First Light | Steve Rogers (Book Two)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Love

I tried to force a smile as I handed out some blankets, a proper grin reaching my face when I saw that Melody as stood at the back of the room, teaching an art class to the children. She had been doing that for a few days, figuring that everyone needed something to cheer them up and keep them occupied.

"Did you find Daisy?" I heard Jemma ask Phil as I approached them.

"No," he shook his head solemnly, "Just a bus full of dead bodies"

The woman rolled her eyes, "Binary ones and zeroes can't die, nor do they feel the cold"

I let out a quiet huff, "Will you shut up about that for once? Do you have any idea how hurtful that is? Do you even realise how your delusion is gonna affect people?"

"It's not a delusion, it's true! We're wasting time. We should be focused on getting Daisy back and escaping this horrible place" she protested as Phil pulled us aside to avoid any eavesdroppers.

"Well, we can't do that without Mace's help and he's already suspicious of you" he hissed.

She nodded slowly before shrugging, "I'm going to tell him the truth"

I scoffed and glanced at the heavily armed agents that were walking past, "Not a good idea right now"

"Mace is risking his life going on these pointless missions. So are you, Coulson. They don't matter in the real world"

"If you put it like that, 'the real world', he'll never buy it," the man reminded her, "The Doctor, the creepy robots, the blue soap, none of it"

"He deserves to know"

He glanced around again, "He doesn't have fragments of memories to draw on. Neither does Ward. Neither does Kate. They're not like me"

She nodded in agreement, "No. No one is, unfortunately, especially not Ward"

"Not sure what you two are going on about anymore"

"It's fine," Phil sighed, "And what is it about that guy? Every time I see him, I get this weird itch, like hives. Did we get along?"

There was a pause as he watched her expectantly, "Well, you crushed his chest with your cybernetic arm and left him for dead on an alien planet. So, no... He's behind me, isn't he?"

She turned to face the two men as they approached. Mace glared at the woman as she looked up at him, "Miss Simmons, we'd like a word"

"It's Doctor"

As soon as she was gone, I pulled Phil into an empty room and closed the door. "You don't seriously believe her, do you?" I scoffed as I ran a trembling hand through my hair.

"I do"

"A-and these memory fragments? Are those real?" I continued, eyeing him suspiciously.

He nodded simply, "Yeah. I don't know how to explain it, I just... I always knew that something was weird about this place"

I began to pace around the room as I tried to understand it all, "And what did this Daisy person tell you?"

"That this is some virtual reality that we've been trapped in. It was created by a robot called Aida and we were all kidnapped and put inside it, apart from her and Jemma, who apparently hacked in. We're actually completely different people with different lives and different memories"

"Different lives?"

He opened his mouth, but closed it as he nodded in understanding, "I think I know why you don't want to believe"

I raised a questioning eyebrow and crossed my arms, "You do?"

"You're happy. You're living a good life with your family, you're married to the woman you love, and you have a five-year-old daughter whom you adore. I think you're afraid that things will be completely different"

There was a moment of silence and I sighed in defeat, "I guess. What's wrong with staying here, anyway? What if my life in this 'real world' is awful? I could stay here and be happy with my family. I like it here and it's not that bad for us here, as long as we don't draw attention"

He frowned, "And Hydra? The other world doesn't have them anymore, it's free"

"I can get by, I have so far. If I keep my head down, I can survive just fine. Sure, we might have to hide here for a while, but we'll be fine. Tasha's a potential, but we can cover that up," I shrugged dismissively, "What about you? She seems to think you're some big hero who could lead a whole damn army. The last time I checked, that wasn't something you were very keen on doing"

"Look, I get that you're scared, Kate. I do," he sighed as he gently patted my shoulder, "But we have to at least try and find out more before we make any big decisions"

The Captain was fast asleep, his head twitching to the side every now and then as he scrunched up his face. Even when sleeping, his face was contorted into a frown. It wasn't an angry frown, it was more like a scared one. It was like he had spent so long with the same terrified look on his face, so long that it had been permanently scarred. He had been through too much pain, too many horrors.

He'd had a pretty bad day. Doctors desperately tried to calm him down from his enraged frenzy, one of them getting killed as a result. We had finally gotten him to sleep with the help of some very strong sedatives, keeping an eye on him to make sure that it didn't happen again.

I felt an arm wrap around my waist and I glanced over to see Melody stood next to me. My head rested on her shoulder as I watched the Captain on the small monitor outside his cell. "What is it, baby?" Melody asked softly as I held her closer.

Pulling away slightly, I lowered my eyes. "Jemma keeps saying things," my voice sounded almost bitter as I spoke, "She says that this world isn't real, that it's a computer simulation"

"Is that why you're here? You think that he might actually be your boyfriend in the other world?" she asked quietly after a long pause.

"I don't know. I mean, I hope not. It honestly scares me. I have no idea what it's like in that world... if it does exist. What if you're not there? Why would I be with him? It just makes no sense. What if this really isn't real?"

She gently hushed me as my voice began to break. Her hands softly cupped my cheeks and she pulled me into a long and passionate kiss. I blushed, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her as close as possible. We both grinned, chuckling quietly as we held each other.

When we finally pulled away for air, she rested her head against mine, "Did that feel real?"

"D-Definitely" I nodded hastily and pulled her into another kiss. We broke apart and I pressed a kiss to her forehead, "I love you so much"

"I love you too"