Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters besides Mandy.
A/N: And, at last, they find out about Mandy's special little powers. As always, reviews are much appreciated and always cherished. Sorry for the wait. I'm having computer issues. Bleh.
Chapter 29
Mandy stared at her cast, tracing a finger over the nice little drawing Steve had done with the sharpies. It looked nice, the black color against the bright blue of her cast. She would probably ask Steve to draw another one down by her toes. Like a turtle. Or a little ladybug named Gerald. Mandy looked up and realized that she was alone in the room. Good. She missed them, of course, but she needed the time to think. And it was hard to think about serious things when she realized that she was back with them. When she thought of that, all she could think of was about how happy she was. Her Mother was dead and could never come back to get her. She was safe. It made her stomach feel all warm and bubbly, like that time when Clint had let her have the soda that tasted like grapes. It was nice, to be happy and have a fizzy belly. But right now Mandy needed to think of something other than being happy. Because she had an issue. It wasn't a big issue, but it was still an issue nonetheless. It was like when Tony couldn't decide how he wanted his eggs cooked. It wasn't a life or death situation, but it could make Mandy's day bad.
And they could think she was a freak.
No, Mandy said firmly, pressing her palms against her eyes. No they couldn't. They wouldn't do that. They were her family, and they also had a whole bunch of cool things that they could do that others couldn't. She would fit in, right? Because they were a family, and her Daddy loved her, and they would all accept her.
She was pretty sure they would, anyway. But she knew that she had to find a way for them to know she wasn't lying. It was kind of a weird thing, to be able to see colors, Mandy knew. Especially colors that meant emotions. And her family weren't really people to just believe in things. They generally needed to be able to see things to believe in them, though Mandy wasn't quite sure how they could justify that logic when it came to Santa. No one ever saw Santa, but everybody believed in him.
Either way, Mandy knew that she needed to be smart about this. She really didn't want them to think that she was crazy. The good news was that if anyone was going to convince her family about something that they couldn't see, it would be her.
Steve stared down at Mandy in bemusement, the sharpie held in his hand. He hated the smell of sharpie, it was too acidic and made his head swirl, but the smiles she gave him when he finished a picture more than made up for any of his discomfort.
"Did you hear me?" Mandy asked Steve, furrowing her brow at him. Her words were not like other children's, full of brash confidence and rudeness. It was pure concern. She truly wanted to know if he had heard her. The difference made Steve's heart ache. "I need everyone to come into this room,"
"JARVIS?" Steve asked, inclining his chin.
"Of course," JARVIS said. Steve sat down next to Mandy as they waited and she smiled at him, shifting her leg into his lap. Her leg was so skinny he could wrap his entire hand around her thigh and the cast swelled far beyond her flesh, grotesquely enlarging her leg. Both of the casts were so heavy that Steve doubted, had she not spent the time before she was taken in the gym with them, 'working out', that she would be able to move.
Every day he wished more and more that Hulk had not gotten to her first.
Phil skidded into the room and breathed a sigh of relief when he found Mandy safe and sound on the couch with Steve, chattering away. He knew that he needed to break the habit, but he found it hard to be away from her for more than ten minutes at a time, and right now was not the time to fight that battle with himself. Sometimes he still woke up in the middle of the night, gasping and crying, thinking that his little girl had been taken and was being hurt, even though she spent most of the nights curled in his arms.
"Daddy!" Mandy raised a hand and waved at him. "Come see what Steve drew!"
"What'd he draw?" Phil asked, sitting down beside her. Mandy caught Steve's hand, stilling it for a brief moment, and she crawled into Phil's lap before allowing him to continue. Phil moved closer to give Steve better access, ducking his head and placing a kiss on the part in Mandy's hair.
"That is a turtle named Fredrick," Mandy introduced, pointing down at a figure on her blue cast. Phil used her finger to trace the turtle and she giggled.
"Hello Fredrick," He greeted before turning his attention to the little girl in his lap. "Mandy, what did you need sweetheart?"
"Not until everyone gets here," Mandy said, pursing her lips stubbornly. "Why aren't Clint and Natasha here yet? I thought they were in the gym."
"They were," Phil assured her. Her need to know where everyone was located was new, but he supposed that it was harmless enough to encourage. "They're probably just putting on Band-Aids."
"Clint is a baby when it comes to taking those off," Mandy said, lifting her eyebrows. Phil laughed and Steve chuckled.
"That he is," Phil agreed. "Though not as cute of a baby as you are."
"I'm not a baby!" Mandy protested, turning around to look at him. Phil smiled wolfishly at her.
"You're my baby," He said, placing wet raspberries along her neck. She shrieked in amusement, wiggling to try to get away. Phil wished that time would stop, and she would be this young forever and still always find amusement in things like this.
And then he thanked God that he had her now, never mind when she grew up.
Tony wiped his hands on his jeans, ignoring the look Steve sent him. Steve was all about cleanliness, except, of course, when it was about his toothpaste cap or his socks that never seemed to get in the laundry.
He was adorable like that.
"Okay!" Mandy said, clapping her hands. Tony turned his attention to her, smiling softly. The hard thing about Mandy was that he could never put on a fake face in front of her. With Mandy he was his true self, with no masks or armor.
Which was why he couldn't conceal his worry when he looked at her.
