ROSIE'S POV:

Rosie was enjoying her stay in Wakanda. Jake was mostly in the Medical Wing with the psychologists while she, Shuri and a couple of other doctors worked towards figuring out a way to remove the Winter Soldier from his consciousness. The information about the techniques HYDRA had used in him was invaluable to the doctors who were able to come up with a solution and the two girls helped provide the advanced technology necessary.

It was an intensive process that was expected to take quite a few weeks and Rosie was barred from the Medical Wing while the doctors worked on her brother. This resulted in her spending most of her time with Shuri, helping her develop new ideas and refining her knowledge of nanotechnology.

It was like an extended holiday, which she really loved, except for the times when she missed everyone back home. They did have the occasional phone conversation thanks to Tony's paranoia which had led him to rig her phone to the Stark satellites, meaning that it worked anywhere in the world.

Together, she and Shuri were able to build a suit for T'Challa which was disguised as an ordinary traditional Wakandan necklace. The nanoparticles stored in the necklace would activate and form the suit. Rosie used her experience with Tony's suits to help Shuri design it and they were doing their final tests before showing it to him when her phone rang.

"Receive call."

Tony's worried voice was amplified throughout the room. "Rosie, honey, I know we just talked yesterday, but this is an emergency." He paused to take a deep breath, as if bracing himself for something unpleasant. "It's your dad, kiddo. His plane c-crashed. He b-ba-barely made i-i-it. P-Please c-come h-home" Tony's shaking voice and barely suppressed sobs drove the message home.

It was like a bullet to her chest. Her legs gave out under her and Rosie crumpled to the floor, breathing heavily. Her vision was blurring and heart racing with terror. She barely heard Shuri's frantic yelling and had no idea how much time had passed before her eyes focused on a dark brown blur in front of her which slowly solidified into Okoye's worried face. She felt two hands on her shoulders and her hearing slowly returned. "-sanna! Rosanna! You must calm down! Rosanna!"

"Wha-" she mumbled, her head pounding. "Where-"

Shuri's distressed face joined Okoye's in front of her. "Rosie? Do you remember what happened?"

Her brain was still foggy, but Rosie recalled the phone call from Tony. "Dad. Dad! DAD! I have to go back! I HAVE TO GO BACK!"

"Shhh... Shhh... You may go back if you want to, but you must calm down first. I am not letting you out of this country in this state." That was T'Challa's voice.

Rosie shook her head slightly, slowly regaining her senses. She made a conscious effort to control her breathing and recalled the meditation Bruce had taught her. He had spent a long time studying the art and used it to slow down his heart rate to stop the 'Other Guy' from appearing too often. Within minutes, she was back to normal except for a slight headache.

Once Okoye helped her up, she looked at T'Challa. "Please, can you still let Jake stay after I leave?"

"Of course. We will help him, Rosie, rest assured of that. Would you like to leave immediately?"

She looked around at everything that she would be leaving behind, not wanting to leave Jake, but her worry for her dad trumped everything. They all seemed to understand, though. Everyone had sympathetic expressions, but they stood tall, showing their support for her. "Thank you." She whispered, expressing all of her gratitude in those two words. Shuri quickly stuffed a string of kimoyo beads into her hands. "So you can keep in touch." She said, hugging Rosie goodbye.

"Come." She hurried along after T'Challa through the palace to the landing pad, where a S.H.I.E.L.D-style jet was waiting. It would blend in with the other Stark jets that Tony had made for his high-level employees based on the S.H.I.E.L.D design.

T'Challa accompanied her to the door, giving her a hug before she stepped onto it. "We will be looking forward to your visits, cousin. And do not worry about Jake. He's in safe hands." She gave him a watery smile and a small nod before going back up the steps into the cabin.

As soon as she got onto the plane and strapped herself down, the pilot turned on the engines, taking off smoothly and shooting out over the Wakandan skyline towards the barrier.

Half-way to New York, she got a call from Pepper. "Rosie? Where are you?"

"Just flew past Italy. H-how is Dad, Pep?"

