The New Generation
Chapter Four
"Nadya, you need to go to sleep."
"No." I hissed, shooting a glare at Steve, who sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Why not?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Bruce and Thor came over the couches and sat down.
"What are we disagreeing about, dead humans?" Thor asked, tilting his head. Steve rolled his eyes.
"Nadya over here won't sleep." Steve muttered, as Bruce gave a questioning look.
"Won't sleep? What do you mean, won't sleep?" He asked, glancing between Steve and I.
I sighed and shifted my position. "She refuses to go to sleep. It's ridiculous." Steve said. I rolled my eyes and tried not to yawn.
No Nadya. You can't sleep. You know what happens when you go to sleep.
"Nadya, how long have you been awake for?" Bruce asked, narrowing his eyes and lifting his glasses from his eyes to the top of his head.
I muttered the answer quietly. "What was that, Nads?" Steve asked.
I cleared my throat. "Almost five days." I answered more clearly as Steve, Thor, and Bruce gaped.
"Five days?! Nadya! That's ridiculous!" Steve exclaimed as Tony shuffled into the room.
"Five days what?" He asked, plopping down onto the armchair across from the couch I was sitting on.
"It's been five days since Nadya last slept." Bruce filled Tony in as he gaped.
"Nadya? What the hell were you thinking? Five days?!" Tony yelled standing up suddenly and slapping a palm to his forehead.
I looked down to the floor. Tony started muttering something to Bruce and Steve, while Thor left to go to the kitchen.
"Nadya. Look at us." Bruce commanded and I snapped my head up to meet his gaze. "Nadya, do you understand that that isn't healthy?"
I nodded and bit my bottom lip.
"Then why aren't you sleeping?" Steve asked, and I looked at the ground again.
"I'm just not." I shrugged my shoulders and had to swallow to keep the yawn in my throat from coming up.
"Nadya, we both know that that isn't true. I can tell you're tired." Tony sighed, running his hands through his dark hair.
Suddenly, Thor came up behind me and handed me a 'Stark Industries' mug. I looked down to see a honey colored liquid.
"What is this?" I asked, quirking both my eyebrows.
"Tea. On Asgard we drink this, and it helps us fall to sleep." He answered, and as soon as he finished, I set the mug down on the coffee table.
"I don't want it." I hissed.
"Why not?" Thor asked. "It will help you fall asleep."
"Don't you understand?!" I cried standing up and walking a few steps away from them. " I don't want to sleep!"
All four sighed.
"Nadya. We're going to ask you this again. Why won't you sleep?" Tony asked, as the others nodded.
My bottom lip started to quiver and I bit it to stop. "Because, they keep coming back." I finally squeaked out.
"What keep coming back?" Steve asked, giving a surprised look.
I bit my lip again and looked around at the four pairs of eyes staring at me.
"The nightmares! The nightmares keep coming back!" I finally burst out and then sat down in a chair. I hugged myself to keep from shaking.
"Nightmares? What nightmares?" Tony asked, looking at the other men in the room and then finally me.
Bruce sighed and started to explain. "Nadya has been having nightmares. She thinks that she killed her parents."
Tony and Thor's mouths dropped. Steve hesitantly approached me and I hugged my knees to my chest. Silent tears were dripping from my eyes.
"Is this true, Nads?" Steve asked while kneeling in front of me. I slowly nodded and Steve sighed. He dragged me from my seat into a hug. "That's not true, Nadya. That's not true." That just made me cry harder.
I don't know if it was from being sad, or just from the lack of sleep.
Bruce, Tony, and Thor all discussed something while I shook in Steve's arms.
"Alright. We have a proposition." Tony finally announced and Steve wrapped only one arm around me so that I could look at Tony. "We need you to get sleep Nadya. But if you're scared about doing it, we want to help. So until your able to sleep without nightmares, we're going to take turns hanging out in your room while you sleep." Tony explained more when I gave a questioning look. "Trust me, it's not going to be as creepy as it sounds. We'll just hang out in there in your armchair doing work or something so we can be there if you do have nightmares."
I wiped my cheeks and looked around at the people in the room. "You guys would actually do that for me?" I asked quietly.
Bruce smiled. "Of course we would. In fact, I'll take the first shift, which starts -" He checked the wristwatch on his arm. "- now. Considering it's nine now."
