It was bright, but he was very comfortable. His eyes cracked opened to a hospital room. God he hoped he was still in 2014. Last time he woke up in a strange hospital his life got turned upside down. Music was playing and his eyes found the iPod sitting in the portable speakers. He turned his head, noting Sam in the chair next to him. He relaxed slightly; Sam was here so he couldn't have been out that long right?
"On your left." He said jokingly. He cracked his eyes back open to see Sam smile.
"Welcome back." The pilot said, closing his magazine.
"How long have I been out?"
"About six hours. Recovering from surgery and all." He said. Steve shifted, feeling the shooting pain through the back of his leg, his stomach and his ribs. Bullet wounds… fantastic. But the pain subsided quickly. Something was tugging at his lip and his right shoulder ached a little. A stab wound, and a knife cut. Bucky sure did a number on him. Maybe Crista was right, he should have at least defended himself. Crista. He was alert in a second, sitting up and ignoring the pain.
"Where is Crista?" He asked, dreading the answer. Last he remembered she was saying she was going to die. Did he kill his best friend? Did he bring her into a situation she couldn't survive? Sam put a hand on his shoulder, pressing him back gently and motioning to the other side of the bed.
His breathing relaxed as he saw Crista curled up, asleep in the chair on the other side of his bed.
"She's been out for about two hours. I guess the Soldier didn't let her sleep last night." Sam informed him. Steve reached over, needing at least to feel her breathing, and touched her arm. She stirred at the touch, turquois eyes cracking open. They locked with his for a split second before she was out of the chair.
He had never thought that kissing a dame would be painful, but as Crista was lying on top of him, pressing kisses to anything she should come in contact with, the reaction of his stitches stung.
"Don't…." kiss, "You ever…", mouth kiss, "Do that again!" He was practically laughing and would have been if Crista would let him breath. "If someone is trying to kill you, you try and kill them right back do you understand?" She demanded. He had never seen Crista this mad before, but it was rather entertaining. She was leaning on her elbows, which were on his chest and glaring down him, her hair wild from sleeping in a chair and it hung around her head like a halo.
"I understand." He said, reaching up gently touching her waist.
"This isn't a laughing matter Steven Grant Rogers. Don't ever! Ever again!" She was practically yelling by the end, and he knew he was in trouble when she used his whole name.
"The next time someone tries to kill me, I will try and kill them right back." He said quietly, watching her relax. Instead of crawling off him like he thought she would, she simply moved her elbows, splaying across him with her head on his uninjured shoulder. Right when he relaxed under Crista's weight, the doors opened admitting three armed guards with guns drawn and a small nurse. Steve realized that his heart rate had spiked and they were probably responding to that. Crista's head came up, looking over her shoulder at the three guns.
"Oh fuck off." She said, before lying back down. That was the thing with Crista, she could always make him laugh. Steve got his hands up as much as he could.
"It's fine guys." He said, smiling as they left the room.
"Ma'am you can't be on there with him." Steve's smile faded as Crista growled… Crista doesn't growl. She twisted around, starring at the nurse who had come in.
"First of all, I am not a ma'am. Second, if you want me off this bed you are going to have to kill me because I am not leaving this bed until he does. Third, why does nobody ask nicely anymore?" She said, flopping back down, jarring his stomach wound.
"She's fine." Steve said to the nurse, who begrudgingly nodded and left the room.
"I'm going to go and calm the waters out there. Explain the whole clinging to the Captain thing." Sam said, leaving Steve alone with Crista, who was shaking.
"Hey. Are you ok?" She nodded. "Crista."
"Don't die on my Steve." She said, pulling back so she could look in his face. Tears were swimming in her eyes and guilt slammed through him like one of Bucky's bullets.
"I didn't." She shook her head, dismissing his attempt at humor.
"I don't like it when you bleed. Don't do that anymore." This time he had to laugh, reaching to move her so she was lying next to him instead of on him. She curled up to his left side, snuggling into his shoulder again and they fell into their comfortable silence. From the outside, he was sure that he and Crista looked like more than they were. Crista was just touchy, so she kissed him a lot when she was happy. She actually kissed people a lot in general.
"Hey Crista can I ask you about something?" He said, looking down at her curls as she nodded yes. "Why did you kiss him?" It was very reminiscent of the conversation in his apartment, but this time, he could feel tension throughout his body. She looked up at him eyes scanning his face for a second before she jerked.
"Are you jealous?" She asked, leaning away from him. "Cause last time I kissed him you were happy."
"I'm not jealous." He said, despite the many times he had kissed her and enjoyed it. "He was just… trying to kill me this time." He said.
