Running Out » Quicksilver

chapter seventeen

Pietro shot Clint a bitter look. "I have realized that, yes." He shifted in his chair, leaning back, slumping further down. "Her powers were unstable enough . . ." he trailed off, frowning.

Clint leaned forward on his knees, watching Pietro. "You think it's your fault."

Bright blue eyes connected with solemn, wizened ones, and Pietro steeled his jaw. "It is my fault," he pointed out, his accent thickening. "If I had not . . . if I had just . . ."

Clint reached for Pietro's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Look, kid, it was her choice. She knew the consequences." Clint released him, looking to Megan for a moment. "She knew."

"I should not have been so reckless," Pietro muttered. "If-"

"No, Pietro," Clint cut in. "There are no if's. You can't live in a land of 'what if.' You have to forgive yourself, and you have to let it go."

Neither of them spoke for a long time after that. Eventually, it appeared to Clint that the speedster might fall asleep, so he got up, and he left.

He didn't see Pietro again for another day after that.

Around twenty-four hours later, Bucky went in to check on her. When he entered the room, the first thing he saw was Pietro, slumped over, dead asleep. Bucky sighed as he looked at the kid, shaking his head slightly. "Young love," he murmured, leaning against the door frame. He was kind of surprised when Pietro didn't move.

He was even more surprised when Megan did.

Bucky went stock-still when he saw her stir, and his breath caught in his throat when she lifted a hand to her head, rubbing one of her temples. He opened his mouth, about to speak her name, when her eyes opened.

Her irises flickered between gold and brown before settling on brown, and she blinked and rubbed her eyes as she looked at him, as if trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

"Megan?" Bucky asked tentatively, as though she was going to fall back into unconsciousness at any given moment.

She stared hard at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, her fingertips still pressed to her temples.

He only got so far as opening his mouth before Pietro suddenly jerked away, neon eyes flashing between Bucky and Megan at an astonishing speed before he zoned in on Megan. Bucky could see his eyes widening, could see the shock writing itself across his face, and the slightest smile twitched across the spy's lips.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Sleeping Beauty," Bucky said.

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[ Megan's POV ]

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Sleeping Beauty."

My first thought after that lovely sentence was 'Did I die?' And it was a perfectly plausible thought. Because all I could remember aside from a wide stretch of darkness was a burst of horrid pain in my abdomen when I'd tried to save Pietro.

The fact that Pietro was sitting in a chair staring at me made me feel a little better about my attempted martyring.

Now, the fact that his eyes were red with tears and he was hovering over me sooner than I could comprehend his movement made me feel worse - I had worried him. His fingers brushed my hair out of my face, and he gently pried my fingers away from my forehead, looking me in the face.

"You are real?" he asked, his voice shaky. "I mean-you are really awake?"

"Think so," I managed, a small smile on my lips. "Got a killer headache, which I would assume means this isn't a dream, but I'm no dream expert-"