When Eva woke up she was lying on a cold metal table with a machine repeatedly running over her body, and it felt like someone was knitting her skin back together.

"Morning," she heard a familiar voice say, and she tilted her head to see a bloodshot-eyed Sam sat beside her. "You look like hell."

"Not so good yourself, asshole. Why am I being scanned?"

A pretty Asian woman in mint green scrubs walked up to her. "We're healing your wound," she said, "give it a couple of hours and some bedrest, and you should be good as new."

"Oh," said Eva weakly, "wonderful."

"I should've made you promise not to do anything like this again after Oscorp," said Sam, mainly to himself.

"I would've done it anyway." She reached out and squeezed his hand. "And imagine what could've happened if I hadn't. Don't blame yourself Sam, everything worked out fine in the end."

"Apart from you getting shot."

"Remember the time I skidded beneath a lorry? I'm looking at this like I did that; like a really cool anecdote which I can regale people with countless times." He laughed at that, and someone else walked into view. "Morning, Cap'n."

"Afternoon, actually," Steve smiled, leaning against the wall in his star suit. "I guess we owe you again."

"Just tighten your security policies so you don't hire maniacs and we'll call it even," she said. "What happened to the administrator?"

"She's alive," Steve said, "barely. We packaged her up and sent her to the authorities - she won't be seeing daylight without the bars of a cell over her window for a very long time."

"So long as she's alive," Eva mumbled, not wanting Vision to have blood on his hands because of her. She winced as a new layer of skin sealed over her wound. "Is this supposed to burn?"

"Yep. Same thing Ultron used to make Vision, actually."

"Where is the Oompa-Loompa?" she asked, surprised that he wasn't with her.

Sam shrugged. "He found and brought you here, then disappeared before the rest of us had even got off the jet."

"Doesn't sound like him," she said.

"Well," said Steve, "his best friend did just get shot."

"Can we please stop talking about her getting shot?" Sam asked. "I'm trying to repress it, for the sake of our relationship."

Eva grinned. "I should probably tell you, um, I have neither health insurance nor the money to pay for this."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Steve. "I'll leave you to rest. Nice shirt, by the way."

She glanced down at the pajamas someone had changed her into; rolled up to the bottom of her ribcage so the wound could be reached, the phrase Cool Kids Mosh to Tchaikovsky was emblazoned across her baggy tshirt.

"Thanks," she mumbled, and Sam sniggered.

%

When she woke up it was night, and Sam was dozing, leant forward on his arm. The machine was turned off and her side felt as good as new, and save for a slight dizziness she guessed was down to blood loss, she felt fine. She had been unplugged from the IV stand, too, so she stood up on bare feet, scribbled Sam a note on a piece of scrap paper she found and left the med bay.

She was only in her pajamas, so went back to Sam's apartment and changed into some spare clothes before fetching her bike from the garage. "Don't faint," she told her body, buckling on her helmet. The roads were nearly empty but it still took her longer than it normally did to get into the city, and she parked around the block from Central Park.

Eva found him where they had first sat together, under the branches of a rowan tree. He stood up and turned as she walked towards him.

"Hey," she said, trying to look better than she felt.

"I'm sorry," he said immediately, "I saw you bleeding out and I - I panicked, I lost control. I couldn't stay there and watch you -"

He was cut off by her hugging him, as tight as she could manage.

Eva felt his arms settle around her in return, and they relaxed in each other's familiar grip. "Aren't you upset?" he asked, and she hated that she could hear a slight shake in his voice.

"Of course I'm not, V. You saved my life! And besides, any human would've freaked out in that situation, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

She felt his chin rest on the top of her head. "Are you alright?"

"Good as new, they put me in that machine thingie. You're kind of terrifying when you're angry, you know."

"I am not going to lose you, Eva," he said fiercely, his arms tight around her. "I refuse to let that happen."

"My weird guardian angel," she smiled, and let go of him. "You even fly, even if you don't have feathery wings. Are you okay?"

"You should not be asking me that, Eva. Not when you have just been shot."

"Too bad. You look awful, as much as you can do, I guess." She took his hand. "Would it make you feel any better if I promise never to try and save the world ever again?"

"Somewhat," he admitted. "I think twice is more than enough, don't you?"

"If you insist."

A/N and thus this little story arc is all tied up and finished, with normal service to be resumed next week. Did you like it? It was a little different to what I normally do in this fic. ALSO: since there seems to be a lot of conflicting interests of ships going down in the reviews of this fic, I've set up a poll to find out which is most popular. (I love that Eva/Vision has a proper name, and that I didn't even come up with it. Evasion. AMAZING.) Please have your say, I'm fascinated to see which would be most popular!