Chapter 24 ━━ Remember, Bro

━━━━━━━━☆★☆━━━━━━━━

When Heather wakes up, the sun is peacefully shining through the window. He stretches his limbs and yawns, still sleepily. 

Squinting his eyes frequently, he looks over, catching sight of two blur figures staring at him and sits up quickly, orienting himself. He rubs his eyes and blinks more than twice as his eyes adjust, he is convinced that he's going mad until the fat man sends him a dead glare and speaks. 

"Who gave you the permission to sleep with my daughter, Hedeon?" 

Heather quickly pulls the blanket up, covering himself as he looks between the woman and the man with a puzzled look. Part of him is freaking out at the thought of two strangers watching him sleep, which is obviously creepy by the way. There's no sight of Yelena either, making it more creepier. 

"No one is hurting you, Hedeon. Calm down and take a deep breath and let out." The woman says, holding her hands to motioning him to follow her breathing exercise. When she comes to the conclusion that the former Destroyer is calm, she flashes a warm smile at him. "It's good to see you alive, my sweet boy." 

"Sweet boy, huh? He slept with Yelena and I'm not okay with that!" 

Even though Heather wants to scream, he decides to raise his hand, politely. 

"You don't need to raise your hand, Hedeon." The woman says. 

"I just want to ask a question." Heather states with his morning groggy, husky voice and the woman nods at him to continue. "Who the hell are you? Who is he? Where the hell is Yelena? Why are you people in this room while I'm dead naked?"

When the woman opens her mouth to answer, Heather holds his hand up to stop her. "Wait. Don't answer. Whoever you are, I don't care. I'm not a gerontophile. So get the fuck out so I can put on my clothes and dissappear into the thick air."

"If I see something I haven't seen before I'll throw a dollar at it." The man scoffs, shaking his head and Heather wonders how the chair is holding up his overweight body. For some reason, the man reminds him of a pig. A fat pig. 

"Suit yourself." Heather remarks and gets on his feet, shrugging off the blanket to get his clothes which are neatly piled up on the table beside the fat man. 

"Hedeon Nikita Dreykov!" The woman yells at him, immediately looking away. 

"What? He said it was okay." Heather rolls his eyes, taking the sheet with him and wrapping it around his naked body. 

"Just tell me when you're done." The woman says and Heather gets dressed into his clothes in a hurry. He needs to get the hell out of the place before he goes crazy. 

In the time he finally is fully clothed, Yelena strolls in with a tray of food. She looks like a sunflower. For some reason, she is radiating happy vibes along with her glow. Definitely a sunflower in Heather's eyes. Her smile. That's another story. Her smile is the most heartwarming one he has ever seen. One of a kind. Too much to bear for Heather. It's like he is melting under her beautiful smile. He is not going to admit it aloud though. 

"You're up. I brought breakfast." 

"Thank god you're here." Heather says, irritation creeping up his tone and motions at the two strangers. "What the hell is this?" 

Yelena places the tray on the table and turns to him. "These are my parents. Melina and Alexei. You know them already. You just don't remember." 

"You got to admit this is cool. I will find it cooler when I go back to the hell I crawl out. So I can have my black coffee and start my day. Trains leaving the station. Chu chu." Heather sarcastically says, walking towards the door, only for Alexei to stand in front of him, blocking the way. 

"Take it easy before it get weird." Heather states, mentally preparing himself for a fight if it is necessary. That's when Alexei takes a step towards him with his dead glare. "Okay. I don't understand what your problem is and I suggest you to take a step back." 

"Alexei, we can't fight him." Melina reminds to the former red guardian. "You know the plan." 

"You guys have a plan? That’s cute." Heather chuckles whilst Alexei attacks first with a punch. He ducks the blow easily, a little surprised. That's when he decides to lash out, sending his fist forward in a quick jab, feeling it connect with Alexei's ribs with a crunch. Enough to hurt, but not seriously injure. 

Alexei grunts, doubling up and Heather jogs forward to land a series of punches when he hears her voice. 

"Hedeon, stop!" 

Heather's body freezes without his permission. His head is blank. He blinks trying to focus on his environment, confusedly looking around. He feels like a broken doll. 

In the momentum of distraction, Melina jabs a syringe into Heather's neck, pulling him out of the oblivion. 

"Oh dammit." Heather groans, feeling the familiar dizziness slowly spreading through his body. 

"It's a sedative." Melina admits. 

"Fuck, I know." Heather grits his teeth, pulling the syringe out with his shaking hand. His body is already reacting to the sedative. Why on the earth does everyone have their hands on the shit sedative? 

Catching off guard, Heather stumbles backwards, the empty syringe slips out of his hand unconsciously. He is off balance, he knows it. He has to get his feet under him. 

"Now!" Melina demands to Alexei, who is now on his feet and lunging forwards, perhaps sensing his advantage. 

There is nothing for it. Heather can’t block anything while he is still off-balance. He drops to the ground, and feels Alexei lands on him a second later.  

Heather's mind is screaming to get out. He knows if Alexei gets his full weight on him, he will find a hard time escaping. He squirms to the side. But fails with his lack of strength at the moment. "Get off me, you giant squid!"

"Get the fuck off me or what I'm going to do will redefine the word sadistic! I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade!" Heather threatens, struggling to let free when Alexei wraps his arms around him, successfully holding the former Destroyer down to the floor. "Perhaps I'm not making myself clear here. This is a threat!"

