Star Spangled (Captain America)

5 - The Story That Started It All

"Tony, you should really check out this girl she's-" Bruce says but Tony shoots a hand up and cuts him off.

"You can't what?" Tony asks. I see the what little kindness and faith in me dissolve off his face. It's raw confusion and disbelief now.

"I can't run," I say sheepishly.

"What do you mean?" I turn around to see Bruce with one hand on Hannah's shoulder, but now all eyes are on me.

Pepper puts a hand on my shoulder and I jump a little, she looks sympathetically at me, I appreciate her kindness in the moment.

"I can't run. That's what I mean. My body can't handle the impact. When I was fifteen or so, my parents took me to a doctor because I was in a lot of pain.

"The doctor said I was hyper-flexible, and that the tendons in my knee were too stretched out. I went to physical therapy for two years, once every week. It did help- but I can't do too much impact. I can run short bursts, but I can't parkour and stuff."

Tony nods. The explanation does not seem to improve his mood, "Okay, thank you. We're all done here."

I take that as my cue to leave- and everyone just watches me leave. I take the elevator down to where the rest of the Avengers are, and I just sit there.

Did I just mess up my own chances of having a place to stay? Did I just sabotage myself?

I walk in, and Thor, Steve, and Clint all look over at Natasha. Steve looks at something over the back of the couch.

"What?" Steve asks, "I didn't know that there was a meeting regarding-"

"Me?" I interrupt, and everyone turns around.

"No, no," He says and I raise an eyebrow, "Okay yes."

"I figured as much," I say as I come up to Natasha.

"Hey, Natasha?" I ask. God, I'm such an idiot. Natasha looks as me, craning to see me as I stand behind the couch, "Can I speak with you alone?"

Thor, Clint , and Steve all look at each other, trying to read me.

I lead Natasha just outside of the door, and she shows no fear. No concern. No trust, nor distrust. She is completely neutral. That's quite a talent. I speak from experience.

"What's up?" Natasha says, shifting her weight to her right.

"I just wanted to ask of you a favor," I say. I look down.

Hold your head high, Sabi. Hold it high.

"I was wondering," Breathe, "if anything happens to me -if I get kicked off the team- would you make sure Hannah stays here? Just make sure she doesn't run off to find me. She's better off here. She's actually safe here. When we were out on the streets, we were constantly verging on getting caught. I couldn't live with myself if that happened to Hannah."

Don't choke. Don't cry. Don't-

I feel a tear slip down my cheek, landing on my light gray shirt.

"Okay. I can do that," Natasha nods thoughtfully, "If you don't mind, how did you get in such an awful situation like this?"

I sniffle a little, and then laugh at how unlucky one small event made the rest of my life, "Things were pretty normal till high school. Hannah and I were both living in Colorado, and we were both swimmers. HYDRA was apparently looking for the top athletes in each sport of each state, and Hannah happened to be one of the top Age Groupers, and I was a top Senior swimmer. They offered me a foreign exchange program over in Germany for my senior year of high school. My dad and I talked it over, and we decided that it would be a good experience for me to have to spend a year in another country because we hadn't been able to travel very often."

"Wait-" Nat puts her hand up and shakes her head, "Why couldn't you travel?"

My heart sinks to the bottom of my chest, "My mom passed away from cancer when I had started high school. I still really miss her. I think about her regularly, and it's still really hard for me.

"Anyway, framing as a school and an athletic training camp, they gathered several hundred kids and tried to brainwash them. As we were being trained, I spotted Hannah in the crowd, and I recognized her from state meets. After a bit of manipulating, I got to spend more time with her, and we kept each other sane through it all.

"When you guys, the Avengers, particularly Captain America, came in and started to break down HYDRA a bit, it allowed us to escape from the holes in the system you guys caused. I wasn't ever sure what had happened, but Hannah had heard rumors it was you guys.

"We found the US Embassy and were sent on a plane back to the US. Thing was my dad had gone missing trying to find me. I had no-one but Hannah."

Natasha thinks, and her face doesn't give any thoughts away. Her body language mimics her face, with the expectation of her breathing, which is tighter than an average person would.

"What about Hannah? Why not find her parents?"

"She'd been living with her aunt. We never really talk about her situation, though. I just know that her parents are either not here or MIA, and she doesn't like her aunt in the slightest and would've rather stayed with me than go back to her," My voice wavers on every word.

Natasha nods her head silently.