The closest thing to a daughter

Season 4 Episode 21

One throw followed the next and soon not only the two figures were covered in white powder but also the so guarded marble floor. Abigail tried to jump on the captain's back, bringing them both down. Trying to hold on to the counter, he accidentally caught the flour packet and now even all the countertops were covered in the snow-like something. "What happened here? I'm not here four hours and I have to see what horrible thing you've done to my designer kitchen," Tony's indignant voice rang out and two heads popped out from behind the kitchen island. "Not a surprise," he snorted as Steve and Abigail peeked out. "We'll clean it up Tony," Abi assured him, putting on an apologetic look. "I certainly hope so."

At that moment, Scott entered the kitchen to find something edible. At the sight of the two of them in white littered clothes, the Ant-Man had to stifle a laugh. "But please don't start a second war between you," he remarked ironically but actually he found this situation far too good to contribute nothing. Before the situation could escalate, both Tony and Scott disappeared from the kitchen, leaving the father-daughter duo behind in their chaos. "Lucky again," Abigail laughed, wiping imaginary sweat from her brow. "We really should clean up, though." There was silence between the two for the first few minutes until Abigail paused in her movement and glanced at the edge in front of her. "Before you guys, I had nothing. No life, no choices, and most of all, no family. I may not always seem so grateful about it, but you don't know how much I owe to you." Abi's sudden openness initially overwhelmed the captain until he too stopped scrubbing and instead lightly massaged her hand. "You don't have to thank me for anything".

"Yes I do, and I want to. The Red Room was never about anything but killing and hurting. But what you give me is so much more than a roof over my head. I was alone, fighting day and night to survive until I was actually the best after Natasha's escape. Indirectly Nat helped me already then, by her escape Dreykov was so bitter to create a copy of her fighting only nearly on eye level, that he started to experiment with powers. That was my salvation and the termination of mind control."

Steve was silent for a few moments to grasp the weight and meaning of her words. Abigail Novanoff had actually just told him about her past without lying to him. She had gone against all her principles to tell him the whole truth about her dark side. At that moment he realized that daughter figure was no longer just a term for their relationship, but Steve actually saw a daughter in Abigail. Like Natasha, he had managed to explore all of her passages and he couldn't put that meaning into words even if he tried. "Your past is not your fault any more than it is Natasha's."

"It's just hard to let go of that opinion when you've had to listen to everything become your fault your whole life. It started with my parents. When they beat me for being home three minutes late from kindergarten or not setting the table on time. It's just almost impossible to get out of that mindset." Rogers nodded slowly and compassionately while stroking her palm reassuringly. A short time later the conversation had died down and the kitchen shone in its usual glow while the made pasta simmered in the large pot.

When everyone else had returned home, they all gathered at the dining table and tasted the actually delicious food. Seeing Clint and Thor again filled the now complete team with hope and drive. Now all they had to do was get the stones.