Holly Potter and the Midlife Crisis (Hp x Mcu) by Enigmaris

Chapter 73: The Final Days

Summary:

Holly has one last therapy session before the invasion. Everyone can feel that something is coming and the army of Earth is swelling in preparation for the fight of a lifetime.

Sam had been pleasantly surprised at Holly's progress. He had suspected that Holly would be the sort of person to grind her heels into the ground to slow any forward progress. And the first two or three sessions had definitely felt like that. He'd had to remind her consistently that she wanted to be there and why he was telling her the things he was. But abruptly, or at least it had felt abrupt to him, she'd relaxed. The progress towards recovery, whatever that would look like for the personification of life, was still slow but it was steady and much less painful than it had been before.

They'd found their rhythm really.

Holly had started to trust Sam, to understand his tone and his intentions and Sam had gotten a strong enough understanding of Holly's various quirks in return that they no longer stepped onto one another's toes. Sam knew better how to get his points across to Holly and Holly had found ways to lodge complaints about their sessions that didn't actually ruin or slow their progress. Holly was doing her homework consistently and her journal no longer looked like she'd put it in a blender every week.

Their sessions now had a set schedule to them. Once they'd had their pleasantries out of the way, Sam would ask Holly about her week. Which is when she'd take her journal out and carefully work through her days, only bringing up the things she was comfortable talking about. Sam would listen to her version of events, only interrupting when he could feel her slipping into the habits he was trying to get her out of. Once she was finished with her retelling of an event, Sam would offer advice or counsel on how to either deal with her reaction internally in a healthy way or how to approach talking to her teammates about how what they did that hurt her.

Holly didn't like being told she had to talk to her friends about some things and Sam still wasn't sure whether or not that was actually happening but hey, progress was progress no matter how small. So now, six sessions in, and Holly was looking more stable even as the pressure of what was about to happen was bearing down on them.

Sam didn't want to admit it, but even if Holly hadn't told him in intimate detail about what was coming, he would still know something was. Pretty much all of the veterans in the center were muttering about it, there was something in the air as if the planet itself was holding its breath. He had no idea how to explain it but the same sensation he'd felt when he'd been on a mission and he'd known danger was close but not exactly how close. It felt as if there was something overhead, some large object bearing down on him and he could feel the weight of its shadow even if he couldn't see it yet. It made his skin crawl and the hair on his arms stand up.

There were reports all around the world of similar things. People were noticing something was up, not only were the Avengers in Death Valley for some reason, but animals were acting strange, and military operations were being sent out to various major cities as if the governments of the world knew something the general public didn't. For now, major news outlets weren't covering that story and most of the suppositions were being spread around the internet on conspiracy forums but most people Sam interacted with seemed spooked still.

He'd brought this up with Holly when the session had started and she'd sighed.

"Yeah I feel him too."

"Him?"

"Yeah. That sensation you're talking about? It's Thanos. That's what he feels like apparently. Nebula and Gamora confirmed it, Thanos has this aura that can be felt millions of miles away and since more and more people are feeling it, we know he's close, even if our sensors haven't picked him up yet."