Chasing Shadows ;; Steve Rogers

fifteen.

She had forced Steve to finally leave her to go rest. From what Natasha had hinted when she'd come that morning, he'd been here since they'd gotten back from the lab. He hadn't left her side, not even once. The thought made her heart flutter for some reason.

He had finally agreed when Yelena came to keep her company. Bruce had ordered her to stay in bed for another day, even though the Cradle had fixed her injuries. She was malnourished, he told her.

"And you can hide anything you want here, no one would know," Yelena was showing her the pockets in her new vest.

"Yelena, you know pockets aren't a new invention, right?" Ana joked. It was surprisingly easy for her to fall back into this rhythm with the girl she had once considered her sister. All morning they had been bantering and bickering the way they had in Ohio, when they would argue over who got to go down the slide first or who got to play with whatever new toy they got.

"I know, but you've seen our uniforms," Yelena said. "No pockets. Honestly, I could have hidden so many knives."

Ana laughed, lying back against her pillow. "I doubt you needed that many knives to get the job done," she said.

"You know me too well, little sister," Yelena said, and an awkward silence fell over the two of them. Yelena looked at her warily, as if she expected Ana to shoot her down. But Ana had changed during her time with Leviathan this time. She had not been broken like before. She had hoped her sisters would come for her, and they had. She wasn't ready to forget the past completely, but she wanted to make her way there.

She put her hand on Yelena's and smiled at the other girl. "Do you know the first thing I did when I escaped Leviathan and came to the US?"

"What?"

"I went to a baseball game," Ana told her.

"You could have done so many cooler things," Yelena said. "But you chose a baseball game?"

Ana nodded. "Do you remember when Alexei took us to that baseball game?"

"Of course," she said. "It was a few days before we had to leave."

"It was," Ana said. "I remember the boy next to us was teasing me, and I cried. So you punched him and Natasha spilled her soda on him. Do you remember?"

"He deserved it," Yelena said. "So you went to the baseball game because of this memory?"

"I went to the baseball game because that memory was the last time I felt safe," Ana told her. "I remember thinking I was safe as long as I had you guys."

"We didn't protect you when it mattered though," Yelena said softly.

"But I should have known you would have," Ana said. "I should have known she was lying."

"It's not your fault, Ana," Yelena gripped her hand. "Madam B was an expert manipulator. After all, she trained all of us."

"I suppose you're right," Ana conceded. A silence fell between them again, full of sorrow and regret for the time lost.

"You know what," Yelena said, standing. "I think you've been here long enough. It's time for a jail break."

Ana grinned and threw off her blanket. "I thought you'd never ask."

——

It had taken some stealth work to sneak her out of Bruce's lab. Yelena had pushed her behind a corner when she saw Bucky walking down the hall, and Ana was not ashamed to say that she hid in 2 closets and under 1 desk before they got to her bedroom. She thought it would be a safe place to hide for now.