Shadows and Secrets (A MCU FanFic)

Chapter 14: Theories

trigger warning: dark themes and that may be offensive or upsetting to some readers

Nat's POV

"Oh! I know! Marjorie was running away from her mother's killer!"

"Nah, that doesn't check out," Bucky said.

Nat and Bucky were in Nat's room, Bucky lying on his back on Nat's bed, Nat sitting cross-legged on the floor with pens, sticky-notes, and a highlighter. They were trying to come up with theories.

"The mom had no signs of injuries, remember?"

"Oh, true," Nat sighed. "I'll put it in the "maybe" pile."

The case had little to none evidence, so little that it was depressing.

"But..." Nat said, thinking. "If you really tried, you could kill someone without any notable evidence."

"True. I didn't think of that."

    Nat smiled at the praise. Nat and Bucky had a kind of big-brother-little-sister relationship, and Bucky had originally taught her everything he knew when she was being trained as an assassin. Steve had known him before, but Nat had known him when he was actually the Winter Soldier.

    She wondered who knew him best now that he was Bucky Barnes again.

    Probably Marjorie.

    LOL.

    Nat probably should have guessed earlier that Bucky had a crush on her.

    Nat was confident that it would work out. Marjorie flirted with him all the time, he was just in the denial stage. Probably as a byproduct of his guilt.

    "What do we actually know again?" Bucky asked.

    Nat ignored the sarcasm.

"So, on Marjorie's tenth birthday, June 22, 2008, her mom is reported dead at 12:37 pm, and last seen before that at 12:31 pm. Marjorie is reported missing at 1:09 pm. Marjorie's mom has no cause of death, no evidence, no injures, nothing. Docters are baffled; she was perfectly healthy except that she was dead. No witnesses except supposedly Marjorie, who was never interrogated because she ran away," Nat summarized.

"There was only a six minute gap for the mother to die?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah."

"If she didn't die naturally, the killer was probably very experienced to leave almost no evidence in a short time frame."

Nat noted his use of the word 'almost'. He, like her, thought that there must be missed evidence.

Nat flopped down on the floor. "This case makes no sense!" she grumbled.

"Mmmmmm," Bucky agreed.

Nat sighed. "Do you have any theories?"

"...None that make sense."

"This is Marjorie. She never makes sense."

Bucky said nothing, and they sat in silence for a while, trying to make sense of the situation.

The whole case sounded very unsuspicious at first glance, but Nat had been involved in too many murders, assinations, and jobs to believe in coincidences. And there were little things that were wrong with the case, things that didn't add up.

Healthy people did not drop dead at random.

And doctors and forensic detectives should have been able to figure out a medical condition, like a heart attack, stroke, or seizure, if there was one.

Nat had seen mutants, aliens, and magic, so she was not ready to rule out outlandish theories.

Out of the above, mutants would make the most sense, seeing that Marjorie was one, and a powerful one at that.

But how could a ten year old girl not yet reported as a mutant have enemies?

And wouldn't Marjorie be the target?

Of course, the mother could have been protecting Marjorie, or simply gotten in the way, but something about that theory didn't sit well with Nat.

Most mutants have physical mutations, like the alius Wolverine, or the ability to control some form of element, like Marjorie or the alius Magneto. Of course, there were all types of mutants, with all types of mutations, but most would leave some type of evidence.

Marjorie ran away after supposedly witnessing her mother's death...

Was she just traumatized after the ordeal?

Or...

    Maybe, Marjorie was somehow involved in her mother's death?

    That seemed unlikely.

    But Nat didn't have all the facts...

    But, really, how would a ten year old kill someone without evidence?

    It was a stupid question. Afterall, she had been able to kill someone efficiently and effectively when she was ten.

    But... Marjorie had never had training.

    And Nat couldn't really see Marjorie intentionally killing people.

    But she wasn't ready to throw away the theory. It was the only one that Nat had not immediately dismissed as not fitting with the facts of the case.

    She needed to run it by Bucky.

    Nat chose her words carefully. "Do you think that Marjorie might have been... involved with the murder?"

    Bucky turned to glare at her. "You think Marjorie killed her mom."

    It wasn't a question.

    Nat answered it anyway.

    "Maybe? It's a possibility, right?"

    Bucky glared at her, searching her expression. Nat stared back, determined not to blink. Bucky eventually went back to staring at the ceiling.

    "... I don't know," he sighed.

    Nat considered this.

    "But, like, technically, did ten-year-old-Marjorie have the ability to kill someone without evidence?"

    Bucky seemed to think about this.

    "Now-Marjorie does. I'm not sure about ten-year-old-Marjorie."

    "I don't think Marjorie began combat traning until after she ran away, at school," Nat thoght out loud.

    "I don't mean with weapons or martial arts," Bucky said.

    "What? Then what did you mean?"

    "I mean her umbrakinesis. Have you noticed how she always holds herself back?" At Nat's nod he continued. "I think she can do a lot more with her power than she shows. She seems almost... afraid of her power. Like she doesn't want to see what she could do if she lost herself in her umbrakenises."