When Scott Met Annie

Chapter 10: I Leave You Alone for Five Minutes...

Annie had been a little disappointed that Scott had decided not to come to the Sunday dinner with Anton and Rachel. She was getting used to having him around these past few days, though she could appreciate that he was trying to keep from getting in the way of her family.

He just didn't know yet that with the Hales, it had always been the case that 'the more the merrier' was the creed they lived by.

So it was a little strange driving home alone that night after spending the whole day playing with her nieces and chatting with Anton and Rachel. She'd brought home a stack of CDs she was borrowing from Rachel — a whole bunch of the songs that she was always humming so that Scott could hear the source material. And she had another one of Leslie Ann's coloring book pages for her collection. She kept all of Leslie Ann's creations in a drawer in the kitchen so she could be sure to hang the most recent ones on the fridge door so Leslie Ann could see how proud her aunt was.

Mary Beth had learned how to say 'please' and 'thank you,' and she'd been showing off her new skills through peals of laughter. So it was impossible for Annie to be in anything but a good mood as she drove home with her CDs and coloring book page and kisses from both of her favorite little girls - even if she was disappointed that Scott hadn't come. If nothing else, she thought he would have liked to hear that Anton was doing just fine at work, since the governor had been made aware of an Avenger in the city and the chief wasn't about to retaliate when they were under that kind of scrutiny.

She pulled into the garage and gathered up her things, though when she got inside, she was surprised to find that her little townhouse was simply... pristine.

She set down the CDs and coloring page and looked around the house, her head tipped to the side until she found Scott dead asleep on the couch with the blanket only halfway pulled up to waist level and one arm hanging over the side of the couch.

Everything else in the house was clean. The floors were swept, the counters wiped down... Annie even made her way upstairs to find that the half-built desk she had been working on before she got a call from Anton about Scott in the first place was now standing, with all her textbooks and school supplies organized and set on the desk.

She came back downstairs shaking her head. Scott was supposed to be resting up, not cleaning her whole house! What had he been thinking?

She shook her head again, hardly believing the whole situation, though she couldn't stop smiling either. This was... unexpectedly sweet. She had to admit it.

Still in a haze of disbelief, she went through the house to lock up and turn off the lights, then paused when Scott moved slightly in his sleep. She wasn't sure if she'd woken him up, but for just a moment, when he still looked dead to the world, she had the oddest desire to brush his hair out of his face where it had fallen into the rim of his glasses while he was sleeping.

But she was glad she didn't when he stretched again. It was hard to tell if he was awake or asleep with the glasses covering his eyes, but it was clear she'd woken him up when he muttered out a tired 'hi.'

"Hi yourself," she said, smiling despite her best intentions as she sat down on the loveseat. "Did you sleep well?"

"I guess so," he said, though he sounded surprised at the fact that he had drifted off — or maybe at the fact that he'd slept through her arrival. "How long have you been home?"

"Not long," she said, smiling wider despite all her best attempts to play it cool and not make a complete idiot of herself in front of Scott. "Just long enough to see what all you've been up to while I was gone. Is this why you didn't want to come with me?"

He looked a little sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck. "No, that's not it. I just thought you should have a nice time with your family without having to worry about taking care of me."