You're In Trouble Now, Kid (Spot and Betty)

[brooklynishere]

It started with a raid that went wrong.

Private Conlon - better known as Spot - and the rest of his platoon were lost when a German base they were attacking turned out to be a much better defended HYDRA base. The survivors - Spot included - were taken prisoner and most of them died there. Perhaps that's where the story might have ended. Perhaps Private Conlon would have been buried in an unmarked grave halfway around the world from the family who never even knew he'd joined the army, and years later when Betty Barnes was free from HYDRA's grasp and went in search of the family she'd left behind, she'd never know that Private Conlon was actually her youngest brother, and all she'd hear about Teddy Barnes is that he disappeared at 15 and was never heard from again. All she'd ever hear.

But that isn't where the story ended.

Because sometimes careless talk costs lives, and sometimes it does the opposite.

A misplaced word here, a name dropped there, and suddenly Spot becomes acutely aware that, despite being in a damp cage in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by armed guards, he's apparently closer to the whole reason he came to this stupid country in the first place - they have his sister.

He hatches a plan, breaks free from his cell and makes it halfway across the facility before he's stopped. He catches some attention, but probably not enough to save his life - not until he lets slip the reason he's trying to get to Zola's latest science project. Then he catches a lot of attention.

He's never brought face to face with his sister, dragged off instead to be subjected to similar experiments and then, when they were done with him, put on ice - a back up. Winter Soldier 2.0, not trained with the other assets but kept in reserve in case they ever needed him. They never needed him.

Seventy years later it started with a raid that went right.

SHIELD had been systematically clearing out known HYDRA bases - with and without the Avengers - when they came across one that, interestingly, included an asset in cryo. The records had been destroyed during the raid, but the HYDRA scientists trying to dispose of the evidence hadn't managed to do anything about that asset directly.

Which is why a SHIELD base had ended up hosting a teenage boy and trying to figure out who he was and where he'd come from. He was not particularly cooperative.

And over at the Avenger's compound, a file crossed Steve Rogers' desk with reports from the latest SHIELD raids and he flipped a page to see, for the second time in his life, a HYDRA asset with a face he recognised.

"Betty." he raised his voice, staring at the page in front of him. He's already reaching for the phone to call the base - there's no way they're not going to see this kid the second Betty clocks eyes on that picture, he should probably warn them they're coming.

Comments

[girlofclay]

Betty had been sitting at a table with a grease rag in in one hand and the other lying flat on the table in front of her, part of regular cleaning and maintenance. Steve's voice - or specifically, the tone in Steve's voice - however, has her up and halfway to his desk before he's even got through to the base.

She looks down at the picture, and up at him, and then she's snatched up the entire file and is walking directly towards the quinjet hangar, holding up one finger above her head.

That's how many minutes he's got if he's coming with.

[brooklynishere]

He's still trying to connect as she starts walking away and he contemplates calling after her - he realises the second he opens his mouth that there's no point, so instead he uses that minute to transfer the call from desk phone to mobile (hey look he can use technology sometimes) so he can hurry after her.

"Is there any point asking you to be calm about this, Bet?" He asks cautiously, phone half to his ear as he listens to the hold music and waits for someone to answer while simultaneously trying to guesstimate how much warning he'll actually be able to give them before the they land.

[girlofclay]

"I - " she hands him the file as he sits, not turning around but twisting her vibranium arm around behind her " - am the picture of calm."

She rests that arm on her lap, preferring to fly one-handed these days as it just doesn't have the responsiveness she needs. She's made adjustments to the quinjet herself, and now no one really needs to use their left arm at all.

And then she angles the bird up and into the air.

"Have you told them we're coming, yet?"

[brooklynishere]

Steve makes a non-committal noise of not-quite-agreement and takes the file just as he finally gets a response. While Betty is starting the jet up he manages to get through and report that the two of them are on their way and they'll need to talk to their new.. guest. He avoids saying prisoner in case she's listening in on their conversation, he doesn't know what kind of mood she's in, exactly, but he doesn't think it's a good one.

He nods, shoving the phone in his pocket and buckling up as the jet takes off.

"They know to expect us."

Steve's pretty sure they have no idea what's actually coming for them - and neither does Teddy.

[girlofclay]

Betty listens to that short conversation without comment, focusing on the lift off and the direction until the air catches them and she can settle back in the seat as they cruise.

She lets go of thee yoke long enough to scrape her hand through her hair, pushing it back out of her eyes as she stares staright ahead.

"How did we not know this, Steve?"

How did she not know that HYDRA had her baby brother on ice? How had either of them failed at tracing Teddy enough to have even a hint this would happen.

