"someone take me home"

Two days. Amelia only has to last two more days and then she gets to go. Where? She has no idea. As much as it pains her to admit, the Avengers have 'grown' on her. She's gotten used to living here in the Tower.

How idiotic is that? It goes against every fiber in her body. This isn't home.... She's never had a home. She never will. She shouldn't even be thinking about silly things like that. She shouldn't be thinking. 

But she is. She is thinking.  She voices her thoughts without fear of punishment. She isn't who she was...... and maybe that's not so terrible.

There's a knock on her door, interrupting her thoughts. She sighs, regaining her composure. It's probably Natasha triple-warning her not to pull anything while the team's gone. "Enter if you must."

Bruce walks in, much to her surprise. "Hey, the team's already gone. I just wanted to check up on you and... give you this." He hands her a worn paperback book.

Her brow rises in curiosity as she takes it. A Study in Scarlet. She tilts her head, "Is this about color theory?"

"What? No, it's Sherlock Holmes. It's a classic."

"Oh, so like a biography?" Amelia wonders, looking the book over. "I've only ever read a few of these. Glimpsed, really. I wasn't supposed to read these sorts of things." 

"It's not a biography. It's just a story about a detective and his partner. They solve mysteries. It's fiction."

"Fiction?" She tries the new word out on her tongue. Her nose scrunched up slightly. 

"You know, like a story? The characters don't exist or anything, it's completely made up."

"Oh."

Out of all things, they kept from her, for whatever reason this one in particular hurts. It makes her want to scream.

What? No, never. She'd never do such a thing. She's not allowed to.

Just like she's not allowed to read those types of stories.

They must've had a reason. Some reason for them to do all of this to her. It made her strong. She's the best at what she does. Whatever that even is.

She doesn't like this. 

Amelia shakes the thoughts out of her head. Her confusion mixed with distraught must have shown on her face because Bruce takes a seat on her bed, "Amelia, I-"

She hands the book back to him, cutting his sentence off and standing abruptly. "Thank you, Doctor Banner but I-"  She grabs the nearest trash can, emptying her stomach. 

Without hesitation, Bruce holds her hair out of the way as she pukes. Her eyes tear up as the stench reaches her eyes. She gags at the smell, turning her head away, panting. She lightly grazes her wet tearstained cheek. She sits back on her haunches, breathing shallowly. Wincing, her massages her temple in the hopes of stopping whatever appeared to be arriving.

Before Bruce can say or do anything. She practically bolts out of the room. She speedwalks through the Tower, looking for the nearest exit.

"Amelia!"

The teenager whips around, her face red and flushed. Her hand keeps shaking by her side and her eyes flit across the hallway, "I'm, uh, going. Leaving."

"Hold on, you can't just leave," Bruce says, keeping a respectful distance away from the panicking girl. "Just take a second and we-"

"No!" She blurts out. As soon as she says it she staggers back, shocked at her own words. Clenching her fists to stop the shaking, she presses herself to the wall. She keeps her eyes glued to a spot on the floor, whispering softly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to."

Bruce ignores the dryness of his mouth and hides his sweaty palms behind his back. He clears his throat, trying to make his voice come out stronger than he feels right now. "It's okay, whatever is going on, we'll figure it out."

It's okay? All at once every emotion Amelia has been trying so desperately to keep buried starts to boil over. It's like someone dropped a mento into her bottled feelings. Everything feels so out of perspective. She can't focus on any one thing. It's all mushed together. So many different feelings she can't even discern one from another. The only thing it can be described as is Bad™.

"You don't understand."A few traitorous tears escape from her eyes.  "If they find me what do you think they'll do to me? Every second I am here, my worth is lessened. You get that? If they find me useless... they will not hesitate to reset me back to factory default or eliminate me completely. But I don't want to- I don't want to lose what I have."

"You won't. I promise you won't. We'll keep you safe. I'll keep you safe. They'll never hurt you again."

"You can't promise that," she spits out bitterly. "You can't promise anything. You could be doing the same as them. By making me trust you and by letting me-" She cuts herself off, squeezing her eyes shut. "That's it, isn't it? You have lied to me since day one. You all have. More than just about letting me go. In the lab, you give me assignments so I don't look at whatever you're doing. You're lying to me. You just want to control me. Fine! Go ahead and do it but stop with the pretending to care."

She does her best to control her breathing, bringing it back to a normal rate. No emotions. That's what she's been trained. She has to keep her composure. She has to stay the same as she's always been.

Her life is not her own. Obedience is the only option. She has no choice.

"I'm your dad." Bruce blurts out before he can stop himself. He mentally punches himself. Definitely not how he thought that conversation would go. But it does the job. It brings her back. 

Her eyes snap open, any chance of her being able to control herself is long gone. "What?"

Amelia can't move. She's not even sure she's breathing. For her, the world stops. None of this is possible. She refuses to believe it is. She is many things. She's not the daughter of a hero. The daughter of a good man.

"I... I'm sorry. That didn't come out like I wanted to. I- I had a whole plan and this isn't how it's supposed to go. I was going to take you out and spend a whole day with you and  then we'd go to the lab because I know how much you like it there and I would have a little scavenger hunt for you so you'd find out and please say something because you're not saying anything and if you still want to go I'll respect that but I really- "

He's not lying.  No one would ever willingly claim her so he has to be telling the truth.

Amelia stares at him with wide red eyes. "You don't even know the extent of what I've done. How could you possibly look past that? You realize I won't ever be a perfect daughter. You're better off getting a baby without all the baggage I do. I'm not a child. I'll never be a child. You being my- it's likely that you were purposefully targetted for your genes so you really shouldn't as though you are required to do anything because you're not. You're entitled to your freedom and-" 

"I'm not going anywhere. I don't care how it happened, you're my daughter.  And nothing about either of us is "normal". We'll deal with that. We don't have to be normal we can just be us and that's going to be enough."

"You don't have to take pity on me."

Bruce shakes his head. "That's not what this is. I'm telling you right now, you are not getting rid of me anytime soon."

Amelia fights against the twitching of her mouth pushing her to smile. "That doesn't sound terrible." She laughs shallowly, wiping away some of her tears. "Geez, why do I have to be so emotional?"

Bruce pulls her into a warm embrace. She stiffens up, unsure of how to respond. He squeezes her tightly.  Almost cautiously, she returns the hug, allowing his love in and surrendered to bliss.

As much as she'd like to stop herself, she believes him. Her time in the Tower has been great. The Avengers snuck their way through her defenses. She cares about them. Even Clint.

And you know what? After all the crap she's been through, she deserves this. She deserves a family. She deserves to have people around her that don't treat her like she's nothing. It could very well be her severely unbalanced hormone levels tricking her into fully letting Bruce in but she doesn't care. At that moment, the child forced to grow up before her time wants to be surrounded by people who actually care.

The pair stay there for what seems like forever completely unaware of the heartache the future will bring them.

As much as Bruce hates it, he can't protect his daughter from the world. He can't even keep his promises.