Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 63

"Let me at him," Steve growled. He tried to shove past the Asgardian. Thor stood firm.

"Steve," Clint stepped out of the door of the observation room. "We don't know anything, yet. Let Banner examine her for … for … they need to take samples to see if there's any … evidence."

"Whatever the hell for!" Steve shouted. "Nobody is going to touch her, ever again, unless she wants to be touched!" He shoved past the two of them, determined to get to Mike's cell to throttle the life out of him.

Thor and Clint each grabbed a side, a two-man tag team, physically picking him up and carrying him back into the room where he'd just left Bernice alone with Banner. For all his contempt when he had found Tony Stark and Thor duking it out in the woods with Loki standing by laughing at them, Steve now understood what it felt like to want to strike his fellow team members.

"S-s-steve?" Bernice sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I want to go home." She trembled like a child who had just been beaten.

"We have no home anymore," Steve hissed. "Those bastards burned it to the ground!"

"Steve, you need to calm down," Banner said. He placed a hand on Steve's shoulder. "Just let me run some … tests. And then you two can leave."

"I want to go home," Bernice sobbed, her arms wrapped around herself as though she were freezing. "Please! I just want to go home. Steve!" Her lips quivered, those perfect lips that reminded him so much of her grandmother's even though never once had he seen Peggy weep.

Time. Time had taken enough from him, dammit! He wouldn't let it ravage the woman he loved! He whirled to face the others, he and Bernice against the three Avengers. They weren't going to let him get to Mike. Not right this minute. But he'd be damned if he was going to let them violate Bernice any more than she had already been violated.

"We need to collect a rape kit," Bruce said. "It's the only way the police can prosecute Mike for what he has done."

"I want to go home!" Bernice slid off the examination table and tucked herself into the protection of his arms. Sobbing, she buried her face in his chest.

Steve had no idea what a 'rape kit' was, but there was no way in hell he was going to let them force her to do anything more against her will than had already been done to her. They could take their prosecution and shove it up their wazoo! If there was going to be any justice dispensed, it would be the way it had been dispensed back in 1945 when a man forced a woman against her will. By him the minute SHIELD turned their back and let him get close to Mike. There was nowhere the bastard could run and hide.

"Let's get out of here." Steve escorted her towards the door.

"We haven't finished running tests," Bruce protested. "She has to stay here until we make sure they haven't turned her into a drone."

"You can run your tests after she's had time to recover," Steve snarled. He grabbed her coat and put himself between Bernice and the others, backing down the hallway towards the nearest exist. "I see no sign of an injection. You can satisfy your curiosity later."

They followed him all the way to the exterior of the Triskelion, not daring to intercept them. Clint nodded to the National Guardsmen stationed outside to let them pass. All three of the men understood, on a primal level, Steve's need to shelter her. He grabbed the keys to the nearest SHIELD fleet vehicle, not caring who it belonged to, and sat her inside.

"Where will we go?" Bernice stared out the window of the car, avoiding eye contact. Steve floored it, the tires chirping as he rounded the seawall around Governor's island and entered the tunnel which connected the island to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.