Hey Stranger

Nightmare

The week passed slowly to steve. He was so used to getting up and moving around, seeing, doing, and going, that being stuck in that bed was driving him beyond crazy. The fact that he was stuck sitting around, usually left him alone with his thoughts, mostly that of his recent trauma.

That week tony was doing his best to not coddle him but to spend as much time as possible around him. He could tell that something was wrong though. He didn't leave his bedroom, not often at all at least. Every time tony would go look for him, he'd be sitting up in the bed drawing or just staring out of the window. And he was quiet.

He knew that someone doesn't walk away the same after that, and that scared him. Because he thought, maybe the steve he met in that coffee shop was gone. He hated thinking and always forced it out of his mind because he didn't want to be selfish, but he was scared and nothing was going to change that.

But today was the day the casts were going.

"You ready?" Tony said with a smile across his face as he brought the wheelchair up right next to the bed. Steve was zoned out staring out the window, "steve?" Tony said and he snapped out of it, "ready?" He repeated and held out a hand to help him out.

Steve nodded and smiled slightly, "yeah, finally" he said and grabbed it.

As tony pushed the chair through the halls to the exam room they had set up next to his lab, he noticed steve was tapping his finger persistently against the arm rest. As they turned into the room he gripped the arm rest and tensed in his chair. When they came to a stop right in front of where Bruce sat with the cast saw, tony gripped his shoulder and pulled up a chair right next to him.

"Alright steve, lets do this" he started up the saw and began at his legs.

The entire time, steve was tense. Tony started by just keeping his hand over his forearm, but as soon as the saw approached his leg, steve grabbed his hand tightly.

Tony was actually nervous to say anything so he inched closer and squeezed back.

As soon as they were all off, it felt weird. Not only to steve, but tony finally seeing him again without all of the plaster covering most of his body. Maybe this will really help him recover overall.

But not that night.

•••

Tony was just climbing in and about to fall asleep when he felt steve ruffling in the sheets. Tony sat up and saw that he was gripping his pillow and sweat was forming on his forehead. Tony scooched over, "steve, wake up" he said quietly and lightly put a hand on his shoulder to wake him from his nightmare, but his slight touch caused a bad reaction.

Steve flipped over and socked him right in the side of his face. "Fuck!" He shouted and fell to his back on the bed, before he had the chance to get off, steve was on top of him with his hands around his throat.

"No... no... not again. You're not going to win this time..." he mumbled as tony squirmed under him.

"St—eve!" Tony tried to shout and tried to push him off, he grabbed one of his arms and tried slapping his face with the other, "s—te!" He continued to scratch at him but to no avail.

Bruce bursted into the room and immediately ran to the bed to try to yank and push steve off of him, but it was like trying to move a building with an ant, "steve! Wake up!!" He shouted but it did nothing. He ran over to the medical cart in the corner of the room and grabbed a syringe, "tony, hold on!" Bruce stabbed it into steves neck and injected the liquid quickly which almost immediately put him to sleep.

The grip on tony neck loosened and he rolled off the side of the bed to the ground, coughing hysterically and trying to catch his breath. Natasha ran in, hearing the commotion, "what the hell happened!?" She shouted and ran to tony side, still struggling to catch his breath.

Bruce rolled steve over and checked his pulse before crouching down next to tony, "tony—" he started but he almost immediately stood up and darted out of the room.