Ch. 26
The next morning, Steve arrived at Stacy's apartment a few minutes before eight to relieve Agent Garcia.
"Thank you, again, for watching out for her this week. It meant a lot to me, knowing you were protecting her," Steve said, shaking his fellow agent's hand.
"It's been my genuine pleasure, Agent Rogers. Truth be told, it's been one of the easiest assignments I've had. And Miss O'Sullivan's been great. She even gave me some frosted cookies for Christmas to thank me," he said, pointing to the red and green Christmas-themed plastic container stuffed with sugar cookies in his hands.
Steve grinned. Stacy had wanted to take some of the cookies that they had baked home last night. He had assumed that she was going to leave them for Erica, but her thoughtful gesture towards a person she barely knew didn't surprise him. Her kindness and consideration for others was one of the reasons he fell in love with her.
"Merry Christmas," Steve called out to the agent as he started down the stairs.
"Merry Christmas," the agent mumbled back, his mouth already stuffed with a cookie.
Steve knocked on her apartment door. Their flight was at noon, but he knew that she always liked to get to airports early.
"Morning," Stacy said sleepily, covering her mouth as she yawned, obviously having just woken up. She was wearing oversized green flannel pajamas with little Christmas trees on them and thick red socks with reindeer on them.
"Good morning," Steve said warmly as he walked inside the apartment. He had to admit, he loved seeing her first thing in the morning, her hair a wild riot of disheveled curls, a small grin always gracing her lips. He would indulge himself in thinking that this was what she'd be like when they were married, when he would see her every morning, get to embrace her every night.
He liked to see her when she was half-awake like this also, because it seemed, at least for the first few moments, that she had forgotten the pain between them, the gulf that still kept them apart. Once or twice, she even started towards him as though to hug him, but she'd stop short, shaking her head, her face clouding in heartache.
"Let me get us some coffee started. Erica's already out at the gym," she said as she filled the coffeepot with fresh water and ground up the beans.
"I can start some oatmeal," he offered, finding the oats out in the pantry.
"No. I'll do it," she insisted, taking a pot out of the cupboard.
He couldn't help but smile. The past few days, she'd been making him sit down and relax while she prepared a big breakfast for them both. He never had oatmeal much growing up, but the warm cereal along with raisins, walnuts, brown sugar, and a dash of milk was such a comforting way to start the day.
He sat down and let her fuss over him. She poured a glass of orange juice for him and got him a napkin. He knew that her good mood had more to do with seeing her family in a few hours instead of just wanting to be with him, but he ignored the errant thought.
"Erica made some amazing pumpkin and cream cheese muffins. Would you like one?" she asked tentatively.
Once again, he smiled, deciding that delicious food was truly a wonderful peace offering.
"I'd love one. Or three," he teased, earning him a genuine laugh from Stacy. "Are you all packed up?"
"Yeah, I just need to leave Erica a note. I can't believe it. Two weeks away," she smiled at him, but it quickly faded. "They still don't know. I didn't tell anyone in my family about . . . ," she faltered and looked away.
"It's okay. Don't worry," Steve said, not knowing what to say to bring her smile back.
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A few hours later, Stacy was seated next to him on the plane with her hands clasped together tightly on her lap. She hated take-offs and landings with a fiery passion and Steve knew she was panicking from the shaky way she breathed. On their flight for Thanksgiving, she held his hand tight and calmed right down. But now, she just looked wild-eyed around her in abject fear.
She finally relaxed a few minutes later, when the plane began to level off, a wan smile on her pale, ashen face. "Thanks again. For the first-class airline tickets. For the rental car. For setting everything up. I really appreciate it. It was really kind of you."
"You're welcome. It's going to be a great Christmas. You'll see," he said with a reassuring smile.
"Of course it will be," she said, looking out the window, but her words lacked conviction.
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After landing in Detroit, they picked up the rental car. It was nearly two and they were both famished, so they drove around a bit before finding a small diner for lunch. Stacy just ordered some vegetable soup and a few slices of toast, but Steve ended up ordering two plates of cheeseburgers and fries along a massive chocolate shake with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
When Stacy finished her meager cup of soup, she looked wistfully over at the huge mounds of fries still left on both of Steve's plates.
"Do you want some fries? They're really good," Steve offered, noting the greedy look on her face.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure," he said, sliding one of his plates towards her.
"Oh, honey, these aren't good. They're glorious," she said saucily as she began to gobble up the golden fries.
Steve couldn't help but grin at the endearment hidden inside of the off-handed comment. It felt good, natural to have her back to her normal, sweet, teasing self. It was the first time she called him anything other than Steve in weeks. He wondered if she noticed.
