Together Tomorrow

Chapter Eleven: Vintage Dreams

The faint purring of the little black kitten filled her ears at Vader lay on the pillow curled up next to Leas face. She moaned, half asleep as she kicked the blankets off her legs. Spring had certainly melted away, and suffocating heat and humidity had enthusiastically taken its place. Tonight was no exception. Lea had woken up several times feeling sticky with her hair- and Vaders- plastered against her clammy skin. She growled, only conscious enough to be aware that she was, and be grumpy about it.

Numbly, she reached up and brushed her hair out of her face again, just as her kitten stretched out and laid a paw over her cheek. She fumbled for her phone to check the time, but winced and groaned when it lit up abrasively right in front of her eyes. She unintelligibly grumbled some more when the digital clock flicked over to read 3:48am, still the middle of the night. Without disturbing Vader, she put her phone back on her bedside table and shoved off more of her blanket. She should not have worn sweat pants to bed, she thought, miffed. At least she was wearing a cotton tank top.

The stuffy arms of sleep were beginning to tug at her again, Lea longing to fall into them, when she was jolted awake again by a loud thud and the wall alongside her bed shuddering. Both Vader and Lea sat up, the prior hissing and fluffing up to look as imposing as he could. Which wasn't much, as he was a two pound ball of fuzziness. Lea hushed him and strained her ears, thankful, not for the first time, that the walls were thin. It was quiet for a minute, but then the screaming started.

Vader hissed at her as she hurriedly jumped out of bed, bouncing the kitten this way and that as the mattress jolted under her rushed movement. She bounded across her room, threw open her window, and clambered out onto the fire escape barefooted and in her pajamas. Steve was still yelling coarsely as she heaved open his window and slipped inside. It took a second before her eyes adjusted to the darkness in the room; she allowed herself to pause for the adjustment. It was already a little risky to wake Steve up from a nightmare, (the first time she had done it, it had taken nearly two weeks for the bruise on her side to vanish), so being able to see was important. When her vision did clear, she carefully approached his bed; he was thrashing and muttering incoherently between each scream. Names mostly, she had heard them all before, but one was new.

Bracing herself, Lea grabbed his arm and tried to shake him awake. "Steve! Steve! You need to wake up now!" She dodged a blow he threw her way and then grabbed him again.

"You need to wake up now soldier! That's an order!" She tried raising her voice and sounding like a drill sergeant, this time she wasn't able to dodge his reaction.

His huge arm flew up and slammed into her chest. Lea was knocked to the floor before she even had time to grunt. Fortunately, she wasn't terribly hurt, but her tail bone ached from the sudden collision with the ground. Undaunted, she instantly pulled herself up and went back to him. He was now curled in a ball, twitching.

"Steve. Wake up. Please wake up." She begged, again tugging at him. And finally, he seemed to hear her.

Captain America sat up violently, fists raised. "Bucky!" He shouted the name of his old best friend. His voice was so agonized and raw; Lea felt her heart crack and splinter inside her chest. She stepped toward him again, hands raised complacently.

"Steve. It was just a nightmare. You need to relax." She used the softest tone she had and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Steve blinked, and seemed to see her for the first time. "Lea?"

"Yeah Steve, it's me. You were just having a dream." She murmured as he eased back to where he was sitting on the edge of his mattress. After glancing around the room, quickly evaluating and taking in every detail of it, he looked at her again. The question was written across his crinkled brow and shining from his confused, haunted eyes. Lea kept talking in a mollifying tone.