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In Loving Memory
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The Mission was meant to be an easy extraction.
The building was old and had many unoccupied apartments that were falling to bits around the few inhabitants.
The unit was silent and unseen, using the cover of darkness to move in on the target’s location on the third floor of the building in the northwest corner apartment. Unit #3C was silently infiltrated by the Shield unit led by Captain America, Steve Rogers.
The enemy was not expecting an attack at 1:00 AM. And few of them were up on guard. Captain Rogers easily took out the two guards stationed in the living room, as three of his men moved on to clear the rest of the apartment.
Three of his team took out the other enemy, operatives, and two more were brought in by three of Steve’s team, cuffed and ready for transport to base for questioning. The target of the mission was not insight.
“Where is he,” Captain America asked the prisoner closest to him. He received a glare in answer.
Turning to his team, he ordered two of them to search the place while the rest watched the prisoners.
The apartment wasn't large, just a dingy little one-bedroom that was sparingly furnished and had a plain open floor plan through the lounge and kitchen.
It wasn't long before the captain was called to the kitchen by his teammate David, who had been searching in all the large spaces one could hide in, he was currently bent down in front of the cupboard under the sink.
Captain Rogers bent down to a crouch, as to be seen as less intimidating as possible. In the small space, cramped into the corner was a small child they were there to rescue.
The boy was tiny, maybe two or three, if Steve had to guess.
He had messy black hair and wide, fearful eyes. Steve was amazed at the clear emerald color peering at him. The boy was curled up in the small space, looking to try and hide his most vulnerable areas, as if he were used to people physically attacking him.
Steve held back a winch. He felt sympathy for this small child. No one deserves to know the pain of physical violence.
“Hey there buddy,” Steve said in his most calm voice. The boy tried to hunch down lower.
“My name is Steve. I work with people like the police, I can take you somewhere safe.” The child didn't answer, he just turned away, leaving his back turned to the new people. Steve was upset for the boy.
Lord only knows what he had injured at the hands of the enemy. Whatever the reason they had for having the boy their undercover spy hadn't been able to find out, only that the terrorist group was excited to use the boy for their own agenda.
“All the bad people are locked up now. They can't hurt you anymore, kid.” Steve said gently but still didn’t receive any answer from the small boy.
“Davis?” He asked.
“Yes, Captain Rogers.” Replied his teammate.
“Move the hostile's out to the transport, start leading the team back to base,” Steve said calmly, still trying to make sure they didn’t cause any more fright for the child.
“Connors can stay and go back with you,” Captain Davis supplied, knowing that Steve would need help once in the car with a frightened child.
“Alright team, move out,” David’s said. The team all moved out of the apartment area to take Shield’s newest prisoners to base. Steve sat down on the kitchen floor, next to the cupboard, hoping to ease the child’s nerves.
“You're safe now, kid. My friends are taking the bad guys to jail,” Steve said, trying to help the boy to understand. It had been an awfully long time since Steve interacted with a child or baby for that matter. Back then it was mostly fans wanting him to hold their kids for pictures, or to kiss them on the forehead for luck.
Steve was unaware whether this child in particular even knew English. It was going to be a challenge. But Steve was determined to get the job done for the child’s sake.
“I know you're scared. I'm here when you're ready to come out. I'm sure we can get you some food and find your parents. The people I work for are all about helping people. We want to help you.” Steve said, feeling a bit awkward.
Not knowing if the kid could even understand. Reassuring adults and kids were two vastly different things, and Captain America had only had a briefing once. Usually, once Steve had helped in any way he could he was out of there for others to move in on the clean-up jobs or to take care of the victims. Only when some heavy lifting was needed did he stick around but Shield didn’t want him mobbed so it was left to a team specifically trained for it.
It took several minutes of sitting in silence, waiting for the boy to calm down and make a choice to come out. Eventually, Steve heard movement from within the cupboard, he made himself stay very still, not wanting to frighten the child anymore.
The young boy crawled out of his hiding spot and looked up at Steve Rogers with clear terror on his face. Steve gave the boy a calm, reassuring smile. Steve let him dictate the pace for now, as the child was clearly overwhelmed.
When the small boy was out sitting next to him and seemed as calm as possible while still looking very frightened, Steve moved his hand slowly to lay it over his own chest.
“I'm Steve Rogers,” Steve said, as soft and soothing as he could be, but the boy still flinched away from him when he moved.
“Sorry. I'm not here to hurt you.” Steve felt a surge of shame for making the boy more scared.
“What's your name kid?” The young boy tilted his head and bit his lips in contemplation of the answer.
Perhaps he could understand. Slowly, the child looked up into Steve's eyes.
“I'm Freak,” he replied in a small, timid voice. Really Steve was stunned by the boy’s answer. It couldn't have been his real name. He was beginning to wonder who had raised the child before he was taken. He was only taken 48 hours ago, not enough time to make him think it's his name that his captives had given him. Surely, he had another name.
Steve might have been out of it, due to being frozen but kids' names hadn't become that horrible surely?
“That's not really a nice word. Are you sure it's your name?” He asked, frowning softly, not wanting to make the kid think he was angry with him.
The child just shook his head his eyes wide once again with fear and doubt.
“Hey, it's OK, you're not in any trouble. I won't let anyone hurt you.”
Steve was perplexed. This child was clearly in a poor state. Possibly even a poor mental state. What could the terrorist organization have wanted with such a child? Things were not making any sense to Captain Rogers.
“Do you like the name? Steve asked. The small boy shook his head again looking sad and downtrodden.
“Perhaps if you don't like it. You can always pick a new name. I'm sure we could find something that suits you well. But how about we do that somewhere else? Maybe not here. It's a bit dirty and cold.”
The young boy looked to be thinking. Biting on his chapped lips once again. As he slowly got off his knees. And stood up next to Steve, looking to be relaxing more in the soldier’s presence.
“Yeah, let's get outta here, hey. We can go somewhere warm and get some nice, yummy food. And maybe try and find your parents yes.”
Steve slowly made his way to his feet. Not sure if he should try to pick the child up or let him walk on his own. Steve wasn't aware of any injuries, none that was obvious anyway.
“Do you wanna walk on your own or can I pick you up?” Steve questioned, better to be safe and ask rather than lose any small amount of trust he had managed to get.
The small boy just lifted one of his tiny hands to grasp Steve’s larger one.
“Alright, we can do this. Let's get outta here.” Before he could move on, the young boy looked up at him, not moving with the soldier.
“My parents are dead.” Steve caught in a tiny little voice that could barely be heard.
“I'm sorry to hear that. My parents are gone too. Do you know who you were with before you came here?” Steve asked trying to gather as much information as he could to pass on in his report.
The small boy just shook his head. But Steve got the feeling he did know and just maybe didn't want to say.
Considering how tiny the boy was and how timid, and the fact that he thought his name was Freak. Steve wasn't so sure he wanted to return the boy to who he was with previously anyway.
Unfortunately, it wasn't his call to make it, would be up to his bosses at SHIELD. Steve just hoped that they would make the right decision.
“Alright, well how about we just get out of here first? Go back to base where you'll be all nice and warm and get you some food. Then we can decide on a plan from then, how about that?”
The little boy nodded his head in agreement, so Steve led the young boy and Agent Connor back outside to the car and they began to make their way to SHIELD headquarters.