A/N: I really do have to restate my huge thank you to TAngel96, apex-aporia,  XxTheAvengerXxX, lucidhalos and Joey106 for participating in a (huge) and wonderfully in-depth discussion on the Sokovia Accords as I was polishing this and a couple other upcoming chapters. It really did help me get some of my thoughts in order and clarify some of my points! They are all owed virtual hugs!

***

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Spring 2016

As if she didn't already have enough to fret about. Nina's gut quivered anxiously as she ended the call with her mom, her eye automatically drawn back to the TV before she could stop it even as Nadine's reassurances echoed in her ears, their faintly hollow quality having little to do with the distance of the phones that relayed them.

Her mom was shaken. And for good reason, Nina could admit. She was pretty shaken herself.

To hear there has been an attack on the UN summit in Vienna? The one where she knew her Aunt Nat was representing the Avengers at the official ratification of the Sokovia Accords?

Shaken seemed a mild term all of a sudden.

She shifted in her spot on the couch of her dorm's common room, typing out a text to Natasha with trembling fingers before hugging her knees close as her attention fixed on the TV screen and its breaking news coverage. She felt like she was barely able to process what she was seeing.

Across the room, a pair of other freshmen were whispering intently to each other as they watched with wary, intrigued eyes. At the table behind the couches crowded around the TV, Jason—a boy from one of her intro courses she sometimes studied with—was hunched over his spread of books and laptops, though his hands hadn't done more than move in an absent facsimile of work since the breaking news had flashed on while his head was tilted in the direction of the TV.

And more of her fellow first year students were beginning to trickle in, morbidly fascinated by the attack. Nina barely noticed.

It had already been a stressful enough last month or so. As if the normal stresses of school and assignments and labs and tests and being away from friends and family weren't enough...

First the fallout from Lagos and how utterly devastated Wanda still was—not that Nina could blame her—and how helpless Nina felt being stuck so far away. She'd only just been able to get Wanda to talk to her about it in the last few days. Though, considering how she'd felt hearing about what had really happened from her mom and Nat second-hand? She couldn't say she was in the least bit surprised Wanda was taking it so hard.

It was like Ultron all over again.

At least, it felt that way to Wanda.

Then there was how sullen and angry Pietro was, all the while hiding how scared and guilty he felt...at least she did seem to be able to help him a little, providing a sympathetic ear and letting him vent about it all. Not to mention the option to let him get his mind of everything in other, more pleasant ways.

Then there was the unrest over the Avengers. Lagos had been the 'Last Straw,' apparently. With the first shaky footage that had appeared, seeming to show either Steve engaging in little more than an all out brawl with Crossbones in the middle of a crowded market or Wanda throwing a fireball into a building? Even once the truth had come out, like that Wanda had been fighting to save everyone in the marketplace from a massive explosion by thinking as quickly as she had or that the Avengers had prevented Crossbones from making off with a biological weapon—not that the South African government was cooperating on that front, seeming to prefer to deny that Rumlow gotten that far in an attempt to mitigate embarrassment that he breached the facility despite security measures—the damage to the Avengers' already shaken reputation had been done.

Nina hated that so many people were intent on heaping blame on Wanda. Her friend didn't deserve it and it physically hurt to think of what Wanda was going through, knowing how she was bound to internalize it. And Pietro was nearly beside himself over it all, alternating between furious and despondent every time he had visited since the incident. He felt horribly guilty for not being there even if he had yet to explicitly say so.

Another girl from Nina's study group, Gurpreet, sank onto the couch next to Nina, her dark eyes grave and uneasy as she glanced Nina. Try as she might, Nina couldn't quite seem to manage even a small smile, the corner of her lip barely twitching but not quite lifting. Mercifully, Gurpreet said nothing, turning back to the TV and leaving Nina to her chaotic thoughts. The warm haze in her chest was not soothing her as well as it usually did.

Because her thoughts were chaotic, and this attack in Vienna wasn't helping. Her eyes dropped to her phone and, even knowing it wasn't likely to get her answers any faster, she sent out another anxious text to Natasha. Then another.

It had been bad enough after the incident in Lagos. To then hear the things the world media started to say about the Avengers after that? Especially Wanda? To hear the outcry that followed, both in the media and across her campus, against the Avengers?

It honestly made her feel sick.

And now there were the Accords too.