She's not sure if she's about to cry or blow her top. And she bets SHIELD won't have someone she could punch enough to make her feel better.

[brooklynishere]

"I don't know, Bet." Steve admits quietly. How could they have known? The only thing they'd managed to learn about Teddy was that he'd disappeared not long after the family had received word that Betty was missing, presumed dead. He'd left one day and never come back - records back then weren't exactly great, and they'd rapidly run out of people who could be relied upon to remember if they might have seen a skinny blonde kid leaving Brooklyn 70 years ago.

"But we're going to find out. We'll get answers." He wanted to look on the bright side - as much as he knew they had to be practical about what they might find, given how Betty had been when they first found her again - this would solve the riddle she'd been left with, the mystery of what happened to Teddy, she had family she could see again.

[girlofclay]

Betty tuts her tongue against her teeth, agreeing that they would gt answers. She knows Steve will do what he can, she's sure Nat will help as well; they've got access to resources she didn't have when she first tired to trace her family, they've got leads now they can follow. They'll find out how this asset slipped through the net when investigating HYDRA.

But it's not going to be hard to find out what Teddy was doing where they could get him.

"That file got any medical information I need to know about?" she asks. She'd focused on location of the base, the history, in the minute before they took off. She needs Steve to check doctor's reports now.

"I'm going to need to know where it's safe to hit the little brat."

[brooklynishere]

Steve snorts in amusement, flipping open the file to actually read more of the report on Teddy.

"He, uh, he didn't let the doctors close enough to get a look at him," he reads with a wince "sounds like he might have some of your abilities but probably not your training...." His tone was careful, but he didn't want to keep it from her even though he wasn't sure exactly how badly she'd react to the news that HYDRA definitely experimented on her baby brother the way they did on her.

"He seems healthy overall from what they could tell, so they intend to finish trying to question him before they try sedating him so they can get blood samples and run more tests." 

[girlofclay]

Betty's reaction is, as he might have predicted, angry silence, focused on the flying - as much as she can be.

They experimented on him. On Teddy. That stupid little kid who wouldn't have been old enough to even be there until after VJ Day.

"Good luck trying to get any kind of straight answer off that kid if he don't want to answer," she mutters.

If she wasn't already pushing the quinjet to its limits she'd be doing that now, just to et there before they sedated him. Funnily enough, the idea of putting him through any medical tests without her there has her fuming.

And at its limits it doesn't take long to reach the base at all, and she keys the radio.

"SHIELD base, this is Avengers Quinjet, requesting permission to land."

She's already started the procedure by the time she's finished the sentence, 'permission' generally being a courtesy rather than something that actually applies to her or Steve.

[brooklynishere]

"What's that, a Barnes being difficult? Can't imagine it..." Steve jokes lightly, though he knows there's no way he's going to cut through the tension radiating off her in waves.

Thanks to Steve's rather blunt instruction that they were coming, the radio crackles with a hurried okay from the base and there's already two agents rushing out to meet them as they land.

[girlofclay]

She shoots him a Look as she gets out of the pilot's chair, layered with haha smartass and now is not the time to be starting. Nevertheless she knows that he, if no one else, will also pick up the gratitude that he's at least trying to joke with her like it's normal; the relief that he's here for her without question and without condition; and the absolute love that she's always had for her unofficial third brother.

She came out of the compound in only the tanktop and jeans she'd been working in, but Steve retrieves her leather gilet from her locker and hands it to her as he heads out, aware that even in the most peaceful moments, sometimes you need the security of your uniform.

The gilet has a hair-tie in on of the pockets and as she strides out in the wake of Captain America, tying her hair back with her most humourless Winter Solider face on, she almost feels guilty about the impression she must be generating.

But she's not going to stop for longer than it takes to get directions.

[brooklynishere]

Steve, knowing the urgency she's feeling, also has his business face on, so it's safe to say the two SHIELD agents waiting for them are.. somewhat intimidated.

"You know why we're here?" It's half question, half command and the first agent nods quickly.

"Yes captain, he's this way." And yes, they know why they're here technically, but there's very obvious curiosity about what's got the two of them so urgently interested in the kid they picked up.

But with those looks on their faces, there's no way they're asking.

The first room they take Steve and Betty to is the observation room, the other side of the two way mirror looking into the small cell on the other side, where Spot - looking not a day over sixteen and almost no different to the last time Betty saw him - is slouching sullenly in a chair wearing borrowed clothes three sizes too big and glaring at a third agent who's sitting opposite him.

The agent accompanying them flicks on the speakers so they can hear what's being said.

"-may have to treat you as a hostile agent if you don't start answering us."

