Everest

Chapter Eight

"What do you mean she won't heal herself?" Tony shouted. "She's got a broken collar bone, a gash the size of Florida on her arm, and a head injury bad enough to bench the Hulk for a week. And those are just the obvious diagnoses."

"Tony-" Nat sighed, rubbing her temple.

"You think I want to see her like that, Tony? Trust me, if I could convince her, it would have already been done," Steve groaned.

A moment of silence passed with the group of Avengers in the room.

"Where's the body?" Tony eventually asked.

"There wasn't one to retrieve," Bucky answered solemnly. He was turned to the medical bay, where they were surveying Y/N as she sat disassociated from the staff, checking her vitals, abrasions, and using Stark tech to check for internal bleeding and fractures.

"What do you mean?" Nat asked.

"What Marley disabled was done by her own powers. Vibration manipulation from what we gathered in our fight. An explosion happened, but instead of some city or town it was planned to decimate, she triggered it where it was," Bucky explained from his rough analysis of the bomb site. While Y/N had taken a moment to herself and bid her farewells in the remains of the building, he surveyed the rubble for what Marley had gone to destroy in her final mission. "She went with it. There were no remains to take home."

Everyone lowered their head at the thought. This poor young girl knew she wouldn't return from the heroic action and still completed the task.

"Has she said anything?" Clint asked, stepping into the conversation.

"Since we got back on the jet? Not a word," Bucky shook his head once, arms crossed over his chest and eyes still trained on her sitting at the edge of the hospital bed.

"There weren't bombs at the other sites," Tony thought aloud. "Why this one?" No one answered, as no one had an answer for it. When he looked back at the glass wall that divided them from Y/N, his face dropped and became unreadable. "I'll be back. Keep me updated on her."

Everyone was either looking through the glass, seeing the beat-up version of their friend, or looking down, not able to stomach it.

Dried blood that Bucky wasn't able to get to still marked her features. The gash Tony had mentioned had been exposed from his makeshift dressing. Where most would be hissing at the pain of being poked and prodded, she was placid. Her hair, pulled into an intricate braid at the start of their mission, had pieces pulled out and escaping throughout the plaits. Her suit had been torn and singed in places the fire had touched, and debris had cut through. The building may not have fallen on her, but it sure as hell looked like it had.

"I'm going to do some research," Nat spoke up, leaving with only one last sad look at Y/N as Steve walked to Bucky.

"You ok? You didn't let the nurses check you over either," he hummed, hands in his pockets as he angled himself towards Bucky's side.

"She healed me," he slightly bent the truth. Yes, she had, after his hard hit in the middle of the fight, but he definitely had bruised ribs from the blast of the explosion.

"Are you sure? You were walking with a slight limp when you brought her in," Steve questioned.

"I'm sore. I wasn't trying to manhandle her with her injuries when I got her back to the jet, and she wasn't making it easy," he sighed.

"Ok, ok. You know I have to ask," Steve shifted beside him, mimicking his stance.

It was quiet in the room for a few minutes, and when Steve turned around, he noticed Sam and Clint had both left, giving them some space.