Such Sweet Nothing

“So my dad was on the super soldier project?” Fury only nodded at my words as I sat across from him in his office.

“Yes, he was the main scientist working on that project. He was extremely close to cracking it, to make another super soldier.” I bit my lip at that bit of information. My father was not a secretive man, or so I thought up until this point in my life.

“I thought he worked on research at the University.” The words fell flat and sounded stupid as I spoke. Obviously my dad was lying or that part of his life was just a cover up. I was tired from training; my skills were very close to being fully developed, they were very strong. Steve was now training me to fight and I had begun physical training this morning.

“He did that part-time, he needed to have a cover up outside the realm of S.H.I.E.L.D.” I was playing with a flap of one of my pockets on my pants as I tried to process everything.

“It wasn’t his aim to lie to you, if anything your father was just trying to protect you. There were a lot of people trying to crack the code that Doctor Erskine had successfully done with Steve.” I stood up from my chair and began to pace back and forth in front of his desk. He was sitting with his hands clasped underneath his chin, watching me.

“So that explosion,” I led off as I stopped walking and just looked at the man in front of me. “that wasn’t an accident?”

“It was meant to kill your father. We are still unsure which group had access to your father’s lab as well as the information of what he was working on.” Up until this point I thought my dad had been killed in an accidental explosion, but now I know he was murdered. The word sounded so harsh and foreign in my mind. He was murdered.

“Was I just some added bonus, that I could have been killed?” He shook his head at me as I leaned my hands on the back of the chair.

“I don’t think they knew you were there. But, after you have now survived two explosions that surely should have killed you,” He trailed off as he leaned back in his own seat.

“Maybe someone knew a bit more than they should have.” I finished for him knowing that at some point my DNA sequences had changed.

“Or the initial explosion in your father’s lab is what set the mutation in motion.” He countered as he began to drum his fingers in a calm pattern on his desk.

“Either way you need to learn to protect yourself, there is no telling how the information about your father leaked and there is no way to know if something of the sort didn’t happen to you.” His words sent a chill to my spine as I stood up at my full height. I crossed my arms over my chest and felt my muscles ache in protest at the movement.

“So what happened in my lab might not have been an accident?” He shrugged his shoulders as he stood up and leaned on his desk with his full weight resting on his palms.

“Just make sure you are learning everything you can while you are here Doctor Munroe, it could save your life one day.” I left Fury’s office in a small state of panic. I woke up in an alright mood but now that had all been shot to hell.

“Hey Doc.” Steve’s smiling face was almost too much to look at right now.

“Hey Cap.” I greeted doing my best to smile at him. His smile dropped off his face as he fell into step with me.

“You okay?” I shook my head as we came up to the elevator, Steve pressed the button before I got a chance and then looked at me waiting for an answer.

“No.” The doors opened and we let a few agents out before we stepped in. We had a few people around us so we fell into a silence as we headed to the floor with the cafeteria.

“What happened?” He pounced on me as we got out and let everyone else pass us so we were alone in the hallway.

“I just found out my father was murdered.” The word tasted bitter in my mouth. His eyes grew wide as he took a step away from me.

“I thought he had an accidental explosion in his lab.” I shrugged my shoulders and let my gaze fall to the floor beneath his feet.

“No so much an accident as a murder.” I felt my face pulling into my strained, hurt smile as I let myself look at him.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He stepped forward and offered me himself to hug. I accepted it as he kept his arm around my shoulders as I led the way into the cafeteria. I knew he was hungry, it was dinnertime in Steve world and this was a boy that could eat.

“Yeah, he was working on the super soldier project.” He turned his head to look at me as we stood in line.

“He was close to getting it right, I guess.” I mumbled as Fury’s words were ringing in my head.

“That project has brought nothing but terror on everyone involved.” Steve’s words had me look at him in a weird way.

“You came out of it.” I spoke as he handed me a tray and then grabbed one for himself.

“Yes, but I’ve seen terrible, terrible things. I’ve lost a lot.” His tone was as sad as I had ever heard it. I guess two good moods had been ruined today.

“You still have me, and the Avengers.” I tried my best to smile at him now, feeling awful for making him look so sad.

“I do.” He gave me a weak smile.

“Hey they have your favorite.” He pointed to the mac and cheese towards the middle of the line.

“One good thing came out of today.” He planted a kiss on the side of my head.

“We’ll be out of here before you know it and you won’t have to deal with this anymore.” This place had been nothing but bad news and horrid memories resurfacing.

“Hallelujah.” I muttered really hating the secretive cloud that seemed to hang over my head.