The Black Swan (Bucky Barnes x OC)

Chapter 4

Kreischberg, Austria
1943

In a matter of days, HYDRA had a complete file on Katherine Bowman's life.

They knew that her birth name was actually Katerina Bowman Kuznetsova and she was a 23 year old ballet dancer, unwedded with no kids and lived alone in a small apartment in Brooklyn. Graduated first in her class in high school and now worked for a Brooklyn dance studio that was having quite a success eventually.

She was the daughter of Natasha and Alexander Bowman that passed away on a car accident at the age of 32 and 35 years old, leaving Katherine to be raised by her grandmother, Oksana Kuznetsova who had also passed away five months ago. Oskana was an undocumented Russian immigrant who came to the country to give birth to her daughter Natasha in American floor after her husband died. She settled in Scarsdale and then she moved to Brooklyn after her daughter's death and raised Katherine in the same apartment they had, sending her to the same school until she was twelve and skipped three years.

That was interesting.

How does a twelve year old develop the IQ to skip three years of school? There had to be something else... but there was nothing in her file.

Oh no. There was something.

They found tests results the social worker had taken on Katherine after her parents died.

Katherine did passed those tests, but not as it was expected. Her answers were too long, too complex for a twelve year old.

They'd actually had to give her the tests for even older kids. Having read this, HYDRA understood why there was no evidence of the girl having friends before Barnes and Rogers. Of course she couldn't make social, how could she ever hit off with twelve year olds if she couldn't even think like one?

The files were very clear about that, Katerina Bowman was no regular child and there was no explanation for it, but until her parent's death there is no medical record of Natasha taking her to see a professional about her uncommon abilities.

"May, 3rd (1928)

Katerina Bowman Kuztnesova
8 years old.
   
The client seemed to avoid at all cost the topic of her parents death and refused to talk without the presence of Oksana Kuznetsova (grandmother) [...] the eight-year-old claimed not to be comfortable with the questions in her test because she found them redundant and irrelevant, not to mention silly.
We gave her different tests for older aged orphans and she completed them all three in twenty minutes and fifty seven seconds. The IQ results showed that her deviation IQ reached the classification Superior (120-129) giving a result of 121"

"January, 15th (1930)

Katerina Bowman Kuztnetsova
10 years old.

Client is not showing any intentions to interact with kids in her class. Oksana Kuznetsova (grandmother) afirmes that the child spends most of her time in the town library and won't even touch a single book from school; but still, she has the higher grades in her class.
Katerina repeatedly said that she feels unmotivated because she finds school boring and unnecessary since she doesn't learn anything new. About her lack of friends, she says that her classmates make fun of her accent every time she answers a question in class and even though she got selected for several school programs for brilliant minds she wouldn't show interest in participating. She claims not to be excited about it because "there would be no fun taking part on a program where she still felt like an outsider"

"September, 28th (1931)
 
Katerina Bowman Kuznetsova
11 years old

The client has shown a great concern on the subject of her future. The "what would you like to be when you grow up?" question remains unanswered since she has multiple interests.
As soon as she was asked about where did she see herself in ten years, she finally opened herself and confessed that what troubles her the most about the future is what would her life will be like once her grandmother dies.
She has no plans or dream profession but she developed a new strong interest in dancing and has started taking classes in a small studio for little girls near her apartment in Brooklyn. She says that was "the only place where she felt good at something and no one judged her about it because there was no need to talk on the dance floor"
Oksana was asked if she pushed the kid too hard with school and responsibilities maybe as an intent to keep her focused on something and she answered that she has never even had to tell her once to sit and do her homework. Katerina would just arrive, eat lunch and do all of her assignments by herself before going to her dance lessons. She has made very clear that her grandmother is kind of a 'superhero' who flies her everywhere she needs to be. She has complained about how much she hates being referred as an orphan by her classmates"