The One who Survived

What is Sleep?

Howard's POV

I haven't rested since Peggy made that call. It's been 4 days since Olivia officially went missing. Even though I hadn't seen her since she was 5, I still adore her as if she were my own child.

I kept promising myself that if, no when I find her I will never let her go. I'll be the uncle I was when she was little and take her places. The police were starting to lose hope, there were no clues besides those anonymous fingerprints collected on the jacket Dennis had given Olivia to wear. Whoever was behind this was really good at cleaning up after themselves.

Maria and I are flying out to New York to stay with Peggy until Olivia's found. We'd tried to call her multiple times with no answer. Once we landed in New York, we met up with Ana and Jarvis and headed towards Peggy's apartment.

We got to her floor and it was swarming with people. "God, she must be so stressed." Maria stated as we pushed through the people to get to the door. It was locked and close, so we did the only thing we could. Jarvis slowly knocked on the door.

There was movement on the other side and I saw an eye peek through the hole. "Just a moment." A Male voice called from inside. We all looked strangely at one another. Had we gotten the wrong address? Or was Peggy Carter seeing someone?

The door opened a few minutes later and a young boy was standing on the inside. "I think we may have the wrong address." Jarvis said.

"Your Howard Stark right?" The kid asked. I nodded and he opened the door a bit more. "She's in the last bedroom down the hall."

I quickly went inside and everyone else followed. I stopped in front of the door and knocked softly. "Who is it?" I heard a voice call. I turned the handle and opened the door slightly. The room smelled of vanilla and on the bed was the person we were looking for.

"Peggy." I said. She looked up at me and I could clearly see the dark circles under her eyes. "Oh, God Peg. Look at you." I walked inside the room and bear hugged the women. She immediately began sobbing and grabbing onto my shirt.

"Your too late," she managed to say between sobs.

"What do you mean?"

"They called off the search 6 hours ago." She said in a raspy voice. She sobbed harder and my heart broke. They called off the search!? How could they do that! An 11 year old girl is missing and they just called off the search, just like that!?

"What!? How could they do that!? She still out there! I know she is!" Maria screamed. Peggy's cries filled the whole house as she attempted to calm down enough to explain.

"They found her dress." She hiccuped. "It was all stained and soiled in blood. Her blood." She cried. Maria and Ana rushed into the room and wrapped their arms around her.

We all sat there for a few minutes, just taking in everything. Peggy's cried slowly died down until she feel asleep. "Let's let her sleep." Ana said leading everyone out of the room.

We all went into the living room and found a man and the boys sitting on the couch together. "Sorry." Jarvis said making the look up. "Who might you two be?"

The boy stood up and turned to us. "I'm Dennis and this is my father Fred." Wait, this was Dennis. Olivia had always talked about a boy across the hallway, who was really active.

"So your the infamous Dennis?" I questioned. The boy nodded and took a sip from his water. "Olivia always wrote about you being there."

I walked over and pulled the boy into my arms. "The police may be done looking, but I'm sure as hell not!" I said. Dennis began to sob and mutter different words.