Whatever the doctors gave her felt blissful. It was dripping in through an IV now, hung from a hook next to other mystery medicine bags. One looked like blood, Daisy vaguely recalled them saying she had needed a transfusion because she had lost too much. The others could be anything. The thought that she should have asked was only just forming as she stared hazily up at the bags. Eh, too late now. She dismissed lazily and looked away, her head rolling a bit more than it normally would. She swung it back and forth a few more times just for fun, grinning.
On her next pass she realized there was someone standing in the doorway. She stopped rolling her head and blinked at him for a second, waiting for her brain to catch up and tell her who it was. "Hey." She said, and grinned again.
"Hey yourself." Steve said, stepping closer to her bed and standing next to it. "You feeling, um… better?" He smiled, clearly having seen her little trick.
"If by better you mean tanked, yes" She grinned and gestured vaguely to the IV hook. "They put something good in there." Her eyes stayed on the hanging bags, a thought reoccurring. "Plus everything else…"
Steve only glanced away from her for a moment to look at the bags. "You were in bad shape. The doctors had to- " He broke off, changing his mind and instead saying "The machine is only two hours out. They'll set it up and have you patched up in no time."
"The doctors had to what?" Daisy asked him, still sharp enough to notice the slip. She didn't remember the doctors having to do anything bad enough not to mention. Then again she didn't remember being moved to this bed or much else before that… had she been unconscious at one point?
These thoughts came slowly, and with much less anxiety than she knew they should. Steve hesitated again. "I'd better let them explain everything to you. I didn't understand enough of what they said to explain it back. But I do know that you're doing much better. And you're going to be fine." He smiled at her as he said this last bit.
Daisy snorted. "I know. I've had way worse than this."
Steve frowned, looking sad. "Yeah, they noticed that too." He was studying her in a way she was way too out of it to try to understand right then. For a soldier he seemed pretty worked up about a few war wounds. Her eyes began to drift close again. "You get some sleep, they'll wake you up for the procedure and then maybe we can get you on your feet again."
"and out of here…" Daisy mumbled as she fell asleep.
It turns out they didn't feel the need to wake her up for her procedure. In fact she slept almost all the way through it. She woke up on her belly on a hard table with the sounds of a machine whirring above her. The Asian doctors greeted her when they noticed her eyes open, explaining that she was almost done, and that they lowered the dose of her pain medication, which is probably why she woke up. In cheery voices they told her that she wouldn't need it anymore and to just take ibuprofen for the pain in her arms until she felt she could go without. Daisy listened to them go on and on about treatment, about what she could and couldn't do, and eventually ignored them in favor of putting her head down to wait until she could get up. There was a mild ache in her shoulder, but she was guessing that was from the lack of painkillers, not the wound itself. That felt unbelievably better. Where the hell had this machine been the last few times she got shot?
When it was all over, the doctors held up a mirror for her to see what remained of her wound. They told her that it was actually knitted over with her own cells. She could see the difference in skin tone but it didn't look like scarring, just pink new skin. They told her this would eventually fade to match the gold color that was her usual skin tone. Daisy was surprised at how relieved she was to hear that, she was already covered with enough scars. Beaches and bikinis were out of the question for her, not to mention ever going undercover again. At least she wouldn't have to try any honeypot missions…
She quickly cut this line of thought off, reminding herself that she was done being a secret agent and those kinds of things didn't matter anymore. All she would have to worry about now was scaring away any potential future boyfriends who would see her naked. Again, she mentally cringed and tried to divert that train of thought. After what hive did to her, boyfriends were out of the question for a long time. She couldn't imagine being intimate with anyone after that.
Unless it was with someone kind enough not to ask questions about her scars. An attractive, sweet super soldier with scars of his own… Almost as if on cue Steve walked in with Sam and Bucky. Daisy tried not to blush as she thought 'calm the hell down, it's not like he can read minds. You're fine.' The thought that followed it actually made her smile 'Damn, I really must be feeling better.' It had been a long time since she felt this good.
"Look at you!" Sam crowed as they made their way to stand in front of her. "On your feet and smiling. How are you doing?"
"It's crazy." she said, pulling the neckline of her shirt down, baring her shoulder and turning to expose the new pink tissue to them. "It's almost like it never happened. They said it will hardly even scar." She bent her arms again realizing something else as she moved. "Even my arms feel better, weirdly enough."
"Damn." He said, reaching out a curious hand as though to touch her shoulder. Daisy flinched away instinctively, her smile fading as she tugged her shirt back up into place. Sam yanked his hand back, taking a step away and out of her personal space.
"We were just about to get something to eat." Steve said hurriedly, as though to cover the awkward moment. "If you're feeling up for it?"
"Sure." Daisy quickly agreed, giving him a tight smile before meeting Sam's eyes. She smiled at him too, giving him a little nod to convey that they were all good. He gave her a small but warm smile back, though she noticed that he was careful not to crowd her as they left the little room.
They came back out to the comfortable lobby situated just outside the elevators. A table had been set up against one wall with what looked like a small buffet of catered dishes you'd expect to see at a party. Certainly more food than could feed the few of them. They helped themselves and sat down to eat on the couches, making small talk. It wasn't long before the elevator pinged and they all turned to see Natasha step out with Tony Stark.
"Just the felons I wanted to see." Stark said dramatically, eying them all on the couches. "Now that you're no longer dying, maybe you can fill me in on a few things." He said, coming to stand behind the couch where Daisy sat on one end with Steve on the other. "Like how you guys nearly killed 5 men and turned a public shopping center into a warzone not two hours before meeting with me and no one bothered to mention that." He tapped the tablet he held, pulling up a news article before turning it to show them. The headline read '5 Critically injured in Avengers shootout at local mall'. A picture dominated the screen of Daisy and Steve as they were exiting the store. One of Steve's arms was wrapped around her, tucking her into his side as he supported her while they made their escape. Both of their faces were turned to the camera, giving it a perfect shot of exactly who they were. Daisy noted that she looked tiny next to Steve. Her bruised face and the fact that she was clearly injured making her seem fragile and broken. 'ugh I look like shit.' She thought in disgust.
Tony swiped the screen to reveal another article. This picture showed all 5 of them, including Natasha, Bucky, and Sam. The headline read 'Is Captain America bringing his war to our doors?' He swiped again, this time revealing another picture of Daisy and Steve but the headline read 'Are Captain America and Quake dating?!' Steve still had his arm around her in this picture, but she had turned her face into his chest in an effort to hide it from the cameras. But as was her shitty luck, this photo was taken from the opposite side of the crowd from the first and still revealed enough of her face to make her identifiable. It just painted a much more intimate picture of them, especially with Steve's other arm hovering protectively in the air in front of her as he pushed his way through the crowd.
Tony went to swipe again before Daisy yanked the tablet out of his hands to swipe through the articles on her own, needing to see for herself. While many talked about the shooting and injured men left behind, many more seemed focused on the possible super hero romance. "People are really shipping you guys." Natasha said teasingly as she read the articles over Daisy's shoulder.
"Shipping? What is that?" Steve said blankly
"Is it some kind of threat?" Bucky asked from the other couch, just as clueless.
Daisy couldn't help but snort at this, despite the situation. And the situation was not good. All this time she had managed never to get caught on camera. She covered every possible trail she could have left for shield to follow. Now not only was she all over the media, she was shown injured and in league with people Coulson would know how to track down. Shit.
