Molly Walker (knowswhereulive) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-03-30 00:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, [plot] rise of the guardians, ~2018 march, ~25 points, ~~bucky barnes (notzimniysoldat), ~~kara danvers (flyinggirl), ~~molly walker (knowswhereulive) |
Who: Molly Walker and Kara Danvers (& Special hot second appearance by Bucky Barnes)
What: Nightmares and Bonding
When: Thursday night
Where: Their house
Warnings: Mild violence
Status: Closed/Complete gdoc
Molly wasn’t unused to nightmares. She got them pretty regularly, to varying degrees of badness. Most nights she could handle them on her own. Some nights she’d sneak into Steve and Veronica’s room and pull her dad out of bed, make him sit in the light with her until she was ready to go back to sleep. Much more rarely, only Bucky would do. There were some nights when Molly needed him, needed his strength and the unwavering faith that nothing would ever hurt her when he was there to protect her.
It was one of those kind of nights. Shooting awake with a gasp, Molly was out of bed in a second, racing to her dad without a thought. She needed him, trusted that he would be there for her.
She didn’t recognize how strange it was that he wasn’t immediately awake as soon as she walked into the room, that she was able to walk up beside the bed and reach out to shake him. She didn’t even register that he looked restless.
***
The nightmares were extremely unkind to Bucky. He was haunted by all the people he'd killed, all the damage he'd inflicted on the world as the Fist of HYDRA. Normally, he'd have been up and awake as soon as Molly even got close to the bedroom door, but tonight he was caught in the throes of a nightmare that had gotten progressively worse ever since it started. He'd done so many terrible things in his world, had done them in the alternate Madison Valley as well, but his biggest fear was turning on the people he loved in Madison Valley. That someone would come and say the words, or that he'd break and his last known order would filter in. Kill the man on the bridge. Kill Steve Rogers. And he'd kill anyone who got in his way, including the people he loved most.
When he felt the touch on his arm, he snapped up, eyes open but he was still asleep. He wasted no time in pushing the intruder away with his metal arm, sending her flying toward the wall. The Soldier got onto his feet a moment later and stalked toward the cowering little girl. He didn't need to know who she was or why he had orders to kill her. He just knew she had to die.
***
Kara, on the other hand, was already half awake when she heard the bedroom door open. Nightmares weren’t really unusual for any of them, but Bucky’s didn’t normally make him so restless that his tossing and turning would wake her up. The past few days though, they seemed to be getting steadily worse.
It occurred to her a split second too late that it wasn’t a good idea for Molly to try and wake Bucky when he was in the midst of a nightmare and she didn’t react fast enough to stop him from pushing her into the wall. She was, however, fast enough to get between them before he could get close enough to do any more damage.
“Bucky, wake up, you’re dreaming,” she said, hands on her hips as she planted herself between her fiance and their daughter. When he lunged at her, she knew that he wasn’t going to wake up easy and didn’t even hesitate to throw a punch designed to knock him flat on his ass. As soon as he crumpled to the ground, she turned and crouched down next to Molly, holding her arms out. “Shh, it’s okay,” she said.
***
Maybe if she hadn’t been so scared herself, Molly would have realized before she did it that waking up her dad was a bad idea. It was something she’d have known any other time. It wasn’t something she thought of until it was too late. Until she was looking at his eyes and not seeing him, until the metal arm that hadn’t ever scared her for a second was sending her flying back into the wall. She felt the impact through her whole body, was screaming and curling into herself protectively even as Kara was suddenly between them. There was barely a chance to register what was happening before her dad was unconscious on the floor, and Kara was beside her.
Molly didn’t hesitate to throw herself into the offered arms, sobbing. Whatever she’d been dreaming about, the nightmare man and being trapped in her own mind forever again, nothing new but it had felt so real, was suddenly not important anymore. She was so much more afraid, for the very first time since she’d known him, of her father.
