Chapter 1
Steve’s POV
“Who is she?” I ask, looking at the unconscious girl in front of me. Her braided long brown hair is filthy, there’s a ton of dirt on her face. Her jeans and t-shirt are filthy and torn.
“I followed you out here, I don’t have a clue who she is.” I hear Natasha say.
“Nat we’ve got to get her cleaned up. Those cuts are nasty. Bruce can help when he gets down here.” I say. Those cuts look dangerously bad. “Jarvis, where is Banner?” I ask.
“Dr. Banner is in the elevator coming down from the laboratories and will be down momentarily.” Jarvis says.
“Thank you, Jarvis.” I say.
“I’ll see if I can get Tony to pick up. He must have a spare room she can sleep in. We can ask her if she remembers anything later. She needs to recover first.” Nat says while I take her pulse. “She's gonna be ok, but she’ll definitely need some time to recover.” I state.
The doors whir open. “Bruce, over here.” I call. “What the heck happened to her?” he asks.
“We don’t know that yet. We you help us get her inside so we can help her. She’s gonna need stitches for those cuts.” I say. “Oh, of course. Inside.” Bruce says. “Wait, why not the hospital?” he asks. “Tony will want to ask her some questions once she wakes up. We do too, but not in a hospital. It’ll be easier for everyone if it’s here. More protection. More space. Much more comfortable.” Nat jumps in. “Now, can we get her inside before she dies? We can ask questions later but we’re wasting time now.” she continues. Right. “Bruce can you get the door? Nat, help me carry her, please. We gotta get her out of the sun. Carefully.” I take control. “What room are we putting her in?” Bruce asks. Good question. “Any empty room. It doesn’t matter. It needs to be a bigger one though because we’ll need supplies in there.” Nat says. “Yes. Nat, once we get to a room can you go find her some clean clothes? She'll want to take a shower and be in clean clothes. At least I’m pretty sure she will, I sure wouldn’t want to sleep in these clothes. And you’ll get closer to her size than I will.” I say.
“Of course, I will.” I hear. “Thanks, Nat-” I start saying, before Bruce interrupts. “Have you called Tony yet to tell him what’s going on?” he asks. “I tried but he didn’t answer the phone. I’ll try and call Rhodey in case if he can come or if he knows where Tony is.” I hear Nat chime in. “I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually, especially if he hears we have someone here.” I say. I mean, it’s true isn’t it? He doesn’t know yet, he's going to want to know who she is just as much as we do. Hopefully he doesn’t run her off trying to get answers. I don’t think he will, but still. We just need to make sure she’s comfortable for right now. We can worry about Tony’s reaction later. “Jarvis can you run a diagnosis on the girl?” I ask. “Broken bones, torn ligaments, anything. Then can you run a facial recognition scan? We need to know who she is, and if she has any family. Search every file you can find.” I tell Jarvis. “We need to alert any family she has, if they haven’t noticed she’s gone, they’ll need to know as soon as possible.” I add.
We reached a room. “Hey, can you get an extra pillow to elevate her legs?” I ask Bruce.
“Sure.” he responds.
“Facial recognition scans complete, no matches. Starting next scan.” Jarvis interjects. I look at Natasha. She knows what this means. Shield has nothing for her. This means it’s going to be even harder to get her back to wherever she needs to be.
“Body scans complete. Two ribs and the right ankle are broken. Jarvis says.
“Here’s the pillow, and here’s this.” Bruce hands the pillow to Nat and what looks to be antibiotics to me. “What is this?” I ask, skeptical. “Antibiotics. We might need them. It'll save time later.” he replies.
“Nat, can you start getting some of the dirt off of her? It'll make her feel better when she wakes up if she doesn’t have as much dirt on her as she does now.” I ask Nat. It's true.
“Jarvis can you scan her again and tell me if she needs antibiotics?” Bruce asks.
