The One who Survived

It's Alright

Dennis's POV

       I looked around the room and then back at Peggy. "It's really her then?" She nodded and kept a tight hold on my hand.

       After my panic attack, I had calmed down enough to lift my head. Peggy had started explaining what had happened and how Olivia ended up here. The same age as when I saw her last. "You alright?" Peggy questioned. I nodded slightly before shaking my head.

       "I read the article about Steve, but how her? Does she really have that much of him in her?" I questioned. Peggy nodded in understanding and sat up against the pillows a bit more. "Do you think they're still here?"

       "Why don't you go find out?" Peggy said. She gestured to the closed door and he smiled at her.

       "I'll be back." I said. I kissed her forehead and headed over to the door. It took me almost an hour to search the floor for Olivia and the women, yet they were nowhere to be seen. There were a couple nurses here and there, but none of them had seen the little girl.

       So, I headed back to Peggy's room. When I opened the door there was a nurse helping Peg take her meds and helping her sit back up in the bed. "Did you find her?" I shook my head and sat down heavily in the chair. "I'm sure they'll be back soon, they probably went to get something to eat." Peggy said placing a hand on top of mine.

       "Yeah. You're probably right." I relaxed and watched as the nursed finished in the room before ushering me out of the room. "I'll see you later, call me if they show up here again?" Peggy nodded tiredly and pulled me in for a hug.

"Take care of yourself Dennis." She whispered as I began to leave.

"I promise." I walked outside and got into my car. Opening the glove box I pulled out the one thing I never left home without; a picture of me and Olivia taken the night of my 14th birthday. The picture wasn't printed until after Olivia was "buried" but I kept it with me. It was my reminder of who I was before my father passed, and a momentum of her. I sighed and started my car up, pulling out of the lot and heading towards home. It was gonna be a long night; that's for sure.

A Couple Days Later

I was quietly making myself some breakfast when my wall phone began ringing. At this point I'd given up on finding Olivia myself so I decided to wait until she went to visit Peggy again. That's why I began running; the phone was hung on the wall beside my bed but, because of the way the apartment was configured it was quite a walk between the kitchen and the bedroom.

I made it there with milliseconds to spare and quickly picked up the phone. "Hey Peg." I answered.

The line was silent. "Definitely not Peggy." I heard a deep male voice from the other side of the line say.

"Who is this! How'd you get this number? How do you know Peggy?" I questioned not even giving the man a second to answer.

"Calm down. I got the number off Peggy a couple days ago when I was visiting. I've been trying to track you down for a couple months now, Olivia really did write about you a lot it seems." My breath hitched in my throat as I realized who I was talking to.

"Steve Rogers." I whispered.

"Yeah sorry if I startled you, but Peggy talks highly of you. And apparently Olivia was really fond of you. In more ways than one it seems." Steve said. He sounded calm, way too calm. If I'd found out I had a daughter who died at 11, I definitely wouldn't be calm. Then I remembered... She's not dead.

Why wouldn't she have sought him out yet? I mean the mans her father... Maybe she doesn't realize he's alive. Or maybe she doesn't want him in her life? "Dennis.... Dennis!" You jumped at the sound of your name being shouted into your ear.

"What!? What? Sorry."

"Fallen asleep on me?" He questioned chuckling slightly. I couldn't help but chuckle myself before responding.

"I'm not that old yet."

"Yeah, sure whatever you say." I laughed at that one. Wow, she really is like her Dad.

"Okay other than for messing with me, what is this call really about?"

"Yeah, sorry. Um, I just wanna know more about her. What she was like and all that, and I figured that since everyone else mentioned is either dead or dying I should contact you." He explained. I heard the rustling of some papers and figured he was trying to write something down.

"Yeah sure. What do you have so far?" I asked sitting down and relaxing a bit.

"Not a lot, old letters and a couple of pictures of her with Peggy. Some S.H.E.I.L.D files about her as well. But not really anything about her life in school or anything."

I looked over at my closet to the old shoe box. "I might have a couple of things, but I don't think you'll like some of them."

"What do you mean I won't like them?"

"I think it's better if you see them. You coming back to Washington anytime soon?"

"No not for a couple weeks still, but I'd be willing to meet up if you are."

"Yeah sounds great. I can give you a cell number so you don't have to keep calling here."

"Um, actually if I'm being completely honest, I'm still unsure about how to work the contraption." He stated with a small chuckle. I couldn't help but chuckle myself.

"It's alright it took all of us quite a while to get used to using them as well."

We shared a chuckle once more before he hung up. I sat on the bed for a while, contemplating whether or not I should really show him the letters. I've never shown them to anyone, the only people that know they exist are me and... and Olivia.

Olivia. My mind began to wonder as the thought of never seeing her again arose in me. She's alive. I kept telling myself. She'll reach out when she wants to.

But what if she never wants to...

                                                                                                                                                                Word Count: 1092