God, Nina didn't know how to feel about them. It was a popular topic, with some arguing vehemently against, citing ethical concerns and human rights violations and others staunchly for, arguing it was crucial for public safety and peace of mind for everyone. And debates over it were almost constantly breaking out in the halls, in the labs, the library...everywhere. She couldn't escape it. And thanks to that, arguments and opinions and facts and perspectives were swirling and clashing within her own head these days, a by-product of being part of a campus full of passionate, informed and intelligent young people. And no few professors.

The campus was practically buzzing over how a full out debate on the Accords had taken over one of the upper year lectures before spilling into the class that followed that had ultimately resulted in the two professors arguing heatedly over the ethics of the Accords and the Avengers and whether or not the Accords would do more harm than good.

Really, it was being talked about almost as much as Tony's declaration from a few weeks before that all the graduate student projects were going to be funded by him, in full.

And that was saying something.

To say it was a divisive topic was an understatement. Especially because she found herself conflicted over which side of the debate she stood on. She didn't want to have to choose a side...

On the one hand, was the idea of bringing the Avengers under the mantle of the UN really such a bad idea? Surely it would help protect them as much as it was intended to protect ordinary people, right? Perhaps if the Avengers had been part of some sort of larger structure—like the UN, or as her aunt had explained, like they'd originally been under S.H.I.E.L.D.—Wanda would've been protected these last few weeks instead of unfairly blamed. Yes, they would have to answer to others instead of just themselves, but they also have support. Protection. Help, even. They would still be able to protect the world, but with the Law officially on their side and the United Nations backing them up.

Was that so bad?

She knew the Avengers. She knew they weren't perfect, but they weren't as careless and reckless people claimed. They just weren't. People just weren't seeing the larger picture, or hearing the full story.

She had been there and Sokovia. She had seen Ultron face-to-face. He tried to kill her, for heaven's sake—she had the nasty scar over her ribs to prove it; Pietro had multiple scars. She had seen how twisted the robot had been, how under the veneer of understanding for the suffering in the world and desire for righteous vengeance, he had been bent on nothing more than destruction and death.

She had seen the Avengers in action. She knew the lengths the Avengers had been willing to go to to save even one more person. She had seen it. They weren't the heartless warmongers parts of the pro-Accords faction were trying to paint them as.

All they genuinely wanted was to do their best to save the world and the people in it. Heck, that very desire was what had driven Tony to create Ultron in the first place, as she understood it.

And Nina believed in what they did. Part of her even still wanted to be one of them.

But as much as she hated to admit it, she could see the other side as well. She wasn't that naïve.

Things couldn't continue as they had been. The Avengers couldn't continue as they used to, answering to nothing and no one but their own consciences. Couldn't they see it was dangerous? Didn't they see how people saw them since they operated outside the laws regular people had to follow? Surely it was better to comply...to compromise. They could even negotiate, she imagined. But people saw them as heedless, irresponsible, and entitled because of their superhuman abilities. Even arrogant and outright dangerous. And they weren't! Nina knew them. They were her family.

Surely, since they all believed in the importance of Avenging, since they believed it was their responsibility to put their abilities to work protecting people, they could see the only way they could continue to fulfill their calling, to keep helping people, was to go along with the Accords.

It was the stance her aunt had taken and Nina could agree with it.

She knew people were angry that all of the Avengers had walked away from what happened with Ultron and Sokovia without much more than a slap on the wrist. When the world had demanded answers once the dust began to settle over the remnants of Nova Grad, Tony had ordered an official statement released explaining that Ultron had been the product of a global defence program involving artificial intelligence he and the Avengers had been developing that had catastrophically backfired.

And not one charge had been laid. No fines, no official condemnations. There hadn't even been an Official Inquiry. No hearings, no investigations. Nothing. Even the Avengers had been stunned. Tony had even let it slip once during their conversations about U.I. programming that he still couldn't believe he hadn't been officially charged over Ultron...and Nina hadn't been able to help the sense that on some level he didn't think that was right. Some countries voiced displeasure, yes, but most governments seemed to want to stay away from the powder keg of bad press the Ultron Fiasco was by calling for investigations to happen or charges to be laid.

Regular people, however, had held no such compunctions. The first true calls to condemn and blame the Avengers and especially Tony had been made following Tony's statement. And the already divided opinions over the Avengers had begun to deepen.

Then Lagos had happened and the calls for accountability had been given new life. And this time, the calls had gained real traction.

Thus, the Sokovia Accords.

