When Cassie didn't respond, Emerson hugged her tightly and walked down the stairs, heading for the door.
"You're leaving without saying goodbye?"
"I didn't think you would want to see me to be honest." Emerson answered, looking at the tall woman next to her
"It's not because Scott is like this that I am."
"Yea, I'm sorry Hope. It's just," she began, trying to hold back tears "I wasn't sure if I could see anyone else without thinking about...him."
"I'll talk to him. I already did but I'll talk to him again, Emerson, I promise you!"
"Come on Hope, we're pass the full name, don't you think?" she shook her head, smiling "but thanks for the gesture. However, I do think it's better if you don't talk about me for a while. But I do want you to take a special care of Cassie, please?"
"Of course, mer..." she replied as she took her in her arm "you may not believe me but I'm going to miss you." she whispered before backing away and leaving the entrance before Emerson could respond with anything
Emerson took a big breath and open the door, heading to her car. She had hoped that Scott was going to try to talk to her but guess that every dream can't be fulfilled if it's under others power.
MEANWHILE IN THE AVENGERS COMPOUND (back in time a little)
"I really am sorry Peter." Emerson replied, sobbing
She turned and walked to her car, Peter didn't dare hold her back. And as Emerson drove away, Peter and Bucky watched her go, both full of regret and guilt. Long after Emerson had left, Peter was still outside. His tears were gone but his heart was still broken. He didn't know how such atrocities could come out of his mouth, but they did, and he wasn't sure he'd see his sister again soon. As for Bucky, after watching the sky darken by minutes for a few hours, he decided to go for a walk. He was quite proud of what he'd done, he'd sworn to give Emerson hell but he couldn't forget the look of betrayal and hurt she'd given him before leaving Peter's room. And he had suddenly felt bad for ruining Peter's family, but Bucky was a stubborn guy so he didn't walk away from his "trophy".
It started raining as soon as he reached the forest, he stopped under a tree, thinking. He had just ruined his friend's life. Peter didn't deserve that. Emerson? Yes. She had provoked him to find the truth and he had shut her up. But Peter? No. He needed to apologize. And as soon as that thought occurred to Bucky, he started walking back toward the compound.
He, first, looked for Peter in his room, then in the kitchen, the living room and the gym, but he was nowhere to be found and every Avenger he met was giving him a dirty look. Guess everyone knew.
Eventually, he asked Jarvis where he was and the answer didn't surprise him as he thought about it afterward. He walked toward the room where Emerson had been sleeping and open the door without knocking. After seeing who it was, Peter fell backwards, his head buried in the different pillows of his big sister.
"I don't want to see you Bucky."
"I know, but I wanted to apologize. I really feel like an asshole."
"You are. But no amount of 'sorry' is going to erase what I said and give me my sister back."
"I know," Bucky replied as he considered what to say next, "I'll leave you alone... sorry again."
As he left, Peter's tears started rolling down his cheeks again. He was exhausted and just wanted to go home, but right now he knew he couldn't move without falling over, so he got under the blanket and closed his eyes.
When Peter opened his eyes, he realized that he was no longer in Emerson's room. He looked around and noticed that he was in his childhood home. There were four doors in front of him: his parents' room, the living room and the kitchen, his room and finally Emerson's room. He remembers that she never slept in his room and that she was always with him, protecting him from any nightmares he would have.
He decided to open his room because he heard voices. He saw little Emerson playing with a little him. They were both laughing together. But Emerson suddenly stopped and started crying, old Peter wanted to do something but when he tried to reach for his sister, he couldn't touch her. He had to look at himself looking up at her and muttering something he couldn't understand at first. He said it again. And again and again, making his big sister cry even more: "You have no family, you have no family, you have no family, you have no family". Peter backed away, banging against the door, he grabbed the handle and opened the door. He ran to his parents' room, looking for comfort. But when he opened their door, he saw them crying. Then he saw himself, but younger, come into the room.
"What's going on? Why are you crying? Where is Mer?" he asked
"Oh my god my little Pete," his mother said as she took him in her arms "your sister... has decided to leave."
"What?" he heard himself whisper "where is she going? When is she coming back?"
"She's not coming back, baby" replied his father
"But she wouldn't leave me!"
"I'm sorry, my boy."
After this conversation, he found himself sitting in the living room. He had no memory of this, but he let it go. It's not like he could have done anything anyway.
