Pain Is Power

6: School

"Dad?" I look up and see my daughter looking nervous. "What have you broken?" I asked her. "Nothing." She says innocently. "What's wrong?" I soften my face and kick out the chair in front of me for her to sit at. 

"I have something to tell you." "Okay." I scan her face trying to get some information from her. "I have it under control." She says. "But I've been worried to tell you because I don't want to be sent away." She said but her lips didn't move. I frowned. "What is going on Amelia?" "The mind stone... I can use it." I blinked this isn't happening right now. "It's happening. It's been happening for months before you got me out. I thought I was going crazy but Wanda. She can do it and I learnt from her and I have it under control." "So please don't send me away dad. Please. I can control it I promise and I can't use the others I don't even know what they do so you don't have to tell Fury to come and take me away. I'm not dangerous I promise I'm not. I won't hurt anyone. Or control anyone I just. I couldn't keep it from you anymore." 

I cupped my daughter's face and rubbed my thumb across her soft cheek, her face relaxed. "I'd never, never send you away. You're my little princess no matter how strong you become." She blinked her tears away. "You are safe, I'm your dad and I will keep you safe. But you have to tell me these things okay." She nodded. "Please don't tell anyone." I rested our foreheads against each other. Our families way of being vulnerable with one another, also calmed the twins down easily when they were younger. "I love you. Every single part of you." I tell her. "I love you 3000." I smiled. The twins said it when they were younger, I told them I loved them tons and their little minds thought 3000 was bigger than that and so it stuck. The first time Morgan came out with it she was 3 and I have never seen the similarities in my girls until that moment. It warmed my heart and I suddenly felt so connected to my twins again. I had shut them out of my mind only assuming they were dead at the point but then Morgan said that and my heart bursts as memories flooded my mind. And she's been saying it ever since too. 

"Fury can't take you away from me. No one can, not again." I stroked her hair behind her ear. "Promise," I tell her pecking her forehead. I pulled her on my lap and wrapped my arms around her so she felt safe. She dissolved into my embrace, I peppered the top of her head with kisses. "I missed you, daddy." Her voice quivered. "I missed you too Princess." 

I keep her in my arms for a long while, she didn't move but I knew she was still awake her grip on my top was too tight for her not to be awake. She had a habit of holding onto my top when I held her when she falls asleep it loosened slightly but she wouldn't let go. It was her way of telling me not to leave her. She needed me to hold her and that's what she was going to get. 

"I want to run some tests on you." "Why?" "To see what those stones are doing to your body. Your heart." "They've been in there since I was young, If i was going to die, I would have." "Or it's killing you slowly. We don't even know what metal it's attached to in there." "the same one the infinity gauntlet. Dreykov got it off some Raccoon who had apparently visited a star?" She says like she didn't believe the story but I did. It was Rocket and he went with Thor to get his hammer fixed for the 5th time. He was always 'borrowing' things. Bucky's arm was one of them once. That didn't end too well. "I still would like to know you're safe... If you were to use all three you could-"Die... I know. But I don't feel the others, not like the mind one." "Maybe it's just taking you a while to adjust." She shrugged laying her head back on my chest. "Okay baby." I pecked her head taking the hint she wanted to just sit her for a while. 

----------

I did a full-body work up and was waiting for the results, it was taking so long to get the report through. Mimi was asleep in my arms when Peppa came in. "Somethings never change huh." She says smiling at the overgrown child in my arms. "Always a daddy's girl," I say proudly. She would fall asleep in my arms when I'd work in my office often, I could never bring myself to put her to bed. I was a busy man and sometimes her sleeping in my arms was the only time I got with her all week. Piper would only fall asleep in her bed so I didn't get moments like this with her. I got to play baseball in the garden with Piper and build rocketships. I pecked the top of her head. "What are you guys doing? You've been down here all evening." "Just checking her over." "Bruce cleared her for training." She says sitting down in front of me. "This is a different check." She raised her eyebrows at me.