Around her, conversation was beginning to pick up as debate over the Accords inevitably broke out as the initial shock of the attack began to wear off.

"See? This is exactly why the Accords are dangerous," one of her fellow first-years was hissing, "the Avengers go after guys like the Winter Soldier. But now they've been told to stand down and look what happened! This is clearly a statement that without the Avengers on duty, we're vulnerable," he finished with a vehement gesture. Around him, a handful of others nodded thoughtfully, while others still scoffed.

"Then why attack the Summit," one of the girls standing behind Nina's couch piped up, "it's just going to strengthen the call for the Accords to go through. It's an indication that they're on the right track."

"Only if it was an attack on the Accords themselves," another boy interrupted impatiently, "like Jenko said, if it's a statement that the Accords are giving bad guys opportunity by defanging the only ones that can stand up to them, like the Avengers—"

"Defanging?" someone else interrupted sharply, "Haven't you actually read anything about what's actually in the Accords? All they're doing is making the Avengers a part of the UN. The UN's endorsing them! And you do realize most of them support the Accords, right?"

"How do we know this isn't something cooked up by them," someone else said, "you know, to undermine—"

"Are you crazy?" one of the girls who'd settled on the floor before the couches interrupted, "why on Earth would you think the Avengers do something like this? If anything the Accords are going to come down on Enhanced people and their allies that much harder because of this. They're a knee-jerk band-aid solution that never should have passed as quickly as they did! What happened to due-process or any legitimate debate, I ask you." Another boy on her side of the room started to say something, but she ploughed on, not giving him a chance to do more than draw breath. "You know Enhanced already have to register if they sign? How messed up is that?! I can't believe the UN let it into Accords at all! It's totally dangerous and unethical. It's just like the Muggleborn Registration Act of 1997—"

"What?" It was a girl on the other side of the room that finally interrupted the girl on the floor, but she waved it off quickly enough.

"Harry Potter reference; you wouldn't understand," she quipped irritably back at the disruption, "my point is, registration is always the first step toward something worse. Something like persecution and internment. Crack a history book, Sanchez; the Holocaust is a good place to start," she threw out then, cutting off a boy not far away who was opening his mouth to object to her assessment.

Nina paled, suddenly feeling queasy at the thought. She hadn't thought of it like that. She'd just been thinking of it in terms of the risk of people like Strucker being able to find people like her because of it. Surely that was an overreaction, right? Nina's head was beginning to pound, the warm haze in her chest spreading through her body to the very tips of her fingers and toes until her powers enveloped her like a warm sweater. Not that it wholly helped against her suddenly twisting gut.

Maybe Nina was being naïve. She might not have read the Accords cover to cover, but she had a pretty good idea of what all they would encompass. Natasha and her mom had made sure of that once they'd been officially announced.

The warm haze of her powers pulsed unhappily in her chest, echoing her conflicted emotions.

She knew they applied to her. She knew she was Enhanced.

Her Mom wasn't going to sign. Nina had figured that part out before Nadine had even said it. She couldn't, not unless she wanted to risk being arrested or worse. And she didn't think Nina should either. She'd said as much the first time they'd talked after the Accords' announcement. Her Mom thought it was dangerous. For both of them.

And Nina hadn't been able to help but agree.

Signing meant registering, and registering meant abilities/powers assessments, fingerprints, DNA samples, the works before being put on a list that governments and official agencies all over the world would have access to. It meant restrictions and strict parameters to follow in the name of public safety.

How had she not realized just how unsettling that aspect was before...the idea of being put on a register had made her feel vaguely uneasy, but she hadn't quite been able to put her finger on why. Well, the why was clear now... That there was the potential within the Accords to distil people down to how dangerous they could be and forgetting that they were people in the process. She knew it was a paranoid line of thought, but she couldn't help but feel troubled by the prospect.

But sitting here, surrounded by her fellow students as their debates shifted from the Accords in general to how society needed to deal with the new trend of Enhanced people popping up and living alongside normal people?

About whether or not they should be registered and even singled out?

Maybe what's-her-face with the Harry Potter references had a point.

It made her feel dirty, like a criminal, even, to hear them talking about people with powers—people like her...and her family and friends—the way they were...she hated the feeling. It was probably a good thing none of them knew the half of Nina's past or background or who she considered family. Certainly not that she was Enhanced. She hated to think about the attention she would get should any of them find out she was just as Enhanced as Scarlet Witch.

