Characters: Steve, Sam, Coulson, mentions of the other Avengers, Pepper and Coulson's team
Warnings: Spoilers for CA:TWS and IM3, some strong language, but not a lot, OOC, maybe?
Pairing(s): None, maybe a brotp or two
When: After TWS, somewhere in the last leg of M.A.O.S, maybe after 1x22, but no spoilers for that
Notes: Staying a one-shot, Supernatural ref is from 4x01, Lazarus Rising
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"I watched you, while you were sleeping..."
Phil Coulson, Avengers (but you already knew that)
(also, what a dork)
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Coulson found the time to visit his idol, Captain Steve Rogers, Captain fuckin' America. Coulson had loved the guy since he was a kid (pretty much everyone in America did, during the war and after the war and after the invasion) - of course he was going to visit him. Did it matter that Steve thought he was dead? More than likely. Did Coulson care? Nope. Did it matter that it was 3 AM and Steve needed rest? Yes, and because of that, Coulson wouldn't stay long. Just enough time to make sure Steve was breathing and alive.
He'd pulled himself away from the shitstorm that his team was evolving into and drove himself over to Washington D.C. and said he was "Grant" Roger's cousin and he was worried. (He'd been telling Tony for years - use your middle name as an alias sometimes, I swear it works and SHIELD doesn't track middle names, it's too easy and they don't expect it - and was extremely happy to see that his advice had been passed on to Steve. He'd guessed with the name.)
The room is dim, most of the light coming from the window, which has the blinds down, but turned in that way so that little stripes of light are shown. The walls are annoyingly white, the floor a blue-ish and white-ish mess, with tiles like any other hospital. There are a plethora of monitors and machines that Coulson knows will freak Steve out when he wakes up, more than likely disoriented and then, of course, the bed. It's big and blue and white just like the rest of the hospital. Said bed is also slightly reclined, making Steve sit up, maybe so that, should internal bleeding that goes up (and only up the throat) re-occur or maybe, should he vomit, it'll go out, and not down and not kill him.
That'd be terrible - drowning in your own body fluids.
(And doesn't Steve deserve a noble death? Coulson would be thinking about that, but holy shit, he's on the first-name basis with Captain America.)
Steve's form actually fits on the bed and somehow still manages to completely dwarf it. A black man sits in the chair - he looks like he'd been apart of the fight, too. He's got a cut on his face that looks like it's been tended to, and a bruise that looks just this side of alarming. The position he's in is almost like a cat - he's curled around one of the arms, the one closest to the bed and Steve. It doesn't look comfortable, per se, but Coulson can tell the man is diligent.
The man who Coulson is aware has had to have been there a while, if the way he looks crumbled and worried is anything to go by, is sitting in the only chair , a newspaper spread on his lap. It declares: The Avengers; Are They Heroes or Terrorists? Anger sweeps over Coulson for a long, white-hot moment. Does everyone on the whole planet just not realize that the Avengers saved the whole world? That they are heroes, ones who stopped an alien invasion with just about a day's notice? Do they only see Tony's arrogance, Thor and Steve's individual mistakes, Clint, Natasha and Bruce's secrecy?
The anger washes away, then, replaced by just about every other emotion. He feels like he's been ravaged by a monster or something. With SHIELD and HYDRA'S demise, the world had been rocked, and the Avengers were being blamed. Steve probably hadn't meant to let everything go to hell, but it happened, he was hurt, and heroes were now villans.
Basically, fingers were pointing blame, and it was all in the Avengers' directions.
Captain America was on the terrorist list, and congress was bashing the figurative-hell out of Tony on their journey to try to get their nasty claws on suits that no longer existed (not that they knew that, Tony was keeping mum about it and everything). Natasha Romanoff was being brought to court and Thor was declared an official menace, not to mention that his honorary citizenship had been revoked. General Ross was on the verge of getting money to support his project, "his project" meaning "abduct Bruce Banner and experiment on him until he dies, if he even can, that freak." SHIELD was gone, reduced to nothing. That is not to mention that Clint Barton was nowhere to be found, of course. As if Coulson didn't have enough to worry about.
