I wrote this after seeing Age of Ultron. So...SPOILERS. Enjoy.
They looked for Bucky between missions as the Avengers, (Rogers, Romanoff, Maximoff, Wilson, Rhodes and sometimes Vision made up the new team). But it was only Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson who carried on searching for the man who'd been MIA for a long while now. Wanda had started joining them now, per Steve's suggestion. After she had agreed to join the search party, she had asked for details on the man she had heard very little of. Wilson had filled her in.
Sam, Steve and Natasha very quickly learned that when Wanda slept, she dreamt. She tended to dream of her brother for the most part as far as anyone could tell. With her nightmares, usually came the red glow in her eyes and tendrils of red floating from her hands. Steve always sent Natasha out when that happened because the red head's eyes would glaze over and she would shut down all over again, undoubtedly reliving the memories that glow of red had caused.
They were flying home from Cuba, they'd been following a lead on Bucky. Wanda had completely sapped herself of all strength in her attempt to broadcast warnings to the civilians of the town in which they'd ended up fighting some HYRA agents who'd been looking for the Winter Soldier as well. Sam had had to fly her back to the Quinjet. Her eyes were half lidded and she was muttering nonsensically in Russian. Yet she refused to sleep. Sam had laid her limp body down on the cot in the back and taken his place at the front of the plane, preparing it for takeoff. Natasha and Steve jogged into the plane a little while after Falcon and the Witch, Natasha's hand pressed to her shoulder where blood was too quickly seeping through her fingers and Steve's eyes rimmed by dark, almost black, circles.
"Wilson," Steve called, voice bordering on gravelly. "Get us in the air. Head for Palhaza." That had been the place the freighter Bucky had boarded was headed for.
"Aye, aye Captain." Sam muttered back, slightly mockingly. Steve chuckled and spared the Maximoff girl a worried look as her face screwed up in what looked like borderline pain. Her eyes were squeezed shut but he knew, based on her glowing red finger tips, that her eyes would be flashing as well.
"Nat," Steve called, jarring the redheaded Russian out of her blood loss haze.
"Hey, Rogers," she drawled, tipping her head to get her hair out of her eyes. The sharp movement of her head seemed to throw her off her already fragile balance and Steve lunged forward, arm around the woman's waist to prevent her from collapsing. "Don't need a mother hen, Cap. Need stitches." She grunted as he eased her onto the floor. Steve just sighed and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from the wound in her shoulder.
"Damn," he breathed out, replacing her hand and pressing it more firmly against the deep gash. She hissed then fixed the Captain with a raised eyebrow. "Don't say it." He warned. She chuckled. "I hold firmly to the belief that that should no longer be held over my head. It was one time."
"One times all it takes Steve." She smirked, tipping her head back against the wall as she felt the plane lift into the air. The Captain immediately started rifling through the first aid drawers in the metal wall of the plane, pulling out the various things and setting them on the ground next to Natasha's leg. He then shifted from crouching back on his heels to his knees and reached forward to drag the zipped of her suit down to her waist. "You needed only to ask Cap, no need to be so presumptuous." She half-smiled at him. Steve rolled his eyes and slid his hand over her shoulders and down her arms to peel the sleeves of her suit off. Natasha exhaled sharply as the fabric pulled at the gash in her shoulder and let her eyes fall closed in slight resignation.
Her eyes flew open instantly when she heard the rustling of the cot across the Quinjet and she stiffened. Steve's hand fell onto her leather clad leg and he looked back over his shoulder at Wanda who was swaying where she sat on the edge of the cot.
"You alright there Maximoff?" he asked cautiously. Her eyes blinked open and were blissfully blue as opposed to the red that would have sent Natasha into lock down.
"I can heal her." She muttered in her heavily accented voice. Steve's hand tightened on Natasha's thigh when she jerked a little.
"How?" Steve hedged, turning his body a little more. He, in opposition to Natasha, had long since forgiven the girl for her manipulation of the team. She'd been under other orders. How could he hold her accountable when he didn't hold Bucky responsible?
Wanda raised her hand in answer, red coloring the air around her fingers. Natasha's nails were digging into his wrist now.
"I can do many things," she said shortly. Steve held up one finger to her and twisted again to fully face Natasha.
"Natasha,"
"No," she snarled with such fury that her accent bled into her voice. "I don't want the Witch anywhere near me,"
"Nat, that's not fair." Steve chastised, lowering his voice though he knew Wanda could hear both of them just fine. "You may not like her, and you don't have to trust her, but trust me. You will bleed out if somebody doesn't do something soon. And I don't know if stitches will even hold." He said, mostly to himself as he peered intently at the gaping gash splitting her shoulder. "But," he steeled himself and forced an unaffected expression that he knew the assassin saw right through. "I can always just use the artificial clot and we can turn around, head back to base, hope it holds until then and hope Bucky's trail doesn't go cold before we get back in the air." He stood, already making to call to Sam to turn the plane around. Natasha's nails cut into the skin of his palm suddenly and he stopped, looking down at her with an arched eyebrow.
