Chapter 36
~Exactly seven months pass from June 24th, the day that Sharron was born.~
I wake up with someone nudging my face.
"Ma," a sweet voice calls.
I open one eye, winking at the sweet baby calling my name and her sweet father.
"Morning, baby," I smile at her.
She laughs, and I take her from Steve to feed her.
The clock reads 7:30. "Someone's up early," I coo to sweet Sharron.
Steve goes to the dresser and pulls on a shirt and jeans for the day. "Yeah, I was reading and I heard her, so I went and got her out of her crib."
"I was talking to Shari, hon," I tease him. We call her Shari now, because, when the twins started babbling baby words, they called her "Share", like Pepper taught them.
"Whatever," he rolled his eyes, smiling. He buckled his belt, no shirt on yet, and came over to kiss me. "You want some coffee?"
"Yes, please," I smile, kissing him. "But my cup, not yours." He liked a little dash of whiskey in his coffee, while I would rather have coffee with cream and four sugars.
I held little Shari as she finishes, then I stand up and gently rock her back and forth as I leave the room and look at the bookshelves.
We have more pictures now, and more books. The new books include photo albums, dictionaries, and new classics like Silver Linings Playbook, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and all 7 Harry Potter books, which I enjoy more than Steve does. The new photos include Shari at her first Christmas, which was last month, her first Thanksgiving, and her first July 4th party. We also have some of her with her great-grandparents (my grandparents) who visit Shari when they visit the twins. There are also some of Steve and I doing various things, holding Shari, kissing, smiling, hugging, and even one of us drinking at Pepper and Tony's first anniversary party. We have a lot of the twins and Tony and Pepper. We have a lot of family shots, too, of our family, Pepper's family, and our families together. We have a million pictures of when we went to the beach last October.
We have a few records and a record player, which Steve loves. I prefer to listen to my iPhone music. We have, of course, the Beatles Hits record, along with several 1940's and 1930's records. Shari loves to listen to the Beatles and Hootie and the Blowfish for whatever reason, so we also have a couple of Hootie records for when she can't go to sleep.
Steve and I are happy. I still wakeup screaming from nightmares at least once a week, but instead of Tony's attempts at fake comfort, Steve is there to hold me when I shake from the scare.
We haven't seen much of Loki, or the Hydra, and that kind of scares me. I hide it, though; keep the fear hidden inside like Tony, Steve, and all the other Avengers do. It scares me to think about it, the fact that Loki and my mother are plotting my death and the death of all my loved ones while I am happy.
Shari hasn't shown any sign of being firey,
"Val," Steve whispers in my ear, sneaking up on me. He puts his hand on my waist and pulls my close to his chest.
"Hey," I whisper, both of us looking down at Shari.
"Your coffee is brewing," he whispers in my ear. Apparently, when I was drowning, him whispering "saved my life" so he likes to do it all the time. I don't mind, but I pretend it annoys me.
"Also, can I ask you a favor?" he whispers again.
"What?" I ask.
"Will you go to the old people home with me? I need to visit a friend," he whispers again.
I turn around and face him. "Who? One of your friends is still alive? Steve, that's great!" I shout, happy for him. He didn't have that many friend in the 1940's, I gathered, and I also gathered all of them were dead.
I studied his face, and realized he was blushing. "Who is it?" I ask seriously.
"Well, she's…. she's, um, well, I… I can show you, if you want," he stutters.
I nod.
He grabs the photo I knew he was going to grab- the sepia photo of the beautiful woman. "This is… well, this is Peggy Carter. She was… um, kind of my girlfriend in the war. She worked for SHIELD, and we only ever kissed once. We were going to get in… a deeper relationship, once we ended the war, I think. But, of course, that didn't work out. I think… if I had lived back then, we would have gotten married. I liked her a lot. But I didn't… you know, love her the way I love you. Anyway, so I went to the grocery store last week, and I took the long way home and got stuck in traffic. I was looking around and I saw an elderly home, and I wondered if she was still alive. So, when I got home, I researched her and found her as Peggy Carter-Forman at Lovely Oaks Elderly Home, in Trenton, New Jersey. I thought that… today we could go visit her?" he asks me.
