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Chapter 6

Sarah crawled out of bed and debated what her next move should be. Her dads would be waiting in the kitchen to lecture her. She could already feel them getting impatient with her. So the choices were, pretend to keep sleeping, have a shower so she didn't quite feel so seedy, or just go out and face the music.

She pulled the comforter over her head. Groaned loudly and climbed out of bed. She wandered into the kitchen. Steve was sitting at the kitchen table with coffee. Bucky was cooking eggs and bacon at the stove.

"Hey, kiddo. You hungry?" Bucky greeted, turning briefly to Sarah.

"I guess so." Sarah answered. "I can hear you, you know?"

"You wanna just get this over with?" Bucky asked.

Sarah nodded and sat down next to Steve.

Steve leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers. "You want to tell us what happened last night?"

"After you dropped us of, Olive got really scared of me." Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose. "She likes me, you know? Like not as friends. And she was sure I'd been reading her mind. Which I have, but I don't mean to. I don't ever mean to."

"I know that honey. It was hard for your mom too." Steve said.

"We went and got food and we were eating it and these guys offered us whiskey. The other two drank it, but I just wanted the boys to leave us alone. So I just drank it all. I thought it would scare them off. I should have just used my powers, made them go away, but Olive was already so scared of me. People are much more scared of my mind things than how strong I am." Olive ran her hands through her hair. "It didn't work. They just bought beer and they kept giving us beer. And then they gave them something. E maybe? I don't know. I didn't want to be all mom on them. But then I kind of got jealous. I wanted to just be like them. I could take all the drugs they had and it wouldn't do anything. But I could see in their head. They were liking it. They were having fun."

"That's no way of having fun, Sarah. It's dangerous and stupid." Steve said.

Sarah stopped talking and just stared at Steve. Bucky came over and put a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of her. He squeezed her shoulder. "Keep going."

"Loki showed up and offered me something and I took it. Then I heard the boys thinking about how they were going to take Olive and McKenna and ..." She stopped again.

"And what?" Bucky pressed.

Sarah conjured up the thoughts the boys had of what they'd wanted to do to Olive and McKenna and pushed them into Steve and Bucky's head. "I punched one of them and then I grabbed Olive and McKenna and then I called you."

Steve put his hand on Sarah's shoulder. "I'm really proud of you for doing that." He said.

She shook her head. "It shouldn't have got that far. If I'd just ..."

"Don't beat yourself up, honey. You protected your friends. That's all that matters now." Bucky said.

"Sarah," Steve said putting his hand on his daughter's. "Has Loki been ..." He stopped not really knowing out to phrase this in a way that didn't make him feel as old as every year that had passed since the day of his birth.

He needn't have worried, Sarah knew. She always knew. "Yes. But I'm not an idiot. Also I think he's just trying to mess with you through me. I don't think he actually wants to do anything."

"How does that make you feel?" Steve asked.

Sarah shrugged. "I dunno. Like it's creepy. It's really creepy. And he's a guy and well ..." She looked at her hands as she twisted her fingers together.