Cassie (Holmes) Banner-Romanoff (crappyartist) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-01-08 11:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2018 january, ~25 points, ~~cassie holmes (crappyartist), ~~natasha romanoff (blackwidow_nat) |
WHO Natasha & Cassie Banner-Romanoff
WHAT Discovering Bruce is gone
WHEN This morning
WHERE Their place
WARNINGS Feels
STATUS Closed | Complete Gdoc
Cassie was scared and she was scared enough to admit to it. She’d jokingly texted her Dad to say she wasn’t getting up until she heard breakfast was going, but the message bounced back. That only ever happened when someone got sent home, so now she just had to worry about whether or not it was for good. It took her a little while to muster up the courage to get out of bed because not knowing was bad, but knowing and the answer being ‘for good’ was terrifying.
She had to check on her Mom though. That was what got her out of bed and shuffling toward her bedroom door. Once she was out in the hallway, she yelled, “MOM?” There was a note of panic in her voice because in that moment she realized they both could have been taken from her. “MOM!”
***
The moment Natasha woke up she knew something was wrong. The bed next to her was cold which wouldn't be strange if it wasn't for the fact that it was so early. Usually she woke when Bruce did, grabbing her phone she sent him a text which then bounced back. Moving slowly she stood and took a deep breath before opening the wardrobe. Releasing it she realised his things were still there. That had to be a good sign, didn't it?
As soon as she heard Cassie’s voice she quickly moved to reassure her daughter, running from the room she took Cassie in her arms, “I’m here” she said pushing aside her own panic for now, “It’s okay, I’m here”
***
It felt like forever before she heard her Mom & Dad's door open even if it was probably only a few moments. Cassie ran to her Mom, meeting her halfway down the hall. She collided with her, throwing her arms around her, and she held on tight. As if it could help stop her Mom from getting taken, too.
"Where's Dad?" she asked, her voice breaking as she did. Tears started to gather but she did her best to blink them away so that they wouldn't fall. Cassie knew her Mom knew her Dad was missing already. They were still together at least, but she needed to know if her Dad was gone for good.
***
“I don’t know” Natasha admitted before following that statement swiftly with a reassuring, “But all his things are still here. My best guess is he went back for an update” which is what they’d taken to calling it when any of their group went home and then came back again. “He’ll come home, he has to”
Natasha held her daughter tightly, stroking her hair and pressing a kiss to her temple. It was like they both thought they could stop anything happening just by holding onto each other. Still Natasha wasn’t above taking any reassurance she could.
***
Cassie didn't like it, obviously, but she did feel slightly better knowing that not all of his things were gone. "He has to," she echoed. It sucked and it was terrifying and she didn't know how long it was going to take or what was going to happen next, but she knew that every day he was gone, it was going to get worse. Cassie knew the risks about Madison, knew it could happen to any of them, but she wasn't equipped to deal with it. What she really wanted was a drink.
"What do we do now?" It was childish and terrible but what she also wanted was to just stay glued to her mom's side and that just wouldn't help anyone.
***
“We carry on. Your dad won’t be impressed when he gets back if we’ve let everything slide because he wasn’t here” Natasha said, not that she felt like carrying on. She felt like sitting on the sofa with Cassie and just waiting for Bruce to come back. But she couldn’t do that, she had to be responsible and dependable for her daughter. That isn’t to say she couldn’t indulge them just a little though.
“But today I think should be a sofa movie day with lots of ice cream, what do you think?” She didn’t much like the idea of letting Cassie out of her sight for a while.
***
She'd been afraid of that answer and it honestly made her mad. She didn't want to carry on. She wanted to drink and scream and cry and curse the stupid dome for taking her Dad away. Cassie knew her Mom was worried, both about her and about Dad being gone, so she just sniffled and tried not to look as broken as she felt.
"Okay," she replied, although she thought this was a shitty way to get out of doing schoolwork. "And ordering in lots of takeout." Because while Cassie knew a little bit about cooking and could probably wing it, she really wasn't in the mood right now. Maybe someone would take pity on them and cook while they were stuck alone. "I really hate this place sometimes."
***
Natasha didn’t want to carry on either but she knew they had to. Bruce really wouldn’t want them to stop everything and she didn’t want to disappoint him when he came back. She had to be strong for Cassie, make sure their daughter didn’t slip because of this and ensure she knew Natasha was there for her.
