Be warned, MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH and violence follows. And I own nothing, unfortunately.
WASHINGTON D.C. - POTOMAC RIVER
The Soldier pulls his target's body to the shore of the river painfully, his dislocated right arm making it difficult to swim and hold on to the dead weight, but he can't confirm death if the body is lost. He drops it on the muddy shore and observes the gunshot wounds bleeding heavily, meaning the target's still alive. Hear a helicopter, see it turn. The Soldier pulls a slim dagger from its holster, the only weapon left on him, besides his metal arm. He looks down at the man in the bloody red white and blue costume, and an image pops into his head…big and bright Captain America, laughing with…him? He shakes his head, damn distracting hallucinations…
He grips the blade in his metal hand and moves closer to finish the mission. The Soldier looks at the target's face, and before he can stop himself, he brushes his right hand over the wet blonde hair…and quick picture flashes in his head of doing that before and getting a bright grin…shakes his head…Where do those visions come from?! I need maintenance. Must complete mission...
He watches as the target breathes out, a long rattling sigh, and doesn't breathe in again. A new feeling comes over him, like his stomach just dropped into his boots. Strange. He takes a deep breath and bends down to put two fingers against the artery in it's neck. Nothing. The mission is done, he should leave, but he just stares at the target's face. He feels like he's forgetting something, something important, but he can't remember.
Frustrated, he stands and flips the blade to sheath it, and looks around to orient himself. The helicopter is coming in fast. The funny feeling in his stomach forgotten, he turns and just makes it into the nearby tree line when his right thigh flashes into white hot pain and he lands in the dirt. He's surprised his leg is so damaged, the steel beam that trapped him must have hurt him worse than he thought. Why did the target set me free. Frown. Push the pain down, get up and keep going. Don't care where, just make some distance.
The sound of the helicopter is loud, and he can hear others coming in. The first one was a sleek black civilian model, but these sound lighter, quieter, probably Apaches or Cobras. With 30mm guns and thermal cameras. Gotta move. Or dig in to keep his body heat from showing up on the thermal imager. He thinks about setting the woods on fire, the heat would hide him, but setting a fire would take too long, and be too much effort. So he concentrates on moving, and avoiding the helicopters.
Going slower now, sweating, pain is making him lose time. His injured leg is trembling and weak, pain isn't registering as pain, just breath-taking jolts of electric power, blacking out everything, between each careful step. But he keeps moving, watching the angle of the sun to keep heading in the same direction. Can't move without pain, can't go any faster. He stops, uses the knife to cut his pant leg to see the injured area. His dislocated shoulder doesn't help, and the pain of using it combined with the jolts in his leg makes him fall …the world's spinning. Lay there, focus on your thigh, it's all bruised black and covered with blood.
One of the searching helicopters is coming closer. He looks around and sees a large tree, and puts it between him and the helicopter. He leans against it, exhausted. Thirsty. Losing blood. Shoulder hurts. Leg on fire. He listens to the helicopter fly up, coming close and then going away, doing figure 8's in a search pattern probably. Hear other choppers, farther away. Where is the back up team? He uses his knife to shakily start cutting the bottom off his black undershirt. Tearing the strip off with his left hand, he ties it tight over the cut in his leg.
Hears barking. Dogs. Damn. Carefully, he turns around to face the tree, and uses it for cover as he checks the surrounding area. He starts to step out from behind it and **PAIN** ...fall back…. darkness...
THE POTOMAC RIVER
Searching the water for Steve, and keeping away from the disintegrating helicarrier, Fury, Sam and Natasha see a black-clad man dragging something, a body, out of the river. Fury immediately pushes the helicopter towards them. "That's probably the Winter Soldier," Sam says "He came out of nowhere on the 3rd 'carrier and kicked Cap over the edge, then he tore off one of my wings and kicked me off too. Cap hung on, and must have had to fight his way through him to the core."
Nat looks at him with big eyes. The Soldier! He's back... She looks down at the pair by the water."I hope that's not Steve. We've got to get down there, now" she says, her calm voice contrasting with her worried expression.
They watch the black-clad man bend over the still form, then walk quickly for the woods and disappear. They're close enough now to see the patriotic colors on the motionless body. They glance at each other, concern growing. Fury gets on the radio and calls for air support and a search team. He brings the black helicopter as close as he can to hover over the water close to the shore. The trees won't let them get any closer. Sam, followed closely by Natasha, slip out of the side door into the water.
