Thank you to Harliquinn for beta reading and editing
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Steve and Skye were driving home from the mall. Skye was scrolling through social media.
"Hey, Skye," Steve said.
"Yeah?" Skye said.
"Nat and I talked about a week ago, the same day I found out you asked her to look into your old friend, about your mother. And despite me asking her not to, she looked into your mother," Steve said.
"Oh, that's how that conversation came up," Skye said.
"Yes," Steve said. "And she found out a lot about your mother. I got a lot of my questions answered, and there were possibly answers to some of yours."
"Did you find out why she put me in care and not tell you about me?" Skye asked.
"She put you in care to protect you. She lost her parents when she was young, and she lived with her uncle, who has ties to Hydra," Steve started.
"Fucking Hydra," Skye mumbled.
Steve ignored the cursing because he didn't feel much different. "She got involved with me initially for the sake of getting close to me for her uncle and his friends, but she ended up falling in love. When her uncle found out she was pregnant he was very excited, probably because he knew you would have the super serum in you," Steve continued. "She decided she didn't want to subject you to that environment. So when you were born she put you in care under a different last name and told everyone who asked that you had died while being born. She was afraid to tell me the truth, so she never did."
Skye nodded.
"There was a letter she wrote to me not long before she died. She said it in for me to tell you that she loved you very much," Steve said.
Skye took a breath and nodded. "Anything about what abilities I might have gotten from her?"
"Yes," Steve said. "I have a question for you before I tell you the details."
"Okay," Skye said.
"Have you ever noticed that you can feel the emotions of other people? Even when someone is not being obvious about it," Steve asked.
"Yes, all the time," Skye said. "It's annoying.
Steve smiled a bit. "Well, we can see if there is a way for you to control that. That is part of what you got from your mother - it's called being an empath - along with that she could absorb the emotions of other people and use them to charge herself and turn those emotions into an element. Fire, water, earth, or air and wind."
"I don't think I can do that," Skye said.
"Maybe you can't, maybe it didn't transfer to you the same way, but we will work with that information and see what we can do," Skye said.
Skye nodded, "you said there was a letter? Can I see it?"
"There is a letter, and no. It has some things in it that are personal between her and me," Steve said.
Skye nodded.
"Ask questions and I can answer them if they were in the letter or found out in another way," Steve said.
"What is the ability called?" Skye asked.
"Empathic element manipulation, emotion absorption, and empath," Steve said.
"So, it's all connected to emotions?" Skye asked
"Seems to be," Steve said.
"She was born with it?" Skye asked.
"From what she was told, no. She was involved in an explosion of a warehouse or something with toxic waste of some kind, and it alternated her DNA," Steve said.
"Does Dr. Banner know about this?" Skye asked.
"He has all the DNA information and knows about what the abilities are called," Steve said.
Skye nodded.
"Any more questions?" Steve asked.
"Not at the moment," Skye said.
"I realize I don't know if Nat found out if your friend was connected to Hydra or anything," Steve said.
"There was nothing linking him to them at all," Skye said.
Steve nodded. "Why didn't you want me to know?"
"I thought you might be angry with me for asking her to do that," Skye lied.
"Okay, well I don't love the idea, but I understand you want to protect yourself," Steve said.
Skye nodded. "Dad, can I ask you something and you not completely freak out?"
"When have I ever freaked out from you asking me a question?" Steve asked.
"Well, this is about a topic that a lot of Dads would freak out about," Skye said.
Steve smiled. "I promise to not freak out."
"Am I allowed to date?" Skye asked.
"When you're sixteen," Steve said.
"Okay," Skye said.
"But I know you are going to have crushes, and you can't control that," Steve said.
Skye nodded.
"This Tucker guy, do you like him?" Steve asked.
Skye let out a breath but didn't respond.
"That isn't part of the reason you didn't want me to know, is it?" Steve asked.
Skye looked out the window and didn't respond.
"Skye, please know you can always talk to me about these things. I don't want you to think just because I'm your dad that I won't understand when you have feelings for someone," Steve said.
"Okay," Skye said.
"I'm not angry with you, at all," Steve said.
"But you don't like it," Skye said.
"Oh?" Steve said.
"I can feel that you don't like it," Skye said.
"It's hard to think that you are growing up because I haven't had much time with you. But, Skye, I know crushes are normal. When you're a little older and as long as you abide by a couple of rules, I will not stop you from dating," Steve said.
"I'm sorry," Skye said.
"You do not need to apologize; you've done nothing wrong," Steve said as he pulled into the compound.
"I thought Tucker was in juvenile detention though," Steve said.
"He got out recently," Skye said.
"Okay," Steve said. "And you can be friends with him as long as you both stay out of trouble."
Skye nodded. "Okay, I will."
Steve parked and the two of them got out grabbed the bags from the trunk of the car and went inside.