Wouldn't Leave You (A Captain America Fan fiction)

Dreams and Painting

Chapter 7 - Rachel Stark

As soon as we get home, I make dinner. We talk about his day, and how he faired shopping by himself. His stuff wouldn't be here for a few weeks which means that he would have to stay in my apartment until it was delivered. So we also talked about sleeping arrangements. So we agreed that we would switch between the couch and the bed.

Tonight was my turn to sleep in the bedroom. I take a quick shower and get my p.js on. When I slip into the bed, I instantly fall asleep. And with sleep, there always comes the dreams.

Steve POV

I shower after Rachel then head straight to bed. As soon as I lie down on the couch, I fall into a deep sleep.

And then it started. I started dreaming about my life in the '40s again.

I get up out of my cot and start to walk down to the mess hall. On the way, I see Peggy at the end of the hall. I start running to get to her. I quickly turn around to check the hall behind me. But when I turn back around, I see Peggy fall to the ground with the Red Skull behind her. I start to run harder.

"Steve!" I hear someone yell. I turn around and look for the person behind the voice.

"Steve!" I hear again. My eyes find Bucky, hanging off the edge of the train. I start to run over to him instead. But then I hear a piercing scream. I look around but see nothing. But the screaming keeps coming.

I shake myself awake. But I still hear the screaming. I go into Rachel's room. I see her sleeping but screaming and tossing and turning. She just keeps yelling "Stop!" over and over.

"Rachel! Rachel, wake up!"

Rachel POV

"Rachel! Rachel, wake up!" 

I wake up to see a worried-looking Steve.

"Steve, hey? Why do I need to wake up?" I ask him, trying to conceal my obvious disturbance from my dream. 

"You were screaming and rolling around on the bed. I thought something might be wrong," He says. Great, now he knows I have nightmares.

"Yeah, I was screaming because I was having a bad dream, but I will be okay. I just need to get something to drink." I say and I start to walk to the kitchen. When I open the fridge, I peek around the side and I see Steve walk in.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks. In truth, I do want to. But I don't know if I can trust him yet. But he is so nice and kind. Do it. I nod my head. I take the milk out of the fridge and put some of it into the pot.

"Do you want some?" I ask Steve.

"Sure." I pour some more into to pot and prepare myself for the dream telling.

"Okay, so my dream started out with me in my old boyfriend's, David's, house. The beginning was fine, everything was happy. It was a holiday I think. He pushed me down the stairs after we exchanged some choice words." I took the milk off of the stove and poured it into two mugs. 

"When I hit the bottom, I didn't hit the floor. I hit a sidewalk. I looked up to see a road. I saw David in a car at a stoplight, just waiting for something. The light had long been green but he was just sitting in a running car. Then I saw them; I saw my parents, driving down the road in their car, happy and laughing. And then David hit the gas and... and..." I  took a deep breath in, "drove his car right into them. I tried to get up and stop him but I was stuck to the ground. So I started screaming. And then..." I just trailed off and stared into space. Eventually, I took a sip of my warm milk. 

"That was too much, wasn't it?" I say, turning the stove off and grabbing my mug. "I am sorry, I rarely open up to people."

"Hey, hey. It's okay. I was just worried, did I do the right thing waking you up?" he asks.

"Yes, I am so glad you woke me up. Next time that happens, please do. Because most likely, I am going through some sort of personal hell." I say. I look over at the clock. "I think we should go back to bed."

"Okay, thanks for the milk," he says. "I feel like am learning more about you, even if it is your dark and twisty side." 

"Thanks for listening," I say and walk back into my room.

________________________________________________________________________________

Today's the day!! Steve's stuff got here today, and we are going to start to move him in. I throw on one of Tony's old sweatshirts and my MIT athletic shorts. To be completely honest, I am way too excited about this day. I love having Steve live with me, but it will be nice to have some space again. Although, over the past four weeks, Steve and I have truly become the best of friends. We talk about everything, and I found out that he sometimes get bad dreams too. I also found out about his life in the '40s. I am really excited to help him and see him start to live out his life.

"Rach! Let's start painting!" I hear Steve yell from the other apartment.

I head over to his apartment and see that he has already laid out all the drop cloths and set up my ladder. I grabbed a small can of light grey paint and got to work.

A little later, Steve and I started listening to music and laughing. It is so refreshing to have such a close friend always around. I feel like this is what girls my age often feel like. Always hanging out with friends, making memories... 

Eventually, I get down off of my ladder to check my work and when I turned around, I was met with Steve with paint on his fingers. He put his fingers on my nose.

"Steve did you just.." I say, start to smile and then dip my fingers into the paint, and started a battle.

When we finished the paint war, I went back to my apartment to cook dinner and Steve started his shower.

When we both had finished our tasks, we ate dinner together. We talked for a little bit and then went to bed. It was my turn on the couch. As I lie down, I take a deep breath. This pillow smells like Steve. Wow, this whole bed smells like Steve. This is pleasant. Wait, wait, wait. What am I thinking about?