Dolly Mixtures Musebox

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.

Siobhan Conlon had run away from home at age 12 and very quickly realised that the streets were a terrible place for a girl. Especially one with a smart mouth and a violent temper. It wasn't that she couldn't handle herself - she absolutely could - but she didn't want to have to all the time.

So she'd stolen some boy's clothes from a washing line and spent her second-to-last dime on a haircut, and when she'd shown up at the circulation gate with the other newsies one cold November morning, three weeks after first leaving home, they'd accepted her with open arms.

After that, it wasn't long before she had a bed at the boarding house, a whole new family and a name - Spot.

By now she has it down to an art, as the leader of Brooklyn she had her own room at the boarding house which made it easier, but she's spent years perfecting her act, she's got the swagger and the voice and the look, and everybody thinks she's just small for a boy - Spot's certainly got more than enough personality to make up for it.

So when Dodger comes strolling into her life she doesn't think anything of it at first, he's just another cocky kid for her to take under her wing and show the ropes, and if she finds him somewhat attractive... well, it wouldn't be the first time she's thought that about someone. She'll get over it, she always does. She can't risk revealing herself, not after all this time.

There's something about him, though, something that's just kind of easy to get along with - even when they're arguing - and Spot just likes having him around. It's dangerous, really dangerous, but she can't stop herself being around him.