How do you heal?

Chapter 79: Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again

Annie sat in the backseat of Alex's car curled into Pietro's side.

"I can't believe she had the fucking gaul to show up there of all places!" Alex said, hitting the steering wheel in frustration.

"I can." Annie said softly as she watched the scenery pass swiftly out the window. "Lex, can we go to the hotel? I want to get my stuff and go to the house."

Alex looked at her in the rearview. "Are you sure? Your family probably wants to see you after what just happened."

"Me being at the funeral basically ruined it, I don't really want to face them right now." She said and met Alex's eyes in the mirror.

"You didn't ruin it, Annie. Cherry did." Alex's face went stoney.

Annie sighed. "I know...I know but Cherry was there because of me and the shit she said and the embarrassment...I think I've faced enough today."

Annie could tell Alex wasn't happy but she just didn't have the energy to go back to her parents. She knew there would be questions from her mom and her siblings and she couldn't be sure what they or other funeral attendees had heard of Cherry and April's fight and... Oh god the Avengers had all been outside too. Suddenly the car felt too small. The feeling of worlds colliding she'd experienced as a child came flooding back and she needed to run, to scream, to clear her head. She needed..she needed a comfort that wasn't there anymore. "Actually, Lex, can we go to the cemetery?"

Annie had only been to Charlie's grave once since he'd died and that was when she brought Bubba's ashes. Even then, over a year later, the ache she felt had been almost unbearable. He had been the love of her life, the only person outside of Alex who knew everything about her and still chose to love her. Being with him had given her a peace, a happiness, and ease that had been unlike anything else in her life. Although, deep down she knew she'd felt something similar recently, with everything else going on she was unwilling to look behind that door right now.

Alex put the car in park and Annie slipped out and headed straight for Charlie's headstone, not waiting for the others. When she reached his grave she sank down to the ground and laid fully atop it, not caring about the cold seeping into her bones. "I could really use you right now, my love."

Pietro exited the car and made to follow Annie but Alex's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "They need a minute."

So they waited. And waited. And waited. For what seemed like hours Pietro watched Annie laying on the ground as the sun began to set but every time he stood Alex stopped him.

"Волчица, she's going to fuse to the ground if we let her stay there much longer."

"I know," Alex said in a whisper. "But she never really dealt with the grief she felt when he died, she just ran from it. Started a whole new life. She claimed she was okay but she never talked about him, only came here once and she didn't linger."

Pietro looked at Alex and could see she was puzzling something out in her head.

"She used Barnes like a band aid on a bullet hole and when that blew up in her face she just kept burying her feelings and building over top of them. This last week, with whatever happened with Barnes, her dad and now seeing Cherry." She took a deep breath and turned to him. "She's out of space to bury anything else and this is her starting to deal with it."

Tony stood in the kitchen at the Easton house with Nat, Sam, Bucky, Steve and Wanda. Thor and Vision had Cherry in the garage while Pepper, Happy, Banner, the Barton clan and Rhodey stayed at the hall to supervise and help wrap up.

"Alex just texted me. They took Red to the cemetery to see Charlie so we have plenty of time to do what needs done."

Sam, Bucky and Nat exchanged knowing looks but Wanda asked "Who's Charlie?"

At the same time Steve spoke up saying "What needs to be done?"

Tony watched the reactions of those gathered in front of him. "I can tell we all aren't on the same page. In the interest of not having to repeat myself, let's go put the she-devil to sleep and talk in the garage."

The group exited and Tony pulled down an old folding chair to sit on as he told them a shortened version of Annie's history. They didn't need to know all the gory details but to get some of them to agree with his plan and for Wanda to understand what needed to be done they had to know at least the foundation.

"So this is Annie's mother and you have been paying her to stay away for almost twenty five years?" Thor was fighting a war inside himself. Knowing that paying off a woman for decades was not ideal but when that woman was what Tony had hinted at...

"And you want Wanda to erase the memory of her daughter so Annie doesn't have to worry about her coming around again?" Sam clarified.

Tony eyed them all and could see the division. Rogers and Vision were clearly against it. Thor, Wanda and Wilson, on the fence, and Romanoff and Barnes agreed with him. "Basically, yes."

"And then what?" Steve chimed in. "We drop her in a field not knowing who she is and you stop the checks and go on our merry ways."

"Whoa there, Cap, I'm not saying wipe her clean like a chalkboard. I'm suggesting Wanda pokes around and takes out the bits that include Red. There shouldn't be that many and the booze may have done most of the hard work already. I know where she lives, we take her and her car there, Wanda puts her in dreamland and adds in something about a lottery payout she won years ago. I keep sending the checks so she's taken care of, she gets on with her life and Annie never has to deal with seeing her again."

"What if one day Annie decides she wants to reconcile with her mom?" Steve pressed.

"She won't." Bucky didn't raise his eyes from the floor as he spoke. I would rather join him right here and now than ever have to go through this absolute bullshit feeling again. "You didn't hear what I did. As far as she's concerned that," he bobbed his head towards the sleeping form. "Is not her mother."