Miss America: The Daughter of Steve Rogers

Chapter 46

My eyes flutter open and I look around me. I'm in a private jet and Happy is stitching up wounds in Peter's back, clearly causing pain.

I'm laying on a couch, hooked up to a machine. I don't know what it is, but it feels like it's healing my broken bones. I'm still sore, but not in as much pain as I was before.

"Okay... hold still. Here we go." Peter visibly flinches. "I thought you had super strength."

"Super strength doesn't make you immune to pain." I mutter and sit up. Peter and Happy look over at me with relief.

"Thank god you're alright." Peter says to me, but I can still see worry written all over his face.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I say, rubbing the back of my head. "Weren't we hit by a train?"

"Yeah, not your finest hour." Happy jokes. Peter and I give him a look telling him to shut up. He clears his through and continues to stitch up Peter. "All right, relax. Just a few more... there we go." Peter yells in pain and slams his fist on the table. "Relax!"

Peter jumps up from his chair. "Don't tell me to relax, Happy! How can I relax when I've messed up so bad?" I jump at his sudden outbreak. "I trusted Beck. Right? I thought he was my friend so I gave him the only thing that Mr. Stark left behind for me and now he's going to kill my friends and half of Europe, so please do not tell me to relax." He sits down, silent for a few moments. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I shouldn't shout. I just really miss him."

"Yeah, I miss him too." Happy says. I get up and take a seat next to Peter.

"Everywhere I go, I see his face. And the whole world is asking who is going to be the next Iron Man and... I don't know if that's me, Happy, Em. I'm not Iron Man."

"You're not Iron Man. You're never going to be Iron Man. Nobody can live up to Tony. Not even Tony." Happy tells him. "Tony was my best friend. And he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did, he was all over the place. The one thing he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you. I don't think Tony would've done what he did... if he didn't know that you were going to be here after he was gone."

Peter looks to him with tears in his eyes. I place my hand on his shoulder.

"Pete, I know how you feel." I tell him, my eyes starting to water. "Everyone is expecting me to be just like my dad." He looks down. "Now we have the choice to spend our whole lives trying to be the next Iron Man and Captain America, or we can spend it being the best heroes we can be." He moves his gaze to look me in the eyes. We both stare for a moment, taking each other's emotions in. Then I stand up and take his hand in mine. "Let's show the world who Miss America and Spiderman are."

He stands up next to me and takes a deep breath, squeezing my hand.

I've spent my whole life trying to live up to the Rogers name. But really, I should've been trying to live up to my name. Emerson. And the hero I want to be. I finally realize that now. And I finally understand why my father left me his shield.

"Your friends are in trouble. You're all alone. The tech is missing. What are you gonna do about it?" Happy asks us.

"We're gonna kick his ass." Peter says with a smirk while glancing at me. I can't help but smile.

"No, I mean right now. Specifically, what are we gonna do? Because we've been hovering over a tulip field for the last fifteen minutes."

"A tulip field?" I question.

"Yeah, we're kinda in the Netherlands right now." Peter informs me.

"The Netherlands?!"

"Yeah, we woke up in a jail cell."