Chapter Text
Chapter 3: The Shifter
Wanda wondered what it was to be normal.
She had been told she was weird. Whether that was her baseline personality or a byproduct from her powers, she didn’t know. What she did know was that her life had never been normal, and even now with her supposed freedom she was still a far cry from all the other people she saw wandering the streets of New York in the daytime.
It was easier to pretend in the nighttime.
At Night, the city came alive with a type of life that was mostly built on lies. Or maybe it was a different type of truth. The people who went to work all professional and proper and healthy shed their skins as the sun went down and flocked to nightclubs to engage in all sorts of illicit activities. They fed the vices that lived in their hearts and pretended for no one but themselves.
Wanda didn’t pretend. But the difference between her Day Self and her Night Self was that at Night, she didn’t have anyone she had to pretend to. She could be the screwed up, weird, freakish experimentation of a girl she was, who had no one except a brother laying comatose in the hospital, living a life that consisted only of what SHEILD gave to her. And she could be as angry about as she liked.
The boys she found liked her angry.
In HYDRA, she and Pietro had been special. They had been traded around at parties like prized pets. And like pets, they had been shoved back into their cages with nothing more than a pat on the head for behaving themselves.
Also like pets, they’d been cared for. Made to look pretty for special events when they got older. Especially when they got older. Wanda could remember the first night Pietro hadn’t been sent back to his room. She remembered the first time she’d been handed off to spend the night with someone else.
She had the knowledge, vocabulary, and self awareness now to recognize what those night arrangements had been. At the time, she’d been able to lean into the rationale of serving her country and her betters to comfort her through the pain and unnamed sensations of shame and fear she’d been unable to express but felt nonetheless. Hail HYDRA had been her refrain, uttered in joy and in tears.
She wanted to cut out her tongue for ever speaking that phrase.
Wanda had committed herself to SHEILD. She would have even if her position in the Avengers didn’t feel precarious at the best of times. She wanted to be a part of the Good Team, the people who believed in everyone being equal and being allowed to exist. Though at times, she did doubt if even SHEILD was all it said to be and upheld it’s principals. Sometimes she doubted to the point of paranoia. But better that then blind faith. She would never blindly trust again, even if it meant never again trusting fully.
The daytime hours were filled with her navigating her new life without her brother by her side. At night, she could indulge. At night, she could reclaim.
Wanda didn’t look at boys the way those women had looked at her bother. Or, on a more innocent example, the way Laura looked at Clint, or Pepper looked at Tony. Wanda didn’t feel the attraction Nat could spark effortless with a guy so as to manipulate him into giving information. Maybe that had been ruined for Wanda by HYDRA as well. Or maybe she would’ve always been this way regardless, just without the question of why haunting her.
What Wanda did need was to prove to herself that she was in charge. Never again would she aim to please anyone but herself, both with her powers and her body. Never again would she follow orders blindly like a soldier at attention. No, she would call the shots. She would make the decisions.
While she didn’t need sex, Wanda had to admit she did like it. She liked the energy, she liked the release. And she loved these foolish, lazy American Boys who hailed from richer than god families, who knew nothing about starving or captivity, spending their days in luxury and nights in clubs with music too loud and drinks too rich, looking for a distraction from their golden lives.
She liked the power of being the distraction that they would never be able to put out of their minds.
She was never cruel; any rendezvous occurred with consent from both of them, and more often than not the boys she picked were as eager as her to never contact the other outside of the special veil of night. Maybe they had their own demons they were hiding from.
Wanda slipped out of the Tower and into the night several times a week. She never asked permission, but she was also discreet. She didn’t want to risk finding out that she wasn’t allowed to go to and from as she pleased, because that would be a betrayal she could never overlook.
Natasha knew her habits. Wanda had been giving the severest and most factual of lectures by the assassin regarding the dangers of a young girl partying in New York City. Steve also knew, catching her returning one night. Wanda suspected Natasha had discussed her with Steve, which bothered her until she learned that there was a way to speak about people without them being present that wasn’t akin to what she’d grown up with. Natasha had made her swear to call her if she ever found herself in a situation, no matter how minor. Steve had told her if he ever woke up one morning and she had not come home, he’d stop at nothing to track her down.
At one time, Wanda might have perceived these things as assumptions that she couldn’t take care of herself or even as threats. It was strange how things changed when they were coming from people who actually cared about your well-being.
