CHAPTER SIX
reminiscing of the past
　

THAT EVENING, THREE people that had loved Ophelia Southerns and had grieved the woman when she was presumed dead after the plane crash, arrived at Avengers Towers with some of her belongings and many questions bouncing around in their heads.

Tony had left Maeve to watch over the still-awake and as silent as ever Ophelia Southerns as he met up with his closest friends in what he and the Avengers liked to call their living room. It had several places to sit ⎯⎯ three chairs and two couches ⎯⎯ and a television was mounted on the east wall.

The moment she saw her friend, Pepper Potts practically threw the box that she was holding into Happy's arm, crossed the room in three long strides, and wrapped Tony Stark into a much-needed hug. She pulled away a few silent moments later and reached up to wipe at her red-rimmed eyes.

"Are you okay, Tony?" Pepper asked, voice dripping with concern and cracking slightly as fresh tears burned her eyes. "Is she okay? I mean, Rhodey told us what happened, but⎯⎯?"

"She's . . ." Tony paused, trying to find the right words to describe Ophelia's condition. "It's gonna take some time."

"Well, however long, I'm here," Pepper said sincerely, before glancing over her shoulder at where Rhodey and Happy were standing. "We're all here. For the both of you. And we aren't going anywhere."

Tony could tell that she truly meant every word she had said. Pepper Potts didn't care that she had a company to run or that she might miss some important meetings or calls. Ophelia had been one of her closest friends, and Pepper wasn't going to leave her side until she knew that the woman was okay.

Glancing at both Rhodey and Happy, he knew that they felt the exact same way just by the expressions upon their faces. A small smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, and Tony nodded gratefully as he looked at each of his friends. Then, he spotted the box in Happy's arms and grew curious, brow furrowing as he tried to get a glimpse of what they had brought along with them.

Pepper noticed the look on his face and she stepped over to Happy, taking the box from the man and placing it on the coffee table. "I grabbed everything I could from your place," she explained, opening it up and taking some things out to show Tony. "Photo albums, some clothes, her old music, a couple of her favourite movies and books, her diplomas." A smile curved onto Pepper's face when she pulled out the next object. "The blanket she'd always wrap herself up in when we'd watch a movie together on the couch every Saturday night."

Tony couldn't help but smile, for Ophelia and Pepper had always been good friends. The auburn-haired woman used to come over to their place every Saturday night for a little girls movie night in the living room. The two of them would stay up for hours together, watching movie after movie and stuffing themselves full of popcorn and ice cream. He had often found them the next morning sharing that blanket as they slept in awkward positions on the couch, and more often than not, Ophelia's fuzzy-socked feet would be jammed right in Pepper's face.

After Pepper had finished showing Tony what she had brought, they talked about how they were going to approach the woman and begin the process of trying to bring her memories back. Steve had suggested that only one of them should go in at a time, talk with her for a little while, and then switch out so another could give it a try. They ultimately decided that Tony should talk with her first, so they sent him inside with various photo albums and a change of clothes for Ophelia to put on considering her biker outfit was torn and covered in some blood.

Tony's nerves were buzzing as he entered the room. He could hear his own heart beating in his ears, and it only made him more nervous to talk to the woman that didn't even remember him. He could feel her calculating eyes on him the entire time, watching his every move as he walked into the room and pulled up a chair to sit down on.

He cleared his throat after a moment, and then finally met her gaze. "Do you remember my name?"

The woman remained silent, still refusing to speak even after hours. All she had done since she woke up was sit there and stare at the door, and it was beginning to bother Tony. He just wanted her to talk. To eat and drink. To sleep. Fuck, he would just be happy if she moved even an inch on the cot. But no, she was like a cardboard cut-out.

He sighed when he was met with silence. "My name is Tony Stark. We used to know each other. We were . . ." His eyes dropped, as did his expression, and his heart followed not long after. "We were pretty close."

Still, she was silent.

Tony opened up one of the photo albums and decided to show her a baby picture. It was taken six months after she was born, and her adorable toothless smile was so big and bright as she looked at her parents behind the camera. "Your name was Ophelia Southerns, and you were born on⎯⎯"

"That isn't my name."

The sound of her voice made him freeze, and he almost dropped the photo albums to the floor when he heard it. His heart suddenly started racing and he looked at her with a shocked expression, unable to believe that she had finally spoken after hours of silence.

"W-What?"

"That isn't my name," she repeated, and even though it was Ophelia's voice, it wasn't the woman he loved. This person sitting in front of him didn't even sound the same way he remembered. Her voice was hardened around the edges, like she had seen so much darkness, whereas Ophelia's voice had always been soft and sweet like honey.

Tony swallowed the lump in his throat. He wanted to tell her that she was wrong, but then he remembered what Steve had told him earlier and held his tongue. She won't remember her name, but HYDRA will have given her one, the man had said. You'll need to call her by that new name so that you can gain her trust. She might open up easier if you call her by what she believes is her name.