“Scanning... process complete. Antibiotics advised.” he replies. “Ok. She should wake up in about 10 minutes. 20 at the most.” Bruce reassures me. “Steve, she’s gonna be ok.” Nat says as we start walking out of the room so Bruce can have more room. “I know she is. After she wakes up, you can show her to the shower so she can get cleaned up. Don't ask any questions for now. I know you want answers just as much as I do. Let her get her bearings first though. She's going to be more talkative after anyways.” I say. “Of course I will. Don't worry Steve. If anyone was after her, she's safe now.” she says, reading my mind. “I know.” I agree. “You’re good at taking care of people. You’re also good at killing them.” I joke. “Steve... well you have a point. I am pretty good at both of those. But we don’t talk about that.” she jokes back. “Oh come on, Nat. You know I gotta joke about that. Remember the time when-” she cuts me off. “Steve. You can’t possibly think I remember all of those stories, do you?” she laughs. “Well you don’t talk about them, but I doubt anyone would. I assume they’re all in your mind somewhere. After all, you don’t just forget about that kind of thing. It plays over and over in the back of your mind.” I say, getting serious. “I know, Steve. It does play in my head. Frequently. But I try not focus on it. After all, focusing on the past is how a lot of people get stuck in life and can’t move forward. Why? Because they’ve gotten trapped in the past.” She explained.
“Guys, come here, she’s starting to wake up!” we hear Bruce call. “Coming!” we yell back.
Brooklyn’s POV
“Hi.” I hear someone say. What? Was I asleep? I must have been, because I open my eyes and see 3 people standing next to a bed.
“Who are you, where am I, and how did I get here?” I ask, freaking out. This isn’t normal. This isn’t normal at all, something is wrong.
“Oh, that’s right. Well, I’m Steve Rogers, and this is Natasha, and that’s Bruce.” the taller blonde guy says, pointing to the lady on his left, and the man at the foot of the bed.
“Uh huh... how did I get here?” I ask again. I'm going to get an answer, I don’t care how I get it. I need to know where I am and how I got here.
“You’re in Stark Tower. I walked outside and you were unconscious on the ground. I called Steve to come help get you inside because you were a mess. You're going to need stitches for some of the cuts. They're bad and need help. But for now, you need to shower. You had a lot of dirt on your clothes and face before I wiped some of it off. Not all of it, but at least it’s a little better.” the lady says. “What’s your name again? And does someone have a painkiller or something? I have a pounding headache.” I say. “Natasha. And Bruce, get the girl some Tylenol or something.” she replies. “On it.” he replies.
“So, I have one question before you get cleaned up and rest more. What's your name?” the blonde guy says. Is this a test? Are they experimenting on me? What is happening... “Brooklyn. My name is Brooklyn.” I say. What the heck is going on. “Brooklyn...” Steve starts to say before he pauses. “You mean like... where I grew up?” he asks. “Uhm, maybe...” I say hesitantly. They're not going to hurt me, are they? They seem like they want to help, I guess I can try and trust them. Even if they did try and hurt me, I have training. I like Steve though. He seems like a good person, I trust him, or at least for now. I don’t really have any other choices.
“Brooklyn, are you feeling alright? You might want to go shower and get the rest of the dirt off. We can ask questions later. It seems like you’ve had a rough day, so rest up and then when Tony and the others get back, we’ll have a few questions. Nothing too big, just some basics. It'll help us get you home faster.” Natasha says. Home? Was it all a dream? It seemed so real... maybe these people can help. “Oh, right. Yes, I’m feeling ok, however home isn’t an option. I'll have to explain after I get cleaned up, it’s quite the story and will take some time to tell.” I say. I need to stop thinking so much. These people want answers. If I give them what they want maybe they can help!
“What... never mind. Later. If you need anything, Jarvis is always able to help.” Steve says as he motions to what looks to be an extremely complicated piece of technology. “Jarvis? What's that?” I ask. “He’s built into every room. If you have a question, just ask Jarvis.” Steve answers. “Ok. That shouldn’t be too hard. Thanks.” I say. ‘No problem. Guys come on. We need to try and get Tony to pick up.” Natasha says. She doesn’t seem to talk a whole lot. Bruce hasn’t said hardly anything.
