The White Queen (S.Rogers)

Chapter 10

"I gather Steve hasn't been abiding by the original agreement we made." Wilson started, after sitting on the bench with Brooklyn, watching as Juliana, who had finished her bagel, made Rogers play tag with her. He finished chewing his own bagel, taking a gulp of coffee to wash it down. "I told him to give you space, by the way."

Brooklyn, crumpling up her own bagel wrapper, shook her head. "We both should have known that there was no way Rogers was going to leave me alone. Like a dog with a bone, that one."

Wilson nodded. He sighed. "I wish I could pretend he was anything else. But when it comes to your father, he's relentless. Its one of the things I admire about him."

Nodding, Brooklyn looked over at where Juliana was running from Rogers. "You do understand, don't you? Why I held back what I did?"

"Yeah. I do. I can't even fault you for it." He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "But you do know, don't you, that if you had just told us that you were Bucky's daughter, we would have totally approached this differently?"

"Would he have?" She questioned, looking at him.

"I'm pretty sure he would have handled things a lot gentler. I mean, if it was me, I would have probably not tried to manhandle you."
She cocked her head to the side. "He told you that. Because where I'm sitting, he's just changed his tactics. Instead of trying to use strength, he's trying to break me down with kindness."

"Is that a bad thing?" Wilson leaned back, folding his arms across his chest.

"I'm not used to it. Not without there being a reason. Marcus is kind because he cares about us, and because Papa didn't kill him on sight, when he found him hiding Juliana. Mr. Marino is kind because he feels he owes Marcus's survival to me. Momo is kind because I make him laugh, and because it is his job. Mrs. De Luca is kind because she thinks we are two helpless females, alone in a world without our father's protection. But then again, I guess, she is old fashioned in that regard." She sighed. "So, the only reason, I think, that Rogers has to be kind to me, to us, is because we are his best friend's daughters, and he feels it is his responsibility to take care of us. But I don't need him to do that. I can take care of Juliana just fine."

Wilson remained silent, thinking it over, his head nodding back and forth. "But what if you didn't have to? What if you could rely on him, on me, on us, to help you, if you get in a tight spot?"

"Why? So, he can continue to give me more orders? All my life, I've had to follow the orders of men. HYDRA, Zola, Karpov, Pierce, Rumlow... Even my own father. Why should I follow the orders of Captain Steve Rogers? I owe him nothing." She scoffed. "One more man, in a line of them, who think I'm only fit to give orders to, that I have to follow like a good little sycophant. Forgive me if I don't want to follow orders anymore."

"But he's not like that. He only wants to bring your father home, and to make sure that the two of you are safe, until then." Wilson protested.

Brooklyn coughed out a short laugh. "The sad part? The sad part is that I grew up with stories about Steve Rogers. Before they broke Papa completely, back when he still remembered, he told me stories about this punk kid he grew up with, back in Brooklyn. The one that never backed down from a fight, the one that fought all the bullies. The best man he ever knew, Papa said. He would have followed Rogers all the way to Hell and back, if he had asked him to."

"And what about you?"

"My father is a better person then I could ever hope to be." She shook her head. "That was the Steve Rogers my father told me stories about. What I learned, at the feet of Zola and others, was that Captain America wanted nothing more than to destroy everything I had ever known. Its really hard to pair the two. Logically I know, there is no difference. But when he is like he is now," She nodded towards where Juliana and Rogers were still playing, "Its hard to believe they are the same person. He is nothing like the shield bearing monster I was raised to hate. I see the man that my father admired."