Damn. Thanks for the reads, guys. Just a side note: I really wasn't too sure about this chapter. A part of me feels like it's too soon, but most of me wants it to happen (you'll see once you read). I know I probably shouldn't post if I'm even slightly unsure, but this chapter has been hanging around for a while and I really wanted to put it in this story. Some feedback would really be great.

Thanks.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the Avengers, besides Ellie, nor do I own the lyrics to the following song.

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With blood shot eyes I watch you sleeping
The warmth I feel beside me is slowly fading
Would she hear me if I called her name?
Would she hold me if she knew my shame?
...
Your tears don't fall, they crash around me

-Tears Don't Fall by Bullet For My Valentine

A set of glass double doors rolled apart as the taller, black-haired woman entered the building in front of her. She couldn't see the woman's face, but followed her inside anyway. The entire reception room was white; the floor, the walls, the furniture –hell, even the employees were dressed in pure white clothing. As the older woman before her made her way to the front desk, she tried to hear what they were saying, but they only spoke in hushed whispers.

Once they were done, the woman went back to talk to her.

"…You're going to spend a couple of days here, Ellie…"

"What? Why?

"Sweetheart, it's just for a little while, I promise. Maybe even only a couple of weeks if we're lucky."

"I don't want stay at this stupid place, mom!"

"Ellie, stop it. We're already here, stop acting like a child, you're embarrassing me in front of all these people."

She looked around at all of the people standing about. All of them looked exactly the same, strangely enough. They looked like nurses. Suddenly, the front doors opened again and a man in a wheel chair rolled in wearing a white suit, uncontrollably laughing at himself as a nurse pushed him further into the building. They passed her, and when they did, the man looked at her, smiling with his eyes widened.

"I don't care about these stupid people, mom. Please can we just go home and go on with our lives. I'm sorry, alright?"

"It's not about that, dear. This is for your own good."

"If you would just tell me why –"

"Not yet. You'll find out soon enough."

One of the many nurses came to her side. She tried to ignore her.

"This lady is going to take you to your room. Be good, okay?"

"But, mom –"

"Go on now."

"Please! Don't do this! I'm sorry!"

"Stop it Ellie!"

The nurse's hand quickly grabbed hold of her arm, tightening her grip each second. "This way, Ellie," she said in a very robotic-sounding voice.

She resisted by trying to shake her off of her arm. "LET ME GO! THEY'RE HURTING ME, MOM!" she screamed. That only cued even more nurses to grab hold of her until she couldn't even move. "MOM!"

The room started narrowing down into a thin, long corridor. The woman seemed to be fading into the distance. Still, she kicked and screamed and tried to get away from the nurses.

"MOM! I'M SORRY!" she cried, screaming as loudly as she could. Tears rolled down the sides of her cheeks as her throat tightened, making each breath more painful than the last. Even more so when she screamed.

"MOM! DON'T LET THEM TAKE ME! PLEASE! THEY'RE HURTING ME!"

The woman's small figure just waved before turning around and leaving. There was nobody there. The hallway was empty. The girl tried to carry on screaming, but her voice had been ripped out of her throat.

"NO!" she chocked as the nurses forced her onto a white bed. They all held her down as a couple of them tied her arms and legs down, preventing her from getting away.

"PLEASE!" her empty voice called out.

"MOM!"

"MOM!"

"Mom…"

"Ellie?"

"Stop it…you're hurting…me…"

"Ellie!"

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!"

All of a sudden, her hands were free. She managed to push the nurse away from her, but it even that was useless. She clenched her fists as she punched the body in front of her. A hand caught her fist.

"ELLIE, WAKE UP!"

She jolted up with a giant gasp of air. The second she woke up, everything in the room dropped and hit the ground. Beads of sweat mixed with tears dripped down her face and made her vision even more blurry. The only thing she could make out was Steve, who was hovering over her, watching her pant wildly. She grasped her bruised side in pain. Although it had been a week since the accident, it still hurt when enough pressure was put on it.

