V I G I L A N C E ~ (MCU) ~

C H A P T E R 1 3_

My eyes are wide and my breathing is irregular. My heart is beating fast and I can't think straight. I put my hand on the wall to support myself as I remember all the things that happened. It was... it couldn't have been. "No. No it... wasn't a dream. It couldn't have been. It was too real. The pain was too real. The emotions, everything was... too real. How could it have... have all just been a dream?"

"The mind is a curious place and it lives out our lives as we do. So it knows how to make anything feel real. Come on, let's go get you something to eat in the common area, unless you'd rather lie down..."

I take a moment to try and calm my breathing. I look back at him with furrowed eyebrows and then I nod. "Yeah, let's go get something to eat."

He nods once and offers his arm if I need help walking considering I seemed dizzy, a look of concern on his kind face.

I take a deep breath, before I slip my arm through his slowly.

He walks me carefully down the hallway. "Take a deep breath. You'll be alright. You've been through hell kid."

I nod, taking more breaths as I try to calm myself and my raging mind.

When we arrive at the huge room, everyone is here and acting perfectly normal (well normal for us). Natasha and Clint are trying to get Clint's children to eat, Pepper sits with Tony at a table to my left, Bruce is watching the monitors ahead, Darcy is perfectly fine as she talks to Pietro and Wanda, and Thor is talking to Jane... Wait what? Jane?

I stop and my eyes grow wide in fear as I stare at her.

"What's wrong?" Steve asks.

"Nothing," I lie and try to divert my eyes.

Some of them notice my entry and Tony looks over his shoulder at me. "Hey she's alive," he says and then stands up to greet me.

"Yep," I say weirdly as I give him a small nod. I take a few more deep breaths. This is all a bit... overwhelming.

He gestures to my arm that is looped around Steve's. "What's going on here?"

But before he can even finish saying this, Steve pulls his arm away from mine and he seems embarrassed or slightly awkward.

"Steve was just escorting me like the good gentleman he is," I tell him. A memory of myself telling him he exact same thing before runs through my mind and I take another deep breath.

"Oh he wouldn't recognize the word 'gentleman' if it was printed on a stripper's bra," Pepper says with attitude as if she took the sentence I was expecting right from my head, as she stands next to him.

"How is this now about me?" he asks her.

"I'm sorry isn't everything?" she says with attitude in return, giving him a smug look.

As I watch the conversation before me I start to feel weird... because of the huge sensation of déjà vu that makes me utterly confused... and that's an understatement.

When Tony and Pepper leave, Steve shakes his head. "I'm beginning to think arguing is what they find romantic."

Instead of using the answer that follows in the memory, I just nod slowly, my eyes still a bit wide and my mannerisms distracted. "Yeah..."

"Hey Esther!" Darcy calls and walks up to me, dragging Pietro behind. "Have you met our new companions? This is Pedro and Wanda Maximus—" she introduces.

"Close enough," Pietro says regrettably.

I'm about to say yes, but I know that it would be weird if I said it, so I stop myself. I give a small smile and say, "It's nice to meet you."