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Secret Bit of Right From Wrong	By : ChrisCross Category: Marvel Verse Movies > Avengers, The Views: 9417 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Captain America or The Avengers. I make no money, and live on reveiws alone

Chapter List
- 6
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- 8
Hello readers! This chapter needs a few facts upfront to stall the outrage.
1. The invisible exist. It is possible to get lost in the eyes of the census takers, I did not unrealistically Angsty-Sue this for drama.
2. I am in no way saying all homeless people do the things described, but the individual parts of Karen's trip down memory lane are real and doable.
3. I did unrealistically speed up the sisters adoption. Being up for adoption is not a fast or painless process in most cases. Adding god knows how many years in the system would have slowed things down and damaged readability. Mea culpa.
P.S. The German was translated by the mac widget, then checked over by my Dad's so-so German. Sorry if it's wrong.
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Although Steve’s body was healing very quickly, possibly because of the failed attempt to restore his powers a few weeks before, he still had to remain silent. When they took him off the paralytics, he had yawned, and then screamed. They never did head X-rays, so the hairline fracture on his jaw had not been diagnosed. He was still in the cast. For now, he was stuck using his observation skills more than he had since before he was on ice. Only, this time he was not memorizing an enemy map, or listening for an attack. Instead, he studied the face of the beautiful dame who seemed to have elected herself his nursemaid, and filed away everything she said for later review. He still didn’t think she would ever be attracted to him like this, but it was interesting to sort her words and actions into “Tony is blind” and “Tony twists things” categories.
At least Stark never brought up his crazy theories about Steve’s totally fictional love life again. Pepper or Miss Romanova had read him the riot act, likely. The team only came to see him as a group that once, but each of them stopped by as individuals a few times. After all, as Agent McCann had pointed out, it would look odd for him never to have visitors. It was easier for some of the team than others. Tony was too public a figure to risk it getting out that he was seeing some random guy in the hospital; and despite the continued efforts of both Fury and the Stark lawyers, Bruce was still on the law enforcement’s bad side. But nobody knew the aliases Black Widow and Hawkeye used, and Thor didn’t exist officially. If they wore normal clothing, it wasn’t hard to just walk in and give the front desks names that were on his list of allowed visitors. Although his team mates did their best, his most constant companion was Karen. It was remarkable how much thought she put into his care. She seemed to know what he would want, and get it, before it even occurred to him to ask. When her sister came by to drop off his iPod, Karen set it up. Thanks to her, he had a sketch set, his music, and the picture of his mother. She read to him, and talked with him. Not to him, with him. She was the one who found a white slate-and-marker set for him to use to ‘speak’. He learned a lot of things about this time that he knew would never have made it into the documentary films S.H.I.E.L.D. had given him. She spoke of her early life, drifting with her sister.
“The thing is; we were totally off the grid. Fell right through the cracks. We spent most nights safely, taken in by a few friends, or friends of friends, or in those public buildings we could slip into. Churches were good in the summer, but the one winter we stayed in Wal-Mart sucked eggs. Since we skipped out on shelters, the bean-counters didn’t add us to the total of homeless. But with no solid home, we weren’t on any census either. The invisible; that’s what we called ourselves.”
How did you get by? Food. Clothes. If no shelters. It was poor grammar, and he wouldn’t use it normally, but speed required shortcuts. Thankfully most of the time it made sense to others.
“Stealing and begging, to be blunt. There aren’t really great options for 7 and 10 year-old drifters in the job market. There were a few stores that would let us take the useful trash. Stale bagels, shirts stained by those ink-splatter things, stuff like that. But mostly it was shop-lifting and cons. With the best one I rode a bike into a car backing up, and then got ‘hurt’. It needed an adult partner to get the money, so it wasn’t one we did often. Cate was good at grifting; with five minutes, a driver’s license and google, she could become the perfect lure to get the mark’s money.” She paused, her face going solemn.
“It isn’t that I like that part of my past. I’m not evil, I know the rules of ethics. I just stopped being ashamed of it. In a perfect world where it was possible to give it all back, I would. This isn’t a perfect world though. I survived, I’m glad I did, and I’m not interested in survivor guilt.”
What happened next? Not the end.
“Appendicitis happened. I was 9, and I got really sick, so Cate broke the cardinal rule of the invisibles. She went to non-invisibles for help. The emergency room of Saint Luke’s Hospital, in KC, to be exact. I had my appendix taken out just in time, and we both had to go into the system. We got adopted crazy quick, it’s not that common to have applicants willing to take pre-teens. I’m glad they took us both, that is also not normally done. We wound up in this tiny town in the Ozarks, with the McCanns. They were very…conformist. It wasn’t an easy change.” Karen pulled her thoughts inward again. Steve noticed that she did that when it was hard to talk about. It would be a good idea to change the subject.
Any mail?
“Let’s see, you have; a very plain card from a ‘Nick’, “Mr. Greene and Mr. Steel say it’s only a few weeks before we finish the puzzle Abe gave you. Stay alive.” Talkative guy. I hate to break it to you, but you have some odd friends. That art deco mug from Virginia was the most normal gift you got. And what is with the single names? At least, someone sent you normal flowers today, and the card is pretty cool even if it’s weird. I mean, who puts red, white, and blue on a get well card? This is more Fourth of July. See star in the center?”
A line of cold sweat ran down Steve’s back. On the front of the card in Karen’s hand was the pattern from his shield. None of his friends would endanger him like that, they had all been using bland store-bought cards. This had to be on purpose, not a mistake, because that card was custom. The card had to be a message, a taunt from an enemy.
“No name, that’s odder than the one name cards. I think this writing is German, but I only had one year of that in high school, so I could be wrong. Any idea what “Ich sehe dich, Kapitän. Sie ist sehr hübsch, was für eine schande, sie zu töten.”* means? I’m getting like one word in five.”
Oh good lord, no. They couldn’t, it had to be wrong. She’s a civilian! His hand shook as he carefully wrote out his silent words without shorthand. He couldn’t afford to get sloppy if this wonderful woman was in the line of fire. Can you get your sister for me? She’ll know what it is.
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*I see you, Captain. She is very pretty, what a shame to kill her.
- 6
- 7
- 8
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Secret Bit of Right From Wrong