Is This Love?

Chapter 25 - Little One

Steve's POV

"Tell me I'm not the only one that can hear that?" Nat asked quietly.

"No, I can hear it too," I replied earning a collective nod from the group. Something about that cry didn't sound right and it was putting everyone on edge.

"Guys we gotta go, this place is rigged to blow in... 3 minutes," Tony said checking his watch. The cry came again, getting fainter and fainter each time.

"No, I need to find out where that is coming from, you guys go ahead," Nat said running off in the supposed direction of the cries. I couldn't let her go alone so I told the others to meet us outside before running after her.

We ran on and on, passing many different corridors and rooms as the cries got louder and louder as we approached. We suddenly got to one of the rooms where the crying could be heard the loudest, it had to be coming from in there.

I used my shield to break the lock on the door and we rushed in. This room was completely destroyed, with the rubble of what once must have been furniture all over the floor. I quickly scanned the room to try and locate where the noise was coming from.

We both saw it at the same time and our eyes widened in shock. There laying under the rubble was a tiny baby and by the looks of it, it couldn't have been more than a few weeks old. I ran over to it and started pulling the rubble off frantically. Nat ran over and joined me.

"Steve no!" Nat yelled out as I reached over to pick the baby up. I froze and stared at her frantically.

"Babies are extremely fragile, we have no idea what kind of internal injures that baby has sustained, just picking it up could potentially kill it." She explained quickly before snatching my shield up from where I had dropped it beside me.

She laid it next to the baby, level with the ground. I suddenly understood what she was doing and rushed to help her. She grabbed the baby's head and shoulders whilst I grabbed its back and legs. On the count of three, we very quickly shifted the baby so that it was laying on the inside of my shield.

This was an incredibly smart idea, using my shield to make sure that the child wasn't moved any more than necessary. By now the baby was screaming at the sudden movement and being surrounded by two unfamiliar people.

"Guys you have one minute to get out of there." Tony quickly said, worry seeping into his voice. Nat and I carefully lifted up my shield with the baby on it and walked out of the room.

"Yep, we are heading out now. Tony, I need you to meet us outside with an emergency evac, we have a baby no more than a few weeks old coming your way." I said urgently as we speed-walked down the corridors, trying to keep the shield and the baby as stable as possible.

"Shit, on it," Tony said. Usually, I would have called him out for his language but it seemed fairly appropriate right now. The exit was coming into view and we picked up the speed, if we didn't get out of here before the place blows, it won't matter what we did to care for the baby, we would all get blown to bits anyway.

"Ten seconds." Tony's anxious voice came through the intercoms. We made it out of the warehouse but kept going, getting as far away from the building as we possibly could to make sure we were well and truly away from the explosion.

The sound of the explosions rang out and we looked behind us to see the very building we had just been in seconds ago get turned to nothing but flame and ashes. Upon hearing the loud noises, the baby started to scream louder. Tony flew over to us with medical supplies as he quickly rid himself from his suit and crouched down to attend to the baby.

He placed an oxygen mask on the baby but it was so worked up, it managed to knock the mask off in the process.

"Nat I need you to hold the baby's head and make sure that the oxygen mask stays on. Putting the baby in your shield was a genius idea and I want to keep it there until we are back on the jet, there is no point trying to move it and potentially hurting the baby worse." Tony instructed.

I grabbed the medical supplies and assisted Tony to lift the shield off the ground whilst Nat held the baby's head still and made sure the oxygen mask stayed on. It was slow going but we got back to the jet within a few minutes and were greeted by the rest of the crew.

Their eyes widened at the sight of us carrying a baby in my shield back to Quinjet, shock was written all over their faces. Clint ran over and took the medical supplies off me so that I could properly carry the shield and baby into the jet.

Once Tony and I staggered up the jet ramp, we carried the baby over to the medical station. Clint, Sam, and Wanda all came over to help us with the baby. Wanda took over from Natasha as Nat had decided it would be more beneficial for Clint to be there to help care for the child due to his prior experience with children and she would take over flying the jet home.

The five of us transferred the baby carefully onto the gurney, but it started to get more and more distressed which was creating its own problems. We had no idea what kind of injuries the baby had sustained and when the baby was moving around and was upset as it was, it was only making things worse.

"I'm going to have to sedate the baby, it can't stay this distressed or it's going to make everything worse," Tony said grabbing the sedation equipment. He tried to grab the baby's arm and get the needle in but it wouldn't stop trying to get away from him and Tony wasn't able to get it into the vein he needed to sedate the baby.

By now the entire plane was filled with the terrified screams of the tiny child. For such a small being, it definitely had a massive set of lungs. Even the oxygen mask wasn't enough to muffle its cries.

"We could try holding it?" I suggested as nothing else was working. Tony shrugged and motioned for me to try. I picked the baby up but it only started to scream even more in my arms. By now the plane was stable in the air and Nat had come over to see what all the commotion was about.

She walked over to me and looked at the baby. She then carefully reached her arms up and took the baby off me before cradling it into her chest. The baby's screams died down almost instantly and grew quiet. It was clear that Nat had not expected that to actually work and her eyes were as wide as saucers.

We all breathed a breath of relief once the cries had stopped. Tony quickly went over to Nat and pushed the needle into the baby's arm, successfully sedating it. Once the baby was completely sedated, Nat walked over to the gurney and placed it down. Tony inserted an IV into the baby's arm and rushed around attaching other wires and tubes.

Miraculously, the child had not sustained any major injures, not even any broken bones. Tony had to stitch many of the cuts the baby had gotten when in the rubble. By the time he had finished cleaning and stitching the baby, we were almost back at the tower. By now, Clint had taken over piloting duties and many of the others had gone to clean themselves off in other parts of the jet.

We had radioed ahead to the medical wing at the Avengers tower and let them know that a banged-up baby was heading their way. When we landed the medical team was already there waiting and they quickly rushed the baby, with the help of Tony, to the medical wing for further treatment. We all headed inside and went our separate ways to go have showers and get cleaned up after our mission. It had been a very stressful day.