➢𝗢𝗟𝗗 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗦 (𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗡𝗘𝗪)➢

『 Wrapped up, so consumed by all this hurt
If you ask me, don't know where to start
Anger, love, confusion
Roads that go nowhere 』
―𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘎𝘭𝘺𝘯𝘯𝘦, 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘔𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 19: 𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔⟵

𝙃𝘼𝙐𝙉𝙏𝙀𝘿.

-𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟖𝐓𝐇, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑-

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐄𝐂𝐎-𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃

𝐔𝐏𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊

HER OWN SCREAM ECHOES INSIDE HER HEAD.

Her vision is black as voices replay, and another, much quieter one rings throughout her mind.

"I love you, Dan."

Her mouth drops open.

BANG! A gunshot.

A blonde woman's unruly evil smirk.

Blue energy ripples through and pounds against veins until all seemingly fizzles out of existence.

When everything previously in the way of the empowering pieces of the Tesseract practically shoots out of the body titled as its vessel, and kills anyone in its path.

The one person... in her path, and her entire body vanishes into dust, into ashes.

Gone, dead...

... Murdered.

One sharp breath erupts from the lips of Dani Rockland as she jolts awake, briefly startled when coming back to her senses since dozing off. The side of her neck aches sorely as her head had been resting on the side of her arm inside a vehicle. She remembers she is currently inside a vehicle.

A car that left the Avengers Facility the morning after she came home and now is on its way further upstate, in New York.

To Uncle Tony's home.

She hopes he listens, listens to whatever plan Scott Lang had brainstormed in the time when he was brought back to existence after five years. For him, five hours... But unfortunately, Dani fails to really commit to the idea herself, in particular pondering about it due to the fact that she is still dealing with her own trauma. With her own heartbreak, and loss.

That alone is proven when the child isn't even able to get a slight amount of sleep due to the heinous nightmares that play out in her head. Different from before, back in 2014, this time they are more intense.

Because they're about her.

About what she has done, who she has become, and to some of those, Dani doesn't really know. She doesn't have an answer. The eighteen-year-old has a hard time fathoming what has come to be in the fates of individuals in her life, and it was only going to get worse from there.

For now, she sits and waits, trying to heal, to meditate, and from her view, she can see her Dad driving upfront. 

Steve's blue irises tinge with worry as he looks back at her a few times, Dani's eyelashes fluttering.

Next to him in the passenger seat, is Natasha, and Natty's cool and calculated look usually had a crack in it somewhere, after getting to know her better and with the devastation the world has faced―it was getting pretty easy for Danielle to notice.

The quiver to her lip, that sometimes glassy appearance her green eyes overtook, usually about something important. Something worth dying for.

Witnessing the both of them, her 'CoParents' in a position like so... is almost familiar.

Laughable, as Dani remembers her nine-year-old self sitting in the back of a blue truck Captain America and Black Widow hijacked when on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D.

That's when they kissed on the escalator, and Dani thought it was really weird... Gross.

Yucky, the eighteen-year-old recalls her puckered expression, in return earning a chuckle out of Natasha and a sigh of relief from Steve.

Wonder how she feels about all that kissing stuff now?

Unimportant.

Staring at the back of the redhead's blonde-streaked―but mostly red―side braid convinces Dani to engage in another fierce battle of keeping her lighter green eyes open when the dark gray vehicle makes a specific turn, and she knows that they are here.

At Tony's. God, she missed him.

Everything happens quickly when Steve pulls into the nice, modern cabin-looking place, a small tent with play chairs sprawled out near the lake, and Danielle is aware of what that means.

He has a child. A second one. A third.

He is carrying the girl on his hip, much like Steve used to carry Dani when she was much younger, and the eighteen-year-old is too lost in her thoughts to adjust to the fact that the engine has turned off.

Her father gets out, locking eyes momentarily with the other one that took over in raising Dani after a falling out―their own, and the one with Danielle.

