Chapter 79

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My room is dark, the shadows create intricate designs on the wall from the light on my alarm clock which read it was 3:18 in the morning. Someone has been going off at the punching bag for the past hour, someone else blasts music in their ears and another sobs into their pillow. 

It's been three days since we returned to the compound and every day it continued to get emptier and emptier. First Thor left, then Rocket and Nebula, and finally Carol left. Natasha, Steve, Tony, Pepper, Bruce and I are the only ones left in the compound. Pepper told us that they are going to be leaving within the next few days and my heart throbbed. I guess they don't want me to go with them after all. I knew they would not want me to be with them. 

My fingers wrap themselves around Bella's puppy color, her dog tags are missing because they were put on the one she is... was wearing. All I have left of her are the photos and the memories of her. But for Evan, I barely have anything. I barely had time with him, I barely shared words with him. I barely even had a week with him. I mean, in some perspective I did have over a year with him, but it did not feel like that. It was next to nothing in this endless nightmare called life. 

Whispers fill the hallway outside my door and I face my fixed ear upward, yet I still can't make them out. The punching stopped but the sobs and music continued. A knock sounds at my door and the whispers erupt into an argument. I push off the bed, waddle over to the door, and push the button to open the door. Natasha and Tony stared at me with wide eyes and Nat slaps him. 

"I told you she was awake," Tony grumbles, rubbing his arm. It's good to see him up and about.

"What is this about?" I rub my eyes and cross my arms and lean against the door frame. 

"We were just talking," Tony begins pointing between the two of them, "about you actually." 

"I mean, I'd guess so if you knocked on my door." Natasha chuckles under her breath and looks between the two of us.

"I missed the two of you," she smiles, "especially your witty comments." Tony and I share a gaze and he winks at me. I shake my head which only brings a smirk to his lips. 

"Back to the topic," Tony stuffs his hands in his pockets, "we were talking about you because I was wondering if you would like to come with me and Pepper." 

I balance myself on the frame, chills send themselves up and down my arms. Not the bad ones, the good ones. The ones that warm your chest for a few moments, the ones that could send a smile on your lips. And it almost did. My head begins to slowly nod and I remember the time I was standing in Fury's office when Pepper and Tony had first asked me to become a full-time Avenger and live with them in the tower. But this is different. This is them asking me to live with them, not be required to do anything but spend time there. My gaze flows over to Natasha. 

"This is your decision, Grace," she simply says shaking her head and I respond with a nod. Just a nod. Tony's eyes light up, and I have hope. Hope that we will move on somehow from all of this. Hope that I will be able to become something more than just a failure. 

"Pack tonight, kid," Tony explains, "we'll be leaving in the morning." 

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I throw my clothes from across the room and into the suitcase. I filled most of them so far and I'm almost done. Tony dropped off some boxes so I can pack some more of my things for the house but they aren't even filled yet. I fold up a shirt and my fingers cramp up, then my hands, then my arms. The cramp travels up my legs and my whole body freezes. Chills ignite in my body and continue in waves on my skin creating goosebumps as the hair on the back of my neck raises. 

I try to move my head but it refuses to, the only things that I can move are my eyes and they widen when the scene of the room begins to change. My room shrinks and the color changes to a beige as the bed transfers into another. But the person who sits on the bed smirks up at me. A person I never expected to see again, one who died just four weeks ago in front of me. His green eyes piercing their way through me and send warmth of hope throughout my chest. 

"Did you really believe you've seen the last of me?" Loki chuckles. 

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