"Maybe we did something wrong..." said his mother
"No, we didn't Mary, it was the only way," the man replied , crunching beside his wife"she wouldn't have let us do the tests on Peter..."
" Perhaps she would have been right to try and stop us," she took a deep breath "you realize that we just abandoned our daughter in an orphanage, do you, Richard?".
"Yes. Yes, I do, darling but it's too late now", he sighed "we'll get Peter ready and the day after his seventh birthday, we'll start the tests as we planned."
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" screamed Peter
And finally, Peter woke up from his dream, sweating.
Tony stormed into the room, stressed.
"Are you okay, kid? You just screamed Emerson's name..." Tony informed him
"Y-yes, I'm fine, thanks." he said, shaking with his whole body
"Are you sure? Do you want to talk about it?"
"I-I just had a nightmare but the strangest thing is that I saw something I never heard when I was younger..."
"What was it?"
"The conversation between my parents the night after they had abandoned Emerson..."
"I'm sorry, what!?"
"I know... by the way I'm sorry I woke you up," he paused "I think I'll go back to May's."
"Okay kid... see you soon." Tony sighed as he closed the door behind him and left
With that he checked the time and 30 minutes later, 05:30am, he was ready to go. He ran out of the compound and caught the first bus. An hour later he was in his bed, clean. He couldn't stop thinking about his nightmare and every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was his big sister in the past, crying because of him. Soon it was time for him to go back to school. It seemed like weeks, but in fact it has only been two days, two days without peaceful sleep.
His life quickly returned to the way it was before: school and after the "Stark internship". He thought about his sister every day and his nightmares didn't help his cause. As for Bucky, he felt much more ashamed than he thought he would be. And as for the others, they were living, in the daylight, their lives normally but in reality, it was for most of them very hard not to have Emerson around. She hadn't been around for very long before, but she had managed to take a huge place in everyone's heart, especially Tony's, Wanda's and Natasha's.
BACK TO EMERSON
She arrived at the same hotel as before, 2 days after her departure. As soon as she arrived, she started looking for an apartment. She wanted something modern and within a reasonable distance of the compound. She quickly found one in Brooklyn Heights and, while waiting to move in, created an illusion so that people outside the building would see an old, abandoned-looking building. A week after, she moved in.
When you entered the building, you were greeted by a completely demolished stair and no elevators, but in reality, and after a few days, Emerson had installed a box embedded in the wall, which with the right code, opened a door in the wall that led to stairs that themselves led up to the apartment. And for the apartment, another code was needed to open the door. Finally, when you got inside, you could see a bay window almost all along the apartment. The kitchen was on the right, made of black marble and iron and equipped with a black table. The living room, in the middle, was decorated with a black sofa and two black armchairs accompanied by white and gray cushions, there was a soft carpet on the floor and few photos surrounding a large bookcase. Her bedroom, on the left, opened with a dark wooden door. Very little decorated, it had just, in the middle of the room, a king size bed. In her room was two doors, one for the bathroom, which was furnished with a shower and a sink, while the other door opened to her dressing room, half empty but with a big mirror in the middle. The dressing room contained another secret room, accessible with a third code (the door of it was the mirror) and which was filled with weapons of all kinds.
It has been a week since Emerson returned and she was running outside. She loved the feeling she felt when she ran: freedom. She heard footsteps behind her and a tall blond man she knew very well run past her shouting, "Too slow!". She laughed and pushed on her legs to pass him, which she did, replying the same thing. An hour after playing this 'come and back', Emerson sat, her back against a tree, waiting for the old man.
"Nice to see you again, mer." he smiled
"Same for you Stevie." she replied, taking the hand Steve was offering her to help her get up
"Didn't know you were back."
"Yea... sorry."
"We all miss you, mer," he suddenly said "come with me to the compound so you can see the others."
"I don't know..."
"Please...?" he said while doing a puppy face
Emerson laughed and responded "Okay fine but just because I want to not because of this cute face you just did."
"Suuure," he chuckled "okay, let's go then!"
"Wait, I need to shower," she stopped "I'll see you there, and I promise I'll come," she added seeing doubt on Steve's face "just don't tell anyone so it can be a surprise!"
"...okay, see ya, mer!"
"See ya, Stevie."
And just like she said she would, she took a shower and changed into a white dress shirt, with her trusty black DocMartens and jewelry. She grabbed her purse and put on her sunglasses. She went downstairs and grabbed her car keys, a car she had finally bought.