***
“You’re safe, Molls,” Kara murmured, holding the girl tight in her arms as she sobbed. She knew that Molly had never seen that side of her dad, that she was likely more terrified of what just happened than she was of whatever nightmare sent her to them seeking comfort in the first place. Unfortunately, Kara had seen that side of Bucky, when they got stuck in vampire hell, and knew just how terrifying he was capable of being.
She heard footsteps, knew that Steve was coming to see what was going on. There was no doubt that Veronica and Summer were awake too. It would have been nearly impossible for anyone to miss Molly’s scream or the sound of Bucky’s unconscious body hitting the floor.
***
Molly heard the footsteps too, could sense Steve coming closer, but still she clung to Kara, even as she heard him calling her name, confusion and worry clear in his voice. Even feeling his hand on her back, knowing he was looking to Kara for some kind of answer, she clung. Right in that moment, Kara was her safe place.
Which was unusual, would probably never have happened if she hadn’t been there to step in and save her. Molly had always just kind of tolerated her future stepmom, liked her and got along with her but she was always the last person in the house Molly would go to with anything. But right that moment, Kara was the only person she wanted to protect her.
“I’m sorry,” she choked out through her tears. It wasn’t her fault but if she’d been more aware, more grown up and able to deal with her own bad dreams, it never would have happened.
***
It surprised Kara a little that Molly stuck with her when Steve came in the room, but she wasn’t about to discourage it. She knew that she wasn’t Molly’s favorite, had made her peace with it and kept trying to chip away at the girl’s walls. This wasn’t the way she would have chosen to bond with her though.
“You don’t need to apologize,” Kara assured her. “You couldn’t have known that Bucky was having a nightmare too.” And none of them could have predicted that his parental instincts wouldn’t override that nightmare.
She hoped that Steve was able to read between the lines of what she wasn’t saying and piece together what happened. “Come on, you can hang out with me and Steve can take Bucky to his room,” she suggested. There was no telling if Bucky would be himself or not when he woke up and she didn’t want Molly around him until they knew for sure.
***
Turning a little, seeing the unconscious lump that was Bucky, Molly just nodded, hands balling up in Kara’s shirt. And whatever Steve got out of it seemed to be good enough. The hand against her back rubbed gently for a second before he was moving away, easily hauling Bucky up and carrying him out of the room.
Only after he was gone, and another moment after that, did Molly relax slightly, pulling back and wiping her eyes. One hand still held on to Kara, though.
“Sorry I’m always causing trouble.” Somehow she found herself at the center of a lot of it, and a lot of it was her own doing. “And thanks for protecting me.”
***
Once Steve and Bucky were out of the room and Molly seemed slightly calmer, Kara scooped her up and moved them over to the bed so they could get comfortable. “You’re not always causing trouble,” she said. “And I’ll always protect you.”
She knew that Bucky was going to feel awful when he woke up and realized what happened. She also knew that he would be grateful that Kara got between them before he could actually hurt his daughter. Most couples would probably break up after one of them cold-cocked the other. Kara was pretty sure it was only going to strengthen their relationship.
“Do you want to talk about your dream?” she asked.
***
That sounded really untrue, Molly knew the way she could be and knew the things that kept happening around her. She wished she could stop it, any of it, even just the part that was her acting out. But she couldn’t, and she let the assurance do what it was meant to do.
She curled up against the pillows when Kara moved them, wrapping her arms around her knees, making herself as small and unobtrusive as she could, just shook her head to the question.
“It was just the normal bad kind. The nightmare man again.” She knew his name, knew who and what he really was, but he was always going to be the nightmare man to her. And the boogeyman was always going to be a real person. “It just...it felt really real and I...when it’s bad I wanted him.” Because Bucky had made her feel safe. The dull ache in her back made her wonder if that was going to ever be true again.
***
That was just normal teenage stuff and it barely registered on any of their radar as an issue. They’d all been teenagers once, some of them a lot longer ago than others, and had all gone through their own acting out phases.
