Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 63

"Your old apartment," Steve said. "It's empty right now."

"No!" Bernice's voice trembled. "Jacquie was the one who lured me into a trap!"

"Jacquie isn't in any position to hurt anyone," Steve said. "We captured her. She survived the fire."

"I thought …" Bernice looked surprised. "I mean …"

"What?"

"Nothing," Bernice said. "My old apartment will be fine. I still have my bed and most of my stuff there."

They drove through the tunnel and out onto the streets of Brooklyn in silence, navigating the late-evening traffic into her old neighborhood. He located a parking spot and locked up the Excursion, not caring whether people stared at his red, white and blue battle armor. He didn't even have a coat to put over it. Nothing. The bastards had quite literally burned everything, including the shirt off his back. All he had left in this world was Bernice. Heaven help the person who tried to harm her again.

Bernice fumbled in her pocket for her key. They ascended the stairs to her old apartment. Mike's old apartment. It was one thing to be transformed into a drone, but what Mike had done to her was deeply personal. Never, in all his time dealing with the shape shifters, whether in this century or the last, had he heard of rape being part of the modus operandi of the Chitauri. If Mike had raped her, it was because he had been conscious of what he was doing. It fit in with everything he knew about Bernice's obsessed ex-fiancé.

She flipped on the lights, the apartment curiously vacant now that much of Bernice's artwork had been replaced by Jacquie's more modern tastes.

"I'm so sorry." He tugged her into his arms and kissed her hair, unwilling to let her go now that he had found her again. "This is my fault. They took you to get to me." He did not dare talk about the other topic on his mind. Not unless she wanted to talk about it!

She gave him a wistful smile. "Would you mind if I took a shower?"

Shower. Of course... If he were in her shoes, he would want to take a shower as well. He nodded. The soft click of the lock on the bathroom door resonated in his spirit. She was locking him out? Of course. She didn't want him to know. He would play along, whether she wished to talk about it and cry, or pretend like nothing had happened. In his day, the closest male relatives would beat the perpetrator to a bloody pulp, kill or castrate them if they could get away with it, and then the matter would never be spoken of again. He swore to himself he would kill the bastard. Or at the very least, make sure the evil bastard lacked the necessary hardware to commit such a heinous act against a woman ever again.

The water ran, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He had been in her apartment several times, the last time after he'd gotten smacked against the wall by the shape shifter and broken his leg, but he had never really had the opportunity to poke around before. The water ran and ran as Bernice washed away her shame.

He was drawn to an easel over in one corner. Jacquie's art work? Or Bernice's? She had yet to bring over any more than her sketchpad. He lifted the tarp and, just for an instant, memory of a more innocent time in their relationship lifted his dark mood. He ran his hand along the painting. Him. On the still rings. Balanced in a perfect Carmona-to-inverted-cross. The day she had walked back into his life, looking for him. She had painted this from memory?

The bathroom lock clicked open. Steve hastily put the tarp back down and pretended not to have seen the painting. Perhaps she was saving it for a Christmas present? The holiday was, after all, little more than a week away. Thank god she had kept it here or it would have been lost in the fire along with everything else.