❪ 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄❫ * ˚ ✦ chapter three , DON'T EVER LEAVE ME AGAIN
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
❪ SAN DIEGO , CALIFORNIA ❫ june 2008
Belly rolls over on the couch, she tucks her hands underneath her head and hugs Mr. Snuffles tighter to her chest. Pepper bites on her bottom lip as she looks at the young girl, watching Tom and Jerry for the millionth time in the past three months. She stands outside the living room, with Happy.
It's been three months since Tony Stark was kidnapped in Afghanistan, and it's been three months since Isabella has said a word. It seems that without one of her parents, she forgets how to speak. She hasn't smiled or laughed either, she's just... been there, and they've been struggling to make sure she's okay because she won't communicate. Belly spends most of her days watching Tom and Jerry or some cartoon her and Tony always used to watch, she'll sometimes go down to the garage and curl up in the office chair looking at his half finished car but she doesn't do much else. It seems to be on the same repetitive day.
Pepper is starting to wonder if they should take her to a psychiatrist, if she might have some form of depression or something. Because it's not everyday a seven year old stops talking and stops functioning, basically.
"It's been three months, Happy." The strawberry blonde tells the security guard, "She hasn't spoken in three months, she barely does anything anymore. It's not good for her, she's seven."
Happy shakes his head a little, "I just... I don't think she has depression."
"I still think she needs to see someone, Happy. Her mom died when she was five and she gets nightmares about it." Pepper folds her arms over her chest, and purses her lips for a moment. Bella just opens and shuts her eyes tiredly, she barely even sleeps anymore.
"She just needs her dad."
"And we can't give her that." The woman hisses, "Rhodes has been looking for three months, they haven't found him." Happy just gently shakes his head, letting his eyes shut, "We have to think of the possibility that maybe he might be gone, and--"