I think for a second.
"Okay," I sigh.
"Good," he smiles. "I signed us up to go today at 3:00, so get ready! It takes about an hour to get over there."
I smile and kiss him, the baby in my arms. "On one condition," I whisper on his lips. "I get shower first."
He sighs. "Whatever," he says, trying to sound depressed but I know he is excited. I hand him the baby and run off into our room, getting in the shower before he can stop me.
Chapter 37
"But, Master Loki, I'm not sure what you're suggesting," Ender asked, confused.
Loki had just explained his plan to him… three times. Each time, Ender could not wrap his insolent sand mind around the plan.
"Look, it's like this. We know we can't stop all the Avengers completely, because one of them always has the guts to keep moving. Instead, we delay them long enough that we can attack," Loki slowly annunciated his words.
Finally, it clicked in Ender's imbecile mind. If the Hydra king had one intelligent thought, it would be lonely. Loki knew that being on Earth with its wind and water and light for so long had started to solidify the Hydra into mucky wet sand people that couldn't change form as fast.
Patience, Loki thought to himself. Ender is the key to the army and if you piss him off, there will be another world angry with you.
"I'll just let you think that plan over a bit," Loki stood up, not able to take the idiot any longer.
"When we will we put it to action?" Ender asked.
"Well, by all means, tonight!" Loki shouted over his shoulder to him.
Chapter 38
"What's your name?" the disgruntled, middle aged nurse behind the counter looks me up and down.
"Rogers. Val…" I start.
"Steve, and Shari Rogers, ma'am," Steve finishes. The woman instantly smiles at Steve.
"Well, come right this way, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers," she leads us down the hallway.
I'm carrying Shari as we go down the long, cream colored hallway. Some of the doors are open, and I could see people doing many different things inside; some people were crying, talking, sitting, watching TV, and even just staring out the window.
We stop at room 224. The fat nurse says to Steve, "If you need anything, call me."
His eyes bog out of his head as the flirty nurse walks away. "I'll… I'll go in first," he says, and I stay outside the door with Shari. From what I see through the swinging door, an old woman is in a wheelchair facing the window. She turns to face Steve, and I can see that her beauty has survived the years. Her eyes are still a lovely chocolate brown, her white hair pulled up into an elegant bun.
"Steve?" I hear her question.
"Hi, Peg, it's me," he smiles at her, slowly crossing the room.
The door swings closed, but I can still hear their conversation.
"I heard that they pulled out of the ocean," her elegant voice says. "I also saw you on television."
"Yes, ma'am, that was me," he confirmed, and I heard him sit down next to her.
"Don't call me ma'am, you're older than I am," she teased him.
He laughed an aged laugh that sounded like he was, indeed, 91 years old.
"How have you been, Peggy? Really," he says to her, serious. I can hear in his voice the heartache, the way you always feel about your first love.
"I… I got over you, Steve. I got married to a great man, named Reginald Forman, and we had five kids. I have about ten great grandchildren now, Steve, and… as much as I wish I could say otherwise, you weren't the right dance partner for me. And, even though Reggie is dead, I can't get in a relationship with you, because it isn't right for an old woman in a half-dead body to keep an old man in a young body to herself," she says to him.
A silence covers the air.
"Oh, Peg, you aren't my dance partner either. I… I got married last May, and have a daughter, too. I came for… closure. My wife, Val, she's excellent. I love her so much… she's funny, and kind, and nice, too. She loves me a lot, even though I'm so out of touch with her world, you know."
"You love her," Peg sounds sad.
"More than anything," he sighs.
A silence blankets the room again.
"Well, they are outside, if you'd like to meet them," Steve says to Peg.
"Oh, what the hell, bring them in," she says.
Steve opens the door. "Hon, you can come in now," he smiles at me. The door shuts behind him as he steps out into the hallway.