The sweater, casual-wearing Tony Stark walks up the steps of his cabin before turning around to face the three adults: Natasha, Steve, and Scott who look back at him. Tony does not initially see the fourth still sitting in the back.

Black Widow with white at the end of her braid gives a nod of her head, arms crossed. 

Tony does a similar action, holding a blue helmet in his hand as he turns around to put Morgan inside.

Steve is unsure if they are welcome, though another assurance of the head from Nat and they begin to walk up. Scott's car door is still open.

"Hey." 

Dani wakes from another trance, a conscious one, and quickly realizes that she is still sitting in the car when a hand from the other side touches her shoulder.

Ant-Man offers a small smile, one that is comforting, and fatherly.

Dani wipes her face, not able to even force one back as she says, "I'll be right there."

Scott 'okays' and shuts the door, leaving the eighteen-year-old alone as she had asked. Whether for better or worse...

Dani blows out a hefty breath and delays a second reunion... for now.

❀❀❀

For now, they try to convince him.

"Now, we know what it sounds like..."

Iron Man pours a drink, having just listened to Scott's plan, and, unsurprisingly, he is not impressed. 

The intelligent individual proceeds in expressing the true extent of his knowledge when speaking directly after the blonde Captain America, "Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?"

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?"

"Thank you," Steve says when Tony hands him the refreshment.

The goat-teed man continues, "In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

Scott contests, "I did."

Only for the Ironed Man to overshadow him, "No. You accidentally survived. It's a billion-to-one cosmic fluke."

"And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?"

The Ant-Man lifts his drink along with his expression, clearly trying to hide some pride, "A time heist?"

"Yeah, of course."

Tony scoffs, "Why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"

Steve interjects him, voice low as he insists, "The Stones are in the past. We could go back, we could get them."

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everybody back." Natasha says, adding on with a tinge of hope.

Tony seems lost in thought before remarking back, dutifully, "Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"

"I don't believe we would." Captain America is confident, and it sparks sarcasm within Iron Man.

 "Gotta say, I sometimes miss that giddy optimism."

"However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said 'time heist'."

Tony states where he stands as he is sitting down, "I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise."

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel," Scott chimes in again, Natasha experiencing stress as she crosses to be next to Steve, eyes locked on the horizon and the black leather-jacketed figure that comes up the steps of the cabin―both hands in her pockets, "All right? It means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sports events..."

He is really trying to get through to Tony, who is stubborn, and understandably so, "I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"

"Is it?"

The dark-haired man subtly shakes his head, "No."

"Good." The lighter one sits back, "You had me worried there. 'Cause that would be horseshit. That's not how Quantum Physics works."

Natasha says while looking down solemnly, "Tony..."

Her voice is thick with meaning.

"We have to take a stand." She emphasizes.

So does he, "We did stand. And yet, here we are."

Here they are.

Their conversation is shortly interrupted by the sudden entrance of a much older Danielle Rockland, her dark long hair pulled back with two pieces and her light-washed jeans and black boots quiet like a mouse as she approaches the group of adults―red and white striped shirt peeking out from underneath.

She isn't much better than she was yesterday, broken down in her adopted father's arms, comforted by her surrogate mother, but now she stands in front of―technically, still―her legal guardian. An uncle to her, another father to her.

Tony feels the same way.

His brown eyes have to readjust when he first sees her, but things being the way they are now, most definitely... real, the billionaire wastes no time in getting up from where he sits and exhaling in much easement, "Oh, thank God they found you."

He brings Dani into a warm embrace, warmer than any they have shared in the past―paternal instincts―and the teenager tucks her face into his side as her cold and dainty fingers wrap around his back. She grasps fistfuls of his sturdy shirt.

Tony hugs her tight and Dani reciprocates it immediately, a lump forming in her throat when soaking in the consolation of being this close to him, with him. Her Uncle.

But then, something overcomes her. Her emotions... threaten to overthrow her.

"Matthew's dead," Dani informs through gulps, struggling to contain herself but the words even muffled come out clear to Tony, and he gently pulls back while making sure his touch never leaves her.

