WAS IT TOO TOUGH TO LOVE ME?
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FANDOM
MCU
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GENRE
ANGST
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WARNINGS
SUICIDE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, ABANDONMENT
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RELATIONSHIP
DOLLEY BARNES AND ELLA BARNES
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NOTES
enjoy
~⭗~
Ella stood, in cuffs, watching as the other Flag Smashers were loaded into an armored vehicle. She didn't know why they weren't putting her in, too. Maybe they were going to kill her on the spot. She wouldn't mind. Without Karli, what was the point of living?
As she stared blankly ahead, a woman ran to her and wrapped her arms around Ella. The teen stiffened.
"Oh, Ella Bella, my baby," the woman nearly sobbed. "My baby. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."
Ella froze. No one called her Ella Bella except two people. Susie, her old babysitter, and–
"Ma," Ella breathed, looking up at the woman.
"Ella," Dolley replied, hugging her daughter tighter. "Oh, my baby. I'm so sorry." She kept babbling, crying into the top of Ella's head. Finally, the girl shoved her away.
"Why are you here?" Ella asked. "How are you here?" She paused, remembering something. Dangria. A goddess. A cave. "Dangria saved you."
Dolley nodded. "So that someday I could see you again," she whispered, cupping Ella's cheek.
Ella batted her hand away. "Stop," she snapped. "Stop acting like you care, like everything's alright, like you ever loved me!"
"Ella, sweetheart, I always loved you–"
Ella cut her mother off. "You forced me to live in a car, leaving to wherever on your every whim. You left me in said car while you went off to sleep with random men. You abandoned me in a hotel room and jumped off a cliff!"
Dolley cupped Ella's cheek again. "Oh, sweetie," she said gently. "I meant to come back." She couldn't defend the other things, Ella knew. She was going for the jugular, reminding Dolley of all the mistakes she made. And she made a lot. "And I didn't jump. Your Uncle Bucky, he threw me off the cliff."
Ella looked over at the man. "He tried to kill you." Not a question, a statement. She didn't know him well. She'd figured out he was her uncle after he'd told her his full name when John Walker was interrogating her. He'd fought her on several occasions.
His friend was responsible for Karli's death.
And James Buchanan Barnes himself was the reason Ella was abandoned. The reason she spent six years in foster care. The reason she was tossed from home to home. The reason she was raped at eleven years old.
The reason she'd spent all those years alone at the bottom of the ocean.
"I'll kill him," Ella hissed, trying to lunge at Bucky. However, her mother grabbed her by the cuffs.
"He wasn't in his right mind," Dolley said gently. "HYDRA–"
"I don't give a damn about fucking HYDRA!" Ella shouted. "He threw you off a cliff! He made me an orphan at five years old!" She tried to shove Dolley off. Well, she easily could've done it. She could've pushed Dolley down hard enough to kill her. But she didn't. She couldn't. She didn't know why.
Dolley put a gentle hand on Ella's cheek. "He was brainwashed, Ella Bella," she said softly, slowly, as if speaking to a small child. It infuriated Ella.
"Don't call me that," the teen spat. She felt tears welling in her eyes. Why was she crying? Because she was angry? God, feelings were too confusing.
Dolley's face fell. "Ella–" Her daughter glared. "Eleanor. You're going to come home with me, okay? With me and your brother."
"No," Ella said. "I'm not going anywhere with you. I'd rather go to jail."
"Ella..." Dolley reached out for her. Bucky came over and whispered something in Dolley's ear. The woman teared up. "Ella, baby, you'll be home with me soon. You'll be home with me and your brother, we'll be a proper family, Ella, I promise–" She walked beside Ella, babbling like a madwoman as the girl was loaded into an armored vehicle separate from the other Flag Smashers.
As Ella sat, alone, she thought back to something her mother had said. She must've misheard or something. Maybe Dolley meant a dog or something. Or maybe...
Ella had a brother.
