Chapter 8.
Natasha wandered for a while before she found the new hospital Tony had installed near the top of the tower. A middle-aged man in a lab coat was humming to himself, watching a computer screen. He seemed awfully jolly.
"You must be Dr. Bloom," Nat said, gesturing to the only little room with the door closed. "Are they in there? How is Bruce?"
Dr. Bloom shook her hand, smiling. "You must be Natasha Romanoff. It's nice to meet you. I'm a big fan."
She might have had something lined up to say to him, some quip about how he must like her better than Iron Man – but it faded when she saw what waited beyond the window.
Steve.
He was looking right at her, waiting.
Nat walked into the room, coming to a stop five feet away.
He was a completely different person.
Steve looked like a skeletal version of himself. His arms were skinny, frail, and he had lost over a foot of height. He suddenly looked ten years younger, afraid and weak. Her first, horrible thought was that he was dying. But everyone had seen the photos of Captain America before he received the serum. Museums liked to show a side-by-side, to illustrate the shocking transformation.
She never imagined anything could take it away from him.
"You can take back that dance now, if you want," Steve said, as she stepped up to his bedside. His voice, thankfully, sounded exactly the same.
Nat barely heard him. She hugged him, filled with an intimate, freeing relief. He was fine. Different, but fine. Her friends were all strong, seemingly untouchable, but this gas attack had put half the team in mortal peril.
When she pulled away, she said, "Are you okay?"
His smile was the same as it ever was. "I've felt better."
Nat put her hand over his. It was cold, skeletal. "I mean do you feel your age?"
It was the second thing on her mind. Steve was a man out of time, frozen years and years ago and preserved in ice. The serum was the only reason he was alive. Now that it was gone, were those years going to catch up to him?
He shrugged. "Not yet. It's been a really long time since I felt so weak."
"I kinda like it. You're cute, like a puppy."
"You and Tony should collaborate on a joke book."
"They don't make those anymore."
"When the crisis is over," Steve said, "Can I take you to dinner?"
His formal tone made her laugh. Another reminder that he was born a couple of generations before her. "I would like that."
His eyes were hazy. He seemed to be fading. "If I get back to myself, that is." He yawned. "I'm sure they can… figure something out."
"Get some sleep in the meantime."
Not that she had to tell him.
His eyes were already closed.
And as he drifted off, Thor stirred in the next bed. Natasha watched as his eyes slid open, as he took in the room, his position, the medical equipment surrounding him.
He looked straight at her. "What happened?"
"Long story short, we got gassed at the party, you and Steve went down, and Steve lost his powers. Bruce might have, too."
Thor had never looked so afraid. He shot one hand up, always his first instinct in battle. But he laid there waiting, waiting, a devastating grief welling up in his eyes. "I cannot feel Mjolnir."
"We had to leave it behind. Couldn't lift it. It's still at the party."
He didn't respond. His eyes were miles away. She couldn't imagine what he was feeling, what both of them were feeling. Nat never had powers. If one day she woke up and felt completely normal – no training, just a normal person – she would probably start spiraling. She was like Steve in that respect. She had found her purpose in being a hero.
Bruce was still unconscious in the third bed. He was a little banged up, but his vitals were normal. The three of them looked pitiful. Lost boys.
While Steve and Bruce slept, and Thor went through an existential crisis, she joined Dr. Bloom outside. He was still at his computer, staring at a blood slide, murmuring to himself.
"Any insight?" she wondered.
He glanced at her, smiled, and shook his head. "No… I have a few tests running right now. At the very least, I'll have some images for Dr. Banner to look at when he wakes up. If anyone will know what this gas is, it's him."
"How is he doing?"
"Stable, for now."
"I meant… is the Hulk still in there?"
Bloom debated, and then decided, "No. He has a few scrapes and bruises that are behaving just like you would expect on a normal human man. I have a slide of his blood here. See for yourself."
He pulled another image up on the monitor. Natasha saw normal red blood cells.
Bloom said, "Usually, the gamma mutation would spit out a scramble of information in the results. But this time… well, his cholesterol is a little high."
She watched Bloom work for a while, keeping an eye on her teammates. She was the only one currently here to protect them. Thor tried to get up a few times, only to collapse. Nat and Dr. Bloom had to drag him back to his bed. Steve stayed dead asleep, so still that Nat took to watching the line bounce up and down on his monitor, assuring her that his heart was beating. Bruce fidgeted, whined, squeezed his eyes shut.
He was having nightmares.
Nat tried to pass the time with conversation.
"How did you meet Tony?" she asked.
"We met in college. We sat beside each other in chemistry. We were both on an accelerated course of study, with a few other kids."
"Kids, huh?"
"I was ten. Tony was eleven, I think."
"You guys were friends?"
Bloom laughed. "Sort of. Tony was an asshole. I was… in awe of him. We went everywhere together. In retrospect, I think he just wanted someone to witness his genius."
Nat rolled her eyes, immediately able to visualize it. Tony must have been a confident kid, coming from such a successful father. He probably liked having someone who admired him.
"But when we grew up a little more, we were civil," Bloom went on. "We've met a few times over the years, collaborated on a project or two back when he was still making weapons for the government."
Nat was standing by the window like a sentinel, arms crossed, feeling a little helpless. "It's gonna be hard for them, if we can't find a way to reverse this."
Bloom said, "Beyond that, the ramifications of a weapon this potent are… terrifying."
Her eyes were drawn, inevitably, to Steve. "Maybe it's just temporary."
She felt Bloom looking at her, doubt in his sad eyes, but he said nothing. He went back to his blood slides, and she stood watch, waiting for the other shoe to drop.