Kara stayed close and put one arm around Molly’s shoulders, figuring she needed the reassurance that she wasn’t alone. She knew enough about Molly’s past to understand the reference to the nightmare man and was used to the girl coming to their room when she had particularly bad dreams. It was just bad timing that Bucky was also in the midst of a bad one at the same time.
Or maybe it wasn’t bad timing and it was something weird going on again. She knew that Veronica had been having a hard time the last couple of days too. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you,” she promised. “Not the nightmare man or anyone else.”
***
The reassurance definitely helped and Molly leaned her head against Kara. “Promise?”
She knew that she hadn’t done anything at all to earn that from Kara. She hadn’t actually done anything to earn it from her parents either but they’d picked her, they’d signed up for that. And she’d been failed now. There was no reason in her mind why Kara should want to protect her.
Except they were going to be family soon. They kind of already were.
***
“I promise,” Kara said.
Molly didn’t need to do anything to earn her protection, she was family and that meant that Kara would do anything for her. Especially since she considered it her duty to protect those who needed it thanks to her Supergirl abilities.
She leaned forward and kissed the top of Molly’s head. “I know I’m not officially your step mother, but I don’t need a piece of paper to love you.”
***
That was a lot like what Steve had said to her a long time ago, when her mom had left for good and they’d been left together, when she hadn’t been sure that he was going to stick around just for her. He’d asked her about adopting her officially a few days later, but the choosing. The saying that the legal stuff didn’t matter. That was what really mattered to Molly.
She nodded quietly, turned her face into Kara’s shoulder, crying much more quietly than she had been before.
She didn’t miss that Steve came back, was fully aware that he stopped in the doorway, probably not wanting to intrude, and for once Molly didn’t even care. She just cried out all the fear and hurt she had.
***
It broke Kara’s heart to hear Molly crying like that, but she simply held her close, stroking her back and making soft, reassuring noises.
When she realized Steve was hovering in the doorway, she shook her head slightly to communicate that he should leave them alone for the moment. Of course Kara was worried about Bucky, wasn’t sure if he’d regained consciousness yet, but his well being was secondary to Molly’s at the moment and she knew if something important happened, Steve wouldn’t have hesitated to tell them.
Today was going to be a long day for all of them.
***
Molly wasn’t paying super close attention, but she was aware enough to realize that whatever Kara communicated was good enough that Steve didn’t come in, that he slipped back down the hall again, probably checking on everyone else too she figured, didn’t give it too much thought. She didn’t want to think about anything else. She didn’t want to think at all. She just let herself be sad, be hurt, be comforted.
She didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so she didn’t. She just leaned on Kara’s shoulder and cried until there was nothing left to cry and she just settled into a miserable silence, exhausted but still shaken from her dream and from everything after she’d woken up and too wound up to actually go back to sleep.
***
Kara wished there was something she could do to make things better for Molly. All of her Kryptonian powers were useless in a situation like this though. You couldn’t punch a bad dream.
“Did I ever tell you any stories about how awkward I was when I first got to Earth?” she asked. Maybe she couldn’t fix anything for Molly, but she could at least offer some amusing distractions in the form of her awkward teenage years adjusting to life on a different planet.
***
Distractions, especially ones that had absolutely nothing to do with anything in their house, were definitely welcomed, and Molly just shook her head.
“No.” Of course Kara had never told her any stories. At all. They weren’t really that close. Molly sometimes went and asked Kara to do her hair, if Bucky wasn’t available before and maybe a lot more often now, or just complained to her about something stupid that had happened at school. Or about how dumb boys were in a very general sense, not wanting any specifics to get back to her dads. But they didn’t really talk or get to know each other.
***
“Well, I’ve got plenty of them,” Kara said. “Alex hated me when I first went to live with them because I was so weird.” They’d gotten past that and become best friends, but it hadn’t been easy.
She leaned back against the headboard to get comfortable, making sure to stay close to Molly, and then started telling her stories.