Daffodils: An Avengers Romance

Emotional Support Children

After 12 hours of not hearing back from Natasha, Thomas or Jason I was officially freaking out. Nervously mixing the pancake batter, I glanced over to see Wade and Peter deciding what movie they were going to watch now that Wade was staying over the entire weekend.

A decision that Peter happily informed me about as soon as he barged into my room bright and early on a Saturday morning.

After I fed the kids and left them watching The Lion King I made my way over to my room and called Steve.

"Aida?" Steve asked, clearly just having woken up, "What's wrong?"

"Did you hear back from Natasha last night?" I quickly asked. I could hear some rustling on the other end of the phone and the voice of Bucky asking Steve what was going on.

I was not going to question why Bucky and Steve were sharing a bed. I refused to think about that right now.

"No, I didn't" Steve said and I could feel my hands tremble.

"Steve, I'm scared," I whispered, not wanting the boys to hear me cry, "If something happened to them.."

I had just gotten them back. I refused to lose anyone again, not so soon.

"Doll, take a breath for me, ok?" Bucky's voice said through the phone and I focused on it, taking a deep breath, "We're going to be there in a couple minutes. Do you have anything to do until we get there?"

My mind was a mess but I could hear the chatter in the living room, "Peter," I said, "Peter is watching the Lion King with Wade. They're in the other room right now."

"Ok, good." Bucky said, "I want you to go out and sit there with them until we arrive. Can you do that, doll?"

I nodded but then remembered they couldn't see me, "Yeah, Bucky. I can do that."

"Good girl," He said and I had to take another deep breath after that. For someone trying to help me breathe normally, he sure wasn't helping with those nicknames.

"We'll be right there, Princess." Steve said as he got on the phone again and seriously, these men had to stop with the nicknames, "Just sit real pretty with Peter for a couple minutes."

Hanging up the call, I willed myself to move and go to the living room. I had to act normal, act like my whole world wasn't falling apart in front of me.

Thomas was missing. Again. And this time he took Jason with him.

"Aida!" Peter cried, patting the cushion next to him, "Sit here with me."
It's okay, it was going to be okay.

I kept repeating in my mind as I sat next to Peter, holding onto him tightly as he wiggled around to still be able to see both Wade and the film.

It's okay, it had to be.

Not even ten minutes later I heard a knock on the door, which I ignored because I was lost in my mind and didn't really process it.

"Aida, you should get that." Wade said, munching on popcorn. Nodding, I got up but it felt like I was moving through fog, my actions more automatic than anything.

As I opened the door, Steve rushed up to me checking me over while patting me on the face.

"Oh, princess." He said, "You're in deep aren't you?" Gently he led me past the kids and into my room where he sat down on the bed and sat me on his lap, hugging me.

Time passed by as I sat there, hearing his heartbeat and barely feeling as he swept his hand up and down my back.

"Aida, love, what do you hear right now?"