The Nightmare
WANDA POV:
Pietro looked at me from the corner of the room. "You got rid of your tube, good," he muttered to me.
"I did it Pietro! I'm strong now, right?"
"Hmm, earlier I would have said that you were strong, getting rid of the tube and all, but now, I'm not so sure."
My stomach dropped. I tried so hard! "Why Pietro? What can I do to be stronger? I don't want to be weak!" I begged from my corner of the room.
"You asked for help, a very weak thing to do. A strong person would continue to work through it on their own, not ask their pathetic excuse of a mom for help." I felt a pang of pain from how he described Natasha.
"I didn't ask for help Pietro, I just told Nat what was happening," I tried to reason with him.
"No, you asked for help which is unacceptable. Natasha is not your mother! Don't you know that! Mother is extremely mad at you for replacing her, she wants you to know that she hates you. Natasha doesn't want you, she hates being your friend. She wanted you to die when you sliced your wrists-"
"No," I cut him off, putting my hands over my ears. "You're lying! Nat loves me! She saved me when I cut my wrists, she wouldn't have done that if she didn't love me!" I cried.
Pietro smirked at me as he came towards me. "Poor sister," he placed his hand on my cheek. "You really are delusional. Natasha. Doesn't. Love. You," he told me, pausing between every word, trying to let it sink in.
"No, she does!" I sobbed. Then Pietro picked his hand up and slapped me across the face. I looked up at him, shocked.
"She doesn't! She never has and she never will! You're just a burden to her, she hates you. It makes sense, I don't know how anyone could love you, even someone as messed up as Natasha." I was crying too hard to respond. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. Technically, you did what I asked you to do, you got rid of the tube."
I looked up at him and something in his face changed, he seemed to soften a bit as he knelt down next to me. "Wanda, I am just trying to protect you." I didn't see how threatening to kill me and telling me that Nat didn't love me was protecting me but it was nice that he was showing me comfort, not anger.
"Can you tell mother I'm sorry? I love her and I'm not trying to replace her!" I cried to him. He shook his head.
"Tell her yourself," he gestured to the back of the room. My mom was sitting in a chair.
The dream then morphed and everyone was sitting at our old dinner table, Pietro, papa, mother, and me. We were all eating dinner and they were all laughing. I was confused but I started eating silently, not laughing but watching.
All of a sudden, a loud noise went off and a bomb flew through our window, going off and creating a gaping hole in the middle of our apartment floor. Mother and papa fell down, screaming for me as Pietro dragged me under the bed.
I looked over to see if Pietro was okay and was shocked to see several blood stains on his shirt, right where the bullet holes had been. "Pietro!" I called out as blood started pouring out of his mouth and onto the floor.
"Good luck," he choked out as he smiled and then he became limp on the floor.
"Wanda! Wanda!" I heard someone yelling and I looked out from under the bed to see Nat standing in the apartment.
"Nat!" I yelled as I scrambled out from under the bed and into her arms. She pushed me away from her and looked at me.
"How dare you do this to your family?" she shouted as she held my wrists tightly.
"What? Nat, you're hurting me."
"I don't care, you are a terrible person who should die with your family!"
"Nat, no! Please!" She pushed me back until I was on the edge of the gaping hole. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do anything!" She gave a gentle push and I fell down the hole.
I surprisingly didn't die and instead lay awake at the bottom of the hole. I could see Nat peering down from the top. "Please Nat! Help me!"
All of a sudden, an arm up from beside me and grabbed onto my shirt. Soon, several arms were popping out of the ground and were grabbing a hold of me, pulling me down under the rubble of the building.
"You are a disgrace," I heard my mother mumble in my ear. I turned my head and saw my entire family standing there, covered in blood and dust. "This is what you get for replacing us with Natasha," mother spit out.
"Help me!" I cried to them, trying to crawl my way to them.
They all smirked and waved at me as I got dragged under the rubble screaming.
I shot up in bed with a scream. I was briefly aware of the light turning on next to me and some movement in the bed next to me. I started crying and tried to get out of the blankets, gasping for air.
"Wanda, calm down!" I heard from next to me but I was too busy trying to get air in my lungs. All I could think of was getting buried under the rubble by all of the corpses' hands.
I felt a hand on my arm and I whipped around to see what it was, scared to see a dusty, bloody hand. I was pleasantly surprised to see a flesh hand on my arm which was connected to none other than Natasha.
Instead of throwing myself into her arms to cry, I started clawing at my chest, trying to bring in air. She must've realized what was going on because she quickly climbed out of bed and opened the window, letting the cold air in.
