A/N: So I took a week off from writing/creating/updating anything because I was feeling a little discouraged. I got a rude PM recently, and I wasn't receiving much positive feedback in a while. In this time I actually did have some kind interactions with some readers who commented or messaged me on tumblr, so I am very appreciative of those. I'm coming back to this story feeling a little more motivated to do right by the readers who have been kind enough to review, follow, and share my work with others. I want to update more regularly than I have in the past, so I will be setting myself a strict schedule of posting once a week, probably on Fridays. I can't promise they will all be long chapters, but even if I've only written 500-1000 words that week, I don't want to keep you all waiting and waiting until I write more. So that's how I will be updating for a while going forward from here!


November 17, 2015

It was almost time for me to take my lunch break, when there was a knock on the glass of the window from the lab and into the hallway. I looked over to see Steve standing outside waving at me. I smiled widely at him and made my way out to greet him.

"You're back!" I said before I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Yeah, we just landed about 30 minutes ago. I thought I could maybe take you out for lunch today."

"Yes, that would be wonderful, let me just go get my things and we can head out!" I went to our break room and got my coat as well as my bag. Andrew came into the room as I was getting my stuff. "Steve's taking me out to lunch, so I'll be back in about an hour," I told him.

"He's back," was all he responded with.

"Yeah I didn't expect him to be back this early actually," I smiled back with a bit of excitement.

"You were just saying this morning that you were particularly worried about this trip," he had a frown on his face as he spoke.

"I did," I agreed with him. "But that's why I'm so happy to see him."

He hesitated for a moment and I was about to say goodbye but he spoke up one more time. "Maddi, I don't like the way he treats you like this." I frowned at his words and felt my eyebrows furrow.

"What are you talking about?"

"He just gets to come and go whenever he wants, he doesn't seem to care how it affects you. Then you just let him think everything is fine when he's here and he gets to take you out and be the hero husband. Look, I don't know him, but I always felt his All American Good Guy persona was so exaggerated and fake, and it feels like he takes advantage of you a lot."

His statement made my heart beat a bit harder out of growing anger. "You're right, you don't know him," I snapped. "You don't know us, you only know what you've heard on TV or what I've told you. You don't get to make a judgement like that when you have no idea what you're talking about." I turned to leave but he spoke up once more.

"I know what I see when you talk to me, and you're so blinded by your image of him that you don't see how much he hurts you."

I almost ignored him. I almost walked out the door without saying anything else, but I couldn't stop myself. I swiftly turned back around and gave him a hard look. "You really think you can understand an entire relationship from the few times I've spoken about it in front of you? Look I like working with you, I even thought you were becoming somewhat of a friend, but you are speaking way out of line here. Don't do that again or I'm certain you won't be working here anymore."

I left him alone in the breakroom and met Steve again outside. I was in shock that Andrew would act like that. We had gotten along well throughout my time working there, and it frustrated me that he would say those things. Steve leaving for missions frequently was of course hard on me sometimes, I worried about him a lot, but he wasn't taking advantage of me. It sounded so ridiculous. Steve and I were strong together, we leaned on each other and loved each other. We had issues sometimes, but we've always worked through them.

I was a bit quieter during our lunch than usual, and Steve noticed about halfway through. "Are you alright?" he asked me.

"Yeah, it's just that guy I work with, Andrew. He was being kind of a jerk before I left."

"What did he say?" Steve asked with a serious look on his face.

"Nothing bad about me, it was about you actually."

"Me?" he questioned, confused.

"Yeah, he said that you take advantage of me by going on your missions and expect me to be okay with it. It was stupid, I told him like once or twice that I get worried for you when you go on missions, and he thought that was enough for him to infer that your a terrible husband."

Steve furrowed his eyebrows at my explanation before responding "I'm sorry, I don't mean to make you so worried all the time."

"Please don't apologize," I told him. "This isn't your fault at all, I'm mad that he thought it was his business to tell me his opinion on our relationship when he hasn't ever even met you."

"Do you want me to say something to him? Or get him transferred, I'm sure between the two of us, we can easily make sure that he's gone and not bothering you anymore."

I shook my head and said "No, I'm just gonna ignore him for now, continue our work but interact at a bare minimum. If he does it again, then we can report him." Steve didn't seem to like my plan but he agreed to it, knowing that what I wanted for the situation was the best option for me. I appreciated his support. The rest of the day, I spoke with our other team members more and Andrew much less. I was sure he got the hint that our growing friendship was gone.


November 20, 2015

On that Friday, I had spent my morning in the lab much like my afternoon on Tuesday. I ignored Andrew the entire time unless it was absolutely necessary to discuss our work. I could tell he was annoyed when he tried to make conversation with me but I didn't engage. As soon as my time there was up, I made my way to leave and go back to my living space. As I turned the corner of the hall leading away from the lab, Andrew was there waiting for me. He had gone out the lab doors and waited there while I was gathering my things from the breakroom.

