Back Before the Start of Us (on hold)

'Til it hurts or bleeds or fades in time

"Kids? They want to see you again."
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They all stood up and followed Coulson and Maria out of the room.
Exhaustion clung wearily to their feet as they slowly dragged themselves forward. Once back in the meeting room with the Avengers, the kids stood back at the head of the table where they had been previously. This time, whatever the Avengers said, they were ready to take it with no arguments.
Immy had long since fallen asleep in Charlie's arms and Lena was barely hanging onto James' back as he struggled to give her a piggyback.

They were tired and they wanted to go home.

"So," Clint started, "we have decided that you all stay the night in a locked and guarded room and we decide exactly what to do when all of us have had more sleep. Right now however, we have agreed to operate under the assumption that you are not a group of HYDRA spies out to kill us all."
He sighed as if it physically pained him to say that.

"Thank you," Leo murmured and the group turned to Coulson expectantly.

"Oh just one more thing," Natasha added, "we just want you to know that if we find your story to be true, we are willing to help you all out with anything and everything that you need."

There was another murmured thank you from the whole group and they simultaneously turned to trudge after Coulson.

Clint did feel bad for the kids. He really did. They looked absolutely exhausted. But time travel? Their story was ridiculous. Tony kept arguing that it was so far fetched there was no way they would make it up because they would know that it wasn't believable but the way he saw it, it as just too far fetched. Besides, he had kids of his own. He knew what kind of crazy stories they made up.
He didn't really believe that they were HYDRA either. They were probably just some random kids who were part of a weird prank or accidentally got inside the base and don't want to get in trouble.

Like he said, he did feel bad for them. But that didn't mean he believed them. Because time travel? Add in an awesome car and a mad scientist and it would be Back to the Future. He might love that movie but it was completely made up.

There was no way it would work.

Steve was confused. Everything had happened so fast and it was so late - or early depending on which way you looked at it - and he hadn't slept properly in... well months if he was honest with himself but he hadn't slept at all in the last two days. The nightmares were getting worse. It wasn't just Bucky falling from the train anymore but it was all of them. Every single person he had grown to care about. Natasha, Thor, Clint, Bruce, Tony, Wanda, Pietro, everyone.

Of course it wasn't always a train. Sometimes it was much more graphic than that. Loki's sceptre through the heart. The storm of bullets that killed Pietro. Falling from the helicarrier. Shot through the head. Neck snapped. Bones broken. Chest's caved in. His imagination never seemed to fail to supply an endless number of ways to make him watch his friends die.

He was scared to close his eyes.

The loud scraping of a chair filled the quiet room and Tony left the table, the door to the meeting room swinging shut behind him. The door made no sound as it returned to its frame and everyone sat still for a second until one after another they all pushed their chairs carelessly back and left as well. One by one they all left the room until only Natasha was left, with her head in her hands.

Steve had paused at the door to check if she was alright but she had sent him off with an empty answer of 'I'm fine'.

Her mind was racing. Three kids. With Steve. Or, a whole bunch of kids, HYDRA spies on a mission. Or maybe simply just some kids, part of an elaborate, poorly thought out prank. Her head was spinning. Her thoughts were jumbled. She had thousands of ways she could personify the chaos in her head - a tornado spinning out of control, a skydiver who had just figured out he had a broken parachute right from the start etc - but she didn't have the time to dwell on it.

They were in danger. Whether that meant them or the children, she didn't know. All she knew was that they were in danger. She knew that like she knew her own reflection; her instincts had never failed her before. Shivers crawled up her spine, settling at the base of her neck where it made her tiny hairs stand on end and she couldn't stop her leg from shaking violently under the table. She just hoped that nobody would get too hurt. She just hoped that her recent nightmares weren't any kind of warning.

She hadn't slept in days. Well, in all honesty she hadn't slept in years, at least not properly, but these last few days had been the worst. The nightmares were back. The Red Room seemed to haunt most of them but there was the odd dream which involved someone she cared about now. Steve, Clint, Wanda, Tony, Bruce, Thor, and everyone else.

Those dreams often involved her having to kill them. Just like she'd had to do in the Red Room. Usually it would just be a quick bullet through the head and she'd wake up with a start. But other times she would have to fight them to the death. Broken neck. Strangled. Stabbed.

From those she woke up cold, sweaty and feeling sick. Sick at herself and sick at the knowledge that she had done those exact things to other people.

Now she was sat alone in the meeting room. Her head was buzzing with tiredness and her eyelids felt heavy but there was too much to think about. Maybe she should sleep. Maybe it would give her a fresh perspective on everything.

The morning couldn't come soon enough.