Chapter Text
Ward stares at the page Shannon had printed up for him and left on his desk.
he taps a capped fountain pen against the desk pondering on what to do.
he scowls as he has never had a moment of indecision like this before.
he doesn't like this at all, not knowing what to do.
It had his friends phone number on it and he was itching to get in Touch with her.
he decides fuck it , I'll just call her the worst that can happen is that she won't wanna talk to me or she doesn't pick up.
he secretly hopes she does.
He licks his lips and gets out his phone to call her but is interrupted by Danny breezing into his office to argue about a drug their company was going to sell to the public.
he wants to punch him, he's even balled up his free hand into a fist on his leg under the table but he refrains from doing so.
He pockets his phone and folds up the page and puts it away in his breast pocket for later.
Danny doesn't notice.
he's too busy rambling about cruel business practices and gesturing wildly with his hands at the big wide world outside as he tries to get Ward to see the predicament from his own point of view.
He sighs as Danny doesn't seem to care that their company needs to make a profit at the end of the day.
he's pretty sure if Danny thought so he'd sell everything he owned to make the world a better place but he hasn't thought of doing that yet and Ward isn't about to suggest such an idea.
Ward bites his inner cheek to stop himself from saying something caustic to his childhood friend.
Danny gets annoyed that ward isn't as outraged as he is so he storms off .
he slams the office door behind him with Ward silently cursing as the door rattles loudly as he storms down the hallway past Shannon who looks a touch concerned as he angrily strides past her.
she turns back to her computer screen and types away at diligently on her keyboard.
ward is grateful for a moment it gives him time to Think what to say to his old friend Chris, on the phone.
he thinks through a few dialogues when Shannon buzzes the intercom to his office asking if he would mind if she went off for her lunch break now as she needed to run an errand or two as well.
he'd been okay with that and told her to take an extra half hour for her break as he knew how much of a pain it was to work for him.
not that he'd openly admit it though , it was why he was so courteous and generous towards her.
he's broken out of his imagination when his office phone rings beside him.
he flinches.
he answers it quickly and is surprised to hear Joy on the other end of the phone, she sounds sick , she tells him she has a touch of the flu and it should pass in a couple of days and he has to fight the strong urge to go to her home and seek her out to make sure she'll be okay as he knows it'll irritate the fuck outta her if he mother hens her too much.
he's recently pissed her off so he has an internal debate on whether or not to see to her.
he makes her accept that he'll be at her home after work with chicken noodle soup though for which he knows it'll bring a smile to her face.
even though she's annoyed at him over their recent argument.
Joy bids him a sleepy goodbye and he returns it just before her call ends knowing she had called in to let him know she was ill and also to not worry about her.
he's a touch overprotective and she understands why .
He steels himself before he calls Chris desperately wanting to make contact with her today.
She answers on the first ring and he smiles before speaking telling her who he was and would she mind if he met up with her sometime this week?
She agrees and names a place she knows quite well and he agrees to it readily smiling when she asks if he'll wear something casual ?
Nodding then realizing she can't see him he agrees with a deep laugh.
she's known he's been working at Rand Enterprises since he was a young man and anytime the company has been in the media he always wears a suit, in fact she can't remember when the last time was that she saw him in something casual.
He doesn't want to end the call but she has to unfortunately as her boss is barking orders at her and the others in the break room.
she reluctantly says goodbye and that she's looking forward to seeing him soon too.
He says goodbye with a fondness he hasn't used in a long while.
the last time he spoke with such a fondness was to her when she started to work with her uncle they had made plans to meet up after that but it had fallen through due to his father's meddling.
he'd beaten Ward to a pulp making sure he wouldn't be able to show his face for a good while.
he frowned at the memory knowing it had probably greatly confused her as to why he didn't show up.
he hoped she would let him explain, he would understand if she didn't.
He grins when she ends the call and as he puts away his phone he wonders what they'll talk about when they meet up later in the week.
ever since Harold had "died" for the third and final time, Ward had finally felt free for the first time in his life and he just wanted to be normal for just one day, that's all.
he had freedom now and he figured he could just start some new friendships, maybe catch up with some old friends , maybe even get a girlfriend that was more into him for his looks and personality and not just his money for once, was it so much to ask that another human being care about him he wondered ?
he gets up and wanders over to window wall of his office gazing down at the teeming streets of new York below him chewing on his inner cheek thinking to himself in the glorious silence of his office for a rare moment.
Chris is a kitchen porter in a hotel down by central park, her uncle works at the reception desk as a night manager and he's the one that got her the job here in the first place while she was still in secondary school, she'd been surprised getting a phone call from Ward Meachum on her lunch break earlier but hadn't thought much of it.
she wondered why out of all the people he could have contacted from school to catch up with why on earth it would have been her ?
she could always ask him she supposed when they'd meet up at her favourite coffee shop later.
she can't wait to ditch her work uniform in favour of her soft navy hoody , grey t-shirt and black stretchy jeans and black trainers in an hour's time.
her uncle sends her a text telling her he can drop her off home tonight as sandy the girl who works up front with him had offered to cover for him as he'd wanted to drive Chris home.
she'd texted back thanking him grateful she wouldn't have to walk the darks streets and wait at sinister bus stops for ages for the rather unreliable buses home.
her car had been stolen a month ago from the hotel staff parking lot and still her insurance company hadn't coughed up the money yet.
there was an issue with the paperwork one day and the next she had to explain what happened to an entirely different insurance guy in the office and it was starting to piss her off , did they not pass on notes or something , when they shared casework?
so she was having to rely on public transportation and the kindness of relatives or friends until she had enough saved up for a new ride and she would make sure that once the insurance company paid up for her car then she'd switch to a better more reliable insurance company because she couldn't be dealing with this shit the next time something happened to her car, that's for sure.
her uncle's reliable dark red Audi A6 rolls up beside her as she exits the hotel side entrance with a cigarette hanging from her mouth still unlit.
"no smoking in my car, thems the rules Chris".
she sighs and pockets it and hops into the front passenger seat of his car.
she puts on her seatbelt grateful she got to finish on time today , sometimes Jacques her boss like to make all of them stay behind an extra hour or two to clean the kitchen from top to bottom, she didn't think it was worth it all that extra effort and no extra pay for their suffering, it was ridiculous.
she's grateful when he drops her off at her apartment with her promising to visit him and his missus on the weekend at his insistence.
as soon as she's gotten inside and locked the front door he drives off.
she goes over to her kitchen to make herself something to eat for an evening meal, maybe a nice chicken noodle stir fry dish or something.
her smartphone peeps twice in her back pocket as she looks for a pack of curry noodles in her cupboard, she can't seem to find any and grimaces.
she doesn't think to check her smartphone as she hunts for an alternative to her curry noodles , she finds chicken noodles or vegetable noodles and tosses a coin to decide which to have with her diced chicken pieces.
as she washes her hands at the sink in between preparation methods for her meal she looks up at her window above the sink and sees her goofball neighbour in his own apartment across from her singing into his karaoke mic, he's doing pretty good considering he's drunk right now.
he waves at her once he spots her and decides to serenade her, it makes her laugh.
she shakes her head at him as she wanders about her kitchen fetching all the cooking utensils she would need, a spoon, a frying pan , a pot with a little water in to cover the noodles a little vegetable oil for the frying pan to fry the chicken remembering this time to put on an apron as the last time she had spilled pasta sauce all over the front of her white t-shirt and had alarmed her next door neighbour , Ronan.
he'd seen her at the sink trying to rid herself of the stain.
that was two years ago and they've been good friends ever since.