Both Natasha and Steve had attempted to speak with her about seeking less risky avenues of taking control of her life. ‘Getting help’, was the term. It was humorous to Wanda because she doubted whether they themselves had faith in any form of ‘help’ offered in this world. Natasha had similar experiences to Wanda, and on top of being America’s Super Soldier exposed to all sorts of circumstances, Steve hailed from the skeptical time of the 1940’s. Besides, what did therapists know about their experiences? What did doctors care about their pain?
This topic was one in that Wanda could see her own distrusting bias. But as she didn’t view her habits as any more risky than the missions she habitually undertook, she decided she would indulge herself a while longer.
Vision didn’t know about her Night Self. Or he didn’t ask. Wanda didn’t know if he’d care. He was an android- she knew he didn’t think about sex or felt those feelings much like she didn’t. There were times Wanda felt she could live perfectly content with Vision, never doing anything more than leaning into his touch and kissing his lips if it weren’t for the nagging sensation in her head that she had to prove something. To herself, to those HYDRA men, or someone else, she didn’t know. Perhaps it was just the realization she wasn’t good enough for Vision. For SHEILD. For any of it.
It was thoughts like these that she saw Natasha’s point about therapy.
Power aside, her Night Self was her own distraction. And she needed a distraction from the talks of HYDRA prisoners. She had to be ready if anything came of it this latest… development.
It happened when she was slipping in one night, quiet as a mouse through on of the Tower windows. It was right off one of the roof balconies. As she left from one floor higher up, to the surveillance footage it would appear as if she’d gone outside and helped herself back in by jumping down a floor. As most of the Tower inhabitants were some version of genetically enhanced, it was far from the most unusual occurrence.
Wanda walked down the halls, her coat tucked tightly around her. It hid her dress, a clear sign she hadn’t merely been sitting outside. Voices pricked her ears and she realized Hill was coming down the hall while talking to someone over her earpiece.
Shit. Wanda didn’t particularly care for Hill. Mostly because as a SHEILD lieutenant, Hill always went around in her professional attire of crips black suit or dress, her heels clicking on tiles and giving orders. The few times they’d conversed, the woman was pleasant, so perhaps this was yet another instance of Wanda being overly distrusting. But going based solely on appearances, SHEILD attire and HYDRA attire were too similar for Wanda to ignore.
She quickly made herself scarce around the corner, listening for Hill’s footsteps to fade.
‘’Yes, yes,’’ Hill was saying into her earpiece, as Wanda suspected, ‘’I know. Just arrange transport. Fury doesn’t want him in the Tower any longer than necessary.’’
She sounded tired, exasperated as she waited for the reply on the other end. ‘’That will be fine. The next day, then? Great. The sooner Dr. Chalbra is out of here, the better.’’
A faint click could be heard before Hill let out a long sigh, her heel’s resuming their clicking noice as she walked away. She passed Wanda’s hiding place and disappeared around the corner.
Wanda, however, was frozen in place. Dr. Chalbra.
She knew that name. But it couldn’t be him. It couldn’t-
Oh god, is it happening?
She forgot about fleeing to her room entirely. Instead, she headed down the hallway Hill had come from, only one objective in her mind. She had to see for herself.
Wanda descended to the lower floors of the Tower. Any holding areas were located in the basement, lower even than Tony’s lab and on the other side. Wanda made quick work of getting there, taking all the shortcuts Nat and Clint had imparted to her, as well as a few of her own.
There were more cameras down here than in the rest of the Tower, but if they already had a prisoner in custody, that meant there were people on guard, therefore there was less chance then usually anyone would notice her via the cameras. Even so, this was only a dull reasoning registering in Wanda’s mind, her thoughts only consumed with if who Hill claimed was down here really was.
She thought the negative upon first reaching the sequestered rooms. All the holding areas’ lights were off, a sign they were empty. The familiar cold feeling in her chest at the sight of such rooms was the only company Wanda had. She felt relief.
Then she saw the one room to her right, down a hallway, out of the way. She spotted two guards positioned there, lighted in the dim, green glow.
Wanda clenched her fists. She remained out of sight and she slipped around the hallway, going to the viewing window she knew to be on the other side.
The prisoner was sitting on a cot. Wanda knew that face, as would Pietro if he were here. Chalbra.
