Sick

Eleanor: I'm going to miss Lunch today; I think I've come down with a bit of a cold

The message dinged on the counter just after his run, and Steve looked down to his phone only to purse his lips. The message was enough to cause pause for Steve, as he considered the previous night when they'd talked on the phone. She'd said she had a bit of a sore throat, and her voice had sounded scratchy. It was probably because of the children at the schools she worked at. The Flu shot she had gotten a few weeks ago didn't mean that she wouldn't get sick. She made that very clear to him when he told her it was a good idea. He could remember how in the 40's he had always gotten sick within the first month of school. It was so expected that he was sure to that day that his mom saved her days off for the fall so she could make sure he was taken care of.

After a few minutes of messaging back and forth and despite her protests in him checking in on her, he wasn't going to forget his promise to bring soup. He didn't mention that being sick was not an excuse to skip lunch but he did check to make sure she was stocked up on medicine.

He figured he should wait until closer to lunchtime and show up as a suprise, so, to keep himself occupied, he looked up a list of recipes for the common cold. Around eleven, he started on the soup, and making sure to add extra pepper with hopes it would help her nose clear up. He was waiting for the potatoes to cook when the elevator door binged open. Glancing around the corner of his kitchen, Bruce walked in, wringing his wrists and playing with his watch while looking around. Steve took a step out into the hall.

"What's up Bruce?" he asked.

The other man just shrugged "You're usually out around lunch on Thursdays, but Jarvis said you were still in the building today" Steve moved out of the way and motioned for Bruce to come further in the apartment. His outings were often discussed briefly between bites at the dinner table.

"I am." He agreed, short on words and treading carefully. He trusted and respected Bruce, though he couldn't fully agree with how the older man handled working with Tony for long periods of time.

"What are you cooking?"

"Soup."

The two had a moment of slightly awkward silence. Steve opened his mouth and then closed it, he wasn't sure why Bruce had arrived here in the first place. Steve stirred the soup a bit, glancing in it to see if the meat was getting darker, but also just to have something to do with his hands. He let the lack of noise sit in the air for a few minutes, trying to relax. It was his home after all. Well, maybe not all his.

"I wanted to drop by and see how you're doing. You've been out a lot recently and I know you're planning on getting clearance for SHIELD." It'd been a few days since he'd thought of shield, and remembering Eleanor's face when they invaded her privacy, he felt his hand tighten around the spoon he was using to stir. Deliberately pushing the thoughts out of his mind, he turned around to watch the Gamma Radiation Scientist. Bruce sat at the countertop chair, examining steve in almost the same way. "Do you normally cook?"

Steve chuckled, he ran a hand through his hair. Small talk had never been his thing in the first place. The Tower was so big that it was easy to be isolated from the others that lived on the upper floors. Bruce wasn't wrong when he said they hadn't seen a lot of each other recently. He and Tony were usually walled up doing science experiments anyway. "I do sometimes cook, yes. What's new in the science lab?"

"We're on our third suit. We're working on adding extra strength to it and starting to talk about other alternative medals to use." Bruce played with his watch again. It was a normal analog watch, which surprised the Captain a little. Tony was intent on making sure that all the Avengers were equipped with nothing but Stark Technology, giving them Watches, Cellphones, computers. Eleanor had mentioned that with the amount of gear he had he could probably rent her apartment for six months. He wasn't used to being given things, much less expensive things. In the 40's, no one wanted to hand over anything because they hardly had enough for themselves. "You went to the Smithsonian in DC didn't you? Did you visit the NASA exhibit?" Bruce asked. Steve leaned against the monotoned cabinets opposite.

"Yeah. It was amazing. I was t-" He stuttered for a second, he didn't want to talk about how much he and Eleanor had geeked out over some of the major scientific discoveries of the modern-day and age, "I was surprised by all the things the world has done in the past seventy years. I watched Apollo 13 the week I got back." He settled down on referencing the 1995 film that Eleanor had sent him an internet link to. JARVIS had even complimented his movie taste when he asked to watch it.

"That's a really good movie. Have you been catching up okay?"

Steve thought of all the movies he'd watched in the past few months and all the books he'd flown through. Even the occasional technology tip from Eleanor had been helpful. His texting was improving, he could mostly work his computer and had mastered nearly every appliance in his apartment and hers. The only thing he had yet to try out was video games, which Eleanor said she was keeping an eye out for a good game or two to introduce him to. Steve felt competent, and while he knew he would never fully fit into the 21st century, he could say that he was feeling more comfortable in it. "Yeah. I've been doing a lot better."

