𝗗𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗟 𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘

Takes One to Know One

AEI: hi!!! im rlly bad at making things clear so i wanted to come and just make you all aware of the current timelines so you're less confused

isabell coming to the compound to find steve (end of chapter 23) - 2018. just after the beginning of the blip, where she discovers that she cannot survive in an empty apartment.

isabell moving out of the compound - 2023, briefly before the end of the blip

james' therapy session and isabell coming to his apartment - 2024, about a week and a half BEFORE the beginning of the canon tfatws events

anyway, i'm mad at this chapter because it's one of those ones where i hate everything about how i wrote it, but for me, that's every chapter.

have a good sunday!!

James' jaw drops. Literally.

It's Isabell, alright. Damp, shaking and about ten inches taller than the last time he saw her, but there's no denying it. Iz in the flesh, leaning against his door frame and scuffing her boots against the floor.

She's tall, he thinks at first, until he remembers that the last time they were together, she was eight. After that realisation, she's small again.

But she's more than that.

Isabell is thin, too, the bones in her face sharp and her wrists small enough to wrap his hand around. Her hair is long, trailing nearly to her waist, and she's looking at him with eyes so unreadable that it's scary.

She blinks at him.

James just stares.

She gives a small wave.

"Hello."

Hello. Hello?! That's all she has to say? What the fuck?

What the fuck.

James' stomach turns over like somebody's trying to take apart his insides, and he has to press one hand against the wall to stop himself from passing out. He feels sick.

This is not real. It can't be. It is simply another one of his nightmares, the sort where he sees Isabell standing in the middle of the road and something runs her down. The dreams are like their own little horror stories. Bleeding out in his arms, trapped somewhere he can't reach her, wrists split in the bathtub because he couldn't save her from herself. Those leave him shivering for hours.

They always feel the most real.

Worst, however, are the dreams where he is The Winter Soldier, and he is killing her. Where he comes back around just as the damage becomes too much to undo.

She screams for him in his nightmares.

"Jamie! Jamie, please! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please!"

And then he wakes up, and she is gone, and he cannot decide whether that is better or worse.

But there is no waking up from this.

Isabell is real. She is real, real with every swing of her backpack, with every hiss of her breath, with the look she is giving him that he cannot interpret.

James swallows.

"Iz." He says slowly.

"Yes."

"You're here."

"Yes."

His throat is dry, a thick layer of exhaustion wrapped around it. Isabell glances at him. He avoids her eye.