Nothing but trouble

I told you!

"I'm not hearing things, dammit! Just get Dr Thompson and have her check and you'll see. Buck, listen." Taking his arm Steve drags his best friend over and points to Katherine's chest ignoring the look of sympathy in his eyes. When he doesn't immediately make a move forward Steve's frustration boils over shoving him away as he called out, "FRIDAY, page Dr Thompson to Kat's room. Tell her it's an emergency."

"Right away, Captain Rogers." There, at least someone was listening to him even if that someone wasn't a fully corporal being.

Stepping further into the room Tony motions to the others to stay by the door while he tries to talk some sense into his friend. Keeping his tone low and soothing he walked over to stand shoulder to shoulder next to the distraught and almost manic man. "Steve, I know how much you're grieving. We all are. But thinking that you can hear her heart beating is just that. Wishful thinking. Kat is gone." Shrugging him away Steve refused to listen unless they were willing to do the same.

Taking a chance even though it killed him Bucky moved to stand on the other side of the bed. Staring down at Katherine, a noticable crack in his voice as he spoke. "Pal, her time of death was confirmed in front of you in Seattle, twice. Once in the ambulance and again at the hospital." He gestures with his metal hand towards the machines in the room. "Sylvia and Bruce even ran tests of their own in case her healing ability had somehow been doing its thing. We all hoped that maybe her heart rate slowed down or something while her body healed." Pausing because he remembered the moment Dr Thompson and Bruce had unhooked those machines with sad expressions on their faces. It had told them their hope had been for naught.

Taking her hand in his, Steve clasps it between both of his while they wait for the good doctor to arrive. Rubbing it in a bid to get some warmth into it. Seeing the stubbornness in the ridged set of his back Tony tentatively placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Speaking softly he finished the rest of what Bucky had been trying to tell him. "I'm sorry, but the machines used to monitor her heart and brain waves showed nothing. There was no activity. She's gone."

Refusing to let them talk like this, he adamantly shook his head no. They and their tests were wrong. They were, he was sure of it. Turning his back on the room he leaned down to speak directly to Katherine.

"Come on, Kat. I need you to show us a sign that you're waking up. Squeeze my hand or open your eyes. Something, anything. Come on, Sweetheart. Please." The level of desperation in his voice felt almost on par when he was begging her to not be dead back in that small Seattle park. He knew she died, he wasn't completely delusional. He had seen for himself the life leave her eyes. He has heard her heart stop beating. But for the last five minutes he'd been patiently listening for every sluggish thump coming from her chest. And now? Nothing. There was not one twitch or blink, nothing. His own heart racing as he willed hers into action. As if he could wish it and make it true.

The sound of heels walking at a fast clip echoing down the hall alerted them of Dr Sylvia Thompson's arrival. Everyone's eyes turned towards the doorway as she entered apprehensively knowing that she be the one to have to try to convince Steve Rogers that what he thought he heard was all in his head. He must have seen this because Steve cut her off when she went to open her mouth. "I need you to hook her up to the heart monitor. I know you all think this is my grief talking but I'm telling you, her heart is beating. It's slow, only a few beats at a time but it's beating all the same."

Hopeful because if he was telling the truth then his sister wasn't gone, Mathew told her to do it. As her next of kin he had all final medical decisions. Wordlessly Dr Thompson let out a quiet sigh as she did as she was told. Grabbing a new set of leads from a drawer she proceeded to come over to stand beside Steve. Holding them up for him to see she spoke with her usual professional beside manner. "Captain, I need you to move back. Just for a moment."

Quickly stepping out of her way, Steve watched her every movement like a hawk. His blue eyes locked on her hands as she pulled the top of Katherine's medical gown down enough to attach the leads to her skin. A collective gasp sounded from those of the men who hadn't seen the full damage all of those bullets had done to Kat's body. Flicking the switch to turn it on Dr Thompson kept her eyes on the monitor to avoid seeing the disappointment in their eyes. There was nothing. Just as she thought. It was completely flatlined. At his insistence they all watched for the next several long minutes. Steve's anxiety ratcheted up higher and higher the longer it didn't catch anything to monitor.

Beep…
      
             beep…

"Good girl, Sweetheart." Steve grasped her hand with a wide teary smile that he turned on Tony, Mathew, Bucky and Loki who all stared at the woman who had just been dead and now seemingly wasn't. "I told you! I told you that she's alive." It was a miracle. It was a miracle because Katherine had been dead going on nearly ten hours. But it was also a mystery that they didn't know how she was going to be when she woke up. Or if she did wake up. Because her brain hadn't had oxygen for all of that time. Her heart that had hardly any blood left from her extensive wounds and shouldn't be able to beat. Yet it was. There was no logical medical way this should be happening. But there it was. The most beautiful sound any of the five men had ever heard.

Beep...beep....

                       Beep...beep....

                                             Beep...beep....

It was extremely slow like Steve had said, but the longer they watched the stronger it became.

Beep, beep..

                     Beep, beep..

                                           Beep, beep...

"This is not possible.." Dr Thompson stared wide eyed from the heart monitor over to Katherine and back before springing into frantic action. The room went from absolute silence to bursting with volume in the blink of an eye. All of the men who loved and cared for Katherine surrounded the end of her bed started asking questions and telling Kat they loved her. Calling out to FRIDAY to assemble her medical team, now, Dr Thompson pushed everyone out of her way and out of the room while they worked on trying to figure out how this was even possible.