From across the hallway

Part 33

It was late by the time Missy finally got home on a dark Friday evening.

She had just been for her interview at the newly-refurbished Stark Towers. Just for an secretarial job at SHIELD, but it was something at least!

The interview stages had actually taken most of the day, with Missy and the other candidates being put through their paces, completing tasks she highly doubted she would ever have to do in her day-to-day work.

Besides she also highly doubted she'd even get the job, but regardless, it had still been a great insight into the workings of this usually highly-secretive government agency.

Dressed in a dark navy blouse, navy pencil skirt and nude heels, with a beige trench coat thrown over the top, Missy climbed the last few steps up towards her apartment, just as her phone began to buzz inside her pocket.

Adjusting her purse on her shoulder slightly, she reached inside her pocket and pulled out her cell.

Wade calling...

Missy couldn't help but smile to herself as she lifted the phone to her ear.

"Hi Wade," she uttered in a happy voice.

"Hey, Mama-Bear. How was your interview?" came Wade's playful tone over the line. "Fall for Captain Underpants or the Iron Giant while you were there?"

Missy smirked, rolling her eyes as she rounded the corner, reaching her hallway landing and fishing inside her purse for her keys.

"It was fine," she said in a nonchalant voice, ignoring the latter comment. "I doubt I'll get it, but-"

"You'll fucking get it," said Wade in an easy tone. "I know it. They'd be fucking out of their minds not to give it to you."

Missy smiled to herself as she crossed the hallway and opened the door to her apartment.

"We'll see..." she murmured, as she flicked on the light and peered around the empty living room. "What are you guys doing out so late anyway? Isn't it almost someone's bedtime?"

In the background, Missy could hear the sound of Emily babbling along beside Wade.

"Well, someone wanted chocolate milk before bed," said Wade in a goading voice, tutting playfully. "So how about we pick up your gorgeous Mommy some ice-cream to celebrate her getting a new job? Huh?"

"Yesh, I like ice cweam, Waydee!" Missy heard Emily say about as unsubtly as possible.

Missy rolled her eyes.

"I haven't even got the job yet, Wade-" she began, but the merc cut across her once again.

"Nahhh, it's pretty much a given. I mean, come on, who wouldn't give my super-sexy girlfriend a job?" he said firmly. "Right, well we'll be back in ten, with six pints of cookie dough ice cream. Laters, Baby-Mama!"

Missy gave a sigh, but before she could argue, Wade had already hung up on her.

She gave an irritated huff, peeling of her coat and hanging it on a hook behind the front door, before looking around.

God this place was a mess, she thought to herself.

Toys littered the entire floor and Missy knew for a fact that her kitchen sink was full of dirty dishes.

Well, that was what you got when you hired a sitter that you didn't actually pay...

Giving a smirk, she bent down and picked up a couple of brightly coloured bricks from the floor. She knew that if she or Wade stepped on those later with bare feet, there would be no amount of swear words that would suffice.

But Missy had barely made it across the room to chuck the items into Emily's toy basket, when there came a sudden loud bashing on her front door.

She froze, giving a gulp, her eyes blinking a couple of times.

Perhaps it was Wade, kidding around...

Right?

But there came another loud banging against the wooden door, harder this time, and through a crack beneath she could see a shuffling of footsteps. Just a single person.

Missy cautiously moved over to the door as it shuddered under the force of the knocks once again.

She worried at her lip with her teeth. What if it was someone for Wade?

She knew that merc always got himself in deep with various horrid characters, but this was the first time that one had come knocking on their door...

Missy knew she could wait of course, until Wade got home. But today he would not be alone...

There was Emily now...and god knows what would happen to her if she got caught up in the middle of a fight....or worse.

Missy didn't want to think about that.

So taking a deep breath, Missy made up her mind and moved tentatively over to the door.

She paused a second...

And another...

The hammering on the wood filled the apartment once again.

And before Missy could stop herself she had pulled open the door quickly. But she froze. Her blood running cold. Barely even believing what she was seeing.

Fuck. Fuck. No, no, no...

Missy's breath hitched suddenly in her throat and every horrible, nasty, painful memory came flooding back to her.

Feeling her mouth go dry, she gave a hard swallow before finally uttering the name she had thought she would never utter again....because he was gone....out of their lives now....or at least she had thought he was.

"S-Scott? W-What are you doing here?"

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Dun dun duuuuuuun.