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After lunch, Steve drove them to Stacy's parents' house. She fidgeted the entire ride, her smile growing wider and wider as they grew closer. She squealed in delight when they arrived, pointing to the tan mid-sized sedan in the driveway.
"That's got to be Amanda's rental car. They're already here," she said excitedly.
"Go ahead. Go in. I'll get all the luggage," he said with a smile.
"Really? Thanks," she said, flashing him a quick grin as she zipped up her bulky jacket and bounded out of the car.
Her parents' house was decorated with an inflatable life-sized Santa sitting in the snow of the front yard along with moving mechanical deer made up of wires and white lights. The house itself was trimmed in white icicle lights. He grinned at how cheery the scene was. He hadn't bothered to decorate his apartment in New York and he now regretted it. There was something about the lights and decorations that seemed to bring the holiday to life.
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For the next day or so, Steve hardly saw Stacy except at meals. She spent the rest of Saturday focused on Amanda and the kids. They baked a gingerbread house together and the children shrieked in delight when they decorated it in frosting and gumdrops.
Steve bumped into Luis as he was bringing in the luggage. Luis was enthusiastic in his appreciation that Steve had sent Tony Stark's plane to pick them up for the flight out. Steve tried to downplay what he had done, but Luis would have none of it. "You don't understand, Steve. You made one of the worst trips of my life become one of the best. It was so easy flying with the kids like that. I'll never forget what you did."
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That night, the entire extended family all decorated the Christmas tree together while holiday music played in the background. They sipped hot apple cider while putting on the lights and ornaments. Steve had the honor of putting the angel up on top, as he was the tallest. As he sat between Daniella and Mateo on the couch, looking at the beautiful tree, feeling the warmth of the crackling fire in the fireplace, he sighed in contentment, overwhelmed by the feelings of home and family.
On Sunday, Stacy volunteered to help out at her parents' church, taking care of the kids in Sunday school, while Steve was in the main sanctuary with the rest of her family. Later that day, she went shopping with her sister for last minute Christmas gifts while her mother watched Daniella and Mateo, did Christmas crafts with her niece and nephew when she returned, and then made fudge and divinity with her mother, filling the house with a heavenly smell.
Steve ended up spending quite a bit of time with Luis, helping around the house, doing chores that were hard for her parents to accomplish. They fixed a fence that had been leaning over, chopped and stacked yet more wood and shoveled the driveway and walk in front of their house. In a fit of nervous energy, Steve ended up shoveling the driveways and sidewalk of the entire neighborhood, earning a bemused grin from Luis.
"We get it. You're perfect. You're a superhero. You know, you're making me look bad," Luis said drolly.
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On Monday morning, the 23rd, Steve walked into the kitchen to see Stacy happily making coffee and singing along to the radio that was tuned to a station playing Christmas music.
"Good morning," she said brightly, a huge grin on her face.
"You're in a great mood," he observed, as he took the mug full of strong coffee that she offered him. As his fingers brushed hers, an electric bolt went through him. It was the first time they had touched in over two weeks, and even though it had been an accident, he still treasured the stolen moment. He wanted to talk to her about it, but her back was already to him as she turned to make pancakes for the family.
"You know what today is?" she asked as she mixed the pancake batter.
"No, what?" he asked as he settled down at the kitchen table, taking his first sip of the delicious brew.
"Christmas Eve Eve," she informed him, turning around to give him a wink.
"Christmas Eve Eve?"
"Well, December 24th is Christmas Eve, the day before Christmas. So, the 23rd is Christmas Eve Eve. I love it. Everyone's here, all the decorations. Did you have fun last night?" she asked as she turned back to turn on the griddle.
"Yeah, I did," he admitted. They had all driven around the nearby neighborhoods and looked at all the Christmas lights. Mateo and Daniella had spent almost an hour afterwards excitedly telling Steve about their favorite houses. Steve had been amazed at the time and effort that had gone into the light displays. He briefly wondered how expensive the electric bills must be for the elaborate lighted displays.
"After breakfast, we're all going out for a bit. There's a place not far from here with a lake that always freezes over and it has a small hill nearby. The kids can go sledding and ice skating. We're supposed to meet my cousins there. It sounds like fun, right?" Stacy asked eagerly as she turned once again to smile at him.
Her enthusiasm was infectious and Steve couldn't resist grinning in response. "It sure does."
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Steve smiled as he parked the car, and got out to see the idyllic forest setting that Stacy had taken him to. It reminded him of a Norman Rockwell painting. Several of Stacy's relatives were already there. There was a group by a small sloped hill, sledding down the incline one at a time on bright plastic saucers. Some people were building snowmen, some were throwing snowballs and one or two of them were ice skating.
Amanda walked over to them in the clearing near the lake, holding Mateo and Daniella by the hands.
