Resilience | S. Rogers [3]

31 | DAYS GONE BY

October 2023

DAY 1
Rosemary and Steve's Apartment, New York

"Honey do you want me to bring you anything?"

Rose remained staring at the wall as she covered herself with the sheets with a lost look. "No, thank you."

She felt a hand on her back and she closed her eyes, before feeling the bed dip and puff out as Steve left probably to get breakfast. Even though he wasn't precisely in the mood to eat anything.

She didn't know how much time passed. A minute, three minutes, ten minutes, an hour...maybe a whole day. Rose got out of bed slowly, partly because of motivation, partly because of the ache in her body, right before Steve came back with a meal for her.

"Hey, I was just—"

"Oh, don't worry...I'm going to shower. I should, uh..." she closed her eyes, the thoughts coming to her at a snail's pace, "shower." She cringed at her nonsensical sentence. "I—Beth is going to her hometown...I want to be there."

"She's going back today?"

"Yeah...she talked to her Reese and Finn, I think...Florence too...Florence should also be back today in the afternoon—she had been on the other side of the country when she... I have to be there."

"You can go tomorrow....you know, take a day—"

"I want to go...Pepper's tomorrow, see her and Morgan." She held back the urge to mention Tony as she started opening the door to the bathroom.

"Alright, we'll go in about an hour. The planes the organization had are still there."

Rose shook her head forcing a smile. "You don't have to. You should stay back, with Bucky and Sam. Before Sam leaves to see his family," she commented. It would be the first time after being on the run. "People will still be getting used to everyone being back, hopefully, it'll give Bucky a quiet time before authorities sweep in."

Steve sighed. "Are you sure you don't want me to go?"

Rose blinked nodding subtly. A smile flickered on her face, it wasn't particularly a joyful one. "Yeah."

New Jersey

Rose and Beth stood close to each other in front of her dad's house waiting painstakingly for the door to open. It had barely been a couple of seconds, but time seem to drag eternally.

The door burst open and Reese Walters appeared looking rather ruffled, rough around the edges. In his eyes though, there was an excitement that hadn't been there in years.

Rose stood closer to him like she had done once five years ago.

Her expression looked tired but mostly blank. The last time she had been there, she'd looked apologetic and ashamed. Whatever had happened to her, it had nothing to do with the motive of her visit.