Lamborghini | Tony Stark

TWENTY EIGHT - HELPLESS

By the time six weeks had passed, Sasha was used to the feeling of complete emptiness. She was numb to the world and everything it had made her feel in the past, now being sensitive to only a small handful of things.

Her stomach would turn at the sight of Tony's shoes in the hallway of her home, or one of his shirts over the back of a chair in her bedroom. Her heart dropped when she found a ring that belonged to him down the back of a dresser while she was cleaning, feeling dizzy with sickness whenever she caught sight of a framed photograph of the two of them she kept on a sideboard.

Work had driven her to her limits, the same way it always had done. Sasha and her team had won yet another court case and were two weeks into a new one, though the victory didn't feel quite as sweet when her phone didn't immediately ring after her press conference on the steps of the court house ended like it usually did.

Sasha worked longer hours than she did before despite not realising it was possible, walking home in the early hours of the morning in the company of loud silence and delusion, only to walk the same route in the opposite direction not six hours later.

Peter had tried his best to keep Sasha company. Tony had pulled him aside before he left to ask him to keep an eye on her, knowing that it would be better for the both of them to have one another rather than be alone. He was scared Sasha would exhaust herself with work like she'd done before, but knew that there was no way he could tell her how to cope with the situation they were in, and so chose to keep his mouth shut.

Sasha and Peter spent most Sundays together, either taking the time to stroll through Central Park or try yet another pizza place to figure out which one they liked the best. It was a strange friendship but Sasha began to grow fond of Peter, viewing him the way she would a younger brother. He understood the way she felt without Tony and stopped at nothing to put a smile on her face, turning up to her apartment with a box of cookies or chocolate chip cupcakes every week, just to make her happy for even a brief moment.

Spring was in full force and had brought with it heavy rain showers that drowned the city and everybody in it for three of the six weeks Tony had been gone. A thick mist had settled in the area, Sasha waking up in the clouds every morning without being able to see five feet out of her apartment windows.

The repetitive, monotonous weather began to blend all the days into one, Sasha beginning to feel more and more like a machine that was a slave to the law system in New York with each twenty-four hours that passed.

Nothing had purpose in her life anymore and the cases that landed on her desk seemed to be growing more and more sinister, the heavy details Sasha had to spend hours reviewing taking a toll on her conscience, forcing her into a total numbness.

Another dreary day dawned on Sasha and after just five hours sleep, she was wide awake on a grey Saturday morning with heavy eyes and drained bones. She sank a cup of coffee before heading out, even the low growl of the Lamborghini's engine gave her no feeling anymore.

It was still drizzling when Sasha parked the car on the sidewalk outside the cemetery. She headed through the gates with an umbrella in one hand and yet another bunch of red roses in her other hand, walking the same path she had done countless times before.

As she approached her brother's resting place, Sasha finally felt her heart start to beat inside her chest. For the past few weeks, there had been moments when Sasha wouldn't have been shocked if somebody had told her she was a ghost, walking the earth without a weighted soul. It was as if all the colour and excitement Tony had injected into her life had slowly drained away, leaving her in a darker place than she'd ever been in before.

With a sigh, Sasha lay the flowers down against Phil's headstone. Guilt of not visiting him in a while was rife and the dead flowers that she'd just replaced only made her feel worse.