Molly Walker (knowswhereulive) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-07-13 17:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, !narrative, [plot] final countdown, ~2018 july, ~25 points, ~~molly walker (knowswhereulive), ~~steve rogers (neverdanced) |
Who: Steve Rogers and Molly Walker
What: Another Father Daughter Time
When: Friday evening
Where: Their house
Warnings: none
Status: Complete narrative
It took so long for Steve to come to her that Molly had actually started to think that maybe he wasn’t going to say goodbye. She’d avoided saying it to him, avoided getting too close to him at all over the last couple of days as she cried and cried her sorrow out and tried to come to terms with losing everyone she knew and loved, with going back to a world where she was just an unwanted child, banished to live halfway around the world. And of all the people she couldn’t face losing, Steve topped the list. They’d been together the longest, been family the longest, and knowing she was losing him, the person who had always been there and always been a parent to her whether he was trying to be or not.
She hadn’t pushed to get anything when he’d kept his distance. He needed his space to deal with things like she needed to be with everyone and she did want to respect that. And she didn’t want to face losing him anyway.
He came to her when the clock was counting down the last few days, appearing in her open door, leaning against the frame. “Hey. Got a few?”
For him, right now, Molly definitely had a few. She moved so she was sitting on the edge of her bed and nodded, already feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. Every time she thought she was cried out, she had to say goodbye to someone else. “Sure.”
Steve sat beside her and she expected that would be where he stayed. That he immediately gathered her up into a hug and pressed a kiss to her hair made it so much harder and she just threw her arms around him, started to sob into his chest.
“You’re going to be okay,” he assured her softly, held on tightly and stroked her hair, gentler than he ever was. “It’s going to be fine.”
Molly knew the assurances were empty, that there was no way Steve could promise her anything, but that he was saying it at all meant more than if the promises were true. He didn’t say things he didn’t mean, didn’t promise things if he couldn’t keep it. Empty promises meant to her that he was doing absolutely anything he could to make it easier on her. It meant he was doing it because reassuring her was the most important thing to him right then. And that meant so much more than any honest words could have. She balled her hands up in his shirt, holding on tightly as if that would stop him from disappearing at the end of the day.
“I don’t want you to go,” she said softly, feeling so much younger and smaller than she’d let him treat her in years now. She felt like the eleven year old girl she’d been when she arrived, not verging on seventeen with a lot more experience and a lot more sadness to her name. A lot more happiness, too, and a lot of it thanks to Steve being there for her.
“I know,” he said simply, and she could feel his muscles flexing, knew he was being careful not to hold her as tightly as he wanted to, careful not to hurt her. “You know I’d stay with you if I could.” Molly just shook her head miserably, felt the little shake of a second of laughter in his chest. “You know it, Molls. If it was up to me, I’d be sticking with you the rest of your life. You’d be sick of me before I let you go.”
She had to laugh at that, watery and weak, grip on him tightening. “I’d never get sick of you if you weren’t dumb.”
Steve didn’t even chastise her for that. He just kissed her hair again. “All that stuff you call dumb is just me trying to protect you, you know.”
“I know.” He might not be her real dad, they might not share any blood or even the same world, but Molly had never questioned that Steve loved her and was trying his best to take care of her. He’d had no obligation, after their version of Daisy had disappeared, to stick around but as far as she knew leaving her with anyone else had never even crossed his mind. He treated her like his kid, even back when he’d insisted that she wasn’t. It seemed so long ago now.
Drawing back a little, she tilted her head to look up at him, noticed he’d been growing his beard out again over the last couple of days, he was a little scruffy and his hair wasn’t quite as tidy as it usually was. This whole thing was hard on him too, she realized, had learned to read him like that a long time ago, no matter how well he thought he was hiding it from everyone. He was just as much of a mess as she was, just quieter about it. And that was the way of them. They were so much alike in so many ways, the only difference being that Molly tended to shout about everything while Steve kept it in.
“I’m really glad you were my dad,” she told him, struggling to keep her breathing under control while the tears poured from her eyes.
The smile he gave in return was small, soft, sad. “Me too, Molls. Wouldn’t trade you for anything.”
“Not even your wife?” she tried to tease, it came out mostly the way she wanted it to, just a bit of hopefulness in it.
“Not even Veronica,” he nodded, and that meant as much as the hugging. Molly knew exactly what saying that meant to him, knew it wasn’t a lie either. He’d asked her permission every step of the way when it came to Veronica, had never tried very hard to talk her around so much as talk her down when she got worked up; Molly’s friend turned mother would never have been his wife if it wasn’t for her approval.
“Good.” She leaned against him again, not ready to let go just yet. “Can you stay here for a little while?” He probably had a whole bunch more people he wanted to say goodbye to, a whole bunch more people he wanted to hug and hang out with who weren’t her. She knew she was important to him but she didn’t want to monopolize him if he had a list of things to do before time ran out.
Steve didn’t give her the opportunity to say any of that to him, though, just pet her hair and nodded. “However long you want, kid. I’ve got until the end of the world.”
Molly just groaned, no real heat in it. “Don’t say it like that.”
“Sorry,” he chuckled; Molly was mostly just glad he didn’t try correcting himself with any lame jokes. He probably didn’t think it was the time for it. “You just want to sit here for a bit?”
That actually sounded like the best thing they could do. Molly responded only by nodding her head, closing her eyes and listening to him breathe. And Steve let her, didn’t say a word, just kept petting her hair and holding her and letting her pretend for as long as they did sit there that she wasn’t being torn apart from the biggest part of her life here.