Miss America: The Daughter of Steve Rogers

Chapter 22

A bright light shines in my eyes. I'm in a backyard, running around as my mother hangs up the freshly washed sheets on the clothing line. My father then walks through the back door.

"There's my beautiful girls." I run up to my father and he pulls me into his arms. Picking me up, he walks me over to my mother and kisses her cheek.

Then the scene quickly turns to my mother crying on a couch, and I run up to her and give her a hug. We both cry into each other's arms. We had just heard the news about my father.

Then I'm in a van, tied up, just waking up. The first face I see is a familiar agent, then he kicks the side of my head, knocking me out again. Waking me up, back to reality.

"Em?" A familiar voice says. My eyes flutter open and I look around. Jolting up, not realizing where I am. Panting, I look around the room. I'm surrounded by Sam, Wanda, Bucky, and Peter. I'm back at the compound in the medbay.

"What the..." I bring my fingers to my cheek and feel a tender spot, just below my eye.

"Hey, careful. You're okay." Bucky tells me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I look over at Peter.

"What happened?"

"I think that's a question we should be asking you." Sam says, slightly angered.

"Right." I mutter.

"Emerson, you've gotta talk to us. We can't help you if-" Wanda starts to say, but I cut her off.

"I don't need your guys help." I yell. "I don't need anyone to save me."

"Em, you almost died..." Peter trails off.

"But I didn't." I scoff. Adjusting myself on the bed, trying to get up. Bucky stops me.

"Damn it Em." He huffs out. "You would've if Queens, here, didn't scoop you up and bring you here. You were on the brink of death until Wanda used her powers to get the venom out of your bloodstream." He pauses and calms down. "You'd be dead if you didn't have help."

"What would it have mattered anyway?" I ask, standing up, tearing the IV out of my arm. Bucky glares into my soul.

"Drop the attitude, Emerson. Quit turning everything into a punchline." He says. "And you know something else, quit acting like you're not afraid-"

"I'm not!" I cut him off.

"You're lying!" He shouts. "And you may as well drop it because I can see right through you."

"You have no idea what you're talking about." I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, I do. You're scared, Em." Everyone stand with their jaws dropped and eyes wide. Bucky turns to the others. "Give us the room."

"Bucky..." Sam warns.

"You heard me, Wilson." He glares. Sam nods and guides Wanda and Peter out of the room. Bucky looks back at me. "You asked me 'what would it have mattered?'" He repeats my question back to me in anger. "Are you kidding?"

"I'm serious, Buck." I tell him. "What use am I? My father gave me his shield because he thought I was the best person to continue his legacy." I start to get choked up. "I'm not even a hero!"

"Don't do that to yourself." Bucky tells me, wiping my tears from my eyes.

"Why? It's the truth." I jerk my head away. "The things I've done." I look down. "The good can't possibly outweigh all the bad."

"That wasn't you." He says. "You can't put that on your shoulders."

"What else am I going to do? Just brush it off like it never happened?"