Resilient

Chapter 11

"My name is Nick Fury, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Bennet," Nick said shaking her hand

"Likewise Mr. Fury. Steve said you wanted to meet with me. I assume you and the team have a lot of questions," Evelyn ended steeling herself and standing tall.

"I would appreciate your back story then we can move from there," Fury said, gesturing to the open seat by Natasha and Bucky quickly sitting in the open one next to Evelyn.

"Of course," she started and took a deep breath, "My name is Evelyn Bennett and I grew up in Ohio where I lived with my parents and younger sister Grace. I am 27 years old and was captive for 5 years after Hydra set my home on fire and killed my family and took me." She ended her sentence quickly not even realizing how fast she spoke.

"Okay, that's a start. Do you know why you were taken? Did your family have ties to Hydra?" Fury asked looking at the woman.

"You think I was taken because my family had ties with Hydra?!" Evelyn asked the man in front of her feeling anger in the pit of her stomach. "My parents were kind, loving, and generous. Mr. Fury."

"Evelyn, he's not saying they weren't. He is just asking questions to figure out what happened to you and why," Steve said reaching across the table to put his hand on hers but was surprised when she flinched.

"My parents had no ties to Hydra. They were killed by those monsters," Evelyn said, making eye contact with Fury. The room was quiet waiting on her to finish. The anger in her stomach seemed to be getting worse as she sat there trying not to cry. How could they think her parents were capable of the horrible things she was put through. She was breathing rapidly and was worried she would have a panic attack but felt a hand on her own and felt calm flow throughout her body. Her eyes trailed up the hand and found Bucky looking back nodding encouragement.

Taking a deep breath she began again. "I don't know why they took me but I remember who kidnapped me. His name was Richard Pierce. We had been dating for a couple months and he had become very controlling and possessive." Evelyn thought back to when he had grabbed her arm leaving bruises when she told him that she no longer was going to put up with his behavior and didn't want to see him again. Her Dad had sat her down the night before and told her he was worried about their relationship and the track it was going down. "Like any good parent my Dad helped me realize it and I broke it off but it was too late. The next day Richard was carrying me out of my house and it was engulfed in flames."

"Evelyn, do you know if Richard Pierce is any relation to Alexander Pierce?" Tony asked

"I'm not sure, I didn't know much about him to be honest. We went on a couple dates while I was in college and he always had a weird way of giving as little information about himself as possible. I could tell the Doctor respected him and the Soldiers feared him." Evelyn said looking at Tony

"What happened when you were taken to the base?" Fury asked

"I remember something about Richard saying he chose me and the Doctor saying they'd start injections that night - which they did," Evelyn said remembering still smelling the smoke from the fire in her hair as the needle went into her arm making her feel like she was on fire. "After that I was no longer Evelyn Bennet in the eyes of Hydra - I was Evelyn Pierce." She finished feeling sick.

"Did you notice anything after they injected you or what it was?" Fury said everyone else sitting silently

Evelyn took another deep breath, "I'm not sure if it had a name but I remember the first injection made me sick. I was in the infirmary for two weeks. During that time when I was conscious I started sensing emotions and feelings in the air around me when I was checked up on. I thought it was because of the fever,"

"When did you realize it was more than that?" Bruce asked and Evelyn noticed he was taking notes

"Probably after the third injection," Evelyn replied "I was less sick because according to the Doctor my body wasn't rejecting it as badly. After about a year of monthly injections I realized my healing had improved and they were going to start me training."

"Training?" Fury asked raising an eyebrow

"Mostly combat for a while and then they started evaluating my powers," Evelyn started and everyone was looking at her intently making her anxious but she knew she couldn't hold anything back. "I can at times sense emotions in a room and affect them. My training stopped quickly when I kept trying to use them to escape. When Natasha and Steve broke through the door to my cell; I had been in there for almost a week after trying to convince the soldiers guarding me to help escape - they were killed and I was beaten and had my food privileges taken away."

"Do you know how to control it?" Fury asked, looking at her intently

"I was captive for 5 years Sir; I can promise you if I knew how to control it or how anything worked I would've escaped before I was rescued," Evelyn said looking at the man

"I see. Miss Bennet would you be amenable to the idea of staying here in the tower and meeting with Miss Maximoff? I believe she may be able to help you and this way we look into more why you were targeted," Fury asked Evelyn

"You want me to stay?" Evelyn asked quietly.

"Miss, you have already helped my team all while you were recovering from a horrible incident in your past - monitoring them while they were going into harm's way. If we are able to help you in any way we will be doing just that," Fury said looking at the team and getting nods from each of them.

All Evelyn could do was nod her head. Don't you dare cry.

"We know moving forward we need to look into the Hydra bases on the map. Since Miss Bennet has already confirmed she never left the base she was at I think we can assume they are abandoning useless bases and refortifying the ones with assets since you took down the base in which Miss Bennet was held," Fury began starting the game plan, "but I do not want us going in guns blazing. It looks to me that there are three bases we have not been to on the map Barton retrieved. I want us to be prepared for anything that comes our way." Fury said standing "We need to make them think we aren't looking or don't know what's going on so hopefully they stop destroying their bases."

"I have just the idea," Tony said smiling and everyone groaned. Evelyn looked at everyone confused as Tony finished, "an end of Summer party."

"That should work - we will be able to gain some diplomatic support as well. We will introduce Miss Bennet to the politicians as the woman you saved," Fury said walking to the door.

Evelyn stood and shook his hand along with the others. Her mind reeling - she had been asked to stay, to train, to help, and then attend a party for the first time since she turned 21. She could say no and hide in her room but she knew there was no way she could repay their kindness by being a coward. Shit.