I didn't move from the bed so she came over and picked me up. I clung to her as she brought me to the open window. She sat on the chair in front of the window and leaned out a little bit, allowing my head to be out in the fresh air. She was still holding me, my head resting on her shoulder, as I breathed in the fresh air. Her hand was rubbing soothing circles on my back while I cried.
I was relieved to see that Nat was offering me comfort and didn't hate me, like Pietro had told me in the dream. She didn't say anything while I tried to regain my composure and for that, I was glad.
She hummed softly but other than that, no words were spoken between us. I didn't particularly feel like reliving the dream and telling her about it but I knew I should. She always made me feel better but right now, I couldn't bring myself to share my dream with her, instead, focusing solely on my breathing and how nice it felt to be breathing fresh air.
It took me almost an hour to calm down and even once I had stopped crying, I was still shaking and terrified of sleeping. I was still hugging Nat in front of the open window but it was getting a little chilly.
"Can we close the window?" I asked timidly from my spot on her shoulder.
"Of course," she said gently as she turned slightly to reach the window. She closed it and then leaned against it with me, continuing to rub my back. "Are you okay?" she asked me calmly.
I shrugged. I wasn't crying anymore but I definitely wasn't okay, I couldn't get the dream out of my head.
"Do you want to move back to the bed?" I nodded so Nat stood up with me in her arms and moved over to the bed. Once we got there, she tried to set me down but I held onto her tightly. "Honey, if you want to get back in bed, I'm going to need you to let go for a second," she informed me quietly.
I was embarrassed by my need to stay with her but I was honestly terrified that if I let go of her, she would never let me hug her again. It was only the dream talking but it was a real fear.
She must've realized that I wasn't going to let go because she sighed softly as she sat down on the bed, shifting me to sit in her lap. I had yet to look at her, the side of my head resting on her shoulder, facing away from her. She scooted herself until her back was against the headboard of the bed.
"Can you talk to me sweetheart?" she asked me gently.
"I don't think I can," I mumbled to her. I wasn't ready to talk through my dream with her.
"We don't have to talk about your dream, we can talk about whatever you want. Do you need anything?"
"Do you love me?" I asked as I finally turned my head to face her.
She looked surprised but responded smoothly with, "Of course baby, I love you so much." I gripped onto her tighter after hearing that, trying to force Pietro's words out of my head. I knew that his words were just the cause of my brain making things up in the dream but they still hurt.
"Am I a burden?" I asked after remembering something else that Pietro told me.
"No baby, you are most definitely not a burden. I love having you around so much! Life without you would be terrible." I felt my chest loosen a bit at these words but I still wasn't ready to sleep.
Then came the million dollar question, "Are you ready to talk about your nightmare?"
I started to panic again but I tried to keep my breathing under control to the best of my abilities. I was still laying on Nat's chest but I had to pull away so that I could breathe better.
"You don't have to just yet honey," she told me quickly, trying to ease my panic. She continued to rub my back even though I was no longer being held by her.
"I've gotta go," I said as I stumbled out of the bed.
"Wanda, it's 3 o'clock honey, come back to bed. You're okay."
I didn't listen and instead mumbled, "I've gotta go to the gym," as I walked out the door, Natasha following. I got all the way to the gym and walked to the corner with the supply closet. I ran into the room and shut the door, locking it so that Nat couldn't come in.
"Wanda," I heard from outside the door. "Can you please open the door? I just want to talk to you."
"No," I mumbled as I sat with my back against the wall. It was dark in the closet and I couldn't find the light switch so I made a small ball of red energy come out from my hands to use as a light source.
"Okay, well can I sit here and talk to you?" she asked. I didn't respond but she started talking anyways. "Steve and I were thinking of upping your training a little bit. Maybe do some more power control? It's up to you but if you want, maybe we can work on it a little bit later?"
I knew what she was doing, she was trying to distract me. To be honest, it was working. "Okay," I said quietly. "That sounds good."
"Great! We will still start off a little easier but we can work our way up until you are ready for the field, okay?"
"Okay." For the next two hours or so, Nat told me stories of missions, when she first met Cooper, hanging out with the Avengers, and anything else she could think of.
It was nearing 4:45 when she asked me to open the door again. "Wanda, do you want to go on a run with Steve and me?"
I was kind of surprised that she was willing to let me tag along. "Sure," I said. "Don't you leave at 6?" I asked her.
"Usually we do, yes."
"Well it's way too early to go then," I said before I opened the door. I still thought that it was still close to 3 in the morning.
