Disclaimer: I do not own any creations of the Marvel Universe

Authors Note: There will be a great amount of characters making their way through this story, basically anyone in the Marvel Universe is welcome. That being said, please drop a hint in a review of anyone you'd like to see make an appearence.

Save Them, Too

Chapter One

She doesn't believe in saving them all now, maybe before when she was still a student when the idea of rigor mortis was just a concept to her and she didn't believe them when they said that corpses can't shut their mouths. But now? Now she'll just have to tell herself that saving the few will be enough. It must be, otherwise, there will always be some new disappointment, some new nightmare. So enough is enough now, even if it wasn't always this way.

But with him—with him—enough isn't enough. He is one of those people that believe in getting it all, getting them all. It makes her feel like a student again. And she's okay with that. Sure. In this profession, you're always learning new things anyways. That is, in both their professions. They're always being lied to, always discovering something that no one knew was there before, always uncovering old confusions, always explaining. But people in professions like these, sure they can explain things but they can never seem to explain themselves.

Their jobs have their differences; probably most people don't even see the similarities. But she's spent enough time at SHIELD to have. They both wear masks. Both kill people. Both save them too. It's that last part that all of them hang on to. If you lose that, then you lose everything.

He has always been a frequent visitor in her offices. But then again, all of them have been. When she logs her clinic hours she sees more of them, they don't avoid the place like they do her practice two levels up. If you went there the damage is lasting, it puts you out for weeks or months. People in SHIELD are workaholics; they refuse to even be off for a day. But she is no different either, hence the logging of the clinic hours. So yes, medi level one is safe, a haven for all of them. It was a way to keep working.

So he sits on the padded bench, in medi level one for acute injuries and illnesses, the paper crinkling beneath his seat, bleeding around his uniform. It makes her wonder how much money goes into replacing those specialized red white and blue getups. Probably too much, but SHIELD would do anything for that wholesome face. The people like him and the agency has been hard pressed for public support as of recent, and so now The Captain is a symbol for them. For all of them—though I'm sure that just comes from being named after an entire damn nation.

"Mister Rogers, it seems that you forget you are just a man." She's formal, not cold, but formal. And she reminds him of something like the antiseptic she uses on his bare skin. Cleansing, stinging, healing. He admires her for that. She must be speaking in pertinence to his wounds, though, or perhaps how he obtained them. Except, he's not sure she has the clearance to know the specifics of his missions. And besides, she's seen him in worse condition.

But her comments, they make him shiver the same way the feeling of her gloved hands on his arm does. It's not a bad thing. "It's easy to forget it yourself when everyone else does as well."

Though, even as he answered her he knew she didn't, knew she saw the man in him. Because to her, he was skin and blood and a skeleton wrapped in sinew. What he didn't know was that it was because she'd known men like him before. Had known them to die. Death is enough to pull the hero out of a man, enough to make one out of him too… or at least for everyone else to do so. So Steve knew at least that this woman did not believe in heroes despite the fact that, "Some might say that you're a hero too, Dr. Nance."

She took a moment to thread her needle for the sutures and Steve could see the trained concentration of her hands, the steadiness that most people lacked. She pursed her lips when she worked, and before she spoke. Both acts she did skillfully. "Yes," she hummed, "a hero with a fat paycheck."

He laughed at that, partly because it was true, and partly because she reminded him of another woman that didn't take compliments easy. "Is that not what SHIELD is in the business of doing, hiring heroes?"