My Father's Glorious Purpose

Day 1

Pepper POV

I look at my watch and then go into Leilani's room. It's 7:45, and it's time to get her up. Yesterday, everyone left on a mission, including Tony and Nat. They both have her on a schedule to try to help her, and it starts now. I slowly shake Leilani. "It's time to get up, honey." She stirs and looks at me. She mumbles something in russian and then says it in english "I'm cold." I nod and then look around the room to find a sweatshirt or something. "I find a sweatshirt and hand it to her. "Ok, come on." Leilani gets out of bed and gets dressed.

I'm on my phone in the hall when she comes out of her room. We get in the elevator and go downstairs to the kitchen. Leilani sits on a stool and looks at me. "Are they back yet?" I shake my head. "Not yet. You do need to eat now." I hand her a smoothie, and she drinks it. "With all of them gone, you don't have any training. You do have ballet and your school stuff, though." She nods. "Do I have to do the school stuff?" I nod. "You do, but that's all you have to do today." She groans, "Fine.".

She gets down from the stool and goes to where she does school stuff. I follow her and sit on the other side of the room so I can do my own work. I watch her pull out a notebook and then write or draw in it. I look at my computer and see that I have a ton of emails I need to attend to.

A few hours later...

It's now dinner time, and the team still hasn't come back. I look at Leilani. She fell asleep a few minutes ago after ballet. "Hey, Lei." I shake her, and she slowly opens her eyes. "You need to get up it's almost time for dinner." She slowly sits up and asks, "Are they back?" I shake my head. "Not yet, honey." I sigh. "Soon, ok?" She nods and gets off the couch.

We go to the kitchen so I can her make dinner, and I hand it to Leilani. "I'm not hungry." "You need to eat." "No," she whines. I look at her, and her eyes are bright green. "Ok. What's going on in your head". She hesitates and then answers, "I want them to come back." "I know. I want that too." "Do you know when they're coming back?" I shake my head. I take a deep breath. "Try to eat something ok." Leilani picks at her food. "If you're not going to eat, then you should get ready for bed it's almost time.".

She mumbles something and goes into the living room. I follow her and sit on the couch, facing her. "Let's head upstairs." Leilani shakes her head. "Why". "I want to wait for them." "I know, how about 15 minutes, and then we go up?" "Ok". While we wait, I check my phone to see if there is anything on the news. There's nothing.

15 minutes pass, and I look over, and Leilani is asleep. I pick her up and carry her to bed. I wake her up enough to change clothes and then tuck her in.