"Well we're going to leave at 5 this morning because we want to try a new trail, it's already 4:45." I was shocked. I had woken up from the nightmare at around 1:30, over three hours ago!
I stood up and opened the door, seeing Nat sitting right next to it. She stood up as I walked out and she pulled me into a quick hug which I melted into.
"Alright, why don't we quickly go get dressed and then we can go?" she suggested as we went back up to my room.
I grabbed a light long-sleeve shirt and leggings and went into the bathroom to get changed. It was still pretty chilly outside since it was so early in the morning so hopefully Nat wouldn't be suspicious of the long sleeves.
I snapped the band on my wrist a few times, trying to stay quiet, before I exited the bathroom. "You ready?" Nat asked me as she glanced at my outfit.
"Yup," I said and I followed her downstairs where we met Steve.
"Good morning ladies," Steve said as we left the compound and got in the car.
"I thought we were going for a run?" I asked as I climbed in the backseat.
"We are, we are going to an area that's a little far though so we are taking a car to get there," Nat told me as Steve and her got in the front seat. I nodded as we took off, heading to the place where we were going to run.
NATASHA POV:
I woke up when I felt Wanda start moving. She started whimpering and I saw that she had tears streaming down her face. I gently moved her so that she was lying next to me on the bed instead of having her head on my chest. I grunted as I turned over, my back tensing and spasming. I quickly remembered about being thrown into a wall. I cracked my back and rubbed it a bit while I tried to wake Wanda up.
She started to thrash around a little more but there were still no powers coming out of her hands. I shook her gently but nothing was working.
Her thrashing became increasingly more intense and her breathing started to get ragged. She was whimpering and mumbling things. "Pietro, mother, papa," I heard their names over and over again as she wrapped herself up in the comforter.
"Wanda," I said as I shook her harder. Then she screamed. It was a high pitched scream laced with terror as she shot up in the bed, still stuck in the comforter. I quickly moved to turn on the lamp and then moved back towards her, trying to get her to calm down.
I heard her sobs start while turning on the light so I placed a hand on her arm and she whipped around with a terrified look on her face. She seemed to calm down slightly and I expected her to jump into my arms so I was surprised when she just looked at me as she started clawing at her chest. She couldn't breathe!
I quickly got out of bed and ran to the window, letting the fresh air in. I wanted her to follow me but I turned around and saw her panicking in the bed. I went to her and picked her up, bringing her to the open window. I felt her chest start moving up and down quickly, greedily breathing in the cold night's air. I sat down and let her rest, her head laying on my shoulder.
I hummed a Russian lullaby to calm her down because I didn't think talking was going to help at this moment. I rubbed her back but didn't say anything, just waiting for her to calm down.
It took her awhile but soon, Wanda's breathing had gone back to normal and she was starting to stop crying. "Can we close the window?" she asked me quietly and I immediately turned to close it.
"Are you okay?" I asked her as she still hadn't tried to move from my hold. All she did was shrug. "Do you want to go back to the bed?" I asked her and she nodded so I walked back to the bed.
I tried to set her down but I soon realized that she wasn't going to let me go so after I tried to convince her to let me go, I gave up and moved onto the bed, leaning against the headboard.
We had a quick conversation with me trying to convince her to open up to me so I was surprised when I heard her next question. "Do you love me?"
"Of course baby, I love you so much," I told her, trying to hide my surprise from the question. I felt her grip onto me tighter so I pulled her closer and rubbed her back.
"Am I a burden?" Where were these questions coming from? I pretty much knew that something from her nightmare brought these questions on but did she really think these things?
"No baby, you are most definitely not a burden. I love having you around so much! Life without you would be terrible," I had to bite my tongue to prevent me from asking What? or Why? knowing that it would only upset her. I just had to do my best to reassure her that she wasn't a burden and that she was loved very much. I tried again to get her to tell me about her nightmare but this time, she just pushed me away and tried to leave the room.
She mumbled something about the gym as she left the room, I followed her but didn't try to stop her.
She walked all the way to the gym and when we entered, she walked towards the back corner. Before I could realize what she was doing, she had run into the supply closet and shut the door. I heard the lock and I knew that she didn't want me to follow her. I could've easily opened the door but I knew that I needed to give her this, I couldn't just force myself to be near her, no matter how much I wanted to.
After she told me that she wasn't going to open the door, I started talking to her about training. Steve and I had talked a little bit about increasing her training. She was getting stronger and I couldn't keep her moving bean bags for too much longer. I mentioned her going into the field but I still wasn't going to allow her to fight with us.
I told her about some missions I had been on, special moments with the avengers, meeting Clint's kids, and anything else I could think of to try to coax her out of the room.