"That supposed to scare me?"

"Do you want to speak to him from here, or go inside?" The agent asks Steve and Betty.

[girlofclay]

Betty swallows the gasp that she wants to make. It really is him, and he's so small and what have they done to him?

She ignores the agent, out of long leanred habit not to let emotions show to anyone in the organisation, but nods to Steve.

"Stay here?" Then she's heading straight to the reinforced door to the cell.

The agents are at least smart enough to open it for her before she pulls it off its hinges, which means when the door opens it's just her, right hand crossing her body to cup her vibranium elbow, her face melting from Winter Soldier into Betty Barnes, relieved and disappointed big sister.

The agent conducting the interview turns around, obviously surprised to see her rather than Steve taking point on this.

"Give us some privacy."

[brooklynishere]

The watching agents are equally confused that it's Betty that immediately goes for the door, but while they look to Steve for answers he's not giving them any, just watching the mirror intently to see what happens.

Spot tenses when the door opens, a flash of wariness crossing his face before it shifts into something far different - relief, amazement, shock, and the one emotion he's kept completely hidden from them this entire time - fear.

Betty was going to murder him.

The agent looks between them once and decides there's something important going on here, wisely choosing to do what she says. He vacates his chair, nods to Betty and steps outside the room, closing the door behind him.

Spot straightens up in his chair, swallowing nervously. He doesn't know if he wants to run at her or run away.

"...Hi Betty."

[girlofclay]

If there was any doubt at all which one of relief and anger would win out in the end, whether her fear or her fury had been stronger, it's gone as soon as she sees him.

She moves only to let the interrogator pass and shut the door behind him, and then she lets her act drop completely, opens her right arm out to him.

Come here.

[brooklynishere]

Spot hesitates, his gaze flicking to the two way mirror because he knows they're being watched, and he's still tense and cautious and constantly concerned about what everybody thinks but in the end none of that matters. None of that matters because this is his sister, the entire reason he'd gone to war in the first place, the reason he'd made a mad dash across that stupid german base, the reason he was here - and while he hadn't told them anything, they'd told him enough that he'd been left thinking there was no way he'd ever see her, see any of his family, ever again.

And now she was right there holding her arm open and there was a lot to unpack here but he'd been lost and scared and confused and desperately hiding behind his anger and in that moment he couldn't do it anymore.

So that tiny hesitation passes and he launches himself out of his chair with a suddenness that makes the watching agents start (Steve doesn't move, he knows what's happening here) and flings his arms around Betty, burying his face in her shoulder.

[girlofclay]

Betty pulls him tight against her, even using her left arm to wrap around his waist while the other moves to his head, stroking his hair (his lovely hair, now cut to regulation and she's never had an opinion on that before but she hates it), but not before flashing an okay signal to Steve.

If he had been alert and worried this was a trap of some sort, he can stand down.

She angles her back to the mirror so they can't see her blink back tears, but there's no mistaking the way her head moves as she hammers his head with kisse, the way she clings to him like a life vest.

And then, as suddenly as he'd launched at her she pushes him away to arm's length. (Not letting go, never letting go again. Her hand on his shoulder is unmovable.)

"You are in so much trouble, mister."

[brooklynishere]

Steve nods slightly, even though he knows she can't see him, and there's a certain relaxation in his shoulders that means the agents standing with him feel like they can actually venture the question that's been plaguing them since they got his call.

"Cap... what's going on? Who is this kid?"

"'This kid' is Teddy Barnes. That's her little brother." Steve says softly, his eyes never leaving the two of them even as understanding dawns all around him.

Any other day, any other time, Spot would not put up with this level of affection from his sister without significant complaints. Now he can't believe he ever hated it. He clings to her tightly until she's done, obviously reluctant to let go even as she pushes him back. There's tears in his eyes, too, and he furiously blinks them away - it's the closest he's been to crying in a long time (even if you don't include the whole seventy-years-on-ice thing).

But he can't avoid this part, he knows he can't. He swallows nervously.

"Look, I can explain-"

[girlofclay]

"Oh no, let me."

She cuts him off and pushes him back to his chair. If they're going to do this here, he's going to get to sit down for it. She hunkers down next to him, using her thumb to wipe gently at his eyes without saying anything out loud about that.

"You were so worried that the war would be over before you turned eighteen and you'd miss out on all the fun that you ran away from your parents and sister, lied on the enlistment form" - a glare at the mirror. Wonder who he got that idea from? - "and got yourself captured by HYDRA because you don't have the sense you were born with."

It's hard to be fully angry-big-sister, not when she's having to wipe tears from her own eyes in between picking at his clothes, stroking his hair and all the little fussy things she'd lavish him with up until the point that puberty made him resistant.