I gulped and nodded. "So just go get changed and into bed and let me just grab my laptop and a few notes from my lab."
And with that, I was off to do the biggest test. To see if I could make it a night with out a nightmare.
.xxX
There was no such luck.
This time it was different.
I was standing in my room, reading the little pink journal my parents had given me. Then, out of nowhere, my mother and father appeared.
"Hey kiddo." My father greeted and I grinned as I set the journal down onto my bed.
"Mom! Dad! I missed you!" I cried, as I got up to hug them. They backed away.
"Nadya. Put that gun down." My mother commanded.
"What gun?" I asked, and then I looked down at my hands. In them was a small gun, one that my mother used frequently.
"Nadya. We mean it. Put it down." My father said, backing up farther.
"Mom, Dad! I'm not going to hurt you! I just want to hug you! I missed you!" I exclaimed as my mother and father broke out into a smile.
"We missed you too, my darling." My mother and father started to slowly walk up to me with their arms outstretched. I was just about to touch them when two loud noises erupted in the room.
The next thing I knew, my parents were on the ground, limp. I looked to my hands to see them shaking with the gun, a small stem of smoke coming from it, recently fired.
"No!" I cried. "No!"
I woke up screaming and sitting upright in bed.
A startled Bruce whipped his head towards me and stood up as I burst into tears.
"Nadya?" He asked, sitting on the bed next to me. "What's wrong?"
I struggled to tell him. "I-I killed them a-again Bruce. I k-killed them w-with a g-gun." I finally managed to blurt out.
Bruce sighed and hugged me tightly. "You didn't kill them, Nads. You didn't kill them." He rubbed my back as I continued to bawl.
I spent the rest of the night staring at the ceiling, surviving on only a few hours of sleep.
.xxX
The next night wasn't easier.
This time, I was standing in a court room, being questioned.
"Miss Barton, did you or did you not kill your parents?" A female lawyer with a tight bun and in a gray pantsuit asked.
"I-I didn't." I exclaimed, looking at the judge. He looked back with a disapproving glare.
"Then why do we have it on record that you said to them before they left that you wish they were dead?" She asked, pointing at the typed records in her hands. She handed them to the judge and he looked them over.
"Because I was angry. That doesn't mean I killed them!" I cried out. A few people in the audience shook their heads.
"Oh but it does, Miss Barton. It does." The lawyer said, and then cackled evilly.
Then the judge spoke. "All in favor of Miss Barton killing her parents say 'I'."
"I." The jury chorused and a police man approached me.
"That said, Miss Barton, we find you guilty in the murder of Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton." The judge slammed his mallet onto his desk.
"No!" I cried. "I didn't kill them!"
The police man was just putting handcuffs on me when -
"Nadya! Nadya! Wake up!" I heard someone yell, and I opened my eyes to see Steve shaking me up.
I started shaking and my bottom lip quivered.
"Oh God, Nadya. Did you have another dream?" He asked. I nodded. I tried to open my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
"You don't have to tell me." Steve said and I leaned into his shoulder and tears slipped out my eyes.
You know how I said I missed crying?
I don't miss it that much anymore.
.xxX
The third night was something.
I was dressed in my pajamas, and had just finished french braiding my hair when someone came in through the door.
I glared when I saw who it was.
"Landon. Why are you here?" I asked, sneering.
"Listen, I know it was my dad's turn to come in and watch you while you were um... sleeping. But he and the rest of the team had to go on a mission."
I gulped. "A m-mission?" I stuttered. Landon nodded. My stomach twisted in knots. The last time they went on a mission, my parents never came back. Oh god. What if something happens? What if -
"Nadya." I snapped my head up to meet Landon's gaze. "Nothing's going to happen. They're going to be fine." Landon reassured.
But still how did he know?
I shook my head to rid the thought.
"I don't need you here. You can just go." I told him pointing to the door.
He shook his head. "My dad told me I have to stay here. I can't just leave you here alone." I rolled my eyes.
I sat on my bed.
"I'm not going to go to sleep, so it's not like it matters that you're here or anything." I fiddled with my fingernails after I finished.
"Why aren't you going to sleep?" Landon asked, sitting himself down in the armchair in the corner of my room.
"Because I'm just not going to." I sneered. Landon rolled his eyes.
