Life with the Avengers

Chapter 4 : nightmares

It's been a week since the party and my powers have been progressing a lot. I can almost always quiet down other people's emotions but also change or control them when I want to. I can't read minds or thoughts like Wanda but I can hear snippets of them. "Okay one more time," Wanda says while she gives me her hands. "Try to break contact this time," she adds.

I put my hands on top of hers and enter empath mode. I feel a wave of nostalgia and excitement take over me. I try to channel my powers to make her feel relaxed and happy. "Can you feel it?" I ask as I feel my powers take over her. "Yeah, you're doing good." I open my eyes, hers are still closed but she has a wide smile. I take back my hands and I feel that my powers are still working but they're weaker.

"Yes," she says as she opens her eyes. I shift back into my initial state. "We did it," I said enthusiastically. "Yeah," she says as she pulls me into a hug. "Tomorrow, we're gonna work on hearing thoughts, okay?" I tell her that I'm not sure I have strong enough powers for that. "I can feel that you do," she says as we walk back to the compound.

We have a conference in about ten minutes so we decided to go eat some breakfast. "I'm really glad that we're doing this every morning," I say. She turns around and pours some cereal in a bowl. "Me too. Thank you for yesterday's session. It really made me feel better," she says and I tell her that I'm always there for her.

Yesterday's session was really intense. She had all this grief and pain stuck in an inaccessible part of her brain. It can happen when you have an intense trauma. The brain protects you by hiding it but in the long run it can be more harmful. "Are you guys coming?" Captain asks as he enters the room. Captain is very nice but he's very intimidating. Not in an obvious way, he's reserved but his energy and presence are felt.

"Yeah," I say as I take one big last bite of my PB and J sandwich. We go into the room and I take the last available seat, right beside Romanoff. "Hey, how was your mission?" I asked her quietly while the Captain was setting the presentation on. "It went well," she smiles without looking at me before putting her hand on my thigh. We didn't really talk about what happened at the party but she's been really flirty with me ever since. I don't really want to have a conversation about it, I just want to let things go as they should.

"What are you doing?" I ask with a smile while I start blushing. "Quiet," she whispers as she squeezes my skin harder. I sit straight in my seat and I try to focus on the presentation. "So, next week we're gonna infiltrate a compound. We received signals of activity from a group of terrorists. We're gonna need the whole team there," he says and Tony gets up. "We're gonna have a stake-out the night before and we're gonna infiltrate in the morning.

"Rogers and Romanoff already did recognition," he says while sitting back down. "Approximately fifty people, the place is loaded with explosives and there's a protective barrier protecting the building." Natasha rubs my thigh with her thumb.

"I will go in first with Bruce, he's gonna deactivate the barrier. Then, Romanoff, Rogers, Thor and Peter. You guys are gonna take down the crew. Wanda and Ambs, you guys are gonna grab the hostages, there's a high risk of mental and physical trauma. Bruce, you're gonna join them too when we are in." I look at Wanda and I let her intrude my mind.

"It's gonna go well, you're ready," she tells me and I smile at her. "I'm gonna be there the whole time," I nod. Natasha grips me harder, I can feel that she's stressed about something. "That's it for today, you guys go back to training." Natasha lets go of me, which allows my heartbeat to slow down. "Amber, do you have time to come to the lab with me?" Bruce asks me before I leave the room. I look at Natasha, she gives me those eyes that say she wants to speak with me.

"Yeah, sure." I follow him and give her apologetic eyes.

-

I worked all day in the lab, I didn't even go out to eat. We had a breakthrough and we were almost done with our new product. He was staying behind, making sure everything was gonna be ready for the mission. I wanted to go check on Romanoff but first I needed to take a shower.