Song: "Where We Started" by Lost Sky, feat. Jex

******

Over the course of the next four months, I was slowly nursed back to health. I regained a new sense of a healthy body weight and my ribs were no longer visible. I also began to do physical therapy in a private gym with Clint and Natasha. Every morning and night, Bruce would give me medicines and check ups, and I was beginning to feel accustomed to the new routine I had.

Bruce gave me a liquified dose of melatonin to help me sleep at night when the nightmares hit, and allowed and gave me space when I needed time to stop.

When Max walked out of the room that day, he didn't come back. A huge part of me was angry, but I mostly felt empty. There was some sliver of hope he'd come back for me, but as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, I lost that hope.

I was in the gym one day, headphones on as I used some weights to work my shoulders, when a giant man appeared next to me. He wasn't exactly a giant, but compared to my five-foot-three-inch stature, he certainly was.

He had blond hair, big muscles, and bright blue eyes. He smiled at me and picked up a sandbag and hooked the chain to the ceiling. I felt my eyes widen slightly.

"So, you must be Avery," He said and held out a hand to me. "I'm Steve Rogers."

I set my headphones around my neck, cheeks warming, and I reached out to shake his outstretched hand. "Good to meet you," I say. "You don't have to say anything about the hair and wings- I know I look weird."

He shook his head and said with a small smile, "My mom used to tell me stories about angels. You look more like one of them." He says and began to wrap his knuckles in boxing tape, squatting as he did so.

I felt my face grow even warmer as I said, "I'm not entirely sure I believe in angels anymore, but, ah, thank you."

He looked up at me, then said, "Sometimes angels are hard to find. God even more so. But He was there during Germany, and he was there for you, too."

I clenched my jaw. "Maybe that's why I'm not dead, maybe not. I'm just not sure anymore."

He nods. "Doubt is normal. Just not too much, Avery. Keep your chin up and remember who you are and don't give up on yourself, either."

I didn't have anything to say to that, and merely nodded my head. "Do you miss your old life?" I asked awkwardly. "Like, do you miss your life before they changed you? Sorry. I shouldn't be asking that, that's super personal."

He looks at me and shakes his head. He finished wrapping his knuckles and said, "No, don't worry about it. And sometimes I do, but I'm here now, and I have a job to do. I believe I was chosen for a reason, and I'm here for a reason, so I'm going to do what I can to help and protect others."

"How'd you deal with all the changes?" I asked, my wings rising a little behind me before I folded them again.

His eyes scanned over them at the movement before meeting mine. "I had to learn to be more careful with opening doors, but I made adjustments, and here I am now. You'll get there, Avery."

I smiled slightly at that. "Bruce took x-rays and a few tests and said my bones are hollow now, but are almost as strong as steel. He said I should in theory be able to fly with these." I say. "Which is cool in and of itself. My obstacle is t-shirts."

He laughed slightly at that. "T-shirts would be difficult. I think it'll be amazing when you get to fly." He says.

Suddenly, the door to the gym opened and the woman who saved me that day, Maria Hill, entered with Natasha and Clint.

"Avery," she says and stops in front of me. "I have a proposition for you."

"What sort of proposition?" I asked warily.

"How'd you like a job? Here? I'm assuming you may want to stay here?"

I froze, my eyebrows shooting into the air. I looked over at Steve who had a small smile on his face as he watched. "I mean, I guess I should stay here now, but what kind of job are you thinking?"

"Nick Fury started the Avengers Initiative by bringing together some unlikely and special people. I think you'd make a good addition, with the proper training, but I want you to meet Stark and Thor first. It's all up to you."

I didn't know what to say. The idea was so preposterous and I almost didn't believe what she was saying. And so, despite my better judgement, I laughed. "Wait- you're serious. Me? A superhero? Fighting bad guys and saving people? I don't think I'm equipped for that."

"Why not? You never know if you are until you're in it." Maria says.

