Unravel

Elizabeth hated to admit it but with no job, her family living somewhere on the other side of the continent and now, after having had James stay with her, she felt lonely. Not even Vito who had been her first resort to NOT feeling like this wasn’t quite helping her at the moment.

She didn’t know why she was suddenly feeling this way. It wasn’t like James had made a whole lot of noise anyway. The only thing she could see as a reason was that she liked having another human being around, someone who she knew would understand what she was saying and not a dog that would only react to certain words, like cheese, park and treat.

She wasn’t mad that he had left. She had actually felt relief and a little bit of happiness when she had seen Captain Rogers’ phone number pinned to her fridge, although she didn’t quite understand why James had wanted her to have it. He probably had his reasons.
To him, she had probably only been a stepping stone in his ongoing recuperation - which she was fine with (at least partially). Helping people had always been her goal in life.

She couldn’t help it but feel lonely.

But no matter how much she wanted to wallow in self-pity at the moment, she needed to get out of bed, even though there was nothing waiting for her but Vito - who should’ve been enough, she knew that; but he just wasn’t.

Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth threw her blanket off of her feet and slowly started to make her way towards her kitchen to have breakfast. Or lunch. She didn’t quite know. All she knew was that she had been awake around four to take Vito for a short walk.

Starting up her coffee maker, she opened her fridge to get all of the necessities for her breakfast. Normally she would have had a big nutritious breakfast with fruits but she thought two pieces of toast with butter would do, too.

Heaving herself onto the kitchen counter, she balanced her plate in one hand and started eating with the other. Having time to look around, she noticed something odd.

Normally, when she would start preparing breakfast, Vito would be sitting right next to her, waiting for any piece of food to fall down. She never really liked that he did this but couldn’t really sway him when it came to food. But now there was no sign of him and instead of relief only confusion settled in.

“Vito?” she called out and waited for a moment to jump from the counter. Putting her plate onto it, she wiped her hands on her shorts and started moving towards her door when suddenly a wet nose poked her thigh. “There you ar-” she started bending down to pet him but someone caught her eye. Elizabeth had to suppress a small smile. “I thought you were gone for good. Especially with all of the Hydra agents swarming the neighbourhood.”

“Couldn’t stay away,” he told her.

“The dog?” she asked and laughed when Vito trotted back to where he was sitting on her sofa.

“Yeah, the dog,” he told her and reached out to pet him while Elizabeth kept watching them. Had someone told her someone with a metal hand could pet a dog softly and gently, she would’ve said it wasn’t possible. But there it was, that whole scenario right in front of her.

“You know, maybe you should get one, too,” she told him and moved to sit down across from him. “They’re good for ...stuff like this. Nightmares, grounding and calming.”

He looked up at her for a moment but returned to giving his attention to her dog. She knew she kept overstepping her boundaries but couldn’t stop herself. She had always had trouble to think before speaking.

“I-,” Elizabeth started up again but was interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She grabbed it, motioned for James to wait for a minute and made her way towards her kitchen to take the call.

“Moore,” she answered.

“Agent Moore,” the voice on the other end replied. His voice sent a jolt through her body and made her straighten up immediately.

“Director Hawk,” she choked out. “How can I help you?”

“I’m calling to let you know that you will be authorized to come back to the FBI by next monday. There was no evidence that could be linked to you,” his clipped voice rang through her speaker.

“That-That’s great to hear. Thank you, I-I guess,” she stuttered.

“Please make sure to come to my office on monday, there are still a few things that cannot be addressed over the phone.”

“Yes, of course. Thank you, Director,” she replied and waited for him to hang up to let out the breath she had been holding.

She didn’t know whether to be relieved or confused. It seemed like that was her default setting anyway by now. Of course she was glad that she could go back to actually doing something but this kind of call was usually carried out by the director’s secretary, definitely not by himself.

Elizabeth decided that she was reading too much into it and shook out her hands before going back to her living room and her very unexpected guest.

“I’m going back,” she told him. “And I’m actually really glad you resolved your issues with Captain R-.”

“I didn’t resolve anything,” he cut her off but didn’t meet her eyes.

“What do you mean? I thought…,” she trailed off. Had she misunderstood the note on her fridge? How else was she supposed to interpret it?

James turned away from her and when it hit Elizabeth,she slowly leaned back onto her chair with an ‘oh’.

“Why?”

“I can’t…,” was all he said.

Elizabeth breathed out slowly, trying to think of an encouraging statement but nothing came out. Instead she went for trying to make more sense of the situation. “Is it because of your mission or something else? I mean, you did talk to him, right?”

“I did. It’s both. He’s a… very idealistic and nostalgic person, probably more so than I remember.”

“You’re afraid you’re not going to live up to who he thinks you are,” Elizabeth stated, not really sure whether she was actually expecting an answer. The look on his face told her everything and she was suddenly a little taken aback. Of course he liked staying with a stranger. They had no idea who he was before and therefore no expectations. And if she knew anything, she knew what is was like to feel like you were not living up to set expectations.
On top of talking to her about personal things, she didn’t know when he had started to show emotions as he was now doing. If anything could be called progress, this could be.
“It’s alright,” she said when he still wouldn’t meet her eyes. “These things take time. Probably a whole lot. But for what it’s worth,” she said and stood up, lying a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You can stay here for as long as it’s possible.”