“Definitely” Natasha agreed, the kitchen was Bruce’s domain and trying to cook in it without him would be too much for either of them. “Me too sweetheart, me too” If she ever discovered who was behind them all being here Natasha would have a few words, as well as punches, for them.
***
Cassie pulled away after another couple of moments and wiped her eyes. Crying wasn’t going to bring him back as much as she wanted it to, or for there to be something that could bring him back. Sometimes, people were gone for a couple of days, other times a week. Sometimes longer and then they came back without remembering Madison Valley. Or worse, they came back remembering but people had already moved on.
“I’ll pick the movie. You get the ice cream,” Cassie suggested, mostly because she didn’t want to go into the kitchen just yet. Maybe later, after she had time to process this whole thing more. She gave her Mom another tight hug though and lingered. It was going to be hard to let go of her for however long her Dad was gone for.
***
Crying probably wouldn’t help but Natasha wasn’t going to tell Cassie she should stop, she was free to express her emotions and if that involved crying then Natasha would be there for her. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t be shedding a tear or two of her own, though not in front of Cassie. She had to be strong for her daughter.
“Okay” Natasha agreed, hugging her back and dropping a kiss on her head, “I’m still here darling, call and I’ll answer, I promise” She was fairly sure she was safe in making that promise as usually they were taken around the same time and there had been no word that anybody else was missing. But she understood Cassie’s reluctance to trust that, she hated that she couldn’t absolutely promise her daughter that she would never leave her. If it had been her choice she never would.
***
"I know." She knew her Mom meant it, that she'd always answer whenever she was physically present in Madison Valley. But she couldn't promise that she'd always be in Madison Valley. That was the problem. Cassie wanted to know when it was coming, blamed herself for not being able to See anything worthwhile when it affected her like this. She could never See exactly what she wanted and it sucked.
With that, she headed downstairs and climbed onto the couch, remote in hand. Cassie had chosen the middle, in part so she could curl up with her Mom no matter which side she chose when she came in with the ice cream. Finding a movie wasn't too terribly difficult either. She found one about some guy who had to take on a bunch of terrorists by himself in a building on Christmas and got it all set up to play as soon as her Mom came back.
***
It didn’t take Natasha long at all to grab ice cream, two spoons and a couple of drinks. She made a point of being as quick as possible and gave a small smile when she saw how Cassie had positioned herself on the sofa. Once the things were deposited on the table she sat down and tugged Cassie to her, “Good choice” she said as Cassie hit play and the movie started rolling. It said a lot about how Natasha’s life had changed that she recognised it, she’d never had much time for films before but she and Bruce had made a point of living a normal life and movie nights had been part of that. Were part of that she mentally corrected herself.
***
“I figured you could tell me how you would’ve done it instead,” she admitted as she settled into her Mom’s side. Cassie was more than happy to dig into her ice cream even though it was cold as anything outside. Ice cream was a comfort, a treat, and this was a super shitty situation but ice cream made it a teensy bit better.
“It seems a little far fetched though, even for the stuff you guys get up to.” Some of the things she’d learned about her parents’ world seemed a little ridiculous in terms of the situation, but it wasn’t like her world was any better. Shadowy government organizations screwed everything up. That was the only logical conclusion she could come to.
***
“I can do that. I doubt my solutions would have taken the whole film though” Natasha admitted with a small smile, digging into her own ice cream.
“Well at least there are no aliens in this one” Natasha said dryly because that had to be the biggest unbelievable element, even with the superpowered people she knew. Some worlds were certainly stranger than others, that was for sure.
***
“Aliens are the worst,” she replied. “Uncle Thor is one of the good ones but I think you could probably count those on one hand.” Mostly because she could only think of Thor in the good alien category.
Cassie ate her ice cream and just snuggled in against her Mom. She hated being this clingy and scared, but she was going to worry about hating herself later. It wasn’t going to go well for her, the longer her Dad was gone. She resolved to try Seeing something later, and if that didn’t work, she’d just try harder.
***
Natasha nodded in agreement, “Definitely. I can handle the kind of trouble Thor tends to bring with him but it’s all the others that are a pain in the ass” Luckily Madison had been spared most of it, there were strange occurrences sometimes but overall it was much easier to deal with here than back home.
Holding her daughter close was a comfort Natasha needed, she was worried about the future but she knew she needed to stay strong. Cassie was her focus and she was so thankful she had her.
***