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.
"Nope, not buying it. You've been sat up here just staring at the toys for longer than 20 minutes, something must be bothering you" Bucky stated.
As Natasha and Bucky began to probe AJ about their concerns, the young girl seemed to reach a breaking point. Whatever emotions she had been attempting to suppress were finally starting to bubble to the surface, "I can't do it" she snapped.
"Can't do what?" Nat questioned.
AJ finally exploded, her bottled up emotions finally releasing out of her in a surge of pure anger and frustration, "I can't play. I don't know how to anymore!" she raged, her voice coming out in a yell, "I just don't know how to, my imaginations gone"
"Aj calm down" Bucky encouraged but it was no help, if anything telling her to calm down made her ever more angry.
"Calm down?! I can't, this isn't normal. What fucking 9 year old doesn't have an imagination, I'm a kid. Why can't I just be a normal kid? It's not fair" AJ's sudden anger suddenly gave way to a wave of sadness, as she broke down into tears and became overtaken with this overwhelming feeling of helplessness. The feeling of not being able to play filled her with despair, leading her to believe she was broken. "It's not fair" she stated sadly.
Bucky looked on with a slight sense of concern as Natasha pulled her daughter into a hug, realizing that their previous plan of allowing the kids to find their own forms of coping mechanisms and outlets may not have been sufficient enough. Professional help and guidance seemed like it might be the most beneficial course of action at this point, as they were clearly struggling on their own, and their attempts to deal with the trauma of their experiences on their own were starting to become increasingly unsuccessful.
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"They've conned us! This isn't the ice cream parlor, this is a therapy clinic" Tommy gasped as he read the sign on the door.
"Isn't therapy for the mentally unstable?" Aj asked.
"I mean if the shoe fits kiddo, wear it" Yelena teased.
Aj scoffed,"I'm not mentally unstable. I'm stable probably more then any of you"
"No you are not...You bit me this morning" Wanda stated bluntly.
"Hey If you can't beat them, eat them" AJ shrugged receiving a loud laugh from Yelena.
"Alright you guys settle down" Bucky sighed as he stopped walking a head and turned to face the group.
Wanda glared at her uncle,
"Fucking therapy! I don't need to go to therapy"
"Wanda your mother and I think this is the best thing for you guys right now. If you don't like it that's fine, you don't have to come back but you guys are going today wether you like it or not" Bucky and Yelena had been tasked with the job of taking the kids therapy today, after AJ's breakdown yesterday and Wanda coming home from her walk obviously stoned last night, Bucky and Nat decided that it was a good idea for the girls to have someone to talk too. Nat had a meeting with fury so she couldn't come along which wasn't ideal considering the girls were more willing to listen to her than their uncle Bucky but he had Yelena with him for moral support, if that's what you could call it. He knew the kids would be opposed to the idea so he lied to them and told them they were going for Ice cream.
"This is a joke" Wanda scoffed, she couldn't believe the audacity of her mother and uncle.
"No our mental well being is a joke. I can't lie Wands I agree with them, I think we all need this. The red room has left us all insane" Tommy whispered to her.
"No I'm with Wanda this is a waste of my time. I don't need therapy, life is 90% trauma and 10% how you cope with it. I'm doing that 10% well" Aj wasn't to thrilled about this either.
"Mhmm sure you are" Yelena replied sarcastically.
Aj frowned,
"I am. This last week has been good I had a slip up yesterday but on a positive note, I picked up a pistol in fortnite for the first time since I shot my dad"
"what?" Yelena blinked in confusion.
"Well since the incident I've been to traumatized to pick up a gun on Fortnite. It's like everytime my character in the game did I'd get flashbacks of me holding a gun and shooting my dad. So I've been playing with an axe for the last three weeks but last night I got a pistol for the first time and when I made a kill I didn't once think about the time I basically killed my dad"
"That is such a wild thing to say" Tommy mumbled under his breathe.
"Don't you see how badly you need this" Yelenas eyes widened as she looked at the 9 year old in disbelief.
"You didn't kill him, he's alive" Bucky added.
"Alive isn't the word I'd use...more like hanging on by a thread" Aj shrugged.
"A really thin piece of thread" Wanda stated dryly.
Bucky rolled his eyes at the girls, "See this right here is what I'm talking about! The dark humor and the trauma jokes aren't normal. You guys need help"
"You need help!" Aj huffed back.
"Yes I do, you guys are killing me here!" Bucky groaned as he ushered them inside.
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A/N: so the kids are definitely more mentally unstable than usual but therapy will help hopefully. 🤞
Thank you for reading🫡