The closest thing to a daughter

Season 2 Episode 26

Danny lying dead in her arms. Her hands speckled with blood, with the remains of his blood. His voice with the reproach that he was dead only because of her. The last few seconds before he threw himself in front of her to save her. And the never-ending guilt.

The beam would have been easy for Abigail to dodge, and yet she stopped and flew hard to the ground. No one knew what had gotten into her all of a sudden and why on earth she hadn't dodged. But now only one thing mattered, that she had been unhurt. Wanda had also fallen to her knees and held her hand over her mouth in shock while all the rest of the fighting stopped instantly. By the time Natasha was with her little one, the entire room was quiet. The air around them was tense and no one dared speak up in front of Nat. Minutes seemed to pass before she finally got to Abigail who was lying on the floor, although in truth it was only a few seconds it couldn't go fast enough for her. "Abigail, are you okay?" murmured Natasha, hugging her motionless body to her. Steve, too, now moved from the spot and rushed to the two women. While he felt for her pulse with one hand, which fortunately was weak but still there, he put the other one around Nat's waist to give her the much needed support. "Abigail! Come back, I didn't mean to hurt you," Wanda sobbed, coming to her on her knees. James, Vision and Sam, meanwhile, had also come into the dome to help those present. Inwardly, Natasha cursed Banner and wished for his well-being not to show up here anytime soon, because then she wouldn't guarantee anything. Once he was truly needed, he would put his own well-being ahead of others. Also, Romanoff knew that this incident was not his fault and her accusations were not justified, but at that moment she just wanted Abigail to wake up healthy.

And indeed she did. It took a day and a half, but the day came when she opened her eyes again. Green tired and worried eyes were the first thing her blue pupils perceived but still she felt the concern as an accusation. An accusation of her failure, an accusation of her not being enough like she had been getting all these years. Abigail let out a sigh before she began to speak in a croaky voice, "If you're going to yell at me, just do it!" The surprise and confusion could be immediately acknowledged by the older redhead as she looked hurt at her. She opened her mouth but closed it again at the same time. She would never yell at her for being hurt, but upon further reflection, her reaction did not surprise her. Even though Natasha didn't know her whole past by far, she knew that she was always yelled at by her father. And it broke her heart a little to perceive this reaction now in her presence as well. After all, all she wanted was for the little one to finally trust her fully.

"I'm not angry, Abigail. Tell me what happened," she mumbled lovingly nonetheless, reaching for her hand. Fear spread through her, of having gambled away her blind trust forever in the incident with the police. "I keep getting these flashbacks," she revealed, breaking the previously unbroken eye contact to stare at her bedspread instead.

Danny's last words before he died in her arms.

When Abigail could see clearly again, her breathing quickened. His death was her fault, and she would never be able to repay that debt. "He's all I can think about," she gasped angrily, fighting back the tears that were welling up.

Her blood red hands under a faucet, but his blood would never leave her hands. And over and over again his voice with the words, "You murdered me!"