Felicity
Steve places his empty bowel in the sink. He jumps when he turns around.
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"Sorry." Felicity smiles sheepishly.
"Doesn't anyone sleep?" Steve jokes.
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Felicity furrows her brow.
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"Zara was just in here." Steve shrugs.
"Nightmare?" Felicity asks.
"She didn't specify. But yeah..." Steve nods.
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Felicity looks down.
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"If I would've stayed on the jet. Zara wouldn't have those scars, she wouldn't be haunted by them, and she could be her old self again." Felicity's guilt explains.
"What do you mean?" Steve asks furrowing his brow.
"Never mind." Felicity shakes her head. "Anything fun to do when you can't sleep?"
"Uh training, watch TV, eat something, or go for a walk I suppose." Steve shrugs.
"Pass." Felicity shakes her head. "I guess I'll just go lie back down."
"Uh Felicity-" Steve says, as she turns away.
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Felicity looks at Steve.
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"Do you want to talk?" Steve offers.
"No offense, but we just met." Felicity kindly turns down the offer.
"My friend was taken by Hydra too... Twice." Steve confesses.
"I'm sorry." Felicity sighs.
"Thank you." Steve nods.
"I'm not an open book Captain." Felicity tries walking away again.
"Maybe it'll help you sleep." Steve offers.
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Felicity sighs and she turns around.
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"Alright fine. You want the details, then sit down." Felicity sternly says.
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Steve sits at the kitchen island, and Felicity sits across from him.
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"I'd heard about Hydra, through a lot of people. As I'm sure others have as well." Felicity begins.
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Steve nods.
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"What I didn't know was, the type of people they were after." Felicity sighs. "I was alone, on the run from my past. When I was ambushed and I woke up in a glass cell." Felicity looks down at her hands.
"Why were you running?" Steve asks.
"The day I realized I was different. I almost killed my..." Felicity hesitates. "My childhood was rough, to say the least. I was beaten often as a child."
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Steve looks down.
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"When I was a teenager, I was fed up with the beatings. So I tried taking a stand." Felicity clears her throat.
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Steve listens intently.
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"My father hit me so hard, I had stumbled backwards, and I almost put a whole through the wall. He was angry with me, because I stopped him from hitting my mother." Felicity's hands turn into fists. "I steadied myself against the wall. I was so angry myself, and I was tired of hurting."
"I can understand that." Steve nods.
"I failed to notice the lights in my house started flickering and the paint was burning under my hand. But I refused to back down. So I attacked my father, tackling him to the ground." Felicity closes her eyes. "I started punching him, but that wasn't enough. I grabbed him by his shirt, and I just started screaming. I screamed until my voice was lost."
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Steve's heart starts to hurt.
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"Tears started rolling down my cheeks, and his shirt just melted in my hands. For once-" Felicity opens her eyes. "He finally had the slightest idea, of what it was like to fear someone."
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Steve shudders as Felicity looks at him.
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"My mother kicked him out and filed for divorce. She never treated me differently, but others did... It became too overwhelming so I ran. I wanted- no I needed to figure out who I am, and not who I was supposed to be after that." Felicity clears her throat.
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"Then Hydra found you?" Steve asks.
"Apparently people like to talk, and members had heard about me. They wanted to know the extent of my ability." Felicity nods. "But I refused to cooperate, and they tortured me."
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Steve sighs sadly.
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"Funny thing was, my father's beatings were much worse than Hydra's torture." Felicity laughs.
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Steve furrows his brow.
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"I never understood why I was kept in glass. Until I overpowered a guard, once. He tried radioing for help, and when I grabbed the walkie it short-circuited in my hand." Felicity opens her right hand. "The guard grabbed his cattle prod, and tried touching me with it. But I threw up my hand and flame came out that melted it."
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Steve looks at Felicity's hand, to see a flames coming from her fingertips.
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"Stupidly shocked, I was busy looking at my hands. When the guard hit me right in the temple, knocking me out." Felicity shakes her head.
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"How long did they keep you?" Steve asks.
"I don't know." Felicity shakes her head. "I only left that cage, to be tortured or experimented on. I never saw the outside for what felt like... Forever."
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"And when Zara found you?" Steve asks.
"I was so broken." Felicity whispers.
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Steve frowns.
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"I was close to giving up, when this Panther broke into the facility." Felicity fidgets.
"What?" Steve asks.
"I've never told Zara this." Felicity looks at Steve.
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Steve's taken back by the tears in Felicity's eyes.
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"Part of me hoped Zara was there to kill me. To just be done with this burden, and I could finally be left alone." Felicity chokes up.
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Steve reaches for Felicity, and he gently holds her hand.
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"The Panther turned into a person, and I was understandably shocked. She walked over to my cage, and shattered the glass around me." Felicity sighs. "I covered my head to keep out the glass. Then I looked up at her, and I felt lost... That if I left that cage, I wasn't sure I would be safe."
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Steve squeezes Felicity's hand.
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"She told me who she is, what she is, and she told me I could go that no one would hurt me again. She told me there was a safe haven I could go to, if I didn't truly feel safe." Felicity explains.
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"What choice did you make?" Steve asks.
"Well she stared at me, for a good while. Then she smiled and offered for me, to help her in protecting other's like myself. I thought it was crazy and really risky." Felicity shakes her head. "But she told me, that she could see I've been trying to so hard to be strong... For way too long on my own. And that I was stronger than I could ever realize. She offered to help me harness that strength, so that I'd never doubt myself."
"That sounds like the perfect partnership." Steve smiles slightly.
"It is." Felicity nods. "But at times, I just don't feel worthy of Zara or T'Challa's help.... They somehow find a way, to prove I'm very worthy of every good thing in my life now."
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Steve and Felicity sit silently together.
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"I think I should get some sleep now." Felicity says, pulling her hand away.
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Steve clears his throat as he nods.
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"Goodnight." Felicity says, as she stands up.
"Night." Steve says, as Felicity leaves.