Pepper, Tony, Bruce and Natasha stood at the foot of her bed, looking down at her. Her lips parted once she realized what she had done. She looked around the room and saw what a mess she had made; there were clothes all over the floor and the bedside table was knocked over along with the telephone. There were random books lying around too. The bedside lamp lying on the ground was flickering rapidly. It took one look from her to switch it off.

"What the fuck just happened?" she asked, gripping her hair and closing her eyes.

"Your guess is as good as ours," Tony said. Pepper was standing behind him –as if she was scared. "Are you alright?"

She nodded and pulled her duvet over herself. "Yeah. I think so. What's the time?"

"Three thirty," Natasha responded, pulling her night gown over her tank top and shorts and checking her watch.

"I'm so sorry," Ellie breathed, lightly touching her lips, "This isn't supposed to happen anymore."

Steve stood up straight and combed a hand through his blond mess of hair. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked her again, looking down.

She nodded. "Yeah, I am. I'm sorry. I'll be fine. You guys go back to bed."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, Bruce. Thanks. Sorry for disturbing you. It won't happen again."

Tony sighed. "And if it does? How long until you wreck the entire building?" he snapped out of irritation. Pepper angrily bumped him with her elbow. Had it not been the middle of the night, Ellie would've known not to take him too seriously. She understood how tired he must've been, considering that she had practically woke the entire building up with her screaming and of course, things flying around her room. However, Steve and Natasha immediately shot glares in his direction. Bruce looked down, trying not to get involved.

"What, you think I asked to be born a stupid fucking freak?"

Tony backed down, holding the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. "Sorry," he muttered and took a deep breath. "That was irrational. I'm going back to bed," he huffed and stormed out. Steve rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

Pepper put her hand over her heart. "He's just tired," she tried to explain, "I'm sure he didn't mean it."

"It's alright. Just go back to sleep."

Pepper waited for Natasha at the doorway before they bid Ellie, Bruce and Steve goodnight and disappeared into the hallway. Bruce made his way to the door and turned back for Steve.

"You coming?" he asked.

Steve nodded. "Go ahead. I'll be right behind you."

"Goodnight," Bruce called out as he too disappeared.

Steve faced Ellie again and sat down on her bed. "What was that?" his voice softly asked, but she had already lost it.

"Fuck," she gasped, pulling her knees to her chest before rocking herself back and forth. She closed her eyes and slowly, her quick, rapid breaths slowed down. She buried her face in her hands and tried to pull herself together as best she could at that moment. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that she had completely wrecked her bedroom anymore.

"Ellie…," he said softly, moving closer to her.

When he tried to put his hand on her shoulder, she flinched. He reached out again, slower than before until he got it right. Then, her shoulders began to shake and her breaths got louder again. She could feel her bottom lip quivering and knew exactly what that meant. Despite her attempts to prevent that from happening, it wasn't within her control. She couldn't keep it in anymore.

As soon as he realized what was happening, he climbed further onto the bed and his hand on her shoulder moved further up to her neck. He crossed his legs and began to rub her back in a circular motion.

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here, Ellie" he whispered, trying to calm her down.

She didn't respond. He didn't go any further. The two of them just remained quiet for a couple of minutes –at least until she had calmed down a bit. As he waited for her in silence, he took some time to survey the damage that had been done. It wasn't really that much, besides the bedside lamp –which was lying on the ground, shattered. Everything else could easily be repacked. There were books that had been sitting on her chest of drawers and desk, shoes, clothes and papers. He didn't even want to know how far it could've gone, had he not woke her up.

When he turned back to her, something behind her caught his eye and he squinted to get a better look. Stuck on the headboard of her bed, were a few photographs. The first one was of her and a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D agents. As he scanned the picture, the next familiar face he saw was Natasha's. He gathered that it had been taken a long while ago, since Nat's fuming hair was past her shoulders and Ellie's was a lighter shade of brown. Then, he spotted Clint on the floor, Maria on the side and Nick Fury right in the middle, not looking too amused. There was a huge, bright badge stuck on his leather coat that said 'Happy Birthday!'. The last person he knew was Sharon Carter, who was standing right next to Ellie.