[brooklynishere]

Steve has the sense to look sheepish behind the mirror, shifting uncomfortably.

"No." Spot objects, even though she's not... that far off, but there's certain assumptions there that he needs to correct, partly because he can't bear the thought of her thinking so badly of him "I was so worried about my sister that I lied on the enlistment form. They told us you were probably dead, Betty... they said you'd probably never come back..." turns out they were half right, but not for the reason they thought.

"I knew it couldn't be true. So yea I lied, I had to come and find you... and then you showed up again before I even got out of basic running around with Captain America, but I was already being shipped out and I thought... I thought maybe I'd see you, or Jimmy..." he takes a deep breath "I almost did. We were captured raiding a HYDRA base and while I was there I overheard that they had you. Broke out of my cell and came looking... I really thought I was done for when they caught me... until they found out I was your brother."

[girlofclay]

It's not unlike being shot. Betty pals, and puts her hand over her mouth. He got himself in trouble looking for her. Twice.

Why are her boys all so stupid?

She rubs her thumb and forefingers into her eyes, pinching out tears again.

"Oh, Teddy."

She wraps her hand around his shoulder again, lifts herself up towards him to hug him again.

"What did they do to you?"

[brooklynishere]

He's glad she's hugging him again, not just because he's desperately missed her and been sorely touch starved for what felt like forever, but because it means he doesn't have to look at her while he answers her question. Doesn't have to see what his answer does to her, because he knows it isn't going to be good.

"I don't know..." but it had hurt, it had hurt more than anything in his life. "some kind of experiment, they wouldn't tell me what it was for... but I think... I think they did the same thing to you..."

That's the part he's struggling with, the part that means there's a tremor in his voice despite how hard he fights to keep it steady, because he hates that his sister went through the same thing (and that's even without knowing she had it much, much worse) and that he couldn't do anything to stop it - so he can only imagine how she must feel hearing he went through it too. He's protective of his siblings, sure, but he knows it pales in comparison to how protective they are of him - he's the baby.

[girlofclay]

Betty's breathing is slow and steady, controlled with all that military practice and all the poise of a big sister who is there for him, and doesn't care about what it does to her.

But he's absolutely right - hearing it is like an ice cold knife right in the heart. She knows that experiment well, and the thought of her baby brother going through it is enough to pull all those memories flashing back. So her grip tightens on him and she holds him close for a few seconds more, listening to his breathing, keeping him to her for as long as he needs.

"Okay," she says eventually. "Okay, listen, this is what's going to happen," - and by god, Steve had better be listening to this - "we're getting you out of here. Steve's outside, and the three of us are going... well, to our headquarters first, then you're coming home with me. They're still going to want to do tests, but it's going to be our doctors, okay? And I'll be there the whole time and no one's going to do anything you don't want them to do."

She will steal a plane and fly to Wakanda if anyone comes near Teddy with a needle without his okay. Steve at least will know this.

[brooklynishere]

He's trying very hard to stay calm, not to completely fall apart because for the first time since he left basic (maybe since before) he feels safe and there's something about that feeling that means all the tension and fear and pain he's been pushing down and holding back for all this time is threatening to overwhelm him, but he has to hold on just a little bit longer - he can't break down, not in front of them, in front of her, not right now.

But he clings on to her until he feels like he can actually manage that, until he doesn't feel like he's about to explode, until he can force his breathing to be even and doesn't feel the threat of tears welling. Only then does he relax his grip.

"Okay." he says, nodding slowly. He knows he can trust her, doesn't need to be suspicious and combative like he has since he got here.

Steve finally turns to the agents in the observation room.

"You heard her, we're leaving."

"But you can't-" one of them starts to object and Steve cuts them off with a look.

"I want you to think very carefully," he says, calm and commanding "I want you to look at her and think - do I want to be the person telling her she can't take her little brother home today? Because I don't think you have that kind of deathwish, son."

[girlofclay]

Betty stands, bringing Teddy with her. Her right arm stays wrapped around his shoulders, her hand up on the side of his head protectively as she leads him out of the door. Even at 15, he's only just the same height as her, so it's not a stretch at all.

The first thing she does on leaving the interrogation cell is to turn to the agents there, who all have that expression that says Steve just called one or all of them 'son,' and which she loves to see.

"In case you didn't realise," she says, "I'm this kid's legal guardian and everything you want to do with him comes by way of a formal request through Captain Rogers, and takes place at Avengers HQ. If they're reasonable, we'll consider them."

To Teddy, she says. "Hey, you remember Steve, right?"