“Hey, Steve? Can you stay for a minute? I just have a few questions, and I'm willing to answer a few questions, if you’d like.” I ask. He reminds me of someone. I don’t remember who though. Oh well. “Sure. You ask first.” He replies. “Ok. You're part of the Avengers, right?” ask.
“Yes. After you get cleaned up, I’ll probably want to talk to you again. Don't stress too much about it though. It's gonna be ok. You're safe.” he says. Wait. “What do you mean by I’m safe? Is someone trying to find me?” I ask. What is going on today. “We think someone might be trying to kidnap you. It's going to be ok though. We have a ton of security here. Nothing is going to happen.” he says. “Would you happen to know of anyone who would try and do that?” Finally, he asks me a question. “Well, there is someone. I escaped. They tried to find me with their gadgets, but my parents taught me all about technology, so I was able to monkey with it and mess them up. They didn’t find me. I don’t know how I ended up here though. I’m so sorry for disturbing you all. It certainly wasn’t my intention. All I remember is I hadn’t eaten, and I think I passed out. I don’t remember where. There was a lot of sun.” I explain. If I overshared, oh well. I ask. He's thinking about what I said. “If you need to go out of the tower, someone needs to go with you. We don’t want to risk something happening. However, if you’re here, you can do whatever. Jarvis is everywhere, if you get lost he can help with that.” he says while thinking. “Do you guys have a training room?” I ask. That’s somehow more important than me getting kidnapped. I need to sort out my priorities. “Yes, we have a training room. After you shower, I can take you down there.” he chuckles. “Yay!” I exclaim, possibly a little too enthusiastic. “Haha. you like training?” he asks. “Of course I do! It's one of my favorite things to do.” I explain. “I’ll definitely make sure to take you down. Maybe Nat can come with us.” he laughs. “That sounds amazing! I'd love that.” I say. “If you don’t mind, I think I going to go shower now. Thank you, Steve. I’ll have Jarvis tell you when I’m done.” I say. “sounds like a plan.” he replies.
Tony’s POV
Why does Natasha keep calling me? Can't the lady take a dang hint? Argh. I guess I should probably pick up at some point. Wait she’s calling again. “This has been going nonstop for the past hour. What do you want?” I say, possibly a little too aggressive.
“Sorry. I guess you didn’t want to know Steve, Bruce and I brought someone into the tower. Her name is Brooklyn. She doesn’t know how she got here. She was unconscious when we brought her in, she’s awake now and getting cleaned up. But that wasn’t important. Feel free to carry on with your day now that I’ve bothered you.” she says, with a little bit of a tone.
“What? And you didn’t tell me?” I exclaim. “Oh, I’m sorry, who was the one calling you repeatedly, and who was the one ignoring it?” she says. “Fine. That was wrong. I shouldn’t have ignored your calls. I turned my ringer off.” I admit. How else am I going to get her to let up a little? “Where are you?” she asks.
“Why does it matter?” I say with a tone. “Don’t start. I was just asking.” she says.
“Just asking?”
“Just asking.” she confirms. Uh huh. Yeah. I highly doubt that but I'm not going to push it.
“I’m with Pepper. Or at least, I was before you kept calling me. Thanks. Can't we go out for once without being interrupted? You know what, don’t answer that.” I say. I already know the answer. I’m not stupid through and though.
“You’re right. You need a break. Have fun, Tony.” she says. What? Whoops, I should probably answer her. “Thanks Nat. Catch me up on everything when I get back.” I say. “Will do. See you when you get back, Tony.” she replies. Well this is just great. “Hey, Pep?” I call. “Yeah, Tony?” she says as she walks into the room. “I need to get back to the tower. Do you want to come? It's not dangerous, Steve Nat and Bruce found a girl in front of the tower. She just needs some help, I think.”
“Oh, of course I will! The girl needs help Tony, you don’t have to ask me if I want to come.” She says. “Ok, we have first aid supplies at the tower. Let’s go.” I say. Time to see what’s happening.