She was finding as time went on that she had a newfound sympathy for her Mom's inclination to keep secrets.

Further, when it came to her and her mom? Signing would be...complicated, to say the least. Nina wasn't even sure she would be able sign if she wanted to. Hell, she wouldn't be surprised if she was at risk of being arrested herself if she did. Her identity wasn't exactly legally documented, after all...she wasn't even sure if she was legally a citizen anywhere, for heaven's sake, or precisely what her legal name was anymore.

Not to mention that her mom was wanted by agencies all over the world. If she signed? She would likely be hunted down and arrested, for sure—if not killed outright—as soon she put pen to paper. Natasha and her mom both had been very clear about that when they'd been telling Nina about the Accords. Even Clint had mentioned it when she'd talked to him the other day. She glanced to her phone; still nothing. She swallowed thickly. She wished Pietro was here...he always managed to do or say something that made her feel better...

She looked anxiously down to her phone again. Still nothing.

"Nina? You okay?" She started at Gurpreet's worried question. Automatically she began to nod, only to falter.

"I—my aunt is in Vienna," she admitted softly, suddenly struck with the compulsion to let the fear out to someone. "She was at the Summit...she hasn't answered my texts..." Gurpreet immediately looked stricken.

"Oh, Nina," she breathed, her dark eyes bright and worried as she reached out to brush her hand over Nina's shoulder in sympathy. Nina swallowed thickly, fighting back the sudden prickle behind her nose. She shook her head, forcing a tiny smile. She didn't know what to say back.

Biting back a sigh along with the tears fighting to form, Nina forced her thoughts away from the chaotic mess in her head and the sympathetic look on her friend's face back to the TV, hoping almost desperately that there would be some word about her Aunt.

Some good words, she amended silently.

After all, if Black Widow—one of the Avengers publicly supporting the Accords—had been killed, the news would be all over it, right? Even with the Wakandan King having been confirmed killed. Natasha was much more famous, after all, cynical and selfish as Nina knew that reasoning sounded.

But instead the station had turned from covering the Attack itself to what little was known about the Winter Soldier. Desperate to keep her thoughts away from her troubled musings on the Accords, the heated discussions going on around her or her painfully silent phone, she turned her attention back to the TV.

She nearly shivered as the blurry security video showing the Winter Soldier was displayed once again. Talk about the boogie-man of the Enhanced world...of the real world too, really. She remembered watching footage of the freeway fight in DC between the him and Captain America back when that had been breaking news. Terrifying and enthralling were words she would use now to describe how she found the clips. Watching the two super-powered men go head-to-head? It had been incredible.

"The primary suspect in the Vienna bombing is a former HYDRA operative known only by the codename 'The Winter Soldier,'" the anchor was explaining, "but now it is believed that he has in fact been identified as Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, a decorated American soldier who was a member of the elite group known as the Howling Commandos during the Second World War. The very unit Captain America led before he was lost in action and frozen in the ice near the end of the War." Nina's stomach was suddenly flipping uncomfortably, her phone digging hard into her palm. Somewhere behind her, someone was calling for the volume to be turned up—or was it her own voice...she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she couldn't seem to look away.

"Further, it is believed that Barnes and Captain Rogers were childhood friends, though this has yet to be confirmed. Until now, Barnes was believed to be the Howling Commandos' only casualty."

"Can you believe it?" Nina nearly started at Gurpreet's astonished question, glancing automatically to the other girl, "he used to be friends with Captain America."

"Hey, Thomson," one of the girls from Nina's dorm piped up, catching Nina's attention—it still felt odd to answer to Thomson instead of Ryker, "I know you're a big fan of the Captain, but c'mon. Even you have to admit there's something a little wonky about the Winter Soldier being his supposed BFF." Nina suppressed the urge to fist her fingers, her jaw clenching against the urge to object to the inflammatory comment... or some of the other things she was hearing around her. It was almost physically painful to keep herself from bursting out and setting them all straight. Everybody had a right to an opinion, after all...wrong as some of them might sound...

On second thought, it was probably a good thing Pietro wasn't here. He definitely wouldn't be able to keep to himself at the talk going on around her...

But as much as it killed her to stay silent, to keep herself from defending her friends and family as every instinct in her screamed to do, she knew she couldn't. Some of her mom's and her aunt's rational pragmatism had rubbed off on her, apparently, tempering her instinct to stand up for those she cared about no matter the cost. That, and she was doing what she was told. Heck, even Tony had warned her to keep her head down when it came to discussion about the Avengers.

