➢𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗠𝗔➢
『 It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
You would cry too if it happened to you 』
―𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘔𝘺 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺
⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 8: 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔 (𝑷𝑹𝑬𝑳𝑼𝑫𝑬)⟵
-𝙹𝙰𝙽𝚄𝙰𝚁𝚈 𝟾𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟺-
𝚆𝙰𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚃𝙾𝙽 𝙳.𝙲.
A little girl is dragged through a dimly lit hallway by two scientists.
Her eyes squeeze shut as needles jab sharply into her sides, intense and illegal chemicals ciphering through her body.
Everything moves 10x faster in Dani's mind than when it happened in 2009.
The beatings, the testing, the day the ForceField was implanted inside her - all the god-awful moments blow through her head, one by one her having to relive them, and it is torture. She finds herself in between her captors, while many S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents have their guns aimed at the Rocklands.
This was the part she remembers the most, simply because it was when she watched Joseph get shot in the head; his cold, lifeless body fall to the floor. The man's dead eyes stare up at the little girl, and she gasps in horror, raising her hands to her mouth.
Suddenly, Dani is thrown into a wall, and the face of Deborah Rockland is in her limelight.
The mother sneers at her daughter, an evil smile just like the ones the girl has seen in every single one of her night terrors worn on her face - relentless.
From there, the woman clasps her hands around the child's throat, resulting in a struggle to breathe - alarming Dani immediately.
An intense rush of fear coursed through her, right to the surface, and no matter how many times she commands herself to fight back, in these alternate realities - Dani never does. It is inevitable.
Her trauma.
She was trapped. That's what terrified Dani the most, being trapped.
Trapped in the memories of her past.
Tossing and turning as well as choking noises begin to usurp the little girl's body from the outside, but evidently, it isn't enough to wake herself up from this nightmare.
The nightmares.
She wants to get herself out of this state before Deborah can mutter the ongoing promise that racks Dani to the core of her soul, haunts her, and would make it more difficult to bring the already scarred child out of such an agonizing episode of fright.
"I promise you..."
She's too late.
Nothing had been working, and Dani's heart felt as if a heavyweight had just been placed on it.
"I will find you, Experiment 124!" Deborah bites out, yelling much louder than last time - the sound echoing in Dani's ears.
"And I will kill you. I will!"
"I will―!"
Dani jolts upward out of her bed, screaming as a cry for help.
The young girl kicks her little legs around vigorously and wildly, the covers and sheets on her bed falling off in the process. Her vision is blinded by the squinting of her big green eyes in an unmistakable sense... of horror-stricken panic.
Dani panics.
Pressing her hands over her ears, she frantically tries to get the woman's words out of her head before she reappears in her mind again.
She is going to kill her.
The sound of the door leading into her bedroom bursts open, and stepping in is a wide-awake Steve Rogers, who eagerly makes his way over to where his adopted daughter fusses - desperate shouts growing louder.
"Shh, Dani. Dani. It's okay, it's okay." His deep voice reassures her, muscular arms doing their best to try and stop her tiny hands from pulling at pieces of her long brown hair.
But even with his strength, the man ultimately struggles to hold her in place when she continues to move around rapidly. Dani - rightfully - is panicking at the feelings of somebody touching her, and due to previous imagery in her mind, produces more screams that end up coming out distorted as her nose and eyelids clog with tears.
Saltwater trickles freely down both of her cheeks and upon a few dripping onto his bare arm that continues to reach for her, Steve's demeanor instantly flushes from urgent, to careful - and he's gentle, "Dani, it's not real."
He places one large hand on her sweat-coated head, and the other on her back, pulling the thrashing child against his broad chest as her head is tucked under his chin. He speaks calmly to her, cooing to her, "You're safe. It's just me. You are safe, Honey, I promise. It was just a dream."
Aware of her adopted father's presence, Dani's shouts of protest slowly turn into exhausted sobs, and hurriedly she wraps her arms around the SuperSoldier's ribcage. Her dainty fingertips clutch the back of his shirt tightly as she cries.
And cries.
