Prelude Three
An annoyingly consistent beeping woke Lainey up from her slumber.
What kind of person could tolerate that noise?
Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep...
As her eyes fluttered open, she noticed that she was in a small, white room, laying on a hospital bed.
And if that wasn't bad enough, she had an IV stuck in her arm and a cannula up her nose, with hospital-like pajamas covering her body.
She didn't know where she was, but she knew she wasn't home.
She needed to get out of here.
Fast.
Too much could've happened while she was asleep and it wasn't smart to stay here any longer than necessary.
So, pulling the IV out of her arm and ripping the cannula out of her nose, Lainey hopped off the bed, steadying herself once her barefoot touched the ground due to a wave of dizziness that had hit her.
Small feet padded over to the door and petite hands opened it, allowing Lainey to peak her head outside the room to see what she was dealing with.
There were a few doctors in lab coats walking around with clipboards, looking as busy as bees.
No one was paying attention to what was going on around them.
And if Lainey played her cards right, then maybe she'd be able to get out of there.
"Is she awake?"
Or not.
The Black Widow certainly was the best spy in the world, because Lainey never saw her coming.
Her friend, Captain America wasn't so shabby either.
"She was asleep a few minutes ago, but you can go in and see if she's woken up since then." One of the doctors smiled.
Lainey's eyes widened and for a split second, she panicked.
What was she going to do?
How was she supposed to get out of here?
What were they planning on doing with her?
She forcibly pushed those thoughts to the back burner of her mind and clambered back onto the bed, pretending to be asleep just in time for one of them to enter the room.
Though her eyes were closed, Lainey could tell, without a doubt, that it was Steve and Steve alone, because of the sound of his footsteps.
Natasha wouldn't walk that hard on the tiled floor.
She would've been trained to keep her steps light and airy, so that no one could detect her.
And she was right.
Steve totally believed that she was asleep and walked over to her still form to put the IV back in.
But as soon as he brushed up against her arm, Lainey's eyes shot open, and she jumped up onto the bed, kneeing him in the stomach.
And because he hadn't been expecting the attack, he didn't have time to clench his muscles.
And Lainey wasn't going to give him the opportunity to do so.
The girl wasted no time in kicking him away from her and rushing out of the room once he doubled over to catch his breath.
He had even reached out to grab her, but she was like a jack rabbit, slippery and fast.
"Hey!" One of the doctors called out to her, catching Natasha's attention.
The former assassin was hot on her heels before could even register what was going on.
Luckily for Lainey, she had gotten a head start and managed to get into an elevator.
And the doors closed just before Natasha reached them.
She was in the clear.
Now she could go home.
Or so she thought.
Either the elevator had a mind of its own, or Lainey was losing her mind.
She knew she had pressed the button to take her down to the lobby.
So how did she end up in, what looked like, a common room?
Face to face with Hawkeye himself once again.
"Good to see you're up." He smirked, his blue eyes twinkling in amusement.
He didn't look like he was holding a grudge against her from when she had tried to attack him.
But maybe it was a front and he was waiting for her to let her guard down.
Lainey turned on her heel and tried to get back into the elevator, but the doors closed and wouldn't reopen no matter what she tried.
This building was really weird.
"I heard you gave Steve a run for his money. Twice." He continued, pouring himself a cup of hot cocoa as she eyed him carefully. "Want some?"
"No." She kept her chin up, unwilling to fall for whatever this was.
But he poured her a cup anyway. "Sit down." He motioned to one of the stools at the island. "Make yourself comfortable. I'm not gonna fight you."
Lainey narrowed her eyes at him, but sat down all the same, staring at the brown liquid in front of her.
It looked like he had made the richest hot cocoa in the world.
She had never seen hot cocoa look so….chocolatey.
The steamy beverage looked so appealing to her, that she actually forgot herself for a second and took a sip.
Just as she thought.
It was the best cup of hot chocolate she had ever had.
"Good?"
"Yes." She answered, her voice a little scratchy from the lack of use.
