Reality in Motion

a new sense of freedom

An intense buzzing sound cut through her subconscious, quickly pulling her out of her deep sleep. She groaned, placing her hand on her forehead as the buzzing stopped. Then, right as she was about to fall back asleep, the buzzing started back up again. Someone was trying to get into her building. At...ten in the morning on a Saturday. Ridiculous. Letting out another groan, she quickly kicked off her covers, wanting to stop the buzzing. She stumbled out of her bedroom, eyes half closed with sleep as she made her way to the speaker. Her fingers found the correct button to stop the buzzing and find out who had the audacity to want to get into building.

"Hello?" she mumbled out, pressing the button next to the first one so she could listen to who was on the other line.

"Hey, it's me. Steve...Rogers." the response came. That woke her up. Her eyes went wide and her heart leapt to her throat. She started mouthing curse words to her empty apartment, one hand going to shove through her hair as she began to freak out.

For a moment, she had forgotten that she was Cap's personal analyst. That her Saturdays weren't just her Saturdays anymore. She had a twenty-four hour, seven days a week job that she needed to be on for all the time, even when she was off.

Suddenly, the night previous came rushing back to her - the bar tour, the drinks, the apartment, what she said...Oh God. Now he was at her apartment. Why was he at her apartment? Why didn't he call first?

"Q? Are you gonna let me in?" his voice came over the speaker, pulling her from her thoughts. She was still in panic mode but she couldn't just leave him out there. He would assume something was wrong - even though there was something wrong; she was very hungover and very embarrassed.

"Uh, yeah, uh-huh, come on up, Cap." she answered him before quickly adding, "But take your time." she glanced down at herself, seeing that she was in shorts and a Bronx zoo t-shirt: how did she get into these clothes? There was no time to stress over that; Cap was on his way up.

She stumbled back into her bedroom, going through a mental list of things she needed to do and trying to organize them in order of importance all while trying to figure out which ones she could get done in a quick, timely manner. She was frantic. Never had he seen her in her current state and she wasn't about to let it happen now. She needed to brush her teeth, fix her hair, change her clothes - oh, she needed a bra.

Even though she told Cap to take his time, the knocking on her door came entirely too fast. She had managed to dress herself - in a pair of leggings that looked like pants (it had a front button and fake pockets) and a long sleeved button up shirt that, yes, had a stain on it, but she covered it up with brown oversized sweater even though it was the middle of August. But at least she had a bra on. She had socks on her feet and was tugging her hair up into a bun on the back of her head as she walked to answer the door.

"Good morning, Cap!" she greeted him brightly, trying to play it cool, but wincing slightly at the sound of her own voice. She was so hungover, but there was no time for that. He grinned at her, holding two breakfast sandwiches in his hands as he gave her a once over.

"You look good for someone who crawled up the stairs on all fours last night." he teased. She slumped down against the door and let out a groan. Of course he was going to tease her about it.

"Shut up." she mumbled out, dropping her facade; it was no use, he obviously remembered the night a lot better than she did. His grin became wider as he followed her into her apartment. She went over to the couch and fell over the armrest so that her face went straight into the cushions.

"Here, I have a breakfast sandwich for you." he offered her one of the two foil wrapped sandwiches he was holding.

Her stomach growled at the smell of the breakfast sandwiches, loud enough for both of them to hear. Her embarrassment grew, but it was overshadowed by her need for food. She stuck her hand up in the air, not bothering to lift her head up for the cushions for fear of having to look him in the eye again. He laughed at the action, but placed the sandwich in her hand.