This chapter is more to do with Zoe and Natasha. Steve needs a russian assassin kicking his butt for him! Thanks to all my follows and favourites. Believe me they are ALL appreciated! Reviews would be good too :). I own none of these characters except for the Nightingale family.

A Month later

Zoe could not sleep. It was rare that insomnia took hold but when it did, she discovered there was little point trying to make herself sleep. Instead, she decided to go downstairs. Boiling the kettle, she made herself a tea and sat down on the couch, the book from her handbag in her hand. As she opened her book, a piece of cartridge paper fluttered towards the floor. Zoe leant down to pick up the piece of paper she had been using as a bookmark for the last month, fingers absentmindedly stroking the thick paper pulled out of a artist's small sketchpad.

It had been Alex, her boss who had found it as they were clearing up for the day. He had grinned conspiratorially and handed the drawing over to her. "Good sketch. There's no way that can be anyone else but you, Zoe." She remembered how her cheeks had heated up as she stared at the drawing, busy trying to think who had been sat there. That day, there had only been one person sat in that seat: Steve. Her heart raced at the idea that he had drawn her. She was certain he had not meant to leave it behind. The drawing itself was fairly rough but Alex was correct – it certainly was her, partly in profile, a slight smile playing on her lips, almost as if she were singing or humming to herself. It felt strange to think someone liked her enough to draw her picture without telling her. Zoe could draw but she liked drawing clothing, the way fabric flowed. Stuffing the drawing in her bag, she made some excuse to Alex about knowing who it was and she would return it when the artist came into the shop.

Alex, normally a man who teased, had not made mention of it much, except to ask once if she had seen the blond haired man again. Zoe shook her head and made an excuse, saying he was probably busy. That had been a month ago and there had been no Steve in all that time. Zoe found she was watching for him. His words about Natasha telling him he would make a great father one day had hurt at the time. So the flame haired woman was called Natasha. If he was not married (she saw no ring on his fingers), then she was pretty certain he was seeing that woman. And why not? They made a beautiful couple. They would have gorgeous children together. She frowned at the thought.

Yet one thing made her wonder if he really was seeing the Natasha woman: that picture he'd drawn. The style of it was from the waist up, yet there was something quite intimate about the rough sketch she could not place her finger on. Sipping tea that was starting to cool down, she traced a finger gently over the paper again, as if not believing it was in her hands. And why did he seem to be avoiding her? Perhaps his job meant he had to travel or he worked odd hours but it was a month since she had seen him. That excuse worked for a few weeks – a month or more? Well, it brought her back to the theory that he was trying to evade her. Sighing, all she could really do was to hope that whatever was wrong with Steve would sort itself out and he would come back into the café again, so she could give him his drawing back. Picking her book up, she began to read, hoping it would settle her mind.

A few days later.

Natasha Romanoff watched Steve smack hell out of a punch bag in the gym in Stark Tower. She was concerned about him. The man was too damn quiet. Over the last few months, Nat had noticed him being more cheerful, even humming a particular song Natasha didn't recognise. Then about a month ago, he stopped - stopped humming, his face having developed a hangdog, serious look. He was his Captain America persona twenty-four seven and even Stark had noticed. Tony had even tried to get the man to talk, something that had only irritated him, especially when Tony had called him 'Capsicle'. Natasha and Pepper had shared a look, before Steve stalked off angrily.

So here Natasha was, positive she could do a better job than Tony had. Clint had sent her a message to say that Steve had already been through two punch bags and wasn't speaking to any of them, a sign that something was wrong. He'd not broke punch bags since the dark days just after Loki's attack on New York, a time that was pretty dark for all of them.

Clint walked over to her when she came into the training room. He put a hand on her shoulder and kissed her forehead. "I'm going upstairs Nat. Call me if you need me." She nodded, grateful to Clint for letting her know. Steve was her closest male friend here, except for Clint. If he was not happy, she wanted to know just what was bugging him.

Her heels clipped as she walked through the gym towards Steve. She could see the sweat soaking up underneath his white shirt he always wore when training.

"Hey Steve."

Steve stopped smacking the punch bag. "Tasha." Where was that smile he often gave? As soon as Natasha thought that, he continued to smack the punchbag.

"How are you these days? We've not had much of a chance to speak lately, not like we used to." Natasha had been on an infiltration mission that had taken longer than it should and as it was, she only really discovered that something was wrong when she came out of a debrief with Agent Hill, just a few days earlier.