"Fine." She growled as Steve crouched back down, twisting his hand in hers and squeezing lightly.
"Maximoff," he called. She stood and wavered on her feet, nearly collapsing before she caught herself on the wall. "Whoa there." He cautioned, stretching his palm out to her.
"I'm fine." She responded shortly and straightened her posture before walking over to the soldier and the spy, dropping down to one knee. Steve felt Natasha's supposed-to-be-bone-breaking grip on his hand and countered it lightly. He opened his mouth to say something to her only to let his jaw hang as he literally watched her skin stitch itself back together without Wanda ever even touching her. The corners of Natasha's eyes tightened but other than that she showed no sign of the pain she must have been feeling. The moment the last shred of skin closed over the wound, Wanda's hands fell and she collapsed sideways. Steve released Natasha's hand and caught the telekinetic girl across his lap, her tiny body swallowed up by his hulking arm. Natasha inspected her shoulder with vague curiosity and arched both eyebrows at the utter lack of scar where there had, minutes before, been a gaping gash in her arm. Other than being slightly lightheaded from the blood loss, and the blood caked on her arm, there was no sign that there had ever been anything there.
"You good?"
Natasha nodded once.
"Eat something, you lost a lot of blood." Steve ordered as he stood with little effort, still holding the small Maximoff girl in his arms. Natasha flipped him a slightly mocking salute and he rolled his eyes at her, turning and lying Wanda down on the cot. Before he could pull his arms out from under her, her hand caught the neckline of his uniform.
"Pietro, ostavat'sya. Izvinite, izvinite, izvinite," she mumbled, eyes squeezing shut even tighter. The Captain looked questioningly at Natasha over his shoulder.
"She's apologizing." Natasha offered up simply, eyeing the woman cautiously and taking a step backwards at the hue of her hands.
"Head up to the cockpit and see if Sam needs a hand." Steve said lowly as Wanda's fingers heated up against his neck. She bristled a little at the order but looked again at Wanda and turned to obey with a protein bar in her hand. Steve sighed and looked down at the brunette, sitting down on the edge of the cot, her still cradled in his arms. He glanced around the plane and then back down at Wanda with no idea of what to do for her. He wanted to wake her up. That's what he would've wanted done for him. But he didn't know how she'd react if woken so suddenly. So he waited.
It took her barely five minutes to wake herself up and when she did, Steve wound up blasted into the wall to their left.
"Steve, you alright back there?" Sam called. Steve grunted in response and pushed himself up on his forearms, turning his head to look at the wide eyed Russian girl who stood a few feet away from him.
"We're fine." Steve called back, voice a little rougher than it'd been before.
"I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"I know," Steve gave her a half-smile and pushed to his feet. He cocked his head and picked at his gloves, looking up at Wanda through his blonde eyelashes. "You know," he started conversationally. "You're brother," anger flashed in her eyes. "What happened to him, wasn't your fault. He sacrificed himself for one of our own. No more honorable way to go. Hey," he called when she looked away. "I know guilt. But you shouldn't blame yourself for his death when he made his choice to protect Barton and the child."
"What do you know about guilt?" she hissed in her thick accent, her arms crossed defensively and she leaned away from the captain. One side of Steve's mouth twitched up sadly.
"Bucky, the man we're looking for?" he began. Wanda nodded sharply. "He's my best friend. He died on my watch, following me into battle. Only, he didn't die. He was captured by HYDRA and brainwashed, turned into a monster, and I didn't save him. My friend, Abraham Erskine, died for his experimentation on me. My…girl, Peggy? I promised her a dance," he smiled a full smile at that. It faded quickly. "I died before I could follow through, broke her heart as far as she tells me when she isn't lucid." He chuckled darkly then looked up at Wanda who had fallen silent and solemn faced. "I'm no stranger to guilt." He grinned. Wanda frowned at him and dropped hard onto the cot when her head spun again. "You really wiped yourself out didn't you?" he chuckled, leaning back against the wall. Wanda fell listlessly onto her side. "You should get some sleep before we touch down in Hungary."
"That is a bad idea." Steve arched an eyebrow. "I will only hurt somebody."
"No you won't." Steve said fervently, moving closer to the cot. "I'll stay. You dream, and I'll wake you up. You need to sleep to build your strength back up." Wanda regarded him hesitantly. "I won't let you hurt anyone." He repeated. Wanda nodded and curled in on herself, falling asleep almost instantaneously.
Steve slid down the wall beside the cot, tilting his head back. And he stayed.
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