I shrugged and said bitterly, "I grew up an orphan because my parents didn't want me. All they left me with was a concussion and memory loss and this scar on my head. And I stayed at that foster home until I was nineteen and they kicked me out. I've had to save myself repeatedly because no one has ever saved me until you guys showed up. So how could I save others when I've only lived for me? How could I spend my time avenging people? Why does all this have to happen first? It doesn't feel right, and doesn't make sense."

"That's fair," Natasha begins, stepping towards me. "But if I had the same viewpoint as you do right now, after all of what I went through, there would be a lot more dead people out there. Innocent people, like you, that didn't deserve bad things to happen to them."

"Yeah, sure, except the whole point of your team here is to avenge people. You don't particularly go out of your way to save people before the bad things happen. You go after the bullshit has already happened and then take back what was there before. That doesn't exactly sound like a superhero job. And from what I've heard, they're still fixing New York after two whole years. And you still have no idea where Loki's scepter is."

"How can I convince you to join the team?" Maria asks.

I stared at her, having a hard time figuring these people out. "You can answer a question. Why do you want me? I have nothing to offer but these wings I don't even know how to use."

She jut her chin over to the weight rack. "You see that two-pounder? Get it. Without your hands."

I raised both eyebrows and scoffed, resisting the urge to laugh. "Really? You want me to use my feet or something?"

"No, your mind," she says and nods, tapping her own temple.

"Try it, Avery," Steve said gently, nodding over to the weights. "You never know. Give it a chance."

He moved to stand by Natasha and Clint with an encouraging nod as he waited for me to do the thing they all were expecting.

The only problem was, I had no idea what they were taking about.

If this is what being an Avenger was, I was convinced they were all just crazy.

"We did several brain scans, Avery, and a few sleep studies, as you know. And had a monitor pointed at you from all angles to capture what you did. Every night around two in the morning, you pick up something from a table and make it float around the room before it drops. You hear the drop and grumble and toss and turn but it simply raises and is set back onto the table. You have telekinetic powers, and it makes me wonder if you have telepathic, too."

I froze. I looked from Maria Hill to the weights rack and back again. I clenched my jaw and said, "This is so stupid." I ran a hand through my hair, then said, "Aw, what the hell. Can't hurt to humor you."

I reached my hand out and looked at the two-pound weight. What was I supposed to do? Think of it flying towards me- oh shit!

I ducked as the weight sailed over my head and crashed into the wall behind me, embedding itself into the concrete. I looked at my hands and what looked like tendrils of white smoke curled around my fingers and then disappeared into my skin. My hands shook as I stared at them in horror. What the...?

Maria stepped closer to me and I took a step back. She nodded and said gently, "Imagine doing that to a car that was overturned, or rubble blocking an exit to a fallen building. Avenging is what we do, yes, but avenging also lies in the simpler things, if you will. Imagine how many people you could help with that ability, how many children you could protect from having the same fate as you."

I clenched my jaw. "I guess you have a point. I didn't think of it that way," I looked over at her and crossed my arms over my chest. "And my homework is to practice, huh?"

"You bet," Clint says with a snort as he ripped the weight from the wall. "Nice shot. You could take out all the bad guys with just this."

I flipped him off and grumbled, "I still have to learn to fly and control these powers. This is still new for me. And I'm still trying to get used to all of you. I grew up reading fairytales and comic books, and didn't think my life would just become one."

"Yeah... Stark and Thor are definitely people you're not ready for, then, if you think we're hard to get used to." Clint says jokingly and Natasha sends him a degrading look.

"I'm going to meet them eventually. And I already know about Stark. And all his, ah, quirks. And Thor? As in Norse myths Thor?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty much," Natasha says.

"Of course it is. Because that's not weird." I take a deep breath and turn to Maria and say, "So, about that seventh member of the team position. I guess I'm in. So, let's get training, because I won't just sit here anymore."

******

"You know, maybe one-on-one combat isn't your thing," Steve said as he approached me and sat down on the bench next to me.

I rolled my eyes and adjusted the ice pack on my shoulder. "Maybe not yet, but when flying away doesn't work, what else am I supposed to do?"