It's been a few days - Steve is healing quickly and will probably be good as new by tomorrow night. Steve was breathing, too, so he was alive, obviously.
Still, Coulson was... not exactly worried, as Steve could take care of himself - the other guy looked like he could, too - but Steve, who had super-soldier healing, had yellow-ing bruises that should be gone by now. A quick look at his pupils showed that Steve had a concussion - they were pinpoints - and that Steve was so out of it, his being-a-soldier-acquired habit of being a light sleeper was not in effect.
...Well, time to leave... Let me just look around one more time, Coulson thinks, not wanting to leave yet.
Coulson looked around again and noticed a phone on the bedside table. It probably wasn't the man's, and was more than likely Steve's. Odd thing was, if it was Steve's, it wasn't SHIELD issued and looked extremely new. It was depressingly easy to open it - there wasn't a password to get in - and Coulson's first thought was: Tony.
It had to be Tony because, if pouring over Captain America stories and rumors for downright days of his childhood had done anything for him, he knew that Steve was less patriotic and more determined, if anything. Point is, he would never put an American flag as the background on anything, much less a cell-phone that he had a hard time trying to figure out in the first place. Steve wouldn't know how to change the background, anyway.
Coulson's not even sure why he's looking at the phone - excuse, maybe, to be there longer. He can just say that it's his agent training, and block out the very idea of it being an excuse, which sounds like the better option, so he goes with it.
And, well, if he's going to be doing things by his agent training...
Coulson expertly fishes the man's wallet out of his back pocket, and sees, thanks to a slightly older I.D that the man's name is Sam Wilson, who lives in D.C., which is where the other huge shitstorm in Coulson's life had taken place. Getting the old, black wallet back in the man's pocket is harder than he expected, but it happens without Sam waking.
Steve's file says that he's Grant James Rogers, that he was born in 1984 and the emergency contact number is one Coulson thinks is Bruce's or Pepper's, maybe. Steve's never met Pepper, as far as Coulson knows, so either it goes to Tony or Tony put it there.
Sam has a gun that was expertly hidden in a thigh holster, and there's a knife under Steve's pillow.
A distinctly female scent in the room suggests Natasha's been in to check on Steve.
Steve's shield is hidden in a canvas bag that can be confused as a messenger or laptop bag.
Steve's been shot four times and there are notes on the clipboard at the end of the bed that say things like "PTSD" and "NIGHTMARES" and even a "TRAUMATIZED?".
Calls from Sam's phone says that they - Sam and Steve and maybe Natasha - have rid themselves of the outside world and have cut off all connections. Coulson manages to write down both Sam and Steve's numbers... for reasons... before there's a grunt.
Coulson immediately hides himself in the shadows, because Sam's up - army training, maybe? He'd make a good soldier... - and calming Steve, whose face has twisted up into a snarl or something much, much worse and is putting up a struggle that is doing nothing good for his extensive injuries.
"Bucky..." Steve groans out, causing Sam to sigh sadly. Coulson's mind is going into overdrive - Bucky was Steve's best friend, said friendship lasting nearly both men's whole lives, deceased during the war, the only blemish on Steve's otherwise perfect record. It made sense for Steve to dream about him - Steve had seen Bucky die, after all - but something probably brought it on.
He couldn't figure it out, though. Coulson hated that more than a lot of things, such as Hostess going bankrupt, and that's saying something. (Coulson loves his Hostess products.)
It takes a few long, dragging minutes of Sam's quiet comforts being whispered into Steve's ear before Steve awakens.
He's out of it, but, "we're not alone." Steve says it quietly, says it directly into Sam's ear, and then both men are on high alert.
Coulson's impressed. Even when going through what was obviously a bad time, his senses were perfect.
He debates walking out and pulling an awesome movie reference - Sam might get it - but then also debates staying in his spot. Well, they're waiting for someone. Steve's not ever wrong about these things and is easily trusted.
Still, does he walk out and possibly shock Steve into a heart attack (that is both long overdue and premature at the same time)? Does he wait and see if he's rooted out of his place?
His decision is a split second one, and he walks out of his little shadowy corner.
"Hello, Steve."
(Coulson has always watched Supernatural.)