Avengers The Captain's Secret

Part 3: Coulson's Child

CAP POV

I started feeling uneasy as Fury led me through SHIELD headquarters. I thought I knew the place, but one door changed all of that. We went down a long hall, doors lining up the sides.

"Agent Coulson--Phil--was a man of many secrets when it came to SHIELD," Fury murmured. "He did recruitment for the Avengers team, but he also recruited mutants."

I blinked. "So, that's all real, that we do work with them?"

Fury gave a slow and serious nod. "Yes."

"X-Men?"

"The School for the Gifted, yes, it is a school for mutant children. We counteract and stagnate the mutant registration act in return for keeping tabs and helping out if some mutants get out of line."

"So we are their police?"

"In a way," Fury shrugged. "We just go after the bad ones. We leave the law abiding ones alone."

"Okay...?" This was a lot to absorb, yet not after the last few weeks I've had. Reality was a broad term now. I looked at him inquisitively. There was more.

"Years ago, Coulson recruited a mutant with a great deal of power," Fury went on. "She was pretty young at the time-truthfully, she hasn't aged much since full maturity, but her powers are..."

"Dangerous?" It was the only reason I could think of that she would be here.

Fury flinched. "Let's just say she has..." He searched for words. "infinite possibilities."

"How did you keep someone like that on board?" How could you keep someone like that on board?

"Coulson," Fury said simply. "Long story, but bottom line, he was her guardian. He was her playmate, her friend, her confidant. Truthfully, he finished raising her while we studied her progress."

"She's down here, then?"

"Yes," Fury admitted. "Coulson--Phil--asked that she be the one to spread his ashes. She won't do it. She's in deep mourning. But the one thing he asked was that if we had trouble with her, to call you."

"Me?"

"He told stories of your missions like bedtime stories," Fury shrugged. "She believes in you, and may trust you. She hardly trusts anyone now, not even me. She won't talk to anyone. She knew the moment Phil passed. She knew it. And she has been in her quarters ever since."

That had been a week or so. "Do you really think I could help? I'm no shrink, and I'm no nanny."

"Just..." We stopped at a door. "Do what you can." He knocked.

"Go away, please." A tired female voice sounded from the other side of the door.

"What is her name?" I asked.

"We call her...Eve or Evie for short, but her name is Evelyn."

"Eve?" I called out. "It's...it's Steve Rogers. May I come in?" We waited for a few seconds. "Please, Eve, I knew him, too." A few more seconds went by, and the door slid open to reveal a short corridor. Fury looked at me and I at him. "Can't make any promises."

"Didn't ask you to."