Breakdown | Steve Rogers

005

"What, Eli-"

"We need a doctor here," Elijah was quick to cut off Sam and his eyes remained close as he spoke. If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out right here, in the truck."

Everyone missed Elijah lick his lips as a guard pulled out an electric rod, catching their attention. He didn't open his eyes as he heard the rod pressed against the other guard's body, knocking him out and only did when he heard a female voice echo through the room that didn't belong to Natasha. 

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," was what she said. The voice belonged to a brunette Elijah didn't know but by the way she looked at Natasha and Steve with familiarity, he connected that the avengers knew her, "whose these guys?"

"Elijah Davis," he answered, wiping all emotion off his face as he grinned at the new ally, "charmed."

It took a hole being burnt into the floor of a steel van with a laser for Elijah to finally understand what all the hype around SHIELD was. If he didn't hate being told what to do, he might've asked to join.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint," the new woman, Maria Hill as Elijah had learned was her name, shouted out as they entered a secret facility. Sam and Steve were supporting a bleeding Natasha while Elijah elected to stay as far away from her as the narrow corridor allowed. 

"Maybe two," Sam interjected, missing the soft whisper of Elijah stating that it was actually a pint and a half.

"Let me take her," the doctor, Maria had been talking to, said as he jogged towards them.

"She'll want to see him first," Maria refused the request. Everyone looked at each other in confusion but followed the agent into a room, pushing away plastic curtains as they did so to clear the view.

"About damn time," the man they'd come to see said as he lay in a hospital bed. He honestly looked like shit, Elijah could see the bandages press against the fabric of his shirt and the subtle scent of blood in the room drove him insane.

"Fury," Steve breathed out, obviously shocked but since Elijah had no idea who this 'Fury' was, he simply whistled and said.

"You look terrible, someone really beat the shit outta you."

... Sam had never been closer to sewing Elijah's lips shut than he was in this very moment. 

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver and one hell of a headache," Fury simply said, not at all bothered by Elijah's words. In fact, he looked rather amused.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor, who'd moved to start treating Natasha's injury, called out. 

"Right, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good," there was something about Fury's delivery that made Elijah choke back a laugh. Sam knew that just like that it was decided, Elijah liked this man.

"They cut you open. Your heart stopped," Natasha stated.

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute," he explained, "Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asked.

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Maria stated and Elijah perked up. If this was the man in charge, Elijah was more than ready to sign up for SHIELD.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust," Fury turned so his good eye was locked on the Frenchman in the room, "you're like me in that sense, Elijah Davis."

"How'd you know who I am?" Elijah was quick to ask, not because Fury knew his name but because the way he'd said Davis made it clear he knew it didn't belong to him. If he knew Davis wasn't his real name, he knew what was and if he knew that, he knew exactly why he was running from his father and that was not a conversation Elijah was ready to have.

"I know a lot of things, Davis. Some say I know everything," Fury answered, "so tell me, can I trust you?"

Elijah stared down at Fury for a moment, everyone's eyes on him at the easy connection that there was more to the lewd man than they originally thought.

"No," he answered after a beat and he wasn't surprised to find Maria's gun trained on him. He paid it no mind as he continued speaking, "Sam's fighting for whatever the hell this is and years ago, I vowed to help him in every fight he finds himself in. That's why I'm here. I haven't been paying attention enough to truly understand what this fight is or who it's with, but Sam's involved, so I am too. You can't trust me, you shouldn't trust me. I'm here for him, not you."

Fury simply nodded at that answer, content with what had been said. When nothing more was shared between the two men, Elijah turned on his heel and moved towards the door. 

"The smell of blood in here is suffocating, I'll be in the room over," he announced as he strolled out, missing the confusion that quickly filled the faces of everyone in the room. The same question on their minds.

What smell of blood?