Time Unchanging

Chapter 69

Steve was angry. Beyond angry. He was mad because Nat had taken his baby from him. Mad because she had nearly destroyed the love of his life, tortured her, assaulted her, and brainwashed her. But most of all, he was pissed that he couldn't comfort her when she needed it because of everything the former Avenger had done.

He rounded on the blond Widow and growled, "Where is she, Yelena."

"Hold on," the woman tried to explain. "You can't-"

"She killed my child! I'm not going to sit on my ass!"

"I know you are upset, and I can under-"

Steve shook with rage as his voice grew louder. "Don't say you understand! Because you don't!"

Sure, he hadn't known he was going to be a father until that moment. In a split second, he had fallen in love with his child and it was snatched from him. That didn't stop the soul-crushing loss from hitting him hard. That was his kid and Nat had just destroyed its life in an attempt to force Eva to love her. They didn't even get the chance to know if the baby had been a boy or a girl. There was no body to find so they could lay them to rest, no grave to visit and mourn over, nothing of the family they could have had.

Any thoughts of putting Nat on OZ were stripped from his mind. He knew Eva's revenge wasn't as simple as they had all made themselves believe. It wasn't even a life-for-a-life situation. She had taken a gift from them and he was going to make damn sure she knew it.

"You can't just go into a Widow Safe House unprepared," Yelena informed him, noticing but not reacting to Clint returning as she wanted to keep her eye on the angry super soldier.

Sharon added, "Yaya has our house filled with traps and alarms. She has to disengage them every day. I have to wait a whole ten minutes outside while she makes sure it's safe to enter."

Steve tried to calm himself, but his rage didn't subside. What they were telling him didn't fully register.

Eva's disturbingly calm voice rang out as she said, "So, a Widow's lair is dangerous."

Bucky interjected, "But the safe house we found you and Loki in-"

Clint said, "She disabled the traps so she could move around safely."

Eva's anger rose again as she said, "So there was a moment where-"

Loki replied, "We never saw where they were or which ones she deactivated. We couldn't safely escape."

He didn't want to believe it, and neither did Eva. But they both knew there had been too many routes to the exit and no way of knowing which were safe for traveling. They could have easily tripped a trap, alerting their captor or killing themselves.

Eva refused to give in to the truth that was laid before her and argued, "We could have tried! Maybe then, my baby would still-"

But she couldn't even form the words. She ran to Steve and hugged him tight. She bawled in his arms as they comforted each other.

"It's okay," Steve whispered to her, fighting his own tears. "Let it out."