➢𝗔 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧-𝗧𝗢-𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧➢

『 Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you 』
―𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺, 𝘍𝘪𝘹 𝘠𝘰𝘶

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 5: 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅⟵

❝I'M SORRY...❞

-𝙹𝙰𝙽𝚄𝙰𝚁𝚈 𝟷𝟾𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟽-

𝙺𝙰𝙼𝙰𝚁-𝚃𝙰𝙹, 𝙺𝙰𝚃𝙷𝙼𝙰𝙽𝙳𝚄, 𝙽𝙴𝙿𝙰𝙻

"Are you okay?" Stephen asks Caitlyn, as they walk from their chambers to where Ancient One was meeting them the next morning.

Signs of stiffness crawl up the stance of the fourteen-year-old blondie, and with a twisted expression on her face𑁋she answers him casually, "Yeah... Why?"

Her uncle's lips come together before parting.

"It's just..." he explains, eyes darting elsewhere, before returning back, "Well, you seemed rather down when you walked in last night."

Caitlyn shrugs her shoulders, trying to deflect, "Pretty sure that's just my resting face."

"Are you sure?" Parts of concern swirl up inside her uncle, attentively so as interactions between the two Stranges are more smooth as of late𑁋it being almost a year since the second car accident resulting in changing their lives drastically, occurred.

Stephen studies the teenage girl's features, noting that they are reserved in a similar way to how she had entered their room last night𑁋except last night, he could've sworn he'd seen some glossiness in her eyes... leading him to worry that she was upset, or had been crying.

He hadn't seen his niece cry in years, for she wasn't one to wear her heart on her sleeve, sparking even more of an urge inside the well-acclaimed sorcerer in figuring out just what is bothering her... maybe, even, still bothering them both.

Caitlyn's brows knit together in a look of confusion as she had been quiet upon entering the room during that time because as she recalls, her uncle's figure was fast asleep.

She turns her curly head to face him, "How would you even know? I saw you sleeping."

"My physical form was..." He enlightens her, the girl immediately wanting to slap herself for not even thinking𑁋or looking up to see with her advanced mind𑁋that Stephen must have watched her walk into the room, take her shoes off, and sink into the small cot she sought comfort in after a painful game of 'Truth or Truth' with that girl, Bexley.

Her brief exit and almost slip of showing feelings are due to the question regarding the yellow house often visualized in the portals Caitlyn summoned as a sorcerer. The one where her parents raised her, in Westview.

Once again, a melancholy presence hovers over Caitlyn Elizabeth Strange like a thunderstorm cloud, and the fourteen-year-old downcasts, looking at her signature black-tied heel-boots. Her legs are covered in a blue polka dot pair of jeans𑁋Bex's idea𑁋and her ivory arms are left visible with the dark blue short-sleeved shirt she wears.

Her shoulders are still tense upon the talk of her behavior last night, and Stephen's increase in observation over her as of late𑁋for they were somewhat awkwardly beginning to act like an uncle and niece, for once𑁋lead him to believe that something was indeed troubling the troubled youth... and at that point, he knew it was time for a talk.

He isn't able to do that just yet when the two are finally greeted politely by their teacher, and the uncle makes a personal note to go back to the overall conversation𑁋the elephant in the room, if one will𑁋at a much later and practical time. 

When trying to piece their lives back together.

✧✧✧

"Once, in this room, you begged me to let you and your niece learn," the Ancient One is followed by Stephen and Caitlyn Strange as she reminisces, "Now, your niece is a master of the katana weapon."

The blonde child huffs a laugh, lips turning upwards into a smirk in reaction to the woman stating the honest-to-god truth at the moment𑁋that Caitlyn was a master with that sword.

'Katana-Wielding Blondie' was what she had been referred to as of late, and to be honest𑁋the teenager actually took pride in being called that... surprisingly much more than when she was called a Troubled Youth.

Strange's troubled niece, that is... and she definitely still was.