They surface and swim to the shore where Steve lies in the mud, wet with water and blood. Sam runs to him and falls to his knees at his side on the blood-soaked ground, and feels for a pulse. "Hey Steve", he says, but there's no reaction, and no pulse. Sam begins CPR, pressing Steve's chest and breathing for him.
"He's unconscious with no pulse, starting CPR" Sam says into the comm unit. Fury replies "I put out a call for help, but with the three 'carriers down all emergency services are overloaded." Sam frowns and resolutely keeps on performing CPR. A few minutes later Fury says "I have a Coast Guard medevac inbound. ETA 20. Don't stop."
I'm not stopping, even if the Soldier comes back.
Natasha watches Sam begin CPR on Steve, and puts her feelings aside. She looks for tracks in the damp soil. She finds boot prints leading into the trees, and then a larger area of broken underbrush. Looks like he fell, probably injured she thought, but no blood, internal? She follows the signs in the dirt and brush easily, he had not tried to hide his trail.
She tells Fury via the earpiece "I'm tracking the Soldier, I think he's injured but we need a special forces team on the other side of the trees, to cut him off." Fury snorts "I'll see what I can get, be careful."
Natasha frowns as she follows the trail of disturbed branches and scuffs in the fallen leaves as fast as she dares. He must really be hurt, to not care about the trail he's leaving, she thinks. Or he's leaving it on purpose. She slows her pace a bit, looking carefully into shadows and up into the branches. She does a 360 every few yards, to check her surroundings. No one trails the Winter Soldier and lives to tell about it.
Nat begins to notice blood drops and stains here and there, never higher than about 2 feet. She figures he must be looking for a place to go to ground, he can't keep going and not stop to take care of himself for very long. She hears helicopters working on both sides of her. "Fury, is there a way to tell those pilots that I'm down here too, and not to fire on me?" Fury responds "I'll try, but if they see you first, put your hands up." Frustrated sound from Natasha. "I know, just don't shoot at them." Fury orders, shaking his head.
Sam stops CPR when the Coast Guard helicopter arrives and another medic takes over. There's still no pulse. Sam uses the medics' small flashlight on Steve's eyes to test for any reaction. Nothing. Rescue personnel place Steve in a basket and winch him quickly up into the helicopter. "Where are they going?" Sam asked Fury in his earpiece.
"Walter Reed, just a few minutes by air" Fury says "Come down the shoreline about 100 yards, there's a clearing large enough to land in." Sam meets the helicopter and they take off, flying over the devastation of the 3 crashed helicarriers to Walter Reed Medical Center.
They land on the helipad on the hospital grounds just in time to see the ambulance with Steve inside leave for the hospital. Fury says "I have to go back and watch for Natasha, keep me updated." Sam nods, then jumps out and runs across the field to the emergency entrance.
He finds the group with Steve and follows them to surgery, where the nurses quickly cut his uniform to clear his upper body and arms. The nurses set a defibrillator next to the gurney and stops CPR, while the doctor applies the paddles to his chest. "Clear!" Zap. Steve's body jerks up. The nurses quietly speak commands and questions to each other, working quickly. Three tries, oxygen, more commands, but there's no reaction. The two doctors concentrate on their work, their white gloves covered in blood.
Natasha was having trouble hearing anything useful with the helicopters so close, so she focuses on looking for motion, watching for movement where there shouldn't be. So far nothing but helicopters, wind moving the trees, birds and bugs flying. She hears dogs barking, SWAT team search dogs? Then she hears a branch break, a dry snap, danger close. She freezes in place, slowly kneeling down. She could see through the underbrush, behind a large tree about 10 yards away something was moving.
Natasha squeezes the mike button on her radio, twice. Fury would know she found him and send help to her position. She hears two clicks in her earpiece as confirmation. She watches the log for a while and doesn't see any more movement, so she creeps silently to her left.
As she gets a new angle, she sees an arm, from the black-gloved hand down to the elbow, through the undergrowth. She stays still and watches it. No movement. She waits, still and quiet. Birds begin to land in the area, and hop around without fear, looking for seeds or bugs. She knows how to be still for hours, waiting patiently for just the right moment, and she remembers who taught her. Her breath quickens, remembering how terrifying he was. Is. So she waits and watches.