"Tony managed to get him airlifted to the Tower and Dr. Cho's currently doing the surgery. From what I understood of the reports, he did manage to eject from the plane before it crashed, but stray shrapnel shredded the parachute and the landing was rougher than expected." Pepper's voice wavered slightly, which was the only indication of her worry. She had spent so long in the public eye that the CEO was quite capable of masking her emotions. Rosie assumed that she was doing this so as not to scare her even more.

"He'll be fine, right?"

"As of now, there's nothing to indicate that he won't make a full recovery."

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The next few days were like a nightmare for Rosie. Her father was kept in a medically induced coma to give his body strength to heal, but no one knew what shape he'd be in once they woke him up. Rosie spent every single waking minute in the Medical Wing, praying for good news. It was the third day of her impromptu camp-out in the Wing when she had a couple of unexpected visitors.

The team hadn't been too pleased with all the secrecy about where she had gone, with the only means of contact between them being phone calls, but reluctantly accepted it. Tony, Pepper and Steve were the only ones who knew she had been to Wakanda, but they all assumed that it was a third-world country where she took Bucky to keep him safe from HYDRA while he recuperated.

Suzanne walked in as usual, but she was followed by- "Monica?" and the two were holding hands. Behind them, walked an older woman who she instantly recognised from her dad's old stories. Captain Maria Rambeau, one of the first two female test pilots in the Air Force. He had spoken highly of the two women who had forged their own path to the jets through a sea of unfriendly and sexist men.

"Rosie?" Monica asked, who looked just as shocked as she felt, "Colonel Rhodes is your dad?"

Rosie gave her a sheepish grin, "Adopted, but neither of us give a damn about that."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She winced at the hurt in her friend's tone. "I've just gotten used to not telling people. When I was younger, it was to keep me safe, but now, I don't want to be accused of being shown favouritism at SI just because my dad's best friends with the owner."

"Monica, mind introducing us?" Ms Rambeau interrupted, raising an eyebrow at her daughter.

"Right, Ma, this is Dr. Rosanna - is it Carter or Rhodes?"

"Both actually. Rhodes is my middle name and Carter my mom's surname. Pleased to meet you ma'am. I've heard a lot about you from Dad."

Ms Rambeau smiled at her. "Pleased to meet you too, dear. James was one of my first friends in the Air Force who didn't give a damn that I was a woman doing a man's job."

Rosie laughed, "Dad is a very vocal feminist. It is rather hard to not be one when you live in the same building as Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff. He's been insanely supportive of everything I do."

She observed that Suzanne and Monica's hands were still tightly intertwined. They turned bright red when they saw that she had noticed their hands. "Are you two..."

"Dating?" Suzanne finished for her. "Yeah."

"Since when?" Rosie demanded.

"A week ago."

"Why didn't you tell me, Suzie? I'd obviously want to know about your girlfriend!"

Their faces gave their thoughts away. "You thought I wouldn't support you, didn't you?" She held Suzanne face with both of her hands and forced her to look up, meeting her eyes with her own.

"I don't call you my sister for nothing. Remember that promise we made back at college? You're gonna always be there for me and I'll always be there for you. It wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment thing for me, okay? You're stuck with me for the rest of your life whether you want that or not. And the same goes to you, Monica. You guys are family, please remember that."

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It had taken longer than the doctors had estimated, but her dad woke up from the coma a week after the Rambeaus' first visit. Rosie had been sitting on the edge of his bed, holding his hand and talking to Maria when there was a beep on the monitors. A few seconds later, the hand she was holding twitched. Rosie turned around to face her father.

"Dad? Can you hear me? Dad?"

His other hand moved.

"Dad, it's Rosie. Please wake up, Dad. I need you, please."

His eyelids twitched.

"Ms. Rambeau 's been telling me that it's been over a year since you guys last met. She's sitting right next to me, Dad. All you've gotta do is open your eyes. Please...."

There was a faint groan and his eyes slowly opened.

"Hi Dad." Rosie smiled through her tears. "Long time no see, Rupert." Maria said from the side. The two women broke into shaky laughs as he glared as best as he could in his current condition. It was well known that Colonel James Rupert Rhodes did not like his middle name and only barely tolerated being called by his full name at official events.

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