Something seemed wrong. Not 'bad' wrong…just…different. Work just called. Although it wasn’t yours…it was Alfred’s. Ah yes, Alfred, your fiancé as of two months ago, appeared to be skipping out on work every few days and it was starting to make you wonder, “What is he doing?” Of course, you and your female mind decided to think of the worst case scenario.

“Is he with another woman?! No…no he wouldn’t do that. Alfred’s such a nice guy.” But still, the thought refused to vacate your mind. Grabbing your car keys, you made a beeline for the garage.

~~~(10 minutes later)~~~

Driving towards Alfred’s work, you noticed something out of the corner of your eye. Something red, white, and blue was hanging closely to one of the many windows of the local children’s hospital…but it was not a flag. Some inner voice within you was telling you that Alfred could potentially be over there, so you drove your car over to the hospital parking lot and parked it.

What you saw couldn’t have made you more proud.

Up near the set of 5^th story windows was your fiancé, window washing for the children’s hospital, dressed up as Captain America. You could tell it was him because that was the same costume he’d worn at last year’s Halloween party…that and you could see his cowlick sticking up through the mask.

“So that’s what he’s been doing,” you murmured to yourself as you stood outside in the blistery-cold wind, watching as ‘Captain America’ cleaned the windows diligently all while waving at the kids in each of their separate hospital rooms. Glancing down, Alfred noticed you and started to wave enthusiastically in your direction.

“Hey ___! When did you get here!” he shouted happily as if he were having the time of his life. Knowing him, he probably was.

“I just got here!” you yelled back with a grin.

“Do you mind waiting a little bit so that I can finish up?” You nodded in response and thus waited for another 15 minutes for him to finish cleaning one more set of windows before he got down and trotted over to you ecstatically.

“So what are you doing here ___?” he inquired. You immediately gave him a deadpanned answer.

“Your work called and asked where you were.”

“But I called Arthur and told him to leave them a message for me,” Al pouted until another thought bothered his mind. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here though.”

“I figured that I’d drive into the office just to make sure you really weren’t there, but then I saw something red, white, and blue hanging onto one of the windows here and figured that you were probably nearby.” Alfred smiled as he heard your reasons. He could tell that you were worried about something but decided not to question it. “And might I say, I’m glad I came. Otherwise I would’ve missed out on seeing you in that getup,” you said, pointing to his heroic outfit. Alfred looked down at himself for a millisecond before glancing back at you and striking a heroic pose.

“Eh, what can I say? I love being a hero.” You laughed, shaking your head in disbelief. “That hero-complex of his, I swear…”

Suddenly a big gust of chilly wind came blowing through and caused you to shiver erratically. Wrapping his arms around you, Al gave you a warm and welcoming bear hug to keep you cozy. As your head was lying against his chest, you could hear his beating heart. It made your mind wander a little on just how generous and thoughtful that patriotic heart of his really was. Everything he did for those kids just a few minutes ago; keeping their minds off of their illnesses, even just for a few moments…it was pleasing to know that there are people in the world that are keeping the human race in check.  It also made you feel bad for questioning his loyalty to you.

“Alfred, you’re so kind. I feel like I don’t deserve you,” you mumbled into his chest. Alfred’s chest rumbled when he chuckled at your statement. Releasing you from the hug, he looked down at you with a loving gaze.