He nods. "True. You also have other skills."

"Skills that kind of freak me out," I said and dropped the ice pack to hold it in both of my hands. I sighed. "I don't know, Steve... it's still all so weird to me, all this training. At least you can't see my ribs anymore."

His features softened and he said, "You're doing the best you can with what you have, Avery," he stood up and held a hand out to me. "Something about that super soldier serum can help you run pretty fast. How about we go a couple miles?"

I laughed slightly. "Me? Race against you?" I set my hand in his and his fingers curled gently around mind as he helped me to my feet.

"Why not? I've seen you run. You're pretty fast."

"Almost as fast as you?"

He smirked. "Almost."

"I bet I'm faster," I said, returning his smirk as I stretched out my arms, my wings rising as I did so. "So, Steve Rogers? Shall we race?"

He smirked. "You're on, Avery Grace."

*******

That night, I went to bed, letting myself sink into the pillows and mattress, wrapping my arms around a pillow and stuffing my face into another.

I stretched my wings up to the ceiling, then they fell back around me and I released an annoyed huff and sat up. I turned my head to my dresser where the melatonin sat waiting for me.

I had no interest in reliving my traumas through nightmares, and Steve and I had a run tomorrow morning at five sharp. What was the harm in just... staying up?

I sat up and rubbed at my eyes, grinding my teeth.

I've struggled with insomnia since I was little- something about abandonment issues or some shit like that according to my therapists.

I stood up, picking up one of the many shirts with slits cut through the back that I now owned, and tugged it over my head. It was a size or two too large and I tied a knot on the hem at my waist and pulled my silver hair back into a bun.

I put on my slippers and left my room to wander through the corridors.

I finally came to an area I was unfamiliar with. I dug into my pocket and pulled out my lanyard with my very own key card on it, and tapped it on the lock. To my surprise, it opened. I headed into the room to find it was well-lit, which was strange for nearly one o'clock in the morning.

I wrapped my arms around myself and looked around. There were walls and walls filled with machinery, supplies fit for a chemistry lab, and enough boxes of bolts and screws to build the Titanic all over again, I was sure. And then I saw him.

He was hunched over a piece of machinery, brown hair messed up, and wearing a torn t-shirt. There was a strange blue symbol glowing on his chest. I stopped in my tracks.

"You're not very good at sneaking," he said without looking up.

I raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't trying to be sneaky. I literally had access to this room. What cause would I have to be sneaky?"

He paused, then looked up at me from his work, then did a double take. "Ah. The newbie. You must be the infamous Avery Grace the others won't shut up about."

I ground my teeth and said, "Ah yes. And what did you describe yourself as on the news? Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist?"

He snorted. "You seriously memorized all that?" He shook his head. "At this point, please just call me Tony." 

I walked over to the desk he was working at and sat down on a stool across from him. "So, fellow insomniac, what are you building?"

"I really don't think you'd understand even if I tried to tell you what it was I was building."

I shrugged. "Maybe not, but I am a fast learner."

He gave me a strange look, but merely said, "People usually don't care. People also usually tell me to go to sleep. It never works."

"I was the same way growing up. At the foster home, I'd spend hours reading and re-reading books about animals and science. It got to the point where I had pretty much memorized every book that had to do with science. So they got me more books. There's more interesting things in this world to explore than sleep, and sleep only has nightmares for me at the moment."

"Makes sense. I always believed it was smart people that were burdened with insomnia," Tony said with a shrug. "So, in that case, welcome to the club." He mumbled the last bit and picked up a different tool.

"So.... what are you making?" I asked, shifting on the stool to get a better look at what he was tinkering with.

"Something big," He replied with a mad scientist grin. "Something that's gonna help this world."

*******

I ducked under a kick, sliding across the floor on my knees. I flicked out my wings and swept them around me as I spun on the floor and kicked Natasha's feet out from under her. Then, before she could stand, I was up and pinning her to the ground.

