you have heart「steve rogers.」

Chapter Thirty-Three

Steve had taken me to the medical section of the helicarrier to work on the bullet wound in my arm. I had taken the top of my suit off, only leaving me in a grey tank top. I watched as Steve put some alcohol onto a small cloth and I tried to mental prepare myself for the burning I would feel. "This is gonna hurt a bit," he warned me. 

"I can handle-" I hissed at the pain in my arm and he gently placed his hand on my lap to comfort me. I smiled slightly through the pain. "See, I said I could handle it," I said through gritted teeth. He smiled slightly, but his lips fell back into a frown. He was never fond of losing his men, especially after what happened with Bucky. He tends to blame himself, but it's not his fault. It wasn't his fault.

"He was a bigger fan of yours. You were his most favorite," I told him. He started wrapping my arm and I slightly hissed at the pain. Him doing this made me think of when I got hurt in during our time at the camp, after getting cut by the wires when I tried to help him. I couldn't help but slightly smile at the thought. 

"You should be more careful..." He trailed as he finished wrapping my arm. 

"You know that is difficult for me," I reminded him. He nodded slightly and closed the first-aid kit. I got down from the medical bed and we both walked to the bridge to join Director Fury, Agent Hill, and Tony. I had sat beside Steve, and I couldn't help but worry about everyone else's safety. If Agent Romanoff got out before Bruce did anything he may regret or if Thor is okay.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury said, as he tossed bloodied cards onto the table. Steve picked up one of the cards, and examined it. It was a picture of Steve and I and I felt a lump form in my throat. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor...I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though because I was playing something even riskier." Fury said as he walked to the empty chair next to me.

"There was an idea, Stark knew this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people. To see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to fight the battle that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Fury said. Then, Tony stood up, and started to walk away. I gave Steve a worried look and he slowly nodded his head. I then got up and rushed after Tony. I know this hurts him the most. I've seen this happen to Steve with Bucky, and I've experienced what it's like to lose someone close to you. I know it all too well.

I followed Tony into the room where the cage that held Loki. Now, the cage was gone and all that was there was Tony standing in silence. "Tony..." I called to him. "I know this hurts you the most out of all of us, but you shouldn't be mad, blaming yourself-" 

"Don't," he said coldly. I sighed quietly and walked to his side. "I don't need your pity." I gently placed my hand on his shoulder, but he moved his shoulder away from me. 

"I know how you feel, Tony. Steve and I both do. He once lost his friend right before his eyes, and blamed himself for it. I lost my father when I was young and I couldn't even tell him goodbye before he left. I lost nearly seventy years of life with my mother and now, I'm not sure how much time I have with her," I paused. Tony scoffed slightly. 

"So what? You want me to pity you," he said. 

"No, Tony. We all go through the loss of someone special but the thing you never do is blame yourself or blame the world for it. I read your file, and I know about how you got that," I said as I pointed to his chest. "I'm sure you have someone you love," I guessed. He slightly nodded his head. "I'm sure she was heartbroken when she heard about you missing, but she handled it, didn't she?" He didn't say anything, but I knew the answer.