Lacuna [1] {Completed}

Chapter Five

"Numinous (n.) Describing an experience that makes you fearful, yet fascinated, awed yet attracted, personal feeling of being overwhelmed and inspired."

Steve led her through a maze of hallways and down another long, seemingly endless corridor. As they walked, Erin decided to take the opportunity to pick apart Steve's brain. "Can I say something?"

"I suspect you're going to anyways." He replied without looking at her.

"I know what you're all about Captain Rogers and that's trust. I just think for a guy who's all about teammates trusting one another, it seems uncharacteristic of you to just invite a random girl you picked up in Romania to your super secret hide out."

"But by some astronomical odds, you're not random. Your Matthew McCall's granddaughter." Steve said.

"You remember him?" Erin asked surprised.

"Goofy grin and huge dimples? How could I forget? Your grandfather was one of the best men I ever knew... and one of the bravest soldiers. He was a big reason we were able to take down so many HYDRA bases during the war."

She paused, "Is that why you trust me?"

"I told you, instinct."

"But you haven't even asked me the most basic questions yet."

           He stopped at a door that had a keypad next to it, "Such as?" He questioned while typing in the pad's combination code.

"Well you could start with my favorite color," She said as the doors slid open.

Steve gestured for her to step inside. She hesitated for a moment giving Steve a skeptical look before stepping over the threshold.

           "Or ask me what else I know about your beef with Tony Stark or what my father knew about S.H.I.E.L.D." She turned in a circle taking in the room. They were in a lab of some kind. "If you want to get straight to the point you'd ask me what my opinion of 'The Avengers' really is." She turned around to face him and crossed her arm, "Or simply what my opinion of you is. But the thing I'm most curious about is the fact that you didn't know my father and brother were both S.H.I.E.L.D. agents before you thought about asking me to be on your team and yet now that you know not only that, but my grandfather too, you don't seem curious at all as to what they did or how they affected the entire operation. You didn't seem particularly interested in me as a person either. All you saw was the fact that I could make lights flicker. It doesn't make sense that an ability to unpredictably control electric energy was enough for you to decide you wanted to recruit me."

           Steve swallowed, "While you were out yesterday, we took the liberty of doing a face recognition check to see if you matched any data bases."

           "You scanned my unconscious face so you could stalk me through the internet?"

           Steve smirked, "You really think we would have brought a stranger aboard the jet? We could have easily dropped you off at a hospital and been on our way. I was curious about what you knew about the bomb. So we decided to run a facial recognition scan. Want to know what we found?"

Erin already knew the answer.

Steve didn't wait for her to reply. "It's true I had no idea your family worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. until you told us. We couldn't find much on you. You don't even have a Twitter account."

"I'm surprised you know what that is." Erin mumbled.

Steve glared at her, "We did find some interesting news articles about you though. Apparently you're a genius. That doesn't surprise me considering your family. We also found this," Steve pulled up a phone and began to type and scroll. He held it up for her to look at, "Student I.D. photo, Erin Margret McCall, Graduate Student at Georgetown University. Involved in intramural sports, off the charts ACT & SAT scores, 4.5 GPA, and an internship at STARK Industries. Your major? Bio Mechanical Engineering. This is what caught my eye."