He traces circles onto her arms as she stammers when explaining, "He didn't... dust away or anything, he was shot."

Another wedge comes in-between her throat and airway when adding in a small tone, "By my mother."

"I'm sorry." Tony's face is crinkled, broken-looking for the broken girl in front of him, and licking his own lips to rid of any meekness he instills, "He was... a good kid."

Dani nods as she bites down on her lip, body scrunching together like a sponge as suddenly she feels the need to hide, and from behind her, Natasha looks away again. Truly, she is still healing herself from digesting all the traumatic and detrimental experiences the girl she cares for just went through a few weeks ago.

Steve believes it could come back up at any moment, a wave of nausea nearly bleeding into his expression as his eyes squint.

All are respectively silent however when Tony draws Dani close again, and presses a tender kiss to the top of her forehead before rubbing her shoulders with his hands, "Are you okay, Honey?"

"Yeah," her voice is weak, though a second later she makes her way over to where her adoptive father stands, and Steve inhales deeply as Scott tries to enlist one last proposal.

"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter." There is a relation in his eyes, also regret, "But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did."

His voice gets louder as he tries to convey his desperation, "And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even..."

"That's right, Scott. I won't even." Tony solidifies as he is back sitting down, "I can't."

Dani wears a sad expression but picks it up when the sound of a door opening and closing echoes, and ending the conversation is the entrance of Morgan Stark.

Who runs to her Dad, who picks her up, "Mommy told me to come and save you."

Tony rests his head on her shoulder, thankful, "Good job. I'm saved."

"I wish you were coming here to ask me something else," the dad stands up, his young daughter tightly tucked into his arms, and Dani cannot say she blames him―for if it were similar circumstances, Steve would have done the same thing for her ten-year-old self, "Anything else. Honestly, I'm happy to see you guys, to see Dan-o, I just... Oh, look, the table's set for seven."

The SuperSoldier intervenes, telling him first, "Tony, I get it. Trust me, I do."

He does... and proves it when a look is cast on Dani before turning back, "I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance."

"I got my second chance right here, Cap."

"Can't roll the dice on it."

Tony faces Steve while holding Morgan in his arms, undeniably the thing most precious to him―his child, and once again the Captain completely understands.

Looks like they have something in common now.

"If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch," the Ironed Man says to the others, giving a softened look to Dani who still can't pull off a proper smile, and promptly after that, he goes back inside.

Leaving them an official refusal to join in on their time heist, treading very carefully when it comes to the risks due to the life that he has now. The family.

The man... that Tony is now. A good one.

"Well, he's scared," Natasha comments as they walk back to the car.

Steve is still lenient, "He's not wrong."

"Yeah, but, I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?" Scott questions, already losing hope.

Steve brings him back, "No, I wanna do it right."

Before deciding, "We're gonna need a really big brain."

"Bigger than his?" Ant-Man, in disbelief, points a finger back at Tony's house.

 Dani catches on almost instantly... and then finds herself exhaling in a deep sigh. 

There was only one.

"Uncle Bruce."

❀❀❀

"C'mon, It feels like I'm the only one eating here." 

"Try some of that. Have some eggs."

Dani Rockland's eyes bulge, she is nervous, " ...Uncle Bruce?"

"You know, Dani, you look exactly the same. Your face and all. That's a compliment by the way."

"Uh, thank you. I would say the same about you, but I'm just really confused right now."

The Smart Hulk says seriously with an added chuckle, "These are confusing times."

"I don't think that's what she meant..." Scott sitting next to her insists with a similar amount of bewilderment, and Natasha and Steve from across the booth table, both wear pairs of raised eyebrows when having to look up at the face of their friend.

Their friend... who looks quite different from the last time they saw him five years ago, bigger. Greener.

He definitely isn't the same Uncle Bruce that she remembers, Danielle thinks to herself, noting the fact that he isn't able to cower behind her back like he once did during the second attack on New York. Not to mention that he wasn't wearing the Hulk's face.

