From the Ice

by APH Teutonic Knights

Steve-centric one shots. Only the first movie has happened, and the Avengers are living together- there's only one thing off, actually. No one knows Captain America's actual name- or that he has one. Meanwhile, Steve's having a very hard time recovering from the fact that he's so far in the future, and no one knows or cares about his name. But the team will be there. Ice melts.

4. Chapter 4

I'm back. I don't own Avengers. I'm updating my other stories. Have a nice day, readers.

Tony was prone to having shell shock. The first time Captain America had seen it, he had dropped the mask, and Steve Rogers ran to help the man.

Tony had been shaking, gasping, hands firmly covering the arc reactor in his chest. Steve dropped to his knees beside the man, because Tony had dropped and was laying on the ground, and patted Tony's shoulder, which got no response. Tony's lips were turning blue, and his breath was catching as he hyperventilated, tears leaking unbidden from glazed brown eyes that stared into a distance that Steve knew he wouldn't see.

Steve picked him up, not tossing him over his shoulder but in more of a cradle. He wasn't embarrassed and he knew Tony was too out of it to care. Was this the PTSD- shell shock- that he had been having? Was this what he looked like, minus the white-fingered hands desperately sealing out the light coming from the arc reactor?

Clint came in, and immediately the man stared, and Steve yelped, "He's having some sort of attack!"

Clint rushed over, then, and Steve noticed the fear in his eyes as the archer glanced at Steve's face, which meant he must not be doing as great of a job keeping calm as he had hoped. Oh well.

"It's a panic attack, Cap," the man soothed, leading Steve over to a cot in the corner of the lab and Steve dumped Tony on it gently. "We just need to get him to breath and calm down."

Steve nodded, then asked, "JARVIS, do you have any protocol for getting Stark out of an attack?"

"Good thinking," Clint murmured from beside him, as JARVIS answered, "He will be needing some time, as well as aspirin. Dry, please."

Steve nodded and was over at the medicine cabinet he had enforced to be in the lab after some incidents in a blink of an eye, running his fingers over the pill bottles until he found the one clearly labelled, 'Aspirin'. He dug that out, and got three pills out of that, bringing them over to the bedside table and putting them into a clean tissue on it.

He doesn't question the absence of the water to wash them down. He figures Tony doesn't need it anyways- and there's plenty of water pooling around the floor of the lab. He knows Tony holds some dislike for it, has seen it in the man's face. Tony thinks he hides it so well, but Steve Rogers watches his allies. Not for betrayal, weakness, like Captain America would.

Steve watches for a way to help, to be the good man. "JARVIS," he addresses the ceiling, standing over the reflective surface of the small pool of water. It's not showing him,since he's not at the right angle, but it shows the clean white interior of the lab Tony has. "Can you drain the water out?"

"I can," the machine answers, and it almost sounds like relief in the AI's tone. "It is being done."

Sure enough the pond of water is slowly draining, accompanied by an odd gurgle that Steve shudders slightly at.

He's found he's not the fondest of the clear liquid either. Not since- the water swirls and he's trapped because the ice is forming just as fast, and he's laid himself down in the seat, submitting himself to it before the plane crashed, because he knows his fate. He knows he will never have his date, never learn to dance at the Stork Club, never step on Peggy's toes as he so feared just a bit ago. But he simply watches in detached peace as the water begins to swirl over his head, clearing his face, rising and rising. The ghostly white tendrils of the ice follow soon after, chasing the near-clear water level, and Steve can feel the ice beginning to affect him, so he closes his eyes and stills.-

But his fear is lesser than Tony's, and he has no problem with the water as it drains from the room, no issue with the short burst from the innocent hose lying on the ground as the water still inside it obeyed gravity and splattered onto his shoulder.

He's the one who cleans that up, later, after Tony wakes up and they've already left, knowing that the man would be embarrassed and not want to know who did it for him. Perhaps he thought it was JARVIS. Or Dummy. Steve knew Tony didn't suspect him.