Worth Fighting For| B. Barnes

~Steve and 'Nana'~

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One Month Later
Location: Iowa
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Friday
July 22, 2016
12:30 PM
~~~~~

"Steve? Steve?" Ivory said tapping Steve's leg.

"Yes Ivory?" Steve asks the girl.

"I-I need tell you somethin'." The girl says making Steve smile. Anytime she said that, Steve knew he was going to laugh. Whenever Ivory said 'I need to tell you something' the phrase was usually followed by Ivory saying something that was unintentionally hilarious.

"What is it Ivory?" Steve asks smiling down at the child.

"I-I..." Ivory began but then stopped.

"What is it sweetheart? You know you can tell me..."

"Uh-no...don't want to now..." Ivory said not looking Steve in the eye. When Steve looked back down at Ivory the girl actually looked sad.

"I want Nana..." 'Nana' is what Ivory would call Natasha. If she wasn't 'Nana' she was either 'Nat' or 'Nan'.

"Nana went to the store, she's coming back..." Steve says trying to comfort the girl only to have her flinch back. In the short month that Steve and Nat have had Ivory, they've experienced so many break throughs with her behaviors.

They've taught her how to better use her words, They've been trying to teach her how to trust more but that's an area that could still use work...and they had also been working with the girl on her eating habits. For whatever reason she refused to eat around them, and Steve and Nat would always have to go through creative measures to make sure she was eating.

With all things considered, Ivory was doing alright. Of course there were very minuscule things that she still needed to work on.

"I want Nana..." Ivory said starting to cry.

"Ivory, don't cry...tell Steve what has you so upset...what does Uncle Steve always tell you?"

"Always talk to Nana and Steve..."

"That's right, you can always talk to Nana and Uncle Steve. Now...you wanna tell me what has you so upset?"

"I-I wet." Ivory says.

"That's okay, come with me so I can change you..."

"No-No...Want Nana to do it..." Ivory said shaking her head, already crying.

"Hey Ivory, it's okay come here..." Steve said to the girl, allowing her to come crawling into his lap.

"Do you really want to wait for Nat to get home to change?"

"Uh-no..." Ivory said shaking her head.

"Would Steve ever hurt you?"

"N-No..." Ivory answers, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Then what are you so afraid of? Huh?"

"Uh-don't w-want..."

"Ivory, slow down...what did we talk about?"

"Be calm...take my time..." she repeats back to Steve, slowly coming down from what could have been an anxiety attack.

"That's right...take your time, and tell me what you're feeling." Steve says rubbing Ivory's back to help relax her. Once she was able to calm down, Steve asked Ivory the question again.

"You wanna tell Uncle Steve what has you so afraid?"

"N-No B-Bad men come, No Bad men." Ivory said crying. Steve felt even worse about the fact that Ivory still associated Steve with the 'Bad Men' and sometimes he felt like he would never gain Ivory's full trust.