"Can we talk?"
"Just talk?" She eyed him warily.
"Just talk. I promise." He raised his hands in surrender. "I know that probably doesn't mean a lot coming from me, but I do promise."
"Okay." She didn't really have much of a choice anyway.
"A lot is going on here that you don't understand." He started, sliding a plate of bread rolls over to her. "What happened back at your house, it wasn't supposed to go down like that. We didn't even know about you."
"Why were you there?" Lainey kept her eyes on the bread.
She was absolutely starving for some food, but she didn't feel comfortable enough to take it.
But they sure did look delicious.
…..Maybe just one wouldn't hurt.
"We were called on a mission to take your mother in for questioning for...…illegal activities. Do you know anything about that? Has your mother been doing anything out of the ordinary?" He watched her scarf down one roll, then another.
The poor girl was hungry.
It was why she blacked out when he confronted her.
Had her mother been feeding her at all?
"She always does weird things, but she never tells me what she's doing."
"Well, she's been working with some bad people and we had to bring her in to stop her." The archer explained. "But that doesn't mean that we were there to hurt you, okay?"
"…..Okay."
"Alright." He smiled warmly, in a way that made Lainey want to trust him immediately. "Eat up."
Lainey was beginning to take a liking to the man. He wasn't at all as scary as she thought he'd be.
He was kinda nice.
"Oh good." She heard Steve as he and Natasha got off the elevator. "You got her. Thanks, Clint."
Lainey's eyes widened as she slid off the stool, keeping her gaze on the large man.
"Hey, wait!" Clint stopped Lainey from running again. "It's okay. They're not gonna hurt you, remember?"
Oh, right.
In the sudden chaos, Lainey had forgotten.
"You're a fast kid." Steve huffed, clearly out of breath. "You like to run?"
Lainey only nodded.
She couldn't have been that fast. Steve might have been slowing up in his old age.
"Where did you learn how to fight like that?" Natasha asked.
"My mother taught me." Lainey shrugged.
"Oh yeah? For how long?"
"As long as I can remember."
"Clint? Can I talk to you for a second?" The redhead's eyes never left Lainey's.
"Sure." Clint led her out of the room, leaving Steve and Lainey alone to stare each other down. "What's up?"
"You saw the way she fights, Clint."
"Yeah…."
"Wrapping her legs around your neck? That's a Red Room tactic."
"Nat, you can't think that she—"
"—Not her. Her mother."
"I mean….it's a possibility." Clint mulled it over. "I mean, is the Red Room still operating?"
"I don't know, but I get the feeling it is. She might have been training that kid off the grid. And if she was, we have a problem."
Lainey had been staying at the Avenger's Tower for a few weeks and she wasn't exactly sure what to think.
The Tower was nice, it was big...lots of bathrooms and the beds were soft.
Nobody here had tried to hurt her yet, so that was a plus.
She liked Clint, and she was a little wary of Bruce and Tony.
She didn't know what to think of Steve.
He seemed nice, but was anyone really that friendly all the time?
Was he trying to lure her into a trap?
Maybe he was waiting until she got a little comfortable before he pounced.
Her mother had taught her all about people like that.
She told her never to trust them.
At least Natasha was up front about her disdain for her.
Lainey would catch her watching her from the opposite side of the room, as if she were waiting for her to slip up.
It would be a long wait.
She'd never catch Lainey slipping. Not even a little bit.
Lainey wanted nothing more than for everything to get back to normal, but it was looking like her mother was never going to get out of here.
What had she done that was so bad?
"Hi, Lainey." Steve greeted politely after stepping out of the elevator.
"Hi." She turned around and kept her eyes on him.
The large man smiled, his blue eyes were warm and twinkly like stars, and the corner's crinkled.
He didn't look much like a threat just then, but Lainey found it best to keep her guard up.
"Are you hungry? Did you eat?"
"Estoy bien…...I'm fine." Lainey internally berated herself for letting her native tongue slip.
These people didn't need to know anything more about her than they already did.
