The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 37

My senses slowly begin to return to me. The smell of hand sanitizer and medicine burns my nose, soft fabrics lay under my fingertips when I slowly move them and groan escapes my lips when my fingers cramp up. I take a deep breath and pry my eyes open to see a boy staring at me.

"Grace?" He says and I feel my heart flutter. I look at him and try to raise my hand to touch his face but I feel it restrained by something. My stomach does a flip when I look down to see his hand grasped into mine.

"Peter?" I say remembering the boy from the Hydra. I hear him chuckle when he looks down at me. He moves his other hand up to my head and pushes my hair out of my face before he lowers his lips onto mine. Memories burst from the farthest crevices of my brain, each of them playing out like a movie. The day Tony and Pepper took me in, the day I joined school and met my friends, the first Christmas Party I had with my friends. The events of Sokovia to the events of me spending time with my friends on New Years. All the good and bad memories came back to me. Tears stream down my face from the finality of Peter being OK, of him knowing my true identity and accepting it.

"Guys?" Peter breaks apart and we look over to see Steve and Tony standing in the doorway. They both don't look too happy to have walked in on that kind of thing. I look over at Peter and start laughing at his face being all red, which is why I'm thankful that he has his back to them. Tony pipes back up after taking in a deep breath. "Sorry to interrupt, but we were kind of surprised to see Grace awake after a week."

I start to laugh harder and stop when a pain erupts from my shoulder. Soon the laughs turn to heavy breaths and heaves from the pain. All three of them are at my side in a matter of seconds and it feels nice to have this much support. Someone gently rubs my back as I continue to dry heave into a bucket as another grasps my hand and continuously squeezes three times. Peter. 

"The doctor said that the bullet shattered your shoulder blade and damaged your brachial artery, Grace," Steve looks at me with fearful eyes once my breathing calmed down, "you could have died."

"Guess I got lucky," I say but I can't get the words of what my sister said out of my mind. How it was my legacy to go through all this. I look down at my hand and still see Peter holding it, once he follows my gaze he quickly pulls away. I smile at him but it's just now that I notice how bad he looks. Yellow bruises cover his face, his arm, leg, and nose are in a splint. "Peter, I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what?" He asks smiling at me. I gesture to his splints and he just chuckles. "Oh these, yeah they're my battle scars."

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this," I say. "I was always afraid this would happen to you and here it is... I am so..." Peter all of a sudden cups my face to shut me up.

"Grace it's not your fault, besides now I know how big of a badass you are," Peter says and I can't help but feel heat rise to my face when he said that. 

"Grace," Tony says thoroughly to me and I look over at him, both he and Steve have their arms crossed while they watch us.

"What?" I simply respond. Both of them just respond with a raise of their eyebrows. "Oh." One of them wants to talk with me about something and I look over at Tony. "Do you want to have a talk with him or something?" I see Tony's face go from anger to surprise and now it's my turn to raise my eyebrows. He nods and looks over at Peter before gesturing for him to follow him, my hand grasps onto his and squeezes three times before he leaves my side. As Peter passes by Steve he offers him a salute before exiting, and Steve just shakes his head before closing the door.

"You know that this isn't a joke, right?" I've never seen him get this angry this fast before. "You almost died, Grace. The fact that you didn't give it a second thought is terrifying to the team."

"Steve, calm down. Believe me, I've thought about this a lot while I was asleep. But you and I both know that if I had to do this whole Hydra thing over again I wouldn't change a thing." I say and I almost fly out of the bed but the pain stops me. "I would have risked my life for that boy just like you did for the United States." Steve doesn't say anything, he just looks at me and I almost laugh at the thought on my mind. Before I could stop myself I say it. "I'm sorry you're not the only sacrificing one on the team." This is what causes him to laugh. "Wait, how did you guys come in at the right time?"

"Natasha saw you be taken away from the balcony after getting yelled at. She called us in right away. I guess we found you at just the right time." Steve says. "And before you ask, Draven is dead. He poisoned himself before we could get to him."

"How long have I been here?" I ask.

"About a week. The doctor explained that your brain was under a lot of stress from losing and regaining your memories back that it almost shut down completely. Your body almost killed itself, and it needs rest. You need to rest so you can make graduation."

"How long have I been there?" I ask. "How long have I been at Hydra?"

"A month." I've been away from the outside world for almost five weeks. I have graduation in three weeks.

"What about school?"

"Tony called in some favors with the school," Steve says smiling over at the window. Tony is talking to Peter as he stands there awkwardly. "He told them about how you and Peter were kidnapped, but he didn't mention that you were The Valiant. The only person in that whole school that knows about you is Peter. " 

"What did the school say?"

"Since you and Peter had the highest grades in the whole school, they won't force you to make everything up. They may ask you to make up some tests so they have the minimum amount necessary in the grade book, but they said that you will be excused from the rest." Our gazes travel back to Tony and Peter, I almost laugh at the look on Peter's face. 

"Is Tony having the 'Avenger talk' with him?" 

"Nope," Steve says, "Tony had that talk with him while you were asleep."

"Then what talk is he having with him?" Steve looks at me and then back at Peter before returning his gaze to me. "He's not."

"He is." Steve chuckles.

"He's not having a 'dad talk' with Peter, there's no way." I grin over at Peter who looks terrified at Tony. "Oh my gosh, he is!"

"You know you're like our little sister in the group right?" Steve says, now getting all serious. "Well except for Tony, he looks to you like you're his daughter." He sighs before continuing. "The reason I was so harsh on you when we first started this discussion is that I've lost so many people in my life and I became afraid that you would be dead because I was unable to get you to the ambulance on time. In the past four years, you've almost died at least three times, and with you being the youngest in the group, that is terrifying for all of us."

"Steve, I've never thought of it that way and I'm sorry. I've never had a family like this for more than half my life and I'm still trying to adjust to it." I look down at my fidgety hands. "It feels different having this many people care about me... and not my abilities."

"I understand, Grace, just please from now on, promise me you will be more careful."

"It's kind of impossible to be careful in the workforce like this, but I will try." I simply say. Steve looks down at his hands then away at the door. "What's wrong?"

"It's just, I thought Hydra was taken down in the 40s and two years ago they all of a sudden came back." Steve looks back at me before continuing, "It's just when we broke into the place they kept you captive, we found almost three hundred kids in cells similar to you and Peter."

"Where are they?" I ask.

"They're all here, Grace, they're all here because you held on to your memories and made sure that you would get out. They're all here because of you. You saved over three hundred lives just by holding on to something, that shows how much value you are to the team."

Tony knocks on the door and enters into the room with Peter, Peter's face is slightly whiter than he was before. He shyly smiles at me before making sure to stand at the foot of my bed. Tony smiles at me and I just stare at him which only makes him start to laugh. We all look at each other before Tony speaks up after a few awkward moments.

"The rest of the team deserve to come in and see you," he says walking back out the door. "I'll go get them."