Hey guys! Your reviews made me crack up. Good guesses but I won't be revealing any answers until MUCH later in the story.
Not much else to say... Enjoy your weekend! And this chapter.
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They landed back on the Helicarrier and Bruce was immediately rushed to the infirmary. Tony was only just regaining consciousness as Tasha followed the medics and the stretcher to the hospital wing.
"Dad?" she asked cautiously as she stepped inside his private room. "Are you awake?"
"Tasha- you're really back? It wasn't just a hallucination?" Tony asked, voice tired.
Tasha walked the rest of the way in and slowly sat down on the chair, grasping Tony's wrist for a brief second before releasing. "Yeah. We're all here. What happened?"
Tony was silent for a moment; Tasha thought he had fallen back asleep before he suddenly said, "Sorry. Uh... I think we were having a movie night. Pepper was on another floor. I asked Jarvis for something and he didn't respond... I think whoever it was gassed us. I don't remember anything else beyond that point. Have you recovered anyone else?"
"We just got back from getting Bruce. We recovered Thor first, then Natasha and Clint. You were fourth. I'm really suspicious, though. Everything about this is super convenient."
"Why?" Tony asked curiously.
"I don't know if you remember or not, but you were whispering 'India' over and over again. Calcutta was where Bruce was being hidden. Thor tipped us off to Natasha and Clint's location. Natasha gave us your hiding place. I reaaaaally don't like the convenience of this whole thing."
Tony frowned. "Neither do I. Has Bruce said anything?"
"He hasn't woken up yet," Tasha said. "How're you feeling?"
"Like a semi ran me over," he said. "But better than I was wherever I was. Uh... where was I?"
"You don't want to know."
Silence.
"S***. Ten Rings, wasn't it?"
"Um."
He sighed. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."
"Can you sit up?" Tasha asked.
"I think so." He moved his arms and shoved them into the mattress. Tasha reached out and supported his back as he sat up slowly.
"Yay!" Tasha said happily, applauding sarcastically.
Tony glowered at her, but couldn't stay mad long and laughed, shaking his head. "Who else is out of commission?"
"Bruce got beat up pretty bad. Clint was hurt fairly badly... actually, everyone we've rescued so far was pretty bad. I don't think anyone was worse than another."
"Great. So who are we missing... Capsicle?"
"Don't let Stephanie hear you say that. She's been really touchy recently. But yes, we're just missing Steve."
Tony sighed and grabbed a glass of clear liquid, taking a sip and sputtering. "Not vodka," he said grumpily. "Just water."
"I don't think you should be drinking with your current condition," Tasha said dryly.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Tony drained the glass, made a face, and then asked, "But why did they take us?"
"I don't know. But I have a feeling it's important."
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Stephanie gingerly sat down on her bed, carefully rubbing her side. She had put something out of whack when she rolled to avoid a bullet, and the strained muscle wasn't healed yet.
Her uniform required repairs yet again. Stephanie sighed and pulled out a needle and some matching thread, threading the needle with a practiced hand. Finally, her mother's sewing lessons were worth something.
She carefully wove the tail of the thread in with the stitches and slowly stitched up the gash, making sure to go over each stitch individually. She didn't want them snapping in the middle of a fight, leaving her side exposed.
As she sewed, she thought of the massive amounts of injuries sustained by the recovered and recovering Avengers. It seemed to slowly have gotten worse with each Avenger, though the amount of time in captivity could have contributed to the injuries, or lack thereof.
What really worried her was how Steve would be when they rescued him.
It was simple, really. Thor had been only minorly beat up. Natasha really didn't count, because the Widow was a woman and whoever had caught the Avengers evidently didn't believing in hurting women. No, they had mentally tortured her by hurting Clint when she was unable to do anything. He had taken massive amounts of pain and wounds, probably enough for both of them.
Tony had a grudge with his captors, and they wanted revenge very badly, contributing to the many gashes and broken bones Lori had had to heal. Bruce had taken longer to retrieve than the others, but had probably the least amount of damage. His captors were obviously afraid of unleashing the Hulk- a very real threat. Besides, the Hulk healed any and all injuries. The sedative they had doped him up on had kept Bruce from escaping, however.
Simply by following the pattern, Stephanie could deduce that Steve- wherever he was- was probably in a world of hurt.
She shuddered and almost pricked herself with the needle. She checked the stitches one last time and tied the thread off with the ease of long practice, trimming the loose ends before she held her uniform out in front of her and shook it.
"Looks great!" a voice said from the airvent.
Stephanie yelped and spun as Claire kicked the screen off the cover, sliding into her room easily. "You sew? Didn't know that," she commented.
"Yeah. Sometimes," Stephanie said with a shrug. She laid her uniform on the bed and turned to Claire, steeling herself as she said, "Look, I'm really sorry for my outburst-"
"Save it," Claire said firmly. "You've been having a rough time lately. It's just a lot for you to take in. It was perfectly understandable. And that's actually what I came to talk to you about."
Stephanie raised an eyebrow and moved to the bathroom, tugging her blonde hair out of her braid. "Do tell."
"I... had a talk with Nathan. And while we aren't as close as we used to be, we've decided to at least be civil to each other," Claire said. She sat down on Stephanie's bed and examined her outfit a bit more.
"Really? That's... good to know. What brought this on?" Stephanie asked as she brushed her hair out, pulling out flakes of ash and bits of sand from their earlier recoveries.
"Your... talk. It made us both realize that though we may not be boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, at least we can be comrades." Claire shrugged and held up Stephanie's uniform. "You missed a spot, by the way." She stuck her finger through a small burn hole.
"Thanks, and that's great. Thank you. For the team, and my sanity," Stephanie said with a laugh, splitting her hair into three sections and beginning to rebraid it. "Thanks for telling me personally."
"No problem!" Claire said with a grin. "I'll be going now."
"Oh- have we gotten anything from Bruce yet?" Stephanie asked, looking at the mirror as Claire got ready to go back through the air vent.
"No. He hasn't woken up yet," she said, with a sad glance at Stephanie. "I'll let you know as soon as he does."
"Thank you," Stephanie said, with a sad smile, as she tied her hair back more firmly and sighed. Claire left the way she came and replaced the air vent cover, much to Stephanie's relief.
Stephanie walked over to her bed and pulled out her duffle bag. Sitting on top was the picture of all the Avengers and Young Avengers together. She picked up the picture and stared at it for a long while, drawing her legs up to her chest with a heavy sigh.
"Where are you?" she whispered hopelessly to the picture of Steve. But of course, he couldn't respond, and she was left alone, in an empty room, holding a picture of her family.