"Are you sure she wants to see me?" I whisper, knowing how sound passes through the walls.
"Yes," he brushes back part of my hair, reaching down to kiss me.
I savor his kiss, smiling.
I tote little Shari on my hip as I walk in the room.
Peg looks at me. "Hello, Val," she smiles. "I'm Peggy. And who is that little one?"
"Shari, or Sharron, she doesn't care," I smile stupidly. I feel really stupid and clumsy around this elegant woman.
Peg smiles this half smile. "I have a niece named Sharon. Why, look at your dark ringlets. Did you get those from your mommy or your daddy?" Peg cooed to Shari. "How old is she?"
"Um… about…. No, exactly seven months. Seven months old today," I say.
"Oh, well, that's nice. Steve, will you go fetch me some water?" she orders Steve. I look at him with a face of panic and scare. His face looks pained because of my nervousness, but he goes anyway.
"Listen, Val. I need to tell you something important and don't give me any bullshit, 'Nana Peg this,' or 'Mrs. Forman that'. Got it?" she asks me, the sweet grandma voice gone.
"Yes," I nod.
"That boy… he loves you something fierce. He came in here earlier and talked my ear off about you, and if you ever leave him for any reason but death, I will personally come down from Heaven and whoop your pretty little ass until it falls off your body. Capiche?" she asks me in her Peg Forman voice, not Nana Peggy.
I nod.
"Well…. Good then, I guess," she says, back to Nana Peggy. She mouths, "He's back," and points to the door.
"Yes, that's why I love babies and gin," Peg smiles, like she is ending a long story.
"How interesting," I smile. Her eyes still remain steel, like Peg Forman, but her voice is soft.
"Mrs. Forman, it's time for your medicine!" the nurse from the front desk bursts into the room. She deliberately bumps into Steve and pushes me over, despite the fact I am holding a baby.
"Sorry," she smirks.
The nurse injects a sleeping medicine into Peg's IV. "Well, I'll see you soon," Peg yawned, the medicine kicking in.
"Be good," Steve murmurs as he reaches down to kiss her forehead.
I could see his eyes glistening with some tears, and I realized that he was letting her go.
I grabbed his hand and led him quietly out of the room.
The nurse frowned. "You should have said your goodbyes. Mrs. Forman hasn't been doing so well- she's been sleeping more and more and remembering less and less each day," the nurse confided in Steve.
We left the nursing home, and went into the car. I put Shari in her car seat, where she fell asleep instantly. I sat down in the passenger seat of our new Acura MDX, and saw Steve staring off into the distance, a million miles (and several decades) away.
He starts the car, and we drive the hour long drive home in silence.
We pull up in front of our building, and Steve is still quiet.
I let him think for a while, waiting for him to talk.
"Was it hard, for you?" he finally asks me.
"Was what hard?" I ask, confused.
"Deciding to let your father go. I mean, you didn't really love him, it was more of a "like" love thing. Was it hard for you to decide to move to New York with Pepper, a thousand miles away from everything you've ever known?" he asks me, still gazing out the window.
"No." I answer too quickly. "Well, I mean, I did love him in a distant way, and I didn't want to leave him to his own devices because I care about him, but I knew that if I stayed with him any longer, I would drown."
"Drown?" Steve turns and looks at me.
"You know, drowning is like suffocating. And, if I had stayed in Jenkins, all my dreams would have been suffocated and drowned, and I would end up like every other person there," I explain. Now it's my turn to stare off into the distance.
He pushes a wisp of my hair back off of my forehead and behind my ear. "Val," he whispers. "Guess what?"
"What?" I ask, focusing on him.
"I love you," he smiles.
"Ditto," I smile back.
We kiss softly, in the front of the car. We talk for an hour, about things. We would have talked longer if Shari hadn't felt the need to wake up and cry. I picked her up and Steve grabbed her bag, and we went inside the building. As we rode up the elevator, Steve and I laughed with our neighbor, Bob Pinciotti (an older man stuck in the 1970's with a curly black afro and potbelly). We got off on our floor, and walked down the hallway. Steve went on the other side of the elevator to get our mail as I went over to our apartment.
