The Lakes (Steve Rogers AU)

16

Her feet carried her along the path by the lake, jogging at a leisurely pace. It was early morning, and there was a smooth fog that had settled upon the town, making it look all that more mysterious.

There were barely any cars at this time, just the odd one that passed by every so often.

She carried on, then hearing the brief blare of a siren, making her jump. As Nell turned she saw the cop car pulling up alongside her and the window now sliding down.  "Do you realise it's an illegal time to run in this weather, miss?" Steve smirked.

"Very funny, you scared the shit outta me".

"Sorry, kudos for wearing reflective running gear though, most people don't, even when it's like this".

"You finished your night shift?" She asked. He'd gone back to doing a couple of nights here and there, just because he didn't think it fair that the others had more.

"Sure have, jump in, I'll give you a ride home".

Nell grinned and got in, "gonna be a nice drive to work in this today".

"I can always take you if you don't wanna drive it, first time you've experienced Westview fog".

"I feel like I'm in Sleepy Hollow" she smirked, "without the whole headless thing going on".

He grinned as he drove them back. "Just with the usual local weirdos".

"The creek looked gorgeous though, I need to take a picture of it in better light when we get back". It was now getting darker earlier and then sun was rising just that little bit later now they were at that time of the year.

For some reason, Nell quite liked the darker evenings as they drew in earlier.

Once they were home, she went and showered, getting herself ready for the day whilst Steve made them coffee and began preparing to sleep for a few hours.

"Thank you". She smiled as he passed her the cup. "Gonna be needing this".

"Teacher fuel".

"You got that right, anyway I should get going". She grabbed her bag.

He got his keys, "I'll give you a ride to school, I don't like the idea of you driving in this when you're unfamiliar".

"If you're sure?"

He looked at her seriously. "I'm a cop, believe me I'm sure".

After taking Nell to work, Steve headed home and got some sleep, waking mid afternoon m. His eyes fell onto the sketchbook that was on the dresser. He'd been working on something, and it was almost complete.

He'd noted that Nell was coming home a little tired as of recent, and she'd confided in him that she still had nightmares about Walker. His were about Sharon, standing in the middle of their home as it burned. He hadn't confided in her about that though, not wanting to burden her or make her feel inferior. Instead, he'd channeled his memories, his heart - like she had instructed - into sketching again.

He'd started simple, sketching the creek, nature, anything that came to mind.

And then one evening, without even realising, he found himself sketching the outline of Nell's face and some of her features.
Steve had suddenly realised what he was doing and stopped for a moment, trying to get his head together.

He shouldn't.

It wasn't right.

He cared about her, he'd come to realise and would admit that to himself - but he just wasn't ready for something like this again.

Not yet...

Ripping the paper from the pad, he'd made a ball and threw it away.

His mind kept drawing him back to her face. To sketch every feature he'd noticed.

So he'd given in, and now was almost finished- there was just the last couple of tiny details to add, and then he would show her - hoping that she didn't freak out or find it strange he'd been drawing her.

A message came through on his phone, and he looked at it.

Gonna walk it - need me to grab anything at Nat's before she closes? Don't know if you're on another night shift so thought you might want a caffeine fix before you left? N

He got his keys and called her. "On my way, not on a night shift tonight, but how about we grab something from Thor's? Maybe at the weekend I'll have a bash of making something from that cookbook of yours - although you'll probably be disappointed by my skills".

Nell laughed at this. "Somehow I think you are a culinary master and you're just hiding it from me. Sounds like a plan though, I'll come wait outside the school for you".

"See you soon".