"That's fantastic. Have you been going to museums during the day? You said at dinner the other night something about a library?"

"Yeah. While I can get pretty much anything here, it's nice to get out and check books out at the library and find new places to get food." Again, Steve carefully avoided the topic of Eleanor.

"Making friends?" Bruce looked down at the chain.

Steve stopped for a second.

"A few…" He waited to see if Bruce had any follow up questions.

"I saw a text message you got last week on your phone during the movie. I hadn't really thought of the fact you don't know many people, and we haven't been the most helpful in introducing you to people." Bruce shrugged. "I prefer isolation and helping people, but since I've been caught up with Tony I realized how much I missed people sometimes."

His first thought was that he needed to be more careful with where he put his phone, he was lucky that Tony still was none the wiser. His next train of thought was linked with the realization that he and Bruce were both people brought out of their comfort zones when SHIELD came and got them. They had both been loners, with no friends and not quite fitting in with the world as it was. He came to appreciate the smaller and timider man a little bit more at that moment. "Thanks for checking in. I've been staying busy, but thanks."

Bruce made eye contact as well and gave him a smile.

About an hour after eating with Bruce and packaging the rest of the massive batch of soup he made, Steve knocked on Eleanor's apartment door. The rain clouds had just arrived in from the coast and it was beginning to drizzle. As it was still the middle of the day, the street was quiet, all the gang members either in cars or in buildings. It took a few minutes before he could hear the padding of her feet on the other side of the door, and he smiled when he figured she was looking through the eyehole on the door to see who was standing there. When Eleanor clicked through the locks and swung open the door, he was almost surprised by how under the weather she looked. Her brown locks seemed to have a darker shade to them and seemed to be much wilder. She'd probably just rolled out of bed. Her eyes seemed droopy and her nose was a solid red shade and dried and flaking off the sides.

He smiled softly down at her miserable state. "Just a cold?"

"I'm fine Steve" She tried to smile, but it looked more like a slight grimace. Her voice sounded rough, just like it had on the phone. She coughed into her elbow.

"Doll, white paint has more color than your face," for a second, he thought of the multiple times Bucky had spoken to him with the same tone. It'd been so long since he had last been sick that Steve wasn't exactly sure how he felt about it at that moment as the healthy one. He could see himself in the same miserable state, opening the door a crack and not feeling in the mood for anything trying to get Bucky to leave so he didn't catch a cold. Unfortunately, Bucky never took no for an answer, and Steve wouldn't either.

Whatever she rumbled back was incoherent due to her sore throat and the fact that she fell into a coughing fit immediately after. When she composed herself she motioned to the container he had in his hands. He'd left it in the pot and put it down at the feet of the passenger seat in the car he had grabbed from the garage. It had cooled significantly, and he was able to hold the sides rather than the handles. "You shouldn't have come. I told you I was going to be okay...Is that soup?" she rumbled out she gestured at the container in his hands.

Steve gave her a small smile "Yeah, made it myself."

She raised an eyebrow "You cooked? Did I know you could cook?" She knew he could, and they'd gone over his limited abilities in the kitchen whenever he helped her cook meals in her own home. She encouraged him to try new recipes at home, reminding him that the odds of him finding a 1940's housewife in 2012 would be limited to going to very religious communities. He had to admit that following in her footsteps he was finding himself to be more of an aware world citizen and dare he say—feminist. He'd always respected women but hadn't ever thought of the privilege he had until Eleanor pointed it out.

He was at least happy she wasn't too tired for joking. "Yeah, my mother's bean and ham soup with potatoes and extra pepper. I used real ham, when I tried it earlier it didn't seem to change the taste too much. My mom used to use hot dogs." Eleanor stared at him and raised her eyebrow hesitantly but moved out of the doorway, letting him in.

"If it's your mother's recipe then I'd best try it." She sighed. "It's not like I'm going to get much sicker at this rate." She winked at him, and while it was a nice attempt, her swollen eyes gave away her exhaustion. He wondered how much sleep she was actually getting. Steve carried the pot he was holding into the kitchen and set it down on the stove, flipping it on.

"Sit down, I'll heat it up."

