From across the hallway

Part 42

It was early September, and a warm breeze swept in through Missy's open office window, causing the papers on her desk to flutter slightly.

Missy glanced up from her work with warm green eyes, brushing back her long caramel blonde hair from her face and sweeping it over her slender shoulder.

She loved this time of year. Everything felt warm and hazy and just...well.....right.

Everything in Missy's life was good right now.

Emily had just turned four and Missy felt like the teeny girl was growing up right before her very eyes. She was getting on great with her sign language, and was also learning to write, managing some of the simpler letters and numbers now.

Missy's job was also going well too, she had even been offered a pay-rise for her hard work over the last six months. She had made friends and really felt like part of a team here.

But despite all this, there was one thing she was missing, more than anything else.

Missy's pink lips parted slightly as she let out a long breath of air...just as a familiar face approached her desk.

"Afternoon," came the friendly voice of Steve Rogers.

He, today looked as handsome as ever, out of his usual red and blue spandex suit and instead wearing just jeans and tight white t-shirt.

From the corner of her eye, Missy could see several of the women who worked in her open-plan office, glance over longingly as he walked by.

According to them, Steve's appearances in their office had been pretty few and far between six months ago. And yet now, they were a very regular occurrence indeed.

Missy smiled at him as he came to stand beside her, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans as if unsure of what to do with them.

"Hi," she uttered, leaning back in her chair slightly. She attempted to stifle a laugh as she spotted of her friend Alison, in the far corner of the room almost trip over a chair, so distracted by the presence of Captain America.

"I'm not disturbing you am I?" asked Steve chancing a glance at the data on Missy's screen. "I'm never sure in this place if people are working or browsing the internet. It all looks the same to me."

Missy's smile widened as Steve scratched the back of his neck, reddening slightly.

"I can assure you, I'm doing work," replied Missy. " But I'm probably disturbable."

Steve smiled back, his piercing blue eyes meeting with hers.

"I haven't seen you in a while," Steve commented conversationally. "I thought I might have caught you at Maria's birthday last week-"

Missy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes flicking down to her keyboard momentarily. 

"I was...um-" said Missy, biting at her lip, before looking up at Steve once more. "-I just couldn't make it."

That had been the night that Emily had been suffering from a nasty bout of stomach flu.

Steve looked at her, mouthing at the air for second before speaking.

"You...uhh...you think you're gonna go to Stark's thing at the end of the month?" he asked in a gentle voice.

Tony Stark was indeed organising his quarterly party for all staff. Which, in his own words, was a great excuse 'for SHIELD staff to get totally wasted and try and wind up Agent Fury'.

Everyone had been talking about it for the past few weeks and as much as Missy wanted to go, she very much doubted she would be able to.

"Um...I'm not sure. I have Emily...m-my daughter...so..." replied Missy swallowing hard. She could feel the tops of her cheeks turning pink.