“Who is she?” I ask, looking at the unconscious girl in front of me. Her braided long brown hair is filthy, there’s a ton of dirt on her face. Her jeans and t-shirt are filthy and torn.
“I followed you out here, I don’t have a clue who she is.” I hear Natasha say.
“Nat we’ve got to get her cleaned up. Those cuts are nasty. Bruce can help when he gets down here.” I say. Those cuts look dangerously bad. “Jarvis, where is Banner?” I ask.
“Dr. Banner is in the elevator coming down from the laboratories and will be down momentarily.” Jarvis says.
“Thank you, Jarvis.” I say.
“I’ll see if I can get Tony to pick up. He must have a spare room she can sleep in. We can ask her if she remembers anything later. She needs to recover first.” Nat says while I take her pulse. “She's gonna be ok, but she’ll definitely need some time to recover.” I state.
The doors whir open. “Bruce, over here.” I call. “What the heck happened to her?” he asks.
“We don’t know that yet. We you help us get her inside so we can help her. She’s gonna need stitches for those cuts.” I say. “Oh, of course. Inside.” Bruce says. “Wait, why not the hospital?” he asks. “Tony will want to ask her some questions once she wakes up. We do too, but not in a hospital. It’ll be easier for everyone if it’s here. More protection. More space. Much more comfortable.” Nat jumps in. “Now, can we get her inside before she dies? We can ask questions later but we’re wasting time now.” she continues. Right. “Bruce can you get the door? Nat, help me carry her, please. We gotta get her out of the sun. Carefully.” I take control. “What room are we putting her in?” Bruce asks. Good question. “Any empty room. It doesn’t matter. It needs to be a bigger one though because we’ll need supplies in there.” Nat says. “Yes. Nat, once we get to a room can you go find her some clean clothes? She'll want to take a shower and be in clean clothes. At least I’m pretty sure she will, I sure wouldn’t want to sleep in these clothes. And you’ll get closer to her size than I will.” I say.
“Of course, I will.” I hear. “Thanks, Nat-” I start saying, before Bruce interrupts. “Have you called Tony yet to tell him what’s going on?” he asks. “I tried but he didn’t answer the phone. I’ll try and call Rhodey in case if he can come or if he knows where Tony is.” I hear Nat chime in. “I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually, especially if he hears we have someone here.” I say. I mean, it’s true isn’t it? He doesn’t know yet, he's going to want to know who she is just as much as we do. Hopefully he doesn’t run her off trying to get answers. I don’t think he will, but still. We just need to make sure she’s comfortable for right now. We can worry about Tony’s reaction later. “Jarvis can you run a diagnosis on the girl?” I ask. “Broken bones, torn ligaments, anything. Then can you run a facial recognition scan? We need to know who she is, and if she has any family. Search every file you can find.” I tell Jarvis. “We need to alert any family she has, if they haven’t noticed she’s gone, they’ll need to know as soon as possible.” I add.
We reached a room. “Hey, can you get an extra pillow to elevate her legs?” I ask Bruce.
“Sure.” he responds.
“Facial recognition scans complete, no matches. Starting next scan.” Jarvis interjects. I look at Natasha. She knows what this means. Shield has nothing for her. This means it’s going to be even harder to get her back to wherever she needs to be.
“Body scans complete. Two ribs and the right ankle are broken. Jarvis says.
“Here’s the pillow, and here’s this.” Bruce hands the pillow to Nat and what looks to be antibiotics to me. “What is this?” I ask, skeptical. “Antibiotics. We might need them. It'll save time later.” he replies.
“Nat, can you start getting some of the dirt off of her? It'll make her feel better when she wakes up if she doesn’t have as much dirt on her as she does now.” I ask Nat. It's true.
“Jarvis can you scan her again and tell me if she needs antibiotics?” Bruce asks.
