Winters War Phase 3: Some Kind of Monster

Chapter 11

Hill and Fury were watching footage of the interrogation on a large screen.

"Can you explain to me what you are going to do with the words?" Hill asked.

"Prove to the Avengers that she can't be trusted," Fury answered.

Behind them they heard a little gasp. They turned around and saw a blonde woman standing in the corridor with her hands over her mouth. She looked with big eyes at the screen.

"What have they done to her?" she whispered with a sob, as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Agent Elslander!" Fury called out. The woman looked at him like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. "You have no right to be here. Go back to your station."

She nodded and left quickly. A few tears rolled down her cheeks as she walked away. Before she went through the corridor, she swiped the tears from her eyes. She entered an area with other SHIELD agents, all of them working at their own booths. Wilma took her own seat. On her desk was a framed picture of her younger self with a little blonde girl. She released a sigh as she looked at it. Then she focused on her computer keyboard. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and woke up from her sleep. Julia's body stiffened as she saw a silhouette in the corner of her room. When it came closer, it formed into a woman. Julia wanted to gasp for air but she couldn't breathe, and her eyes grew wider.

"Julia," the woman said softly. "Please be careful. Don't trust anybody. There are people who are against you."

Then she faded away. With a gasp, Julia sat up straight in her bed. She was panting, and staring into the distance.

"Hey? Are you okay?" she heard Daisy ask, worried.

"Julia, breathe slowly," she heard Sam.

She felt two strong hands on her shoulders and they shook her a little. Julia blinked and saw a familiar face.

"Sam..." she stuttered, almost choking on her own breath.

"You have to calm down. Follow my breathing," Sam said.

He took a deep breath and held it for three seconds. Together they breathed out and breathed in again. They did this a few times, until Julia finally became calm. Sam smiled at her.

"Good," he said softly.

"Was it a bad dream again?" Daisy asked, gently.

"A woman. She warned me," Julia mumbled as she rubbed her face.

"A woman?" Sam remarked, amazed.

Julia nodded at him.

"You know that woman?"

"She did look familiar," Julia answered, uncertain of where she knew her from.

"She warned you about what?" Daisy asked.

With fatigue and big eyes she gazed at the duo.

"She said, don't trust anybody."

"Do you trust me?" Sam asked. Julia nodded. "And her?" he referred to Daisy.

Julia glanced at Daisy.

"I think so," she answered, unsure. "But I don't trust the one-eyed man."

She looked up in shock as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay, Wilma?" a male colleague of hers asked.

Wilma smiled at him.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just tired."

Wanda was cleaning, with the music of Glenn Miller on in the background. She dusted off the walnut brown furniture with a cloth. She lifted up a flowery journal and the Winnie the Pooh teddy bear to wipe off the nightstand. When she went to put the journal back in its place, it slipped out of her hands. It fell open on the floor with the pages upwards. Wanda picked it up and her eyes went over Bucky's handwriting.

Julia,

Two weeks since you went missing and it hurts. Where can you be? I hope someday, I'll find you somewhere. I'll keep on searching until my dying day and give you the family you deserve.

Steve and the others are saying I'm not myself anymore. I guess they are right, but they miss you too. Sam still feels guilty because he couldn't save you in the first place and Wanda sees you in her dreams.

I wish you were here.

Suddenly a heavy zooming sound interrupted her reading. She whirled in shock at the sound and saw Scott vacuuming the rug, which was in the middle of Bucky's room. She closed the journal, placed it on the nightstand and continued dusting off the furniture.
After a few minutes they were finished. Scott looked around with his hands on his hips.

"He sure has a nice room," he complimented.

While looking around he noticed a poster on the wall. It was a grainy photo of a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jersey City Giants from the forties, with five autographs scrawled on it. Scott nodded, impressed. He looked at Wanda, who had made up the bed with clean sheets. She pulled at the blanket till it was tight over the mattress. Scott walked over to her and noticed the stuffed animal.

"He's sleeping with a teddy bear?" he wondered as he looked at it.

"Not really," Wanda responded in a mumble. "He won it for Julia at a fun fair, but he's kept it here since she went missing."

"Do you think Sam and Nat can get her here?"

"Yes, I think so," Wanda answered, as she lifted up the needle of the gramophone with her telekinesis powers.