Eleanor did as he said and sat on one of her dining room chairs. She watched him, but also plucked a tissue off the table and blew her cherry red nose. Then she proceeded to sneeze four times in a row. Steve said bless you and she snorted in response throwing the tissue in the garbage can that had been moved closer to the table. She leaned forward and put her head in her hands, watching as he moved around the kitchen to get a bowl and set the tea kettle on for tea.

"you really didn't have to bring anything over. I probably would have had something delivered."

Steve paused and looked over at her. "Did I wake you up?"

"Sort of, my sleep was fitful so it's not that big of a deal. You should have told me you were coming over though, I would have put on real clothes." She waved a hand and rolled her neck. Her head dropped a bit further and her eyes closed as she rubbed at the knots. The bags under her eyes weren't too heavy, but she looked tired when she glanced back up at him. Steve took a seat and set his phone alarm for a few minutes.

Looking a little closer, Eleanor's pajamas were long pink polka-dotted fluffy pants and a gray T-shirt that read "you've cat to be kitten me right meow". The apartment was in order, but he could see the uptake in tissue boxes sitting out. One sat on the coffee table next to the couch, one on the table, and another in the kitchen. The two sat in the quiet for a bit, neither needing to say anything. Eleanor kept her eyes closed and switched to rolling her neck. When Steve's alarm clock went off and he went to dish up a bowl, Eleanor snapped out of her trance.

"'I do have some good news," She said.

"You do?"

"Yeah. I got that maternity position. The teacher's supposed to have her kid after thanksgiving, so once I feel better," she paused to cough, "once I feel better I'll be going in to work out the lesson plans and stuff." She gave him a smile, it was a glimpse at her normal self. She'd told him a little bit about being a substitute teacher, and he was glad she'd have a little more stability and a chance to really get to know a group of kids. She was made to work with children and never seemed to get enough time to make strong connections with them. He moved back into the sitting area of her apartment set the bowl down in front of her, adding the tea off to the side. She took the bowl with both of her hands and leaned forward, letting the steam wash over her face and blowing on it a little. "It looks good"

"How does it smell" he teased.

"Hot." She gave it a few more soft blows before taking a sip. When she looked at him, she motioned the table.

"I ate it with Bruce earlier, he stopped by my apartment," Steve smiled, explaining why he didn't have a dish sitting in front of him. "He was checking in to see how I was adjusting." Eleanor nodded for him to continue her eyes watching him even as she leaned over her bowl and lifted a spoon to her mouth. She looked a little bit like a goblin from a movie they had watched but he couldn't remember the name to.

"What did you normally do when you got sick?"

"Stay in bed. The doctors used to have me smoke cigarettes to help my asthma," She choked, "yeah I stopped when I realized it was possibly making them worse- but they didn't know the effects yet. I usually waited around until Bucky came banging on my door to take care of me. Or my mom would play the radio and I'd listen to that and try to sleep between meals." She nodded her head. "What have you been doing all day?"

"Sleeping and watching 90s movies and blowing my nose" Just one or two scoops of the soup she sounded a little better. She looked up at him and sniffled, "why can I suddenly breath through my nose?"

"Pepper" Steve chuckled.

"Oh." She took another bite. "Wait are you talking about Pepper potts or the seasoning?"

Steve hadn't made the connection himself to the co-CEO of Stark Industries, and he laughed. "The seasoning stupid"

She childishly stuck out her tongue and scrunched up her nose. There was a short pause before her eyes shot up to his, a small spark lighting them up. "Have you seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off?" Steve rolled her eyes. It was impossible to visit her without being roped into a movie, competitive board game, or, once, she talked him into drawing pictures for her lesson after dinner. Admittedly, that was part of the reason why Steve enjoyed visiting her. She always included him in her evening activities. She was a great host, so he knew she was dying to thank him in some way shape or form. At that moment though, company was all she could really give.

After her first bowl, she served herself, but she also took out medicine from the cabinet to the right of the sink in the corner. He watched as she lifted herself on the counter faster than he could get to her. Popping a pill into her mouth, she dished her second bowl and sat down to eat in front of him again. Chatting with her on and off, he realized she wasn't a very talkative person when she didn't feel well, and a lot of her responses were short and to the point, something a little uncharacteristic. From what he could tell she didn't mind his presence, but she'd rather listen to him and eat than continue with small talk.