Steve rocks her, back and forth, in his arms, consoling the now nine year old who has been having these intense night terrors every night. The two had grown incredibly close since the Captain legally adopted her two years ago, almost to the point of a normal father and daughter. Steve thought things had been going well, but when it was made clear Dani, understandably, still suffered greatly from all the treacherous experimenting and unspeakable torture done to her by FORCE Headquarters - it resulted in her never being able to escape from the thought of them at night.
The thought of her mother, in particular, anger residing inside Steve.
With that in mind, he always strived to do his best to show Dani he wouldn't ever let anyone do that again, her quickly becoming someone that Steve both adored and cared about more than anyone else in the entire world.
But even so, no matter how hard he tried to be there for her now, he couldn't be there when memories plagued her as she slept, and for that, the blonde SuperSoldier felt entirely horrible inside. He could sympathize with her pain easily.
After all, he knows what it is like to experience the side effects. Ones linked to traumatic events. He used to have them a lot when first waking up from the plane crash when he ran out onto the streets of New York City, and the overall world certainly nothing like he remembered - saw as home.
He still finds himself living through parts of his past many times over, most times freaking Steve out as it was a sign of PTSD that blocked out any possibility of being able to adjust to a new world - a new way of things being handled.
Steve's thoughts quickly cease, however, when Dani begins to calm down, her sobs diminishing, and he once again feels her shaky form lean into his much warmer one. She pulls away and he keeps a hand running up and down her back, gently unraveling from their embrace so he could get a look at her.
Her features illuminated by the moonlight are tear-stained, and depleted - his heart clenching. He holds back an urge to sigh in a defeat of his own and instead expresses the astounding concern for her in his expression, brows, and forehead lines crinkled.
"What do you wanna do, Munchkin?" He asks her quietly, using his nickname for her - a sense to avoid pressuring or scaring her in any way.
The petite brunette's chest heaves and she raises her hands to her face, furiously trying to wipe away the tear tracks leaving traces there while remaining silent.
"Do you wanna go back to bed?" He asks her.
She shakes her head, she never does.
"I-I," Dani's little voice wobbles, and Steve tightens the hold he still has around her in an attempt to stop the bad case of the shakes troubling the young girl's form. She forces herself to concentrate on her words, stammering a bit as eventually, something comes out. "C-Could we just get out of this room for a second?"
"Of course." Steve answers, right away - softly, and nodding while staring into her uniquely bright green eyes.
Only to find more fear pooling into them.
It was at that moment he knew, this dream had been bad.
Bad. Not taking the effort to hide another sigh when Dani buries her face into the crook of his neck, the girl's hands also enclose his collarbones in the process - attaching herself to him.
The SuperSoldier swiftly gets off the bed, walking out of the bedroom door and towards the kitchen of his apartment complex in D.C. where the two had been living since Steve had started taking missions from S.H.I.E.L.D.
Dani nestles into him as her fierce grip stays on his shirt while he carries her.
The movement-induced wind makes the child shiver and goosebumps travel up her pale skin. Steve soothes her a few times by repeating a similar motion from before, a comforting one - it was something he read somewhere, primarily for babies - and it does just the right amount of relaxation. Dani's grip gradually loosens on his shirt, and they reach the living space of the complex the two shared.
From there, he sets her down on the wooden chair next to the table where they eat most of their meals together - the Captain trying to cook most of them but truthfully, having difficulty with the newer technology invented in this current time.
The microwave and the oven first he thought had way too many buttons, but hey, he tried his best for Dani.
Thankfully, the child was a simple eater at the moment and ate anything easy enough to make. Grilled cheese, and peanut butter toast usually went along with strawberries, apples, or grapes. The little girl loved fruit. She also loved milk, and hated soda, even though she had only tried it on one or two occasions... to say the least, the youngster had a uniquely plain diet.
Dani had enjoyed milk ever since her caretaker had told her that it would strengthen her bones, something she, underweight, needed. Straightforwardly, she wasn't used to eating the normal amount of food that a girl her age should eat, and did get annoyed at times when Steve would push her to eat more, only trying to help her grow up healthy and strong since he could still see some bones beneath her skin.
