CHAPTER THIRTY —
( On your left. )

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Nineteen Forty-nine
        She stood outside the familiar house, her heart for some reason pounding in her chest. She had been given a mission - to eliminate the two residents of the house. Her partner stood beside her, watching her closely. "Take them out," he spoke in Russian, his voice cold and unemotional.

Without a word, she slipped inside the house, her footsteps silent on the polished floors.

As she crept through the darkened hallways, her senses on high alert, a faint flicker of recognition tugged at the edges of her mind. Finally, she reached the main bedroom and hesitated momentarily, her hand hovering over the hilt of her dagger. She took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

The couple stirred in their sleep, their faces peaceful in the dim light. Her eyes widened as she took in their features. She didn't recognise them, but something about them felt familiar. Before she could react, the woman's eyes snapped open, locking onto her masked face. There was a moment of confusion, and then recognition dawned in the lady's eyes. "Evelyn?" she whispered, her voice filled with disbelief.

She froze, her heart pounding in her chest. She couldn't speak, couldn't move. The woman reached out a trembling hand, her eyes pleading. "It's okay, sweetheart. We understand."

She quickly plunged the dagger into the woman's chest and then slit the sleeping man's throat. The sound of the lady's gasp filled the room for a couple of seconds, and just before the lady passed, the woman looked into her eyes and only saw love and understanding. And in that moment, something inside her broke. She collapsed to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she remembered who the couple were.

The memories flooded back, crashing over her like a tidal wave.

Her mother's gentle touch, her father's laughter. The family dinners, the bedtime stories. All of it came rushing back, overwhelming her senses. And as her parents lay dead before her, she realised the truth. She had killed the two people who had loved her unconditionally, who had raised her and cared for her. And now, they were gone, taken from her by her own hands.

Evelyn was numb even as the tears kept rushing down her cheeks. She could feel her heart pounding and bile rise in her throat, but emotionally, she felt numb as she stared into her mother's now-dead eyes and at her father's corpse. Roughly, she was grabbed and pulled to her feet by her partner's metal arm and was dragged away from the bloody scene. She didn't resist, didn't fight back. She was numb, lost in a haze of grief and guilt and memories of the love she shared with her parents. Evelyn didn't understand properly what happened, but she had killed her parents. That she knew for sure.

As they stepped out into the cold night air, Evelyn collapsed to the ground, her sobs wracking her body. The Winter Soldier stood over her, his gaze cold and unfeeling. "Time to go."

But Evelyn couldn't. She had betrayed her own family. And as she sat there, surrounded by darkness and death, she knew that if it weren't for the memory wipe that she would be put in once they got back to base, she would never be able to escape the haunting memories of what she had done. The Winter Soldier injected Evelyn with a serum and knocked her out, and her parent's bodies grew cold for two days before they were discovered.

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Now
Evelyn could feel the bed move from beside her, and that minimal movement caused her to wake up. She was trained to stay alert in whatever situation, so Evelyn would wake up even if Steve mumbled a single word in his sleep. It was both a blessing and a curse, but at that moment, it was a curse. Evelyn looked at her bedside clock and saw it was five in the morning.

Evelyn groaned and rolled over to face Steve, standing by the dresser and getting dressed in his running clothes. "Why do you have to run this early in the morning?" She asked as he slipped on a shirt, much to her dismay.

Steve turned to face her and smiled. "I have to keep my body in shape somehow."

"The serum does that for you anyway," Evelyn countered.

"I'm used to waking up early. I like to do stuff when I'm up." He then threw one of Evelyn's shirts and some leggings at her. They both landed on her face, covering Evelyn's eyes for when he pulled his pants on. "Are you coming?" Evelyn groaned and rolled to her right, which happened to be off the bed. She fell onto the floor with a smack and groaned louder. "That's my girl. We're leaving soon."

"Fuck you, Rogers," Evelyn mumbled. Steve chuckled as he left the room.

Evelyn begrudgingly roused herself, reaching for the shirt and leggings resting by her side. She rose to her feet, taking her pyjama shirt off before slipping on the fresh one. After discarding her shorts, she slipped into the leggings and sprayed herself with deodorant. Making her way to the wardrobe, she tied up her hair, quickly put her sneakers on, and grabbed her sunglasses and hat. With everything in place, she left the room and entered the loungeroom, where Steve was waiting with a warm mug of coffee to get Evelyn going for the day.