"That probably would have been a shock. Sorry." She said. He shook his head to let her know she didn't need to apologize, waiting for her to further answer the question. "Um… I realized that when I touch him, when I touch his skin, it's like Bucky starts fighting. I can see the struggle in his eyes. The battle between who gets control over the body, Bucky or the Soldier. Bucky always fought harder when I touched him, hardest when I kissed him. But then someone would say your name, or you would talk and the Soldier would come crashing to the fore front, needing to complete his mission." Steve found himself rubbing her arm. He knew Bucky was in there. "He is the one who saved us though. I wouldn't have survived that fall." She said, nestling closer to him again.
"How did you?" He asked, the words coming out tight. He should have been the one to keep her alive.
"He took the hit of the water on his back. He wasn't going to let anything hurt me." She said. Bucky had always liked Crista, from the second she whispered his name in the snow covered forest. Maybe she was what he needed to get back in control.
"Why?" He asked curiously. She took a deep breath.
"Well, he kept saying I was his. He wouldn't let anyone hurt me, because I was his. Even after they wiped his memory."
"Wiped his memory?" Steve asked, suddenly realizing why Bucky didn't know him. Bucky hadn't forgotten over time, his memories had been locked away.
"Yeah. After the fight on the street, he said that you were familiar. That he knew you." Steve shook his head at the door as the nurse peaked in; he was going to have to get this heart monitor off if someone was going to burst in every time his heart rate increased. Bucky knew him. "That he knew me. But when they wiped him, he didn't know you anymore. But he still protected me. He killed 20 people in three minutes and then made sure that I was buckled into the plane before liftoff. It was very confusing." Steve nodded. Bucky was in there, and he was fighting to get back. Fighting to have control; to remember.
"He was wrong though." Steve said, looking down at Crista.
"Wrong how?" She asked.
"You're mine." He smiled. She laughed, placing her head on his shoulder again.
"Always Rogers." She whispered. He gave her a squeeze before they fell back into silence and before long, Crista was asleep next to him.
When he awoke the next morning, Crista was still asleep on his shoulder. He reached across and brushed some hair off her face, and he realized, there was no pain in his shoulder. He shifted around, noticing no pain in the other wounds, and he was really itchy. A nurse came through the door just then, a small smile on her face as she glanced at Crista.
"How do you feel this morning Captain Rogers?" She asked. Apparently Sam had explained Crista being on the helicarrier with Steve and the hospital staff stopped making her do things she didn't want to do; like vacate his bed.
"Fine. These are itching a bit." He said, motioning to the stitches on his face.
"Just scratch 'em Steve." Crista mumbled, making him smile.
"Don't scratch them." The nurse said, coming over and pressing Crista's hair to her head so she could look at the cut on his face. "Oh wow. That's amazing." She said. She walked around the bed, lifting the blanket and pulling up his hospital gown. "These are ready too." She mumbled. "You really do heal fast." The nurse smiled up at him and he nodded, completely uncomfortable with a strange women starring at his abs while he was wearing nothing but a hospital gown.
"What?" Crista mumbled, blinking her eyes open.
"Captain Roger's stitches look ready to come out. If that is the case, we can probably discharge you this afternoon." The nurse explain as Crista arched her back to stretch.
"Cool. Who's the doctor?"
"I'll go get her." The nurse said. As she left the room Nat breezed in with a bag.
"Hey handsome."
"Hi Natasha." Crista said, causing the red head to smile.
"Brought the clothes you left in the cave." Nat said, dropping the bag on the floor as she plopped herself into Sam's chair.
"How are you doing?" He asked, shifting to sit up.
"Steve use the bed function." Crista said, reaching over him and pressing the button to raise the head of the bed up. New-fangled hospital beds and pushy best friends, he almost wanted to be unconscious again. Nat was laughing to herself in the corner, either at him or Crista and he didn't really want to find out.
"I'm fine. Those widow stings are a bitch though." She said, absentmindedly rubbing her right hand. He nodded, thankfully she had never thrown of those at him. "What's the verdict here?" She asked, eyeing the hospital room.
"I think I get out today." Crista's eyes rolled. "What?"
"Three bullet wounds, a slice to the face, a stabbed shoulder and your right eye was swollen closed and you walk out of the hospital the next damn day." She said, twisting around so a serious of cracks went up her back.
"Must be nice." Nat said, testing her shoulder.
"Sorry. How does that feel?" He asked, knowing that she wasn't entirely happy with having been shot, but it wasn't the first time and he would bet his life that it wouldn't be the last.
"It's fine. He's done worse." She said tucking her feet under her. Crista shifted uncomfortably next to him. If what she told him about Bucky was true, she had a stronger connection to him than anyone in the room wanted. The doctor came in then, causing Nat to raise an eyebrow.
