The Immortality War || The Avengers

Chapter Four: While You Were Sleeping

Music is "America" by XYLØ.

Picture is Ellen Burstyn as Rose Dugan.

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CHAPTER FOUR: While You Were Sleeping

"--And in September of 2001, I adopted a wonderful little four year old."

Steve and I spent the next two days exactly as you'd expect: we haven't left each other's sides, not even to sleep. Fury set us up in a small safehouse in Manhattan. It's there that Fury monitors Steve to make sure he's healthy. We've also been getting him caught up to date on both world-wide events and my last seventy years.

At the moment, we're in the kitchen. Steve's sitting at the counter, somehow balancing his weight on a bar stool. I'm puttering around the fridge, looking for something to eat. Grant is spending the day with his Aunt Rose. She still doesn't know about Steve, and I've told Grant not to tell her. Once we're sure Steve is healthy enough to leave the care of the nurse next door, I'm going to take him to see her. We plan to go tonight.

To keep his mind off the little blonde girl he calls a sister, I've decided to make him something to eat. I've been telling him about how I've spent my previous sixty-seven years. There's so much to take in, yet it feels like it all was yesterday.

"September 2001," Steve mumbles. "That's when 9/11 happened, right?"

I nod, a somber look forming on my face. I continue to chop the potatoes into inch-sized pieces. "I was in America at the time. Peggy was retired, but she still had some pull in S.H.I.E.L.D. I was on the ground after it happened.... After..." I swallow, forcing myself to move onto the next vegetable for the meal. "It was a nightmare. Like what we saw but worse. Thousands of people dead, hundreds more injured. I was working as a firefighter in New York at the time."

"A firefighter?" Steve asks, raising an eyebrow.

I nod, sliding the cut vegetables into the simmering broth on the stove. "I wanted to do some good, especially after all I did in the past. I never thought that a thing like 9/11 could happen. No one did. America was the unsinkable ship, if you will." I place the knife and cutting board down, turning to face Steve. I cross my arms and lean back against the counter. "I spent the whole day pulling people out from under the rubble. Men, women, children, of all ages." I shake my head as the memory pops up. "It was the scariest thing I've ever had to witness."

"Worse than HYDRA?"

"Absolutely," I nod. "S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived on sight, helped pull people out. Peggy got a hold of me, said she had found a little boy who was here illegally." I pause, looking Steve in the eye. "That little boy was Grant. He was four years old. His parents had been killed. Peggy told me that she believes his parents were part of an smuggled shipment from North Korea. They were here through illegal channels. He had no name, no passport, no family. He was a child who was lucky enough to survive the Twin Towers' demise."

Steve looks shocked. "He survived?"

I shrug. "We have no idea how. He was buried after a building fell on him and his family. Everyone considered him extremely lucky."

"So you adopted him?" Steve folds his hands on the counter, listening with intent.

I give a small grin. "Peggy said that if someone didn't take him, he would be sent back to North Korea. I'm not sure what you have been told about that country, but it's a horrible place to live. I couldn't just let him go. He was my little miracle." Steve smiles with sadness. "So I took him, along with the new identities Peggy made for us, and we went to Marseille, France. The extradition laws between France and the U.S. are a nightmare. I became Imogene Rosa Lécuyer, and he became Grant Barnes Lécuyer. At first, I was his adoptive mother. When he became too old to be my son, we moved to Paris. I became his legal guardian and his aunt."