She hated it, but for the most part she was keeping her thoughts to herself.

Mostly because she was aware enough to realize anything she said might only make things worse. There was no changing some people's minds, after all. Even with the truth.

Especially when she knew some of what they were all saying was true, as much as it hurt to admit.

She had learned that the hard way.

Nina just hated hearing them attacking the character of people she cared about.

She had a bit of a reputation now as staunchly pro-Avenger, which she was admittedly quite proud of. Though really? The accusation that DC and the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. had been one big conspiracy and that 'Widow and the Captain were working for HYDRA and brought down the Helicarriers because they were the only thing that could stop them' was just a step too far into senseless and irrational conspiracy peddling. She hadn't been able to stop herself from shutting that one down.

As if Steve would ever work for HYDRA...

But her recent labeling as being anti-Accords she was a little more affronted about. Just because she supported the Avengers didn't mean she was categorically against the Accords as people seemed to assume.

She just had reservations, that's all. Reservations she believed any rational, decent, intelligent person should have.

"What do you think happened?" the Harry Potter girl was asking as Nina pulled her thoughts away from the Accords...again.

"Dunno," another boy—Vincent Murray, maybe?—answered, "HYDRA probably went and—"

"C'mon, are you serious?" someone else interrupted, "HYDRA was toast after the Second World War, if it ever existed it all. And that junk about HYDRA infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Helicarrier thing in DC? Bogus."

"Now you're sounding like a conspiracy nutbar, Davis," one of the boys from near the door called out with a laugh.

"Hey, there's a fine line between conspiracy and cover up." Davis countered dismissively. "The HYDRA nonsense after DC was a smokescreen to cover up that S.H.I.E.L.D. was corrupt. It was a way for the government to clean house, protect their own asses and deflect blame by pinning it all on 'HYDRA'." Nina groaned as her patience grew frayed, turning to shoot a glare at the dark-haired boy.

"Really? You think Captain America was in on dropping Helicarriers from sky to cover-up corrupt organization?" Nina challenged incredulously, "Do you realize how insane that sounds?"

"Maybe they lied to him too," another girl added helpfully.

Davis scoffed. "Or maybe he was in on it." Nina bristled, struggling to keep from snapping back, knowing she shouldn't have said anything in the first place.

"Are you for real?" someone else burst out, saving her the trouble. "It's Captain America!"

"Yeah, it's called propaganda," Davis shot back. Nina's headache throbbed dully as he continued. "Point is, what's more likely? A defunct, extinct secret organization infiltrating the world's premier intelligence agency from within? Or the intelligence agency getting shut down because it was just like every other bureaucratic organization and grew too corrupt to be allowed to continue."

"Now you're just sounding paranoid," the Harry Potter girl dismissed.

"Yeah?" Davis said, "this coming from the girl who thinks the Accords are the first step in hunting down Enhanced people? That's rich."

Nina was severely tempted to clamp her hands over her ears as the argument threatened to escalate, the Harry Potter girl throwing some very creative insults at Davis.

Instead, she tried to turn her focus back to the TV, where the anchor was still discussing what little was known about the Winter Soldier. Mercifully, someone had grown frustrated trying to hear the TV over the 'debates' filling the air and had turned on the TVs closed captioning function. Having to focus on reading what was being said was at least somewhat helpful in ignoring what was quickly becoming a yelling match.

Really, most of what the anchor was relating was little more than speculation and hearsay. All that was known for sure? The Winter Soldier had been an elite HYDRA operative linked to a large number of terrorist acts and high-profile assassinations, including that of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. That and that after the incident in DC, he had disappeared, his whereabouts unknown after that despite every major agency in the world searching for him.

Then the TV switched tracks to what was known about who the Winter Soldier had been before. And Nina found she was suddenly watching what looked like an old reel of Steve and the man who would eventually become the Winter Soldier back during the War. A sudden, sick feeling began to bloom in her gut as Nina finally processed what the TV had been saying before.

The Winter Soldier was Steve's old friend...his childhood friend...

His best friend, maybe?

Natasha's words from an overheard conversation months before were suddenly tickling at the back of her mind as they rose up in her memory. Especially as the anchor repeated that the Winter Soldier had disappeared after the Helicarrier incident in DC and hadn't been seen since.

