It's okay, we understand
Chapter 5
It's okay, we understand
Turning into the street that his parents' house belonged on, Steve remembered that he never told his parents that he was leaving. He looked at his phone and saw that he had one miss call from his mother and a message form Rhodey, telling him that they would leave Afghanistan the next day.
Steve knew that he had to leave New York within the next two hours so that he would have the ability to set up everything for Tony's return. Taking his keys out of his pocket, Steve made his way towards the kitchen, where his parents were.
"They found him," Steve stated in a voice filled with relief, " I'm sorry that I didn't tell you earlier and that I bolted out of the house, but I needed to go to go somewhere first."
"tá sé ceart go leor, tuigimid" she whispered, with a small smile forming on her lips, in her native tongue of Irish Gaelic, hands hugging a steaming cup of coffee.
( translation: it's okay, we understand)
A sad smile formed on his face when he remembered that he needed to break the news to his parents that he was heading back in LA. He told them the reason while making his flight booking online.
Heading upstairs, Steve began to call back on the past three months. He felt as if he had aged five years. Working directly for Obadiah was a challenge, but now he actually had something to look forward to when he arrived back in California.
He freshened, grabbed his bags and then headed downstairs.
Driving back to JFK was a tedious affair. The traffic was heavy, he was tired and hungry. His mom gave him a granola bar but it only helped so much.
As they turned into the airport he told his parents to drop him at the ‘drop off zones' instead of parking. His flight was due to leave within the next hour and 45 minutes so it would have been a moot point for them to park.
———————
Arriving in California, Steve knew he was happy. He was actually happy to be back in the city. The last time he was here he was working about work, finding and new work and lastly the fact that his boss was missing.
He booked an Uber driver to take him to his apartment. He would have asked Bucky to pick him up since he dropped him off, but he was at work.
Bucky worked for some sort of Agency, ever since he was honorably discharged from the army 2 years ago when he lost his arm. He wasn't sure what type of agency it was, but he knew that it was either the FBI, Homeland Security, the CIA or something that an honest to god long name. He didn't know or care about the last one but all he did know was that his cousin was happy doing whatever secret business he was involved in.
Around 30 minutes later he arrived at his home. He placed everything that he took with him in its rightful place, grabbed his evening clothes and took a shower.
When he was done shaving, his non-existing beard hair, he heard a ‘ping' that notified him that he received an email.
‘ Bring all the work that I've missed for the past three months with you tomorrow. No excuses - Tony.'
Of course, that would be Tony. He wasn't even back and he was already barking out orders Steve thought with a sigh.
Looking for his messenger bag, tablet and a complied summary of each month that Tony missed, he placed all the items on the armchair that sat right adjacent to the door.
He walked the short distance to his kitchen, made a cup of spiked hot cocoa, to warm him while calming down his nerves. Returning to the lounge, he sat in front of the tv and, for the first time in around 3 months, began to watch reruns of his guilty pleasure, The Real Housewives of New York.