The closest thing to a daughter

Season 1 Episode 2

Abigail, lying on the ground, struggled to her feet and groaned in pain, "What the hell?!"

"How are you, Kid?" inquired Tony, genuinely concerned for her well-being. He did want to stop the robberies, however, he also felt guilty looking at her like that. The girl at his feet looked younger than she probably was originally and you could already tell she had little to eat. While he was a multimillionaire, this child had to live on the street. How unfair

Before the latter could answer, she looked around the room and noticed several people staring at her. Not only were Natasha and Tony standing in front of her, but so was Steve Rogers. "Hmm ... Good?" she asked rather than really answering honestly. In truth, she had a pain in her hip, but where she came from, they didn't know such a thing as pain, so she just swallowed it down as best she could.

"You've caused a lot of trouble," Tony remarked as he mixed himself a drink. Abigail took advantage of his distraction to take one step after another backward toward the door, but suddenly she bumped into someone.

"Where are you going?" As she turned toward the voice, Bruce Banner was standing behind her, blocking her way out.

"Where did you get your powers, Kid?", Tony wanted to know with interest, without addressing her failed escape attempt. Panic was now reflected in her blue eyes, but only Natasha seemed to take notice.

"What powers do you mean?" she stuttered awkwardly, very intent on suppressing her rising nervousness.

"I mean, where did you get your powers to fight? Who trained you, you really don't seem like you had bad parent," Tony explained, oblivious to her tense manner. At the word parents, she flinched noticeably and crossed her arms in front of her chest as if to protect herself. If only he knew.

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?"

All too quickly, Abigail shook her head, betraying herself not only to the trained spy, but to everyone else present in the room.

"So what do we do with her? Do we turn her over to the police?" the latter asked again after no further statement seemed to come from the girl.

Of course, she wasn't really planning to hand Abigail over to anyone, especially not after they knew about her still hidden powers. And then there was that strange feeling of knowing her from somewhere.

"Not yet ... depending on what her powers are, she could be useful to the team," Tony played along with a grin, but it didn't seem so funny to the unknown girl.

"And what if I refuse?" she therefore asked snappishly, bracing her hands against her hips with newfound confidence.

"Then the police can take care of you," Tony replied, presumably just as snappishly. "All right ... I'm in."

"Great! Nat, you can watch her," Tony suggested, to which they both responded not-so-enthusiastically with, "What?!"

"Tony, I'm not going to babysit!" protested Nat, and she too was now bracing her arms on her hips, which made them both look an awful lot alike, and Tony grinned. The two probably shared the same stubbornness.

"I don't need anyone to watch my back!" agreed Abigail, to which Tony laughed even harder at their stubbornness.

"You'll need that until we know we can trust you, and until then, Nat will look out for you." Abigail relented, groaning in annoyance and squinting her eyes. What other choice did she have.