Why can’t I just go to Sarah’s?
"Come on Elise!" Sam called up the stairs, "we've got to leave!"
"I'm just doing my hair!" She called back, he rolled his eyes at the girl. Seven years old and already a diva.
A couple minutes later she came bounding down the stairs with her hair in pigtails and bows on either side of her head, a smile painted on her face as she gave him a spin showing of the new dress that Sarah had bought her.
"Let's go" he opened the door for her.
"Can I not go to Sarah's instead?" She asked looking up at him.
"She's busy today." Elise let out a huff and put on a pout, "but I'll tell you what, you can go see her at the weekend, and if your good you can have a chocolate bar, Deal?" He held his hand out.
And just like that her smile was back on her face, "Deal!" She shook his hand with enthusiasm.
"Alright pumpkin, now let's go." He pretty much herded her out the house, before making her get in the backseat.
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Elise sat bored outside of the meeting, she had nothing to do. She had been given a hot chocolate and a packet of crisps by the nice lady at the front desk but she had to get back to work. The only thing she could do was wait.
She hummed to herself as she sat, her legs swinging back and forth as she was too short for the bench she was on.
She perked up when she saw Steve walk in the door, she thought he was nice, plus he was captain America! When Sam told her that she was grinning from ear to ear, he was a superhero!
He smiled at her when he walked in and came over to her, "Elise was it?"
"Yeah" she smiled. "You're captain America!"
He grinned at her, "is that your dad in there?" He gestured to the room where Sam was counselling some veterans.
"Yeah, Sam's in there. I'm not aloud to go in because I'm too young but once a fortnight they have one for younger people that I go to." Elise explained, a mischievous smirk came onto her face, "that lady at the desk is the one that Sam wanted you to impress, he has a crush on her."
Steve chuckled slightly, "alright kid, I'll see you later." He walked towards the door, he didn't go in just stood on the outside listening in.
A female veteran spoke up, "The thing is I think it's getting worse. A cop pulled me over last week, he thought I was drunk. I swerved to miss a plastic bag. I thought it was an IED."
Sam nodded his head in understanding, he was like that at first when he came back, it's gotten better overtime but every now and then he still gets little panics, it had gotten better now he had a daughter. He liked to think they helped each other, and they did help each other. He began to talk. "Some stuff you leave there, other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase or in a little man-purse? It's up to you."
The meeting began to finish up, and Elise had fallen asleep, lain across the bench, a jacket covering her like a blanket. Steve smiled at Sam when he saw him, and waited for everyone to leave before he approached.
“I'll see you next week.” The woman from earlier smiled at Sam before she left.
“Yeah.” Sam nodded
“Yeah.” She repeated back to him before Sam walked over to Steve.
“Look who it is. The running man.” Sam grinned, he looked over to see Elise asleep on the bench, someone’s jacket lain over her, it was rare for her to sleep like this especially since she had been having bad nightmares, he was going to have to be careful not to wake her.
“Caught the last few minutes. It's pretty intense.” Steve crossed his arms.
“Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret.”
“You lose someone?” Steve asked, his eyebrows furrowed slightly in sympathy.
Sam nodded, “My wingman, Riley. Flying a night mission.Standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before, till RPG knock Riley's dumb ass out of the sky.” He sighed, “Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch.”
“I'm sorry.”
“After that, I had really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?”
Steve nodded, “But you're happy now, back in the world?”
“Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero.” Sam smiled before adding, “well one person if we Count that little one over there” he gestured to Elise. He then looked back at her, and noticed the jacket wasn’t his. “Is that yours?”
Steve nodded, “yeah, she was cold.”
“Thanks for that.” Sam nodded, “So, yeah. You thinking about getting out?”
“No. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did.”
“Ultimate fighting?” Steve laughs at sam’s comment
“It's just a great idea off the top of my head. But seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?”
“I don't know.” Steve sighs.
Sam nodded in understanding before checking his watch, “I’m sorry man, we’re gonna have to head off.” He went over to her about to take off the jacket when Steve spoke.
“It’s fine, keep it I wouldn’t want you to wake her, she’s pretty wrapped up in it.”
Sam nodded, “alright, thanks.” Before he picked her up careful not to wake her, “I’ll see you around.”