Charlie's One Phone Call
Charlie stood, alone, in the residence office, staring blankly at the phone resting on the desk in front of her. Her freshly washed hair fell in large strands down her face, if it was dry, the hair probably would have completely blocked off her face. Would Natasha even want to hear from her? Should she be calling Fury instead to be talking about the mission? Charlie didn’t know what to do and she was wasting precious minutes.
Without another thought, Charlie’s hand launched forward, taking the phone off the receiver. With a shaky finger, she punched in some numbers, held the phone up to her ear, and waited.
The ringing of the phone as it dialled and waited for the recipient to pick up seemed to last forever. But in reality, it was only seconds.
“Hello?”
“Tony?” Charlie practically whispered into the phone.
“Charlie? Are you alright?” Tony sounded worried, he wasn’t expecting to hear from Charlie after how they left things before she left for New York.
“Yeah,” she said softly, “I’m okay. I’m in New York. I mean I have been for the last week.”
“Have you been settling okay?”
Charlie knew he was afraid to bring up how they left things, afraid to start another fight with her. “Yeah,” she answered, “work has been keeping me really busy. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten the chance to call before this.”
“No, sweetheart, it’s okay. I’m just glad you called now.”
They fell into a comfortable silence for a beat before Charlie continued, “I’m sorry for blowing up on you before I left. I shouldn’t have brought Grayson up like that to hurt you.”
Charlie could hear his shaky sigh through the phone.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better father for you. You deserve better.”
“Tony…”
“No, please. And I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. I promise to never leave you again.”
Charlie held back a sniffle. It wasn’t the first time Tony had apologized to her for his behaviour, but it is the first time he did so with so much emotion in his voice.
For the first time in his life, Tony Stark apologized and actually meant it.
“Please don’t cry.”
Charlie chuckled as she wiped her tears on her sweater sleeve.
“Please come home.”
She knew it was coming, the moment she decided to call her father. “Tony, I can’t,” she practically whispered.
Tony loudly sighed, “I know but I thought I would try anyway. Will you be home for Christmas? Fury has been really pissing me off with all this regulation bullshit, and I would really like to see you.”
“I’ll try but I make no promises,” Charlie said, “I am still new here, I’m not sure if they will let me off for enough time.”
Tony hummed.
There was a loud bang at the door followed by Young shouting, “Time’s up, Wyatt!”
Charlie spun to stare at the door. Young’s unimpressed face stares back at her through the tiny window in the door. “I’ve got to go, Tony, my break is over and my boss is breathing down my neck.”
“But I only just starting talking to you,” Tony whined.
Charlie chuckled, “I’ll talk to you soon. Bye Tony.”
“Bye Charlie.”
Charlie gently placed the phone back on the receiver. She took a deep breath before standing up and rejoining her team in her suite.