Some Things Never Sleep

Chapter Thirteen

A week had passed since Emma and Steve's late night talk in the living room. Emma was still learning how to be comfortable around everyone. Her days consisted of eating breakfast with Steve in the kitchen before they would walk aimlessly around the tower for a couple of hours. It was a big tower to explore. Mostly they walked around while Steve talked and Emma listened to him.

He told her about his life before the ice...about what it was like growing up in early 20th century Brooklyn, New York. She looked at him in fascination as he told her all about her great grandmother Sarah Rogers. Emma smiled in wonder when Steve told her how he'd fallen in love with her grandmother at first sight. He mentioned her grandmother was very much alive although she was sadly living in a nursing home in D.C. Steve suggested that they might take a trip down to D.C. sometime to visit her. Emma faintly remembered her grandmother from when she was little but it was more like blurry images in her mind.

After their walk around the tower they would spend some time with the other Avengers. Mostly it was just Steve chatting with them while Emma listened. Every now and then they asked her for her opinion on something and Emma would say something quietly but she wasn't intent on saying too much. They would return to the apartment for a few hours and read in silence, taking quick breaks with to chat about the books they were reading. Emma enjoyed the time she spent with Steve although she would never admit it aloud.

Sometimes even Sam or Natasha would stop by to spend an hour or so with them. They didn't stop by every day but it happened enough. The granddaughter and grandfather duo would then head back up to the main floor for dinner with the others. They would spend a couple hours up there having dinner and chatting amongst each other...well, Steve did at least. Emma was perfectly fine with just watching everyone interact, keeping to herself. The Avengers seemed very eager to include her in on the conversation but Emma was more than happy to just stay silent and watch.

They would then return to the apartment after dinner. Emma would take a shower before going to bed, falling asleep whilst reading one of the books off her bookshelf. She was now on the fifth Harry Potter book and wondered how Hydra had managed to keep such an amazing book series out of her sight for so long. Her brief stint of happiness, however, didn't last long because she almost always woke up from a nightmare.

It was always the same. She used to have nightmares about her time spent in the glass tank. She would dream about snakes constricting around her, taking the place of the plastic tubing she could still recall. Something had changed within the past couple of months. Her nightmares shifted from the injections and instead kept showing her the same thing over and over again. Every night Emma would relive the night that she finally broke...the night she lost what she had left of her innocence. Emma never told Steve or anyone about the nightmares. She didn't want to burden them with the knowledge of her pain and suffering. They had already helped her so much.

"What are you thinking so hard about, Mini Cap?" Emma looked up from her plate which she had probably been staring at for the past fifteen minutes. She noticed that she had everyone's attention even Steve's as Tony asked her the question. Emma wondered why he insisted on calling her such a ridiculous nickname. Still...it was better than "Asset" or "Stupid Girl".

"I'm just thinking about how annoying that nickname is." Emma told Tony, quickly steering attention away from what was actually on her mind. Tony only smirked as he looked back at the blonde teenager. She had been at the tower for almost two weeks already but she was quickly becoming more and more at ease. Her suspicious, paranoid persona was slowly fading away and a sassy, serious one was taking that persona's place.

"Why is it annoying? You are technically a Mini Cap...you know with being Capsicle's granddaughter and all." Tony said in his usual snarky tone.