Unexpected

Peonies in April

Steve walked ahead of me to my car, rounding the vehicle and standing patiently as I unlocked the car and turned it on. Plopping into the passenger seat he didn't move to buckle in his seat belt. In fact he didn't move at all as my car's heater kicked in, blowing warm air at us. His face was set and serious, his eyes a mixture of emotions that I remembered from when he and I had visited the Smithsonian museum all those months ago when he'd first seen the film of Peggy. As I watched a single tear escaped his eye, running down his cheek as he leaned his head back against his headrest.

I sucked my lips into my mouth, sympathy emanating from me as I tried to keep myself together. Right now I couldn't start tearing up too. I'd be no help to him then. He'd been so strong this whole time, now I needed to be strong for him. Slowly I reached my hand out to him, grabbing it and holding it tightly as he closed his eyes and swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing.

We sat like that for a few long minutes before he opened his eyes again, using his hand that wasn't held by mine to wipe his face as he sighed heavily. Turning his head, he looked down at me, his eyes looking a bit pink, but besides that he seemed to be better. He gave my hand a squeeze, "Thanks Penny, for coming with me today, I mean."

I had to clear my throat before speaking, "Yeah, no problem."

He shook his head, "She's just like she used to be except... she isn't" he muttered almost to himself.

"Are you glad you came to see her?"

"Glad's not the word I would use, but yes."

I nodded slowly, "So, when are we going to come back to visit her again, then?"

He glanced over at me surprised, "You'll come again with me?"

"Of course. If you want me to be there I mean. If you'd rather have time alone with her then-"

"No." He shook his head, giving me a grateful smile, "I'd like you to come too."

"Okay, then I will."

"Saturday again?"

"You know me, Rogers; I've got nothing better to do on a Saturday. Sounds good."

"Thank you, Penny." He sniffed and sighed, settling himself and buckling his seat belt, as I took my hand back and started to put my car into reverse when Steve seemed to remember something, "Oh, I almost forgot."

"What?" I asked, pausing before taking my foot off my brake, "Did you leave something inside?"

"No, it's just... when I called you when you were in England; you said you wanted me to draw you something, right?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. Had I said that? I could vaguely remember teasing him about it since I knew that he could actually draw, "Yeah?"

He reached into his jacket pocket before pulling out a folded piece of paper and handing it to me, "I meant to give this to you before we came here, but... well..."

"For me?" I asked, taking the paper before unfolding it. A smile broke across my face as soon as I saw the image. "Steve, it's beautiful!"

I'd seen his drawings before. He was a whizz with a pencil, able to evoke the appearance of smoke and sketch out trains and trees and such, even little cartoon-like drawings, but I hadn't seen work of his like this before. The paper that I'd unfolded depicted what looked to be a peony in bloom, each petal shaded and curling as it seemed to bob on its stalk.

"You like it?"

"I can't believe you actually drew me something!" I grinned, soaking the drawing up with my eyes, "I'm going to have to find a way to get these creases out so I can frame this!"