How do you heal?

Chapter 47: New Beginnings

It was New Years Eve and Annie, Pietro, Sam and Alex were all huddled together in Times Square. Although not the coldest winter on record the temperature was hovering around freezing. While Annie and Pietro had gone to Ohio for Thanksgiving Sam had gone to visit his sister in Louisiana and had missed the first holiday of his new relationship with Alex. So when Alex's mom mentioned she was thinking about going to California for Christmas to see Alex's brother Alex booked a flight for her mother and one for herself to spend a week in New York.

"How much do you want to bet your mom will call you at three in the morning when the ball drops in San Francisco?" Annie asked Alex as she curled into Pietro's side for warmth. A bonus to a super fast metabolism being a slightly higher than normal body temperature.

"Knowing how exhausting Eddie is, my mom is most likely in bed already." Alex replied, rolling her eyes as she leaned on the barrier lining the street.

"You guys talk about Eddie like he's a toddler." Sam said as he laughed and leaned next to Alex.

"He basically is." The girls replied in unison.

"But he's incredibly charming so he gets away with it." Annie continued, eyes going a bit dreamy.

"Stop it" Alex growled.

"Stop what?" Annie asked with a chuckle.

"You know very well what!"

Pietro looked between the two confused. "What am I missing?"

Annie laughed again as Alex groaned and stood. "In the almost thirty years I have known her she has only once found a blonde man attractive. Dark and broody is her whole entire kink but the one exception to that has to be my brother." She finished and made a gagging sound.

"To be fair, he is brooding and it's a very dark blonde." Annie replied as she tried to hold back her continued laughter. Alex made another gagging sound as Sam joined Annie in laughing but Pietro looked down at Annie and felt a weird twinge in his chest, almost possessive in nature.

Pietro tightened his grip as he asked, "Did you and Eddie ever date?"

"I think I'm gonna puke." Alex said as Annie Looked up at Pietro, eyes full of mischief.

"No, charming and handsome as he is, I prefer to admire him from afar. That man has always been more chaotic than even I can handle and he only gets worse as he gets older. I feel bad for his fiancé, that woman is a badass."

"Okay, conversation over," Alex said and pointed towards Annie's bag. "Ball drop is in five, break out the sparkling cider."

Annie did as she was told and pulled out the bottle along with four plastic glasses, filling them and handing them out.

"What's with the cider anyways?" Sam asked. "Alex made me stop at like five stores to find that brand."

"Seeing as New Years is a drinking holiday, meaning my mom was god knows where." Annie said before Alex cut in.

"And my mom worked all major holidays for the extra cash. We would pool our resources, which was basically couch change, and make Eddie get us a bottle of this stuff." Alex finished, lifting her glass.

"And we would lay by the Christmas tree and drink it until the ball dropped every year."

"Between the plastic champagne flutes and the ritz crackers we felt very fancy."

"One minute," Annie said and raised her glass. "Drink up kids."

The group all clinked their plastic cups together and downed their drinks before counting down with the rest of the crowd. As the clock hit midnight the crowd cheered and music began to play. Pietro noticed Sam and Alex joined other couples around them in sharing a midnight kiss before he looked down to Annie. Her cheeks were red from the cold but she was smiling ear to ear as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. "Happy New Years, Piet." She said before turning to do the same to Alex and Sam. As she pulled away, his world seemed to dim at the loss of her smile and it hit him.

The next morning Pietro knocked on the door to Sam's room. "Come in." He heard Alex call from inside and he entered. "Road Runner, you're up early." Alex noted as she stood folding clothes and tossing them into her suitcase.

"Yeah, I wanted to catch you before you leave." He said hesitantly as he looked around the room. "Is Sam in here?"

"No, he and Annie went to get coffee and pastries for everyone." Alex waited a beat for Pietro to continue but he just shuffled his feet across the carpet as he looked awkwardly around the room. "You good?"

"I have a problem." He said as he looked at her with a slightly pained face.

"Can it be solved with murder?" She asked, turning to face him.

"No!" He nearly shouted.

"My interests are ticking away fast, spit it out if you want to keep me involved."

"I think I like Annie."

Alex scoffed and returned to her packing. "No shit everyone likes Annie."

"No," he said and stepped towards her. "Like...I like Annie. Like I think I have feelings for her."

She paused and turned to face him again. It had been over six months since Barnes had left and Alex could see the improvements in her friend. Improvements that, she knew, had been mostly because of Annie's friendship with Pietro. Despite Annie's fortitude and having survived so much bullshit her healing had been slow going in this matter, Alex assumed it had something to do with Annie getting involved with Barnes so soon after losing Charlie, and she still had a ways to go. That fact in mind Alex gave Pietro a stern look. "You know what she's been through and I think we can both agree what she needs right now more than anything is a friend and since I cannot be here all the time that falls on you. And I know you wouldn't want to risk hurting her just because you got your feelings involved."

"Why do you think I came to you?" He asked.

"What kind of advice are you looking for here?"

Alex watched as Pietro contemplated how to answer her question. "She's my best friend first and I don't want to ruin that."

"Smart."

"And if that's all I will ever be to her...I think I can live with it. I'd just put it in my head that there'd never be a chance and move past it."

"Good to know."

"But if there is a chance and I just had to wait for it," he trailed off and met Alex's calculating gray gaze.

Alex sighed. "I'm not saying anything towards one way or the other," she shook her head and chose her next words carefully. "But you are a good guy. And while usually that is something she avoids I can tell she really cares about you, feels comfortable with you. The fact that she told you about her mom is huge. Outside of her family I think Sam and I are the only other people she ever talks about Cherry with and Sam only got the privilege because of his proximity to me."

"Not Barnes?"

"No, she never told Barnes. She also never told Barnes about her scars either but he never noticed them or asked so." Alex gave him a small meaningful grin before continuing. "All that being said when the time is right, when she is right. I don't think it's unreasonable to think it could happen."