Love and Medicine

six

The morning came and you laid in your bed, staring at the ceiling. You really wanted to go meet Steve for breakfast, but you knew you probably shouldn't. With a heavy sigh, you turned over to look at your bedside clock. There was 30 minutes until it was time to meet Steve. You could make it in time, if you went. You also had the day off so if you didn't go, you wouldn't run in to Steve today anyway.

After another five minutes of debating, you heaved yourself up and hurried into your bathroom. You got ready quickly, not going too overboard with trying to impress him. As you ran down the stairs, you shoved Clint out of the way.

"Woah!" He exclaimed. "What's the rush?"

"Sorry, Clint!" You replied, not stopping. "I gotta go!"

When you finally got to the cafe, you were a few minutes late and Steve was already at an outside table. You noticed that he looked a little nervous. He was sketching in a notebook, knee bouncing under the table.

"Is this seat taken?" You asked, having walked quietly up to the table.

Steve's head snapped up. He looked a little surprised and relieved to see you standing there. "Uh, no," he smiled. He motioned to the seat across from him. "Be my guest."

"Thank you," you pulled out your chair and sat down. He handed you the menu. You took it before looking at the notebook on the table. There was a sketch of you on the open page. "Wow. Did you draw that?"

Steve quickly shut the book and set it in his lap. "You weren't suppose to see that. Not yet, anyway."

"Well, it was really good."

"Thank you."

"Why didn't you go into art?"

"Doesn't pay the bills. Plus, brains are more fun."

You laughed. "I guess so."

The two of you order food and sat there for a few hours talking. It was mostly him asking about you and you telling him extremely long stories. You had just finished one about you and your parents that left him laughing.

"You're parents sound amazing," Steve said, finishing off his laugh. "I would love to meet them some day."

You stopped, immediately looking sad. Just the thought of your parents caused you to remember something. The date. It would be the first anniversary of their deaths in two days.

"Y/N?" Steve broke you out of your trace. You looked at him, a furrowed brow and worried eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I... I should go," you stood, scraping your chair against the ground as you did. Steve quickly stood up as well, surprised at your sudden need to leave. "I really need to go."

You hurried out of the cafe's fenced on section. You didn't make it much farther before Steve's large hand was around your bicep, stopping you.

"You're surprising fast," he tried to joke. You clearly weren't having it. "What's the rush?" He tried to study your eyes, they looked pained. "What's wrong?"

"I'll see you at work, Steve. Please." You tugged away from him. "I have to go."

He stood there, watching, as you hurried off to your car and drove into traffic.

~~~

You went straight to the hospital, willingly taking someone's shift to get your mind off everything. You did not want to remember it and you definitely didn't want to drown yourself in grief. You were going to work it off.

By the time your intern friends got to the hospital, you had been there for 20 hours. You ate and caught sleep when you could but it was never very much. Valkyrie immediately came up to you and told you about a party she wanted to throw for her girlfriend that was coming into town. You agreed to it, absentmindedly since you were so tired, on the condition that it wouldn't be very big.