"That's pretty good," Steve tells Gabby as she hits the punching bag in front of her. They've been working on her punch for about 45 minutes now and Gabby's hands have started to hurt from using it so much.
"Yeah," she pants at him, "I think I'm done for now."
"I agree," Steve comments, "Good job though!"
There's an awkward silence while Gabby stood there switching her body weight from her left to right foot.
"Any chance you could help me find Tony?" Gabby asks quietly, realizing she has no clue where she is or where to go.
"For sure!" Steve replies brightly, "We're heading to find Tony. See you guys later!" He tells the other occupants in the room.
"Bye Gabby!" Clint calls after them, "Next time I get to train you!"
"Jarvis, where's Tony?" Steve asks once they've left the training room.
"Sir is in the main lab with Mr. Banner," Jarvis responds from the ceiling. Steve thanks him and steers Gabby towards the elevator to get to the main lab. AC/DC can be heard being blared even through the elevator doors and Steve sighs with a slight grin on his face. Gabby plugs her ears with her fingers as they walk in to find Tony working on a project body slightly dancing to the song and Bruce with ear plugs in working on his project a little away.
"Jarvis! Turn the music off please!" Steve yells over the music.
"Hey!" Tony exclaims when the music is turned off before swinging around a setting his sights on the super soldier and new intern.
"Capsicle and Gabberoni! You have a nice little nap Gabs?"
"Yeah, sorry I promise it won't happen again," she responds looking down at her feet slightly, but Tony waves her off and tells her, "Don't apologize. I can't have you getting hurt cause you are properly rested. I'm assuming Cap showed you some of the gang and such."
"Yeah!" Gabby responds a little more excitedly, taking some steps closer to the scientists, "We saw Clint again and I was also introduced to Natasha and Bucky. Then Steve tried to teach me how to throw a punch."
"No becoming a secret spy or anything though. I forbid it," Tony jokes half serious remembering May's pleas to keep Gabby safe while Gabby rolls her eyes at him.
"I talk too much to be a spy," she retorts as Steve walks towards the elevator and she shouts at him, "Thank you Steve!"
He gives a small nod pressing the button for a different floor.
"So what're you working on?" She walked over to Tony peering at his project. He smiled at her and launched into a lengthy explanation as he and Gabby worked together for a couple more hours. They lost track of time until Jarvis alerted them to dinner being ready. All three scientists traveled to the main dining room where Natasha, Wanda, and Bucky were already seated while Steve and Clint brought dishes over to the table.
"Dinner is served!" Clint exclaims once everyone's taken a seat and all the food has been placed on the table. Gabby hesitates to grab any food not knowing quite what to do in a group setting. She fiddles with her hands staring down at her plate wondering how much food is appropriate to take and what she should say if someone asks her something. Her anxious thoughts are interrupted by Wanda grabbing her plate and placing a pile of mashed potatoes on it combined with peas and two slices of meatloaf. Gabby looks at her with a small, appreciative smile trying to remember the girl's name.
'My name's Wanda.'
A voice in her head says softly and Gabby shoots her head up to stare at Wanda with her mouth slightly agape.
'Don't worry, with big dinners like these Tony and Clint usually hog the conversation.'
Gabby gave a small snort at Wanda's comments in her head as she started eating her meal. It was incredible and Gabby tunes out the conversation as she devours her meatloaf and peas only eating a little of the mashed potatoes. She looked up from time to time to see, as Wanda predicted, mostly Tony and Clint speaking animatedly with Steve, Bruce, and Natasha chiming in from time to time while Bucky and Wanda looked at them with fond smiles. Gabby felt a flutter of butterflies in her stomach and a warm feeling that sent a slight rush of adrenaline through her body. She felt safe and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on, but she loved the feeling.
Wanda sensed Gabby's feelings and smiled to herself while enjoying the easy banter at the dinner table. Once everyone finished Gabby helped Bruce and Natasha wash and put dishes in the dishwasher. She noticed the day was getting later and she'd need to head back home soon which led to a heavy sinking sensation in her stomach that seemed to remove all previous feelings of happiness.