"Maddi, you can't keep ignoring me, you gotta talk to me," he said as he blocked me from passing him. I looked at him in anger.

"Actually, I don't have to talk to you. Now move so I can leave or I'll move you myself." I wasn't entirely confident in my ability to do that, but I didn't let that show in my body language.

"Maddi, he doesn't deserve you. Your kindness, your intelligence, it is way past his level and you should be with someone who can have a real conversation with you that probably isn't about whatever bad guy he just shot up over the weekend."

I scoffed in disbelief, not only was he back at the one thing I told him not to say to me, but he also was further showing how he clearly didn't have a single clue what my life with Steve was like. "I'm not having this conversation with you."

"Maddi, just leave him, and we can be together," he said as he grabbed onto one of my wrists. It wasn't a tight grip, so I ripped it back from him.

"What?" I questioned, not thinking I heard him correctly.

"I can be there for you better than he can, we have a great time laughing and talking together, I know I can make you happier because I know he doesn't make you happy. So leave him, and we can be together."

"Are you insane? What about any of our interactions this week could possibly make you think I would want that?" I asked him.

"Before this week, we were building a connection that's special. I feel more deeply for you than he possibly could."

"Andrew, you are talking about my husband. I've known you for 2 months. He loves me with every fiber of his being. He has loved me for 80 years."

"Would he give up being Captain America for you?" he asked smugly.

"He would do anything for me," I snapped at him. "He is ten times the man you are. You can't possibly expect me to leave him for you."

"Oh come on, you don't feel any of the attraction between us? You can't possibly say that doesn't exist."

"It doesn't exist," I said very clearly. "Whatever you're feeling is completely one sided, and it's inappropriate for you to continue to insist that it isn't."

There was anger in his eyes and I was about to finish our conversation because I couldn't take another moment of this. Before I could say anything else he took a step forward and crashed his lips onto mine. He had a hold of my shoulders as he kissed me, and I quickly shoved him backwards with all the force I could gather. "Come on, Maddi-" he began to say as I composed myself, but cut him off.

"Don't ever do that again! I'm having a conversation with Selvig and I'm getting you off this team. You clearly can't work with me professionally, and I don't want you around me anymore after the way you've behaved here." I pushed past him and made my way back to the private zone of the compound where I knew he wouldn't be able to follow me. As soon as I was in our living room, I saw Steve sitting on the couch when I closed the door. I was breathing quickly and wiped at my lips roughly with my hands in disgust because I could still feel him on me.

Steve quickly stood up and made his way over to me. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked with concern. I felt a few tears fall down my face and I rushed to wipe those as well, feeling stupid that I would cry over this.

"He kissed me. He just grabbed me and he kissed me. I pushed him off and told him I was reporting this to Selvig, but he still kissed me after he knew how I felt."

Steve looked at me and I saw my pain reflect in his eyes. "Can I hug you?" he asked me, making sure I was okay with it first. My heart swelled at his request for permission, it meant a lot to me that he took that into consideration before doing it. I nodded my head in short rapid movements. He then had his arms wrapped around my and I leaned into his chest as I put my own arms around his torso. I felt instantly safer feeling so close to him. We stood there for a few minutes and he just gently rubbed my back with his hands to calm me down. He didn't say anything or make me say anything, and I just kept my eyes closed as I felt him silently comfort me.

Eventually I pulled back a bit so I could look at him. He kept his arms around me as I spoke. "Thank you," I told him, and he gave me a half smile.

"You don't need to thank me. Do you want me to go with you when you talk to Selvig? We can go now or on Monday."

I nodded a little and answered "Yeah, I would feel better with you there. I think we should go now. I'll have a better weekend knowing he's gone."

We spoke to Dr. Selvig in his office, Steve held my hand the entire time, and the contact made me feel much more at ease. Dr. Selvig was quick to file a report with me, everything in the Avengers Facility was funded and run by Tony and his own company. It was easy enough to get rid of Andrew, and I was promised that he wouldn't be there next week. Dr. Selvig wanted me to keep working with him and his team, and I was okay with that knowing that Andrew would be gone. Steve told me he was proud of me once we made it back to our room, and I was beyond appreciative of having him there for me and for him being so understanding.


December 2, 2015

"So, what is this big surprise you have?" I asked eagerly as I sat next to Steve on our couch.

"Well, I know we haven't actually celebrated any of our wedding anniversaries since I came back, I've only been back for three of them. The first one, we weren't even back together yet, and the other two, we were technically married but I know we haven't really acknowledged that past you going by Maddi Rogers instead of Bennett." I nodded at his words. It was true, we had only ever celebrated our anniversary once, and that was back in 1945.

