Chapter 30: The Basement

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WARNING: This chapter depicts domestic abuse and mature themes. Stay safe friends, this is a pretty heavy chapter.

And yeah I caved and decided to post this today. :)

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"Oh come on Tony," Farah said, "You can't tell me you aren't a little sad Peter left."

Tony looked at her and rolled his eyes, "Sparky, I didn't come down here for a therapy session" He said sarcastically with a small smirk on his face. Farah took that as a yes. He looked down at the red Mustang in front of him and nodded. Farah had asked him to come and take a look at the progress she had been making. She was flipping a wrench around in her hand as he examined the car.

"I've got to hand it to you kid," Tony said looking at her impressed, "You are doing an almost flawless job." He added looking under the hood.

Farah furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean almost??" She asked as she stopped flipping the wrench in her hand.

"You messed up one of the belts," He said with his head under the hood. Farah was standing next to the tools and she scoffed. He reached out a hand, "Hand me a screwdriver, will you, peaches?" Tony said nonchalantly under the car hood.

The wrench fell from Farah's hand and hit the floor with a loud clang. She froze.

"Hand me a napkin, will you, Peaches?" Earl asked as Farah was kneeling in the kitchen, wiping up the breakfast she had just made. She had just accidentally knocked over her plate that was on the counter and Earl screamed at her to clean it up. 

Farah held back her sniffles. She couldn't let him see that she was crying. She stood up and walked over towards him with a napkin in her hand. She hoped that her legs weren't actually as shaky as they felt.

She looked at the 44-year-old man and handed him the napkin. Earl just looked up at her from his newspaper with a small snarl on his face. He tilted his head at her, noticing her blotchy eyes. He gripped her wrist tightly and pulled her in close to him.

"What did I fucking say about crying?" Earl said, their faces only inches apart. Farah could feel the spit coming out of his mouth and hitting her face. She could barely form a sentence. She was terrified of what he could do to her.

"I-I'm sorry" She whispered not making eye contact with him. He noticed this and gripped her face, making her look him in the eyes. He stayed like that for a moment, Farah terrified of what he might do to her. Earl simply pushed her face away and released her hand.

"Go clean up your mess," He said looking back down at his newspaper.

"Farah?" She heard Tony say. He had put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. She snapped out of her trance and looked over at Tony. He was visibly worried since she looked shaky and pale.

"Are you okay, kid? I had been calling your name for like five minutes" Tony asked removing his hand from her shoulder.

Farah's mouth felt dry and she looked at him, "Uh yeah I-uh, I just need some um air" She said hurrying out of the garage. Tony decided it was best to not chase after her, plus he was Tony Stark, he didn't chase after anyone. 

Farah walked out onto the open field and put her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. She was trying really hard not to puke. This had never happened to her before.

Sure, she had episodes about Malia's death, but this was different. She never thought of Earl and nothing ever reminded her of him. The only recent time she thought of him was that day when Pietro was on a mission and when she had that one dream. She had repressed those memories for almost a year at this point.

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