Could it...could it be possible that the Winter Soldier was the mysterious man her mom was helping Steve to find? That this James Buchanan Barnes was the friend Natasha had been referring to when she had been defending Nadine's involvement in the search to Sam?

It made a lot of sense.

Especially considering how secretive the search seemed to be. Nina was pretty sure that, other than her mom, Nat, Sam, Steve and herself, no one knew much of anything about the search for Steve's friend if they knew about it at all. And Nina only knew about it by accident; she didn't think anyone knew she knew. If it was just Nadine tracking down one of Steve's old friends that he wanted to reconnect with, like Peggy, why would it matter if everyone knew or not? Peggy hadn't been a secret, after all, even if Steve hadn't broadcasted that he had regularly visited her.

But if the friend Steve had wanted to find was a HYDRA assassin, even a former one, who was in hiding? It made sense that they would keep that were looking for him secret. It would be dangerous if it got out, no question, even in the Compound. Not to mention it would look pretty bad, as some of the conversations around her attested. It was a reasoning that Nina could understand intimately. It was the same reasoning she had been given for why she couldn't know more about her father yet...

...because it was too dangerous to know...

She frowned in bewilderment as a sudden thought struck her, an odd anxious flutter growing in her stomach. There was an odd sort of parallel...not to mention a few curious similarities between him and him...suddenly it felt like there was a truth there in front of her that felt just beyond her grasp...

Could...could the Winter Soldier be...

And then she nearly laughed at the absurdity, her lingering anxiety over the situation in Vienna causing it to catch in her throat. What had that been about? Had her head really just tried to make the connection between the Winter Soldier, Steve's friend and her father?

How ridiculous.

But yet, what she knew about her father could fit with what she now knew about the Winter Soldier, a small, thoughtful part of her mused; KGB operative; skilled agent whose identity was too dangerous to know; dangerous and difficult to try to find, necessitating her mother's unmatched expertise; working for the wrong people—maybe even brainwashed or programmed, she considered, remembering her aunt's lesson on Soviet tactics for enforcing loyalty and obedience in its operatives.

And his name was James... She'd always been a little perplexed by her father's very un-Russian name despite the likelihood that he'd been Russian.

...the Winter Soldier was a Russian agent even though he'd once been an American soldier...

She scoffed. Now she was just overthinking it. Honestly, James was an incredibly common name. To think that, even for a second, part of her thought that maybe the Winter Soldier could be her father because of his name. It made far more sense that her father was a Russian agent who had adopted a less overtly Russian name the way her mom had. Yeah, that sounded reasonable. Natasha had explained that during training once, that many Soviet agents had taken on names it weren't so overtly Russian. That was probably why her father had such a non-Russian first name. Not because he was a former American soldier who become an elite Russian operative and the best assassin in the world...aside from her mom, of course.

It was a foolish conclusion that made no sense. If the Winter Soldier was half the agent she got the impression he was—elite seemed too small a word considering what little she'd seen of the mysterious assassin in video clips and from what they were saying on the tv—there was no way he would've been sent to train new agents...no matter how elite they were intended to be...because her mom and Natasha were the best of the best...who would've had to have been taught by the best to become the new best...so maybe it wasn't so unreasonable that he would be brought in as an instructor...

Oh God, what was she doing? What was wrong with her? Why was she was trying to rationalize such a preposterous theory? No, this was insane. How was she even considering it?

Her brain was attempting to construct an argument out of scattered facts that maybe fit if she looked at them the right way. It was much too far-fetched.

Had to be just a fanciful fit of imagination, right?

One of Barnes' service photos stared back at her from the TV screen. The captions relaying the anchor's voiceover could've been gibberish for all Nina was paying them any attention. He had the barest hint of a smile on his face, his hat tilted slightly, suggesting a charming, carefree attitude that his lively blue eyes echoed. He had a nice face, she mused absently. One that was vaguely...vaguely familiar...

Because she had watched the footage from DC a couple years, she reminded herself irritably, and because he was supposedly the Winter Soldier; he looked markedly different in those images compared to the one of him during the War. Especially at a glance. That was why.

It had nothing to do with the shape or color of his eyes...or the barely there dimple in his chin...or the shape of his cheekbones...or the faint curve of his lips, suggesting the cheerful, mischievous—maybe even sunny—smile he must've had...

She swallowed thickly.

