Her POV.
“Pee-pee!”
“I know, Chuckie, I know. Just wait a little bit, we’ll be at my place in 5 minutes.”
“Auntie Q, pleaseeeee.” When stopping and seeing the glittery eyes of her only nephew, Quinn sighed and looked around. There was a tree across the street. Putting herself on a mission, she lifted the child to run to it. Was it illegal? Probably.
“Okay, you’ve done this before right?” She breathlessly asked, while helping him with his pants.
“Yup.”
“Do you need my help?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, I’ll be right behind you.” Don’t get her wrong, Quinn had a way with kids, especially when it came about little Carl. Yet, one thing was babysitting him by herself, and a very different other was being in the middle of the street with a bathroom crisis. It’d made anyone panic a bit.
“Toilet paper?” The boy asked.
“There you go, buddy.” Prepared as it is, she handled it to him and then threw it in the trash can behind. “The last button… done! Now that we’re not in a hurry, what do you want?”
“Ice cream!”
“Ice cream it is.” She laughed, while once again taking his hand and walking together.
They stopped at an ice cream shop and bought a big cup just for the two. While the kid ate, Quinn couldn’t help but to look at him while smiling. She couldn’t believe Trish tricked Tucker into naming him Carl after Carlisle, the one from the Twilight saga. The married couple had to run some errands in town, and she offered to take care of the boy, so it’d be easier for them and could have some alone time without him. Moments like these were very precious for her, not only because of the connection she creates with him, but also healing her inner child at the same time.
“Did you have a great time at the park?” She joyfully asked.
“Yeah! I made a lot of fwendths” His lisp was probably the cutest thing Quinn had ever heard. If there was at least one thing that came out good from being blipped, was coming back to this creature.
“I’m glad you did. Now, what about going home? We can watch any movie you like.”
“Okay.”
After being back at the girl’s apartment, little Carl fell asleep at half of the movie. Although the process of readapting to life felt like a kick in the butt, there were rewarding moments like these which made Quinn feel a little but more positive. Of course, she’d been through the rough multiple times, but now she could support herself in her loved ones; aka her best friend and the precious family she got and deserved of course. Although she had to start from zero at her job to reposition as an Attending, there were wholesome moments she’d never be able to re live if she wasn’t an intern. While getting lost on reflecting for a while, Trish and Tucker arrived. They all silently ate dinner Quinn prepared for them. They complimented her with the place’s design; about how tidy and elegant she made it look after all those years being abandoned. Suddenly, Carl woke up scared and his dad went to calm him down a bit, which gave them time for girl talk.
“Did you really assemble it?” Trish suspiciously asked, after noticing the furniture her friend struggled with.
“The neighbor did.” She answered, rolling the eyes when meeting her friends’ smirk. “Stop it, okay?”
“I didn’t say anything.” She laughed. “But I’m sensing things may change with him being in the picture. Just wait for it, I know when I’m right.” Quinn was about to reprimand her for being so corny and cheesy but got interrupted.
“Okay hun, ready to go?” Tucker came from the room, with a sleepy baby boy in his arms. “Once again thanks for taking care of him, Q.” He thanked when standing outside the apartment.
“You guys don’t have to. I’d literally pay you to spend more time with my little Chuckie.” She smiled, while tickling the kid.
“I’ll take that word.” Trish told, before tightly hugging her. “Don’t get lost, okay? Long Island isn’t that far.”
“I’ll try.” She answered, as if scolded by a parent. “Bye little buddy, I’ll miss you.”
“Bye Auntie Q. I wove you.” Those three last words paralyzed Quinn, as the kid got closer from his dad hold to hug her.
“Love you too, baby.” She managed to answer. As her only family left downstairs, she supported herself in the door’s threshold, too caught on her thoughts to notice her neighbor doing the same, witnessing the interaction with little Carl.
“Never thought I’d see you genuinely smile.” He noted, with a happy expression. When noticing his presence with a trash bag in his hands, she rolled her eyes.
“Oh, shut it, Barnes.”
“Ow, the Queen of Brooklyn doesn’t want people to know she has a heart.” He fake-pouted while touching his chest.
“Ha-ha, very funny. Get a life.” She panned, yet they both knew it wasn’t serious, because in the end she couldn’t help to smile. “So insufferable.”
*
“What?! On Rowell’s team?! Chief, I studied all night for Nasser’s surgery. You can’t just change it last minute.” She severed, standing in her boss’s office.
“Parker, could you please listen for a second? I’m changing you to Rowell because she needs the best ones today; there’s a surgery on a patient with toxic blood.” Quinn’s shoulders fell when hearing the good news. “And you’ll have surgeon privileges.”
“I get to cut?”
“You get to cut.”
“Yes!”
*
“Hello?”
“Trish, sorry I’m calling you this early.”
“No worries, is there any problem? You sound agitated.”
“No! Well, yes. Kinda. Remember the surgery I told you I was participating in?”
“The one with the toxic blood?”
“Yeah, well. Things went wrong.”
“Oh, my.”
*
After greeting the porter Trish rapidly went upstairs, using her copy of Quinn’s door key. She went inside and took time to look for her essentials and not so essentials the special girl couldn’t be without. She made sure every door was closed and left the bag of her belongings on the floor while locking the door. In the middle of it, a phone call from Carl’s daycare distracted her. The boy had a small accident. Not knowing what to do, the woman suddenly looked at her friend’s neighbor apartment.
“Oh, what the hell.” She whispered, before desperately knocking. The second he opened she didn’t lose a minute. “Hi, I think we’ve seen each other before. I’m Quinn’s friend.”
“I remember.” He took in her worried expression. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, no. Quinn is at the Hospital, there was a problem with toxic blood in a surgery and she needs to quarantine in there, so I came to get her stuff. The problem is, I got a call from my kid’s daycare and-“
“They need you, right. You want me to take her things to the hospital?”
“If it isn’t a bother. I can call an Uber to take them but it’s not as trusting as… well, you.” It was a bit embarrassing to be asking this sort of favor to a man who’d had world saving level kind of missions. It was the Winter Soldier, for Christ’s sake, not the Deliver Soldier.
“No, don’t worry. I’ll get these to her.” Surprisingly, he seemed genuinely willing to help.
“Really?! Wow, thanks. I owe you one.”
“No problem.” He smiled. Evilly. “She’s the one who’s gonna owe me.”
*
Quinn could burst into flames. To sum things up, on surgery one of the interns accidentally cut her protection suite making her exposed to the blood’s toxicity. This initiated a whole ass emergency operative, like the one in Monsters inc. She didn’t even get to cut! All because of an intern. Now here she was, a first quality surgeon in a hospital room with transparent curtains that made her feel like fresh meat at a butcher shop whilst using a hospital gown and cap while basically losing the last drop of dignity she had at this point.
“Where’s Trish?!” She angrily asked. The intern guilty of her fate was at her mercy, not because he needed but cause Quinn scared the crap out of him.
“I-I don’t know, there’s no messages or missing calls on your phone.” Poor guy. He was pale, short, skinny and kinda nerdy. Too nervous and intimidated by Quinn’s beauty, he accidentally cut her suite while managing the scalpel and now here they were.
“Could you mind asking her, please?” She calmly asked this time. The guy nodded and came back minutes later, his face paler than usual. “What happened? Did you see a ghost or something?”
“I- No, there’s… He- She- They’re coming, Miss.”
“Who?”
“The Winter Soldier.”
“THE WINTER WHO?!”