Ava Barnes

Curiosity

~A few months later~

                         I was so curious about James. Possibly more curious than my father. I'd never seen pictures of him until the ones on the news. He was quite handsome. I thought I could sneak into my dad's things and find more. I carefully walked down the stairs trying not to make any noise. I went straight to his storage room down the hall. Once inside I looked around at all the totes and boxes that were in there. I scanned the room looking for something that stood out. And then there was a worn down shoe box labeled "Buck." I picked it up and noticed it was quite a light weight box. I carried it back up the stairs and locked my room behind me. I set the box on my bed and sat on the edge. I lifted the top carefully. When the top was off I glanced into the box to see a picture of a uniformed soldier. It looked similar to the man on the news. Younger. His face was clean, shaved, and his smile was so adorable. I looked through the pictures and stopped when I heard the jingle of metal. I realized what it was and pulled it out of the box. His dog tags. James Buchanan Barnes was engraved into the metal. Rust grew around the edges. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs so I put everything back in the box and shoved it under my bed. I ran to unlock the door before they could get to it. I heard a knock on my door.

"Ava?" I heard my mom call.

"Yeah ma?" I answered.

"You okay in there? I haven't heard the TV going." She questioned.

"Yeah I'm okay. Found anything yet?" I asked.

"Actually your father was going to go check out an address we think Barnes is staying at." She responded.

"Oh, that's cool." I said.

"He is leaving now. If you'd like to go with him as back up I'd be okay with it." She replied.

"Really!?" I exclaimed.

"Yes really! Go suit up!" She chuckled.

"Oh!! Thank you!!" I said excitedly.

I put my suit and boot on, strapped all my weapons to my holsters, and bounced down the stairs to the garage,.

"Ready dad." I told him.

"Alright stay close to me. Sam is coming too for your safety." He said.

*He hands me an earpiece*

"Put this in your ear. It'll help us communicate." He smiled.

"Okay got it." I smiled back.

I got in the car and we drove across town to an airport. There was a really fancy plane in a worn down garage.

"This is our quinjet. We are going to fly over to Bucharest. That's where he is staying." He claimed.

We boarded the jet and my father started it up and we were on our way. About an hour later we landed in a small field. 

"There is a car on the trail across this field. We will take it to his place in the city." My father told me.

"Okay!" I responded.

We walked to the car and got in. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was excited to meet this man. I didn't know what I would be like to him. But I knew something was drawing me to him.