Cap?! Hey, Cap?! Rogers? Stay with me! Steve?!

Steve Rogers heard the voice calling to him, somewhere outside of his current weightless existence. Time seemed to slow down, and he barely registered that his body felt like it was somehow simultaneously freezing and on fire.

He wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but he knew that it couldn't be good whatever it was, especially with how his nerve endings seemed to be burning and how distressed the voice calling to him sounded.

Who was it again?

He couldn't even remember what he had been doing, let alone recognize the voice that tried to tear through the fog in his mind.

Eventually, the voice faded and seemed to be replaced by loud beeps and people talking over one another in a swirl. The noises sounded vaguely familiar, but as his mind got foggier, he found he couldn't place them and didn't care to try.

Instead, he allowed himself to fade away.

Tony never expected the lounge at the Compound to feel claustrophobic like a hospital waiting room, but now it certainly did, as he nervously paced back and forth like a caged cat.

They had managed to get the Captain back to the Compound in record time, and afterward, their medical team swooped in and whisked him away just as quickly, without so much as a backward glance or a "he'll be okay."

It had been nearly two hours, and they had heard nothing at all. Everyone told Tony that maybe no news was good news, but he had a hard time believing that haven saw Steve for himself. His bloodshot eyes and yellowing skin were enough to worry Tony, but then he had gotten a second glance at the dead super-soldier who had the same appearance, and anxiety threatened to choke him. Was it a coincidence?

"When is anything ever a coincidence?" Tony muttered to himself dryly, reaching a hand up and rubbing his sore and tired eyes. His whole body ached, especially his head.

He really shouldn't be standing upright himself, but how could he lay down when Captain America could be dead? Steve could die, and they weren't even sure what was killing him, as far as Tony knew.

To say that Tony's phone going off was alarming was probably an understatement, as focused as he was on his pacing. He jolted and glanced down, pulling the phone out of his pocket with a disgusted look on his face.

More disgust rose into his chest when he saw the caller ID. Secretary Ross, calling his cell phone of all things, was extremely irritating.

"What?" He answered with a sharp and annoyed tone in his voice as he spoke, "what in the world could you possibly want?"

"Testy, are we?" Ross spat, and Tony could almost hear the man rolling his eyes, "I was calling to give you an update on the super-soldier issue. I thought you might like to know what's going on."

Tony worked his jaw back and forth, willing himself to pull a patient facade into place, but all considered, it was hard to do. "What's going on then, Mr. Secretary?"

"We've come up with a solution to irradicate them on our own, and we won't be needing your assistance."

Tony's brow furrowed, an uneasy feeling raising into his chest, wrapping itself into a ball and making breathing more difficult.

"A solution? What kind of solution?" Tony asked, his voice tight.

"A toxin which only attacks those with the super-soldier gene, we released it among them, and oddly enough they seem to be spreading it to each other. It's working flawlessly, and with any luck, it may even kill Steve Rogers. We can hope for the best."

Suddenly Tony felt as if someone poured a bucket of ice water over his head. The sheer horror, the realization of what Ross just said, caused him to nearly drop his phone.

The silence which tore through the air didn't last long, as Ross began chuckling, sending another chill down Tony's spine.

"What's the matter, Stark? Is that going to be a problem?" He asked. "Are you worried that your criminal of a friend might die?"

Tony's mouth felt dry. He wasn't sure if he could even answer the question but realized that he had to do so.

"Why would it be a problem?" Tony said slowly, trying to keep the tremor in his voice from being heard.

"Well, it's hard to say. After all, we have received multiple reports of Roger's being seen with you only last night, so it seems quite likely that you have been lying to us, Stark."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Tony growled, "and I don't appreciate the implication."

"You can run and hide all you'd like. You can dance around and pretend that you're following the Accords. You can pretend that you aren't hiding him at the Compound, that you weren't the one behind his escape, but believe me, Mr. Stark, I know better than that. I know that you're hiding him, and rest assured it will not last forever."

There was venom in the man's tone, and it implied what Tony had known since he had discovered that Ross had been experimenting on Steve.

Snake.

"Listen, Ross, if you're done harassing me, I have better things to do than sit here and listen to you go on about all the things you know, alright?" And with that, he hung up, not allowing the man the chance to answer at all.

Tony could feel his heart pounding in his chest. If Ross truly knew everything, and if the man was as dangerous as he seemed, they were all in more trouble than they had been in for some time. Tony wasn't sure if this time it was his fault, or if it was the fault of the foolish governments who trusted the man to be fair and honest after the corruption he had already been known for.

He wasn't sure in what way the man's corruption had driven him this time, outside of his quest for the serum, but he knew that whatever it was couldn't be a good thing.

What was worse was whatever was coursing through Steve's system right now was what had killed the super-soldier they had been fighting. There was no doubt now, and that was a terrible thing.

They had no idea what it was and minimal time to figure it out. Tony had no way of knowing if Cap was infected with it during that fight, or if he had been infected with it during the fight in the park. Either one of the instances could have been the one, and how could they know exactly how quickly this toxin worked?

If they couldn't even figure out what was in his bloodstream, they had no way of ever being able to figure out anything about it. The toxin might have been designed to be entirely undetectable and untraceable, and Tony was sure that this was most likely the case.

He took off in a dead run into the medical ward, determined to at least tell them what limited information he had just been given. At least it would be somewhere to start, at least it would be something, and maybe they would be able to figure it out in time to save Cap's life.

If not, Tony knew that his death would hang over his head for the rest of his life.

Authors Note:

Well hey guys, it's been a hot minute! 2020 has been insane and so much has changed in my life, but I have always promised that I will finish this story and I am back at it again!

I don't think there are too many chapters left in this one, though I plan to potentially one day do a sequel, I'm kind of just writing as I feel inspired so in turn updates are just few and far between, but maybe one day I'll get better at updating. (Though the odds are slim as I'm actually due to have a baby next July and things can only get crazier from there! Who knows!)

I wanted to thank everyone who's found this story in the past year without updates and favored it anyway, I get excited every time I see one of them in my inbox and I promise it does motivate me to continue! =)

Anyway, stay safe out there!