"Do you guys mind watching Daniella? Mateo and Luis are going sledding over there on the hill, but Daniella wants to play here in the snow," Amanda explained.
"Sure," Steve and Stacy said at the same time. Stacy began to giggle, covering her face with her gloved hands.
Daniella tugged at Steve's sleeve. He knelt down to talk to her face to face. "How can I help you, sweetie?"
"Do you wanna build a snowman?" she asked, her eyes alight with joy.
"Sure, I'd love to," Steve said, touched by her enthusiasm.
"It's a line from that new Frozen movie. We took the kids three times already. They are completely obsessed with it; they already know all the songs. Daniella has been thinking of nothing but snowmen since she saw it," Amanda explained before she walked with Mateo to watch him go sledding with his father.
"I'm going to name him Olaf," Daniella said solemnly.
Just as they started on the snowman, Stacy's cousin came blazing up to them on a new snowmobile, his friend riding in back.
"Hi, guys. Make sure to keep away from the lake," Stacy warned her cousin. "Sometimes, there are patches where the ice isn't very thick."
"Yeah, Grandma," her cousin sniped sarcastically as he revved the engine and took off.
Stacy shook her head at her cousin's antics. She looked over at Daniella and Steve. "Let's build the best snowman, ever."
They spent the next fifteen minutes building a rather adorable snowman. Although Steve's talents as an artist were usually expressed through pen and paper, he had to admit that they did a fairly respectable job in creating a life-size representation of "Olaf", complete with a large carrot that Stacy had swiped from her mother's fridge. Of course, before long, it devolved into a fairly fierce snowball fight, which Steve totally let Daniella win, leaving the impish preschooler giggling and content in her stunning victory. Steve looked over at Stacy's joyful expression and he felt a wave of love for her that nearly broke his heart.
All of a sudden, Steve heard the horrifying sound of ice breaking. He looked over in time to see Stacy's cousin and his friend plunge into the water on their snowmobile, their combined weight being too much for the frozen lake to take, causing enormous, splintering cracks to appear throughout the large pond.
"Hold onto Daniella!" Steve shouted to Stacy as he ran, superhumanly fast, to the lake and dove headfirst into the frigid water.
The iciness of the water hit him like a blow and he felt his body go into shock. It only took a moment to locate the two teens, but he struggled to disentangle them from the heavy snowmobile. Finally, he came to the surface, one of them under each arm, kicking with all of his might to reach a part of the frozen lake still covered in ice. A small crowd had formed at the edge of where the ice broke and they helped get the boys out of the water once Steve arrived.
"I'm okay. I'm okay," he repeated, waving away the people that crowded around him. "Pull those boys to safety. Get them off this ice before it cracks even more."
The rescuers grabbed ahold of the two young teens, dragging them several feet until they were all back on solid ground. He saw everyone crowded around the two young men, frantically starting CPR.
Steve lay on his belly, half in and half out of the water, sucking in the frigid air, shivering from the intense cold. He saw Stacy staring at him from across the lake, desperately holding onto Daniella's hand, tears streaming down her anguished face. He smiled to see how concerned she was for him; how much she really cared for him was evident on his face. Wearily, he began the slow process of hauling the rest of himself out of the water.
Steve heard a sickening crack as the ice sheet that he was holding onto broke underneath him. He scrambled for purchase, but found nothing to grab ahold of and quickly sank once again under the icy water, his weighty clothes dragging him down. "Steve!" he heard dimly as Stacy screamed after him.
He felt his strength quickly fading. He had been surprised that even he had lasted that long. The super serum pushed him to the brink of human abilities, but even he had his limits. He began to feel weaker and weaker, bringing him back to his failed attempts to swim when he was a child.
He flailed his heavy arms and kicked up, trying once again to break the surface, desperate panic finally beginning to seize hold of him. He used the last of his dwindling strength to push himself up towards the surface when his outstretched hand hit something hard.
His heart sank. He had somehow ended up trapped underneath the massive sheet of ice. He tried to punch through it, but his hand was cramping from the cold and he could barely make a fist.
As he pounded frantically on the thick ice, his vision began to blur. He felt his lungs burn from the lack of oxygen. His last thought was, "No, please, no."
And then, everything went black.
Author's Notes-
1. Chapters 6 and 7 of "Information" - my post- CA:TWS story- are up!
2. Chapter 35 of "The Price"- my Agents of Shield story - is up!
3. There is a small piece of angsty dialogue that I cut since it gave away the plot twist to "Frozen" and I didn't want to spoil it for you. If you have already seen "Frozen" and you'd like the tiny, little bonus of dialogue, let me know in a review and I'll PM you with the super short conversation.
4. If you are on tumblr, you can find me under the name creativereadingfanfiction, or through my link on my profile page.