Steve stared down at the bleeding boy in his arms and was surprisingly reminded of Bucky. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and gently set the kid's head down on the tiled floor. Steve ripped off the cuff of one of his pant legs and pressed it to where he guessed the blood was coming from.
Come on… just make it until the paramedics get here. He thought worriedly.
Steve heard people running down the stairs to his position and jumped up and settled into a defensive mode. He only relaxed when he realized it was Nat and Clint. The pair rushed over to the twins, Clint to the girl and Nat to the boy, seeing as she was trained in first aid.
Steve peered over Natasha's shoulder as she ripped off the youth's thin tracksuit shirt and tried to locate the wound through the mess of blood covering his torso.
"Hey, Nat. The girl won't wake up, and her heartbeat and breathing are unusually slow. I think she might be in a coma." Clint called over to his partner.
Natasha cursed under her breath in Russian and Steve drifted over to the edge of the room, not sure what to do. He was a soldier, not a doctor. He turned and listened up the stairs to try to judge how far away the paramedics were, but he couldn't hear anything or anyone. He unclipped the radio from his belt and requested for backup once again, hoping that they would get there quickly. Although Steve didn't have any medical training, he had seen enough battle wounds that he knew it would be a hard night for the boy. The only sign of life was his ragged breathing and grunts of pain when Natasha pressed on his wound a little too hard.
After about 5 minutes, the real doctors arrived and whisked the two teenagers away to the hospital. Only then did Natasha, Clint, and Steve leave to go interrogate the bosses. As Steve was walking up the stairs, he caught a glimpse of something red on a nearby rooftop. When he looked back, it was gone.
Steve strode into the room they were using as a temporary jail and was immediately led over to the ringleaders by one of the FBI agents.
"Can you give us a little privacy?" He asked the public servant and the woman nodded and left the room.
Steve grabbed one of the mobsters by the collar and shoved him up against the wall.
"Who are the teenagers down there?" Steve questioned angrily, furious that the filth in front of him would ruin kids' lives like that. "What did you do to them?"
"Maybe it would be better if I did this, Steve." Natasha whispered in his ear and rested a hand on his shoulder.
He reluctantly obliged and took a step back as Nat angrily talked to the guy in Russian. After about 30 seconds of Russian gibberish, Natasha slapped him and stormed out of the room. Clint chased after her, leaving Steve alone in the room with the criminals. Steve checked the hall to see if the FBI lady was still there so he could follow, but there was no one to be seen.
"Great. Now I have to stay here." He said, grimacing in aversion at the prisoners.
Clint half-jogged to catch up to Natasha, but she walked faster.
"Nat!" he called after her. She finally stopped and turned around, a flinty glare in her eyes. Clint faltered, and then moved forward to embrace her. He knew when she needed a hug.
Natasha rested her head on his shoulder and breathed in the musty smell of worn leather and a hint of sweat and blood.
"They were going to sell the John and Jane Doe to some kingpin named Wilson Fisk to provide 'entertainment' to his criminal employees." She whispered in disgust. "That guy's name is Dmitri Agapov. He's a mule for the Russian mob."
Clint closed his eyes and squeezed Natasha tighter. On a failed mission she had been briefly captured and raped by rebel soldiers in the Ukraine. She had occasional flashbacks and couldn't keep a romantic partner for more than a month because of the lack of sex drive.
They sat like that for a few minutes and then Natasha straightened up and disentangled herself from Clint's arms.
"We should go see if those kids are okay." She said in a more relaxed tone.
"I'll go get the rest of the team and then we can continue the interrogation in the Stark tower." Clint said. Natasha nodded and Clint gave her a small smile and then went back into the temporary prison to inform Steve of the recent developments.
