Survivor || Sam Wilson

chapter seven

Raven woke up to Sam carrying her into a facility. She stirred slightly in his arms and looked around.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint," Raven heard Maria Hill say. "And her?" A doctor asked.

"A lot," Raven muttered as she woke herself up fully, knowing they were talking about her.

"Let me take her," The Doctor gestured towards Raven

"She'll want to see him first," Hill said. Raven looked at her confused as Hill took them to a hospital room. Sam sat Raven in a chair as she heard Steve and Natasha slightly gasp. The doctor started to cleaned up her wound as she looked up. Her eyes widened as she saw Fury laying in a hospital bed.

"About damn time. Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache," Fury listed.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor pointed out.

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good," Fury told them. Raven scoffed as she shifted in wheelchair the doctor placed her in.

"They cut you open, your heart stopped," She said a bit angrily.

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it," Fury said, giving her an apologetic look, to which she rolled her eyes and winced at the pain that had shot up her spine.

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asked. He was getting quite tired of Fury's secrets.

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Hills answered.

"Nice to know you guys care about my mental health," Raven quipped. Fury shot her a look as Steve nudged her slightly. She winced, but managed to keep it hidden from everybody else.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust," Fury said. Raven let out yet another scoff as all eyes turned to her.

"Glad to know I wasn't on your list."

The doctor had brought Raven to her own hospital room and was checking her vitals. He had gone over to a desk in the side of the room as Raven had a weird feeling in her legs; No feeling in her legs. Raven started to panic as tears welled in her eyes.

"Doctor.." She trailed off. The doctor looked over at her. "I- I can't feel my legs." The doctor immediately rushed over and bent her forward carefully and pulled her the back of her shirt, making her cry out a bit in pain.

He was incredibly silent for a second. Raven chuckled dryly, "That bad, huh?" The Doctor dropped her shirt and she leant back. "What's up, doc?" The Doctor sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I'm afraid one of the bullets is in your spine"- Raven paled drastically -"You're bleeding internally." Raven's breath caught in her throat as the doctor looked at her sadly. "You can have surgery to get the bullet out, but that may kill you." Sam and Natasha walked in with smiles as they visited their friend, but those dropped when they saw the two other's faces.

"What's going on?" Natasha asked as she saw the look on the two's faces. Raven gulped and blinked back her tears. She cleared her throat and answered, "One of the bullets is in my spine."

"If she had surgery, she'll be able to walk again, if she makes it out." Sam immediately shook his head.

"Hell no, you're not having the surgery." Raven and Natasha looked up at him with wide eyes. "You could die."

"I'll be able to walk again," Raven argued.

"Might be able to. There's a chance it could just damage your nerves." Raven started to grow angry and looked up at the doctor with determination.

"Take. The Damn Thing. Out." The doctor nodded and left to room to prep for surgery.

"What do you think you're doing?" Natasha asked. Raven balled her fist as she blinked back upcoming tears.

"I want to walk, Natasha. I need my legs." Natasha nodded.

"Whatever you want. I'll support you." Natasha was worried for her friend, but knew she couldn't change Raven's mind. She placed a soft kiss on Raven's forehead and walked out, leaving Sam and Raven with an unbelievable amount of tension some room.

Sam paced angrily as his mind clouded with thoughts.

"You gonna say something?" Raven asked as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Sam sighed.

"Why are you doing this? You could die!" He yelled. Raven stayed calm as she looked over at Sam as he sat down next to her. His legged bounced up and down as if he was trying to contain his anger.

"When I was a kid, my mother was an alcoholic. She was rarely home and used to sell out food stamps for vodka. Throughout all of this, my neighbor, Finn, helped me through. I had a thing for stars, astronomy, gods and goddesses. He used to buy me these books about it. I knew right then that I wanted to be an astronaut." Sam looked up at her and she held a small smile. A single tear fell down her face as she wiped it away hastily. "Finn supported that dream, but my mother didn't. She told me I would grow up to be nothing. So I grew up, not wanting to be like her, because I didn't want to be nothing. I wanted to be strong and powerful. My mother died of alcohol poisoning when I was seven and I was placed into a group home. I found another girl, Skye, who I shared a love for computers with. We grew close, and I told her about my dream. She supported me." Raven voice cracked and Sam grabbed her hand. She sniffled continued, "But the thing was, I knew it could never happen. So it just stayed a dream."

Raven turned to look at Sam, locking eyes with him as he tried to understand the story. "Up there, in that space dream of mine, I don't need my legs. Down here, in this horrible reality, I do." Sam realized then what she was trying to tell him. A few more tears fell down Raven's face and Sam wiped them away with the pad of his thumb. He leaned up and kissed her on the forehead. He rested his chin on her head as she slowly broke down into a cry.

The strong, witty girl in front of him wasn't as uncaring as she wanted everybody to think. She had feelings, just like everybody else, and bottling them up inside finally stopped working. Sam knew that now, but he thought that it only made her stronger. Raven had the capability to hold in some of the deepest feelings and not lose control. Sam admired her for that. It made his feelings for the Latina grow even more.

Raven clutched onto Sam's shirt and sobbed, no longer being able to hold everything in. From the second she could understand thing properly, her life had been a living hell. Her only haven in life was Finn and she had left him behind so long ago. She had Skye, but it was never the same. Then, she found SHIELD. Fury took her in and gave her the life she had always wanted. With SHIELD, she felt important. Raven felt like she was getting closer to her dream everyday. Then HYDRA revealed itself and everything that Raven had ever loved came crashing down. Raven knew it changed her; She was acting differently, her anger had gone up quite a bit. Raven was never an angry person, yet she felt so much of it inside her. That anger was place towards one thing: HYDRA.

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This is sort of a filler as we get closer to the ending. Enjoy!