❝Being alone is easy, it's the loneliness that'll kill you.❞
❝I can deal with the noise. I don't mind the noise. The quiet is a different story.❞
In which both Mara Reyes and Steve Rogers have no fucking idea what they're doing with t...
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CHAPTER EIGHT Raven Grill
ANDY SAT AT the bar, tending to her glass of whiskey to calm her nerves. She was nervous and she was scared. You'd think that as you grew older, you'd learn how to deal with fear, but sometimes it was like it only got worse.
She crossed her legs, feeling her thigh holster under her skirt on her right thigh. She had almost forgotten her left one was injured over the day until her stitches started to feel itchy and it took everything not to scratch the hell out of them.
Following Gemma's information, she had gone back to her apartment to grab her pistol and made her way to the bar Ryder and his cousins had been seen in.
She had a plan – a dangerous one, but one that could work. But if it didn't there was a huge chance she'd be dead within the next hour. She needed to get inside the Maggia and doing so would mean a lot of lurking, manipulating, and lying. Things she was an expert in – things she was actually good at. She wasn't good for much and she knew that.
She thought about the morning when she and Steve went to the Captain America exhibit. As much as she tried not to read any of the memorials and plaques out of respect for Steve's privacy, she couldn't help but retain some of the info like his best friend, Bucky Barnes, dying in action or the amount of Nazi and HYDRA blockades they fought through. And now he was dealing with petty crime shit. Andy felt bad. She didn't want to drag him into this. But she had learned quickly that Steve never backed away from anyone who needed him or when the lives of the innocent were threatened. It was admirable.
Steve had been and still was a hero to so many – a symbol of hope and courage to people over the world. And Andy? Andy wasn't even Andy. She was a ghost, gliding from one place to another, watching as people lived their lives full of hope, friendship, and love and all she could do was watch.
She remembered the way Steve's face both fell and lit up when he saw Peggy Carter on the screen. Andy could see how much he loved her and she wondered what was worse: loving someone that much and have them love you back only to lose them or to not have someone love you like that at all.
She understood why he looked so uncomfortable when Rose had asked him about his love life all those days ago.
After the incident last night, she had left Jackie a voice note and said someone had tried robbing the café but were unsuccessful and that she needed to get out of the city for personal reasons. Jackie was understanding but Rose had kept sending her texts to see if she was okay even after Andy had assured her she was.
Rose. She missed her. It had only been a day but it felt like years. She missed Jackie. She missed Tom and Marge. She missed the café in general. She even missed waking up early for the morning shift. But returning would put them at risk and Andy cared about them enough to not drag them down with her. They deserved better than that. They deserved better than her. She was a no one.
