Nightmares
Harley woke up around 4:00 am, and discovered Peter had fallen asleep on the couch, and that Pepper had finally went off to bed. They had decided that resting was the best course of action that way they would all be able to think clearly in the morning and be able to come up with a plan. A storm had woken Harley, and a strange feeling told him he should remain awake. He had gotten out of bed and made some rounds around the house to try to appease his uneasy feeling.
He had been to the Stark house before, a few times actually. Once shortly after he and Tony had met, then a again a few times for Christmas. Tony always made a point of making his presence known around Christmas even if it wasn’t a direct appearance. Harley always assumed it was his way of saying thank you for the first time they had met, and Harley had helped him out. Tony visited him with his flare and glamor, expensive, and the likes. Then one night Tony showed up in his shed again. He had appeared to be in the same condition he had been in the first night they met, physically anyway. He wasn’t having panic attacks, but Harley had taken one look at him and had instantly known that he was not just physically hurt. Harley had guessed almost immediately that it had something to with Captain America. He had been watching the news. Then they talked… or Tony talked, and Harley listened. Then Tony cried and Harley comforted him.
Harley sighed. He was still holding out hope that Tony was alive. Tony had “died” before after all. Tony was to strong and smart to get himself killed. Plus Harley knew him well enough to know that he would not let himself die a few weeks before his baby was about to be born. Things just weren’t sitting right with him.
Something crashed outside and Harley froze in his tracks. Had the Avengers tracked them here? He turned on his heels to go wake Pepper, but thought better of it. What if it was nothing? What if everything was fine? He should just go back to bed. As he turned to walk back upstairs a creeping feeling worked its way up his spine, like someone or something was watching him. Lightning flashed and lit up the room for a second. Harley shivered and decided he would go wake up Pepper.
“Pepper?” Harley poked his head in her room. Thunder boomed, and she sat up abruptly.
“Harley? Was that you?” She asked quietly.
“Yeah, it's just me no need to freak out,” Harley whispered calmly.
“Oh, do need something?” She sounded exhausted.
“No just checking on you,” Harley said quietly, and turned to go.
“Harley? Can you come sit in here with me?” Pepper asked right as he was about to go.
“Sure,” Harley walked to her side and plopped down on the bed next to her, “What’s up?”
“What Peter was saying… About Loki, and the Avengers… What are we going to do? Like what are we going to do if its true, and he decides to bring an army? There won’t be anyone to… Ga! I wish Tony were here!” Pepper slumped into Harley’s arms.
“It’ll be okay, we’ll go talk with Shield tomorrow, and tell them if they don’t already know,” Harley tried to reassure her. As he spoke another clap of thunder and Peter shouted from downstairs. Pepper slipped out of bed and pulled Harley after her
“Come on, we should go make sure Peter’s okay,” Pepper said tiredly and left the room. Harley followed her down stairs, to find Peter sitting up panting.
“You okay Pete?” Harley asked sitting down on the arm of the couch. Pepper sat down next to Peter who shook his head.
“Bad dream,” Peter’s voice was hoarse, “Really bad dream…”
“Ssh, It's okay Peter," Pepper soothed and rubbed his shaking shoulder.
Harley narrowed his eyes. They needed to figure this out.