"Let's take a look at those stitches Captain." Crista begrudgingly got out of bed so the doctor could check the stitches on his ribs, nodding. Natasha moved around the bed to stand next to Crista when the doctor wanted to check the stitches on his leg because he had to roll onto his side. He was also uncomfortable that his doctor was a woman, but that was just because he was completely exposed to another strange woman. Crista and Natasha were whispering a conversation in the corner and he got the feeling they were talking about his penis again. He sighed, watching his two friends as they started giggling. He never should have introduced them.
Later that afternoon, Steve and I pulled up to the outside of his apartment building. Steve had turned bright red when Nat had pulled his underwear out of the bag she brought with her, but that just caused the two of us to laugh harder. After my first outburst the hospital staff had been pretty accommodating, realizing that I wasn't going anywhere where I couldn't physically see Steve. I was still angry with him over the whole "not going to fight you" thing but he was alive, and that is what mattered. The hospital had let Steve drive us home seeing as I had no idea where I was going. Nat had somehow gotten his bike to the hospital and I don't know how she got out of there, but it was Nat so I didn't worry about it. He also decided to take the stairs, and I frowned after him. I mean, there was a perfectly functional elevator right there!
"So is this the nurse?" I asked, motioning with my head toward the door just outside the one into which he had inserted a key. Steve looked over at the door, a hard look at his face that faded after a split second.
"Yeah." He said. Before walking through the door. Wonder what that meant.
His apartment was more modern than I would have anticipated. I looked around as I closed the door behind me, making sure to lock the dead bolt; cause that would help in a world full of super people. I wondered through the place, finding the kitchen and paused in the living room; there was a hole in the wall, blood spots on the chair and a big ass blood stain on the carpet. I could hear Steve down the hall so I followed the sound of him pulling open drawers, finding him in the bedroom. It was simple but so was Steve, so it fit him. The bed was a king and that made me smile, he needed the extra room to spread out.
"Are you hungry?" I asked. I didn't really receive an answer because suddenly I was slammed up against the door to the bedroom and Steve's mouth was attacking me. I responded, opening my mouth for him as his hands moved clothing around to get to the skin of my waist. Ok so… my best friend was kissing me against his bedroom door; I was ok with that. His lips trailed down my jaw line moving to my neck and hitting that one spot that basically made me melt. My breath jerked as his tongue ran over my skin.
"Do I still only have to ask?" He growled against my neck.
"Let's be serious, you don't actually have to ask." I said, moaning slightly as he ground his hips against mine. He laughed slightly, his breath warm against my neck.
"Does this count as asking?"
"Yep." I said turning my head and reconnecting with his lips. Steve was my best friend, and I get that best friend shouldn't bang each other and what not, and we weren't really friends with benefits. Unless of course one considers the benefit of having just a smoking hot guy as your best friend. That benefit made it really easy for my body to respond to him tugging at the hem of my shirt. I lifted my arms for him and before the cloth was actually off his lips attached to my collar bone.
Both of us were breathing heavily, stripping clothes off the other whenever we could stand to break apart for a couple seconds. My hands trailed down his abs latching onto his fly. Now sleeping with Captain America is not something that one forgets, like ever, but I have to admit, I didn't remember him being quiet that big. Of course it was nothing but thrilling as I gently pulled the zipper down and popped the button of his jeans. He peeled my jeans off me and I kicked my shoes off, leaving us both in underwear. As he stood back up, trailing his fingers lightly over the outsides of my legs I shivered. His hands stopped at my thighs moving around the backs and lifting me off the floor as his mouth found mine again and he pushed me against the door. The doorknob was cold right next to my leg in complete contrast to the heated body length pressed against me. My fingers tangled into the hair at the nape of his neck and he growled; I smiled into the kiss. He still growled when he was happy apparently.
He pinned me against the wall as his hands trailed up by spine and he unsnapped my bra. I pulled back slightly shocked.
"You got that fast." He smiled slightly before kissing me again and pulling me away from the door. He stumbled over the pile of clothes a bit before he dropped me to the bed. He trailed kisses down my collar bone as he removed the thong from my hips, dropping it off the bed before stepping out of his boxers.
"I never should have asked you to come down here." He said, crawling up the bed so he was laying over me. That statement was confusing, and not usually one that something says right before sex dude. "I never should have put you in harm's way." He said, kissing me hard.
"Steve." I said making him pull back slightly. "I will always be there when you need me, for anything." I rand my hand through his hair, a little sad that it no longer fell into his eyes. As he breathed, I let my eyes travel the length of his body watching his chest move with the motion and actually seeing what I was dealing with. And that was impressive. Long, straight, thick, good god how did this man not have a girlfriend… right that whole trouble talking to women thing.
"Are you good?" He asked, allowing his thumb to roll over my left nipple.