 Ancient One goes on to mention her uncle's improvements in the last eleven months, "Now, I'm told you question every lesson, preferring to teach yourself."

"Once in this room, you told me to open my eyes..." Stephen begins, venturing around the vicinity before turning to face her, "Now I'm being told to blindly accept rules that make no sense."

"Like the rule against conjuring a gateway in the library?"

"Wong told on me?" the man asks with a smidge of light disbelief.

Caitlyn from next to him shakes her curly head, "No one likes a tattletale..."

"You're both advancing quickly with your sorcery skills." The Ancient One replies stoically, turning towards her right as she tells the two, "You need a safe space to practice your spells."

Glass breaks from an invisible wall, the woman using her many years of practice to bring out the seemingly alternate dimension, and leads the two right through.

Once Caitlyn steps in she feels the change in atmosphere, proving itself even more when the Ancient One speaks with an echo laced to her tone, "You are now inside the Mirror Dimension. Ever-present but undetected."

"The real world isn't affected by what happens here." She states firmly, Stephen turning to wave a hand in front of a female who casually organizes a few cups of tea𑁋his niece watches as there is no reaction to his movements from the other side.

"We use the Mirror Dimension to train, surveil, and sometimes contain threats." The Ancient One explains next, Caitlyn's gaze darting back down to her teacher's upon being told seriously, "You don't want to be stuck in here without your sling ring."

Stephen blinks before circling back to the woman as well, picking up on the earlier statement, "Hold on. Sorry, what do you mean, threats?"

"Learning of an infinite multiverse includes learning of infinite dangers..." she says informatively, the fourteen-year-old subconsciously grabbing onto her uncle's wrist when she is startled by more morphing of the space around them, rumbled through by the control of the woman.

"And if I told you everything else that you don't already know, you'd run from here in terror."

Blue eyes belonging to the bearded man slowly flicker back to look at the woman, but before they do so they look at his right arm𑁋that currently has his niece attached to it.

Caitlyn quickly lets go, mentioning the previous𑁋and also rare𑁋physical contact between him and her in a form of a mumbled apology, "Sorry... that just scared the devil out of me."

"Don't worry about it." The uncle responds, but the disheartening expression causes his niece's look to be situated elsewhere𑁋the floor in particular𑁋only rises in the analysis to take place inside the mind of Stephen Strange... generally speaking, and soon enough when they're headed to the training grounds, he tries again.

He tries to find out what is bothering her. He knows something is.

Caitlyn's body curls inward upon laying eyes on the black-haired teenager who briefly speaks with Master Mordo, belt-shaped Katana unbent in her hand in preparation for a sparring match𑁋and from her right Stephen questions, "Was it something with you and Bexley?"

"I, uh... No," Caitlyn says a little too quickly, hence stumbling over her words as she shakes her head to steady herself, eventually looking up, "It was nothing... I'm𑁋I'm good, Uncle Stephen. "

He doesn't believe her, but nods, "All right."

"So, just how ancient is she?" Stephen Strange asks Karl Mordo, the two men preparing to train with one another𑁋and across from them a concentrated Caitlyn Strange and Bexley Nightingale each stand with their katanas held up, preparing to fight as well.

Mordo says, "No one knows the age of the Sorcerer Supreme... only that she is Celtic and never talks about her past."

"You follow her even though you don't know?" Stephen questions, his blonde niece tilting her head to the side in a similar thought process.

The other man justifies, explaining as the brown-eyed girl nods in agreement, "We know that she's steadfast but predictable. Merciless, yet kind."

"She made me what I am." Mordo finishes, lowering himself into a fight position that provokes Stephen to do the same.

Caitlyn lifts her weapon as well, causing Bexley's to go up as the man tells the group, "Trust your teacher. And don't lose your way."

"Like Kaecilius?"

"Hiya!"

The girl with long black hair clashes her sword with the blonde short-headed one's, and two of the most advanced teens of the mystic arts battle it out intensely.