"Okay," he said, "then what do I call you?"

"Viper," she replied.

His eyebrows shot up. "Viper?"

"Yes," she snipped.

Tony nodded slowly. "Okay. I'll call you Viper if that's what you want." He put the photo albums down and then got up from the chair, bending down at the floor of her cell and opening the latch to toss in the change of clothes. "Yours are covered in blood. Thought you might want to change."

She looked down at the clothing and shook her head, before kicking the folded up pair of sweatpants and old MIT shirt away with her foot. "That won't be necessary."

"Fine," Tony sighed as he sat back down on the chair. Even without her memories she is stubborn. "Sit there in bloodied clothes, I don't care."

"But you do," she said, causing him to look at her with furrowed brows. "You care a great deal, otherwise I would be dead."

"Of course I care about you." Tony almost looked insulted that someone ⎯⎯ especially her ⎯⎯ would think otherwise of him. Because there was nothing in this world that he cared about more than Ophelia Southerns. But unfortunately, she didn't remember that. "I loved you, and I always will."

Oph⎯⎯Viper leaned back against the wall, a curious look in her eye. But just as quick as that curiosity had sparked, it vanished and was replaced by what the Avengers had come to realize was her signature stoic expression, which Tony Stark could see straight through. He knew the woman better than anyone and could read her like an open book.

Tony leaned forward, elbows on his knees as he reached for the photo album so he could continue telling the woman more about her old life. "Your parents, Owen and Emilia Southerns died when you were just a kid," he said, showing her a few pictures of them. "You didn't have any family, so you ended up in the foster system. But nobody ever adopted you. You always said that it never bothered you, but I knew that it did. All you wanted was a family. Someone to love you, care for you." He smiled and then showed her the picture from her high-school graduation. She was so young, and wore that cap and gown with the biggest smile on her face. "This is from when you graduated high school. Your foster parents were so happy for you, so proud of you. You had thought of them as your adoptive parents of the years."

He began flipping through the photo album again, stopping when he came upon the ones from their time at MIT. He pulled out multiple photos to show her. "After high school, you got into MIT on a full scholarship. You were so happy to be going to your dream school. We met in class. You were sitting a few seats down from me, and you would constantly raise your hand whenever a question was asked. I thought you were the most beautiful thing in the entire world, so I asked you out. You tried to play hard to get, but I knew you liked me too. But you couldn't resist for too long, and eventually gave into my charm."

Tony pulled out another photo, and turned it around to show her. It was a photo of the two of them. She was standing behind him and had her arms looped around his neck. He was smiling and holding up the Polaroid camera as she kissed his cheek while grinning. They looked so young and stupidly in love with each other already. "This is from our first date. I took you to see this movie that you were dying to see. We got some ice cream after and ended up sitting on this bench in the park for hours. You had insisted that we take a picture together, so we did."

He smiled, tears stirring in his dark eyes, "Science, engineering, that was always your passion. But you enjoyed taking pictures. Hell, you'd carry around a Polaroid camera like it was a purse sometimes. You always used to say that you were capturing memories. I never understood why you needed to do that. I always told you to just forget about the camera and live in the moment. But then I lost you, and I would sit there and stare at these albums for hours. Now I'm glad you took them, because they were all that I had left of you after the plane crash."

Her brow furrowed and her head tilted to the side at the mention of a plane crash, as though she couldn't remember that such a thing had happened to her.

Tony noticed her expression, and elaborated. "I proposed to you after graduation, and we were happy. The happiest we'd ever been. You were flying to Vienna on one of my private jets when it went down. I don't know how it crashed. But we searched for weeks and never found you. You were just . . . gone. A couple weeks later, I got this call and realized that the real reason you were going to Vienna wasn't just for some engineering convention, but to try on a wedding dress. You got on that plane because of me. Because I asked you to marry me." A tear rolled down his cheek, and Viper watched it fall. "I never forgave myself."

Silence fell over them, and for several moments, the two of them just sat there staring at each other. But as he stared into her eyes, he didn't see anything except for the woman named Viper. The person he loved wasn't there, and that broke his heart. Everything he had said to her hadn't worked. She was curious about some things, he noticed, but he never once saw a flicker of familiarity in her eyes.

Tony shook his head and wiped the tears from his cheek, before grabbing another picture. "This is Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. They were your friends. They were your family. And they're here, too." He got up from the chair, leaving the photo albums there because he knew Pepper would most likely want to show her some more. "And they want to talk to you."

Without saying another word, Tony left the room. He was in need of a break. He just couldn't look at the woman named Viper anymore. Not when all she did was stare at him with a blank expression because she couldn't remember anything that he was saying to her. It was breaking his heart even more than it already was.

