Hey guys! I have the sequel to Your Mess Is Mine right here!
Please review at the end of the chapter and let me know what you guys think, I love hearing from you all and I hope you enjoy xx
I. Vancouver
Day Two
Steve marched down the corridor of the Triskellion, his hands balled into fists, readying himself for Fury's explanation. It seemed that Fury was awaiting the angry super solider as well, arms folded as he stood by his window. Unfazed by the sound of Steve slamming the door behind him.
"Why does it taking me asking for you to send a team out?" Steve demanded.
"I needed information on where to send them," Fury spoke smoothly. "We don't know if this is a missing person, a kidnapping or a hostage situation. I've got three teams out there looking, three teams more than I would send for anyone else,"
"Anyone else wouldn't have been on that mission,"
"Hayley O'Connor chose to take on that mission," Fury shook his head. "I know you're close to this issue, but do not twist that fact,"
"This never should have happened," Steve continued angrily. "If anything happens to her-"
"I've got every available resource on finding her," Fury interjected. "Around the whole damn world, I have eyes searching for her."
"I want to talk to the team she was with,"
"They've been debriefed and questioned, it's all recorded,"
"I want to talk to them myself," Steve shook his head.
Fury looked over at the soldier, knowing that there was nothing he could say that would satisfy him. Steve Rogers was SHIELD's biggest asset, and right now he was calling the shots, no matter what Fury told himself. The Director knew what that woman meant to him and there was nothing that would get in the way of Steve searching for her.
Day thirty one
"We need to check Germany again," Steve insisted.
"Whereabouts in Germany?" an agent asked. "We've scoured every possible SHIELD base, safe-house and mission HQ there,"
"You've got files on SHIELD enemies in Germany, check there,"
The four agents in the room looked between one another in frustration, a look that didn't go unnoticed by Steve. But he didn't care. They could complain all they wanted about these search missions, but as long as he was in charge, they were going to follow his orders.
"The jet will be leaving in thirty minutes, get what you need," he advised.
Once the agents had left, Steve turned and hung his head low. He couldn't remember the last thing his mind wasn't in pain. Headaches plagued him no matter what he did to try and stop them. Every spare moment he had was spent thinking about finding her.
Fury had given him his own team of twelve agents to assist in finding Hayley, but that team was only his for sixty days, and so far they had found nothing. They were running out of options.
A vibration in his pocket pulled Steve from his thoughts, lifting out his cell phone and seeing a message from Blake. The man was in France chasing down a possible lead, but if there was even a hint of getting closer to finding Hayley, Steve knew Blake wouldn't have sent it through as a text. So he wasn't surprised when he opened the message to words that made his heart sink even further.
Nothing.
Day one hundred and nine
Steve looked at his calendar and thought of the plans he had for that day.
Book the restaurant, wrap the necklace he had bought so long ago, make sure she woke up with kisses and breakfast and laughter.
But those were plans he had made a long time ago. A time when he thought that there was nothing in this world that would keep him from spending it with her or making it just as special as she deserved.
Instead he sat at his kitchen bench, his eyes red from lack of sleep and welled-up tears, staring up at the calendar that had managed to make every one of his days that much longer and lonelier.
"Happy birthday Hayley,"
Day one hundred and fifty
Steve wished he could visit Hayley's parents more often. The pain he was feeling was shared by them, and yet he couldn't seem to face them. Maybe it was the guilt. He felt like every time they looked at him they wondered when he was going to bring their daughter back home, when he was going to find her, when he was going to fix all of this.
But in reality they considered him family, and having him around kept Hayley's memory alive. Not that anyone had ever brought up the possibility of her being truly gone, it always played on the back of their minds.
"Little man's out," Blake sighed, walking in and taking his seat again at the table.
Blake and Laura's son Bobby was almost three months old and the spitting image of his father. His middle name was Nicholas, a fact that they all knew Hayley would be over the moon about. They all wished she could be here and watch him grow. She was his god mother, Blake and Laura had always insisted on that. Even if she never did come home, that would never change.
Steve had held the baby three times. Each time he pictured the life he imagined with Hayley. Although they both had discussed the fact that a family life would never work with what they wanted to do in life, it didn't change the fact that when Steve thought about being a father, it was always with Hayley.
"Are you sure you can't stay another night?" Frances pushed, reaching over to lay her hand on top of Steve's. "You're welcome here always, you know that,"
"I appreciate it, I really do," Steve smiled softly. "But I've got to get back,"
"You need to take care of yourself too," David reminded.
"I know, and I am," Steve lied with another smile.
It was after dinner when Blake had a moment alone with Steve. They were out on the porch, looking out at the neighbourhood and listening to the children riding their bikes around the streets. Everything seemed so normal.
"It doesn't feel great coming back here, does it?" Blake asked, leaning against the porch railing next to Steve.
"I want to be here for them," Steve explained. "I wish I could come by more..."
