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"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you." -Elbert Hubbard Square B3 Written for Facebook's Hermione’s Haven Bingo 2023
“Hermione, I can’t work with you if you won’t open up to me. Fury sent you to me for a reason.”
Sam Wilson was trying and failing to get through to her. She thought she was superwoman or something, feeling as if she had to keep up with the likes of Thor and Hulk, who did their superpower thing almost effortlessly. She seemed to forget she was human sometimes. A simple human being had needs to be met such as PTSD and anger issues.
“There’s nothing to open up about, I’m fine,” she insisted, playing with a small object from his desk. She was restless, walking around the room and acting for all the world like she had a lot of other places to be and things to do. Anything other than being there.
Sam pressed his lips together tightly. They had been going at this for the better part of an hour. He couldn’t keep her past their appointed time, but he could take action on her person. He gave in – this time.
“Alright. You can go.”
She started to stride toward the door and stopped short when he barked her name.
“Hermione!”
Her back to him, she waited until he spoke.
“I’m taking you off of active duty effective immediately.”
It was then she whirled on him. “You can’t do that!”
“I can and I have!” he yelled back at her. Then more softly, “You’ve been avoiding me, cancelling appointments, rescheduling them at the last minute, taking assignments to avoid coming in here. There’s nothing more I can do for you until you decide to talk to me. And if not me – someone. Anyone approved by SHIELD.”
“I won’t talk to them, either!” she continued to shout. “I’m fine! Can’t you just leave me alone? I survived a bloody war! I’m fine!” Her heart rate was up, her pulse pounding in her ears and it was then it suddenly hit her – this is exactly what he’d been talking about. If she had nothing to hide, then why did it bother her so much to be here? Maybe – just maybe – she needed to work through her pain. It was eating her from the inside out, caustic like so much acid.
Tears leaked from her eyes as her face transformed before him. “But I – I’m supposed to be strong. The strong one,” she repeated, thumping herself on her chest.
“C’mere,” Sam encouraged, opening his arms, and she practically ran to him, falling into his warm embrace. He wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly, her own returning the favor as she buried her head in his chest.
“How can you – how can you even stand to be around me? I’ve been such a bitch. I’ve been so terrible to you. I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, the waterworks on full force as she started to soak part of his shirt.
He leaned down and pulled some tissues out of a box, handing them to her.
“Thank you,” she sniffed, taking the tissues and blowing her nose, laughing a little at herself. “Wow. I’m making a mess.” She threw away the tissues and gestured for a few more, which she used to dry her eyes even though they still leaked tears onto her beautiful face.
Sam remained calm and kept a hand on her shoulder when she pulled back. “Do you want to sit down?” he asked her and she nodded, sniffing back a sob.
They sat side by side on a low couch he kept, a small distance apart but knees nearly touching. He took one of her hands in his own. “Is this okay?”
“Yeah. I just need a minute.”
“You know, you asked how I can stand you. Hermione, I’m your friend. I love you for who you are. Not what you can do, although that’s a part of you. Not for how you treat me – a friend is for better or for worse. There’s no progress if we don’t let ourselves feel, heal, open up to someone and have honesty within ourselves. I’ll always be your friend. Nothing can change that.”
“That means a lot to me,” she said, breathing deeply and shuddering a sigh. “I haven’t treated you like I should. Like a friend,” she whispered, “but I’d like to make it up to you. Will you give me another chance?”
“Always,” Sam told her with conviction, squeezing her hand slightly. “You can tell me anything. It will never go further than this room and I will never judge you for your past.”
“Thank you,” she reiterated, then launched into the long, painful story of her time at Hogwarts and the terrible war she’d been forced to fight at such a young age.
Same listened to it all, never judged her, and their friendship cemented into something stronger that day, the first day towards Hermione’s step in healing from her past and the horrors she’d lived through up to that point in time.
Friends were forever.