Over the river and through the woods, to Wanda's house we go. (RP with shadeof_grey)

[starspangledcap]

[OOC: RP for shadeof_grey. Takes place after this conversation between Jean and Tony, and deviates from canon after Civil War 7.]

Steve Rogers is on a train to Transia. Steve Rogers should be in a prison cell on the SHIELD helicarrier. Or, at the very least, he should be in a considerably more spacious and well-furnished book-filled prison cell on Ryker’s

Comments

[starspangledcap]

Steve's eyes widen. You're more than worthy of my respect, Ms. Grey, he sends, emphatically. I'm sorry if my response seemed harsh or judgmental. You simply caught me off guard. I certainly don't think any less of you, and I don't need you to go away. Unless, of course, you want privacy yourself, he adds.

He pauses, however, before answering her question. His first instinct is to brush it off - Sam and Tony are the only two people who even know the story at all, and even they only know bits and pieces of it. But Jean has been so honest with him that he'd feel like a hypocrite to hide this.

Wanda and I were teammates for a very long time. I was the leader of the Avengers when she joined the team, and with only four of us there - Wanda, her brother, Hawkeye, and myself - we formed a sort of bond. And then, more recently... He can't help pausing a bit. There was something. Between us. We didn't - it wasn't - it was just one night, and she slept on the couch. And maybe it wasn't real at all. She was so far gone already, but most of us hadn't noticed. I was going crazy myself, a little - his mind fills with images of frigid ice and bursting gunshots, felt all over again so many years after they'd occurred - and maybe I just made it all up. She didn't remember it, at least. But... well, I know there was something there, something that had been building even before that particular night did or didn't happen. And then she broke down completely, and then she was gone. Until now, he finishes.

[shadeof_grey]

Jean can feel the emotion behind Cap's words, how much it must take for him to say them. I'm sorry, she says, I didn't realize this was so. . .personal to you. Though it's like they've been saying. It's all personal.

Now she sits up a little and shifts the conversation back to a verbal level -- which, she senses, will be a lot more comfortable for Cap. "I don't particularly need privacy, Captain. . .ahh, Stevens. But I have a feeling you'd like to get back to your book, and --" She gestures to where Tommy and Billy seem to be arguing about something in a comic book they are reading. "I'm going to go check on those two. You said they're fanboys right?" She raises an eyebrow. "Somehow I have a feeling I might be able to get them in line. And thank you," she says, more quietly. "Thank you for understanding."

[starspangledcap]

Steve is grateful to hear Jean switch back to verbal speech, and he even smiles at little at the fanboy comment. "You're welcome to try," he says. Hopefully they won't embarrass you with probing questions.

Then, dropping his voice to a lower volume, he adds, "And thank you, Ms. Grey, for the same."

He picks up Persuasion, turning back to his bookmarked page at the end of chapter six. But as he reads of Anne Elliot's apprehension about the approaching visit of her long-lost love, Captain Wentworth, he begins to realize that fiction may not always provide necessary distraction. Sighing, he puts the book down again, and lets his thoughts wander back to the woman on Wundagore Mountain, where his mind is likely to stay for the rest of the trip.