in the shadows ? steve rogers

010 ? shadows of the past

"I'm just trying to protect you, Gracie."

"You're the one who left me!" she shouted at him, tears falling down her cheeks. "You left me! With—With a man who..." She rubbed a hand over her face, breathing heavily. "With a man who thought I reminded him too much of his deceased wife. While you were off galavanting across the country making a name for yourself with our name, I was stuck." Her lip trembled as she wiped away the tears that were falling faster and steadier.

Around the siblings, more and more people were watching them, not used to seeing the usually quiet, calm inventor raise her voice.

"I am not your helpless kid sister anymore," she said, albeit more quietly. "I am not the girl who was so scared of her father that she begged you to take her to Europe to get away from him. I am not the girl who refused to come out of her room for weeks on end because of the lasting trauma that was caused by her father. I am not the girl who wouldn't let any man touch her for more than three years because of the horrors she faced when she was living with her father." She shook her head and rubbed her nose. "I don't need your protection, Howard. Not now. I did then, but not now."

Howard let out a breath and walked toward her but she took a step back. "Gracie, what did he do to you?" he asked and her eyes glossed over, the memories already swirling in her mind.

"It's not my fault I looked like her," she whispered, biting her lip. "I swear, I didn't do anything."

"What did he do?"

"Do you remember that belt he always had?" she asked in a small voice and Howard's face fell, shaking his head. "His favorite?"

"No..."

"He didn't want me to look like her anymore," she said through sobs. "What—What kind of person does that, Howie? What kind of f—father?"

Howard's eyes filled with tears. "I don't know..."

"I didn't do anything to make him mad," she cried, backing away from her brother. "All I did was look like her. Like me..."

"I know..." Howard walked closer but she moved further from him. "Gracie..."

Peggy sniffled from beside Colonel Phillips, her heart breaking for her friend. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Steve and Bucky standing outside of their tent. The brunette was whispering something in the blonde's ear. Steve whispered back, shaking his head until Bucky pushed him toward the sobbing inventor.

Howard went toward his sister but she shook her head and walked backward. Her back hit a solid object and when she looked up, she saw Steve holding her steady.

"Let me," he said to Howard. He looked between the two before nodding.

"Back to work, all of you! This isn't a show," Phillips' booming voice ordered and the troops all scattered from the clearing. Howard glanced at his sister once more before walking back to his tent and Peggy followed him.

Grace slid down the side of the nearest tent pole, tears still streaming down her face. Steve knelt in front of her making her avoid his gaze.

"Grace..." Her lip trembled as she fumbled with the locket around her neck. "Can you look at me?" She didn't answer, instead opening the locket to look at the picture that was inside. "Please, Grace?"

"I looked like her..." she mumbled and her voice broke, looking at the photograph of her late mother that she had inside. "And that made him mad." Grace glanced up at the blonde super-soldier who was watching her with a soft expression on his face. "Howard looked like her, too. But I'm the one he took his aggression out on. How does that seem fair?"