A/N: I am so incredibly sorry for the wait! You wouldn't have believed these past couple of days. But guess what? I saw the Avengers for the second time today! Wooh! Still as incredible. It's a movie I definitely suggest seeing twice, you pick up on a lot of different things. And I'd like to remind you all how much I love you—146 story alerts, 36 reviews, and 74 favorite story's. YEAH, HOLY SHIT. YOU'RE ALL THE BEST. But enough chitchat, let's continue on!
I woke up in a bit of a haze, not exactly remembering where I was. As my eyes were slowly coming into focus, I could make out my room, realizing I was aboard the SHIELD helicarrier. I was still in my uniform, but my head was in severe pain. As I came further into consciousness, it was quickly dulling. I reached my fingertips to the back of my skull, and it was nearly gone, but I was too weak to heal myself fully. I began to hear the alarms and shouts taking place aboard the ship, and I tried to remember what had happened.
I had been standing with Steve…I healed him, didn't I? And then Tony walked in…oh my god, the explosion!
I ran to open my door, but it was bolted shut. I took my first real good look around the room, and saw that my room had been put into lockdown. "JARVIS," I called. "I need you to let me out and find the safest way to the Medical Ward."
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Dr. Andrews," he replied. "Captain Rogers specifically told me to not let you out of this ro—"
"I don't care what Captain Rogers told you to do," I shouted, yanking on the door handle again. "You need to let me out of here, JARVIS. Now."
"The Captain won't be happy," JARVIS replied, sounding as worried as a robotic voice could.
"I'll take the blame," I answered, and the door clicked, alerting me it was now unlocked. I threw on my earpiece so I could hear the rest of the team and JARVIS and headed out.
The second I opened the door, the shouts and gunshots reached deafening levels. The hallway was clear, and, following JARVIS' orders, continued down the hallway until I reached an elevator.
"I'm sending the elevator up to you, Dr. Andrews," JARVIS told me. "It's empty. Take it to the fourth floor and make a left as you exit."
Just as the elevators doors slid open the sound of gunshots farther down the hallway caught my attention. As I stepped in, I saw out of the corner of my eye what looked to be a SHIELD agent. I tried to get the elevator doors to shut as quickly as possible, but just before they slid completely closed, and bullet flew through the elevator shaft, missing my shoulder by near inches.
Since I had a few seconds of safety, I spoke into the earpiece. "What the hell is going on, and why did I just get nearly shot by one of our agents?"
"Rebecca?" I hear Steve's voice, slightly static-y. "I told JARVIS not to let you out of that room!"
"I wasn't going to just sit there and watch you all die," I shot back. "Fury, what's going on?"
"Barton and a small squad disguised as our agents blew up one of our engines. If one more goes down, so do we. Stark and Rogers are on it. I'm holding them off in the control room. Can you get down to the ward—" Fury informed me.
"Already on it," I interrupted. "I'll get a visual on all of you and try to assist. If you can, send any injured down, and I'll take care of them personally."
"Rebecca?" I heard Steve's voice cut in, once again. "You stay safe, you hear me? If anything happens, you tell someone right away, is that clear?"
Even through all the devastation that was still continuing on, I allowed myself a very brief smile, knowing that he was worried. "I promise."
The elevator doors slid open once again and I found myself on the floor of the Medical Ward. I slipped down the corridor unnoticed and entered the main entryway. Checking around to see if anyone was there, I looked close into the retinal scanner and the door clicked open.
"JARVIS," I began. "I want a visual on Steve, Stark, Banner, Thor, and Fury." The monitors around me lit up, and on each screen I could see exactly what was happening to everyone. Fury was picking off members of Barton's squadron in the control room. Banner was no longer a short, innocent-looking man, but a menacing green monster that was ravaging the aircraft wing. Thor was trying to keep him at bay, but to little avail. Stark was working on the broken engine, pushing the turbines, hoping to kick-start it. Finally turning to Steve's monitor, I gasped. "Steve!"
Steve was hanging off the edge of the ship, holding on to a flimsy tube connected to one of the machines just off the engine Tony was fixing. "Cap, need a lever," I heard Stark say through my earpiece. The engine he was pushing was beginning to pick up speed, and if he didn't have help soon, Iron Man was about to become scrap metal.