It seems they are one and the same now, though. How?

"Nah, I get it. I'm kidding!" New Bruce reassures his old companions, his niece that he refuses to believe is eighteen, hence why he lied in telling her she looked the same when in reality, she does not―spiritually, "I know, it's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now!"

Ant-Man can't help but question him again, "Yeah. What. How? Why?"

"Five years ago we got our asses beat," he explains, mouth full of food, "Except it was worse for me..."

Dani recalls how shaken up he was, "'cause I lost twice."

"First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost, and then... we all lost."

Dani shifts uncomfortably in her seat.

Natasha says earnestly, "No one blamed you, Bruce."

"I did," Bruce responds, honestly, and the redhead tips her head down.

The large man then begins to state his case, informing all―or, reminding them―of his struggle, "For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease... something to get rid of."

He throws his hand away as a gesture, and the eighteen-year-old can heavily relate to those feelings of self-doubt. Feeling powerless.

After all, it is the way she's felt for years battling an internal war with her own abilities, up until meeting the Efficients.

"But then, I start looking at him as the cure."

" ...Eighteen months in the gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together... and now look at me," Bruce leans back, showing off his green glasses and sweater-wearing figure while stating proudly, "Best of both worlds."

"Excuse me, Mr. Hulk?" a girl and two boys come up to the table.

"Yes?" Bruce inquiries in a friendly tone, and the girl proceeds to ask him for a photo.

"100% little person." Is the kind green man's reply.

Dani sits back and crosses her arms tight.

"Do you mind?" Smart Hulk gestures the phone out to Scott, who accepts it, "Yeah, yeah."

"Thanks."

Then says to the eager children, "Say Green."

"Green!"

The dark-haired teenager looks down when the iPhone makes the clicking sound of a photograph being taken, and after that Hulk insists, "Did you get that?"

"Hi, Agent Rockland." 

The fangirl from before says in a quieter voice this time, causing Dani's head to pick up.

Her eyelids lift to meet a sheepish smile from the young girl who seemed to admire her in some sort of way, and for that, a bit of humanity seeps back into Dani for just a second. Just one.

She is brought out of whatever daze to be able to offer a small smile in return, and a voice that is breathy though also quiet, "Have a nice day, Sweetie."

The braces-wearing child looks to be more than excited that Danielle has acknowledged her, and pain can't help but tug at the older one's heartstrings knowing what she's done... She doesn't know if she can be Agent Rockland anymore.

Not just due to the extremely outdated persona, as she believes the title was come up with right after S.H.I.E.L.D. 's downfall when she was nine, cringe.

She needs a new title. Something more fitting.

"That's a good one." Scott lowers back into his seat from having to take the photograph, then asks the young fans in addition to their referral of Dani, "Did you wanna grab one with me? I'm Ant-Man."

The kids are silent in response, staring at one another and it's quick to assume that they most certainly do not.

The dark-haired man from next to Dani swallows down his pain, "They're Hulk fans. They don't know Ant-Man."

"Nobody does!"

"Ah wait, he feels bad. No, he wants to take a picture, right?" Hulk tries to plead their case.

But the smallest boy just shakes his head and mutters out, "Stranger danger."

Dani cannot help the breath of air that wheezes out of her mouth.

That is exactly something she would say... her younger self. Haha. Steve and Natasha seem to think the same thing as the blonde sips on his cup of water and the redhead wears some sort of smirk.

"Take the goddamn phone." 

After some arguing back and forth, Scott hands the device back to the children who thank the large man for his services.

And Bruce continues to entertain his new form, "Hulk out!"

Then puts his hand in the air.

Dani wants to vomit.

"Dab!"

"Bruce," her father calls out, the SuperSoldier trying to get him back on track, "Bruce."

Though he is distracted, "Listen to your mom. She knows better."

"About what we were saying..."

