This Is Us

Chapter 13

 Chris POV

Oddly enough, I didn't think anything of it when I got off the phone with AnnaBelle and Walker Monday afternoon. I checked my schedule for later in the week and noticed I was free as a bird, jumped on to book a flight and told Scott to come get Dodger Friday morning.

"Where are you running off to this time?" he asks, walking into my living room in Boston.

I adjust the ball cap on my head as I settle back onto my couch. "Visiting a new friend."

Scott doesn't skip a beat, his eyes narrowing as he stands in front of where I sit. "Is this friend of the female persuasion?"

"Maybe," I admit.

"Chris," he begins to warn me, his voice drawing the word out.

"And her son."

That catches his attention, eyes going wide as he takes a step back in surprise. "Wait. What?"

"We haven't caught up lately, have we?" I remember that when I had gotten back to town after the surprise trips to theaters all weekend that he was still in LA until yesterday. "Have a seat brother."

"Why do I feel like this is super serious all of a sudden?" His blue eyes blink back at me as he takes a seat on the ottoman.

I go on to tell him about the first theater stop from last Friday night. How the auditorium was jam packed and everyone was thrilled with the surprise, my own excitement coming out through my words. "But this little boy, kid had the whitest blonde hair I've ever seen in my life, suddenly got really upset right off the bat. This woman, who I assumed was his mom with the way he clung to her, was trying to get out of the area because it was just too much for him. She kept saying 'sorry' over and over again, to me, to the people she was trying to move past, to her son."

"How old was this kid? Should he really have been there?"

I hold my finger up, telling him to hold off on that line of questioning. "So, I do my thing and exit the theater when the movie starts. As soon as I come out into the hall there's the mom, sitting with her son in her lap while he cries, clinging to her chest as tight as he possibly can. I go over and apologize, crouching down and try to speak to the little boy. I say hello, introduce myself and ask what his name is. She's the one that answers, and asks if he wants to shake my hand. We shake hands and I slip my foot into my mouth for the first time of the night."

"Of course, wait. Did you say for the first time?" Scott sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Please tell me you weren't hitting on a married woman."

I roll my eyes at him and continue my story. "She tells her son how I play Cap and then the boy makes some sounds while pointing towards the shield on his shirt. He was wearing a Cap shirt! He just made these like grunting sounds, no words. So I'm like, yeah that's me and told him he wears the shield better than I do."

Scott jumps in quick with a "Duh!"

"I go on to ask if he's ready to go enjoy the movie and the he cowers back into his mom. She mentions that it was all a mistake and how they normally do sensory friendly shows but took a chance not knowing that I'd be there obviously. She talks about how it was a 'mom fail' and of course I can't dare let her feel that way. I mean, she was just trying to give her son a fun and memorable experience. So I go and work my magic," I wiggle my fingers out in front of me, "and get the theater to screen it in another auditorium. Lights on, completely empty space just for them. Well, just for us."

Scott's brain brightens with the lightbulb behind his eyes. "Us?" he questions further, moving closer to the edge of his seat.

I smirk a bit, knowing that he knows me too well and even if I tried to play this off as just a nice fan interaction, he'd see right through it. "I was being hospitable, ya know channeling old Steve Rogers himself."

"Before or after you slipped the mom your number?" Scott smarts off.

"Shut it. Anyway, so I'm telling them what to expect and he pulls on our hands-"

"Our hands?" he bats his eyes over at me.

"Yes, okay. The kid took my hand in one of his and his moms in the other. Can I continue now?" He gives me a nod. "So we both lean down to his level and he points at me and says, 'Cap.' Come to find out, that was his first word," I emphasize, my own excitement pouring out.

Scott reacts in a somewhat similar fashion to myself. "How old is this kid?"

"Six, but he's autistic. He's been nonverbal his whole life until that moment." I know he can see the pure joy across my face as he's already giving me a warning with his eyes. "Cap was his first word!"

"Chris, that doesn't mean anything. Don't read into something more, especially if there's a husband in the picture."

I emphatically shake my head at him as I stand, reaching for my keys that are in my pocket. "There's not. I don't know the story, but I got the idea there isn't one."

"You don't know for certain? Chris! What if he opens the door when you get there? Not like you can pass it off easily. Marvel isn't sending you to make house calls, ya know?"

"I'm taking the boy, Walker, that's his name, a gift. I'll just pass it off as that, no harm no foul."

Scott doesn't seem convinced and makes his thoughts known. "Or you're about to put his mother in a strange situation with the boy's dad. What if they already have a poor marriage and he thinks she's cheating on him with you. Ever think about anything like that?"

Truth be told, I hadn't. I remember her giving me a little shake of her head when I mentioned something about 'dad' and maybe even an extra tear fell from her eye. But, I mean, he'd have been there, right? I mean something like an action movie would definitely pique the interest of a guy to experience that with his son.

What if Scott's right? What if I'm about to put both Walker and AnnaBelle in a very strange position? The alarm on my phone tells me I'll have a good four hours to figure it out.

"I gotta head out. You staying here or is Dodge going with you?" I don't wait for a response, picking up my bag along with the large shield that's tucked nicely away to keep it from getting scratched or dinged up during the flight. "Either way, he's got a bag over here with food and all, just grab his lion. You know the drill."

"Yeah, I may have done this once or twice," he sasses me, shoving a fist into my shoulder. I give him a quick hug.

"Don't do anything stupid!" he yells out after me as I walk out to my car.

The flight ends up being delayed and by the time I land, I worry about it being too late. Almost positive that my little buddy will probably be in bed asleep by the time I even drop my stuff off at a hotel downtown. Luckily it seems their home isn't but about ten minutes away and I drive the rental through the streets as quickly as possible.

A six-year old's bedtime is probably earlier than nine, right? Crap. Maybe I should just turn the car around and try for the morning. But then I think about the idea of getting to see AnnaBelle again and without another thought I'm pulling into their driveway.

I'm as quiet as possible, slipping the covering off of the shield as I walk up to the porch. I see a little bit of light from what is probably a television set and decide to take my chances and knock.

It takes a couple of minutes for the porch light to flick on, then a nervous "Who is it?" come from AnnaBelle. I breathe a bit of relief, thankful that it wasn't a man's voice. "Delivery!" I yell out, hoping my voice isn't obvious.

I hear a lock, then another lock and another lock release all while I'm pulling the shield up in front of my face, waiting for the door to open. As soon as I hear it being pulled, I call out, "Delivery for Cap's biggest fan!" while revealing myself to the beautiful mother standing in front of me. 

*Unedited