Steve picked up her second bowl faster than she could when she finished, taking it to the kitchen himself and telling her to go make herself comfy on the couch. He could hear her grumbles and the blowing of her nose as she did what he said. He rinsed the dish and put it on the other side of the sink. Then he made sure to turn off the burner so the soup could cool down. When he got into the living room, Eleanor was curled up on the couch. Her head rested on the armrest. Steve walked over and pulled her down by her feet, causing her to yelp and kick at him as she slid.

Moving around her, he sat near her head, letting her rest it on his thigh as she groped for the remote on the table, trying not to move too much. Steve grabbed it and pressed the little Netflix button at the bottom. He maneuvered the select button to the search bar, typed in 'ferr' and scrolled down the Netflix list. Selecting the movie he leaned back. As the start credits began, Ella looked up at him.

"You're good at Netflix" She said slightly droopily. He laughed and shook his head. "You're good at everything" she smiled. Steve didn't know how to respond, but before he could her attention had turned back to the screen.

Steve wasn't sure how he felt when the movie ended. He glanced down at Eleanor to explain his thoughts but instead found her mouth wide open and her eyes clamped shut. When she stayed awake for movies she usually badgered him with questions on his thoughts and opinions, which almost always lead to him adding another movie or two on his list and narrowed down his preferences. While she was sick though, he figured this would be a better movie to have a phone conversation about another day. He slipped a pillow under her head to replace his leg and left her alone for the moment. The Captain moved to the kitchen and put the leftover soup into a container, setting it in a cleared space in her refrigerator. When that was done, he did the dishes and cleaned up the living room, emptying all the trashes into one bag and tying it off. He set the big bag next to the front door. Washing his hands briefly and using the restroom Steve moved toward her and knelt to eye level, shaking her shoulders a little.

Her eyes cracked open. "Let me sleep" She mumbled. "'m sick."

Steve couldn't help but softly smile. "I know doll, but you've gotta lock the door behind me." He couldn't help but push her hair back when she tried to bury herself into the couch and away from him.

"Lock it yourself," Ella was muffled by the cushions.

Steve adjusted where he was next to the couch, putting a knee down to lean his weight on a little more carefully. "I don't want to take your keys. You need those." He sighed.

She moved her mouth so he could hear her better, but kept her eyes covered by the pillow. "Take the spare in the bowl on the fridge n' use the pen for the deadlock." This time Steve really raised an eyebrow. He left her alone for a minute and pulled the bowl off the top of the fridge. A spare key with a `crochet dog keychain was the only one he could find. The pen she had to be talking about was bent with a hook that he assumed would catch the deadlock. He couldn't help but wonder a little why she had either of them in her possession in the first place.

He glanced back in the living room to see that she was already unconscious once more.

Knowing she'd be more comfortable in her bed, he walked over and pulled the blanket around her a little tighter before gently hoisting her up into his arms. He stood still for a second when she sniffled and curled into him a bit tighter. Walking into her bedroom he nudged the door open a little more. His eyes adjusted quickly to the dim light, and the sheets were already kicked practically off the bed. He laid her down the blanket and all at the head of the bed. Naturally, she rolled over and buried her face into another pillow. He quickly lifted the rest of the sheets up and over her and placed the tissue box that had toppled onto the floor back onto the nightstand.

Tiptoeing out, he turned off the Tv, the living room lamp and the lights. Deciding to leave the light over the oven on, just in case, he grabbed the keys and made his way to the front door. It took him a second to get the deadlock hooked with the pen, which he guided behind him as he walked out, maneuvering it a little until it caught the hook and pulling it tight. He then pulled the door shut the rest of the way and double-locked the door. He waited for a few seconds on the landing to see if Eleanor would wake up and come to the door and when she didn't he tried it once to make sure it was locked properly before heading down the staircase to the car he'd taken from Tony. The streets were dark and while it wasn't raining at that moment, puddles and dark clouds warned New Yorkers that the bad weather wasn't over just yet, it was only beginning.

Nonetheless, Steve wasn't worried about the rain or bad weather. He had his fingers crossed that a little brunette someone would feel better in the morning.

A/N: Fluff Fluff Fluff. I wanted to post this chapter as another homage to fall. As a teacher, being sick is a reality in the fall, but I still love my students to death. One more chapter and then things are going to start speeding up a little bit!

Please review with your thoughts, predictions, or even suggestions! Don't be shy! I'm totally serious when I say the more reviews the faster I am to update because I know people are actually reading and invested!

Also because I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but I started uploading this story to AO3 as well, and it's a few chapters behind but I'm working on adding the rest!

Lots of Love from MONA!