The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 68

Wakanda

Spring 2016

When Nadine had come across Iris sitting with Barnes, she had certainly not expected the admittedly difficult but no less necessary exchange that had followed to be the key to calming her restless thoughts. Not anticipating as she had that any conversation between her and the woman in love with her daughter's father would be difficult at the very least.

And yet, when Nadine finally left Iris alone with Barnes, she'd realized belatedly that that was precisely what had happened. That in talking to Iris, in telling her honestly—entrusting her with it, it almost felt like—what she'd had with Barnes almost twenty years before, she'd found a degree of...calm.

A calm that followed her back to the rooms their team had been given and the room she shared with Steve.

And even as the first real morning rays had broken the horizon, Nadine had drifted off almost as soon as she'd slipped back into bed next to Steve.

Joining him and the rest of their team in sleep.

It was a testament to just how demanding the last several days had been on all of them. Even the youngest members of their team were long accustomed to rising early, but between the exhaustion they'd all been staving off, the varying states of healing some of them had been in and the mundane but no less real effects of coping with time changes saw each and every one of them sleeping later than might normally be typical.

But eventually they all began to rise, Natasha perhaps unsurprisingly being the first to emerge followed closely by Nina and Wanda—both of whom failed to entirely hide their sniggers when a decidedly drowsy and dishevelled Sam emerged from Natasha's room not long after.

Natasha who held little compunction against inviting herself into Nadine and Steve's room when the pair of them failed to appear even after a still recovering and somewhat sullen Pietro had managed to stumble out of bed not long after Sam similarly in search of coffee.

"There's a message from the princess," the redhead announced without preamble, picking up Steve's trousers and tossing them at the newly woken couple. Nadine had nearly grinned despite her annoyance as she'd peeked from beneath her closed lids at Steve's frustrated groan, quietly enjoying the faint flush creeping up the back of his neck and across his cheeks beneath the hand scrubbing over his face. Nadine's shirt followed. "She'd like to see you two and Nina in the conference room just above her lab. Apparently she's sending someone to collect the three of you in, oh," she paused thoughtfully, likely making a show of checking the time Nadine suspected without bothering to look—pure theatrics and nothing more, Nadine knew, given that she very much doubted Natasha had headed for their door without knowing precisely how long before their escort was going to arrive, "a half-hour or so."

"I would ask if you've heard of knocking..." Nadine muttered dryly against Steve's side, leaving the observation hanging. Natasha chuckled.

Steve reflexively caught his shirt just short of it landing on his face, Nadine flinching slightly as the hem still managed to catch her cheek.

Nose wrinkling in aggravation, Nadine lifted her head enough to fix her sister with a disgruntled glare. "Careful, lisichka," she grumbled, dropping her head back to the hollow of Steve's shoulder, "I can't imagine Sam would be happy if I invite myself into your room unannounced." A low, barely audible chuckle vibrated beneath her cheek even as Natasha hummed dismissively before she sailed back out of the room, clearly unconcerned.

"You wouldn't really do it, would you?" Nadine lifted her head from Steve's shoulder with a sleepy smirk. But she didn't answer further, merely leaning up to place a lingering kiss on his grinning lips before reluctantly pulling herself out of bed.