I regained my strength and energy in a day or two, but I was kept on bedrest by Peter for an extra day. He claimed he wanted to make sure I was 100% better, but admitted to me that he just wanted an extra day to spend time with me.

I've been doing some interesting research while I've been stuck in bed this whole time; I've looked into some... let's say 'unique' information on all of the Avengers. Peter doesn't know yet since I did it while he was at school or not otherwise around. I've actually managed to learn a lot about these guys; only Thor can lift his hammer, Mjolnir, due to an Asgardian enchantment, for example. I'll have to be wary of that since it's prime prank bait.

We've had people checking in on us occasionally, or just me when Peter's in school. It's mostly been Wanda, Natasha, Bruce or Bucky, though I've been surprised by how many times Stark'll stick his head in if Peter's here. I know that guy cares more than he lets on. In all honesty, I'm the same, but we clash too much for us to be perfectly civil. I believe we've both come to enjoy pissing each other off. I seem to be the only one who'll consistently match wits with him and keep it roughly at the same level unless he crosses a line.

"Hey, Carmen?"

"Yeah?" I snap out of my thoughts, glancing up at Peter. "You okay?" He asks me. "Yup, all good," I confirm, smiling up at him. "How could I not be? I've got my favourite thing in the world right here."

He smiles, then gives me a look when I cuddle into the bedsheets, laughing at his betrayed expression. "Kidding. I love you more than bed."

"Really? That's quite a lot," Peter jokes. "Mm, it's a close one," I tease. "But you'd win any day." "Winning against a bed is any man's dream," Peter chuckled. "You're no man, you're a child," I smirk.

"I'm your child... Wait, no, that didn't come out right, back up, I screwed up!"

I laugh at Peter's mistake. "I get what you were going for," I assure him. "And I agree... not with what you said, but with what you were trying to say."

Peter sighs in relief at this, so I lean up and peck his cheek. "Chill, it's all good. You're cute when you're all flustered, you know." "I'm not..." Peter mumbled, turning red. "You are," I confirm. "You always are."

Peter hides his face by faceplanting the pillow, making me laugh. "Dumbass," I tease, ruffling his floofy chocolate-coloured hair.

At that moment, I hear a knock at the door. "I'll get it!" Peter cries, leaping up to the door. When he opens it, Nat and Bucky are there, visibly amused. "You two are loud," Bucky comments bluntly. "Good, everyone can hear how cute Peter is," I nod.

"Actually, we need to borrow him for a moment," Natasha informs us both. "Nothing bad." "Really? Uh, sure..." Peter agrees hesitantly. "What's, what's up?"

Peter follows them both out of the room, Bucky nodding reassuringly to me before shutting the door. The hell was that all about?

Unfortunately for them, they forget to consider my enhanced hearing like absolute morons.

"Peter, the others have been talking about Carmen a lot lately..." Natasha begins slowly. "You're not kicking her out or anything, are you?!" Peter asks, sounding worried. "No, no," Bucky assures him immediately. "She's not going anywhere, I promise. Nobody did anything wrong and nobody's in any trouble, kid."

"The thing is..." Natasha begins to steer them back on track. "Bucky and I know about the Scholae. We've spent a while looking into it to try and work out the location or get any other kinds of intel, but all we know is that it's a lot like the Red Room, but with some differences. We were hoping that you knew something about it that you'd be able to tell us. We'd rather not go straight to Carmen if we don't have to."

It's silent for a moment, so I listen to see what Peter will answer with. I don't actually care what he says as long as it stays between my fellow assassins; they already know the ins and outs better than anyone else here. I'm just curious, I guess.

"Well... I don't really know what Carmen will and won't mind me saying..." Peter answers slowly. "And I don't know too much about it, anyway. Sorry, if you really need to ask you'd have to go to Carmen about that..."

"Thanks, Spider Child," I say, keeping at the same volume as all of them so maybe only Peter will hear me. "If they wanna ask stuff, they can ask, I'm fine with that."

"Oh! Uh, Carmen heard all that," Peter informs the two assassins. "But she says you can ask her stuff."

After a moment, the door opens. They don't look it whatsoever, but I can tell the older pair feel a bit awkward about that. Heh.

I just greet them with a blank expression. "Don't try and keep me out of this stuff; if it concerns me, I want in. I'm not having people handle my business for me, I want to be in charge of myself. Got that?"

"Of course," they both agree immediately, seeming to have the same reaction to this; slight panic and extreme guilt. The 'in charge of myself' bit got them, as I knew it would.

"Good," I nod. "First off, have you seen any stuff Shield has on the Scholae?" "Shield has stuff on them?" Bucky asks. "Yup," I confirm. "Or at least they have a little of what I told them about the place when I escaped. I could get Rose to hack in and get the stuff right now, if you wanted."

"That won't be necessary, I can get it myself," Natasha assures. "Fury never mentioned you to me, though." "That's probably because I requested you were left out of it," I shrug. "I thought you'd send me back if you knew I was out. I'd only ever heard good things about you and that came from all the handlers, so... yeah, I had no clue that you weren't with them anymore."

Natasha stays silent, though I can tell that she's slightly troubled by this. "I know now that that's not you," I assure her. "Good," she nods. "I'd never send anyone there. Ever."

(AN: Sorry this has taken so long. I'll leave this up to a choice; extended backstory of Carmen arriving in America and working everything out up to roughly the point she's at now? Or are you guys bored of all that?)