America's Soldier

In The Nick of Time

I start to feel an ache in my arm as I wait on the roof, adrenaline wearing off. Definitely does not feel right, probably what cracked when I fell.

But apparently Nat is worse, judging by how Sam's carrying her.

She's limp in his arms, one hand pressed to her shoulder.

Shit, she was shot!

She's still conscious as he lands, and she can stand, but she's not going to be doing any acrobatics this afternoon.

I rush over to them, treating my arm with care as I look at the wound. I've seen plenty of gunshot wounds in my day, this is just another of the same.

The bullet shot clean through her left shoulder, leaving heavy bleeding. I take my spare shirt from my bag and put pressure on both sides of the wound as we try to figure out what to do.

"We still need to meet Hill," Nat insists.

"Two problems there," Sam replies. "We got no car and you're losing a lot of blood."

Natasha waves a hand at him dismissively.

"I'll be fine," she says.

"I thought you were a better liar," I add in. I can see blood through the shirt already. "You need medical attention now."

Where can we go? No hospitals very close, can't trust SHIELD, we have no car.

And that's how we ended up taking the bus to our rendezvous point with Hill.

Honestly, I think we played it off pretty well!

Nat did a good job not passing out, I put several layers of clothing one by one over her shoulder, and Sam and I each pressed on one side. It didn't look awkward at all.

Or people just really don't care.

We meet up with Agent Hill. She looks like she's been waiting for a while, but as soon as she sees the state we're in, she rushes us to her car and we get driven to her hideout.

It's basically a basement in some random out-of-the-way part of town. A bit basement, granted, but a basement nonetheless. There's luckily at least one doctor inside, who bobs over to us immediately and tries to take Nat away for medical attention.

Hill stops him.

"She'll want to see him first," she says, not at all ominously.

He nods and takes over the pressure on the wound instead, looking slightly stressed about this whole situation. Or maybe just life.

We are walked to a room at the end of this basement hall. The door is slightly ajar, and Natasha gasps as she sees who's inside.

It's Nick Fury.

And he's alive.

"How?" Nat asks as we enter. "I saw you die! Your heart stopped!"

"Nice to see you too, Natasha," Nick replies. He looks tired, and just as injured as I saw him last, but patched up and not bleeding all over everything anymore. "Who is this?"

I look at Sam, who has a face of mild concern and confusion.

"Sam, meet Nick Fury. Fury, this is Sam Wilson. He saved our lives and he's a really cool guy."

Nick turns his head to me with a look of disbelief.

"I leave you a note saying 'trust nobody' and you immediately bring your running buddy to my secret base?"

I laugh incredulously and look up in the air.

"Does everybody know who I go running with?"

Nick tactfully ignores my question by turning back to Nat, who looks pale due possibly to both blood loss and her friend coming back from the dead.