"But it hurts," Blake nodded. "It's okay. I feel that way too. I can't even look at the stairs because I know her room's right at the top next to my other best friend, and both of them aren't here,"
"I'm going to find her," Steve assured. "I don't care how long it takes,"
"You can't put all of that pressure on yourself. It'll kill you,"
Steve shook his head, almost laughing.
"It can try,"
Day one hundred and seventy eight.
It was hard to stop counting. Steve had tried to cease tallying how many days it had been since he laid his eyes on her, since he last heard her voice, since he had been told she was missing. But he couldn't stop.
Every morning he woke up wondering if today he was going to find something. In fifteen cities all around the world, Steve had people looking for her. SHIELD had tried to persuade him to stop looking, knowing that it was taking it's toll on the super soldier in not only his personal life, but professional. Keeping his mind on the mission was fine while he was out there, but he didn't have the same drive as he used to.
"You're never going to stop looking, are you?" Natasha had asked as they sat silently in the back of a jet one day.
"Would you?" he questioned.
It was the same response he gave everyone. If the person they loved the most in this world disappeared, would they ever stop searching for them? Steve wouldn't.
"How do you know she's still out there?" the spy prodded again.
"I don't,"
And Steve continued to count.
Every night as he looked out at the streets below, remembering doing the exact same thing with Hayley by his side, he wondered where she was. She was his last thought every night and his first thought every morning.
Steve had lost so many people in his life, but he had never lost someone that he knew he could get back.
Day three hundred and seventy three
It was a New Year.
A year that was officially being spent without a trace of Hayley.
Steve had spent Christmas in Chicago with the O'Connors, watching Bobby enjoy his first ever holiday. It was something that they all knew Hayley should have been here for. Bobby's first Christmas would forever be clouded by the fact his aunt Hayley wasn't there.
Frances had cried during dinner and David had silently joined her, but overall they tried to keep it light and just be thankful for one another. It was hard, but Steve had been glad he visited. He stayed for two nights, making sure David had enough firewood to last another month until Steve would return and restock their supply.
"Hey Steve," Laura called, walking over to him in the living room. "Here's a little something from me and Blake. You don't have to look through it now, but I managed to get into Hayley's phone and...well, I thought you'd appreciate having a collection you can keep,"
Steve accepted the small book into his hands, noticing it was plastic, feeling the rectangular pieces of photographs inside. He couldn't keep from lifting the cover open, his lips instantly tugging up into a beaming grin at the first picture.
It was Hayley, licking a chocolate ice cream cone, with the sweet treat running down her hands and all over her face. She looked like a child, but smiled as if there was nothing to be ashamed of at all. Because when Hayley enjoyed something, she did it to the fullest. He remembered taking the photo when they were spending the day in Brooklyn on their many visits, proving to Hayley that he could navigate her cell phone camera.
Blake stood off to the side with Bobby in his arms, smiling over at Steve as he watched his reaction. The next few pages were filled with photos of Hayley and Steve together, in the photos that Hayley herself had taken during their time together. And on the very last page, there was the last photo they had taken together, and they had written next to it "to be continued..."
Day four hundred and thirty five.
Hayley's eyes couldn't adjust to the brightness of the world outside. It was too harsh, too intense.
"Watch it!" a man yelled as she ran into his side.
Dazed and disoriented, she steered herself away from the sidewalk, stumbling out into the open, away from the never-ending bodies that occupied the busy street.
She couldn't remember where she had walked from, how she had gotten here, or where on Earth she was. Nothing felt real except the hard sun on her skin and the piercing noise of honking horns and screaming voices.
"Get off the road!" they yelled angrily.
"She's drunk!"
"Will someone get her out of the fucking way!"
Then Hayley felt hands on her shoulders, pulling her back to the sidewalk. She tried to push them away, but she could barely open her eyes to see who they were or what they were trying to do.
"Hey, are you alright?" a woman asked, leaning down to get Hayley's attention.
"Where am I?" Hayley asked in a breathless, panicked voice.
The woman could see just how much Hayley was shaking with fear, how tense her body was and how she was desperately trying to shield her eyes.
"Have you taken something?"
"Where am I?" Hayley asked again more forcefully.
"You're in Vancouver," the woman explained. "Did you hit your head? Are you hurt?"
Hayley put her hands up to cover her ears, crouching down against the pavement and squeezing her eyes closed. Nothing was making sense. The last thing she remembered was arriving in Russia. The cold breeze was fresh in her mind, but she was so far from that memory now.
"Someone call an ambulance!" the woman shouted to people passing by.
"She doesn't look well," someone noted.
"Where's she been? She's as pale as anything,"
Hayley tried to drown out everyone's questions with her own thoughts, keeping her eyes shut tight, rocking back and forth. It wasn't that the questions they were asking confused her, they were perfectly clear and valid, but what scared her the most was the fact she had no idea how to answer any of them. Was she okay? Maybe. Where had she been? She had absolutely no idea.
Day four hundred and thirty six
Steve awoke in the early hours of the morning to a buzzing on his nightstand. He moved slowly, sitting up and preparing himself for another mission alert.
"Hello?" he greeted tiredly.
"They found her in Vancouver,"
