Everlasting Love

The Aftermath

After a few day's of dealing with some of the aftermath of the Attack on New York. We had Shawarma with Tony like we promised. Then we all gathered to watch Thor and Loki leave for Asgard, along with the Tesseract. We had all decided that the best place for the tesseract was back where it belonged.

I finally went home to collect my things. I walked into the empty house alone. Tony had asked if I wanted him to come in with me, but I declined. I needed to just be alone here one more time. I walked into my old bedroom. The pile of wet sheet's and blanket's were still in the hamper. Being about 2 week's old, they smelled of mildew. I smiled at the memory before feeling tears fill my eyes again.

I cleaned out my drawers and put my clothes into some moving boxes while letting my silent tears fall. I only filled about three small boxes of all my things. I grabbed one more box and put my valuables in it. They aren't what you'd be thinking, though. They were sentimental things. It was a soft blue box that held every birthday card he'd ever given me. There was at least a dozen frames with our pictures together, goofy ones, serious ones, an old time photo from the fair. I walked toward's his room, almost to scared to open the door. When I did, a rush of his old cologne hit my nose. I fell to my knee's and sobbed. I finally caved and I called Tony.

    "I need you to come inside." I said through heavy breaths. The phone clicked.

Before I knew it Tony rushed in and saw me on the floor and helped me to my feet.

    "What do you need, kid?" Tony asked softly as he hugged me and brushed his hand down my hair.

    "I just need his favorite blue tie. I gave it to him a few years ago. I also need this." I grabbed a little flag pin. He always wore one under the collar of his suit.

Tony helped me find the tie and then he helped arrange for someone to come pack the things I wasn't going to take with me. Another week had passed and we held a funeral for him. The procession had been arranged. I was supposed to ride alone with the casket. Tony and Pepper would be in the car behind me. Then Shield agent's, and friend's in the very back. I wished desperately that Thor was here with me. My heart longed for him for some strange reason. I knew it was useless though. He'd never choose me. I struggled to get into the back seat of the car while fighting my internal battle.

    "Hey, are you okay?" Steve asked. He walked up to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I shook my head no.

    "If I get into that car, Steve. It becomes even more real than it already is." I sniffled and he turned me to face him.

    "You have to do this, Amara. You're one of the strongest people I know. But you don't have to do this alone." Steve spoke softly. I looked into Steve's eye's as mine filled with tears.

    "Okay... Please stay with me." I asked softly.

He looked at me and happily agreed. I finally stepped in the limousine part of the hearse and Steve followed closing the door behind us. I curled into his side and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He laid his head on mine. We rode from the funeral home all the way to the cemetery. I became nervous again when we arrived, but Steve laced his fingers through my own. He didn't let go of my hand through the entire funeral. We had gotten really close in the short amount of time since The Battle of New York.

Tony held a funeral reception at the tower. Which was absolutely beautiful. There was music and food, all to celebrate my Dad. I started to have a hard time with the amount of people coming up to me and giving their condolences.

    "Hey, would you like to dance?" Steve whispered in my ear after appearing next to me. I nodded and he pulled me to the dance floor.

    "Thank you for that." I said as he put his hand's on my waist and I wrapped my arms around his neck. "It was starting to get a little hard to deal with." I sighed and noticed our faces were pretty close together as he bent down to be able to reach me. I mean, he was 6'2 and I'm only 5'5.

    "You're very welcome. I could see that you were getting tense. That's why I thought maybe a dance would relax you." Steve smiled at me.

    "It certainly is helping." I let out a small laugh.

    "There's that laugh of your's. I haven't heard it in what seems like forever." He brushed away the hair that had fallen in front of my face.

    "I'm sorry. Steve, I... I'm struggling with all of this. My whole life I've solely depended on my Dad to be there for me. I was never really good at making friend's, because I was considered a freak. He accepted me always, no matter what. With him I was never alone." I explained and leaned my head on his chest.

    "It's okay we all have our struggles. I wasn't exactly the most popular kid either. But we all have each other now. We are friend's, heck maybe even closer than that were a family. You don't have to worry about being alone anymore, Amara. You have us." Steve stopped dancing and just hugged me.

    "Are you staying at the tower tonight?" I pulled back and asked him.   

    "I was going to go back to my apartment. But I can stay if you need me." Steve said looking down into my green eyes.

    "Oh, it's okay you don't have to." I wrapped my arms around his back with my hands up toward his shoulders and my head laid back into his chest.

    "No, I'll stay." He squeezed me tightly.

As the night went on the guests started leaving. I brought Steve to one of the extra guest rooms and I went to my room. I got into a pair of pajama shorts, and a tank top, climbed into my bed and turned the tv on with a quiet volume. I sat up against the headboard and pulled my knees to my chest. I cried like I had everyday and time ticked slowly by. 11 pm rolled around and I still couldn't sleep. My eyes were sore from the crying and I sat in the same unmoving position. There was a small rap on my door.

    "Hey, kid. Can I come in?" Tony asked quietly.

    "Yeah, doors open." I quietly called back. Tony walked into the room and sat on the edge of my bed. "Can't sleep either, huh?" I said.

    "Nope." Tony shook his head.

    "Having that nightmare still?"

    "Yeah, I don't think that's going to go away anytime soon." He sighed. "So I probably could have waited until tomorrow, but I figured you'd still be up." He smiled softly. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a card. "Listen, kid. I know things have been rough for you lately. I noticed you didn't have much stuff when you moved in, so this is for you." Tony gave me a little silver card it and it had my name on it.

    "Tony, I..."

    "It's just a little something from me to you. You're going to need fund's for different thing's and I wanted to make sure you were taken care of. It's connected to my personal account's. So you can get whatever you need. Obviously don't go crazy." He joked giving me a slight smirk.

    "Tony, I can't accept this. It's your money." I tried to hand him back the card. He pushed my hand back towards me.

    "Listen, I know I'm not your Dad. But I want you to know, I think of you as family. I didn't take you in because of Pepper. I took you in because you remind me of myself. You're smart, and you had no one left. And as much as your Dad annoyed me. I really actually liked Phil. He was a good man and a greater father for taking you in, protecting you and loving you. I would be doing him a disservice if I didn't take you in. Not to say I did it out of owing any sort of debt or anything..." He started to ramble, so I touched his hand and he looked at me.

    "It's okay. I understand what you were trying to say. Thank you, Tony." I smiled softly.

    "No problem, kid. You should get some rest." He tapped my hand and got up.

Tony left the room and I laid down under the cover's, shut my tired eye's and finally quickly going to sleep.