Steve's small smile faded when he saw her. Seeing her reminded him of how she blatantly lied to him about everything, even going far enough to lead him on. He quickly moved to the next picture, which was of a big, fluffy, grey and white Husky dog. Next to it sat a small girl with her arms around him, grinning. There was a scar over her left eyebrow –just like someone he knew.

The next one surprised him. It was the bottom half of the pictures they took at the carnival. The ones she said she'd keep forever. They were stuck on her headboard for her to look at every single day. Once when she woke up and once when she went to bed. The next picture was a small version of the 'Breakfast Club's poster. The next few were of bands including Nirvana, AC/DC, Guns 'N Roses and Queen.

Steve turned back to her, patiently waiting for her to talk to him, or give him some kind of signal to show him that she was alright. Finally, she lifted her head and wiped her face.

"Sorry," she mumbled, looking away and rubbing her arms. "I couldn't do that in front of them."

"You don't have to apologize," he said. A part of him felt a little surprised that she somehow trusted him a little more than the others. She didn't look at him, "just tell me what's wrong."

After a couple of minutes of silence, she took a deep breath and fired away. "I nearly killed these people in high-school," she admitted, shamefully looking down. "The kids at school called me names…did things to me," she whispered, thinking back to the incident. She remembered their faces when she revealed her powers. They all looked at her like she was the devil himself. "They told people what they saw; how I could move things without lifting a finger."

Steve didn't say anything. He let her speak.

"My mom put me in this madhouse. My own mother just gave me to them like some kind of business trade. They did these tests and experiments, but they couldn't figure it out. They kept me in a cage like I was some kind of lab rat –always poking me and sticking things in my arm."

"I got out, though," she sighed, nodding, "but I guess I'll always remember."

"That's what you dream about?" he asked her.

She nodded. There was a long paused of stillness. She was looking down, playing with her duvet and he was watching her. "I'm sorry for waking you up," she murmured.

He shook his head. "No, you didn't wake me up. Truth is, I'm always already up. I can't really sleep either," he muttered, "I was walking up and down. The others came afterwards."

"Why can't you sleep?"

He took her question as an invitation to move further onto the bed before he told her. "Fighting in a war can change you. Especially if you've watched somebody you've known your whole life die in front of you. Truth is that I don't really remember the last time I've slept the entire night."

Yet another moment of silence waved over them. She used it to pay some respect, but he used it to remember the day he let Bucky die. Then, he thought back to the day in DC when he found out that he was in fact, still alive.

"You should go back to sleep," his voice cut into the block of quietness.

"Yeah…," she breathed. He stood up to leave.

"Would you do me a favor?" she blurted.

He shrugged. "Sure."

"Would you stay with me?"

At that moment, she finally looked up at him, and caught his gaze. It burned her inside, knowing that he'd been watching her, the entire time, yet made her feel safer than before. She begged him with her eyes and he gave in almost without delay.

One side of his lips curled up as he nodded once. "Of course." He stood up, looking around the room while she pressed her back down against her mattress again, covering herself with the grey duvet cover. "Where do you, uh…where do you want me?" he asked her.

She lifted her head only and took out one of the two pillows from underneath her head, tossing to the other side of the California king bed. He moved over and she rolled onto her side, back facing him. Steve made sure to stay on the edge of her bed on his side with his back facing hers. Within the space between their bodies, another three or even four more people could've easily squeezed in.

"Lights off, please, Jarvis," she said. Within the next second, the lights were out, leaving Steve and Ellie in the dark. "Goodnight, Steve," she whispered, closing her eyes. He lifted his head slightly and sighed. No respond left his mouth. After about a half hour of just staring into the blank space of darkness before them, she finally drifted off. He stayed up though, listening to her soft breaths.