The helicopters had been called off, and it's quiet. It's going to be dark soon. She says softly "Fury, ETA." After a minute, Fury responds "45". Nat's already thinking about being in the dark forest alone trying to find an injured Winter Soldier, and that's really not an option. So she makes the decision to get close enough to use one of her tranquilizing needles. But just as she stands, he moves. He gets to his feet, unsteady, then sees her.
He draws a knife from somewhere and flips it to his metal hand, so the blade is below his fist. Nat moves to her right, to use his injured leg against him, he can't seem to put weight on it. But he lunges at her, fast and powerful, and she dodges and rolls farther right, with him still coming on like a freight train. In the next split second she fires a Widow's Bite at him, center mass, and he goes down, his momentum sending him crashing down right where she had been. She uses the hypodermic in her wristband on him and after a minute, when he stops moving, she relaxes and takes a deep breath.
Nat radios "The Soldier is secure, I used a tranq, but don't know how long it'll last on him." "Are you OK?" Fury asks, thinking that to get close enough to use the tranq it must have been a fight. "I'm alright", she says, "He's hurt, a broken leg maybe, but he's still fast." Just not fast enough, she smirks.
WALTER REED MEDICAL CENTER
Sam is standing with Maria in front of a window, looking in at the covered, motionless body of Steve Rogers. The doctors and nurses had quietly shut down the equipment, and respectfully covered the body with a white sheet. One of the doctors entered the room and Maria goes to him, speaking quietly, asking questions about the next steps.
Sam just stands at the window, his silent tears dropping on the cold tile floor.
He hears people arguing, coming closer. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts are walking down the hall, surrounded by unhappy hospital administration types. Tony was almost shouting "Where is Cap! Just tell me! He's an Avenger! We're the closest thing to family he has! Do I need to set my lawyers on this place just to get a question answered!"
Pepper looks around and sees Maria down the hall with the doctor, and their eyes meet. Maria shakes her head once, just slightly. The combination of Maria's tired expression and the tiny movement tells Pepper everything. She turns to Tony, who is still arguing, and says "Tony, Tony! Stop. Just stop."
"What!" Tony's still shouting, his frustration building. Pepper quietly looks at him, and he calms. "What?" again, quieter.
Pepper leads him out of the group of anxious hospital personnel and over to Maria and the doctor. The doctor introduces himself and shakes Tony's hand. Tony asks "So how is Rogers?
The doctor pauses and takes a breath. "Mr. Stark, I declared Captain Rogers dead, at 1915 hours, I am sorry."
Tony stares at the doctor, while Pepper turns her head and leans into Tony's side. Tony starts "Wha..! What happened?"
The doctor looks down at his clipboard, then back up to Tony. "Captain Rogers was involved in a very violent assault. He suffered 4 gunshot wounds, one hitting his spine and exiting his abdomen. He was in hypovolemic shock from Class 4 blood loss before he arrived. He had also suffered a traumatic brain injury from the repeated heavy blows to his face. The blows also broke his nose, jaw, cheekbone and the supraorbital bone on his right side. He had been submerged and had water in his lungs."
The doctor pauses his professional description, looking at them in sympathy. "Our entire trauma team worked on him, but despite using a breathing tube, continuous CPR, defibrillation, and several drugs to try to restart the organs, all our attempts failed. His heart had stopped and he did not respond to resuscitation."
Tony stares at the doctor, looking like he's about to argue, then just lowers his head and turns away. Pepper puts an arm over his shoulder and touches her head to his and whispers to him, as they stand in the hallway, surrounded by quiet hospital workers.
Sam is still wearing the earpiece comm unit, and he's followed the back-and-forth between Fury and Natasha, while he's been at the hospital. He sighs and presses the send button, to tell them what's happened. He's having trouble talking, so he cuts his statements short. "Fury, Nat, the docs just called it, Steve...didn't make it." He lets go of the button, breathe, focus, push button again... "Tony and Pepper are here, and Maria. Sitrep*?"
After a long moment, Natasha responds. "We have the Soldier, he's unconscious and injured, we have Fury's helicopter but we need a secure hospital facility to hold him, any ideas?"
Sam glances at Tony and Pepper standing with the doctor. "Wait one, I may have an answer."
I'd love to hear what you think, please leave comments! I'm a newbie, still learning how to write my own stories and express myself, please be gentle : ) I'll try to have chapter two up ASAP.
And I have no idea about anything medical, except band-aids. Just playing it by ear (and google).
And if there are any bored beta readers out there who'd like a challenge, please contact me!
*sitrep - short for 'situation report'