"Do you wanna celebrate it this year?" I asked with a small smile. I was actually excited at the idea.

"Yes, I know it's not until next month, but I have to give you this now and not then." He handed me an envelope and I eyed him suspiciously. I took the envelope and opened it to find two tickets to an island in the Caribbean, scheduled for the first two weeks of January.

"Steve," I looked at him in awe.

"I got us a nice place to stay, Tony actually helped me pick everything out and book it because I have no idea how to do any of that. He said this resort will be very private and accommodating to the fact that people might want to invade our privacy. I just wanted to make sure everything will be perfect."

I wrapped my arms around him and hugged tightly. He hugged me back as I said "This is amazing, Steve. Thank you so much for doing this for us, I can't wait to go!"

"I can't wait either," he responded as he continued to hold me.


January 15, 2016

"We missed you here," Nat said as Steve and I brought our bags into the compound. We got back from our two week vacation, and I hadn't felt that happy in a long time. Steve and I spent long days on the beach together, we had our own private small house that was part of the resort but away from the main campus. We could have our privacy when we wanted and then go to other parts of the beach for different food and luxurious activities. It was two weeks full of relaxing and just getting to be with each other. Our room was beautiful, and the view was perfect. I could have stayed there with Steve forever. We both were so busy with our professional lives, that it was really nice to not have to worry about any of it.

"Aw we missed you too, but I'm not gonna lie, we could have stayed there much longer than we did," I replied. Nat had been keeping up with ongoing training with the other Avengers at the facility, and luckily there was no need for any missions in the weeks we had planned to be gone.

"Of course you would, I would also want to," Wanda said as she walked in and gave us a smile. Her and I had become somewhat friends since she started staying and working with the Avengers.

We ate dinner together with the other Avengers living in the compound. It was nice being with only Steve for a couple weeks, but it was also nice being back with the people I considered my family. I missed them on their missions when I missed Steve too.


February 21, 2016 (STEVE'S POV)

I waited for Maddi in our room, she had been out on a walk in the morning, she often enjoyed walking along the river. I was excited for her to get back because I had a surprise to show her. She came into our room and smiled at me when she saw me on the bed.

"Hey, I thought you'd be with Sam when I got back," she said.

"Oh yeah, we're having lunch later, but I wanted to show you something first."

She narrowed her eyes and responded "Okay, what kind of surprise do you have this time? There's no anniversaries or birthdays coming up."

"No, but this is kind of part two of my anniversary gift."

"Now I'm really intrigued. Alright, let me see!" she replied. I told her to close her eyes and she did. I reached under the bed where I was hiding the gift. I held it so she could see when she opened her eyes.

"Okay, you can open now," I told her. She did and as soon as she saw what I was holding, she gasped and smiled even wider.

"Steve," she said in awe. "This is beautiful." In my hands, I had a 16x20 framed drawing of the two of us on the beach. I had done it based off a photo we had someone take of us while we were on our trip. It had been a long time since I drew anything for Maddi, and I wanted to make this one special for her. It took me the month to do so because I had to make sure she wasn't around when I was working on it, and its size was bigger than I usually drew.

"You like it?" I asked her softly and she nodded. I saw a few tears fall down her face as she took it all in.

"I love it, Steve. I didn't realize how much I missed you drawing for me," she chuckled as she spoke.

"We can hang it wherever you'd like," I told her. She thought for a moment and then she found a space on the wall that she wanted to display it. She pointed it out to me, and I noticed a dark spot on her upper arm as she did so. "Is that a bruise on your arm?" I asked her, confused and curious. Maddi's bruises healed so quickly that they usually weren't ever even noticeable. I didn't think I had seen her with any bruises at all since before I went into the ice. Her hand on her opposite arm quickly went to touch where I was looking. She saw it too and then shook her head.

"Oh no, that's not bruise, it looks like it's just some dirt. I did fall on my walk today, there was a bit of uneven ground from the storm on Friday. I need to clean up, that's all." She dismissed it and then asked if I could hang up the drawing before I left for lunch. I nodded in agreement, and she never stopped smiling the entire time I worked on putting it up. After it was hanging, she leaned into me and smiled up at it. "Thank you, Steve, your art you make for me have always been my favorite gifts of yours" she said softly.


A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! It took me forever to figure out how I wanted the whole Andrew subplot to play out. I wanted something a little dramatic to fill in the months between Age of Ultron and Civil War. Next Chapter will get into the events of CW by the end of it, so I hope you're ready, I have a crazy ride in store for you guys. Any predictions? Any thoughts on this or the last chapter? I would love to hear them! Comments/reviews give me motivation to keep writing, plus they make me a better writer when I see your suggestions/ideas!