Caitlyn takes hold of Bexley's right hand, moving it so that the next strike from the fifteen-year-old does not hit her𑁋and before it can be used again, a firm boot presses down on the weapon.

The fourteen-year-old relieves her signature type of footwear and quickly positions herself again, making noises of grit when fending off the attacks from the other fierce female... all while Karl now has Stephen in a chokehold, having just answered his previous question regarding the rogue mystic arts member, "That's right."

"You knew him."

"When he first came to us... he'd lost everyone he'd ever love. He was a grieving and broken man, searching for answers in the mystic arts."

Mordo continues to talk the truth, "A brilliant student, but he was proud, headstrong. Questioned the Ancient One, rejected our teachings..."

"He left Kamar-Taj."

Caitlyn suddenly grows incredibly engrossed, and the continuous strikes coming from Bexley's katana are suddenly tangled up in the curly blonde's weapon𑁋Caitlyn presses into the sharp material with her own before sliding it across and taking the black-haired girl off her feet.

The teenage girl grunts upon hitting the floor, and looking up to see a hard expression covering the face of her best friend𑁋Bexley sighs, "This isn't for last night, is it?"

"What makes you say that?" Caitlyn asks back, with a hint of breathiness, and maybe even a smirk.

"His disciples followed him like sheep seduced from a false doctrine," Mordo says after panting roughly, as the male Strange had just elbowed him in order to break free from the restraint.

Stephen remembers, "He stole a forbidden ritual, right?"

"Yeah?"

"What did it do?"

Another exhale of air leaves the soul of the fifteen-year-old on the ground, and she breathes out a few more times before tilting her head to the side, "I don't know... you seem a little defensive."

Caitlyn's lips thin out an amount, and before Bexley can ask any further she extends a hand out𑁋helping the girl to her feet so that they could continue sparring.

"No more questions." The man across from them tells the blonde's uncle, and he already disobeys that request.

Stephen eyes the stick in curiosity, "What is that?"

"That's a question."

They share a chuckle before Mordo relays, "This is a relic."

"Some magic is too powerful to sustain, so we imbue objects with it. Allowing them to take the strain we cannot."

Orange sparks fly out from the staff as Mordo gives voice to it, "This is the Staff of the Living Tribunal."

"There are many relics." He tells Stephen, "The Wand of Watoomb."

Their eyes pan over to the silvery design of the katana being held by Bexley Nightingale, and Mordo avows, "That weapon carried by Bexley is one of them, in disguise as a belt."

"The Vaulting Boots of Valtorr..." the click of his shoes emits more orange flurries, and Stephen's mouth is agape in awe.

He smiles, "They just roll off the tongue, don't they?"

"When do I get my relic?"

"When you're ready."

"I think I'm ready," Stephen claims, the two teenagers having finished their sparring, and Caitlyn watches as Mordo offers another kind grin.

He reveals with wisdom, "You're ready when the relic decides you're ready."

The fourteen-year-old looks down at her hands, sliding the training sword she had been using back into its felt holder and biting down on her bottom lip𑁋she wonders what hers would be? Bexley's belt was pretty cool...

"For now, conjure a weapon." Mordo had said, and soon enough he is going way harder on Stephen as the two fought, voice rising in volume, "Fight! Fight like your life depended on it!"

He uses his mystic abilities to cast circular spells from above, and the other man uses them as momentum when landing a harsh hit on the bearded one𑁋him falling to the floor.

Caitlyn rises quickly, arms staying crossed as her features show ones of concern for her uncle's now sprawled-out figure, and Mordo from above, tells him quietly, "Because one day, it will."

His niece's keen perception eventually settles on the Ancient One from the other side of the courtyard, her expression sharpening when eyeing the view of the matter in a way of disturbance𑁋causing the blonde to ponder questions... of the unknown.

Either way, the rigidity in the fourteen year old's stance is evident, and it was slowly coming to a head based on all the time that had passed.

Clearly, Caitlyn is struggling.

