The Abridged Meeting

Minute

Thank you for all the reviews. Sorry that I haven't written any individual thanks in this chapter. I'll be placing those in the next chapter which I'll publish sometime this week ^^. This chapter was supposed to be longer but I decided splitting them is best ;). Let me know what you think! :D

xx

SSC

Steve woke up surprisingly late that morning. 7 am to be precise. Usually he was up by five, sometime even earlier than that, when he struggled to glide into sleep.

He had a dreamless sleep, the ones he usually preferred but was gifted rarely. He was in a better mood that most days and happily went about his usual tasks. Steve wanted to go for a run so he decided to slip into his jogging pants and grey t-shirt. He headed over to his work table, just beside his breakfast bar.

He sat heavily on the chair, opened up his laptop and turned on the machine. He waited for the system to start up so he could check his email.

His cell phone that lay beside his laptop, began to ring. He looked at the caller ID and grinned when he saw Olivia's goofy smile upon its surface. He quickly answered her call.

"Olivia?" He asked a little confused by her early call. Usually they talked in the night when he got home from work. How did she know he was planning on having a late start?

"Hey." She exclaimed happier than usual.

"I am not disturbing during an important Captain duties am I?" She asked, her voice softer and uncertain.

"No I haven't left for work yet." He answered casually leaning back into his seat.

"You haven't?" She sounded weirdly enthusiastic.

"Great, great." She murmured mainly to herself. Despite Olivia's eccentric ways, Steve knew she was acting stranger than normal.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, unable to will away the suspicion.

"Yup, I'm just in a cab on my way to a friend's, thought I'd call and check up on my favorite star spangled Avenger."

His ears reddened at the praise and the smile that brightened his face was involuntary.

"Well I am alright, thought I'd start the morning a little late, I had slept in, surprisingly." He stated while tracing the edge of his table.

"Oh yay your sleeping patterns are finally in accordance with your age." She enthused making him chuckle "Your physical age not your technical age because if that were the case you should be...you know...dead. but that's a biased thing to say, I mean my grandpa lived till he was ninety four."

"Did he get sick before he died or just like pass in his sleep?" He inquired.

"Nah he got hit by a minivan when he went to pick up his paper."

Steve gaped at the wall facing him, unsure of what to say to that.

" I know, ironic." She added understanding of his lengthy, shocked silence.

"Oh hey Steve, I'll have to get back to you. I think I've arrived at the place." Olivia said vaguely, he knew she was distracted by something else. The dejection hit him harder than he would have liked . He wanted to keep talking to her but at the same time, he didn't want her to get lost.

"Oh yeah alright." He responded unenthusiastically.

She didn't hung up right away, he heard her talking to the driver in the background.