Cassie (Holmes) Banner-Romanoff (crappyartist) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-02-16 20:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !completed gdoc, !log, [plot] relationship confusion, ~2017 february, ~25 points, ~~bruce banner (notthatkindofdr), ~~cassie holmes (crappyartist) |
WHO Cassie & Bruce
WHAT Nightmares ahoy
WHEN: Thursday night
WHERE: Cassie's room
WARNINGS: references to nightmares
STATUS: Closed/Complete
Being a Watcher sucked. Cassie firmly believed that, even she had gotten a bit better at it as time had gone on in Madison Valley. Staying with Natasha and Bruce had been a turning point for her life, and ever since she'd gotten sober and made an effort to take care of herself more, the nightmares had mostly abated. Every so often, it would get bad. Her visions were trying to show her something, but what it was, she couldn't really tell.
A scream tore from her throat as she woke, startled with her heart beating hard in her chest. The whooshing in her ears drowned everything else, so she shut her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing. Cassie knew better than to chase her visions, and with something that scary, she wasn't interested in knowing all the finer details.
When she felt the bed dip under the weight of another person, she screamed again and her eyes flew open. "Sorry, I- I'm sorry," Cassie apologized hastily when she saw it was Bruce. Startling either of them was a Bad Idea, so she tried not to do it if she could help it.
***
The moment Bruce heard Cassie screaming, he was on his feet and down the hall to her room. Her nightmares were rare these days, but when they came, they were brutal. As frequent sufferers themselves, both he and Natasha were sympathetic when it happened and one of them always came to offer comfort.
He wasn’t really thinking when he sat down on her bed and reached over to put a hand on her arm and he winced as she screamed again, feeling bad for scaring her. “It’s okay,” he assured her, keeping his voice low and reassuring. “Come here.” He held his arms out so she could lean against him.
***
He was too good to her. They both were. Cassie hadn't made it easy on them at all, but they'd gotten through to her in a way that only Suit had before. Uncle Suit, these days. As soon as he opened his arms for her, she scrambled over the covers and into the safety of them. The nightmares always made her feel as young as she was and, now at least, she could admit when she just needed a hug.
Bruce gave excellent hugs and just being near him helped her heart settle in her chest again. It took a few minutes, but when she could finally breathe again, she realized she'd been crying.
"Man, I haven't been this much of a mess for months," she tried to joke, to cover up her embarrassment. "Sure you don't want to take back the adoption?" It was still something she was trying to wrap her head around. Bruce and Natasha wanted her. Her! Cassie was half expecting them to change their minds, even months later.
***
Bruce was infinitely patient, holding her close while he waited for her to calm down and stop crying. “Did something happen?” he asked, wondering if she was trying to keep secrets from him and Natasha. Even after all this time, even after them signing the official papers to adopt her, he knew that she was afraid they would decide they didn’t want her anymore. It was a little frustrating that nothing they said would make her believe that they loved her just as much as if she was biologically theirs, but knew that the best way to convince her was simply by showing her through their actions.
“And of course not,” he said, debating for a moment if he should acknowledge her self deprecating joke or not. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with us.”
***
Flashes of blood and death, the smell of smoke and something worse, that all came to mind when he asked if something happened. "Not yet," she replied. Hopefully, not ever. Cassie forced it away from her mind. If she couldn't find a way to make her visions more clear without resorting to substance abuse, it wasn't really worth trying to figure it out.
She just hoped whatever death she saw in her mind wasn't Bruce or Natasha. They deserved better than that, to grow old and die minutes or hours or days apart like all those stupid love stories. "I don't- know why it's so bad tonight." It always happened though. If she went too long being happy, something like this always happened.
"I'm okay with that," Cassie replied, knowing he needed to hear it. Knowing she meant it. The quiet, "Dad", that came after was an apology she wasn't quite sure how to say.
***
It always made Bruce feel warm and fuzzy when she called him ‘Dad’. She didn’t do it all the time which made it all the more special when she did. “Maybe you saw or read something today that got stuck in your subconscious,” he suggested. “You might not have thought it was significant at the time.”
He’d done a lot of research on dreams and the subconscious mind in his efforts to figure out a way to control the Other Guy.
“Do you want to go downstairs and have some cocoa?” he offered. Maybe getting her out of her bedroom and focused on something else would help her forget whatever she’d seen.
***
She hoped it was something as simple as that. It was better than someone actually dying, that was for sure. Bruce had been a big help in managing the anger that she'd used as protection against the world. It had taken her a hell of a long time to realize that she didn't need to be so angry here. They were all stuck and that was just the way of things. Homeschooling helped too.
Just like Bruce's cocoa. That got her to smile a little. "Sure. Probably not going to sleep anytime soon." It took her another minute or two for her to climb out of bed and they headed downstairs to the kitchen. Cassie got out the milk for him to start with.
***
The good thing about home schooling was that when she did have a rough night, they could adjust their lessons the following day. Bruce didn’t have a shift at the clinic nor did he have anything pressing going on at the lab right now, so if he stayed up with her for a couple of hours, it wouldn’t cause any issues.
He measured out the milk and poured it into his favorite sauce pan, turning the heat on low so it wouldn’t curdle. While it was heating, he pulled out a bar of high quality chocolate and a sharp knife so he could shave it to melt. Bruce preferred to make things from scratch.
“Have you given any thought to which Shakespeare play you want to study next?” he asked, hoping to distract her with something else to think about.
***
She took a seat on the counter so that she could watch him while he worked. Cassie knew she was pushing it, but he'd probably forgive her considering the shitty night she'd had. She didn't want to be too far from Bruce for the time being. He had plenty of room to do his work, though. "I don't suppose I could pick none of the above, huh?" She didn't think so, but Shakespeare was honestly super boring.
"Romeo & Juliet probably isn't terrible, right? They've made movies about that one." Not that she'd seen them, but if it could get adapted for a movie, how bad could it possibly be? Cassie knew better than to suggest watching a movie in place of reading whatever it was he wanted her to read. "I don't know anything about it aside from that, though."
***
“It’s certainly one of his more popular and well known works,” Bruce said. “But it’s not my favorite. I would suggest either A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is a comedy, or Macbeth, which is a far more intriguing drama.”
He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted her to read Romeo and Juliet and get the mistaken idea that it was a romance. Too many teenagers didn’t really understand the play and thought it was some great love story.
***
Cassie made a face. "I've got enough drama, thanks. A Midsummer Night's Dream it is." Things had gotten a lot better over the past couple of months, but it wasn't the way it had been by any means. She wasn't so sure she'd ever like any of Nick's girlfriends, much to his displeasure. It had just been bad timing and it was something she'd mostly made peace with.
"What's it about? I'm guessing it's too easy to think it's about a dream during summer, like some kind of fever dream?" She was making a joke to ease some of the crazy that she'd been thinking about.
***
Bruce grinned. “There are fairies who decide to cause trouble. I think you’ll enjoy it.” If they ever decided to do theater productions here in town, Cassie would make an excellent Puck. “All right, cocoa is ready. Why don’t you go find a movie for us to watch?”
***
Cassie grinned right back at him. "I do like fairies that cause trouble." She leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek before she hopped off the counter. "Going! I've got just the movie in mind." With that, she headed off to pick out a movie and trusted that Bruce would follow behind with the cocoa.