He found Steve Rogers standing in the hallway with his arms folded over his chest. Rhodey, Pepper and Happy were with him, and they all wore sad expressions. They had obviously heard every word he had said to Viper.

"Who's next?" Tony asked, before turning and walking down the hallway. He went straight to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of whiskey. He downed the entire glass and was pouring himself another when Rhodey walked into the room.

"You okay?" Rhodey asked.

"Fine," Tony replied.

"Tony . . ."

"I can't be in there right now," Tony admitted after a moment. "She . . . she isn't Ophelia. She didn't remember anything that I told her."

"Steve said it'll take some time. You just have to be patient with her."

"I'm trying," Tony said. "But . . ."

"I know," Rhodey frowned. A beat passed before he spoke again. "Steve said that he thinks her brainwashing is deeper than Bucky's. That HYDRA did something to her that they didn't do to Bucky, and that's why she won't easily recognize things like he did."

Tony drank some more whiskey as he tried not to think about all of the awful things HYDRA had done to her. "Who's with her now?"

"Pepper," Rhodey said, pulling out a stool and sitting down at the counter that Tony was leaning against. "Steve thought it was best she be face-to-face with another woman for a while. He thought it might help."

He nodded and then reached for another glass so he could pour some whiskey for Rhodey. "How long are you sticking around for?"

"For as long as you need me," Rhodey replied, grabbing the glass he slid towards him and taking a small sip of the brown liquid.

They clinked glasses before falling into a comfortable silence. Steve eventually wandered into the room after a while, and after telling Rhodey that it was his turn to go in and sit with Ophelia, he sat down on one of the stools and turned to look at Tony as the man sipped his whiskey.

"How you holding up?" Steve asked.

"How do you think?"

Steve nodded sadly, eyes falling to the counter. "I know this'll work, it's just⎯⎯"

"Going to take time," Tony finished for him. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I just needed a break."

"I get it," Steve said.

"Do you?" Tony asked. "Because correct me if I'm wrong, Cap, but Ginny has never lost her memories. She never forgot about you. She was never tortured and brainwashed to forget about her life."

Steve looked at him with sad eyes. "You're right," he said. "But that doesn't mean Ginny hasn't suffered. She lost everything after the war. Me, Buck, her family and friends. And then something she couldn't even explain happened to her. She was alone for years, and never aged a day. Ginny was scared and confused and was constantly on the run. She was terrified that someone would find out about her condition and poke her with needles so they could find out what was wrong with her. But she survived, just like Ophelia did. And now we have them back in our lives, Tony."

Tony suddenly felt bad for what he had said. He hadn't meant to say what he said, it just sort of slipped out due to his frustration. He knew about everything that Ginny had been through, and he honestly felt bad for the woman. But Steve was right. The women they loved had both survived and were back in their lives again.

He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't find the right words to say. He had never been very good at apologies. But Steve could tell that he felt bad and he gave him a reassuring look. "It's fine, Tony."

Tony nodded wordlessly and reached for his glass of whiskey again.

It was then that footsteps entered the room, and both men turned to watch as Ginny Adler herself walked in with Natasha Romanoff at her side. The two women were laughing at something, and Ginny was carrying several boxes of pizza in her arms.

"Hey," Ginny greeted them, eyes visibly brightening when she saw Steve. "You boys hungry? I figured that nobody would be in the mood to cook anything, so I brought some pizzas."

Tony managed a small smile. "Starving."

"I'll get the others," Natasha announced as she left the room.

Steve quickly crossed the room, taking the several boxes of pizza from Ginny's arms and kissing her sweetly. "You never said you were coming by. I thought you were working late?"

Ginny shrugged and smoothed out her blue scrubs. She had been a nurse in the war, and eventually got her doctorate over the years. Now the woman worked at one of the hospitals in the city, saving lives every day. "I got someone else to cover the rest of my shift for me. Figured you guys could use the company right now." She looked at Tony, and her eyes softened. "How are you holding up?"

"Oh, you know me," Tony said with a tight-lipped smile. "Just peachy."

Ginny could tell that wasn't true, but she smiled nonetheless to humor the man. If he didn't want to talk about Ophelia, then she wasn't going to pry. She crossed the room instead and started gathering some plates from the cabinet so she could serve the hungry Avengers some slices of pizza.

And that's how the evening went. Everyone grouped together in the kitchen, eating slices of greasy pizza from one of the best places in the city while drinking some beers and iced sodas as they talked about random things. It felt good to have a moment like this, and for the first time in a long time, Tony Stark actually felt happy. Because the man knew that it wouldn't be long before Ophelia Southerns was sitting at this table with them with a smile of her own.

a/n: oh my gosh my heart 🥺 i honestly adore this chapter so much and i hope you do too! also, we only have a few more chapters left in act one before we officially reach age of ultron!