"-I had to, alright I mean the little brat dislocated my thumb,"
Cole grits her teeth at the rough tone coming from the other side of the closed door then giggles to herself when she remembered using one of her Auntie Lulu's special army moves to try and get away from the bad man when he'd reached back to stop her kicking his seat when she realized she couldn't get out of the booster chair he'd locked her in. "even after I apologized for losing what over the crap a Tara bear is and tried to give her that puppy toy you told me to bring."
The waking girl would have tossed the replacement toy away if she didn't have hazy memories of her Mama playing with her baby self with at least a similar puppy before she'd been given Tara. How the bad man had gotten it back Cole didn't want to think about even if she does hug the dog just a little closer to her chest.
The rumbling of her stomach reminds just how hungry she'd gotten when another hint of reheated mac and cheese reaches her. "Mels would always make the thing talk for her when she was pregnant." The bad man says over the pinging ding of a microwave. "That stupid fake puppy voice."
"Why do kids think that is in any way cute dogs ain't meant to talk." The other man scoffed.
Yeap Cole would definitely be kicking him in the ankle on her way out of here. She loved when her Mommy would make Tara talk with her even when she didn't know what her bear's real voice sounded more like her Mama's it was nice her Mommy tired.
"Hey man I was agreeing with you why are you hittin me?"
Against her better judgment, Cole muffled a giggle against the puppy's scruff at the reason for the sudden sounds of thumping from the other side of the door. "That's for my Nikki. If you're hungry you should have stopped before you brought her back to me"
"One kid ain't eaten all that."
"She will once she wakes up thanks to you." The bad man argues. "Now stop sulking and grab those juice boxes from my office."
"Honestly man the kid obviously doesn't want you around even if you are her dad." The other man huffed as Cole guess he stomped off to do as he was told.
"She's all I have of my Melody." The Bad man says Cole guessed to an empty room "All I have to do is convince her I'm not the monster the rest of them are making me out to be."
Cole quickly shuts her eyes and tries to pretend she was still sleeping when it sounds like at least the bad man would be coming to check on her.
"Youre as good of an actress as your mother when you do that little one." The bad man says with a playful laugh almost as soon as the door opened "I know you're awake, Nikki stop pretending." He goes on his tone more annoyed than the fake sweet one he'd started with when the door clicked closed behind him.
Cole does open her eyes but only to glare at her captor and move to curl into the corner when he deliberately sat down closer than she would allow now balancing the tray he'd brought against his lap. "I made your favorite."
One look at the bowl was all it took for Cole to shake her head with a hard "No. Not hungry." It was really her favorite- spiraled mac and cheese with bits of grilled chicken mixed in it- but she preferred the way her real family made it; How her Grammy would add in cut-up carrots and those baby tree veggies (broccoli) when she'd make it for stay over dinner during visits.
Her Auntie Lena would use surprisingly yummy kale when she'd make it even when her Auntie Kara had trouble eating so Cole would help by taking half of hers when it seemed Lana wasn't looking even when it made her Auntie Kara guilty, and Cole would end up giving over more of her desert to make her Auntie K feel better. Sure, would give Cole an upset tummy later for eating too much but it would still be worth it.
Her auntie Lin and Uncle W would do more 'from scratch' as her Auntie L would call it as she'd tip more not powdered cheese into the pot her uncle W was watching after he'd finished cutting up the freshly grilled chicken strips but Cole would always be too busy eating the results of 'from scratch' to ask when it was finished and cooled enough to eat without making her go dragon from being too hot.
The times she'd get to visit her Mommy at her work with all the cool aliens and her auntie V would be able to have lunch with them. The other coolly dressed woman slid over a freshly warmed plastic bowl of yumminess with a teasing wink in Cole's direction and a dull "What you know as well as me the yucky stuff they give us here, Danvers the kid deserves some good food." For when her Mommy would sigh too loud to be really angry with her auntie V at her normal 'how many times Vaz, stop spoiling my kid' scold as she pulls Cole closer on the mother and daughter's shared bench seat at the table. Cole always shared of course even the times the pizza her Auntie V would bring back from the food line looked far from being anything but yucky.
Her most favorite was the last time her Mommy had ended up burning it more than normal because their mother-daughter living room PJs and socks dance party before dinner had stretched longer than expected and neither had heard the timer go off, they were having too much fun.
"Eat the food, Nicole." The bad man barked pushing the tray from his lap hard enough Cole was surprised it didn't spill to the floor as he met her glaring gaze with a deeper one of his own.
"No, it's poison," Cole argues even when her stomach gives another low rumbling of hunger, and she immediately stills at the use of her full first name.
"Why would I want to poison you sweetie?" her daddy but not her daddy questioned with another laugh, but his eyes were still that angry hardened look her Mommy once got Cole had once snuck away from visiting her uncle Winn to find her Mommy hit her hands against the big round table in the middle of 'the hub' so much they bled. One of her Mommy's friends on an 'away team' had gotten hurt and her Mommy had blamed herself for letting it happen.
Mommy always said she hated the times Cole would see her that angry, but Cole would just hug her, and say it was okay to be angry sometimes she just hated it hurt so much that her Mommy had to physically hurt herself to make it stop.
"No touch me." Cole barked when she notices his hand reaching out once more after he'd pushed the food tray just a little closer.
"I wasn't," the bad man answered his reaching hand closing on the smaller plastic-wrapped plate of cookies. "but if you're not going to eat up you don't get treats." He threatened the same time someone else knocked on the door.
"My angel is being more of a stubborn little devil at the moment I'm afraid so mind changing those juice boxes out for a bottle of water?"
Again, Cole rolled her eyes in her head as if his threat of taking away her desert and apparently her favorite drink would make her like him.
"As stubborn as your mother, my Nikki."
Cole swears she tastes the gross taste of blood against the inside of her cheek as she struggled to keep her shout of 'My name is Cole' from coming out and upsetting the crazy man more.
It's on the next lion-like growl of hunger that Cole grudgingly gives in and takes that first tentative bite of the offered food much to the Bad man's delight.
"I tried to make it just like Mama would." He says as she chews taking care to keep the plushy dog he seemed so proud of balanced against her lap. "See Daddy takes care of his little princess."
Cole's next bite definitely draws blood in the inside of her mouth considering that if he really asked her, she'd say with pride that she Cole Danvers didn't have a Daddy all she needed was her Mommy and the rest of her actual family to be the 'princess' he thought her to be. And this man was anything but her family.