California

Chapter 6

"Charlie. You don't have to tell all of us if you don't want to."

I looked over to Natasha. "I might as well. You all have known me since before then so you know I changed when I came back. I never told anyone. Not even my closest friends."

I glanced over to Ace, Syd, and BB who were looking at me with sad eyes. Sliding off the stool, I made my way into the conference room, taking a seat while the others trickled in. Steve sat at the opposite end of the table, staring at me with a skeptical look.

"Okay so after we had been in Iraq for about three weeks, we were getting restless. We decided to take a little break and go explore the market. This lady sold me a scarf for real cheap after some man whispered something, causing panic in her. The scarf was beautiful but very noticeable in a crowd. Scott paid for it and we left. There was a house with kids we stopped at every day. The boys played soccer with Scott and I played dolls with a little girl named Isa." My voice cracked as I said her name out loud for the first time in 5 years. Syd grabbed my hand, squeezing it, offering comfort. "The man followed us. Ended up bombing the house. Three of the boys were killed. They had sat outside the house while I was talking to Scott. Isa was inside. She died too. We found out they had followed us and were trying to send a message to get out of their town. It worked. We were pulled from the mission the next day."

"Shit." Bucky breathed out.

"That's what really happened?" Steve's voice was quiet.

I nodded. "I was telling you the truth earlier. I didn't sleep with Scott. And I'm so sorry for letting you believe that I did. I just could barely live with myself. I couldn't bring myself to talk about it. I'm sorry for keeping it from you guys, I really am. And Steve, losing our guys and Sam getting hurt just made things a hundred times worse. I felt like again it was all my fault. It was. I wasn't paying attention like I should've been. So that's why I just couldn't be around you anymore. I didn't know if you blamed me too and I just couldn't deal with that."

"Of course I didn't... Don't... blame you, Charlie. I distracted you. I was trying to convince you to retire with me. That wasn't the appropriate time to try to discuss that with you. So if you're to blame, then so am I."

We all just sat in silence for what felt like forever before a banging on the front door jolted us. My phone buzzed about the same time with a text from Scott saying he was outside. I hopped up and started to make my way out of the conference room.

"Scott's here. Play nice and don't bring up Iraq.. please."

Everyone nodded in agreement and I went to open the front door. Scott looked exhausted but he smiled widely when I appeared in front of him.

"I'm so happy to see you, but come take a shower and change before you hug me, please?"

He laughed and nodded as he stepped in the doorway and followed me to the showers in the lab.

"So who all is here?"

I hesitated. "Everyone pretty much."

"Steve?" His voice sounded strained.

"Yeah. But he's not going to be a problem this time, I promise."

I sat down in B's chair fiddling with a pen while I waited for Scott to finish showering and get dressed. He finally stepped through the door, looking a little more refreshed and 'Scott' like. I jumped up and ran over to him, hugging my long lost best friend.

"I'm so glad you're okay."

He tightened the embrace. "I'm glad you are too. I've been wanting to check on you, but I didn't know if you would want to hear from me."

"I know. Things have been weird since we saw each other last. And I'm sorry that Steve punched you."

"It's fine. I don't blame you for not telling him what really happened."

Before I could respond, the rest of the group joined us in the lab.

"Not to interrupt your little reunion, but we need to go get supplies while it's still early."

Steve nodded at Scott before turning his eyes back on me.

"Okay. Let me grab a bag and we'll go. Who all is coming?"

"Bucky and Natasha are coming."

"Okay, Scott we will explain what we think is the best plan of action when we get back. Otherwise if you have any questions, they know everything else that we know. So you can just talk to them."

He nodded before reaching out to grab my shoulder as I started to turn away. His eyes bore into mine.

"Be careful out there, okay? We may not have infected out here that we know of, but people have gone crazy. It's dangerous."

I patted his arm before it dropped back down to his side. "We will be, don't worry. We'll be back soon."