The door wasn't locked, which was odd because I had locked it.
I entered the room and saw a woman facing the wall, so all I saw was her back.
She had long, orange hair.
I screamed, frightened out of my mind. Mom had come back! No!
Steve ran down the hall and grabbed me from behind. Just then, Tony appeared up on the loft, walking out of our bedroom.
"Wha… what?" I ask, confused.
"Damn, Steve, you guys were supposed to be here half an hour ago!" Tony shouts at Steve.
The woman turned around, and I saw Pepper changing the twins.
I take in my apartment, and realize a "Happy Birthday!" sign has been strung up by the ceiling, a cake was sitting on the counter, and Bruce, Thor, and Jane were out on the patio.
"What?" I ask.
"Well, since your birthday was late December, Pepper's is early January, mine is early February, and Jane's is the middle of January, we thought we would have a big party and somebody said we could have it at your house," Tony explained, glaring at Steve.
Steve was drawing a blank. "I thought this was next week," he admitted.
I, still scared, fake a smile to show my appreciation. "Well, it looks beautiful!"
I fake a smile all night, scared the hell out of my mind.
I felt unsettled, like someone was watching us the whole night. I clung to Steve most of the night, always touching him. He felt really bad, I could see it on his face. I tried lying and saying I was fine, but he could see right through it.
We went to blow out the candles on the cake.
"Happy birthday to you!"
A swishing sound came from outside.
"Happy birthday to you!"
It got louder.
"Happy birthday, dear Pepper, Tony, Val, and Jane!"
The windows were shaking.
"Happy birthday to you!"
The windows broke open, bursting open with sand.
I was being drowned, drowned in sand, and I clutched Shari as close to me as possible. I heard Pepper calling out and the twins crying; I heard a lot of screaming from the sand; I heard someone trying to move through the storm. I wished as much as I could that I could have Steve holding me, and painful flashbacks flowed through my mind and I almost threw up. I clutched Shari harder to my chest, slowly crying.
I thought it would never end, never stop.
But then it did.
I was surrounded by mirrors, two inches taller than I was. Because of this, I could see the balcony and the tops of others' mirrors, but I couldn't really see anyone. Loki appeared on the balcony.
"Hello," he smiled a cruel smile.
I tried to keep my face hard like stone, but it was so hard when I was coughing out sand and helping Shari get out her sand.
I guess Thor about jumped out of his mirror, and that's why Jane cried out.
"No, no, no," Loki laughed. "This is a game," his voice rang out over the room. He wasn't on the balcony anymore, but I wasn't going to give in.
He appeared on all of my mirrors, even though he wasn't near me.
"Every time you try to fight, you and your spouse's mirrors will get closer and closer to you. If you touch them, they will dissolve into sand. Like this," he says, and reached through the mirror to pull me closer to the mirror. "And for you, Hulky, it applies double. Because you are forever alone."
I touched it accidentally, and the sand opened into a gaping hole, leading into God knows where. I couldn't help but to scream, and I pushed Shari the way opposite the hole. Then, the hole closed and sand rained down on me, sinking in my mouth and suffocating me to the point where I almost died, but then it let up. I felt light headed and tired, and I could almost sleep and I needed to lean against something, anything, but then suddenly the feeling stopped.
"Val! Val, are you o…." Steve's voice is drowned out.
"No, no, no, no, no," I whisper. I am paralyzed with fear. Everyone I love will die, everything I love will die, everything I am will die, I will die. I will die in this circle of mirrors. I will die. I will die. I will die.
My heart beat galloped at the tune of I will die, I will die, I will die.
Loki was talking again, but I wasn't listening. I was holding Shari close to my chest and was praying she wouldn't have to die with me, that she could live.
