of all the people he could have run into, of all the people he could have stumbled across in the crowd --- did it have to be her? did it have to be now? after their conversation, he had spent too much time ( and far too many company resources ) attempting to find out more information about the woman calling herself jessica drew. when that did not work, he had tried putting her entirely out his mind. when even that did not work, he had felt himself slipping into a deep paranoia, the same paranoia that had once come with the mention of spider-man --- distrust, fear, suspicion, suspicion, suspicion. eventually, that too had faded, and he did not know which was worse: the brief certainty that she was there to doom him or the current uncertainty that she might actually be trying to help. 

either way, he did not want to see her here. he did not want her to see him like this, like an osborn. ( and that was not fair of him, was it? why should he care what she thinks of him? ) he pulled her to the side of the crowd, eyes scanning the surrounding area for any others who might be watching them. 

There’s an odd sort of comfort to Clint’s place, and it took Steve a few hours to place it. The last time he’d been somewhere THIS QUIET --- well, it’d been back in the war, sitting around with the Howling Commandos. ( He tried not to think how it was a false sense of security then. Talk too loud, you might get shot in the back before you even realized you were in trouble. ) It was quiet like the end of a battlefield. 

Really --- it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he needed a break from it, a time to think. He made his way down to a park a few miles away. It was far enough that he felt comfortable about it but close enough that the others might not even notice he was gone. ( They would notice, but for a moment, he could feel like he might just be able to breathe. ) 

After a few minutes, he pulled out the device, hit the button she’d shown him. It might not be a good idea to involve SOMEONE ELSE, but --- you had to count on people, right? That was what made them better. 

He'd wait there a few hours if he had to. He knew it, sure as stone: Jessica Drew would come. 

Hill navigates the sidewalk like a shark CUTTING through water–– purposeful and driven toward one cause, boots clacking on the sidewalk in her wake and up the stairs on the heels of another resident. Maria doesn’t really have the TIME to dilly-dally, and so she’s knocking at the door a half minute later, giving the peephole a direct stare.

When she’s sure there’s someone behind it, she tips her head a little, flicking her eyebrows. 

      ❛ Got a sec? ❜

Kaldur stared at Spider-woman on the top of the darkened and empty roof. The building under them belonged to a LexCorp pharmaceutical subsidiary, much like the two CADMUS facilities destroyed before, and it was clear what the both of them were attempting to do here. Here, with all the disabled security feeds. It just an odd coincidence.

“I take it you’re here to investigate LexCorp as well,” Kaldur stated as-a-matter-of-factly as he continued the stare down without a flinch. “It may be more prudent for the both of us to work together this time instead of getting in each other’s way.”

It’s the FIRST TIME he’s seen her outside of a mission in --- well, it might not be an exaggeration to say years at this point. There was more than one beer can by him too, even if he can’t feel the effects of it bubbling in his stomach. It helps build the atmosphere; for a moment, for one simple moment, it makes it feel like they might actually get a chance to RETIRE some day ( instead of ending up at the bottom of the ocean in a box labeled “Property of SHIELD” ). They might as well just be two kids on a half-assed vacation. 

“ --- You SURE about this?” He knows it’s a foolish question as much as it’s a foolish idea. Permanency isn’t exactly something they got to find themselves concerned with, but it’s still an easy question to ask when he’s got A NEEDLE in his hand. “At this point, I feel obligated to ask.”