Still, it...it was just too...it was all coincidence and conjecture and fanciful leaps of questionable reasoning, she dismissed firmly.

After all, what little she knew about her father was vague and, if she was being honest, mostly conjecture on her part. So really, beyond what her mom and definitively told her, she couldn't be sure if any of her conclusions about her father were even right. She simply didn't know enough.

...it also meant she didn't have any real facts that could rule the Winter Soldier out, either... She shook the thought away. It was beside the point. Any number of men likely fit what little she knew. Dozens, maybe. If not hundreds.

It was as simple as that, she didn't know enough, so she was...projecting. Sure. That made more sense. No matter that she had resolved to be patient and wait for her mom to tell her, her subconscious just couldn't let go of her deep-seated desire to find out who her father was. And now, plagued by all the emotional stress and anxiety and fears brought on by the Accords and the Vienna attack, she rationalized, her head was looking for a distraction. And how better to distract herself than with the mystery that trumped all others as far as her mind was concerned: the identity of her father.

So to do that, her subconscious was projecting her desire to finally find him onto a man who sort of-almost-maybe fit the meagre details she had been given about her father. That was all. It was a product of her overwrought emotions and her need to get her mind off her fears, nothing more.

Once she knew the truth, she would laugh at how quickly her head had jumped to measuring the Winter Soldier against what little she knew about her father and considering that he might fit.

She would laugh at how silly an idea it was.

But still...it was somewhat compelling...the parallels between what little she knew about her father and the Winter Soldier... the fact that Sam was apparently along with her mom on a mission to find her father when Sam was only supposed to be in on the search for Steve's friend... No! She was still doing it!

Her hand tightened on her phone and, before she knew what she was doing, she was typing in her mom's number. She only barely stopped her thumb from hitting the call button.

What on Earth was she planning to say? Hi Mom, we just talked and I know you're trying to find out if Aunt Nat is even still alive, but I'd really like you to confirm or deny this irrational and crazy idea I've come up with that the Winter Soldier might be my dad, 'K? Thanks! She had to be going insane. What on Earth possessed her to even think of such a ridiculous idea?! It wasn't even worth repeating.

Certainly not to her mom or even Wanda or Pietro. Not even to laugh about.

Because it wasn't worth it...not because a little part of her thought it might actually be true...or because a deep aching hurt threatened to settle in her chest at the idea that this was what her mom might be keeping from her...no matter that logically, it would be a very good reason...

No. She was just over-enthusiastic because she had figured out one mystery regarding her mother's secret missions and subconsciously hoped she could solve the other at the same time. That was all.

Her stomach flipped uncomfortably as the tiny, quiet part that had come up with the idea pointed out that the pieces just fit a little too well for pure coincidence. She shoved the thought aside...only for it to come back... She huffed irritably.

No. The only way to dispel this absurd conclusion would be to convince her mom to come clean. To really come clean. She needed to know who her father was.

Because the Winter Soldier was not her father.

He couldn't be...could he?

Nina started as her phone buzzed in her hand and immediately all musings on the ludicrous notions about the Winter Soldier bled away, her breath catching anxiously in her chest as she realized what the vibration meant. Her phone nearly fell from her hand as she brought it up to read the message she'd just received, she was so anxious. She read the text first once, then twice, then a third time just to make sure she'd read it right.

I'm okay, solnyshko. I'm not hurt.

A sob nearly burst free from her throat in relief. Natasha was okay. She sagged back into the couch, her head falling to her knees as she inhaled deeply, fighting to catch her breath.

It was as though a huge weight had lifted, and as Nina straightened, the tension holding her body in the tight ball she'd curled into began to loosen. It left her nearly giddy.

At least, until she looked up to the TV to see the old reel of Steve and the Winter Soldier back when he'd been Bucky Barnes playing once more. The smile that had been starting to spread across her face thanks to her aunt's text immediately began to fade.

Ridiculous as her 'Winter Father' theory was, it was clear that her other theory was not: Barnes and Steve had been friends. Best friends. And suddenly her chest was aching for the man who had become like an uncle to her...how could she have lost sight of that...how selfish did that make her...

"How does a guy go from being a war hero to—to a bad guy?" Gurpreet asked softly, her lilting voice faintly awed even as it was uneasy as it jolted Nina from her train of thought. "I wonder what happened to him?" Nina just shook her head, once again unable to tear her eyes away from the TV screen.

"Something bad," she answered hollowly.

It was all she could think to say.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

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