"You okay?" Bruce asked, noticing the change in Gabby's demeanor.
"Of course," she replied plastering a polite smile on her face, "Just not a huge fan of doing dishes." She joked. Bruce laughed quietly as Tony came into the kitchen to check in.
"Getting a little late kiddo," he tells her.
"Yeah. I know," Gabby responds dejectedly putting the last dish in the dishwasher.
"You want Clint to drive ya back?" Tony offers knowing Clint's goofball attitude could brighten her spirits a little bit.
"Sure," she says with a more genuine smile.
"Got it Gabberoni! Tomorrow the actual work begins! We'll think of some project you wanna do and I don't know, probably do some more fun stuff. Planning days are hard," Tony tells her while walking off to get Clint.
"And if you need a break from all the science stuff, or Tony's ego," Natasha says, "I can teach you some useful stuff."
"Sounds fun!" Gabby replies honestly, "I'm going to get my bag, but I'll see ya both tomorrow!"
"Bye Gabby." Bruce calls out as she leaves to head out.
The ride back with Clint was filled with dumb jokes, random rants, and fun facts no one needs to know. Gabby was in much higher spirits until she saw her house in the distance. Clint noticed the change, but couldn't think of any jokes to lighten the now slightly somber mood.
"You can pull over here," she tells him about a street away, "I don't want him to see me getting out of some strange car and raise questions."
They both get out of the car and slowly walk towards Gabby's house.
"You need any more jokes or anything else just text or call me," he tells her slightly seriously, "I know Tony programmed my number into your phone. Don't be afraid to use it." She nodded at him and he waited by the curb while she walked up to her door and gave one final look at Clint before walking in.
She could smell the sharp stench of alcohol as soon as she walked in and heard him mumbling to himself in the living room. Unfortunately she needed to walk past him to get upstairs to her room. She creeps slowly as quietly as possible until she hears a strict voice call out, "Gabrielle!"
She turns slowly to face her father on the couch. He was sitting with a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand, legs stretched out in his tattered jeans, and holey shirt.
"Kitchen's dirty," he slurred staring at her while she desperately keeps her eyes glued to the ground, "Look at me when I'm talking to you!" He shouts suddenly and her head shoots up to meet his gaze. Gabby tries to hide her hands trembling while she holds eye contact. He takes another swig of his bottle before addressing her again, "Kitchen's a fucking mess. Go clean it up," she turns to leave before hearing a shattering of glass at her feet. She looks down to see the remaining contents of alcohol now pooling at her feet where he threw the bottle.
"She's not coming home," Dean says to himself, "You just had to have your goddamn ice cream after school didn't you. Get my wife killed. I didn't even want a daughter, she did. Now I'm stuck with you. Why couldn't you-" he trails off while Gabby stands stoically now moving to brush the tears off her face.
It's all fine she tells herself it's just the alcohol talking
She knows she's just lying to herself, but the lies seem much easier to swallow, much kinder than her reality. She barely heard her father mumble, "Clean this shit up too." When he trudged up the stairs stumbling. Gabby refused to move until she heard his door shut, then she allowed herself to cry silently, slinking to the floor on her knees not even paying attention to the glass digging into her calves. She sobbed as quietly as she could as tears mixed with the alcohol below her.
After she'd composed herself she went to the kitchen to clean up desperately trying to sort out her thoughts as she scrubbed every plate clean. Taking longer than usual, Gabby finally finished cleaning and crying so she trudged up the stairs to her room and locked the door behind her before pulling out her phone and seeing a text from Tony.
Hope Birdbrain didn't annoy you too much! Spider will pick ya up tmr same time/place as today.
Didn't annoy me and thanks!
She responded before hiding her phone in her bag and lying her head down, desperately trying to recreate the dinner scene and reconjure those warm feelings she felt before, but all she could muster is the loneliness and craving for her mother, or maybe even a father who cared.