She's Mine) Romanogers

Part 19) No, You Don't Understand

Nat P.O.V.

I woke up slowly and was completely relieved by that. I could tell by the steady breathing behind me that Steve was still asleep, so I was careful not to move around. I couldn't really reach anything given how I was tucked under his arms, but I didn't care all that much, I had plenty to think about.

I had to figure a way out of this whole Bruce issue and fast, with minimal damages, and no harm coming to Steve. The obvious answer would have to be a containment strong enough to hold the Hulk. Tony had come so close in during that fight with Ultron, but I wasn't sure exactly what had taken place that the mechanism had failed. I would need to look into that.

Another option would have been the containment unit on the helicarrier, but that had never been put to the test against the Hulk, and Thor had been able to break out of it. Something told me it wouldn't have been strong enough.

Then I had to figure out how to get Bruce into this chamber, far away from civilians and Steve, get myself out of the chamber, and then tell him what was going on. All while hoping that he couldn't break out.

The other pro-

"Hey," Steve murmured, his beautiful, blue eyes starting to open against the brightness of the day.

His voice caught me a bit by surprise, and I quickly whirled my neck to face him. The reaction hurt my ribs, but it was such a drastically smaller panic than I would have had yesterday. "Hey," I recovered fast and played it off. I didn't think Steve was awake enough to register that my movements had been reflexive rather than voluntary. "How did you sleep?"

"Wonderfully," his voice was still groggy as he moved one of his hands to rub his face, I missed the warmth but didn't complain. I did, however, just snuggle down closer to him. I laid my head over his heart so I could listen to it beating. "You?"
"I didn't wake up in a panic," I smiled.

"That's amazing," he beamed right back, his eyes now open as he wrapped his arm back around me, gentle due to the bruises on my ribs.

"Did you ever get the results from the MRI?" I inquired, realizing I didn't know if it was just the bruising or if there was bone damage.

"I sent it over to a doctor under an anonymous name, they should be getting back to me by today," he answered. One of his hands snaked up and started to run through my hair, and I leaned into that with a relaxed hum.

"So, what shall we do this morning," he stopped as he looked at the clock, "this afternoon."

Given that we had gone to bed so late (or early, depending on what way you look at it) we had slept in till around noon. "Steve, I think we're becoming nocturnal," I laughed as I realized most of our time together during these two weeks had been spent during the night and sleeping in the day.

"Ha," he huffed, "I guess you're right. Um, I still kinda feel like breakfast food despite the time."

I held my tongue to keep the comment about not wanting food from leaving my lips.

"I'm probably going to make myself some eggs and toast, maybe cut up some strawberries... oh, or I could add sausage and make it a sandwich," he started to ramble off foods, and while they all sounded tempting and delicious, I didn't want to eat right now.

I also didn't want to disappoint him, "I could go for some strawberries," I tried.

He was clearly excited about that.

"Alright, let's do it," he started to sit up, but I groaned in agitation, "shit, did I hurt you?"

"No, I just don't want to move," I complained, using some effort to try and push him back down.