"I need a minute here!" I heard Steve shout back in reply. Looking over at his monitor, I saw him trying to pull himself back up onto the ship. His hand nearly slipped.
"Lever! Now!" Stark shouted in reply. He stopped pushing the engine turbine and slapped against the one coming in behind him. I couldn't watch as I heard the metal of his suit clang against the engine. I saw Steve finally reach the safety of the platform, nearly getting shot, and pulling the lever down. Tony was able to fly out of the turbine, and just as another agent was about to shoot down Steve, Tony flew in and took him out.
"Jesus Christ, that was cutting it a little close, guys" I spoke into my earpiece. I heard Steve laugh.
"I'm fine, thank you for asking, and yes, you're welcome that I saved the ship," Tony said. I simply rolled my eyes and glanced over to Dr. Banner's monitor. He was still battling Thor as the Hulk when one of our ships starting shooting at him through the window. Bruce turned around to see who was firing, and quickly jumped off the helicarrier and onto the nose of the small plane, spiraling out of control. Bruce flew off the plane and started freefalling when the screen turned to static.
"Banner's gone," I informed the team. I then turned my attention to Thor, who was making his way to Loki's prison. Loki. "JARVIS, pull up a visual on Loki." The image came up immediately. Loki was sitting inside the cell, grinning madly. At the controls outside the cage, one of Barton's men was hacking into the program. Just as Thor walked into the room, the door to Loki's chamber slid open. Thor ran to tackle him, but Loki dissipated in thin air and locked Thor inside the prison.
"Are you ever going to not fall for that?" Loki laughed. As he continued on a long speech on how mankind was doomed, I held my earpiece closer to my ear as to hear over the gunshots.
"Loki's escaped—Thor's locked in his cell, and by the looks of it, Loki's about to drop him," I said, hoping for a response.
"I'm on it," I heard, not recognizing the voice at first, but coming to the realization that it was Agent Coulson.
"Coulson, stay out of it, I'll send in a squad," Fury replied, sounding a bit worried.
"Director, I can handle this. You all need me," he replied.
Looking at Thor's monitor, I saw Agent Coulson walk into the prison room carrying a large gun that was glowing orange. "Move away please." Seeing the stunned look on Loki's face, Coulson smiled. "You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent The Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?"
But instead of answering, Loki stabbed him right in the chest, through the back.
As Agent Coulson fell to the ground, Thor screamed out. Loki walked back to the control panel and hit the button, releasing Thor hurtling towards the ground out of the ship. Just as Loki was about to leave, Coulson spoke.
"You're gonna lose," the agent barely whispered. Loki turned and smiled at him.
"Am I?" he replied.
"It's in your nature," Coulson answered.
Loki shook his head. "You're heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"
"You lack conviction," Coulson told him.
"I don't think I—" the god began, but was cut off by Agent Coulson firing the weapon, still in his hand, and hitting Loki square in the chest. He went flying out of the holding room, and landed in a pile against the wall.
"So that's what it does," the agent whispered. Loki got up and exited the ship, turning his screen to static, as Banner's and Thor's had, showing they were out of reach.
It had all happened so fast, I couldn't even react. I let out a heart-wrenching sob as tears slowly started to make their way down my face. "Rebecca? Rebecca, is that you? What's wrong? " I heard Steve shouting through my earpiece, but I couldn't even concentrate. I stuttered trying to get the words out.
"It's…I-it's Coulson, he's…he's down, in the holding room….L-Loki, he…h-he stabbed him, a-and escaped, and now Thor's gone…" I half-screamed.
"Send a medical team to Coulson, now," Fury demanded, and I did so, sending the few personnel still in the ward out to him.
"JARVIS, shut these screens down," I commanded. "I don't want to see anymore." The tears kept flowing down my cheeks, but I knew I needed to compose myself. My team would be bringing Coulson back any minute. I'd try to revive him, I'd give it everything I had, but I was already positive of the outcome. I think everyone knew it, already.
When Coulson was brought into the ward on a stretcher, I knew it was too late. I pressed my hands to his neck, his chest right above his heart, everywhere possible, but it was too late. We had lost Agent Coulson.
