The Captain's Renegade (Steve Rogers x Reader)

9

You found yourself wandering off to a place you often went to when you were younger and needed time to yourself. About 20 feet away from the motel, was a little creek filled with Saguaro cacti and Prickly Pears. The creek was abundant with fish and Gila monsters.

There was always one Gila monster that you shared a bond with. When you were young, you had named him Cas. Of course, that was before you met the angel.

You couldn't tell if Cas was shocked or trying not to cry when you named a lizard after him. Cas was larger than the other Gila monsters. His scales were a pinkish red in comparison to the others. His tail was fatter and longer, and his head was rounder than the other lizards.

One way you tried to get Cas to come out was with eggs. You looked around and saw an egg from a roadrunner nest. When you picked it up, a large scaly head with pink and black scales poked through.

Cas thankfully recognized you and rubbed his head against your palm. "Hey, buddy. Remember me?" You cooed as he licked your hand.

You picked Cas up and placed him on your lap as you sat on a bolder. He looked at you with his beady eyes. "I've had a rough night buddy. Guess I needed to cool off." You sighed.

You looked closely at Cas and noticed that he had some scar tissue near his arms and head. Some hadn't healed fully. They weren't that bad. You could just put a makeshift bandage on them.

Before you could do it, you heard someone calling your name. You put Cas down and looked around to see Sam running towards me. You sighed and turned away from him. "Y/n, come on. We're all worried about you." Sam said when he caught up to you.

You looked at him with empty eyes. "Sam, how long did it take for Steve to ask you to find me?" You asked, your voice void of emotions. Sam looked at you with hurt. "Y/n, I did this because I care about you, not because Steve told me to. You're not fine. That was possibly the worst panic attack that I've seen you have."

You looked at him. He was genuinely concerned about you.

"It's just, I have a hard time trusting people. As a parent, when you finally have a child, that child has to automatically trust you, trust that you'll take care of them.

"My dad literally took that same trust that I gave him and threw it down the drain. Every time he would beat me behind my mother's back, and every time a new experiment popped up in his brain he'd lie and say that it was the last test."

You didn't realize that you were crying until Sam pulled you in close and wrapped you in a blanket. You shuddered. "I just, don't get it. Why me? SHIELD has rabbits for a reason. Dad could've just asked if he could use some for an experiment. Why a child, who would do that to their own child..."

Sam hugged you close, saying something that you couldn't really hear. But, it was probably something reassuring. After all, that's what friends are for.

"Sam," You asked. "Do you know how my mom died?"

He looked at you. Sam looked scared to answer. "Um, no, not really. You never really, opened up about it." He looked at you, hoping he worded his answer correctly.

You sighed. "Well, maybe I do wanna open up about it."

Y/n was already enjoying herself. She had learned to trust others to an extent. She made new friends and was back to a normal childhood for a seven-year-old.

When Y/n saw Aunt Marie coming to pick her up, she got excited. She was going to have a girls' trip! She would spend time with her family again! "Auntie Marie! Momma didn't tell me you were coming!" Y/n giggled as she hugged her aunt.

Maria looked at her niece with sadness. "Okay, so. Auntie has some bad news. Do you know what happens when something dies?"

Y/n nodded. Her mother had told her that the body no longer functions, and that organism no longer lives. Then her aunt tore her world apart with the next few words.

Her mother is dead.

Marie hugged her niece. It was hard to lose her sister, but it was harder for Y/n to lose her mother. Marie picked up her crying niece and drove to the house.

When they entered the house, Marie tried to cover Y/n's eyes, but she could see everything. Her mother laid dead on the kitchen table, blood dripping down the sides. And next to her now-deceased body, near the beginning of the staircase, was something Y/n had never seen before.

The creature was stocky and robust. Its smooth skin was a dark red, and its face (for some unknown reason) resembled a sphere. It was holding a bloody knife.

Y/n instantly connected the picture. That creature had held the sole purpose of killing her mother.

You wiped the tears off your face. "When everything was said and done, my aunt took me back to her apartment in Scotland. About a year after, Nick found me and took me in. That all happened so long ago I barely even think of it."

Sam looked at you. "Y/n, you met us about 9 years ago, how long has it been since he took you in?" You looked at Cas, who was still nuzzling your feet. "Almost 20 years I've worked at SHIELD. But he took me in when I was 7. So it has been a total of 29 years since that day."

Sam looked at you. "Y/n, there is something I should tell you. Your dad... is alive."