He wants her to be in good health, for it is important to him that she isn't susceptible to catching any illnesses or colds like he USED to be. Though that concern was undoubtedly swept under the rug when it was discovered that Dani Rockland is incapable of getting sick, for the pieces of the Tesseract inside her, regenerate the structures of her body too quickly.
A similarity of Captain America's own SuperSoldier DNA, except - Dani heals faster.
Placing a glass of warmed-up milk in front of her brings Dani out of the current trance she was in, and her petite hands grasp onto the cup - looking up at Steve with a level of appreciation.
The Captain's brows furrow in worry, however, as her legs swing back and forth, a nervous habit Steve knows she has and so he doesn't waste another moment to pull the other chair out to sit across from her, folding his hands together atop the table. When the nine year old noiselessly finishes drinking, she folds her own hands together, but down into her lap - eyes following.
She knows what comes next.
This happens almost every night after all and has shown no signs of getting better, leaving Steve Rogers unsure of how to approach this.
He'd purchased the parenting books, read some of them to his co-workers' amusement, and even attended a few classes as he sat with many women and men who immediately recognized him as 'Captain America'. The Man Out of Time.
They would ask him about Dani, and provide him with tons of different ways to parent her, shelter her - but he tried not to listen.
He'd heard that it wasn't going to be a walk in the park, and he believed that it would be way harder than any mission he'd ever go on. However, it wasn't the actual 'taking' care of a kid that was the most difficult - he feels that he got lucky with Dani, she was just naturally good.
The most difficult aspect of what went into raising a child for him was the way to do it.
He knew that he had little to no experience with kids, he was in his late 20s when he 'died' and came back being relatively the same age - biologically - so Steve Rogers was in no way, shape, or form, on record, that great with young ones.
I mean, all the crying babies he had to hold while on tour as 'The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan!' just made him wanna fall over.
But upon meeting seven year old Danielle for the first time, experienced a heightening surge from within to shield her, protect her. When they truly shared a deep connection, he had immediately decided right then and there no further discussion was needed, nor could he ever possibly describe the feeling.
The feeling. A paternal instinct, he'd been told it was.
Wanting to protect her, raise her - to love her as his own kid.
There was something special about her, and he wasn't the only one who believed it.
Steve speaks in a slightly gruff tone of voice, exhaling, slowly, "Do you wanna talk about it?"
The child gives the same response that she's given merely every night.
A shake of the head, and a refusal to make eye contact with the one person who ever so slightly tries to convince her to open up to him. His philosophy was that he never pressured Dani to do anything. He'd heavily advise, but if she tells him no, she meant no.
This could be regarding eating more food, opening up about her past and what went down in London - she's told Steve most of it, but he never pries her, knowing that it is an extremely sensitive topic and the last thing that he would ever want to do is to make her cry or lose her trust. It didn't matter the circumstance, he believed that she had a right, as her own person, to make her own decisions, and Steve didn't want to cloud her judgment - especially when she was extremely naive and impressionable right now.
The blonde rises from his chair, takes Dani's empty glass to the sink, and checks the nearby clock on the stove which reads 4:15 AM.
Glancing back at the child who visibly shudders in her seat, Steve Rogers places both his calloused hands on the corner of the counter - dropping his head low as a deep sigh emerges from the depths of his esophagaus.
He fights an ongoing battle inside himself.
What should he do about these continuous nightmares?
She wasn't getting any sleep, she was too scared, and he wasn't either. He would find himself lying awake at night, stressing out about what to do - and if he doesn't do anything, will it affect her for the rest of her life?
Will it damage her when she gets older and will it be all his fault?
Yep, he was a Dad now. A protective, and sometimes a little stern, but doting and nurturing father.
Stepping away from the kitchen, Dani turns her whole body around in the seat to face Steve.
The strongly built man's gaze softens in an instant, and he cups his daughter's face with both of his large hands when walking closer to her - leaning over and pressing an affectionate kiss onto the top of her head.
Her eyes flutter with an incredible amount of innocence, calling out rather clearly, "Hey, Dad?"
"Hey, Dani?" Steve responds cheekily, earning a small giggle from the nine year old.