"Don't test these henchmen," he smirked. "They are deadly. Now, I must be on my way. World ruling to do."
He was gone, and my mirrors were filled with guilt. Eight mirrors surrounded me. On one mirror, stood my mom, calling me no good. On the next, stood my dad, too drunk to help me. On the third, Tag was staring at me and yelling for me to act like a good girlfriend. On the fourth stood Pepper, frowning at me, my life. On the fourth stood Tony, calling me names and yelling curses at me. On the next, stood my college friends, June and Henry, telling me that my fucking messiness wouldn't cut it. On the sixth stood Dr. Bruce, yelling at me to get my act together. The seventh, Nick Fury and the others doing the same.
And on the eighth, the eighth and final mirror, stood Steve. He was staring at me, the way he stared at me the night the Hydra took him. I wanted to cry as I saw him, staring at me like I was the worst thing he had ever seen.
The mirrors caught on, and soon all the mirrors were absorbed with Steve, yelling at me, kissing other women, telling me I was no good, drinking, and cursing. I didn't care about those, I knew they weren't real.
The mirror caught on, and all the mirrors blanked out except the one directly in front of me. It was just Steve staring at me, a deathly glare. It made me want to die. I began crying, the tears falling down my cheeks.
I wish he was there to comfort me then.
But he wasn't.
He heard my crying, though, over the mirrors, and called out a promise that was purely for comfort and nothing else. "Val! I'm coming to help you!"
We were going to be stuck here forever, stuck between all the mirrors. Shari reached out and touched her tiny hand against the mirror, and I began to scream. I knew that, if the mirrors shrunk much more, Steve would fall into the hole because he was- let's face it- muscular and huge.
But the funniest thing happened.
Her hand was flaming as she touched it.
And the mirror broke down where she touched it.
It was a HYDRA mirror.
"Shari, you're a genius!" I shout, and I think of all the reasons to be mad; Mom, Dad, Loki, the Hydra, the hate I had to bear, the guilt.
And I caught fire, my daughter with me.
We burnt the mirrors.
I ran over to the couch and sat Shari down quickly. She was flaming, but that's okay.
I ran from mirror to mirror.
One, two, three, burn.
Thor.
Jane.
Pepper and a baby.
Tony and a baby.
Bruce.
There was only one more, in the corner. I burst through the fake glass, a pile of ash around me.
He hugs me, flames and all, before I can say anything.
"We have to go stop Loki," I say, looking around at everyone.
"She's right," Tony says. "I have my suit in the guest room."
"What?" I ask.
"A spare," he says, already in the guest room.
Steve runs upstairs and I follow him, going into our closet and pushing the panel that reveals two suits. I pull on mine, not facing him, and run out of the room, ready to go. Tony, Thor, and Dr. Banner are ready, and Pepper, Jane, the twins , and Shari are going to stay with Bob next door, who "coincidentally" "just so happens" to be a SHIELD undercover agent. His name isn't even Bob Pinciotti; he stole his name and clothes from a That 70's Show character.
We all moved to the balcony, gaping at the sights below.
Masses of sand are flying around and entering the nearest human passerby, consuming their insides.
I gasp as I watch the takeover happen. A woman running down the street, screaming, is surrounded by sand for a few moments, and then the sand is gone and she is quiet, no longer running, just walking down the street with a disturbingly calm face.
"We have to go," Thor says bravely, lightning striking on the street below. It killed one Hydra.
Thor leaves, and Dr. Bruce jumps off the building, already changing. I fear for him.
Tony is kissing Pepper in the corner, and Pepper is smoothly stroking his cheek, tears running down hers.
He backs away, pulling his mask down. I know he'll be safe; none of his body parts are open.
"You gonna be okay kid?" he asks me.
"Yeah," I smile, lightly punching his metal arm.
Tony then flies up and off our small patio, shooting out fire balls as he goes.
Steve lightly strokes my cheek. I grab his hand as it touches my face, and hold it there.
"If you need my help, scream," I say seriously. He is the one I am most worried about, what with his mouth, ears, and nose exposed.
