Adopted by Loki

Chapter 37

I woke to light creeping into the room and the door freaked making it stop. I lifted my head revealing Jefferson I gave him a tired smile, "hey." He grinned, "hi." I gently removed myself from Grace's embrace replacing it with a pillow I walked out the room beckoning Jefferson to follow I closed the door quietly and hugged him laying my head on his shoulder sighing, "I'm not allowing her to return to that wretched place I'm gonna start homeschooling her again." he nodded, "I suppose I can live with that, but I want an explanation." I swallowed, "that's up to her it's not my story to tell Jefferson she will tell you when she's ready when I picked her up today she was scared that I was mad at her so when she tells you what happens I don't care how mad you get you can not show it to her got it?" he nodded, "I can try." I closed my eyes, "I wanna sleep for an eternity." he chuckled picking me up and I felt a soft bed under me when he set me down kissing my forehead, "get some rest love you need it." I closed my eyes only to shoot up when I hear a scream I run to Graces room to see her sitting up and her small frames shakes as she sobs I rushed over bringing her into a hug, "hey hey it was just a dream I'm right here." she wrapped her arms around me as she cried, "it felt so real he wouldn't stop I was so scared mama." I froze my eyed widening I snapped out it continuing to stroke her hair, "I know how about we go find papa and we talk about this okay?" she nodded and I picked her up and I turned to see Jefferson in the doorway smiling at us, "well you found me." I grinned, rolling my eyes at his humour and I motioned for him to close the door and he complied coming to sit on the bed, "Grace can you tell him what happened today?" she nodded sniffling, "I was on the playground and a girl was saying mean things to me I went to walk away and she pushed me down and I got mad so I pushed her back." I rubbed her back and she continued with a sob, "and then a boy stopped me in the hall saying mean things then he hit me." Jefferson stiffened and I pulled her hair back revealing the split lip and black eye, "honey why didn't you tell me sooner we could have prevented this?" she clung to me and in a weak voice mumbled, "I thought you would be mad at me." he shook his head, "Grace hun look at me." she raised her head looking at him, "I would never get mad at you for something like that." she nodded I cleared my throat, "and the reason I'm not taking her back to that school is because they refuse to punish the attackers and when I saw she had a black eye the principal shrugged like there wasn't a problem with that." he sighed, "fine I trust you can continue to teach her like you did before." I nodded and sat Grace down, "how about you dressed in some other clothes and I'll take you out for ice cream." she nodded excitedly and pushed us towards the door making Jefferson and I laugh I closed the door and I raced down the stairs and hugged my dad, "now I understand you acted like you did when I called you dad." he raised a brow, "Grace called me mama." I squealed doing a happy dance everyone chuckled at me and Jefferson wrapped his arms around my waist and laid his head on top of mine, "are you okay with this?" I spun around looking at him, "yes love I'm more than okay with it." He leaned down kissing me, "I love you til the end of the line." I grinned, I love you til the end of line." I heard Bucky fake gasp, "Stevie they're stealing our line." I practically felt Steve's eyeroll and giggled, "yup it's our thing now." He grabbed me from Jefferson's grasp and threw me over his shoulder I giggled until I noticed we were heading towards the backyard with the pool I squealed as I attempted to wriggle out of his grip, "Bucky you throw me in the pool I swear to God." He chuckled, "what will you do?" I grinned, "I'll make you share a room with Stark." He put me down and hid behind Steve, "she's a monster." I know he meant it as a joke but a rush of emotion rushed through me and I choked back a sob and Bucky rushed over to me, "oh I am sorry I was just joking I swear." I nodded, "I know Buck." I squeezed back and Grace ran down the stairs, "ICE CREAM TIME." I giggled backing out of the embrace, "c'mon sweetheart." I picked her up and carried her to the car while she giggled the entire time.