ᴀɴᴀʀᴄʜɪsᴛ sᴇʀɪᴇs | B. Barnes, S. Rogers, L. Laufeyson

I Probably Deserved That | 34 |

"I've- I've missed four months of my life." She was hyperventilating now, panic soaring through her chest. "I've been gone for sixteen weeks."

"I'm so sorry." Steve whispered. "I'm sorry we didn't find you sooner."

She said nothing, only continued to stare into space, her silver and gold eyes as big as pools of water.

-

7:12 am
October 2

Her twenty-first birthday had came and went, as well as Steve's ninety-sixth.

She was getting better slowly, day by day she opened up more.

For the first few months she locked herself in her room, staring at the wall as she traced the scars on her body.

Her smoking had gotten worse. She burned through a pack of cigarettes in two days if not less, leaving the Avengers and particularly Tony and Steve (who had routinely warned her that cigarettes are bad and can cause cancer) worried.

Around her birthday was when she had gone to Fury and insisted she be put back to work.

It distracted her from the horrors in her mind, and allowed her an escape.

She was quite nearly back to some form of normal, though the haunted look in her eyes never vanished, and neither did the scars.

Fury had only let her do deskwork for the entirety of June, but he slowly assigned her with new missions in the field, though he stayed away from anything to do with hostages for fear that it would trigger something in her.

Once a man had moved too quickly out of the corner of her eye, and she had flung him backwards into a wall, her knife at his throat and murder in her eyes.

They had suggested rather aggressively that she seek out therapy, but she refused, insisting that she was fine.

She took out her frustration by training harder and pushing herself to her breaking point.

-

Harli and Steve were racing.

They had started at 6 am, each trying to beat the other around the Washington monument.

Around 8 am, they had taken to teasing a man who was running laps at a normal pace.

"On your left." Steve said, grinning back at Harli.

"On your right." She grinned back, pelting around the man to catch up with Steve, and then over taking him.

A few minutes later, they encountered the man again.

"On your right." Harli called as she passed him.

"On your left." Steve was barely able to hide the laughter in his tone now.

"Uh-huh. On my right and my left." The man huffed.

They passed him a few more times as the sky lightened, and it hit 10 o'clock.

The pair were coming up on the man again, who obviously heard their footfalls.

"Don't say it- don't you say it!" He yelled, and Harli snorted.