Thank you to Harliquinn for beta reading and editing
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Nat went to Steve a couple of days later. She had a file in her hands.
"What's that?" Steve asked.
"What I found about Victoria Snow," Nat said.
"Natasha, I told you not to," Steve said.
"If you didn't want me to you wouldn't have given me her name. You knew I would," Nat said. "And if I didn't think you needed to see this, I wouldn't bring it to you."
Steve put his hand out, and Nat handed him the file.
"Steve, you need to look at it. It has some answers that might not only give you the closure that you need but also answers that can help Skye. There is more, but this will answer your questions," Nat said.
Steve let out a breath. "Is it something that the others are going to need to know about?"
Nat nodded.
Steve took the file and went to his room to look through it. He sat on his bed and opened the file and started to read through it.
Victoria was an only child; her parents had died when she was eleven. She was taken in by her only living family, an uncle. There was information on the uncle as well. He was involved in a lot of shady things. At first, Steve didn't see anything that could explain why Skye's DNA showed something supernatural that didn't come from him. He got to a page where it showed a list of people Victoria and her uncle were connected to. Steve saw the name, Russell Kramer, and he also saw a bunch of names of people who had worked for Shield and were involved in the Hydra takeover.
Steve shook his head and flipped to the next page, where there was a document about his and Victoria's relationship, and about Skye. There were pages of information about his DNA before and after he was given the super serum and then information about Victoria's DNA. He didn't understand most of it. He flipped to the last page and there was a picture of a handwritten letter. Steve recognized the writing.
Stevie,
If you ever find this letter I know it's because something bad has happened to me and you have probably found out a lot of information about who I really am and about our daughter. I'm so sorry. I will admit that our relationship started as a method for my uncle and his friends to get close to you. But over time it became so much more. There was never any intent for me to end up pregnant. But when I did, and I found out that my uncle planned to use that to his advantage, I knew I needed to do something to protect you and more importantly to protect our daughter.
I had fallen so hard for you, but I knew staying with you and protecting you would never work. I also always knew that, while you cared for me, you never were in love with me, and that's okay. I was afraid to tell you the truth. I figured it would hurt less for both of us if I ended things.
When Skyler was born I gave her up under a different last name so. hopefully, no one would ever find out. I told everyone that she died in childbirth and, at first, it was believed. But someone found out the truth, and I am currently in hiding. I know it's only a matter of time. I hope that by doing what I did I kept you and Skye safe.
Skye likely will have some of your abilities as well as some of mine. The explanation that I was given as to how I ended up with the abilities was that I was inside a building that exploded. There was some toxic material that got into me and changed my DNA, giving me the abilities of empath, emotion absorption, and empathic element manipulation. This means I am highly empathetic and can absorb the emotions of others and turn them into energy, depending on my emotions or the emotions of the person whom I took it from. Meaning, if I am angry enough I can manipulate that emotion into fire. If I'm scared, water. If I'm sad I can manipulate air and wing; and if I'm happy I can manipulate earth and cause things like flowers to grow. Remember how you always thought I had a green thumb? Well, I don't exactly. How this exactly will affect Skye, I don't know. What I do know is when I looked at our baby girl the only way I could protect her was by doing what I did.
I loved you, Stevie, more than anything. Until that little girl was born than I felt a love I had never known before. Please tell her that I loved her so much and I hope that she is okay. I hope that if she isn't with you yet that you will fight for her. Because I know that you will be the best dad. I know that you will keep her safe.
The letter was signed with a small heart and the letter V.
Steve took a breath and shook his head. The fact that she knew he hadn't truly been in love with her was a surprise. He did care for her deeply, but it was true that he had never been in love with her. He took out the copy of the letter and folded it and put it in the top drawer of his bedside table.
He took the rest of the folder and left his room and found Bruce in his lab.
"Bruce, I have some information that might give us a glimpse into Skye's abilities," Steve said.
Bruce looked at him, waiting for more.
Steve took out the few papers that gave the DNA information.
"You already have mine but this is possibly Victoria's. Empath, emotion absorption, and empathic element manipulation were her abilities," Steve said.
Bruce took the papers. "Okay, I'll see how it compares to Skye's. You okay?"
"Yes, I'm just hoping to give Skye some answers when we know more," Steve said.
Bruce nodded and started to scan the documents into his computer.
"Let me know when you know more," Steve said before he left the room and went to find Nat.
"Hi," Nat said when Steve found her in the library reading.
"If there was anything more about the DNA information, get it to Bruce," he told her.
Nat nodded. "Okay."
"Thanks," Steve said.
"Are you okay?" Nat asked.
"Did you happen to read the entire letter?" Steve asked.
"No, I realized what it was and stopped reading it," Nat said.
"Thank you," Steve said. "Thank you for doing it even when I asked you not to."
"I did it for Skye," Nat said with a smirk.
Steve chuckled. "I'm sure she will be grateful too."
"You planning on telling her soon?" Nat asked,
"Yes, just as soon as I have had the chance to wrap my head around all of it," Steve said.
"Yeah, seems like there were a lot of secrets," Nat said.
Steve nodded and exhaled. "but to be fair, I kept secrets from her too, or at least tried to. It seems she knew some of the things I kept from her."
Nat smirked. "We women know things."
"Right," Steve said with a smile. "I think there was more to it than women being able to read men."
Nat tilted her head.
"I'll explain in the future," Steve said.
"Okay," Nat said.
Skye came into the library, "Hi. I didn't realize there was a party in here."
Nat chuckled. "Not much of a party."
Skye smiled and nodded.
"School is restarting for you soon," Nat said.
"Yay," Skye said sarcastically.
Nat chuckled.
Steve smiled and shook his head. "You're going to need some new school supplies."
"Yeah, a few things," Skye said.
"We can do that tomorrow," Steve said.
"Okay," Skye said. "I'm going to need some new uniforms too."
Steve nodded. "We can figure that out, too."
"Okay, thanks," Skye said before leaving the room.
"I will let you get back to reading," Steve said to Nat as he left the room.
