Fourth in the Timeline series |
Clara Lewis never expected to be back in the 1940s and Howard Stark never expected to have to help her get back...again. But with Howard branded a traitor Clara knows of only one person who can help her: Peggy Carter...
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Steve stood stock still for more seconds than were really necessary. The information had gone in, of course it had, he was Captain America. He knew what he was going to do next and only faltered, not for his sake, not so he could think through everything that had happened to Clara, but for Bucky.
The last thing they knew, Clara was alive and well and searching for them. Zemo was dead, the threat was gone. Even his problems with Tony seemed to have vanished into thin air. Steve was still expecting Clara to run across the snowy waste land, hug them all and thank god they were all safe, then they'd be on their way. But since when had she been considered an enemy of the state?
Once he'd analysed the effect his actions were going to have, he sprung like a coiled viper. His hand tightened around the wedge of papers, creasing them slightly. He turned on his heels, making a crunching sound as the snow flattened under this step. He headed for the quinjet.
Steve snatched the papers out of Bucky's hand, grabbing them fiercely, and marched across the snow-covered wasteland with such fury in his eyes it could have melted all the snow and left a sunny meadow, all of which was directed at the girl.
Heather had poked her head around the open door to see where everyone had gone. Bucky took a minute to think things through before he shuffled after Steve, who practically pushed Heather to the ground in his haste. He did stop, or seem to even hear Heather and Bucky's questions, until he was face to face with the girl.
"What's this?" He asked, hauntingly calmly. His eyes burned with a hidden fury, of pent up frustration.
The girl looked down at Steve's hand, which he'd raised slightly, holding the papers aloft. She scanned the with her eyes and shrugged.
"What does this mean?" Steve pressed, speaking to her more firmly like a disobedient child. He didn't trust her, not fully. No matter who's kid she was- or claimed to be.
"I don't know." Emma sighed. She had no hint of emotion in her frosty, blue eyes.
Steve felt his heart sink, not that he showed it. If she really was his closest friends' child, he couldn't tell. The S.H.I.E.L.D training had wiped out every tiny mannerism that she could have picked up from them. She was a blank slate that S.H.I.E.L.D had painted over. She didn't even know what had happened to her own mother.
"Is this why you're here?" Steve accused bluntly. He would waste no time in righting all the wrongs committed to his friend. Losing Clara was one of them. He thrust the papers at her ruthlessly. He didn't even wait for her to grip them before releasing his own. Most of the letters flittered to the ground, falling slowly in the chilly breeze. The document at the front, the most important one, was clutched in Emma's bony hands. She unfurled in creased pages and skimmed the length of it with her eyes.
"Blimey." She breathed and Steve clocked that she must have read up to 'most wanted'.
"So?" He snapped shortly, "This is why you're here." He said, stated rather than asked. In his mind everything was already solved. They'd been betrayed, again. His heart was filled with distrust for the time being. Every time he'd trusted someone, even just a little, everything had backfired. He wasn't going to be so careless this time.
"No actually." Emma challenged callously, "But damn! My mum was pretty cool!" She chuckled slightly, even under Steve's icy glare. Truly being who she said she was, Emma Barnes was used to her Uncle's odd looks and had learned to ignore them.
Steve grabbed the document out of Emma's hands and turned to Bucky in order to hand it back over. In his rage, he hadn't noticed Bucky softly collecting all the dropped letters up from the floor.
He then immediately hounded on Heather.
"We need to leave. And we need to leave now." He ordered and turned away. Heather's brow furrowed.
"Wait, but...what about Clara?" She fumbled, trying to gain back Steve's wandering attention.
"We can't help now, not yet. Not now." He said gravely although to Heather, it sounded like a riddle. Not now? But to Steve, it all made sense. Clara had a habit of wandering off, through different time zones...different eras.
Steve ignored Heather as she shuffled uncertainly to sit at the controls and begin to pilot the quinjet. He didn't acknowledge Bucky further than placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Instead, he simply stared at Emma.
Her hands were still held up to her chest, her fingers still curled from where she had held the paper. It was like she had frozen. She simply stared at the floor, a bewildered look on her face, like a mixture of terror and confusion. Steve cleared his throat and she twitched, turning her head quickly to look him in the eyes. All the conflicting emotions from before vanished as she struggled to compose the blank look all S.H.I.E.L.D field agents had to wear.
"What was that?" Steve asked, a hint of humour in his voice. It wasn't that he found the situation funny, of course not, but the look on Emma's face told him that she didn't have everything figured out, contradictory to the impression she gave. "Don't you know everything?" He prompted sarcastically when she failed to give an answer.
Rather than snap back with some snarky comment as he had expected her to do, Emma shook her head slowly.
"Yeah, I do know everything." She said at last, unnervingly softly, "That's why I'm nervous...because this didn't happen. It shouldn't be happening."
