𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗢𝗢 - 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗹

𝟬𝟯: 𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗦

AEI: Idk if this counts as trigger warning, but this chapter discusses Alzheimer's disease a lot. If you're lucky enough not to know what that is, it's a disease that a lot of old people get where they lose their memory. Peggy Carter develops it, and because Gracie is pretty close with her, it affects her quite a bit.

The chapter title is drawn from the David Kushner song 'Mr Forgettable,' which is about someone with Alzheimer's. This is a sensitive topic for lots of people, so please be kind in my comments section <3

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

According to everybody, Miss Carter was the first person ever to meet me, which is funny, because she didn't want me to exist in the first place.

I know this because I used to be in the SHIELD office all the time, and when you have a special keycard to everywhere, you walk in on a lot of things you shouldn't. Mostly, it was just top-secret meetings and agents kissing in the hall closets – which was really gross – but sometimes, it was people arguing. Nat calls that stuff Personal Shit, and it is None Of My Business, and she says I should learn to knock. She says the first two things like they are actual rules in the actual constitution, and I don't think they are, but I try not to break them anyway.

When I was seven, I was running away from my tutor because I didn't want to learn about atoms, and I hid in the cupboard in the corner of Mr Fury's office. Everybody knows this is the best place to hide because nobody is allowed in Mr Fury's office without asking, so nobody can ever go looking for you if you go inside.

He doesn't mind when I do it, though. He just rolls his eyes, kicks me out and gives me a dollar to use the vending machine down the hall. He's never actually mad, but even if he was, it would be fine because I'd still get my gumballs at the end of it.

So, I was hiding in Mr Fury's office, being super quiet so nobody would find me, and then some people came inside. I could see through the gap that it was him and Miss Carter, which wasn't weird at the time. Miss Carter didn't get sick until later.

They didn't sit down when they shut the door, and they were talking in these angry, tight voices that sounded like they were being strangled a little bit. I wasn't very good at minding my business then, and I'm still not now, so I just listened to them.

"You let her run wild." Said Miss Carter. "She's a child, Fury, not a rogue lab rat. She needs to be in school."

That was how I knew they were talking about me.

"She has a tutor." Mr Fury replied. "And you know how protective Romanoff is over her – getting that kid out of her sight is like trying to break her out of damn Fort Knox."

"SHIELD is not the place for a young child to grow up, Natasha has to understand that. Gracie's suffering because of her rules, and you and I both know it."

"I don't follow." Mr Fury said, and he was very quiet. That was how I could tell he was getting mad. I'm very good at reading other people, Nat says, but I'm not so good at reading my school books.

"Gracie doesn't talk, Nick."

Mr Fury said nothing. I remember trying very hard not to breathe, and Miss Carter sighed real loud, like Nat does when somebody's being stupid.

"She's grown up in a bubble and she's socially inept because of it." Miss Carter snapped. "She has no friends. Not only is it not fair on her, it certainly isn't fair on all the tutors she's allowed to terrorise aimlessly. I have no doubt that Agent Romanoff loves her – not a sane person on this planet would be able to doubt that – but she lets Gracie run amock in a government agency with no repercussions whatsoever."