"Ditto," he smiles, trying to joke.
It's not funny.
I grab his hand and pull him down off the balcony with me, already flaming.
"Drop off, three, two, one," I whisper into my headset.
"Love you, Val," he says as he drops.
"Too," I whisper.
I push him aside, for I have to be angry or in danger to stay firey this long. I thought about my mom, as I blasted the Hydra. I thought about how she betrayed me, leaving to become a stripper. I thought about my dad, being a drunk who can't take care of his own daughter. As a mom, I know that they never loved me, because I love Shari and could never leave her. I thought about all the kids who bullied me, all the family members that never helped me, all the things anyone had ever whispered about me.
I was pretty mad as I blew up dozens of Hydra, soaring over the streets. Tony flew next to me, talking over his speakers.
"This is… no, this was premeditated. Loki had already thought this through," Tony says, sounding both pissed and deep in thought.
"Where would he be?" I ask over my new headset microphone, attached to my sunglasses. The glasses also analyze faces, bringing up files and such on each face. I'm searching for Loki, but the glasses keep narrowing in on random people that don't fit the description at all.
"He would be wherever he thought he had an advantage. And that would be… I know where he is." Tony's voice is muddled, and he was obviously thinking very hard.
"Where? Where is he?" I ask, confused.
Tony was already on the speakers, talking to every SHIELD member or Avenger. "Attention, this is your captain speaking. Loki is presumed to be located in Stark Tower, penthouse level. If you can aid us, now is your chance. If you can't, well, fuck you. Shut off traffic by Grand Central and put the building on lockdown, if you can. Thanks, we should be landing in an estimated 30 minutes," he says.
"Fury's gonna be pissed," I laugh over my headset to him.
"That stick in the mud is always pissed," Tony shook it off. We were over Grand Central now, and were only a street over from Stark Tower. We started flying up, and I had to stall a second to wait for Tony to get up. I saw Thor was already there on the patio, along with Clint. Clint was looking rough, tired, and he had a beard.
We landed on the patio, me slowing my burning to just my fists as I know how much Pepper loves her rugs and patio furniture. I see Loki and a couple of other people sitting in the living room.
We walk in. Loki is sitting with my mother on the couch, a bottle of Tony's vodka in her hand. An almost exact copy of Lenny Kravitz is sitting in the chair next to them, his eyes golden and flashing from one side of the room to the other. At the counter sits a pouty Julia, from the party, and she keeps flashing from Kim Kardashian to herself to Megan Fox, trying to get someone's attention. Natasha is sitting next to her, drinking a martini.
"I'm glad you mother fuckers are comfortable," Nick Fury chimes from behind us, twenty SHIELD members with him. "Because we're about to whoop your alien asses."
"When did they get here?" I whisper to Tony behind my hand.
He shrugs and puts his hand out, aiming at Lenny. "Lenny, need you to step outside, along with the rest of you."
I hold my flaming fist up, too, and Thor holds his hammer menacingly. Behind us, I hear twenty guns click and I see Clint load up his bow with a flaming arrow.
"Fine, fine," Loki says, standing up. "Come along, friends, let's do as the humans ask."
My mother stands up first, the others following her. She and Loki walk out, arms around each other, and I feel the need to vomit uncontrollably. Next comes Lenny Kravitz, trailed by Natasha and Julia-Megan-Kim. I feel sickened because I can feel the eyes of some of the SHIELD male members following her.
"Now, what is your name, Mr. Kravitz?" Tony shouts out.
"Ender," Lenny replies, his voice making my skin crawl.
Thor stares in disgust, eyes squinting. Lenny realizes that this was a mistake, for there was an Asgardian standing there that he obviously didn't know about.
"What is your name, Kardashian?" Tony shouts at Julia.
"Zhangana," she smirks at me.
"Alright, now Zhangana, Ender, and Loki, we are going to…" Nick starts.
A laugh fills the night air as Loki, Ender, and Zhangana disappear. My mother is smirking.