He knew that she wasn't dealing with things. He could tell, the way she didn't react to certain things. And though he was immensely glad that she held no fear when she was around them, there was being unafraid and there was repressing.
And repressing was a dangerous thing.
Especially for a little girl.
"I have something to announce," Mandy said.
"We're listening," Clint assured her.
"Yes!" Thor said. "Feel free to tell us your heart's desire, for we have no desire to do anything but fulfill it!"
"I have a superpower." Mandy said, deadpan. It was not what Tony had expected and clearly none of the others either. They stared at her in shocked silence and she looked around at them her lower lip quivering. Before any of them could react she was bawling.
Mandy knew it, she knew that they weren't going to believe her, and now she was going to be sent somewhere, because not even her mother was around to take her back, she would probably be sent to an orphanage, and then have to eat cold mush every day, and they probably thought she was a filthy liar who was ungrateful, and she wasn't ungrateful, she just wanted them to know but they didn't believe her and now they hated her.
"You don't believe me!" She wailed. A distant part of her knew she was being silly, but the bigger part of her knew that they thought she was a liar and now they hated her, and she knew she wasn't supposed to cry, she wasn't, but it wouldn't stop. The tears just kept running down her face, her sobs choking her. They were loud, so loud, like something crashing over her, and she didn't even notice Daddy talking to her until his lips were right next to her ear.
"Mandy baby, we believe you sweetheart," He said, his voice soothing. And Mandy believed him, because he was Daddy, they believed her, but she still couldn't stop crying, and it hurt, like she couldn't breathe, but the tears just would not stop. "Mandy, calm down sweetie. You're okay, we've all got you, you're safe and we love you. We believe you, baby. Of course we believe you. You're our little girl, and we love you."
It took a while, but finally Mandy's cries were a little quieter and she could breathe again, and she realized that she was surrounded by her family, the middle of a giant group hug.
Like the heart.
Natasha sat in the chair, breathing deeply as if she had been the one who had been sobbing. That had been scary, perhaps the scariest thing Natasha had ever faced, because none of them could do anything but be there for her, as there was no foe to vanquish. They just had to wait it out, endure the rush of emotions and feel their hearts breaking.
"Okay?" Phil asked Mandy, tucking a wet strand, from both tears and sweat, behind her ear. She nodded shakily, her chest still rising and falling rapidly, but at least she wasn't crying like that anymore, with sobs that seemed to rip through her to come out. "Okay baby," Phil said, pressing a kiss to her head. His face was calm, nearly emotionless, but when his eyes flittered around the room and met Natasha's she could see the pain in them.
Because a little girl like that should not have to deal with the pain that makes you cry like that.
"Here," Bruce said, still looking a little green, handing Phil a new shirt for Mandy. Phil carefully unbuttoned the now tear soaked one on Mandy and flung it to the side, as if that would dismiss the pain of what just happened. Natasha wanted to look away but her eyes were drawn morbidly to Mandy's little concave chest, her washboard ribs. They had almost gotten her to healthy weight for her size before she had been taken, but now they were back to square one.
"One arm, two arm," Phil counted off as Mandy slipped her arms into the sweater Bruce had brought her. Mandy took a deep shaky breath and then leaned back against Phil's chest. "Do you want to tell us your superpower now?" Phil asked hesitantly, clearly not sure whether or not bringing this up was a good idea but not wanting to cause another melt down because she thought they didn't believe her.
Natasha did believe her. She didn't know if she Mandy truly had a superpower, but as long as the little girl said she did, then she did in Natasha's mind. Frankly the strength the little girl had was more than enough superpower for her.
"Okay," Mandy said, grabbing one of Phil's hands and hugging the attached arm to her. She took a deep breath. "I see colors."
"Colors?" Tony repeated, clearly trying not to seem skeptical but wanting to make sure that he heard her right.
"Colors," Mandy nodded. "But the colors mean something. Like love or hate,"
"What do you mean honey?" Steve asked from where he was sitting on the ground in front of Tony.
"It's like little strings," Mandy said. "Connecting you to each other. Red means love, like in love. Yellow means friendship, but the darker it is means the more you love that friend." She looked around at them, her nose wrinkled. "It's actually kind of a gross color when it gets dark."
"And the other colors?" Clint asked.
"Well they mean everything. Blue means want." Mandy explained. Phil jolted, perhaps, like Natasha, very concerned about how his six year old daughter understood what want was. Mandy continued, ignorant to their distress "Like you want to be able to love them. Green means you're annoyed with someone, but unless it's really bright, then it's like when Bruce gets angry at Clint for leaving Jell-O in the fridge without a cover."
"That's amazing," Steve said. Mandy clutched at Phil's arm a little tighter.
"I can prove it," She added quickly. "If you all go behind a different door while my eyes are closed, I'll be able to tell where you are based on the colors around you."
"Mandy," Phil said, his voice slightly stern as he turned her around to look at him. "Maybe one day we will do that, because we're curious and what to understand, but right now I want you to look at the colors around you."
Mandy blinked, looking down at the space around her, her eyes unfocusing and then narrowing on something that the rest of them couldn't see. Her face was shocked when she looked up, blinking rapidly.
"You see that?" Phil asked, his voice soft. Mandy nodded. "That means that we don't need anything more than your words to make us believe you Mandy." He wrapped his arms around his little girl, pulling her head underneath his chin. "That means that we love you."