"Okay." Steve seemed to pick up on her discomfort and ignored the slip up. "How're you doing? Being here, I mean. It's gotta be a big adjustment."
"I'm fine." Lainey wondered why he had called it a 'big adjustment' as if she was going to be staying there forever.
Next thing she knew, Steve was sitting down on the couch, right beside her, flipping through some channels with the tv's remote control.
Why he had come to sit with her, she didn't know.
But if he was planning some kind of attack, she was more than ready to—
"You know, when I came out of the ice, I didn't know anybody. Everyone I had known was gone, so I had to make new friends."
So?
"I had to learn to adjust and learn new things…." He reached into his back pocket, blissfully unaware of how Lainey flinched at the sudden movement, and pulled out a little notebook. "I've been taking little notes on what I missed to look them up later." He explained. "And I was just wondering, if you had any suggestions."
"Me?" The eight year old was honestly surprised that he was asking for her input. Compared to him, she was an infant. "You're asking me?"
"Well, yeah. Unless you know any other Lainey's." He joked, holding the book out for her to take.
Lainey chortled despite herself, and took the book, flipping through its pages. "The Wiz'?"
"Well, I saw 'The Wizard of Oz' when it came out in '39, so….."
"It's not the same." Lainey giggled at his ignorance.
"It isn't?"
"No." She shook her head. "This one has Diana Ross and Michael Jackson."
"Who?"
Lainey's eyes widened at the question.
No one even mentioned Diana Ross or, better yet, Michael Jackson to this man in all the time he had been defrosted?
"They're singers!"
"Are they good?" Steve was secretly enjoying the way she was slowly but surely opening up to him.
She looked so adorable when she was excited.
Her entire face lit up and her voice was a lot lighter and less burdened.
She looked like a normal kid.
"Are they good?" She scoffed. "She was the lead singer of 'The Supremes' and he was the best singer in the whole wide world!"
"Any song recommendations?" He took the book back, ready to write some things down.
"Uhhhh….'Can't Hurry Love', 'Baby Love' is nice, and 'Stop! In the Name of Love' is good, too."
"And those are 'The Supremes'?"
"Yeah."
"How about Michael Jackson?"
"He was in a group called 'The Jackson Five' when he was a kid. It was him and his older brothers. I think you should listen to everything."
"You must really like him, huh?" Steve finished writing and sent her an amused smile.
"You will, too when you hear him sing." Lainey's smile reached her eyes for the first time since she got there, before she quickly schooled her features. "Where are you from?" She asked out of plain curiosity, finally feeling comfortable enough to ask.
"Brooklyn."
"Well, I know that…..but nobody ever says where."
"Brooklyn Heights."
Lainey didn't really feel the need to tell him she was from Bushwick, considering that's where they had found her.
Seemed a little redundant.
"That's a nice place." She ultimately ended up saying, taking notice of the wistfully nostalgic look on the man's face. "Lots of nice people I bet. Rich."
"Not when I was a kid." Steve continued the conversation. "We were pretty poor. The people were nice, though…..at least, most of them were. Kids played in the street, people sold food in the streets, and in the summer, when it was hot, we'd open the fire hydrants to cool off. We didn't have much, but we were happy. What's it like now?"
"Lots and lots of houses full of people with families." She shrugged. "Sometimes, I look inside and I make up stories of what they might be like. Kids don't really play in the streets..….too many cars, we play at the park, though! And guess what?"
"What?"
"We open the hydrants, too!"
"Doesn't it feel perfect on a hot summer day?"
"Yeah…." Lainey trailed, having thought of something that wasn't so happy, so she changed the subject. "Is 'The Wizard of Oz' your favorite movie?"
"You could say that. Why?"
"Can we watch it?"
"Right now?"
"Yes." Lainey really didn't know where this was coming from.
Steve was never going to agree to sit down and watch a movie with a child. She was stupid for even asking.
"I would love to."
"Cool."
Well, would you look at that.
She was wrong.