| The Amelie Chronicles | (MCU)

Part One: Chapter Twelve

For a few days, Amelie was unconscious in SHIELD's hospital. The doctors pumped her full of fluids and hemoglobin so she was hydrated and her iron was a normal level. However, her body was totally exhausted, and her subconscious had decided to use this as an opportunity to get Amelie well needed sleep.

All of the Avengers would stop by, making sure someone was always there just in case she would wake up. Steve was especially worried that Amelie would wake up and have no clue what was going on (he had some experience).

Then, four days after the New York debacle, she woke up.

Her eyes slowly opened, revealing fluorescent lights blobs of people. Amelie heard the beeping of monitors around her as she slowly came to, letting out a small sigh as she took in a deep breath.

"Look who's awake."

Amelie looked around with worried eyes, sitting herself up with shaky arms. Slowly, like remembering a haunting dream, she remembered the events of New York.

"I-I'm so sorry-" she began, but Steve put a hand up to silence the girl.

"You aren't in trouble." Steve shook his head, "Far from it."

Amelie quirked a brow, "But, I-"

"You did what you thought was right. You were scared." Natasha shrugged, "In the end, you ended up doing the right thing."

"You squared off with the Tesseract. With your mind powers." Tony was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, a to-go container of food in his lap, "I brought shawarma to celebrate." 

The young girl was baffled, sitting in the hospital bed with raised brows.

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked.

"Tired." Amelie admitted, "Sore."

She brought a free hand to her wounded shoulder, which was stitched and treated properly. It didn't hurt when she touched it, and the bruising around it had faded considerably.

"That is to be expected. You helped us a lot, kid." Clint grinned.

"We were wrong to judge you." Nick Fury walked into the room, hands crossed over his chest. Amelie stiffened, the beeping monitoring her heart picking up in speed as her nerves increased. She was scared of what he had to say, "May I have a word with Amelie, please?"

"Fury." Steve took a step towards the Director, giving him a look of warning.

"Don't worry, Captain, this concerns what we discussed the other day."

"I'll allow it." Steve muttered, clearing the room with the rest of his Avenger friends. Fury closed the door, leaving Amelie alone with him.

"I've got to say, you gave us quite the surprise." He said, sitting down at the foot of her bed, "I honestly thought you were with Hydra. What you did in New York proves me wrong."

"Obviously." Amelie answered.

"Listen, things are going to get really different really fast. Your abilities are full of potential, and we want to teach you how to use them for good. Like the Avengers." Fury offered.

"No more tests?"

"Only if we have your permission." Fury agreed, "And when they do need to happen, you'll be in the know every step of the way."

Amelie was silent, "What is going to happen to me?"

"We want you to stay with SHIELD."

She was silent, "Will I be in that room again? With no shoes and no doorknob?"

Fury shook his head, "No, you'll never be in there ever again if I can help it. One of our current members offered to take you in. You'd come into the HQ a few times a week for training and tutoring."

"Who wants to take me in?" Amelie asked, quirking her brow. Coulson was dead... who would want to take her in?

"Steve Rogers." Fury smiled, "That son of bitch raised his hand so quickly he could have pulled a shoulder."

---

Amelie was nervous. She never lived out in the real world- she didn't know how to act or adapt to this sort of stuff. Yes, she'd be staying with Steve, and she'd be going SHIELD almost every weekday- but compared to what she had been through prior to this... it was different.

Carrying a duffle bag filled with clothes provided to her by SHIELD (courtesy of Natasha's sense of fashion), she followed Steve up the stairs of the apartment building.

"It isn't much." Steve lead Amelie down a hallway, stopping at the door he claimed as his, "But it's home."

"It does not have to be much." Amelie answered, "Home is home."

She hoped she'd be able to call this place her home one day.

Steve unlocked the door and let the young girl inside. It was a fairly sized apartment, with a kitchen and living room as the main living space, with a small hallway and three doors off to the other side.

"Steve?" She stopped in the doorway, her eyes gazing wondrously around the apartment. The super-soldier turned to her, hands in the pockets of his jacket.

"Yes, Amelie?"

"Why did you want to take me in?" She asked, her gaze fixated on her twiddling thumbs, "You could have said no."

Steve kneeled down so he was eye-level with the young girl. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"I took you in because we both needed someone. When I found you outside the Hydra base in Siberia, I saw someone who needed someone else as much as I did." Steve explained, "All those years frozen in the Arctic takes you away from what you know."

He got up, taking the duffle-bag from Amelie and headed down the hall, "Let me show you your bedroom, and then we'll see about some dinner?"

"Yeah." Amelie nodded, following Steve deeper into the apartment with a smile tugging at her lips, "Okay."

END OF PART ONE