"Right." Finally, the Smart Hulk concedes, folding his bottom lip over the other, and he leans back, "The whole time travel do-over? Eh, guys, it's outside of my area of expertise."

Natasha provides encouragement with a shrug, "Well, you pulled this off."

Gesturing to his equalized form, "I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible, too."

Bruce is torn for the moments that let him, blinking a few times as a bit of aspiration threatens to sprinkle upon him. Him and everyone else.

Even Dani.

Especially... Dani.

Hopefully Dani.

❀❀❀

The night before a time travel test is to be emitted, with whatever science Bruce Banner could come up with regarding Ant-Man's Quantum Tunnel... the Avengers Facility is more packed as usual, although it is just past 2 in the morning.

Dani Rockland has two hands planted on her forehead, which brims with sweat, the eighteen-year-old just having woken not too long ago from a nightmare.

One that again... involved her.

Her mind buzzes as she remains widely awake, there being solidified reasons for that as what has been haunting her this whole day finally threatens to come out. To bat at her core. Dani leans over the dark chair she sits on, blue PJs crumpling and long hair tugged up into a messy bun.

A few more moments pass of her sitting there, in silence, blinking eyelashes rapidly tickling the bottom of her eyelids when a presence slowly approaches behind her―and that presence, with care, drapes a blanket over her shivering form.

Dani shrugs it off, inhaling sharply, "Actually, I'm kind of hot right now."

Her trembling this time on record, is not due to the pieces of the Tesseract that so freely used to steal her body heat, no, the child is sweating right now. Profusely.

 Steve Rogers is only half-joking when asking, "Trouble sleeping?"

She forces herself to chuckle in response, lips flattening into a miniature smile, "A few days ago I awoke from a two-week slumber, so..." then she meets his gaze from above, "Think I'm good."

"Well, I'm sure you probably needed it." He suggests thoughtfully, and Dani mutters a simple 'Yeah' in agreement.

Assuming that would be it from their conversation, as it is still two in the morning... the Captain contradicts that statement when noticing a drop of sweat run down the eighteen year old's face, and his brows immediately furrow in concern. 

Subtly, he joins her, folding his hands together and exhaling a tired sigh of his own as he leans over ever so slightly―larger knees brushing against Dani's, and Steve waits.

He waits to see if she is going to talk.

 If not, that's okay. At least he is there, for her.

She would never be alone again.

The breaths that escape Dani's lips become ghastly as she turns to look at her father, expression pulled together, "Do you... remember what I was saying when I first got here?"

Steve's mouth presses out, figuring out the right thing to say with only a brief pause. He was good like that―wise. He didn't want to upset her, not to mention the upsetting visual of her teary-eyed face nearly bringing him to tears. 

He recalls the delirium that surely set in because of the grief pouring out of her soul, making most of what she was saying frantically jumbled and incoherent, and repeated many times. 

But still, based on the evidence, Steve was sure he heard what he had heard. What he knows. What Natasha knows.

"I... I remember you being incredibly overstimulated, and," he swallows, clearing his throat in-between, "-and very overwhelmed."

"And I didn't wanna assume anything―,"

"I killed her."

...Dani just says it.

She confirms what is the truth, for the most part, and what her nightmares in the last two days have been about―for the most part. They are about what she did, the fact that she did what she did, and how it is going to follow her for the rest of her life. 

Her mother is dead yet she still follows her throughout her life. Why? God, why?

Steve watches Dani with round blue eyes filled with intent as he silently listens to her confession, about what she has been dealing with, "It's like, I look down at my hands now, and before I saw nothing."

"Now..." 

She is shaking again, her voice, too, sea-foam green eyes gazing up at the blank ceiling as they gloss with waterworks, and Dani admits with much hesitation and reluctance―that physically her tone pushes through, "Now... they're stained. With blood."

"There's just so much... blood on my hands. And I can't stop looking at it."

"I killed her," she reiterates again, emphasizing, "I'm a murderer."