"Just so good." I panted, arching my back as his hips thrust into me. This time, not having an army base full of men surrounding us, I let the scream out. How is it that he could hit that spot so perfectly the first damn time; oh yeah, because he was perfect.
This time, I didn't have to force Steve to let go, he just did. There was a desperation in his thrusts that almost brought tears to my eyes. I pulled him in close, allowing his face to bury into my shoulder as each thrust shoved into the bottom of my belly causing mini explosions behind my eye lids. Last time we both made a conscience effort to stay quiet, this time we didn't give a flying fuck if the neighbors complained; but let me tell you, almost dyeing sure made a hell of a difference. Then again the last guy I had had sex with was a bartender so… he didn't really match Steve.
Steve reached his climax during my first one this time, collapsing on top of me afterward. My hand trailed along his lower back, feeling the light sheen of sweat. When he tried to roll off I kept him there for second.
"I don't want to crush you."
"You aren't. It's actually kind of nice." I said. So he stayed there, for about two minutes before pulling out of me standing up. With his back turned I reached up to pull the messy pony tail out, letting my hair fall over my shoulders taking note of the slight sting in the right one, and just admire that view… no one should have an ass that perfect. He turned around, eyes skimming down my torso and he blushed. "Seriously? You blush now?"
"I…" He sat down on the bed as I sat up. "I didn't mean to take advantage…"
"Shut up." I said, watching him look at me. "It would only have been taking advantage if I were asleep."
"I just… You almost died." He said, reaching out and touching my knee.
"Not as close as you." He nodded. "We both needed it Steve. Sex can be that way sometimes." I said, running my hand down his shoulder. He yawned and then smiled slightly in embarrassment. "Get some sleep sweetie." He nodded again, crawling up and promptly falling asleep. He was more exhausted then he let anyone know. I went into the bathroom and moved my hair. The bite mark on my shoulder was actually bleeding. So his jaws were just as strong as the rest of him. Good thing I liked him.
I found one of Steve's shirts, a blue plaid button up and slipped my jeans on. I checked the door to make sure that it wouldn't lock behind me and crept into the hall, knocking lightly on the door in front of me. A thin blonde opened the door, a bandage wrapped around her right forearm.
"Hi." I said.
"Hello." She said, eyes darting around to look for something.
"Are you Kate? The nurse?" I asked. Her eyes refocused on me for a second.
"Um, yes?" I wasn't sure if I wanted someone who questioned if she was a nurse or not, but she was really the only option I had.
"I'm Crista. I'm a friend of Steve's." I said, motioning to his door.
"Oh right. Is he ok?" She asked.
"Yeah. I just have something that I need some help with. A nurse is preferable." I said slowly hoping she would realize that I actually needed a nurse.
"Oh sure. Come on in." She lead me through her small apartment to a bathroom, pulling out a small first aid kit. "What do you need help with?" I pulled the right shoulder down to reveal the bite mark. "Oh my god." She said.
"It's fine. He just lost a little control." I said.
"Steve did this?" She asked, a wide eyed look on her face.
"Yeah."
"It just doesn't seem like the nice guy that I know." She said slowly. I understood now.
"To be honest, he was kind of having an orgasm." I said. That got a different reaction that I expected as she cleaned the small area where Steve had broken skin. I hissed as the sting hit.
"Sorry." She said before placing the alcohol bottle on the counter. "Clean is always better."
"It's fine. I can't really complain as I can't reach it myself." The tension radiating off Kate was palpable as she covered the broken skin with a band aid.
"Crista, I have to confess something to you." She said, as I pulled the shoulder of Steve's shirt back up. "Steve asked me for coffee a couple days ago, and I didn't know about you." I stayed quiet, letting her finish whatever thought she was struggling to get out. "I flirted. And I am pretty sure he flirted back." I tried, really hard I swear, to hold back a laugh at the thought of Steve flirting; it didn't work. I snorted a giggle, covering it with my hand like that would make it go away.
"You don't know him very well do you?" I asked, a smile on my face and the smallest hint of laughter in my voice. Her head shook. "Steve probably didn't know you were flirting, he is kind of dumb that way, and he wouldn't have flirted if he had a girlfriend."
"But he did ask me out to coffee." She said. Holy crap, she thought I was his girlfriend.
"Good for him." I said, watching the shock come onto her face. "Steve and I aren't a thing. The sex is more like a stress release." That was the best explanation that I could come up with. The stress of being thrown through time, stress of both of us almost dying, the stress of one of our friends trying to kill him.
"Oh." She said, taken aback again. "I wouldn't have expected that from him." She said slowly.
"We're working that whole terrified of sex thing." I smiled. "Thanks for the patch up." I said, moving out of the bathroom and through the door into the hall.