"Grab her!" I shout. "The ginger bitch is human!"
Instantly two SHIELD members run forward and tranquilize her, pulling her into the penthouse without a sound. Two others run forward and tranquilize Natasha, who goes willingly. I know that, if she had wanted to, she would have fought and escaped.
I heard a wind sound behind me, and I also hear the sounds of, "Oh shit!" and "Mother of God!"
I turn to see the largest Hydra I had ever seen.
The sand giant was taller than the Stark building, and it had no features or colors; it was just the sand colored shape of a giant man. I looked down and saw that the tiny people that were being attacked earlier by sand were not anymore.
This was the mother load of Hydra.
They instantly started shooting at it, and Tony circled it with electronic flames flying out from his hands every other second. Thor was striking lightning at it, and Clint was shooting arrows as fast as he could reload his bow.
The flames were not enough. It was like poking tiny tacks into a person; they pricked but didn't kill.
Steve came over my speakers. "Val, can you bring me up there? I'm in front of Grand Central, we just closed it down."
"Got it," I say back, taking off past the Hydra. I burned through the arm to get to the station.
"Pick up in three, two, one," I grab him up from the street.
"Take me over to the Hydra thing, please," he says over the headset.
"What?! No!" I shout.
"No, seriously, I need you to take me over there. They need my help, on the balcony," he lied.
I fake agreeing with him. "Okay," I sigh. "Stay safe."
"I promise."
I know that he knows that he is going to go fight the Hydra monster on top of it.
I drop him off on top of the thing's shoulder, letting him fight it.
I float off nearby, throwing fire balls at the monster's chest. I look at its left arm; everything below the elbow is gone.
I wonder what happened while I was gone. And then I realize.
I burned off the lower arm because I was full fire!
I know what to do, so I go on my headset.
"Everyone on the Hydra monster engaged in combat, step off so that I may defeat it," I shout to all those with headsets in range.
I step back to the penthouse's glass doors, and take a deep breath. I catch fire and start running.
I see Tony fly off.
I am half way across the patio.
I see Thor pull Bruce off.
I am jumping off, soaring through the air for a millisecond. Then I am crashing through the sand, which is conforming around me to try to contain me and stop me. I have too much speed, though, and I blast through the giant to the other side. I am flying so fast I can only stop a block away from Stark Tower.
I see the giant split in half, falling to the ground. The sand is no longer sand, but black ash.
"Yes!" I shout. "I did it!"
But then I see something not ash falling to the ground rapidly.
Steve.
"Oh shit!" I shout, racing back to the giant.
Steve is closer to the ground.
I can hardly breathe, or fly for that matter because I am crying and my fire is dying out and I can't see, I can't see.
Steve hits the ground.
I am there, and I stumble across the asphalt of the road, tripping over him and landing in an awkward, straddling position.
"Oh, Steve, oh, Steve," I sob, holding his limp hand. I can't feel for a pulse or hear one because my heart is pounding in my ears. I am breaking down, breaking down, and I can't even see.
Then I push Val aside and become just another person.
I developed this technique growing up in the park. I was only about 5 or 6 when I had it mastered. With Mom, Dad, and all the bullies yelling at me, I just pushed my feelings away and became a stony mask. I guess you could say I "built a wall" and "protected my feelings". I hadn't used it in years.
I began performing CPR.
I couldn't hide myself all the way, though, and as I performed CPR, I was cursing at him. "You promised! Steve, you fucking promised me! You said you would stay safe! You promised me! You promised! You said you were going to stay safe! Why did you break your promise? You promised!"
I gave up on CPR, and just collapsed onto him, worn out from the fire and the stress. Whenever I do full body fire for a long amount of time, I get dehydrated and suffer from heat exhaustion.
"Steve, you promised me, you son of a bitch," I cried on his chest, beating it with my fists. "You promised you would stay," I whispered, just lying down now, not moving but to sob.