She eventually opened the door after I mentioned going on a run with Steve and we went back to our room to get changed. Steve and I had been going on runs since I got back, and we had found a place that was further than our normal run, but had beautiful views.
I texted him while Wanda was getting changed, letting him know that Wanda was coming with and that we would be taking a car. If it was just Steve and I, we would have hiked up to the running spot but I didn't want Wanda to get too tired, so we would take the car. Our excuse would be that the spot was just too far from the compound to walk.
Wanda and I met Steve downstairs as we climbed into the car. I was going to sit with Wanda but I wanted her to feel normal, not like she needed someone to watch her and be with her every waking moment so I got in the front seat with Steve instead. Wanda questioned us as to why we were using a car but we quickly gave her the planned excuse and took off.
We quickly arrived at the running trail and we climbed out of the car. We stretched a bit before we started jogging. Steve and I were going to take it easy since we had Wanda with us.
Wanda seemed to keep up with us well so we ran a little quicker. She continued to keep our pace but we didn't want to go any faster so we went with a light run. No one talked during the run, instead we all just enjoyed the scenery. We were running through a park type place with lots of trees and other plants. There was a lake next to us so we ran near that, watching the ducks floating around.
We had just finished the trail when Wanda stumbled next to me. I turned to look at her and saw that she was still running but she had a look of pain on her face.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," she panted out as we continued running. I slowed down a bit but that just made Wanda run faster so I continued to run at my earlier pace.
We finished the trail and ended up back to the car. Wanda was limping slightly as we started walking to the car.
"What happened?" I asked her.
"Nothing," she snapped as she climbed in the car. I looked to Steve but he just shrugged as we got in the car.
"How about we go out for breakfast?" Steve offered as he started driving back to the compound.
"Sounds good to me, what do you think Wanda?" I asked, turning to look at her. She nodded so we ended up at a pancake house near the compound.
Wanda continued to limp as we got in the restaurant and seemed relieved when we finally sat down. The limp was barely noticeable but I noticed it.
We quickly ate and then headed back to the house. I watched Wanda as we went back into the house and was upset to see that the limp was still there and it was getting worse.
When we got to our bedroom, I spun Wanda around, making her fall on the bed.
"What are you doing?" she questioned angrily as I started to pull off her shoe.
I rolled up her leggings slightly to see that her ankle was about twice the size as it normally was. "Oh my gosh! What happened?" I asked as I turned her ankle around gently, looking it over.
"I tripped," she mumbled. "I'm sorry."
"Did you trip during the last lap? Don't be sorry honey," I told her. She nodded to me and I was slightly upset that she had run an entire lap even after she hurt herself. "Why didn't you tell us to stop?" I asked her.
"I didn't want to worry you or ruin your run," she told me quietly.
"You wouldn't have ruined our run. Well let's go get some ice on this and then maybe we can have Tony look at it."
"It's just a sprain," she told me.
"Hmm, maybe. Let's see if the ice makes some of the swelling go down," I said as I helped her up. She insisted on walking herself so I watched as she walked all the way to the kitchen. I really wanted to carry her so that she wasn't putting any weight on it but I needed to give her independence.
I tossed her an ice pack once we got to the kitchen, watching as she wrapped it around her ankle.
I asked FRIDAY to ask Tony to come look at Wanda's ankle. Wanda told me that it was just a sprain so I told her that Tony was just going to confirm that for me.
"What's up with the little witch?" Tony asked as he walked in, ruffling Wanda's hair. She quietly smoothed it back down and then went back to icing her ankle.
"She tripped on the last leg of our run but instead of telling anyone, she continued running. Now it's huge," I told him, glancing over at Wanda, expecting to see her rolling her eyes. I was surprised when she just stayed with her eyes down, watching her ankle.
"Alright," Tony huffed. "Let me have a look." He gently lifted Wanda's leg to examine her ankle. "Can you scan Wanda's ankle for me baby girl?" Tony asked FRIDAY.
"Of course sir," she replied. "It appears that she has a fractured ankle. Recommended treatment is ice and to prevent weight bearing for the next few weeks."
"You heard her, we'll get you fitted for a boot because apparently it's not bad enough for a cast. Until then, you are to stay off of it," Tony told her in a mock-stern tone. Wanda was silent, just nodding. I expected her to throw a fit over being placed in the boot. Apparently last night had more emotional damage than I thought.
"Wanda, how did you run an entire lap with a fractured ankle?" I asked her. She just shrugged. Wow, this girl was stronger than I thought. She continued to prove this time and time again and it amazed me more and more each time.