My Darling Phantom

chapter twenty three

Hi guys. So here is the next chapter!!! Enjoy and please comment!!!

Jennifer's P.O.V.

They all avoided looking at me. I knew what was about to be said but still I dreaded it.
"He's upstairs. He's. .... been on the mend but....." Steve began.
".....but he still doesn't know who I am." I finished the sentence for him.
"Now that's not all true. He does remember something about you." Tony argued.
"But he still doesn't know who I am. At least to him anyway." I finished for him. The long silence only confirmed my suspicions.
"He's in therapy just now. Art therapy to help with the memories." Clint told me. Well, at least he was getting the help he needed.
"Is he awake?" I asked.
"Yeah. He's up in his studio." Natasha finally spoke. I sat there awkwardly not knowing what to do.
"He's the next floor up if you want to see him." Bruce told me. I looked round at everyone who seemed to be OK with this. I took a deep breath.
"Well, if you don't mind. I'm going to go see him." I got up and speedy walked to the lift before I lost my nerve to go.

I stood there for a long time in the lift before going out onto his floor.
There was music playing loudly as I walked in. I knew the song as it played, it was demons by imagine dragons. As I walked in I saw the speakers it was playing from. As I turned round to look about I saw all his paintings. There were so many of them.
As I came further into the floor I saw the large collection that sat on a row of canvas stands.
They were all of me.
So many of them where all slightly different. A few of them were of the She-Hulk, some of them I recognised from when we first started going out. A few were even of us together. They were all so touching. It made my heart swell to see all these memories. There was two paintings that looked different from the rest though. One was a silhouette of me in a black dress standing on stone steps with only my eyes being the visible feature on my face. The eyes I had when under Loki's control. The second was of my tear stained face with a bright lit heavenly background. Judging by the short hair I knew which memory this could be. I think this was when I found him in the Hydra Base.
I still remember seeing him laying in the bed. Looking so thin and helpless. I blunk away the tears before they fell.
The music switched off then.
All my muscles tensed as I didn't know what to do.
"Hi there. Did Diane send you over? I know she's on holiday this week." I caught my breath as I heard his voice. He sounded like his old self, so upbeat and polite.
"No. Sorry, I'm a friend of Bruce's." I didn't turn round as I spoke. I don't know why I lied. I think part of me fears he won't believe me if I tell him who I really am. I heard his footsteps as he came closer.
"Do I know you by any chance? I know that sounds weird but I know your voice." As he came close I walked over to another painting,
"I've been here a lot. " Not a complete lie but not the whole truth either.
"So who are the girls in your paintings?" I asked in desperate hope he knew who I was,
"I know it sounds weird but they are all the same person...." He started, it brought me some hope to know he knew that.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I know that she is important to me. To be in so many memories she must be. But I can't place who she is." My heart fell as he said that.
"Do you think you can help at all?" He walked over to me but I moved to the next painting. It was like a terrible game of cat and mouse at this point.

"I know you can't tell me much. Diane already told me that but even if you could tell me one small thing then that would help a lot." There was a long silence between us.
"You know something don't you?" I kept my focus on the painting in front of me.
"You know who she is!" He exclaimed then. I can't keep this up. My heart was aching listening to him. It sounds like he was loosing his sanity over this.
"I know you can't tell me her name. But at least tell me one thing about her. Just one thing. Please." He begged, I knew he was standing behind me at this point so I have no way of walking away again.
"Please." He asked again.
"She loves you. More than anything, when she thought you were dead..... she found it impossible to cope. She even tried moving away from everything that reminded her of you." My voice cracked as I spoke. It was still too painful to think about. There was a long silence between us,
"When you forgot everything she became a demon with only one goal in mind. To destroy the person who hurt you. And she succeeded." I tried to speak as monotone as I could so I could hold it together.
"Turn round." He asked quietly after an agonising silence. I stayed still.
"Please turn round." He asked again. I tried to walk away,
"I need to go." He grabbed my forearm, the pain in my heart was unbearable as he held me.
"Please. I need to know if you are her." I could tell that he hope that seeing my face would make him remember who I was. In that moment I felt shame for leaving him, for leaving him in this state.
"Please." He whispered, I sighed as I slowly turned my head round so he saw my face.
He took my breath away as I saw him. He looked like he did four years ago, before all this happened. He looked so much better than the night I left. His eyes were still as blue as I remembered them. The desperation in his eyes was heartbreaking.
"You're her. The girl in the paintings." He began to smile as he looked at my face. I tried my hardest to hold it together but I was trembling. He slowly let go of my arm as he kept staring at me. As though if he looked away I would disappear.
"You're finally here!" He seemed so relieved to know that I actually exsit. His smile slowly faded. He backed away slightly as he ran his hands through his hair.
I knew what was going on. He couldn't remember, he still didn't know who I was. He thought seeing me would connect the dots.

"Mason...."

"I know who you are. I know this, it's on the tip of my tongue. I can see it in my head." He was speaking more to himself than to me now. This was too heartbreaking to watch.
"I'm going downstairs." I said quietly. I went to go,
"Wait, please don't go." This was just getting more and more painful. I gave him a small smile before going back to the lift.
"It was nice seeing you." My voice cracked, I had to get to the lift before the tears began to fall. Before he could say anything else I was inside the lift with doors closing. I wiped the tears away as they fell before I came out to the floor where everyone still was.
"How did it go?" Steve asked.
"He doesn't remember." I said quietly.
"Aw Jen...." Bruce began,
"It's fine, it's fine. I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be back soon." I told them before heading back in the lift. I was going to walk round central Park.  I needed to clear my head before deciding what I would do.