Complete Chaos

041

It was a dream, it had to be, but everything felt so real. The fear he had of something happening to Julia was real and terrifying. Seeing Julia crying and shaking her head as the Russian whispered something in her ear made his blood boil.

He still didn't know where Melody was. Even though she wasn't with them, Steve couldn't erase the fact that she could be in danger somewhere else.

The man took a knife out of his coat and placed it on Julia's neck.

"Stop!" Steve moved, but the chain restrained him from getting closer. "Don't hurt her! I'll tell you everything you want to know."

The knife didn't move from Julia's throat, but the man glanced at Steve with a sinister smile.

"But this is more fun." The man moved the knife, drawing blood.

"No!" with all his strength, Steve tried to pull the chain.

"Steve," she cried.

Steve pulled on his chain harder. "Hey, it's ok. Look at me, Julia. I'll get you out of here."

She knew he was lying; she was going to die. Julia was losing blood. "I love you, Steve," she whispered, her vision going blurry from the tears and the amount of blood she was losing.

"Isn't this fun," the man said with a smirk. Steve was going to pull the chain again, but it disappeared. He didn't think how odd it was; instead, he ran towards Julia, who was pale.

He placed his hand on Julia's cheek, "Julia, please wake up." He couldn't save her.

"Bring me the baby," the commander instructed. Steve looked where another soldier walked in carrying Melody.

"Stop! She's just a baby. Hurt me! Don't hurt her," he begged.

He left Julia's side and ran towards Melody, but he couldn't move. He wanted to move, he was telling his feet to run, but they were glued to the floor. The only thing he could do was to yell as Melody started to scream.

With his heart aching, he closed his eyes, "It isn't real," he yelled it couldn't be real. His mouth went dry from yelling.

The underground base was destroyed, and the soldiers were dead or detained. "It's not real," he yelled, waking himself up.

He was in his house in his bedroom. His breathing was rapid, and his forehead and chest were wet from his sweat.

When he felt a gentle hand on his upper arm, he flinched and moved to the side. "Steve." Hearing Julia's voice again reminded him of the nightmare he had. With teary eyes he looked at Julia. She was in one piece; she was alive.

There was no blood on her neck. He opened his mouth to say something, but his lips trembled, and he began to cry. The nightmare caught up to him, and he felt scared of what he saw and happy to know that it was only a bad dream.

Slowly Julia moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around him. He placed his head on her shoulder and hugged her arms as he continued to cry.

Julia was worried and confused, she didn't know what was wrong, but she could guess it had to do with the dream he had.

For the last five minutes she had been trying to wake him up after she felt him moving on the bed uncomfortable, and he mumbled the word stop over and over.

She brushed his dark brown hair back in a soothing manner. They stayed in each other's arms for a few minutes. Steve's breath went back to normal, and he had stopped crying. Julia spoke up quietly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

She didn't want to annoy him if he didn't want to tell her she would understand, but she thought that maybe talking about what he saw could help him.

He didn't say anything for a few seconds. Julia thought he went back to sleep.

He hiccuped before responding. "I was back with the Russian that tortured me," he finally said.

Julia didn't let go of him as he continued, "you and Melody were there. I couldn't move, I couldn't protect you both. I watched you die Julia," he whispered her name.

Julia knew a few things about what happened while he was underground, how the commander tortured and drugged Steve and Robin; she knew it wasn't a topic he wanted to bring up. She didn't ask him anything else unless he was the one to bring it up first.

"Do you feel my arms around your shoulder," she asked. He nodded, having her close to him calmed him down.

She kissed the side of his head "did you feel that." With his eyes closed and his nose pink, he nodded again, "I'm next to you, Steve."

She leaned her forehead to his head. "It was only a bad dream. Melody is sleeping next door, and the commander is far away from here. He won't hurt you again, and he won't hurt us."

Steve's chest moved up and down calmly "it felt so real. I was chained up. It didn't matter how much I screamed or how much I fought. I couldn't help you. I felt useless." He held onto her tightly.

Julia listened to him without interrupting. "You aren't useless. You are a good father and a great partner. Melody and I are so lucky to have you in our lives. You were tortured a month ago. You can't just move on and pretend it never happened."

He moved his finger on her arm, creating little circles. "It's better when I pretend it didn't happen."

"It's not healthy. You can always talk to me."

She kissed his cheek. "Do you want to try to go back to sleep, or do you want to have breakfast," Julia asked. Even though it was 5 am, having breakfast a few hours earlier didn't sound bad, but it was up to Steve.

Steve was happy it was Saturday; he didn't have to drop off Robin at school. He still felt anxious and scared of leaving Julia's side; the only thing he wanted to do was to be wrapped in Julia's warm embrace.

By Monday, he hoped he felt better or the ride to school wouldn't be enjoyable as Robin tends to talk a lot.

With Julia still holding onto him, he moved both of them, their back on the bed and their heads on the same pillow. "I want to be close to you," he responded.

Julia pressed her chest on Steve's bare back as she placed her arm on top of his. She kissed his shoulder blade, "I'll be here until you wake up."

He intertwined their hands together and brought her hand to his lips, and kissed it. "I love you," he said tiredly.

"I love you too." Julia didn't sleep until she knew Steve was asleep.