THINKING OUT LOUD || Avengers

-)Thirty: Everyone Has An Embarrassing Middle Name(-

In the end, it wasn't her fault. It really really wasn't.

There were a thousand selfless reasons for doing what she did.

Just because there was one selfish one in the mix, it didn't mean she was a bad person.

It didn't mean that she sacrificed the future of the world for nothing.

Daniella Atteberry was good.

And I want you to remember that. She was good, and she was trying, and she cared. She just maybe wasn't good enough.

Daniella Atteberry was good. But she wasn't a hero.

({(+)})

"Hey."

Dan glanced up as someone sat next to her. She had perched herself on the top step of the Barton household's porch, which she judged the perfect location to sit and watch the shadows on the ground move as the sun slid across the sky. The person joining her was Laura Barton, her one-year-old son on her lap.

"Dan, right?" Laura asked cautiously, like she was afraid Dani was an easily spooked deer.

Dani nodded, "Daniella Zora Atteberry, but I don't like the middle one, so I usually leave it out."

"Zora?"

"It's old Greek, I think." Dani offered, "I had a friend who was really into that stuff."

"Was?"

Dan barely blinked, "She's dead. Almost everyone I know is dead."

Laura took a bit of time after that, deciding the best way to converse. It was difficult to say anything in the wake of a revelation like that one. She wondered if that was Dani's intention.

"Why aren't you inside with the others?" Laura asked.

Dani glanced down, "They don't like me. Every time I walk into a room, they stop talking. I thought it would be better if I stopped walking into rooms."

"They're just being wary." Laura said warmly, "You know, with..."

The woman tapped the bobble on Dan's head lightly.

Dani knotted her fingers together, "I know. I'm trying not to get in the way."

"Oh, yeah?" Laura raised an eyebrow, "How's that going?"

"Not very good." She admitted, "Getting in the way is one of my habits."

"You know, Lila hasn't stopped talking about you." Laura said, like a piece offering, "Cooper either. Or your music."

Dan frowned, "They promised they wouldn't tell about that."

"I'm their mom. I don't count."

"I've never met anyone who didn't count before." Dani observed.

"That's me." Laura confirmed, "You can tell me anything. I'm like a diary."

Dan thought about this for a moment, "So if I say something to you, nothing bad's gonna happen?"

She held out her little finger, "Pinkie promise."

The expression on Dan's face as she shook was one of wonder, like she'd just found out magic exists. She edged closer, and whispered so low that it was almost inaudible, "I can play the piano really."

"Yeah?"

She nodded, gaining confidence, "And the guitar, and the ukulele, and the clarinet, and drums, and the bagpipes, and the pan pipes, and the flute. Loads of stuff. But not the recorder. Never the recorder."