The usual Pararescue man was down at the park, jogging laps as the sun began to rise. Finding the situation amusing, Steve and Evelyn deliberately ran laps past the man, all the while announcing it as they passed. They went on the same trail as him, but he only got in five laps, whereas Steve and Evelyn did fifty.

"On you left," Steve told the man as they ran past him.

"Passed ya," Evelyn grinned cheekily and continued running.

Sometime later, when the sun rose a little more, they caught up to the man again as he ran past a massive museum. Steve and Evelyn sprinted to him, saying, "On your left."

"Passed ya," Evelyn chuckled as he groaned.

"Uh-huh. You passed me. Got it," he said.

With the sun almost high in the sky, the couple passed the man by a pond. He must have heard their feet pounding as he turned to look at them and then tried to start sprinting again. "Don't say it. Don't you say it."

"On your left."

"Passed ya."

"Come on!" He ran slightly faster to catch up, but they kept sprinting away.

After Steve and Evelyn finished the lap, they ran around to the man who was now having trouble breathing against a tree. "Need a medic?" Steve teased.

He laughed. "I need a new set of lungs. You guys just ran, like, 13 miles in 30 minutes."

"I guess we got a late start," Steve said with his hands on his hips.

He chuckled again. "Really? You should be ashamed of yourselves. You should take another lap." There was a brief pause. "Did you just take it? I assume you just took it."

"What unit are you with?" Steve asked the man, pointing towards the logo on his breast.

"58th Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA," he said. "Sam Wilson." He held his hand out to Steve.

"Steve Rogers." Steve pulled Sam off the ground, and then Sam turned to Evelyn with his hand out.

"Evelyn Parrish." She shook his hand with a smile.

"I kind of put that together," Sam panted. "Must have freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing."

Steve sighed. "It takes some getting used to, but it helps when I have my best girl," Steve smiled at Evelyn. "It's good to meet you, Sam." Steve and Evelyn turned to walk away when Sam kept talking.

"It's your bed, right?" He asked. They turned back around.

"What's that?"

"Your bed, it's too soft," Sam said. "When I was over there, I'd sleep on the ground. Use rock for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed, it's like..."

"Lying on a marshmallow," Steve and Evelyn replied straight away. Evelyn crossed her arms across her chest, faintly remembering having to sleep on the concrete ground back at HYDRA. "It feels like I'm gonna sink right to the floor," Steve told him. Sam nodded along. "How long?"

"Two tours," Sam said. "You just miss the good old days, huh?"

"Well, things aren't so bad," Steve said. "Foods a lot better. We used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot, trying to catch up."

"And I've been trying to teach him how to use it all," Evelyn nudged Steve with a smile.

"Yeah, Eve has been a massive help with everything," Steve told him.

"Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack," Sam said. "Everything you missed jammed into one album."

Steve took out his diary. "I'll put it on the list." Evelyn looked at Steve's list, consisting of song albums, TV shows, movies, and books. Evelyn had been slowly helping him tick them off. He was so confused when watching Star Wars, with the whole timeline and such, that Evelyn had to explain everything to him until he semi-got it.

Evelyn's phone chimed from her pocket, and she pulled it out to see that she had received a message from Natasha. "Mission Alert. Extraction Imminent. Meet at the curb :)"

"Alright, Sam, duty calls," Evelyn slipped her phone back into her pocket.

"Thanks for the run," the men shook hands. "If that's what you want to call running."

"Oh, that's how it is?" Sam asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, that's how it is," Steve grinned.

Evelyn held her hand out to Sam. "Pleasure finally learning your name after almost a year of outrunning you."

Sam chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, Yeah. Rub it in more, why don't you?" He shook her hand. "It was a pleasure to finally meet you, too." Steve and Evelyn began to walk away. "Any time you want to stop by the VA, make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk. Just let me know."

"Will do," Evelyn nodded as Natasha pulled up to the curb.

Natasha rolled down her window. "Hey, guys. Do any of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up two fossils."

"You're hilarious," Steve said as Evelyn slid into the front seat and Steve hopped into the back, struggling to fit in.

"How're you doing?" Sam asked Natasha.

"Hey," she smiled at him.

"Can't run everywhere," Steve told him

"No, you can't," Sam grinned as Natasha sped off.

AITHORS NOTE
Winter Soldier yeah babyyyyy
Honest to god probably my favourite marvel movie besides Civil War :')
I can't wait to get this show on the road and I can't wait to write more of Evelyn's colourful past as The Annihilator 🕺🏻
Don't forget to like and comment what you think 😁
Pheebs/-rosepetal