Reconciliation - Marvel Studios [3]

five.

I walked in down the hall that led to Steve's apartment, multiple front doors lining each side of the corridor. As I reached the end of the hall, Steve's door sitting on the left, another door opened, the nurse that lived across the hall walking out of her house with a laundry basket in her hand, her pink scrubs on.

"Sorry" I said with a laugh as I moved out of the way to let her past me. "No you're okay, I seem to always be doing laundry now a days, new pair of scrubs everyday" she replied to me, stopping in front of me and motioning to her basket. "At least it's just downstairs" I replied shrugging my shoulders as I smiled back at her, my eyebrows furrowed.

"Do I know you from somewhere? I swear I've seen you somewhere other than here" I asked, pointing at her. Her face looked so familiar to me, even the first time I saw her in the hallways of this apartment building, but I couldn't put my finger on where.

"No, I don't think so, I just have one of those faces you know" she said to me, motioning to her face and then looking down at the floor. "Well, I'll let you do your laundry, nice seeing you" I said as she said her goodbyes, both of us walking down the hall in opposite directions.

I stood in front of Steve's door, raising my hand to knock just as he opened the door, his brown leather coat on as he almost knocked me over. "Ally, what are you doing here?" He said as he took a step back into his apartment, holding his keys in his hand, ready to lock the door behind him. "Thought we could go get lunch" I said shrugging my shoulders, running my hand through my hair and pushing it back. "I'm on my way out" He replied with a sad smile, not wanting to turn me down.

"I can see that, where are you going?" I asked him, moving out of the way to let him out as he closed his door and locked it. "To a veterans PTSD meeting, I met the group leader on my run the other day" He said to me before starting to walk down the hall, causing me to walk slightly slower as the walls weren't wide enough for both of us to walk side by side. "You could come as well, I guess. We all have some form of PTSD" he replied, looking back at me with a soft smile.

"Ain't that right"

!

As we walked into the church hall the group seemed to be coming to an end, a lady talking about her time out in deployment, everyone listening to her intently, Steve's running friend standing behind a podium, leaning on it as he listened to her story.

"The thing is I think it's getting worse, a cop pulled me over last week, he thought I was drunk" she started, Steve and I stopping in the doorway, watching the group.

"I swerved to miss a plastic bag. I thought it was an IED" She added, causing everyone to nod her head, knowing what she had been through first hand. I personally didn't, my PTSD completly different to what a normal war vet's would be, and now another layer being added on after the Battle of New York 2 years ago.

"Some stuff you leave there, other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase or in a little man-purse? It's up to you" Steve's friend said, the meeting ending on that tone, everyone standing up and talking to each other, Steve and I making our way into the room toward his friend, who just noticed we were here.

"Nice to see you could make it" The man said to Steve, shaking his hand quickly before looking over at me, holding his hand out. "Sam" he iintroduced himself as I shook his hand firmly. "Ally" I replied as he nodded his head. "Yeah, I kind of worked that out" He said with a smile, turning to say a quick bye to the group members who were leaving, which left us three alone in the hall.

"Caught the last few minutes, it's pretty intense" Steve said to him, shoving his hands in his pockets as Sam nodded his head, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret" Sam told him as he nodded his head slowly, causing me to speak up. "You lose someone?"

"My wingman, Riley. Flying a night mission.Standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before, till RPG knock Riley's dumb ass out of the sky, nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch" Sam said to us quietly, his head bowed as he started at his feet. He took a deep break, turning around and starting to stack the chairs.

"I'm sorry" Steve said to him, grabbing a chair and starting to help him. "After that, I had really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?" Sam stated to both of us, making me exhale deeply.
Not only did I lose Bucky when I was here decades ago, but I also lost Allison Cooper. Sure, I still seemed to be living her life right now, just in a different time, and everyone still thought I was my old alias, within me she was dead. And I still lived with the regret I had carried since I was her.

"But you're happy now, back in the world?" Steve asked Sam, snapping me out of my daze. "Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell, yeah. You thinking about getting out?" Sam said to me curiously, nodding his head towards me as I raised my eyebrows to his question.

"Not any time soon, I don't receive much orders I only give them these days" I replied with a small chuckle, causing both men to smile at my joke. "And to be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did"

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A/N: and that's another chapter down.
I don't have much to say but please vote and comment and I will see you all soon