The Shield and the Rose || S. Rogers

The Defect

"What do you mean what really happened to my mom?" Katherine's brow furrowed in confusion as she looked at him.

"Kate, we better talk about this at home," Kurt looked as if he was going to be sick to his stomach.

"Why? What do you mean?" she prodded again.

"I'm serious, Kate," he hissed. "We'll talk about it at home."

"Fine," she frowned.

The trip back to his home wasn't as laidback as it had been the rest of the time that Katherine had been back and at the Sokovian base. Instead, he walked briskly enough to be on his way yet casually enough that it didn't draw attention to himself or to Kate. Katherine found herself making her way to the couch the moment that they reached the home while Kurt quickly locked the door and walked over to her.

"Kate, what do you know about your mom?" 

"I know that she was always described as a good fighter, a valuable asset to Hydra. I know that she was killed on a mission and that my father never really liked to talk about that day. He never really even talked about her at all," Katherine thought for a moment. "I don't know really anything apart from that."

"Don't you think that's weird?" Kurt frowned.

"Well, it's all I've known, but I guess it's weird that others know about their parents while I don't know much about mine," she agreed. "I mean, I always thought that it was odd that no one ever talked about her more than talking about how she was a good agent. Like I said, Dad didn't even talk much about her to me," she looked down at her hands. "Are you sure that he really did it?"

"Read his journal entry," Kurt sighed as he passed the small journal to her. Flipping to the page that he had found, he pointed to the date.

"April 15, 1988. I was a year old," Kate looked back up to him.

"The age you were when she died, right?" 

"Well, yes," she nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Katherine read the page that had been written by her father. She knew it was legitimate based on his handwriting, but it was still hard for her to realize that she was reading something of her father's that she had never known had existed. Then again, it was proof that the truth had been hidden from her. As she read down the page, she realized that what he had written was a description of what had happened during the mission. It wasn't the same as what she had once been told.

"She had made a plan to escape and to take Katherine and Victoria with her. I had to stop her plan before anyone else had found out. What I did was mercy," Katherine read aloud. "If anyone else had found out, her fate would have been much worse. This way, she died a hero."

"Kate, I'm so sorry," Kurt looked at her.

"He murdered her. My father murdered my mother and covered it up," Katheirne looked up at him in disbelief.

"It makes sense why he would never have told you about it," he nodded.

"No, that part is easier for me to believe. I can believe that Victoria knew about all of this and never told me either," she brought her hand up to message her temple. "But Mom had tried to escape Hydra. That's why she was killed. That's the real reason that they never told me what had really happened to her."

"What do you mean?" Kurt's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Kurt, do you remember when we were kids and how they didn't really let kids into their meetings when it came to the missions?" she began and waited for his nod. "Well, Victoria and I were at those meetings a lot. I guess Alexander Corbin's daughters got special treatment. But, there was one when I was five that Bucky was present in the corner of the room and there was this man that was deciding that that particular mission was his chance to escape Hydra.