*Sarah is in one of the common rooms - one of them, because, like it has been said before, infinite mansion - with Deedee* *the Helhound, who Sarah had been ecstatic to see again, is now much bigger, having grown over the last sixteen years. As immortal creatures go, she's not a full adult helhound yet, but she's getting there, and her head comes up to Sarah's shoulder when they're both standing*
*For now, though, Deedee is sprawled on the ground letting Sarah scratch her belly* *Sarah, for her part, is still trying to distract herself from what happened to her mom* *she's wearing most of the clothes she had been wearing when she fled her house - they've been washed - as well as one of Danielle Cage's sweatshirts. She's trying not to think about the fact that it's Danielle's sweatshirt, but that's kind of hard because it smells like her, and that's really nice, and Sarah doesn't exactly want to give it back, and it's also probably really good that Danielle isn't around right now because Sarah would probably have gone bright red.*
*the sweatshirt is nice*
*yeah*
*anyway, Sarah is sitting on the ground next to Deedee, idly petting her, and the helhound looks very sleepy and content*
*Sarah flees to the Pym-Nelson household - that's the plan, if things go bad. Find Hank or Greer, and they will keep you safe.*
*But she'd always assumed that if things went bad, her mom would be with her*
*She's not particularly coherent when she finds Uncle Hank - the only person who's at the house then - but she manages to get the basics across to him. Osborn arrested her mother and Sarah needed to run*
*Hank nods thoughtfully, a crease of worry between his brows, and then steers her downstairs into the basement, where he does something at a console and then suddenly there's a doorway where there wasn't one before* *she's a little wary, because she has no idea where it leads, but this is Uncle Hank and she trusts him, so she steps through*
*Jan is at work when she gets a call from Sarah's school - her daughter has been in another fight* *she leaves work and drives over as quickly as she can, and makes her way to the principal's office, to find Sarah sitting sullenly in a chair, school security and a bunch of other officials standing around.*
*it takes far too long to get her daughter out of there, and when she does she's incredibly angry and worried, but containing it as best she can. The beginnings of a bruise are already to start to show on Sarah's face*
*They get in the car and head for home; Jan doesn't speak for awhile, and when she does her voice is tight*
Do you want to tell me why you were fighting this time?
(Set right after the Superhero registration act is passed)
Greer is about ten minutes late bringing Sarah home, leaving a quick little text on Jan’s phone that she fails to get until after Sarah’s already back. It’s good, though, because half an hour, it turns out, is not quite enough time to have desperate you’re leaving sex and then get cleaned up. The extra ten minutes, though, makes for enough time.
Sarah comes bounding into the house, a little ball of energy, dirt smudged on her face and her knees all banged up. Her school bag gets tossed by the door - no matter how much they both try to break her of that habit, they’ve never been able to.
And Steve just lights up. Rushes down the last few stairs and scoops her up into a hug that takes her feet right off the ground.
“Hey baby girl,” he says. “Welcome home.”
“I already ate at William’s,” Sarah says, and Steve’s face must fall, because Sarah, ten year old little Sarah, gets the same look on her face that Jan does when she realizes that something is going on with him. “But I’m still hungry. Can we do pancakes?”
“Pancakes it is,” Steve says, and as Jan gets down to the foyer she can see that his smile is back in place. “Want to help make them?”
Sarah nods enthusiastically, and Steve spares a smile and a hello for Greer before ushering their daughter into the kitchen.
“Thanks for bringing her home,” Jan tells Greer, careful to keep a smile on her own on her face.
“It’s no problem, Jan.” Greer gives her a speculative look. “Is everything all right with you? I saw the news earlier -”
“Everything’s fine,” Jan says, too fast, and she doesn’t think Greer believes her. But she says goodbye and Jan goes into the kitchen to find Sarah and Steve getting flour everywhere. There’s a part of her that thinks about the mess that’s going to need to be cleaned up, and another part that thinks this could be the last time they make a mess of the kitchen together.
