An Act of... Love? [An Avengers Polyamorous Fanfic]

Chapter 29

I could feel Pietro's hesitation before he said anything as we cuddled in bed. "Printsessa... can I ask you something?" he asked hesitantly.

"You can ask whatever you want, Pie. That doesn't necessarily mean I'll answer it, though..." His fingers gently traced across a few of the scars on my stomach as he looked down, and I could feel the uncertainty Pietro was feeling.

"I got them when I was a kid..." I told him, causing his eyes to snap up to me. I smiled sadly at him. "You were going to ask about the scars, no?"

"I... was, yes. But I didn't want it to come off as insensitive... if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to, printsessa."

"It's okay, Pietro. Someone was bound to ask eventually," I said, bringing my hand up to cup his face. "It's okay to be curious." We were silent for a little while, Pietro and I just staring into eachothers eyes. I broke from his gaze to look down at my stomach that was littered with scars, some more noticeable than others.

"Most of these... are from a very specific night. Aella had died about five months prior, and my family had just managed to get CPS to leave us alone. My brother, James... he wasn't happy that he'd had to be on his best behavior towards me for so long. So, when I was unloading the dishwasher, he ended up stabbing me. He stabbed me with five different knives, and he left them in me. And then he just... left me there. Bleeding out on the kitchen floor. I'm told Beckett found me bleeding out and unconscious. Beckett had his own issues... but he was far too infatuated with me to ever want me to die so he took me to the hospital. Beck is ten years older than me, so he'd just gotten his license. I... had to have surgery. James had really done a number on little six year old me. They... had to remove my uterus. Beckett took care of me and protected me from James for the most part while I recovered. James just... saw it as an opportunity to never worry about whether I could get pregnant or not. It was a fucked up situation," I explained to him, leaving him in a stunned silence for awhile.

"I... am so sorry you had to go through that, printsessa."

"Hey, I'm okay now," I reminded him, putting my hand on top of his that he had clenched tightly into a fist. "I'm safe, with you guys, having the best time of my life with you all." He nodded tightly, so I leaned forward to gently kiss him.

"You can't change the past, babe. Neither can I. All we can do is accept that it happened, learn to process and deal with it, and go on to keep living. Even if that's way easier said than done."