The glass was one way, yet the man’s eyes darted to her for a second, as if he knew her to be there. Maybe he did. He always did used to purr that he and her were connected in a special, unique way.
Hot rage flooded Wanda. You will not leave this Tower alive, she vowed. I’ll kill you here.
She didn’t realize she was walking towards the door, about to be seen by the guards, until someone stopped her. ‘’No.’’
Wanda opened her mouth in surprise to protest, but Natasha clamped a hand over her. ‘’Shush,’’ she ordered. ‘’Not here. Your room. Now.’’
She did not let go of Wanda even when they’d exited the holding area. Only now when she was away from Chalbra did the fury in Wanda build to full force. ‘’How long has he been here? How could they-‘’
‘’Not here,’’ Natasha repeated, harsh and cold, no room for argument. The language of their upbringing.
Wanda followed her lead as they retreated to her room. Natasha locked the door behind them before turning to Wanda.
She explained how Chalbra came to be in the Tower. Wanda listened with numbness, her mind still in the holding area, beholding the smug man and wanting nothing more than to be the one to wipe that look off his face. ‘’I knew SHEILD was bartering for a trade,’’ Wanda hissed when Natasha had finished, ‘’But with him? Why? What information can he offer that can be trusted?’’
‘’Codes to the tapes Steve and Sam found.’’
‘’So?’’ Wanda knew about those tapes. She’d known they contained HYDRA Program reports long before SHEILD had worked it out.
‘’He told them HYDRA has more prisoners alive,’’ Natasha explained. ‘’He unlocked some of the tapes to prove it.’’
Wanda wasn’t sure if she should be afraid or hopeful for the answer; ‘’Which prisoners?’’
Natasha, always unflappable, took a shaky breath. ‘’Rebecca.’’
It was unbelievable. It was impossible. There was no way HYDRA would willingly reveal their hand.
Yet they had. Which meant…
‘’It’s happening?’’ Wanda’s voice sounded small, even to her. ‘’Are we- are we really going to…?’’
Natasha’s eyes were two green flames. Her tone was of a general. ‘’Follow my lead,’’ she ordered.
…
Tony loved his lab. He loved being in it and creating something new, taking something apart and understanding it, or fixing something that was once broken and making it even better than it was before. The current task of decoding these HYDRA files did not fall into those categories, and the constant previewing of all this information was tainting his lab with sick HYDRA-esque rationale and experiments, making him loath everything, including his precious lab surroundings. Every few minutes brought a new wave of desire to throw everything aside and march home to Pepper and Morgan and bolt his door against all things SHEILD and HYDRA related.
Steve poking his head in was not helping matters. ‘’What have you found?’’
‘’Not much…’’ Bruce looked uncomfortable under Cap’s gaze, probably trying to toe the line of what to say in light of Fury’s continued hesitation to act on this information.
Looking through the files, it was clear to understand that yes, HYDRA had indeed had many prisoners/people in their Programs, or whatever they wanted to call it. The files they decrypted due to Chalbra’s information was only specific to Barnes and his sister, which they all could tell was the entire purpose of his being captured in the first place. No doubt there was more information within these systems about other people who had been tracked down and targeted by HYDRA.
They had a vague idea of what Rebecca Barnes had been used for, as well as an idea of what sort of treatment was inflicted upon her. Natasha had been right in her hypothesis that, if that were the case in the Barnes’ family, other may very well have been abducted. But that didn’t mean they were still alive. Or if they were, where they were being kept.
This was the crux of why Tony kept working; he’d been a prisoner. He knew what it was to be on the other side of this information gathering hunt. If anyone rotting in HYDRA’s clutches was still capable of being helped, he wasn’t going to be the first to throw in the towel.
‘’We don’t have any insight into where these prisoners would have been kept,’’ Tony informed Steve, ‘’So we don’t even have a location to look for as of yet.’’
Steve nodded. ‘’And what have you found on Rebecca?’’
HIs tone was normal, but Tony could see the hurt in him. ‘’You really want to know?’’
‘’Yes.’’
‘’Tony-‘’ Bruce warned.
‘’Hey, he asked.’’ Tony turned to the monitor, brining up the most comprehensive bit of information he’d uncovered. Much of the decrypted files were still in the hands of the translators. ‘’It was like that freak said, they brought her in as a vessel of some sort for the Soldier. They did this with other experiments too. I guess the Winter Soldier took a few variations to get right?’’