“Scanning... process complete. Antibiotics advised.” he replies. “Ok. She should wake up in about 10 minutes. 20 at the most.” Bruce reassures me. “Steve, she’s gonna be ok.” Nat says as we start walking out of the room so Bruce can have more room. “I know she is. After she wakes up, you can show her to the shower so she can get cleaned up. Don't ask any questions for now. I know you want answers just as much as I do. Let her get her bearings first though. She's going to be more talkative after anyways.” I say. “Of course I will. Don't worry Steve. If anyone was after her, she's safe now.” she says, reading my mind. “I know.” I agree. “You’re good at taking care of people. You’re also good at killing them.” I joke. “Steve... well you have a point. I am pretty good at both of those. But we don’t talk about that.” she jokes back. “Oh come on, Nat. You know I gotta joke about that. Remember the time when-” she cuts me off. “Steve. You can’t possibly think I remember all of those stories, do you?” she laughs. “Well you don’t talk about them, but I doubt anyone would. I assume they’re all in your mind somewhere. After all, you don’t just forget about that kind of thing. It plays over and over in the back of your mind.” I say, getting serious. “I know, Steve. It does play in my head. Frequently. But I try not focus on it. After all, focusing on the past is how a lot of people get stuck in life and can’t move forward. Why? Because they’ve gotten trapped in the past.” She explained.
“Guys, come here, she’s starting to wake up!” we hear Bruce call. “Coming!” we yell back.
Brooklyn’s POV
“Hi.” I hear someone say. What? Was I asleep? I must have been, because I open my eyes and see 3 people standing next to a bed.
“Who are you, where am I, and how did I get here?” I ask, freaking out. This isn’t normal. This isn’t normal at all, something is wrong.
“Oh, that’s right. Well, I’m Steve Rogers, and this is Natasha, and that’s Bruce.” the taller blonde guy says, pointing to the lady on his left, and the man at the foot of the bed.
“Uh huh... how did I get here?” I ask again. I'm going to get an answer, I don’t care how I get it. I need to know where I am and how I got here.
“You’re in Stark Tower. I walked outside and you were unconscious on the ground. I called Steve to come help get you inside because you were a mess. You're going to need stitches for some of the cuts. They're bad and need help. But for now, you need to shower. You had a lot of dirt on your clothes and face before I wiped some of it off. Not all of it, but at least it’s a little better.” the lady says. “What’s your name again? And does someone have a painkiller or something? I have a pounding headache.” I say. “Natasha. And Bruce, get the girl some Tylenol or something.” she replies. “On it.” he replies.
“So, I have one question before you get cleaned up and rest more. What's your name?” the blonde guy says. Is this a test? Are they experimenting on me? What is happening... “Brooklyn. My name is Brooklyn.” I say. What the heck is going on. “Brooklyn...” Steve starts to say before he pauses. “You mean like... where I grew up?” he asks. “Uhm, maybe...” I say hesitantly. They're not going to hurt me, are they? They seem like they want to help, I guess I can try and trust them. Even if they did try and hurt me, I have training. I like Steve though. He seems like a good person, I trust him, or at least for now. I don’t really have any other choices.
“Brooklyn, are you feeling alright? You might want to go shower and get the rest of the dirt off. We can ask questions later. It seems like you’ve had a rough day, so rest up and then when Tony and the others get back, we’ll have a few questions. Nothing too big, just some basics. It'll help us get you home faster.” Natasha says. Home? Was it all a dream? It seemed so real... maybe these people can help. “Oh, right. Yes, I’m feeling ok, however home isn’t an option. I'll have to explain after I get cleaned up, it’s quite the story and will take some time to tell.” I say. I need to stop thinking so much. These people want answers. If I give them what they want maybe they can help!
“What... never mind. Later. If you need anything, Jarvis is always able to help.” Steve says as he motions to what looks to be an extremely complicated piece of technology. “Jarvis? What's that?” I ask. “He’s built into every room. If you have a question, just ask Jarvis.” Steve answers. “Ok. That shouldn’t be too hard. Thanks.” I say. ‘No problem. Guys come on. We need to try and get Tony to pick up.” Natasha says. She doesn’t seem to talk a whole lot. Bruce hasn’t said hardly anything.