30 minutes later, she got out of her car and stood in front of the compound. To say she was nervous was an understatement, she was shaking with fear of their reaction. She decided not to knock and went straight inside, heading to the kitchen where she could hear most of the Avengers' voices.
She stood there for over five minutes, leaning against the door, smiling at the sight of all the people she loved the most, laughing and talking together. The first to notice her was Tony. He was in the middle of a discussion with Nat and Wanda when he suddenly stopped talking, making eyes contact with Emerson. When everyone else realized that the unstoppable Tony Stark had gone silent, they all stopped talking too, quite shocked. They followed Tony's gaze and slowly turned around to see Emerson smiling at them.
"Hey guys..." she shyly waved her hand
At that moment, a chorus of screams echoed through the kitchen. Tony was, once again, the first to come back to his senses and quickly walked around the table where he was sitting, to hug Emerson.
"God, I missed you, pumpkin." he whispered in her ear
"I missed you too, Tony," she replied as she pulled away from his embrace "I missed all of you. And I'm sorry I ran away..."
"Don't worry, you're already forgiven." Wanda replied before hugging her, soon joined by everyone else
They all hugged her - Tony, Wanda, Nat, Steve, Clint, Sam, Bruce, Thor and even Loki. But Emerson soon realized that her brother was not there. She pulled away again.
"Where's Peter?" she asked, looking at Tony
Just then and as Tony pointed behind her, she finally felt his mind in the room. She turned around and saw him standing there with tears in his eyes.
"Hey Pete-" she slowly started but she was soon cut off by Peter hugging her tightly
"I miss you so much, Mer. I'm so sorry for what I said!" he cried in her arms
"It's okay Peter, I forgive you. It's not your fault, only mine." she replied, rubbing Peter's back
"What?" he asked as he pulled away "what are you talking about? How is it your fault?"
"I should have told you earlier, I was just... scared, I guess," she replied as she looked at the floor "can we just not talk about this, please?" she added, looking up
"Yeah, yeah, sure." replied Peter as he hugged her again
"Well, you know what that means?" said Tony
"Party? Tonight? 7 p.m.?" replied Emerson
"You know me so well." he chuckled
"I know," she smirked "so um, see you tonight I guess..."
"Where are you going?" asked Loki, before she left the room "you still have your room and stuff here!"
"Really?"
"Well yeah, of course, dumbass" Sam replied
"Thanks guys," she smiled "I really don't deserve you."
"Sure, you do, now let's go talk" Nat replied as she pulled Emerson's and Wanda's arms
They both laughed and walked out of the kitchen and towards Emerson's room.
As they started walking inside her room, Emerson heard Bucky's door opened. She told the girls to wait for her inside and turn around to Bucky, who was watching her from his door.
She could read hesitation in his eyes, like he had something to say but wasn't certain he could.
He could read hope in her eyes, like she had something to say but wasn't certain she could.
He was going to say it. She wasn't, well, not yet.
"Bucky."
"Emerson."
They said at the same time, looking at each other straight in the eye.
"Sorry, what did you want to say?" she asked
"I-I wanted to apologize...I guess," he started, breaking contact with her and looking at the ground "you kind of deserved it though."
When there was no response, Bucky raised his head and looked at her. She had a little smile she was trying not to show, without really being able to. He saw something in her eyes that he couldn't defined. It was shiny and bright, and it almost make Bucky felt... safe, almost. But before Bucky could dwell further on his thought, Emerson started speaking.
"Thank you, Buck, it's not a lot but I'll still take it." she finally said, letting her smile light up her beautiful face
"I still hate you though."
"Yes, same, of course," she chuckled "don't go get wrong ideas."
"Great..."
They stared at each other for a while, both thinking not so different things.
"... well, I have to go." Emerson broke after Wanda's call
"Oh, hum yea of course." Bucky replied, watching as Emerson opened and closed her door
After closing it, Emerson leaned on it, her forehead on the cold steel, smiling at herself. She shook her head and turned around to join Wanda and Nat in the bathroom, leaving her thoughts in the back of her mind. Keeping it for later.
Bucky, on the other hand, stood still for a few minutes, his gaze glued to the door as it closed, leaving behind a sweet perfume, lost in his thoughts.
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A/N: hey guys, hope you like this happier chapter :) and that you're having a great day/night, love you 3000 <3
14th December 2021 (tomorrow it's my birthday lol)
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