‘’Bucky said as much,’’ Steve admitted.
‘’Being siblings, she would have served as a comparison,’’ Bruce said. ‘’Another reason for hunting her and others down was because - with the war ending- HYDRA had to be more careful in their endeavors.’’
Tony scrolled to another page on the monitor. ‘’The biggest thing they needed was a blood reserve. I guess they didn’t want to ‘taint’ like Chalbra said.’’
‘’It was a common idea in the past about blood,’’ Bruce interjected. ‘’Before blood types were identified, people couldn’t tell which transfusions would cure a person and which would kill them. At first it was thought blood coming from people of the same sex, then the same family. And with HYDRA, there’s the added layer of not wanting to mix their ‘pure’ blood with an ‘inferior’ they were experimenting on…’’
‘’That’s what they did with her and other prisoners?’’ Clint asked. He’d arrived with Steve. ‘’Used them in pairs with their experiments?’’
‘’At first,’’ Tony replied.
Steve waited. They’d had their problems in the past, especially in regards to Barnes, but Tony did not relish the amount of pain these circumstances must’ve been inflicting on the man. Despite his feelings towards him, Barnes and his siblings had been Steve’s family. The reality of HYDRA doing their damage to all of them had to be ripping Steve apart.
Tony brought another file up. ‘’When they finished with her,’’ he explained, ‘’They came up with another use.’’
‘’Which was?’’
‘’Like Bruce said, HYDRA had to be careful. Couldn’t be wasteful, god forbid. So, they put her in a program.’’
‘’Like the Winter Soldier Program?’’
‘’Yep.’’ Tony tapped the screen. ‘’Ever heard of a Shifter?’’
Steve moved closer to the monitor, reading the report as Tony himself read and reread it several times already. ‘’They made her ‘change’…? They experimented on her to be like… like Loki?’’
‘’Probably the goal,’’ Tony admitted, ‘’Though I doubt HYDRA ever had encounters with Thor’s Brother of Mischief. Then again, they’re both fans of green, so why not?’’
‘’And…. Did it work?’’
Here was the part he wasn’t going to like. Tony scrolled on the monitor. ‘’Tony,’’ Bruce tried again to warn him.
‘’HYDRA wants him to see this,’’ Tony reminded him, ‘’That's the whole point of this little charade of theirs; badger him into trading for the files, and then they can get a hold of Barnes. Speaking of, ever wondered how he could fight against you so well, Cap?’’
Tony found the file he was looking for and loaded the video. It began to play.
The Soldier was engaged in combat. Captain America stood across from him, deflecting his every move. Until the Soldier landed a hit above his shoulder. Then he stopped.
‘’Cease,’’ ordered a voice from afar. The Soldier obeyed immediately, gaze impassive and awaiting further orders. Captain America turned his back to him impatiently.
‘’You are not doing it correctly,’’ scolded the voice, appearing in the room. He frowned angrily. ‘’Your movements are-‘’
‘’You’re wrong,’’ Captain America spat, yanking off his helmet. ‘’This is not how he would fight.’’
‘’Excuse you?’’
‘’You’re wrong,’’ he repeated, enunciating as if the man had simply misheard. ‘’You’re analysis of his fight patterns are wrong. He wouldn’t fight like that.’’
‘’We have analyzed-‘’
‘’He’s not offensive like that,’’ Captain America insisted. ‘’Hell, his weapon was a shield for god’s sake.’’
Anger glinted in the man’s eyes, but he said no more to him. He turned on his heel and barked orders to unseen guards in Russian, leaving both Captain America and the Soldier behind.
The door locked behind him. Now the Soldier spoke; ‘’Bec.’’
Captain America turned. Where anger had been was now only concern. ‘’Bucky?’’
Bucky was looking at him, but shook his head. ‘’Take off his face,’’ he begged.
Immediately Captain America fell away and in his place stood the shorter, wispy Rebecca Barnes, clothed in a simple grey dress. The only thing that remained of Captain America were his dog tags swinging around her neck.
She bridged the distance between her and Bucky quickly. ‘’Do you know me?’’ She whispered fervently, afraid of being overheard.
