Little Situation

Chapter 6

 "Happy 14th birthday, Sarah!"

Steve handed her a gift box. It had been a little under two years now with her dad and there were more ups than downs. She opened it to find multiple pairs of ballet shoes, including ones actually in her skin tone.

"You said you wanted to go back to dance. I thought maybe we'd enroll you in something, have you know more kids besides Clint's."

While Sarah had opened up to Steve, Nat, and Clint, she was still very much affected by HYDRA. Steve had only gotten a clue to find her a therapist last year to work with. So for now she still went to work with Steve and learned from a tutor and textbooks— which her tutor struggled to find topics sometimes because her mother had already covered them.

Speaking of her mother, Steve had yet to find any living relatives. If he had to be honest, he wasn't trying very hard. He wasn't sure if he actually had real custody since HYDRA used him more as a glorified sperm donor than anything and maybe Sarah's family would want to take her and he wouldn't be able to do much to stop it.

"Thanks, Dad."

Sarah gave him a hug and then the two left for their daily morning run. About two weeks ago, Sarah announced that she had gotten bored of the old route so her and Steve decided to switch it up. Steve was still faster but not by much and enjoyed testing and racing her. The two were usually wild with how they ran considering no one else was around but the cars; however, there was one other person out today on their new path.

"On your left," Steve called as the two ran past the man.

"On your left," he called again after another couple of passes.

"Yep, on my left. Got it."

The man must have been running the same path as the two because they had passed him again. He could hear Sarah and Steve coming and looked over his shoulder.

"Don't say it. Don't say it."

"On your left," Steve said as he ran past.

"Oh come on!"

Sarah laughed and slowed down to jog with him for a moment.

"Sorry about my dad," Sarah said before taking off again, yelling at Steve. "Cheater! You know I stopped to apologize!"

When she and Steve had finished their race— him winning, because he cheated— Sarah spotted the man sweaty and breathing heavily underneath a tree. Steve approached him.

"Need a medic?" he joked.

"More like a new set of lungs. You two just ran, what, thirteen miles in a half hour?"

"Guess we got a late start."

"Really? You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take another lap... did you just take it? I assume you just took it."

Steve laughed before spotting the symbol on the man's sweatshirt.

"What unit are you with?"

"58th Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA. Sam Wilson."

"Steve Rogers," Steve said as he extended a hand to pull Sam up. "This is Sarah."

"Kind of put that together. Must've freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing."

"It takes some getting used to but this one's trying to help me out." Steve threw an arm around Sarah's shoulder.