"That's not an answer. So why aren't you?" This time it was my turn to roll my eyes. I just sat there in silence. Maybe he'll just go away.
Landon got up and poked my leg. "Come on, Nadya. Why not?" He poked me again. I sat in silence. Landon kept on poking me until I decided I had had enough. It was just too much for one week and I just needed to get everything off my chest.
"Because, Landon! Every time I close my eyes I have nightmares of me killing my parents! Do you know how traumatizing that is? I can't just 'go' to sleep! I have to go to sleep with the constant fear of me killing my parents!" I yelled. By the end a tear had slipped out of my eye and I was standing in front of the armchair.
Landon just sat there with a solemn look on his face.
I finally just sighed and pointed towards the door. "Just forget it. Go."
Landon shook his head and stood up, and when he did, he towered over me. "No."
"What do you mean, no? I'm not asking you, I'm telling you to leave. So go." I spat. Landon just stood there.
"No." He finally said. "I think I know something that could make you feel better."
I quirked an eyebrow. "Haha. Very funny. What are you going to lead me out to some death trap or something?"
He shook his head. "Nadya, I'm not kidding. I want to help. Please. Just let me show you." I was taken away when he used the word please.
Who knew the idiot knew manners?
I finally sighed and let him lead me towards the door. When we were in the hall, he only walked down three doors when he put his hand on the door knob.
My eyes widened when I realized what door it was leading to.
"No. I can't go in there." I demanded, taking a step back.
"Come on, Nadya. It'll make you feel better. And you'll have to go in there sooner or later." Landon said. I gulped. He was right.
I sighed and nodded for him to open the door.
Right when he did, I stepped through the door to find everything the way I remembered.
Except emptier without my parents.
It was cold in the room, and I walked slowly, as if one sudden movement would make everything disappear.
I walked over to my parent's dresser. On it were a few pictures. One of me when I was a baby, smiling in a little onsie. Another was of Phil Coulson, my father's role model and close friend. The last one though, made my heart stop. It was of my mother and father and I in the living room of SHIELD, smiling and laughing. I grabbed in and tucked it under my arm. I knew I would want to look at it again later.
I then walked over to my parent's bed. On it was only one blanket, because my parents would constantly break out into sweat in the middle of the night and needed to be as cool as possible. I smoothed it out with my hand. It was a quilt with random patches and in the middle, was my mother's, father's and my hand prints ironed on. I didn't even know they had this. I folded it up quickly and tucked it under my arm with the picture.
Finally I made my way over to the dresser again. I pulled out one of the drawers and grabbed a pair of my mother's pajama bottoms and one of my father's many tee shirts.
Finally I sighed and looked over the place again. I knew I would be back in here, and somehow having things of my parents made me feel like they were here, watching over me.
I smiled happily for once in the past week, and then walked out the door. Leaning against the other side of the hallway was Landon.
He looked me over. "Are you okay?" He asked, unsure of the answer.
I smiled. "Actually, yeah. I am." Landon broke out into a grin at my answer. "I don't need your company tonight." I told him. "Coming here... it made me feel better. I think I'll be able to sleep better tonight."
Landon gave an uncertain look. "Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. And if your Dad gets angry about it, I promise I'll take the blame." I reassured him.
Landon shrugged his shoulders. "Okay. Goodnight." He turned around and started walking down the hallway.
"Landon wait!" I called out a he turned around. I ran up to him and gave him a tight squeeze. "Thank you. So much. Really."
Then I turned around and went into my room.
I slept like a baby.
.xxX
There it is! The end of chapter four! I'm not really sure that I liked the ending, but oh well. It'll have to do.
Anyways, yay! Landon and Nadya moment! Who knows how long it will last though...
I just wanted to say that tomorrow I will not be able to post a new chapter, because it's going to be my best friend's birthday and I can't miss it. I will try to get a new chapter out on Saturday!
Speaking of Saturday! I decided to do a contest and Saturday will be the deadline!
CONTEST RULES
What should Nadya's middle name be?Tell me what it should be any WHY, and which ever one I like the best, will win! The winner will get their middle name that they picked out and the reason why displayed in the story and will get to Private Message me a question about the story, which I will answer. Even if it spoils the big question: Are Clint and Natasha alive? DEADLINE: SATURDAY.
Love it? Hate it? Just want to say hi? Leave a review!