Deception || Steve Rogers Daughter

Chapter Ten

Time seems to slow down as both Emma and Edward start running in opposite directions. The ticking from the bomb seems to grow louder, pounding in Emma's ears, as she tried to push her aching body to get away from the blast. 

A flash of light shines behind her before the bomb explodes. The explosion pushes Emma forward causing her to fly through the air and crash to the ground in a heap. A large mushroom cloud erupts before rising to the sky. 

Emma's ears ring as she rolls over to try and spot something or someone who had thrown the bomb in the first place. Edward's body lays a few feet from where the explosion had gone off, it looked like he hadn't even tried to run from it. She groans and drops her head back to the concrete, why had she agreed with Fury to come. 

Seconds later, the quinjet lands a few feet away. Before the ramp even touches the ground, Fury is out and running towards Emma. He didn't know if she was still alive as he hadn't seen her move since the explosion had gone off. 

Fury collapses to his knees and places his hand on Emma's shoulder, begging silently for her to be alive. "Emma? Talk to me." 

"I-I'm okay." She stutters and forces her screaming muscles to push herself to her knees. Fury helps as best he can but stays silent as she turns to watch Coulson go and check on Edward. After a few moments, Coulson looks up and shakes his head. "Why do this? If they just injected him with a serum, why kill him?"

"They want you dead." Fury announces while gesturing for Coulson to come and help him get Emma to the jet. Immediately, he rushes over and places her left arm over his shoulders. Fury does the same and simultaneously, they left and carry her to a chair in the jet. Fury helps buckle her in as Coulson rushes to drag Edward's body after them. 

"Why not send an assassin?" Emma questions while Coulson falls into the pilot seat. She didn't know he could fly, Fury always complained that he couldn't. Maybe more things had changed since she left. Emma winces because of a sharp jolt of the jet and clutches her right shoulder, the one that Edward had turned into his personal punching bag. 

"Maybe they wanted to kill two birds with one stone." Coulson offers. "Get you and Edward, he was a lose cannon. They couldn't trust him, it'd be easier to have him die in the crossfire." 

"Are you saying that you'd do the same?" Emma inquires. 

"I-"

"No." Fury interrupts. "Go to the medical wing, contact your agents Coulson."

"Already have FitzSimmons on the line." Coulson nods before turning back towards the front. 

Fury sighs and rubs a hand over his chin, he shouldn't have had Emma go without backup. Her father would have never allowed it, he would've killed anyone who even suggested it. Fury knew that he'd have to tell her about Steve at some point and maybe now would be the best time, before Steve himself discovered she was still alive and almost died from an explosion.

"Emma, I need you to listen to me before we get back." Fury announces. She tips her head to the side slightly, showing that he had her full attention. "Steve Rogers, your father, apparently died in a plane crash when you were little, right?"

"Yeah?" She replies, not exactly knowing where he was taking this conversation.

"And you've been avoiding the media since you woke up from the ice because of Hydra." He adds.

"Plus I low-key didn't know how to use it in the beginning." Emma chuckles with a small smile. "I just never felt the need to see all the bad stuff, I let April handle that and I guess that's how she was able to manipulate me so much." 

"Well, there was something I neglected to tell you." Fury mumbles while shaking his head. "And I lied about it before this mission, I wanted you to have a clear head and look where that got us." 

"Nick, what's going on?" She inquires while shifting away from him slightly. 

Fury opens his mouth to reply but immediately closes it, how could he tell this girl that the biggest lie known to man (in her eyes) was in fact a lie. He'd always tried to tell the truth when it came to Emma yet he failed when it came to the most important thing in her life. Finally, he works up the courage to continue speaking. Fury already started telling her, he couldn't stop now. 

"Your father was found frozen in ice one and a half years before you." Fury coughs. "Alive and well, he became an Avenger and fought alongside Tony Stark against Loki. He was at the base when you left and he's there now. Steve does not know that you are alive and what has happened to you, I can-"

Fury cuts himself off after Coulson loudly clears his throat. It was obvious that Emma had stopped listening a long time ago, now she was in her own world trying to wrap her brain around everything. How was her father alive? Did he really not know she was alive? Why had Fury kept this from her? 

She understood why he did it before the mission, if Fury would've said something before the outcome of this mission would've been a lot worse than it had been today. Emma swallows the lump in her throat and finally makes eye contact with Fury again. 

"Don't tell him." She orders.

"I'm sorry, what?" Coulson questions while whipping around in the seat. "You can't not tell him about you! He deserves to know, Steve mourns you every day and continuously asks people to try and find you for him. He just wants to know you're okay, Peggy doesn't remember anything or she doesn't tell him." 

"For justifiable reasons." Emma gruffs. "I was kidnapped two years after he died, right under her nose." 

"How long do you want to wait?" Fury questions. Emma slowly looks across the jet, where Edward lay across the seats, to stare at her reflection in the metal. Her face was cut up and bruised, her shoulder was swollen, and she was sure her leg was cut up in more ways than one. 

"A while, I can't let him see me like this."