She always had a way of managing these aspects of her damaged self, mostly because of the environment she was around𑁋with no one to be there for her𑁋simply set the mood for how her life was supposed to go.

But then, there was a change, a change in heart𑁋loss, and then scenery, mind. Through it all, however, there is still a similar presence... the one of her Uncle Stephen. 

Though things had immensely improved between them, they'd spent more time together𑁋turned into better people... there was something missing.

A heart-to-heart.

An apology.

A reassurance... that sometimes, it was okay to be vulnerable. To release emotions.

It was long-awaited for sure, and with much-dedicated thought and reflection𑁋painful sorrow in reliving memories of negativity, trauma, depression𑁋Stephen was now ready.

He is ready to show Caitlyn just how much he's grown as a person, and most important of all𑁋that he still holds her so dear to his heart as his young niece, even after all that has happened.

All the mistakes, and times that he wasn't there then, but he, certainly, wants to be here now.

✧✧✧

The once-wealthy neurosurgeon, now dressed in more comfortable wear of a t-shirt and sweatpants𑁋walks by the windowsill where the rain can be heard from outside, pitter-pattering against the ground at Kamar-Taj. His scarred hands which since have begun to shake less, but still do wholeheartedly, take hold of two of the gifts given to him by two of the most important people in his life.

Stephen grasps tightly onto the cracked watch given to him by Christine Palmer, and then with a more delicate touch𑁋his niece's paper-mache owl is gently placed onto the table to which he lowers himself into a chair nearby. Lifting up the keyboarded tablet on top, the man begins typing an email.

TO: CHRISTINE PALMER X

CHRISTINE

Blue eyes flicker up to the wall for a second while Stephen thinks of what to say. There wasn't really much on his mind, considering it had almost been a year since he had last seen or spoken to the woman since he had said some not-so-kind things to her.

He continues to type anyway.

I'M EMAILING YOU ONE MORE TIME TO |

The cursor he presses down on erases the remainder of the message, Stephen closing the tablet immediately𑁋sitting back in the small chair while his gaze turns toward the thunder rumbling in the distance. He decides not to send another message to Christine.

As much as he wants to, though he knows he doesn't deserve a response, the man puts those feelings aside... for there is someone else who needs to hear a set of words regarding his previous actions right now.

"Hey!" Caitlyn Strange enters the room with sound in her movements, voice remaining light however as she had just returned from seeing Bexley Nightingale again.

The two were hanging out a lot and easily formed a strong bond that made Stephen happy because his niece was happy, meaning there were good things in the lives of both Stranges.

But, words need to be exchanged, outwardly and openly𑁋something these two are known for not being too good at when it came to one another𑁋but that wasn't important.

Their relationship and Caitlyn's well-being are what was.

It starts out slow. Stephen turns his head toward the fourteen-year-old as she carefully places her katana where it always rests and quickly pulls off the wet jacket she had worn while running through the rain, something she's always loved to do... ever since she was a little girl. Whenever her parents let her, aka which meant when they didn't know.

Pale blue eyes glance over at the watch her uncle has on the table, but her mouth opens in unknowing observation when the somewhat crumpled owl she had made in an art class years ago, still stands today somehow, "Wow, can't believe that thing has still held up after all these years."

"I made it when I was in, what?" her lips pucker in a calculation, hands going into her pockets while the soothing out in Stephen's features are illuminated in the lightbulb casting from above.

He nods somewhat distractedly as Caitlyn declares, "Kindergarten, right?"

Stephen shifts his body back for a second, blinking a few times while the harmless and familiarly carefree persona of his niece takes over the atmosphere before his voice echoes within the room.

It's above a whisper, but also stern, not like how he would reprimand her back then for her misbehaving antics, but with care. Paternal. How it is supposed to sound.

"Can we talk?"

Caitlyn's curly blonde locks pick up, all airy aspects of her body language only dispersing a little𑁋as for once, she didn't know exactly what was to come of all this𑁋and she wasn't used to that, not at all.

