The White Queen (S.Rogers)

Chapter 52

Steve sat on the couch, in the dark, in the silence of the apartment. He had sent Marcus home. The redheaded man had looked at him with sympathy, but left without saying a word. He already knew, then. It wasn't surprising, when he thought about it. In the hours since it had happened, Steve was sure that word had gotten down the various people, until those concerned with the issue were well informed.

Brooklyn had broken the first rule both he and Marino had given her.
When he had gone in that room... when he had seen what she had done, he had to swallow back bile. The girl under the tarp, small and dead, had been enough to make his own rage rise. He had clenched both fists as well as his jaw, seeing the blood and the pale dead skin. But what Brooklyn had done to the man responsible...

She had always told him she never wanted him to see what she was really capable of. But now he did.

Clint had taken a few good hits from her, as well. The archer, though dazed, felt it was important to point out that at any point when she had him pinned, she could have easily killed him. Instead, she had simply knocked him out, before making her escape. Stark was raging. Somehow she had managed to slip past the brilliant billionaire, who had tried to follow her. She had been fast, and incredibly chaotic, according to Stark. JARVIS had not been able to predict her next move, and Stark had lost her after about six blocks.

When Steve had gotten to the room, Nat had already been there, attending to Barton. She had been the one to bring Steve's attention to the broken box, the information on it, as well as the dead little girl. She had given him one look, a look that told him that he had to have known who was responsible.

And he had. Oh, god, he had known.

He knew that the whole goal of her personal missions was to both save the girls the Russians were moving into the area, and to take a huge chunk out of their profits, by doing so. She had stated, several times that she didn't care about them moving weapons, or anything like that. So, when Steve had been called back to the Tower, hearing that there was a cache of SHIELD property about to be sold, the only concerning warning that had gone off for him was the fact that Russians were involved. He had been concerned, yes, that the Avengers might step on the toes of Brooklyn and Marino's men. But other than that, he had been happy to know that they would be doing a quick mission. No more than a few hours, max.

Instead, he was left with a girlfriend who had yet to return home, after she brutally killed about ten men, torturing and disfiguring one to the point he barely looked human, and attacked and knocked out one of Steve's teammate. His Babydoll had been breaking rules all over the place.

Which put Steve in a position he wasn't sure he had ever thought he might be in.

How was he going to deal with this? It wasn't like a simple spanking was going to be enough. She had broken a big rule, crossed a huge line for him. It wasn't like she didn't know what she was doing, when she was doing it. Brooklyn had chosen to go after those men. This wasn't as simple as her other missions. She had gone into that room, with the express purpose of killing them.

He had always hoped that given enough time and energy, enough work with Sam, that her more... darker urges would be lessened. And for a while, it had seemed that they would. He would be the first to admit, that sometimes she made comments, said things, that could be taken the wrong way. But for the most part, those comments and things said had been happening less and less, as of late.

Although, in her defense, Steve couldn't really be all that upset at her. She had seen something that even made him want to kill. The innocence of a child was sacred, and to disregard it, in that manner, was a sin even Steve couldn't forgive. Given her past, it was easy to see how that could have been the trigger that pushed her over, making her ignore all the hard work she had been making towards leveling out all her more... violent urges. But she didn't just kill the man, she had tortured him, and from what Banner had said, once he got a look at the body, she had taken her time with him. It would have been drawn out, the doctor had said. Castration, blinding, tongue being cut out, the skin being peeled from his face, layer by layer, if the pile of skin next to the body was any indication. This had not just been justice for a raped little girl, this had been rage on a level Banner had been concerned. Whoever had done this, he had stated, had taken joy in it.