It wasn’t right to call the noise Bucky made a laugh, not in their surroundings. ‘’How many times have you asked that and I didn’t?’’ He wanted to know. Rebecca made no reply. ‘’Listen…’’ he struggled for words. ‘’Don’t- don’t give them any information, you hear? Don’t correct them. Let them think whatever they like.’’
‘’It doesn’t matter,’’ Rebecca replied forlornly.
Tony could tell as he watched, Steve had a sudden moment of understanding why this scenario was playing out as it did, and why Rebecca was insisting what she revealed did not matter. It was because Steve was dead. At the time of this footage, Steve was frozen and buried under miles of ice. HYDRA was having Rebecca train with Bucky as him merely to destroy Bucky further. Not to prepare him for battle against him. ‘’We done?’’
‘’Leave it on.’’ Steve’s tone was ice.
‘’It does,’’ Bucky insisted. He paused. ‘’Wait, why are you still here? Why haven’t they taken you out yet?’’
Rebecca hesitated. Bucky noticed. ‘’Bec… they swap us out with Hayes and his brother by now. Why haven’t they? Why?’’
‘’Hayes died,’’ Rebecca said. ‘’And- and they rejected his brother soon after.’’
Silence fell over both of them. Bucky gripped her hands with new found strength. ‘’You listen to me,’’ he said. ‘’You don’t talk to them anymore, you understand? Not a word. Do what they say, follow every order, but don’t speak a word. Let them think you’re dumb, that they broke you. Make them think they don’t have to watch you every goddamn second. All you need is a second.’’
Rebecca watched his face silently as he continued; ‘’You have access to things; a needle, a scalpel. That's all you need. Something sharp and a few seconds. Wrists are easier. But they have less of a chance of brining you back if you go for the throat.’’
Rebecca gave a small nod. ‘’I know.’’
‘’Bec, you take the first chance out you get, you understand? Don’t let them kill you like Hayes in this Hell Hole, you understand? I need you to understand.’’
‘’I do, Bucky.’’
‘’Promise me.’’
‘’Bucky-‘’
‘’Promise me.’’
‘’I know, Buck.’’
‘’How-’’
‘’Because we’ve had this conversation before,’’ she said, her voice breaking.
Even with all his viewing of the material, Tony still could only behold the horror in that sentiment. How many times had Rebecca endured this conversation from an addled Barnes? How many times had Barnes, in the precious few moments of sanity he had left, desperately thought only of how to free his sister?
Realization fluttered across Bucky’s face. Then he asked; ‘’Why haven’t you done it?’’
‘’Because you’ve never promised me .’’ Tears were in her voice, but she did not shed them. ‘’What about you? What they did to you-‘’ she shook her head. ‘’It’s going to take more than a blade to kill you now, right?’’
Bucky shook his head. ‘’Bec, don’t worry about me. You can’t. I’m- I’m already gone.’’
Tony did not endure anymore protests from Steve when he turned the video off. He didn’t need to see the footage of how the HYDRA agents came in to separate the siblings once again. Luckily, Steve didn’t say anything this time.
‘’How does it work?’’ Steve’s voice was hollow. ‘’Turning into me, anyone… How did they do it?’’
‘’From the reports…’’ Bruce was shuffling papers. ‘’It was from more experimentation with nanotechnology. Similar to how they installed the Soldier, but also to the genetic enhancements employed by the victims of the Red Room. Apparently some catalyst is needed, a item owned by the object for the Shifter to change. In this case, I suppose it was those dog tags.’’
Steve nodded, but Tony sincerely doubted how much of this he was comprehending through the shock.
‘’God…’’ Clint pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘’I thought the Super Serum screwed up your DNA. What the hell does that do then?’’
‘’It unravels it,’’ Bruce answered. ‘’On a molecular level, with each shift, the DNA of the person in question would be rewritten to become the person they were mimicking.’’
‘’And it worked?’’
‘’Apparently so.’’
‘’Do we think there are others?’’ Steve asked. ‘’Like Rebecca? That HYDRA has in reserve like they did the Soldiers?’’
Tony shrugged. ‘’Unlike your friend Barnes,’’ he said, ‘’We don’t have any special ghost stories of a chameleon wandering around killing people. From this, we can deduce that either A: she was the only one, or B: after she was Rejected, they preformed experiments on others whose files we conveniently don’t have.’’
‘’You say that like it’s a term,’’ Steve pointed out. ‘’Rejected.’’
