As glad as he was to see Steve Rogers alive, sleeping in the hospital bed, he felt a pang of sadness. He plugged his iPhone into the portable speakers that he'd brought with him. The first song on the Trouble Man soundtrack began to play, and he eased into the chair next to Steve's bed.
Rubbing his knee, which he'd injured as he landed hard when his mechanical wings were destroyed, Sam Wilson sighed. The whole fiasco just days ago with the fall of SHIELD, the reveal of HYDRA, and the Winter Soldier felt almost like a horrible dream.
He, Natasha, and Maria Hill had found Steve on the side of the Potomac River alive, but unconscious. He'd been shot, bones had been broken, and his face was nearly unrecognizable. His uniform was soaked with blood, especially around his abdomen where a deep bullet hole was embedded.
There was debris and large metal pieces from the helicarrier surrounding him; the main site where the helicarrier crashed was a kilometer away, slowly sinking in the river. The FBI and CIA took over the cleanup immediately, searching for any survivors in the wreckage – though it was unlikely, as the fires had burned through most of the body.
All known HYDRA fugitives were dead to their knowledge. Even the Winter Soldier was assumed to be killed in the crash of the helicarrier, though no one could be sure as they didn't find his body.
As Sam thought about the Winter Soldier, or Bucky Barnes, Steve's best friend from the forties, he felt sad again. Steve and Bucky had been best friends, and also comrades during the war. Just like Riley and he had been. Then Bucky fell off the train, assumedly killed by the fall, just as Riley's plane had been shot down.
But, as it turned out, Bucky survived.
Riley didn't.
And Sam couldn't help but feel a bit upset about that. Although the situation was less than ideal – terrible, actually – there was hope. Bucky may have been brainwashed, programmed to kill, and his memories wiped, he was still alive.
Riley wasn't.
There was no hope for Riley to return because Sam saw his friend's plane being shot down. Saw the burned and charred body afterwards. There was no hope.
Natasha and he had talked the previous evening, before she had to prepare for her court hearing tomorrow. They'd spoken about numerous things: from SHIELD's downfall, to what Natasha was going to wear to her court appearance. Then they got onto the topic of Riley.
He told her the whole story of how they met, about their time together, then his untimely death. He asked her about her time with the KGB, which she skirted around. She mentioned a red room, having Bucky Barnes as her mentor, and how she became the Black Widow.
By the end, Sam realized that she hadn't explained much at all. That was what came with being a good spy. When he asked her about the arrow necklace she had on almost the whole time he had been with her, she smiled, and said something in Russian. Then she left when he gave her a bemused look.
Glancing back at Steve, whose chest was rising and falling rhythmically, but was otherwise still, Sam's thoughts became silent. The Trouble Man soundtrack kept playing quietly in the background, soothing him.
Then, in the otherwise quiet of the room, came, "On your left."
And Sam grinned.