I ran my fingers softly through his hair, which was blackened with ash, and ran my fingers gently over his cuts on his chest and arms. I softly burnt his burn mark, to see if he'd miraculously wake up, but he didn't. I wasn't crying now.
"Oh, Steve," I sighed, fingering my wedding band. It was vibranium, too, and in it read the lyrics of "Something".
I began singing it softly, my hands trembling. I brushed his ashy hair back out of his eyes, and kissed his lips softly.
I started to stand up, and walk away.
I ended up tripping, and falling over like an idiot.
"No! No! God, why? He was the only person to be fucking good to me the whole time I knew them! Please, God, please. If not for me, for Shari, please. I can't be a single mother," I scream and cry.
I hear a cough and a sputter.
"Help," a dry, hoarse voice calls out softly. "Help."
I turn around, my eyes closed. I didn't want to believe it.
"Val," the voice whispers.
I open one eye and see Steve's eyes open.
"Steve, oh my God, Steve, oh my God, Steve," I sob.
"Hey," he tries to smile.
"Hey," I smile through my tears, softly stroking his cheek.
"Love share," he whispers, his head nodding to the side, falling asleep.
"No, Steve, you have to stay awake, hon. For me and Shari," I say to him.
"What?" his head pops back up.
"Pop quiz," I say.
"Okay," he smiles.
"Which actor was the main character in Saturday Night Fever?" I spout off.
"Travolta," he smiles. "Easy."
"Who was president when we went to the moon?"
"Kennedy."
"Which president was involved in Watergate?"
"Nizon." His words were slurred.
"Who sung Thriller?"
"Michael Jackson."
"Is Michael Jackson…" I slap his face to get his attention. "Hey! Is Michael Jackson alive?"
"No."
"Who loves Katniss?"
"Peeta."
"Name a Nirvana song."
"Smells Like Teen Spirit."
"Name a Beatles song."
"Something."
"Where did Elvis Presley die?"
"Memphis."
"Which show is Kelso from?"
"That 70's Show."
"What show is Kramer from?"
"Seinfeld."
"Name a Whitney Houston movie."
"The Bodyguard."
"Who was John Lennon's second wife?"
"Yoko Ono."
I saw Tony and some SHIELD members rushing over to us.
"Okay, okay, okay. Name an Avril Lavigne song."
"Complicated."
"Fill in the blank. Wayne Campbell and…"
"Garth Algar."
"Saturday Night Live questions, I see?" Tony asks me as he slowly pulls me off of Steve. I can't stand, so I slump against him. I try to hide my heat exhaustion, but Tony senses it and holds me in a position that looks like I'm standing but I'm not.
"To keep him focused," I say, not able to focus myself.
"Capital of Hawaii," Tony asks, knowing I'm about to black out from dehydration.
"Honolulu," I push out the black spots.
"President of the United States after Lincoln."
"Andrew Johnson."
"And where was he from?"
"Tennessee."
We were starting to fly up, to Tony and Pepper's penthouse, I guessed.
"And the capital of Tennessee is…"
"Nashville."
"Where are we right now?" he asks, trying to get me to focus.
"New York City."
"In what state?!" he yells at me.
"Fucking New York, dumbass!" I yell back.
I calm down. "Thanks, Tony," I say as we land on the patio. Now he is all but carrying me.
"No problem, kid."
The world turns into a blur when he sets me down on the couch. Pepper hovers over me, giving me water and food, taking my temperature, and wiping strands of hair out of my face. I hold Shari for a time, while Pepper is talking. I know I am really dehydrated, because I can hardly keep my eyes open.
"Nope, drink," a random SHIELD member pours water in my mouth.
I hear Nick Fury yelling. "They were down there for three hours? Why the hell didn't you get down there earlier? Now they're both almost dead!"
"We couldn't fucking find her, Nick. She had melted down her headset and his was crushed, so we couldn't talk to them." This sounds like Tony.
I started to slump again, but this time the SHIELD member takes Shari into her arms and lets me lay down on the couch and sleep.