Who: Steve and Peggy (with an appearance from babyCap) Where: Their Cottage What: Nightmares and Realizations When: Late Monday Night Warings: Feels? Mentions of war, death, and depictions of PTSD Open: No
It hadn't been an easy week for Steve, he knew his nightmares and memories were still bothering his other self, people had been disappearing or getting killed left and right and there still seemed to be someone following him, no matter how hard he tried to ignore that feeling. He'd been doing his best though, to hide those thoughts and feelings. He was supposed to be strong and brave, he had Peggy and now the baby to look out for, he couldn't be an emotional wreck. But some days were worse than others and today was one of them. So after the baby had gone to sleep he and Peggy had a quiet night, both of them tired from helping Bridget, Ramses and Calleigh, but even when Peggy decided to go to bed Steve just gave her a kiss goodnight and said he wanted to stay up a little longer, promising that he'd be up to sleep soon. He didn't tell her it was because he was too nervous about what would come in his nightmares to sleep. But a few more minutes had turned to an hour, then an hour and a half, and before he realized it Steve had fallen asleep on the couch, out of pure exhaustion, with the tv still softly playing in the background.
And of course the nightmares did come. vague flashed of war at first, both WWII and the battle in New York, then things became more solid; watching Bucky fall over and over, never being able to catch him, no matter what he did; waking up again to realize he was alone in some distant future, Peggy gone, the baby gone, the Avengers gone; all ice and fear and and war and loss over and over. Until finally he woke up, breathing hard and shaking, tears in his eyes and unable to calm down. Normally when it happened he ran, got away from Peggy so she couldn't see him so 'messed up' and literally running for hours until his adrenaline felt more like training and less like fear. More like something he'd done and less like something he couldn't control.
But he didn't this time, he couldn't, there was too much and it was too hard and he finally broke down, forcing himself up the stairs to the only real comfort he knew. He crawled in to the bed, less than gracefully and wrapped himself around the sleeping Peggy, tucking himself in to her chest, making himself as small as possible with his arms around her shoulders, shaking and crying softly.