A stray piece of dark hair is gently moved out of the side of her face, and after that a hand brushes over hers, practically covering it―and giving it a tight, reassuring squeeze.

Dani struggles to look at Steve, feeling she cannot with what has just been admitted by her, confessed.

She feels ashamed.

That and bile threaten to climb up and out of her throat due to the anxiety that is now kicking in, her fear, which has always been with her. The heightened emotions, only thinking... with her emotions. Because they are so strong, and as a result are the fueling factor of losing control within her strenuous abilities, proven so in the death of Matthew Framingham.

Now Dani is still refusing to look at him, Captain America―to her just, 'Dad', and eventually she is forced to when his deep voice that lacks any sort of reprimand or disappointment originally expected, asks, "Was she trying to kill you?"

"Yes." 

Dani says wholeheartedly through a very shaky breath, legs beginning to jitter uncontrollably, but Steve sets a hand on her thigh to stop that.

It is clear that was the case, most definitely, as it has been ever since the little girl was born... had inadvertently―been made to think―that she was the cause of the death of her biological father, Joseph, though that cowardly man is easily tossed out of the picture. 

Here stands, or currently sits with her, the orphaned child... is a real father. Someone who is not DNA in any sort of way to her, a relative, but what Steve Rogers possesses that Joseph Rockland did not was his selflessness, a trait essential in anyone who is going to be a parent.

 The SuperSoldier certainly wasn't, didn't have any kids of his own, but it didn't matter. 

Dani was his kid. 

Dani IS his kid... and he would never ever turn his back on her.

He would never think differently of her, turn her away... he meant that part of the letter, too. Probably more than any other part of it, apart from that he loved her.

He loves her, and still understands her issues with relying on people due to the fact that it wasn't fundamentally ingrained into her as a young child, never receiving that 'authentic' and 'unconditional' love. Not until meeting the Avengers.

Making progress again, Dani's unintentional―uncontrolled―reasoning for putting Deborah Rockland into the ground was one that if she did not do it first, which, she did not mean to... Deborah would have stopped at nothing to murder Danielle. Danielle and the Efficients.

Kayla... Jackson... Allison... Marcus, and... Dante. Dani misses Dante the most.

It was the ongoing action of the tale, the story... of the girl who was so special everybody wanted a piece of her, well, what is manifested inside her. 

Deborah wouldn't be the only one who attempts. Nor Ultron.

"Was she trying to kill you?"

"Yes."

Steve assures her without any hesitance, firmly, "Then that is self-defense, Dani."

The eighteen year old's glassy eyes lift up to look at his dry ones, almost in shock, even to this day―after everything that has happened.

Steve is still making an effort to comfort her. Love her, after the monster she has become.

But the man does not see it that way, logically, he can't, him being flooded with memories of her childhood self, her innocent smile, and laugh―Steve is aware she is not so innocent anymore, and it pains him, like a shot to the gut.

Because he knows that is what Dani deserves, more than anyone. To be happy, to be free. 

She deserves so much better than she's been given.

The blonde swallows once again before speaking with the utmost confidence, "You are not a murderer."

"How can you be sure?" the girl mumbles in a voice that brings along a whimper, her slightly damp face curling into the broad shoulder of the warm man, and he reflexively gathers her up in his arm, running a hand up and down her back as she adds, "I'm not even sure."

Steve massages her slumped shoulders comfortingly, telling her, "You know how I'm sure, Munchkin? It's the fact that you're letting it weigh on your conscience when you shouldn't ever need to think about it again."

Dani's mouth mimics an 'o' shape as he explains, her eyes still watery.

"I remember I was powerless when you couldn't even go to sleep at night without being tormented by that evil, vile woman." 

His jaw grows tense as he looks across the room, remembering, "She hurt you badly, Dani. When she was supposed to be protecting you. Anybody who treats a child, let alone their own child like that is just... satanic, and anyone who refuses to stop it is just as bad."