"What time is it?" She questions, while absentmindedly taking hold of one of his hands and intertwining it with her own.
"It's 4:15." He tells her, "We're gonna need to leave in a few hours, remember?" Well, it wasn't a few hours, more like an hour and thirty because Steve wanted to go on a run, meaning that Dani would be dropped off at S.H.I.E.L.D. for a bit.
The brunette foggily yawns in response to the man's words, hopping down from the chair while her small body stands tiredly - causing Steve to chuckle, "You should go back to bed, sleep is important ..." he grins at her drooping eyelids, flipping her brown wavy hair over her head. Since when did it get this long? Steve loved it, though, he thought it was very pretty.
He did not like it however when Dani would ask him to braid, and he had little to no idea how to do that but was able to put it in a loose bun or ponytail when she wanted it out of her face - so, he was proud of those accomplishments.
Two skinny arms suddenly wrap around the SuperSoldier's sturdy legs, and he looks down at the culprit - his little girl.
One whose features are suddenly coated in worry again.
"Not in my room," Dani tells him, nervously - glancing over at her bedroom door where the sheets and covers still messily scatter from her movements earlier.
Steve unlatches her death grip from his waist, a look of reassurance appearing on his beardless face as he declares, "We can go to mine, then."
A happy grin plasters itself onto the face of the young girl, and Dani doesn't waste another minute to skip down the hallway toward a much bigger bed previously occupied by the man who had selflessly taken her in two years ago.
Steve follows behind at a slower pace, smiling to himself.
The lamp on the bedside illuminates the dark room as the early morning hours approach, and Dani is efficient in rolling open the covers of Steve's bed and getting underneath them - trying to warm herself up.
Even though she had been wearing one of her fleece footed pajamas - a pretty pink and gray one with a fox's face on it - the child struggles with keeping normal body temperature thanks to the ForceField. Steve sits down on the bed as well, making sure to do so on top of the covers because the serum always keeps his temperature normal, and sometimes, a little too hot.
He leans back behind Dani and she shifts so that her adorable little face peers right up at him, endearingly. His expression soothes further as he lifts a hand to stroke her hair, admiring her precious features.
At the two making eye contact, the easily-flustered female burrows her face into his chest all of sudden, now having her head supported by the man's bicep.
"What?" He asks her, quirking a brow quizzically while also wanting to laugh at her sudden movements.
"Mmm cold." She muffles from in his shirt, scrunching her frigid nose and pressing it against the man's toasty skin - sliding closer.
"And I'm warm?" He poses.
To which Dani replies knowingly, "All the time."
Steve is reaching over to turn off the lamp when the nine year old clutches a tiny fist-full of his muscle tank, recoiling him back to her.
Dani's mouth gaped open, a breath threatening to hitch in her throat as she inquired in a hushed tone, "Promise you'll stay until I fall asleep?"
She lasers his radiant blue eyes again, almost getting lost in them. It was his presence, Steve's presence, and his embrace - that never failed to calm Dani down. Their relationship and bond, it was built on trust. Having him stay at her side was of the utmost importance... more so he could hug her tight if she started to shake from another episode. Another nightmare.
If that happened again, he would comfort her, with whispered assurances that she was more than accustomed to now, since having a family. Having him as her family.
The gentle smile reappears on his face as he goes to move a piece of hair out of hers, "I promise."
Promises are a big thing to her. After discovering what they were, what they mean - a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen - they meant a lot.
And Dani trusts that her Daddy will protect her. Always.
Sensing his daughter fold into his side, slow, soft snores already escaping through her nose, Steve kisses the space just above her brow with lips light as a feather - then goes on to whisper what he consistently tells her every night since he adopted her.
"Dream sweetly, Dani."
And for the amount of time they have before having to begin a normal day - as normal as it could get for these two - she did.
All thanks to her Dad, Steve Rogers... Er, Captain America.
The Man Out of Time.
❀❀❀
𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 ➢ 𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬
𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟐: 𝐂𝐀𝐏'𝐒 '𝐊𝐈𝐃'
❀ 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗦 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗗𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗘𝗥 ❀