She froze, but I knew Natasha. She would react in the next few seconds, so I moved, just as I had practiced, and pulled her into a headlock before she could do that one move.

Then, she was tapping out.

I released her and jumped up, flapping my wings as I did so, and she looked at me, rubbing at her jaw. The room was silent as the others watched in dumbfounded shock.

Steve smiled and nodded to me and I returned his smile.

Natasha grinned and held a hand out to me and I hesitated, then took it. But this time, something weird happened. I knew exactly what she'd do and when as I saw it happen...

She would yank me forward, sweep my leg, and pull me into a head lock while pinning my wings.

And then, she yanked me forward. I flipped out my wings and brought them down with a whoosh and jumped, gliding over her as we locked eyes. I smirked, and watched as she spun and hit the ground.

I landed on my feet, ruffling my wings and folding them neatly behind me, then flourished a bow.

"How the hell did you do that?" Nat demands, getting to her feet in a rush.

"I don't know. I just... knew what you were going to do." I said with a shrug.

"Wait. Didn't you say we were wondering if she was telepathic or not? Well, looks like she is. She read your damn mind." Tony says with a smirk and crossed his arms over his chest. "Our Avery is coming along as a pretty good Avenger over here."

I smiled at Tony, feeling happy by the praise, and looked to see smiles from the others standing there, too. "So, what now? It's been a while now, hasn't it?"

"Avery, it is time for you to get a suit. Follow me." Maria says and I raised both eyebrows, but followed her out of the gym, the others following close behind. We arrived in a room filled with tables and chairs and huge windows, and she pulled a large metal suitcase out and set it on a desk. Maria nodded to the suitcase.

I stepped forward and clicked open the latches and opened it to reveal a pair of boots, pants, shirt, and jacket. The colors were dark green, silver, and gold. I raised both eyebrows and pulled out the shirt.

While it looked plain, I turned it around and saw it didn't have a back at all. It was forest green with flecks of gold in it. I set it aside and pulled the jacket out and was surprised to find out how sturdy it was. It was mostly that forest green, but had silver and gold outlines of feathers stitched throughout the whole design. There was a thick, hard material around the ribs and at the chest of the jacket, and sure enough, there were slits in the back, the leather in the back more soft and flexible.

The pants looked a lot like leather, except for the stretchiness that reminded me of spandex leggings. These were mostly black, but had stripes down the sides of the legs of silver, forest green, and gold. They had deep pockets stitched at the thighs. The boots- combat style with thick black soles- were similar in design to the jacket with that dark green solid coloring and silver and gold feather outlines.

"Well? Go try it on." Bruce says with a grin as he walks over to stand by me.

I looked at him. "Was this you?"

He ran a hand through his black curls and said, "Well, mostly. The tech part of the suit is all Tony. You almost spoiled it for yourself last month apparently."

I looked at Tony, remembering when we had first met in the Lab. That was a month ago? "Seriously?"

"Well I wasn't gonna tell you that the thing I was making was actually for you- that's how gifts and secrets go." Tony replied with a snarky grin.

"What are you waiting for? Go suit up." Steve said with a smile, hand squeezing my shoulder. "You still have one more person to meet, and then we have somewhere to go. We'll debrief you on the way."

I stared after them as they all turned and left the room. I looked at the suit, then outside at the snow falling softly outside. It really had been nine months, then?

I turned to the bathroom and changed, then put on the suit, seeing every part of it fit perfectly. The slits fit my wings and they slid through perfectly. I zipped the jacket, then looked at my hair in the mirror. Silver locks, and green eyes that I noticed matched the suit.

Bruce said he was in charge of the biology. Tony had done the tech, but who was responsible for the design?

And then I seemed to put it together. I had told Steve my favorite color was a dark green.

I watched my cheeks go red, but I pushed back the feelings and tied my hair back into a crown style to keep it out of my face, finishing the rest of it into a braid.

I tugged on the boots and laced them up, then turned and left the bathroom, towards the hangar where I would meet the Avengers in full.