Winter's Daughter

Chapter Nine

Nadiya's POV

*Flashback*

I ran as fast as I could down the long, dark hallways. My little legs going their maximum speed while my bare feet collide with the cold floor with every step. Eventually, I find myself standing in front of a door.

I stand there, trying to catch my breath. Once I do, I pound on the door. When I get no response, I go in there myself.

I open the door to find a sleeping figure on a bed. With no hesitation, I run over and jump on him.

"Winter! Come on wake up!" I say in a hushed voice, not trying to scare him. When I get no response, I decide to use more something more forceful.

I jump off of his back and go to his side. I start to violently shake him. "Winter, come on! Wake up!" I say getting more annoyed.

With a couple of sleepy moans, he turns his head over to my direction. "What time is it?" He says groggily.

"Seven-thirty." I say in an innocent voice. With a long and heavy sigh, he turns his head the other direction. "Thirty more minutes, kiddo."

"No!" I scream. "I'm up. You should be too. It's a special day!"

"Oh really?" He says. "It's not like you're turning four today, right?"

My face lights up. "You remembered!" I squeal. With that, Winter sits up on his bed and puts me in his lap. "Of course I remember. What, did you think I would forget?"

I look down to my hands, suddenly finding them interesting. "I don't know.. You seem to be forgetting a lot of things lately." I say sheepishly. "Two days ago you forgot our sacred handshake!"

Winter lets out a low chuckle. "I know, doll. And I'm sorry. I'll try to remember next time, okay? How does that sound?"

"Super!" I say as I clap my hands. "Alright, now how about me and you go do something? What do you wanna do, kiddo?"

I slide off of his lap and begin to pace the floor. Whatever we do has to be perfect. Turning four is a big deal.

"Ooo! Winter, can you teach me how to draw?" I say. I run up to him and kneel. "Pretty please?"

He chuckles. "Sure, doll. Go head back to your room, I'll be there in a little bit."

I immediately ran out of his room and into mine. Much to my surprise, there was someone else in there. "Who are you?" I say suspiciously.

Immediately, he turns around. "Oh.. Um, I'm Lukka. Who are you?" He says shyly.

"I'm Nadiya." Once I introduce myself, we fall into silence.

"I'm turning four today!" I burst out. He looks at me. "Oh really? I just turned four a month ago."

"That's cool!" I say. "My friend Winter is going to teach me how to draw for my birthday."

"Nadiya!"

"When is he going to teach you?" He says as he walks around the room.

I look at the clock in my room. "He was supposed to be here about ten minutes ago." I say as I look down sadly. "Maybe he got lost." Lukka says.

"Nadiya, sweetie, you need to wake up!"

"Probably. Winter tends to forget a lot of things." I say as I walk to my bed. "Here, sit. Maybe for my birthday you can be my new friend."

"Nadiya! Wake up, doll. Alright? We need you to wake up!"

"I would like to be your friend, too." Lukka says as he sits next to me. "We should have nicknames for each other. You can call me Lu for short."

I giggle. "You can call me Nad." Lukka smiles. "Deal."

Suddenly, everything starts to shake. "What's going on?" I say, starting to get scared. I look at Lukka to see he isn't four years old anymore. I looks to be about thirteen.

"You're unconscious, Nad. You're trying to wake up, but it's not working. You need to try harder." He says as he begins to fade away.

"Wait!" I say as I run to him. But I'm too late. I'm all alone now. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!" I yell.

"WAKE UP!" I scream.

I'm immediately greeted with bright lights everywhere I looked. Around me are piles of rubble, and standing in front of me are two blurry figures.

I begin to panic as I forget what happened. I start tossing and turning, but am immediately created with a horrible headache.

"Hey, hey, be careful." I hear a soft, feminine voice say. Then I feel a hand touch my arm. I look at it, then I look to see a red-headed woman looking at me. "Welcome back." She says with a smile.

Suddenly, everything comes back to me as to how I got into this situation. I let out an annoyed sigh.

"Great to be back." I say sarcastically. "How much did I miss?"

"Not much. Cap and Lukka were able to get into the weapons facility and get what we needed. They're headed over to us as we speak." Bucky says.

"Great." I say as I try to sit up. "How's your head?" Nat asks. "It'll be fine."

Once I am able to sit up, I attempt to stand up. Thankfully, it only took me one attempt.

"Hey, take it easy, doll. You probably have a concussion." Bucky says at he puts a hand on my shoulder.

"You're not my dad." I say as I shrug his hand off and start to walk away. Unfortunately, I get dizzy and fall to the ground.

Both Natasha and Bucky run to my side. "You're fine, huh?" Natasha says. "Oh be quiet." I say.

As they help me into a standing position, Cap and Lukka run into the room we are in. "Nadiya!" Lukka says as he runs to my side.

"Hey, Lu." I say as I gave him a hug. Once we break apart, he looks at me with a mixture of emotions. His eyes show that he is in shock and happy, but also sad. "What is it?" I say, concerned.

"You haven't called me Lu in years." He says. "O-oh. Well, I-I guess I just forgot, that's all." I say.

He gives a light hearted scoff. "You're remembering a lot more then you're letting on, aren't you?"

"What makes you say that?" I say.

"Nad, you stopped calling me Lu after the first time you got your memory wiped."

"Oh." I say as I look at my feet.

"It's a good thing. Trust me, I know." Bucky says as he puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I grab his hand with mine and give him a gentle squeeze.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but we need to stop this rogue agent." Steve says.

"We're going to need a plan. We can't just go walking through the halls with our guns raised." Natasha says.

"Maybe we should contact Fury and call for back up." Bucky says.

"There's no need to. I've already got a plan." Steve says.

"You can always count on the old man in the star spangled pants." Lukka says with a smirk.

"Oh, my gosh." I say as I punch him in the shoulder.

Updated 9/8/19

AN: Sorry I haven't updated recently!! I'm going to be busy with school, so I'll try my best to upload as soon as I can. Thank you for all the reads!! It means a lot. Please leave your thoughts in the comments, and if you liked the book so far, leave a vote! It means a lot. Thank you all so much! :)