The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 88

I look over my shoulder to make sure my door was closed as I take the energy pill. My hands shake from the lack of sleep, it began to catch up to me in the past few weeks. Bags hang from my eyes and cheeks began to pale from the lack of energy, I have not left my room in two days. I can't let them see me like this, I can't scare Morgan.

A knock sounds at my door and I throw the empty bottle into the bin with the others before forcing the lid down over them. I sprint my way to the bed and toss the blankets over me. My heart pounds and breath is heavy, I try to calm them but nothing works. It never felt like this, not in the past year I've been doing this. Ever since my nightmares returned, I started to scare Morgan with my screams.

"Grace?" It was Pepper, the door cracks open and the light shines in through the doorway. "Hey, I was wondering if you wanted some dinner." She walks in and over to my desk before setting down the plate. She sighs and begins to make her way out of the room before she crashes open the trash bin. The empty bottles of energy pills pour out.

Silence fills the room and I peek out of the covers to find Pepper kneeling over them, picking each one up and placing it back into the bin. When she's done she sits down on the edge of the bed. Her hand reaches out and shakes my thigh.

"Grace," she questions once I show I am awake, "what are these?"

My gaze stays on her eyes and like a toddler, I shrug my shoulders. She sighs and sets the bin down before sending me the look I know all too well. I hold myself up and feel my muscles shake from the effort.

"They are energy pills."

"I can read, Grace," she scoffs and I smile at her sarcasm. "Why are there so many here?" I shrug once more and stare at the bottles, finally coming down to what I'm doing to myself. What if the warning comes any day now? What if I'm not ready when they do come back? "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"I didn't want to scream anymore," tears begin to stream down my cheeks. "I didn't want to scream and scare you guys anymore. I wanted the nightmares to stop." I sob and wrap my arms around my shoulders, Pepper wraps hers around me and I cry into her chest.

"I understand," she strokes my hair and rests her chin on my head, "but you need to sleep, you need to take care of yourself." For Morgan, and for everyone else so I could bring them all back.

"I'm scared," I whisper into her chest. I've never been this afraid of doing something in my life, especially something that I used to be able to do every day. "I'm scared to sleep and seeing everything again."

"I know," she says, "I think I have something that could help." She quickly leaves and returns with a box of pills in her hand. I wipe the tears on my sleeve and study it. "These are pills that Tony took when he had trouble sleeping. They stop the brain from producing dreams and just put it into a soundless sleep. Banner created them for Tony, but since Morgan was born he has not had much use for them." I smile at Banner. I miss all of them and it has been too long since I've seen them. "Now eat your dinner and take one of these so you can get some rest."

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I slept for three days straight, and she was right, there were not any nightmares and it was the first soundless sleep I have had in a long time. I find myself, once again, doing the things I love. Reading, playing with Morgan, and even drawing. I pulled the sketchbook from its place in the closet and fanned through them as my toes graze the water.

The breeze flows through my hair and the water sloshing against the deck create a beat that makes me smile. It's nice to finally find a way to make the nightmares stop, to finally find my peace while I wait for us to create the real destiny that was meant to be in the first place.