The closest thing to a daughter

Season 1 Episode 2

Abigail, lying on the ground, struggled to her feet and moaned in pain, "What the hell?!" It took her a moment to notice her surroundings, let alone recognize the people in front of her. While their names were still completely unfamiliar to her, everyone in at least all of New York knew who the Avengers were.

"How are you, Kid?" Tony inquired, genuinely concerned for her well-being. He wanted to stop the robberies, but he also had a guilty conscience when he looked at her like that. The girl at his feet looked younger than she probably was and you could already see that she had little to eat. While he was a multi-millionaire, this child had to live on the street. How unfair. Even if he didn't have much interest in children. This item was still very low on his agenda.

Before Abigail could answer, she looked around the room and noticed that several people were staring at her. Not only Natasha and Tony were standing in front of her, but also Steve Rogers. "Hm... good?" she asked rather than answering honestly. The truth was that she had pain in her hip, but where she came from, there was no such thing as pain, so she just swallowed it as best as she could. Those present weren't really interested in how she was feeling anyway. After all, no one had ever cared. It was all part of the formality.

"You've caused a lot of trouble," Tony remarked as he mixed himself a drink, which he desperately needed given with all the stress. Abigail took advantage of his distraction to take one step at a time backwards towards the door, but suddenly she bumped into someone.

"Where are you going?" As she turned towards the voice, Bruce Banner, or better known as the Hulk, stood behind her, blocking her way out. Where had he come from now? Little Nolan would certainly not be able to get past them all.

"Where did you get your powers, Kid?" Tony wanted to know with interest, without commenting on her failed escape attempt. Panic was now reflected in her blue eyes, but only Natasha seemed to notice. Of course she took notice. In her early childhood, it had often been her own two little green eyes that looked so frightened.

"What powers do you mean?" she stuttered awkwardly, very careful to suppress her rising nervousness and not making a point of treating her counterpart with enough respect to address him by his surname. Why should she, after all, he more or less had her kidnapped and besides, she hoped to distract from her nervousness with her rudeness.

"I mean, where did you get your powers? The quick undetected disappearance without leaving a slight trace. Who trained you, you really don't seem to be from bad parents," Tony explained, oblivious to her tense expression. At the word parents, she flinched noticeably and crossed her arms in front of her chest as if trying to protect herself. If only he knew. Bad parents was probably too kind of a word. At just five years old, her parents gave her away. No, even worse. They sold her. And if her life hadn't been bad enough up to that point, it became hell on earth from then on.

But at least they didn't seem to know about her real ability. Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Natasha stepped forward and rejoined the conversation: "Or are there other powers we should know about?" Abigail shook her head quickly, far too quickly, betraying herself not only to the trained spy but also to everyone else in the room.

"So what do we do with her? Do we hand her over to the police?" Natasha asked again in a serious voice after the girl didn't seem to make any further statements. Of course, she wasn't really going to hand Abigail over to anyone, especially not after they knew about her still hidden powers. And then there was this strange feeling that she knew her from somewhere. But where from?

It had been years since she had had anything to do with children, she had been one herself back then and she didn't want to think back to that past. Besides, this criminal was eleven years younger than she was. What should she ever have had to do with her?

"Not yet ... depending on what her powers are, she could be useful to the team," Tony played along with the little game while grinning, but it didn't seem so funny to the unknown girl. Of course, he didn't really want a child on his team, he knew he would not only annoy her but also Romanoff. He would never in a million years side with the impostor who had recently betrayed him. Besides, she deserved a little revenge. On top of that, the girl couldn't do anything else while she was with them.

"And what if I refuse to join your team?" Abigail asked snappishly, putting her hands on her hips with newfound confidence. What made him so sure that she would just reveal her powers like that? After all, he hadn't given her any reason to trust him just yet. And gaining her trust was a hard road.

"Then the police can take care of you," Tony replied, probably just as snippily as she had before. "All right ... I'm in." In truth, she was just trying to stall for more time to escape.

"Great! Nat, you can look after her," Tony suggested, to which they both responded less than enthusiastically with 'What?!' and glared at him.

"Tony, I'm not babysitting!" protested Nat and she too now put her arms on her hips, which made them both look a hell of a lot alike and Tony grinned. Guess the two of them shared their stubbornness.

Why didn't Stark suggest Rogers? Captain Tights was certainly much better with kids than she was. Or better with this child, Natasha thought to herself, annoyed. Since when had he actually been in charge? She was the SHIELD agent. He only had the money, but she had the skills.

"I don't need anyone to look after me!" agreed Abigail, to which Tony laughed even harder at their stubbornness. Natasha reminded Abigail more and more of her former self and she didn't like that memory at all.

"You'll need that until we know we can trust you, and until then Natasha here will look after you." Abigail relented, but still groaned in annoyance and narrowed her eyes. What other choice did she have? It was either those wannabe superheroes or the police. At least she had a roof over her head here. And not a bad one either. She would be able to get away soon enough. Or she had to make sure they didn't want her here at all. And if there was one thing Abigail could do as an ethnic Russian, it was get on people's nerves. But until then, she could enjoy this luxury, which she hadn't even thought possible.