The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 12

Upstate New York, USA

Winter 2015/16

Nadine was honestly beginning to develop a rather large headache. She was not making much headway at all—at least, not as much as she would've liked—and Nadine was beginning to move past mildly restless into full on frustrated. But she had to persevere.

It had been weeks since Nina had been dropped off in Cambridge. Weeks since the anxious, unsettled missing feeling had settled in her chest, refusing to abate.

"Congrats on being an empty nester," Nat had teased the day after the two of them had seen Nina happily settled in her dorm at MIT. Not that her chipper projection had quite hidden the wary way she'd been eying Nadine ever since 'The Drop-Off,' as the day had been unofficially christened. And for good reason, not that Nadine was interested in showing it.

Especially as Nadine seemed to be having a harder time adjusting than Nina. Every time she talked to her daughter, Nina's enthusiasm was nearly tangible. She was enjoying her classes even though the stress was starting to pile on with assignments and midterms fast approaching. But all in all, Nina seemed to be flourishing. She had made some study friends and still kept regular contact with Pietro and Wanda and even the Bartons on top of Nadine and Natasha.

She was thriving, really. Nina had even gone on at length about how she had been reaching out to Stark at his insistence to talk over concepts discussed in her lectures or her practicals, sometimes even topics touched on in her textbooks that they weren't due to talk about until much later.

Nadine was not so lucky. She honestly missed her daughter terribly and it was wearing on her. Enough so that she'd very nearly broken the agreement that the two of them had made that Nadine wouldn't visit until after midterms. To let Nina adjust, had been the reasoning.

At least Spring Break was coming soon.

Hell, that thought alone had been part of what had gotten her through dropping Nina off in the first place; the reminder that she would see her again soon enough. Especially as she'd—probably foolishly—decided to stay at the Compound until at least then...just so Nina had a secure and familiar place to retreat to if she had trouble adjusting, or so she was continuously convincing herself. Besides, the decision had made Nina happy. And seeing Nina so happy that day reassured Nadine that letting her go was the right call. It reassured her more than she could say. It had made the aching hole in her chest feel a little less potent.

Not that she'd allowed Nina to see how emotional she'd felt even if the knowing and suspiciously bright gleam in her daughter's eyes that day had suggested Nina had been on the same page. For all that Nina's visible excitement and confidence had been immeasurably reassuring, it had still been a hard day. An emotional day.

Parents usually cried, right? Didn't they? Wasn't that the typical experience? The child, no longer wholly a child, was dropped off, ready and eager and nervous about starting the next stage of their life while the parent looked on, proud and sad and equally nervous all at once?

Well, Nadine had certainly held to the norm, there. She was proud. More proud than she could ever hope to put into words. So proud of her little girl's determination her chest felt like were it to expand any further there would be physical damage done.

And there had been the requisite sadness too. Still was. It was the end of a chapter. Of many chapters, really; some big, some small and some welcome while others certainly weren't. She missed having her baby close by.

Then there were the nerves. Only, in Nadine's case, 'nerves' was a sore understatement. She was near terrified. The campus was as secure as a campus could be. And that wasn't even counting the measures Nat had apparently worked up with Stark.