Caged Bird [T'Challa]

Sixteen

Taking a deep breath, Hunter tore her gaze from the sunset in front of her as it cast its beautiful rays on the open field she sat in. She looked down at the phone in her hand, unlocking it slowly.

She began to dial the familiar number she had punched in about a hundred times before putting the device to her ears.

"Hello? Tony Stark, who may I ask is calling my private number on an untraceable phone?" He sounded slightly upset, which meant he had been working on a suit or helping Rhodey.

She hesitated for a second. "Tony...It's Hunter. Hunter Carlyle." She didn't wait for him to say anything before she continued. "There's something that I have been wanting to tell you ever since I showed up on your doorstep as a homeless sixteen year old. Tony, I'm your daughter. Twenty-One years ago, you met a woman in Oakland, California, had a one night stand with her and you got her pregnant."

"Huh?"

"Whether you actually believe me or not, doesn't matter. I just needed to get that off my chest." With that, she hung up the phone before she threw it right into the stream that divided the plain three feet in front of her.

"What did that phone ever do to you?" Came the teasing voice of T'Challa.

She glanced back at him before she returned her gaze to the land before her. "I talked to Tony just now."

The king sat next to her. "How did it go?"

"I never told anyone that Tony was my father. I kept it secret, because I didn't want to have to face him and ask him why he turned my mother away when she came looking for him." She pulled her knees to her chest. "The reason we had left Oakland to look for him, was because my mother was dying of lung cancer. She showed up on his door, asking him if he would take me in when she could no longer take care of me..." Tears stung at her eyes. "He turned her away....he turned me away..."

T'Challa wrapped an arm around her shoulders, but said nothing as she continued. "When she died, she had me promise that I would ask him to take me in one more time. I showed up on his door right after she had passed, but I didn't tell him who I was...I simply asked for food so I could head back to Oakland. Back to Erik and his father." She took a shaky breath. "I expected him to turn me away again or give me food and send me off, but he took me in. He bought me clothes, fed me, sent me to school, and never asked for anything in return." She looked over at him. "He had been a father to a stranger, but not to his own daughter." She gave a bitter laugh, wiping away a stray tear.

"People are strange in that manner. Perhaps when your mother came to him, he felt he was not ready for a child?"

Hunter nodded at his words. "It's a possibility." She swallowed thickly. "When I was no older than five, I wanted nothing more than to meet my dad. I wanted to play games with him, have him help with homework and have him scare boyfriends, but after I met him...I realized how selfish human beings can be...he locked me away when I was only nineteen because they were going to hold him responsible if I used my ability to hurt someone."

The king looked shocked at this. "You were locked away for two years?"

She nodded slowly. "Everyday I was tranquilized and experimented on, then put in a glass box to be observed. Steve had broken me out and hidden me away before he brought me here."

T'Challa nodded slowly, anger bubbling up inside of him before it dissipated. If not for all of those events, she never would have came to Wakanda. So, in a sick, twisted way they were good things.

With a sigh, Hunter stood up and offered a hand to him. "Well, enough moping. Ramonda would be furious if we missed our own engagement party tonight."

"Yes, she would have both of our heads on sticks."