She nods, though, stepping into the center of the room while comfortably crossing her arms, "Sure."

It is silent for a few moments, the only noises other than the rain dripping down from the sky are the shuffling in positions of the uncle, in preparation for talking to his niece𑁋and Stephen sits on his bed, fingers folding together in front of him while his irises downcast.

A little more suspicion stirs up inside Caitlyn, at what she still didn't know, of course, and there is one thing that comes to her mind first. Substantially.

"Am I in trouble?"

She racks her brain, thinking back to any acts or decisions that she had made that could be considered, 'troubling' and tries to explain herself, "I mean, I haven't caused that much of a ruckus since I've been here... I even returned the books we stole from the library, back to Wong𑁋,"

"You're not in trouble." Stephen cuts her off, clarifying with his deep voice that makes Caitlyn raise a brow in response, waiting for him to tell her then if it isn't something bad that she had done.

He swallows, helplessly feeling a bit nervous based on what would happen after this conversation𑁋this, heart-to-heart. The uncle musters up enough confidence in the well-known factor that it was inconsequential. No matter what happens, he needs to say this. He needs his young niece to know how much he has changed, and that it is for the better. For her.

But before he can entirely take part in that, however, forgiveness, Stephen needs to express his regret. His remorse, for the way that things panned out... Between them.

He and his niece, and he does apologize, wholeheartedly and sincerely with two words that should've been said a long time ago, to his brother's daughter.

 "I'm sorry."

Caitlyn goes rigid, all the oxygen seemingly exiting her lungs effective immediately, and replaced with a sore amount of chest pain.

Her first response is to question it, her uncle's words that in his mind, are sentimental and clear with emotion𑁋they are confusing to his niece, "For what?"

Stephen looks up at her intently, the skin around his eyes crinkled and lips turned down in a frown as he meaningfully bestows his sorrow-filled apology to her once more𑁋by telling her, simply, "For everything."

"On that night..." he begins, "The night your parents died,"

Caitlyn feels her body tremor, alarm bells going off in her mind as she knew it was a sign of not being able to hold it in any longer𑁋that she was close to breaking down.

Emotions and shit.

She crosses the arms attached to her tighter, shutting her blue eyes as the painful memories flood back into her brain, and her teeth grit.

The man recalls his former words to the once trembling seven-year-old he held in his lap, "I told you, that we were gonna live for us..."

"I didn't do that."

The blonde teenager swallows, internal displeasure at the lump beginning to form inside her esophagus, and in the slow wave of communication taking place between the two𑁋she contradicts him, "You had a life."

She makes an excuse for him.

"You didn't expect... for me to be thrown into it."

Stephen's gaze stayed locked on hers, his brows going up ever so slightly in realization, that Caitlyn's eyes are glossy, with waterworks. Tears.

She tries to speak again, speech impacted by the soaked air bubble in her throat that insists, "It wasn't going to be your job to be responsible for me."

"Doesn't matter..." He replies with veracity and truthfulness.

The niece gnaws on her bottom lip, ending the blinking spasms being forced upon her due to the fact that her sockets were filled to the brim with water𑁋and she is determined, to involuntarily reject the possibility of letting them escape. Letting it out.

Caitlyn remains stubborn, taking advantage of the lack in the speed of timely dialogue to insist once more𑁋guilt ridden, "But it does𑁋,"

"No, Caitlyn." Stephen tells her firmly, closing his own blue eyes and then reopening them to watch his niece's shaking form, and the uncle sighs, "I need you to hear what I'm saying because you deserve to hear it..."

"More than anyone."

His own voice cracks, but no tears leave his eyes as his focus remains on the point of the matter𑁋admitting with honesty, "I made mistakes."

"I wasn't there."

"And, there's nothing I can do to change what's already happened..." Disappointment reeks in his tone, in himself, and Stephen looks up, eyeing the fourteen-year-old with much pain as pure devastation uncontrollably overcomes her features.

