she was going to explain herself.