I told the rest of the team to take care of him. I couldn't put him in the morgue myself—not this man, who had been the first to introduce me to this crazy world of superheroes. The first man to have faith in me…gone.
I walked out of the ward and took the elevator up to the control room. Blood was splattered across the hallways, guns scattered everywhere. Stark and Fury were conversing in the center of the room, while Steve was sitting at the conference table, his head in his hands.
"Hey," I whispered, walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. His head snapped up and he stood up in front of me.
"Hey," he whispered back, seeing as the room was practically silent. He looked me over, his gaze finally settling on my eyes. "You've been crying." I bit my bottom lip, reflecting back on the results of this afternoon, as another tear slipped out of my eye. I looked up at Steve, who seemed to not know what to do. I decided to take the one extra step separating us and hugged his chest as tight as I could, as the few tears remaining slowly made their way down my face. He stiffened, but after a few seconds, I could fell him relax, his broad arms slowly encircling my waist in a hug.
"Hey there," he whispered into my ear. "It's alright. It's alright. Everything's going to be ok, I promise. We're going to beat him. We'll send him far away, and you'll be able to go home, and live life like nothing's changed. You'll be safe, and Coulson won't have died in vain. I promise."
I felt his hand slowly inch up my back until it reached my hair. He stroked it away from my face, so very slowly, as I was calming down. I pulled away, his hand still entangled in my hair. "I'm sorry," I whispered, my eyes glued to the floor. "It's just…I…he was one of the few people here who actually believed in me."
Steve's hand moved out of my hair and under my chin, pulling my face up to look him in the eye. "I believe in you. You're stronger than almost anyone here. Stronger than I am."
I let out a sad chuckle. "I can't even lift my suitcase. Have you seen yourself?"
Steve gave a sad grin. "You know that's not what I meant."
His hand still under my chin, I forced my eyes to the side, not able to look at him. "Then why am I the only one on this ship crying?"
"Rebecca," he whispered. "Look at me." I squeezed my eyes shut, not able to view the sincerity he held in his crystal blue eyes. "Please?" he breathed. It was so quiet, so genuine, that my eyelids slowly slid open. "You show your feelings. That right there shows how much stronger you are than anyone else. I'll end up in the gym, beating the living daylights out of punching bags, wishing I was hitting myself, because I didn't do anything. You get it all out and move on—I'll be beating myself up for a very long time."
"Steve," I scolded, shaking my head, which was difficult do to his iron grip on my chin. "Don't be ridiculous. None of this was your fault. You and Tony saved this entire ship from walling into the water. You saved Tony himself. And, let's not forget, you saved me just after the first explosion. You're a hero."
"But I couldn't reach Coulson in time to stop him from going in alone," he barely whispered, his hand dropping from my chin.
"Do you remember when you crashed that plane into the ice?" Steve nodded. "I was studying your file last night—do you know what you said to Peggy when you told her? You said that it was your choice. You gave up yourself in order to save thousands of people." I paused, and watched as his eyes grew sad at the memory. My hand slid up his chest until it rested on his neck. "Agent Coulson made his own choice today, and he saved us all—and there was nothing any of us could do about it, because he had already decided. Just like you had."
"I just wish—" Steve began.
"I know," I interrupted. "I do, too. I tried for twenty minutes down in that hospital room to get him to come back, but nothing worked, and I started to blame myself. But, I realized, that when someone sets their mind to something, like Phil had…there's no stopping it."
Steve nodded again, and the ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "You always know what to say. I'm not good with words."
I gave him the best smile I could muster back. "You made me feel better. And besides…sometimes what a person needs is just for someone to hold them and tell them everything will be ok."
Steve's smile grew just the slightest, and it touched his eyes. "I can do that."
I chuckled and buried my face in his shirt. "I know you can."
A/N: Longest chapter yet to make up for the slow update. I hope you enjoyed! I loved writing this scene. I almost wrote a kiss, which I bet a lot of you were expecting, but it was just too early, but I promise, I won't make you wait forever, and I won't just cut you off afterwards, either. I hate it when people give you the kiss you've been waiting for and then poof, story's over. So I promise, it'll be a good story. I may get to update as soon as tomorrow, I'm not positive, but stay posted! Love you all!