He shrugged and punched the punch bag. "Just fine and dandy." Yet the look on his face, the tightening of his jaw belied his words.

Natasha stopped the punch bag before it could swing back, Steve narrowing his eyes at her action. "Liar. Did you know you have a muscle in your jaw that throbs when you're angry?"
He looked like he was about to hit her but she knew he never would. Steve was not that type of man.

"Tasha… " The pronunciation of her name sounded like a heavy sigh as he pulled his gloves off, dropped them on the floor and started to unwind the bandages on his hands.

Wiping a trickle of sweat that was beading a way down his forehead with the back of his hand, Steve asked quietly, "Have you ever met someone to find out later that they're not who they claim to be?"

Natasha gave him a short laugh. "All the time. It's part of my job." Watching him, she could see he was hurting and put a hand on his arm.

"That's not the type of thing you mean. We're not talking about work now, are we?" Steve looked down at the hand on his arm before looking across at her.

"No, we're not." Natasha gave him a small smile and took her hand off his arm, motioning towards a stack of mats in the corner.

"Let's talk. Sometimes, you need more than a punchbag."

"Yeah but punchbags don't talk back." Steve said, the trace of a smile on his face. Natasha smirked in return as they sat down.

"I met someone a few months ago." Steve started, hesitating as he looked down at his hands. "She seemed nice and though I'd not asked her out, I wanted to I was just… building up to it, you know?" Natasha's eyes met his and she nodded, not wanting to stop him or get in his way because she could tell how hard this was for him. "Anyway, we used to talk when I went in the coffee shop. I even drew a picture of her…" She saw the blush on his cheeks and tried not to smile, as she wondered if this was the young woman in the coffee shop from a few months before.

"So about four weeks ago I go in as usual and an older woman and a young child came in. Child couldn't have been any more than three." He frowned. "It was Zoe's daughter and her mother."

"You didn't expect her to have a child, did you?" Natasha asked quietly, seeing where this was going. Admittedly, from what Natasha remembered of the woman, she seemed a little on the young side to have a child.

Steve shook his head. "I mean I think I was fooling myself if I thought that someone as pretty as her would go unnoticed by another man."

Natasha put her hand on his arm, thinking he looked thoroughly defeated. Yet to Natasha, there was something missing in the retelling. "So… wait a minute, you're talking about a man she's involved with, yet, did you meet him?"

"No – but she has a child, Tasha." His enunciation sounded patronising.

"I know where babies come from. What I mean is there was no husband there and she did not wear a ring on her finger when I saw her." Natasha watched him squirm a little. "Steve, if you like her, tell her. Find out what her circumstances are."

She heard a low voice whisper, "I … can't." Natasha saw her friend at the lowest she remembered seeing him.

"Oh Steve, please don't borrow trouble. Zoe could be widowed, divorced, single… until you ask you won't know." He looked so defeated, she put her hand in his to stop him digging his nails in his palm. "When was the last time you saw her?"

Steve rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably with his free hand. "Well that's just it - the last time I went in there was the time I met her daughter."

Natasha snorted and shook her head, disappointed in her friend. "You know, out of everything you ever told me about yourself, I never had you pegged for a coward." The anger was contained but there in her voice as she let go of his hand.

"That's Captain America -" Steve began, talking as the muscle in his jaw twitched.

"NO. That's Steve Rogers, the man who tried to lie himself into the US Army because he wanted to fight against the bad guys." The assassin said, vehemently. "If you like her enough, you'll go back in there and at least find out what the score is. As it is, she's probably wondering what she did to scare you off!" Natasha found herself wanting to hit that punch bag…

Steve frowned. "I don't even know if she likes me. I mean, we talked but she never mentioned her family much, just music she liked. She would put this song on she said was from her favourite movie." He sighed.

Natasha put her hand on his arm. "She might just be a private person. If that's the case, it sounds like she was starting to open up to you."

Steve gave him a small hopeful smile and put his arm round her. "You think?"

"Yeah, I think. Idiot." Yet there was a small smile on her face as she nudged her friend. "Now go and have a shower, you stink."

Steve just laughed and pulled her into a one armed hug.

Well I had a conversation with Natasha about Zoe. For the first time since I left that sketch behind in the café, I feel like I may not have messed it all up. Natasha was her usual blunt self but… she's right. She knew I carried a torch for Zoe and my behaviour was not the sort of thing expected from Captain America. Even if she's married or courting, I'm stuck on her - though I at least want to be her friend. If anything else happens, then so much the better.