‘’Because it is. HYDRA had Rejects that they- you guessed it- rejected and presumably made ‘disappear’.’’
‘’Why are you sure those are the only two options?’’ Steve said. ‘’You’re certain she’s dead?’’
Tony gave a small sigh. ‘’Pretty sure.’’
‘’Why?’’
‘’Are you sure you want-‘’
‘’Show me,’’ Steve ordered.
Tony turned back to the monitor. Bruce didn’t try to stop him this time, but retreated around the table for his own sake. Clint’s eyes darted from the screen to Steve, trying to decide for himself what was happening.
‘’This is the latest file dated that we have access to,’’ Tony informed Steve.
The Soldier stood across from Rebecca. ‘’Soldat, do you know this woman?’’ A man asked.
The Soldier did not reply. ‘’Kill her,’’ the man ordered,
In a flash, the woman was on the ground and the Soldier had her pinned. His knife was out, she struggled, he plunged the blade into her arm and withdrew. Rebecca screamed, both in pain and fright as the Solider raised the blade again-
‘’Cease,’’ the man ordered.
The Soldier obeyed. The man came into view.
Tony heard Steve’s intake of breath. Zola was in this video.
‘’Well done,’’ he was saying, more to himself than anyone else. ‘’What progress! What amazing work!’’
The Soldier was unmoved. But Rebecca was curled on the floor, sitting up, crying.
No, not crying. Her shoulder were shaking, but it was from laughter.
‘’What are you doing, girl?’’ Barked another HYDRA agent.
Brokavitch, Tony remembered.
‘’What is so funny?’’ Zola demanded.
Rebecca raised her head, her bleeding arm cradled in her lap. ‘’You did it,’’ she admitted. ‘’He doesn’t know me. Congratulations. You have taken my brother from me just as you did my sisters. We are gone from him, and he has no reason to live, no reason to fight save for yours. Congratulations.’’
Brokavitch looked suspicions. Zola actually seemed moved. ‘’I am glad you see our progress,’’ he replied proudly.
‘’But I am afraid you have overlooked something.’’
‘’What!’’ Zola blinked. ‘’I, overlook something? You are deeply mistaken, Ms. Barnes. To be expected, from the blood loss.’’
Rebecca shook her head, another manic laugh coming from her. ‘’You kept me around to gauge how far gone the Soldier was,’’ she reminded him, ‘’Because if he didn’t know me then you broke him, but if he did you could use us as leverage against each other to keep us in line. Now I am gone from him, but he is also gone from me. What leverage do you have over me anymore? What is my incentive to live?’’
Zola made no answer. Rebecca laughed again. ‘’As I suspected. There is none.’’
In her fingers, she was clutching the dog tags she still wore around her neck. ‘’Bucky wrote to me when he went away,’’ she told him. ‘’He told me of a story, a superstition among soldiers; if you wear another’s dog tags, then you can’t die, because the army won’t be able to identify you. They would swap tags sometimes as a protection against death.’’
Zola looked confused. ‘’So?’’
‘’So these aren’t Steve’s dog tags.’’ Rebecca held them in her palm. ‘’He gave them to Bucky. They’re his .’’
Brokavitch grasped her meaning before Zola. ‘’No! Soldat-!’’
But it was too late. Rebecca had changed anew. But instead of Captain America, she was the newly formed Winter Soldier.
The security footage did not do justice to the scene that must’ve played out. How more HYDRA agents charged the room, how Rebecca, turned Winter Soldier, struck at them all. Zola ordered Bucky into action, and soon he and his clone were locked in combat.
Except Bucky was actually trying to win.
He got her on the floor again. Rebecca had changed back. ‘’Do it! Do it!’’ She ordered.
For a moment, the Soldier’s knife hovered above her.
‘’Bucky, please !’’
Then he went for the throat.
…
When the others were giving an update of the files contents, Sam sought Steve out again. ‘’Do you want her to be alive?’’ He asked.
The most overwhelming feeling upon waking up out of the ice, apart from the whole missing seventy years of life, had been the loneliness. The realization he could walk from one corner of the earth to the other and not find the people he once knew best: Bucky, Peggy, the Howling Commandos, Rebecca, Alice, Franny, and numerous other friends and acquaintances. He remembered bitterly wishing for just one, one familiar face.
Steve could only shake his head at Sam. ‘’No,’’ he answered.