How do you heal?

Chapter 42: Sunshine

Annie was soaking wet on one of the poolside couches, Pietro's head in her lap. Alex on a chair across from them, all waiting to dry off a little before heading upstairs.

The trio had stumbled through the entrance to the compound. Annie feeling light and dreamy, with cheeks that hurt from smiling. When they first got to the venue she had been shy and stood off to the side, feeling a little ridiculous wearing a dress that had been so far back in her closet she forgot it existed but eventually after a few drinks she'd let Pietro and Alex pull her into the crowd where she'd danced and jumped around until she'd let all her recent sadness slip from her brain. She hadn't been ready to go to bed just yet. "Do you guys want to go swimming?"

"Yes!" Alex and Pietro had replied in unison and within minutes they had all jumped into the pool, Alex and Pietro taking time to strip down to their underwear and Annie just kicking off her shoes.

"Would you rather fight a gorilla every week once a week but you don't know when, or fight a chicken every time you had to get into a car?" Alex asked.

Annie said, "What kind of question is that?" At the same time Pietro confidently said, "Chicken."

Annie looked down at him. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, I mean ideally I can just avoid cars whenever possible and when I can't it's just a chicken. Free dinner."

'Hey, superpower usage is a fowl." Alex said with an expectant smile on her face. When Annie and Pietro just looked at her she said, "F-o-w-l, fowl. Chicken. Come on, that's funny!"

Annie laughed and swigged at her beer. Pietro had sped upstairs quietly to grab a few before they had jumped into the water, but none of them had thought about towels.

"Thank you!" Alex said, taking a drink from her own bottle as they heard the door to the building open.

They all looked over to see Sam stepping out of the door, a bundle under his arm. "Alex, is that you?"

"Oh look," Alex said looking back at Annie with a big grin. "Speaking of fowl, here's one now."

Annie nearly spit her drink onto Pietro. "Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry! Sorry." She said, wiping at her chin before resting her hand back on his bare chest.

"What's going on out here?" Sam asked as he walked up to them. "You didn't mention you were going to be in town, Alex."

"Sorry, hot stuff, emergency top secret best friend business. Had to keep it need to know." Alex said, looking Sam up and down with devouring eyes. "But I think my work is complete if you feel the urge to whisk me away."

Sam looked from Alex to Pietro and Annie, the latter covering her mouth to hide her giggling. "How much have they had to drink?" He asked Pietro.

"Enough." Pietro said, taking Annie's drink from her hand and putting it on the table.

"Alright, 007, I brought this down to join you," Sam said to Alex holding out a towel. "But since your secret mission is done I think I should use it to get you to bed."

Alex stood and held her arms up to let Sam wrap the towel around her. "You know you are even more attractive in the moonlight."

"Thank you." Sam said as he laughed. "Now let's get going. You gonna be able to handle giggles by yourself, Maximoff?" Sam nodded to Annie as he pushed Alex toward the door.

"Yeah, I've got it. Gonna dry out a little more but we will head up shortly."

Once Sam and Alex entered the building Annie playfully smacked Pietro's arm. "Ow, what was that for?"