Don't leave me hanging on

Eleanor tucked her hair behind her ear before she took a sip of her coffee and opened up the paper in front of her. She didn't want to admit that she was starting to lose hope that she'd ever find Steve, but everything was starting to feel pretty bleak at the moment. She'd been on the search for him for a couple of months now, but so far she wasn't having much luck. Every time she found a lead it was like it led to a dead end, and it was honestly frustrating. She wasn't giving up yet though.

The last Eleanor had heard Steve was somewhere in Europe, she wasn't exactly sure why he'd gone all the way to Europe, but she wasn't going to question why he did anything right now. Mostly because he'd thought it was a good idea to just leave without telling her goodbye. Though she knew why he'd done that. Or at least according to his letter she knew why. And if Eleanor were being honest it did upset her a little. She had spent the last handful of years falling in love with Steve Rogers, and she wanted to be with him. She knew she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and he was sure he knew she could handle herself as well. But again, he'd just left. She'd be damned though if she didn't at least try to find him, even if that meant being a fugitive herself.

"Would you like another cup dear?" The lady behind the counter asked her pulling Eleanor from her thoughts.

She smiled at the lady, "no thank you, I think I'm good," she said before circling someone quickly on the paper and folding it up. "I hope you have a nice day," she added as she laid down some money to pay for it and walked out. Hopefully, this lead she'd found would actually take her to Steve and not another dead end. But the only way for her to really find out was to follow it.

Writing the letter he had left behind wasn’t easy. Leaving without saying anything was even harder. Priorities had shifted and people had changed. It had become hard to Steve to trust anyone following the fall of Shield, even harder still when the friendship he had with Tony had broken down. He couldn’t deny he was responsible – they’d all had parts to play in what had happened. Now he had to accept that he had become a criminal in the eyes of many, and he had dragged quite a few of his friends into it with him, though some were more than happy to help him.

He couldn’t do it to Eleanor. He could trust her, he knew that… But when she had the chance to remain at a distance from all of this, he had made that decision for her. It was hard not to think about it, but it was better not to.

Having Sam and Nat with him certainly made it easier. They all knew how to run, and Nat knew better than anyone how to hide. Even he found it hard to recognise her when she first changed her hair. It had been Nat who suggested Steve let his beard and hair grow out – nothing too ‘end-of-the-world disaster’, she said. But just enough to cover up the clean cut image he had had for so many years.

They tried to make hotel rooms home, though it was hard to find somewhere to stay and remain under the radar. Often it was cheap hostels with whatever cash they had on hand so they wouldn’t leave a trail. They chose places with bad book keeping and shady enough staff that wouldn’t look too closely if they handed them a wad of notes that was just a little too thick.

Not writing another letter to Eleanor had been even harder. It was important they cut off ties; leave nothing that could be used to find them, or anything that would implicate Eleanor.

Sat on the end of a bed with a questionable looking bedspread, Steve and Sam were both waiting for Natasha to come back to the room. She had dipped out to use a payphone, claiming she knew someone they could trust to sneak them across another border. Steve had stopped asking a long time ago who these people were, or why she was so sure they could trust them.

If there was anything that Eleanor was sure of it was that Steve wasn’t alone in all of this. She knew that Sam would easily be by his side, as well as Natasha. And she’d known Natasha long enough at the point to know that when Natasha didn’t want to be found you weren’t going to find her, at least not very easily. Luckily though Eleanor also knew a way or two to get in touch with her favorite spy. And honestly she hoped that this would work because she really was starting to lose hope. She didn’t want that though. Eleanor truly did love Steve, and she wanted to be right by his side right now. They’d promised to be together through thick and thin, and Eleanor understood they weren’t married, but they could’ve been one day. She just didn’t understand why Steve made this choice for her. Why had he chosen to leave without her?

Honestly, she knew this was just how Steve was. He protected everyone before he took care of himself, even if that meant pushing her away as to try and make sure she didn’t get hurt. The issue with that though was she was hurting now, and she was worried about him. Of course, Eleanor knew Steve was Captain America, she knew he was a super soldier, and that his body handles things differently than the average male. So hurting him was harder than it would be to hurt someone like Sam, and she’d been told time and time again not to worry about him. That he’d be fine. It was just hard not to worry because she loved him. And he wasn’t immortal. At least she didn’t think he was.

Eleanor walked up to the phone booth she was supposed to be meeting Natasha, her friend looked different. Eleanor almost hadn’t recognized her at all at first, but that wasn’t important right now.

“You know Steve isn’t going to like this, he’s going to hate that you’ve been tracking us,”

Eleanor tucked her hair behind her ear again and smiled at her friend. “Well, Steve should’ve known better than to try and make a decision like this for me. And do you think he’ll be more upset that I’ve been tracking you guys or that you actually responded when I reached out? I don’t want to make you feel bad for helping me. But I also can’t let him get away again. Even if he turns me away, or is angry when he sees me. I deserve an answer in person after everything the two of us have been through together. And I have a feeling you agree with me or you wouldn’t be here. So if he wants to end things he’ll have to say it to my face,” she told Natasha hoping that this did work. She could easily see Nat giving her the slip or trying to pull one over on her. But she hoped that didn’t happen.