Ultron Aftermath

Chapter 60

Time: Three weeks later...
Place: Avengers compound

Emotions had certainly been up and down during the past few weeks. A mixture of positives and negatives, erratic then calm, sad then happy, the family were going through it all. The girls were home and safe, they had successfully taken Dreykov down and freed the few remaining widows, they had won that fight which was a relief for everyone. However Steve had still not woken up, his condition hadn't changed. While no change was certainly better than any negative deterioration, the lack of improvement in Steve's condition was still a cause for concern among his loved ones. The situation was confusing and convoluted, causing everyone to struggle with varying degrees of emotion, as they searched for ways to cope with the current circumstances. While no one was really sure how to handle things in the immediate future, they found some consolation in the fact that Steve hadn't gotten any worse, but the lack of forward progress still created a tense and uneasy atmosphere among those closest to the former Avenger.

Bucky stood at the door to the kitchen, observing his niece as she sat up at the table, the action figures that Tony had bought for her sitting before her. However instead of playing with her new toys the 9 year old had just been staring aimlessly at them. Bucky had been standing there for the past twenty minutes or so, watching Aj as she remained in a trance-like state, not sure whether he should intervene or not...

Bucky walked into the kitchen, his steps catching the attention of AJ as she looked over to him, he gave her a small smile,
"You good Av?"

"Yep" Aj shrugged before going back to her action figures, she was about to pick one up before she stopped herself, going back to just staring at them.

Bucky frowned, he wasn't sure what was going on with her but he was concerned.

Bucky left the kitchen in a hurry, taking it upon himself to retrieve Natasha from the training room. He subtly led Nat back to the doorway of the kitchen where they could easily see Aj, the two of them remaining quiet as they watched her.

"What is she doing?" Natasha asked Bucky in a hushed tone.

"I don't know Nat, she's been staring at the toys for the last 20 minutes, every time she goes to pick one up and play with it she stops herself" Bucky told her.

AJ picked up one of the action figures cautiously, just to examine it for a moment before setting it back down. She remained still for a moment as she stared at it, seemingly unsure of what to do with it, as if she had lost the capacity to engage in imaginative play. It felt like her imagination was gone, like she had reached a point where she just didn't know how to play anymore.

"Hey Avs, what you doing?" Natasha asked the girl as she walked over to the table, Bucky following closely behind.

Aj shrugged, her eyes still glued to the toys in front of her.

"Oh, that one's cool," Bucky said enthusiastically, smiling as he pointed at one of the action figures, attempting to engage the young girl in the conversation.

However, Aj replied with a simple mumble of "I guess," as if she wasn't even really present in the moment, she didn't seem particularly interested in discussing the action figure or anything else for that matter.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Natasha looked at her daughter with concern.

"Nothing" Aj lied.