The girl can only nod in agreement with her messy-bun head, fiddling with the fingers that belong to her Dad in her grasp, much like when she was nervous as a child, the anxiety... It weighed on Dani a lot. It was an added practice to her nature in the upbringing she had, as an orphan, and with a traumatic childhood.

"So you know what?" Steve pulls back from her, ensuring that she is full-on listening to his every word at this point, "Maybe you're not as guiltless as you used to be, and that's okay. Because now, nobody is ever going to hurt you again... and you will make sure of that. Nobody else."

"Not me. Not Natasha. You."

"You are strong enough. You're incredible."

Dani unscrews her lips as a tear falls out, her voice barely kept from going under, "I just don't wanna talk about it anymore, okay? I-I, I don't think I'm ready to."

"Okay, Honey. I'll make sure nobody brings it up." 

Steve helps her stand, extending a hand, and once Dani takes it she melts into his embrace, the man's long-sleeve dark sweater smelling of the soft mint and rainforest that the teenager so vividly remembered every time they had hugged, or she had snuggled into him in order to hide from the rest of the world―due to how scary it was.

But now, slowly, Dani is starting to become not so scared anymore. Her worry was going to stick with her, but the inferiority, and lack of confidence, are two phrases that DO NOT represent what Danielle Rockland has become. 

She is blossoming into a beautiful, independent, and capable young woman. She is growing into herself. 

... And they couldn't be more proud.

She whispers against his chest, gratefully, "Thank you, Dad," before closing her lashes and leaning forwards once more, putting her arms around his torso.

Steve returns the coming-togetherness, thoughtfully, "You're welcome, Doll. Now, how about we try and get some sleep. Sound good?"

"Yeah... I wanna clear my head first, though." Dani insists when pulling away, wiping her eyes as a force of habit to her sensitivity, and then locks eyes with him once more.

He questions, "Do you want me to go with you?"

"Nah." She denies.

Once Captain America returns to the chambers of his own room, he is astounded to find the strident pace belonging to Agent Rockland dressed head-to-toe in black workout gear, long hair in a dark ponytail―and in order to 'clear her head'... Dani is out running before the sunrise. On her own and by herself.

Without Steve.

He feels a certain way about that.

No, he feels prideful at that, still struggling to fathom that his little girl is now almost nineteen... will be in a month.

She has come so far.

... Someone else did, too.

❀❀❀

Hmmm, would you like a hint of who will be appearing next chapter? Oh, well to hell with it I'll give you one!

Love is in the air ... Anywho hope this chapter was fun! It was meant to dive deeper into Dani's time during the five years/ her internal feelings and character development when it comes to how she feels about taking Deborah's life... basically, she does feel some remorse.

She shouldn't you would say because Deborah was a HORRIBLE EVIL NASTY WOMAN but then you look at Captain America who said: "I don't like bullies & I don't want to kill anyone." In the first cap movie and it's like how would he react to Dani having to make a decision like that ( keep in mind it was still unintentional ) and I wanted how I write him to truly experience some pain and loss... but not BECAUSE Dani killed someone but because it's still haunting her when she's been tormented by 'FORCE' and her 'parents' all her life... 

Steve in my story believes it is self-defense, and he is right. Wise beyond his years, right?

Tony and Dani's reunion had my heart & broke it, hope it did the same to yours, + Dani and Bruce/Smart Hulk may have some more moments as time goes on but idk I gotta fit everyone in.

Please lmk what you thought about this one, comments, votes, in any style really (personally I loved the Dani and Steve scene I wrote at the end because everything just went so smoothly idk I think I'm in love. With Dante?

Hehehe I'm on vacation right now but since I'm taking time off of work I will prob continue writing efficiently too as far as my editing process goes I am on Metalloid, (then I'll be catching up to infinity war and I will be splitting some chapters up so be prepared for some updates.

K this A/N is SO LONG SORRY HAVE A GOOD ONE... PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT K I LOVE YOU ALL!!

<3<3<3<3 ~xoxo, Alessandra (dreamkept) ❤️