His next words are completely heartfelt, as he has never felt another way through it all, "But you are my family, and I care about you, so much..."

"So, if you'd let me... and like I said," the man doesn't push, remaining cautious as he restates, "I can't fix the way things panned out between us,"

"But I'd like to be here for you now... if you'd let me."

Neither speaks for a moment, but Stephen can tell, Caitlyn is struggling from within.

The tightly crossed arms she once had in a pretzel now dangle at her sides limply, and the girl tries hard. She tries really really hard, to keep it all together.

After a few deep breaths𑁋that don't work𑁋the short blonde drops any sort of guarded persona secured inside her, and the honesty in her nature flows out smoothly like a river when her sharp mind begins assessing herself. Candidly, and, woundingly.

"I... was... a handful."

Stephen watches her contorted expression, a sensation of disliking seeing those features on her face settling at the bottom of his stomach, and he listens to her. He listens to her shakily talk openly about her inner emotions for the first time, ever.

Caitlyn hitches a breath, "I made everything so difficult for you. Skipped school, got myself pneumonia by smoking and doing things that I should've never done..."

"I was... a bitch... still am, I guess." She somewhat chuckles out the last part, referencing her introverted tough 'I don't like people' mantra that was key for most of her life, and probably would be like that for the remainder, for that is what the damage has already done to her.

But her heart was𑁋is𑁋always going to be huge, and the pounding of built-up emotions from the past six years are overwhelmingly too much to bear.

And instead of trying to push it all back, Caitlyn can't anymore.

It's too exhausting. She's exhausted.

The girl admits truthfully to her uncle, "It's not all on you, is what I'm trying to say."

"But to be honest..."

Her lip quivers and the fourteen-year-old feels the strength slip out from under her to be able to hold onto it, and it makes her have to concentrate, "Sometimes my mind... it... it has this way of putting any kind of... Um,"

She struggles again, her body physically recoiling now as she feels like the suppressed emotions are going to explode out of her𑁋and it will be embarrassing. Awful. She'll be a baby.

Stephen's features are gentle, a spark of concern thickening them however when Caitlyn shrinks into herself, clearly craning her neck in an odd way upon experiencing the results of holding onto all her emotions... never letting go, and that is when he stands up.

"I, uh," It comes out more like a gurgle than clear as he makes his way over, to her, and it's agonizing in every part of Caitlyn's body to admit what she is about to admit𑁋as well as very hard𑁋but the fourteen-year-old courageously does so, "Sometimes..."

"Sometimes, it's hard," her eyes roll up into her head as a droplet of water falls from her bottom eyelash as she claims, "For me..."

The uncle stays a good distance away, nodding as if granting her permission to continue. That it was okay.

That it's okay.

Safe reassurances from Stephen's caring stance undoubtedly provoke the teenage girl, and she finishes quickly𑁋so much pain rising up inside both the two remaining Stranges at this confession, Caitlyn's confession, that, "Sometimes, it's hard to feel."

"Ugh!"

Flashes of physical torture ignite in her movements, and she brings a short-sleeved arm up to press her face into it𑁋Caitlyn scolding herself, "I hate crying."

"I'm such a baby."

It's all built up, triggered thankfully by this interaction and repair, but it's still too much... and the troubled youth simply cannot bear to continue to hold everything back.

She doesn't have to, though, because it just isn't her being alone anymore.

Stephen is there, and he inarguably is going to be for the rest of his life, no matter what.

The uncle walks up to his niece, lays a hand on her shoulder, and then, pulls her close to him.

In a much-needed, though long awaited𑁋embrace.

Instantly, Caitlyn caves, leaning into the comfort Stephen is providing, and once her head is buried into the warmth of his chest𑁋she doesn't hold back anymore.

She lets it all out.

The sobs are quiet at first, the girl registering that this was actually what it felt like𑁋to release a sea of emotions from the past six years... the feeling of relief shortly overcomes her, and it is comforting.