"Good job, Alexei." Melina pats on Alexei's shoulder. The fat man smirks with victory at Heather, who is still trying to break free whilst Yelena is watching the duo on the floor with amusement.

"Okay. I give up, man." Heather finally sighs, placing his head on the floor, not really having an energy to push the fat man off him. That's when he feels something that doesn't belong to him pressed to his thigh. If he faces this situation with a man in his age and a different circumstance, he might enjoy it. But now, all he wants is to vomit all over the place. "Don't rub your thing on me! It's disgusting!" 

"I'm not rubbing my anything on you!" Alexei yells back with confusion, not daring to move his grip on Heather.

"Just get off me before I throw up!" 

"There are possibilities of this effecting on him negatively if we fail. It's too risky for him. Even if we manage to somewhat succeed, I'm not sure if he's ready to hold the weight of his memories. It'll be too much. Too much pain." Melina tells her daughter, her face is full of concern. "You do think it's a good idea to make him go through all of that pain? Maybe you should let him go." 

"I might be selfish but I have a second chance and I am not letting it go. I want him back." Yelena firmly says whilst her eyes trails off to her lover. "Do it." 

"Do what?!" An alarmed Heather exclaims. But he is ignored by Melina, who applies something on his forehead. A cooling sensation takes place immediately relaxing his tensed mind. "What the hell is that?" 

"It's a gel. It'll ease your mind and help you to focus." Melina calmly replies and hands the tube of gel to the blonde, who hands her an iPad. 

"That is... me?" Heather asks, carefully watching the picture on the screen of the iPad. The man in the picture looks like him, with few noticeable differences. 

"Your father." Melina informs with a soft voice. 

"He does look like me." Heather realises. "Or maybe I just look like him." 

"You truly are a copy of General Dreykov. But you did receive a handful of your mother's features. Jet black hair, brown eyes, her kindness. All the good ones." Melina smiles, her eyes crinkling slightly at the edge. 

"I have blue eyes." Heather corrects. 

"It's all about the supersoldier serum. Your real eyes are whiskey brown." Yelena states, standing a few feet away from them, her hands crossed over her chest. 

Heather scowls at the information. "That sucks."

"Can you recognise her?" Melina asks, gaining the attention of the trapped supersoldier. 

Heather observes the new figure on the screen that replaced his father. It is an image of a woman smiling. There's something about her that feels vaguely familiar, but not quite enough to recognise her. He shakes his head slightly. "Never seen her before." 

"This is Alina Klimova. She was my friend and your biological mother. Such a kind soul. Unfortunately, she died giving birth to you." 

"She was gorgeous." Heather honestly says. His heart aches whilst his eyes are urging to fill with tears. Why is he not lucky enough to feel his mother's love? The question itself breaks him.

"I was always jealous of your long eyelashes. Looks like you inherited them from your mother." Yelena confesses, crouching down next to Heather, who is still pinned to the floor by Alexei. She eases her slim fingers under Heather's slightly grown hair as far as they go whilst he closes his eyes and concentrates on her touch. "Do you remember anything?" 

Heather opens his eyes, looking fazed. "Am I supposed to?" 

Yelena looks at her mother for an answer. "Why didn't it work?" 

"The firewall is too strong." Melina sighs, standing on her feet before motioning Alexei to let go of the supersoldier, which he does. 

Heather drizzly stands on his feet, holding onto the table. But then again, Yelena grabs him by his shoulder, violently shaking him. 

"You have to remember, Hedeon! You aren't even trying! Focus on your past!" 

Heather is too stunned to speak or move. He stares at the desperate blonde in front of him with wide eyes. 

"Please. Remember." Her voice cracks, her reaching to cup his chin in her hand. 

"Yelena." Alexei speaks, knowing her daughter is after a dead man. It is obvious the plan failed. They failed to bring back Heather's memories. "Let him go." 

"You're my sunshine. My only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away..." Yelena blurts out the lyrics of a familiar song, hoping to trigger any memory out of her lover, not wanting to let him go yet. 

"I know that song." Heather says, a smiling face of Nathaniel traces on his mind. "My nephew, he sings it sometimes." 

The hope on Yelena's face falls at the speed of light. A tear strolls down her cheek, her mind trying to think what she missed or where she went wrong. She steps away from him, reality crashing into her like a bus. "Go." 

"I'm sorry." Heather states to the blonde, feeling guilty for making her cry even if it is unintentional. It breaks him.

"Just go, Hedeon!" Yelena yells at him with both anger and grief clouding her before she is engulfed into an embrace by her father. 

Melina sadly sighs and directs the young supersoldier outside the room and to the front door. 

"Will she be okay?" Heather asks, holding onto the doorway for support whilst Melina wipes the gel off his forehead from a tissue. 

"She will be fine." Melina says even though she knows that it's not. She knows how her daughter grieved for her lover's death for years last time. And remembering it is even hurtful for her. "Do you have money for a cab?" 

"Yeah." Heather nods, running his hand through his hair when Melina wraps her arms around him, hugging him. 

"I'm grateful that you're alive, Hedeon." Melina says, placing a kiss on his forehead and looks at him. Even though it's been years of her being his motherly figure, he is still her kid. Her sweet boy. "Stay safe."