She feels like crying.
She catches Steve’s eye across the kitchen and she knows she’s not the only one with that feeling.
***
Morning comes too fast. Much too fast, and with a call that has Steve jumping to his feet and pulling on clothing before Jan can untangle herself from the sheets.
“Something’s happened,” he says, pulling on a shirt. “I have to go. Now.”
And Jan is suddenly completely awake, heart racing in her chest like a trapped bird.
“No,” she says, like she kept saying the night before, still not wanting to believe this is all happening. She pushes herself up out of bed. “It can’t be this bad so fast. There has to be more time.”
Steve looks at her, and there’s steel in his expression.
“I knew it would come to this,” he says. He shrugs on his jacket, zipping it up. Grabs his gloves. His boots. “The law’s not even in effect yet, but people are already -” He stops. Swallows hard. “We haven’t explained this to Sarah.”
“I’ll get her up,” Jan says, pausing only to grab a robe on her way out of the room. There’s no way that she’s letting Steve leave without saying goodbye - and she knows that there’s no way Steve would leave without Sarah knowing.
It’s early - too early - and Sarah is still asleep. She’s not too happy to be woken, but something about how Jan’s holding herself or how her face looks must tip her off to something being really wrong.
“Mom?” she says, voice still groggy from sleep. “What’s going on?”
“Your dad’s leaving,” Jan says, and maybe that’s not the best way to say it, but she knows they’re running out of time.
Steve’s already at the door by the time they get downstairs, face drawn, shoulders tense. He tries to smooth out his expression, but Sarah already knows he’s leaving, already knows something’s wrong.
“Mom says you’re leaving. But it’s just an Avengers thing. Right? You’ll be home soon. Right?”
Jan can see Steve’s jaw tremble, and he drops down to a crouch before Sarah, bringing himself eyelevel with her.
“I don’t know when I’ll be back,” he tells her. “Maybe not for a long time. There’s something wrong, and I’ve got to do my best to fix it.”
Sarah just stares at him. “How long is a long time?” she asks him, voice very small.
“...I don’t know. Until things are fixed.”
“But that’s...how long?” The tension in the room is high, and Sarah must be picking up on all of it, growing more and more worried, more and more scared. “Just a week, right? That’s a long time. Will it be longer than a week?”
“Yes,” Steve says, and he reaches out and smooths his hand over Sarah’s hair, and that just seems to break something. Sarah throws herself forward and hugs him, spindly little limbs going tight around his neck.
“I don’t want you to go,” she says, voice muffled, full of tears, and Jan cannot handle this. Steve looks to her and she’s pretty sure that he can’t, either. “Don’t go.”
“I have to.”
No, you don’t. But Jan doesn’t say that.
“But why?”
Steve looks to Jan, and no, no, she’s not okay with this. But he’s got to go, now, whoever was on the phone was insistent, and Steve’s - he’s Steve. He’s going to do what he thinks is right.
“Sarah, come over here,” Jan says, stepping closer to them. “Dad’s got to go now, okay? I’ll explain everything, but you have to let him go.”
“No.” And she clings tighter, and Steve looks helpless.
“Hey,” he says, smoothing her hair. “Ssh, Sarah. Listen to me. I’m going to come home. But right now, there are people who need me, and I have to go.”
Sarah gives a hiccuping sob.
“Do you remember what I told you?” Steve holds her tight, then puts his hands on her shoulder, gently pulling her away, holding her to look at her face. “No matter what happens, you always stand up. Okay?”
Sarah sniffs. “‘kay.”
Steve gets up. She lets him. He looks to Jan, and she can’t trust herself to speak without crying herself.
“I love you,” he says. “Both of you. When this is over, I’ll come back.”
Jan crosses the last few steps to him. Kisses him. Just the once. And lets him go.
*After seeing to Wanda, Jan heads to Sarah's room. The door is shut and there's music coming from inside* *She taps on the door once lightly, then a bit louder, and the music shuts off*