“Hey, Steve? Can you stay for a minute? I just have a few questions, and I'm willing to answer a few questions, if you’d like.” I ask. He reminds me of someone. I don’t remember who though. Oh well. “Sure. You ask first.” He replies. “Ok. You're part of the Avengers, right?” ask.
“Yes. After you get cleaned up, I’ll probably want to talk to you again. Don't stress too much about it though. It's gonna be ok. You're safe.” he says. Wait. “What do you mean by I’m safe? Is someone trying to find me?” I ask. What is going on today. “We think someone might be trying to kidnap you. It's going to be ok though. We have a ton of security here. Nothing is going to happen.” he says. “Would you happen to know of anyone who would try and do that?” Finally, he asks me a question. “Well, there is someone. I escaped. They tried to find me with their gadgets, but my parents taught me all about technology, so I was able to monkey with it and mess them up. They didn’t find me. I don’t know how I ended up here though. I’m so sorry for disturbing you all. It certainly wasn’t my intention. All I remember is I hadn’t eaten, and I think I passed out. I don’t remember where. There was a lot of sun.” I explain. If I overshared, oh well. I ask. He's thinking about what I said. “If you need to go out of the tower, someone needs to go with you. We don’t want to risk something happening. However, if you’re here, you can do whatever. Jarvis is everywhere, if you get lost he can help with that.” he says while thinking. “Do you guys have a training room?” I ask. That’s somehow more important than me getting kidnapped. I need to sort out my priorities. “Yes, we have a training room. After you shower, I can take you down there.” he chuckles. “Yay!” I exclaim, possibly a little too enthusiastic. “Haha. you like training?” he asks. “Of course I do! It's one of my favorite things to do.” I explain. “I’ll definitely make sure to take you down. Maybe Nat can come with us.” he laughs. “That sounds amazing! I'd love that.” I say. “If you don’t mind, I think I going to go shower now. Thank you, Steve. I’ll have Jarvis tell you when I’m done.” I say. “sounds like a plan.” he replies.
Tony’s POV
Why does Natasha keep calling me? Can't the lady take a dang hint? Argh. I guess I should probably pick up at some point. Wait she’s calling again. “This has been going nonstop for the past hour. What do you want?” I say, possibly a little too aggressive.
“Sorry. I guess you didn’t want to know Steve, Bruce and I brought someone into the tower. Her name is Brooklyn. She doesn’t know how she got here. She was unconscious when we brought her in, she’s awake now and getting cleaned up. But that wasn’t important. Feel free to carry on with your day now that I’ve bothered you.” she says, with a little bit of a tone.
“What? And you didn’t tell me?” I exclaim. “Oh, I’m sorry, who was the one calling you repeatedly, and who was the one ignoring it?” she says. “Fine. That was wrong. I shouldn’t have ignored your calls. I turned my ringer off.” I admit. How else am I going to get her to let up a little? “Where are you?” she asks.
“Why does it matter?” I say with a tone. “Don’t start. I was just asking.” she says.
“Just asking?”
“Just asking.” she confirms. Uh huh. Yeah. I highly doubt that but I'm not going to push it.
“I’m with Pepper. Or at least, I was before you kept calling me. Thanks. Can't we go out for once without being interrupted? You know what, don’t answer that.” I say. I already know the answer. I’m not stupid through and though.
“You’re right. You need a break. Have fun, Tony.” she says. What? Whoops, I should probably answer her. “Thanks Nat. Catch me up on everything when I get back.” I say. “Will do. See you when you get back, Tony.” she replies. Well this is just great. “Hey, Pep?” I call. “Yeah, Tony?” she says as she walks into the room. “I need to get back to the tower. Do you want to come? It's not dangerous, Steve Nat and Bruce found a girl in front of the tower. She just needs some help, I think.”
“Oh, of course I will! The girl needs help Tony, you don’t have to ask me if I want to come.” She says. “Ok, we have first aid supplies at the tower. Let’s go.” I say. Time to see what’s happening.