But more of being brought back to reality, that her uncle is currently hugging her, being there for her𑁋causes Caitlyn to fully give in to the relaxing sensation, understandably resulting in her hysteria to increase a higher level.

Smaller arms wind around Stephen's tall frame and cling to him. A gasp of cries relentlessly exit the body of the young girl in his care, only making more of an aching feeling course throughout the uncle more intensely, for he had never heard sounds of such from his niece... and he never wants to again.

Scarred in damage, but gentle in care, hands, move up and down the fourteen year old's back in a calming manner, and Stephen with a hushed voice soothingly comforts her, "It's all right... it's okay... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Lynn."

Caitlyn cries. 

Inhales through the nose and exhales out the mouth are what the uncle takes over pursuing when trying to console his niece after a few minutes of staying stationary, both of them are still attached to one another after a time as rough as this.

Caitlyn eventually stops the stuttering breaths from escaping her dry lips, and with her curly head still tucked into her uncle's chest𑁋her face moves to the side.

She apologizes, embarrassed, "Sorry..."

Stephen unravels from their embrace, hands this time rubbing against her shoulder blades while a sincere smile etches onto his face.

He tells her, sincerely, "You don't need to be."

The thought of her previous shed of tears being looked upon as something a baby would do doesn't sit well with him, and he quickly discourages that thought process carried by the teenage girl throughout her entire life, up until now.

"-Because it's okay to cry." He tells her.

"It is okay, to show emotions..." he continues, the curly blonde's mouth gaping open, looking into the blue eyes of her uncle𑁋and Stephen is finishing his important revelation, "and it's okay to be vulnerable𑁋,"

A slight "oomph" sound leaves his mouth a few seconds later when Caitlyn re-latches onto him once more, the feeling of being shown those deals of affection𑁋but starved of.

Deprived of it, because she hates it, but right now, needs it, and Stephen's arms enclose her again as he holds her.

Through all that, he displays his adoration for her, but as once mentioned before𑁋that one couldn't go back in time and redo what has already been lived𑁋another type of way is paved in the life of the two Stranges. A way of saying, 'I love you'.

The uncle bends over and presses his face into his niece's hair, and promptly after that, promises her, "I got you."

"Thank you, Uncle Stephen..." Caitlyn gives him a securing squeeze, before eventually pulling away with a more recovered look on her face. 

A normal one. Like the normal Caitlyn.

Thunder resounds in the background once again, and the increase in sprinkles of rain falling unintentionally puts a smile on the blonde child's face.

It is replicated by the former neurosurgeon when her features, which are much brighter, look up to him, and he asks her while his face tugs up, "What do you wanna do?"

Caitlyn smirks.

"Something... troubling."

✧✧✧

Okay.....Probably my favorite chapter I've written so far in this book, mostly because Stephen and Caitlyn's heart-to-heart always makes me feel so happy inside :)... because it shows just how much pain our little tough baby Lynn was/is going through, and Stephen being that great Uncle/Parent figure in telling her that it is okay to CRY sometimes...I feel like we ALL needed to hear that :( :)

Anyways...thank you all for reading & supporting this series along with the other one I write (FORCEFIELD𑁋complete & AGENT ROCKLAND𑁋ongoing) & yeah...shout out to those of you who ACTUALLY did make it through this long one and are reading this A/N rn, bc I APPLAUD you :D

Make sure to Comment, Vote, Follow me to check out what else I write, & leave your thoughts & predictions here bc I'd love to hear them (& suggestions for future moments between this uncle and niece and because they have "repaired" their broken relationship...expect a lot more amazing moments!!

That's all for now, gotta get to work on the next AR chapter coming out on Saturday so I gotta dip...make sure to check out the books of the FORCEFIELD Trilogy if you haven't already𑁋another character within the FORCES UNIVERSE just like this one about an Avenger-in-training (but not for long hehe) named Dani Rockland-Rogers!!

K...Byeeeeeee!

~Alessandra ❤️ (@dreamkept)