While Steve slept, healing some of the damage, we hoped, we all worked away at analysing the problem.
I was so glad to have insisted on reserving the first pass at the monitoring data for myself. The others trusted me to do the raw processing properly, and I was so relieved that it gave us a bit more privacy to an already too exposed event. As I scrolled through the timelines, matching up respiratory rate and heart beats, I recognised certain times. This was when I touched him there, here was our final moment. If it was anyone else, it would have felt too voyeuristic, but I was there, this was more like a sweet remembrance of a beautiful moment, laid out in hard data. I transformed the datasets before I sent them out for more general distribution, recognising what events were going to be useful in understanding the problem, and which moments could stay intimate. One of the ones that I did leave in was the final moment. That one coincided with a massive electromagnetic energy release, fortunately of just harmless alpha radiation, followed by a drop to slightly less than background levels of radiation.
As soon as I was satisfied with my first pass at the data, I distributed it to the rest of the team. The rush and urgency to get some handle on exactly what was going on with the contaminant inside our bodies meant that there was little time to pause and think about personal things. Anna was particularly concerned about what it meant for there to be a substance in the world that affected super-soldiers so strongly and negatively.
"I don't think it was what they were attempting, but if it got out that there was a chemical that could incapacitate Captain America in just a few hours, no one enhanced with Erskine's serum, or any of its derivatives, would be safe."
"Yes," Tony said, eyes widening as he realised the implications of this for the Avengers, "I'll go talk to Maria about it. Damage Control is usually pretty good about this kind of thing, but some departments may be running a bit rudderless right now." he commented, looking at Anna and I significantly. "Hill is great at keeping this kind of thing under wraps."
Tony strode out of the room to make arrangements. We had decided, after getting a grip on the source of the radiation, that the quarantine could be mostly lifted, for the three of us at least. We still each wore radiation detector arm-bands, but it meant that we could leave the lab, and that technicians could come in, filling in a lot of the scientific leg-work to get this resolved.
We also decided that until we had established a timeline on Steve's recovery, and whether the radiation would return or his physical deterioration continue, we were to keep strict separation between him, and those of us who had been exposed to the contaminant. I knew that having a timeline would allow him to go out into the world again, without putting the public in danger, but I longed to be with him again, to be in his arms when he woke up, and to sort out together what all this meant to us. I couldn't be close to him, but I wasn't supposed to go far either, in case a sudden downturn in his health necessitated an urgent liaison between the two of us again
Over the course of the day, we made steady progress towards understanding the interaction between our physiology and the contaminant. Pepper had come in all flustered, and made a bit of a fuss over Tony. We had met a few times in the past, and I admired her ability to rein him in. I supposed I should be looking for pointers.
In the early evening, we were joined by Helen Cho, who had been out of town at a conference, but rushed back to the Avengers Compound when she was informed of the day's events. It was hard to believe that that was only this morning; it felt like a million years ago. I had collaborated with Helen on a few projects in the past, and got on so well I considered her a good friend. Both she and Anna were more familiar with the Avengers lab and facilities than I was, and their comfort with their surroundings helped put me a bit more at ease, after the adrenaline of everything that had been thrown at me today had worn off. With her superior knowledge of genetics and cell biology, Helen saw several promising new avenues for treatment that we had missed, and we all dug in on the legwork required to fully assess them.
After several more hours of investigation, I decided to call it a day. We'd set some samples cycling through lab analysis, and some computer simulations were ticking away, so Tony headed off to take care of some of his own things. When he was worried, he got even more glib, and threw himself into fine-tuning all his work, or "meddling" as Anna called it when it was collaborative projects, so she had sent him away. With just us ladies left, Helen brewed a pot of tea, and we all settled in for a break and a bit of a gossip, moving to the office/conference space next to the lab and propping our feet up on the chairs.
As we sipped our tea, focused shifted from the scientific aspects of the day's events to the personal ones. My mind strayed again to the man that I had just tied my life to, and opened up to physically, more than anyone else before.
"So, you and Steve?" Helen broke the ice. "How does that feel?"
"I have no idea. This whole situation's so crazy. Who knows how it's going to turn out. I barely know him."
"You kids will figure it out." Anna reassured me, really leaning in to her grand-motherly persona. "Besides the circumstances of this whole situation pushing you together so quickly, I really do think that a romance between you two would have always gotten serious. If I'm going to play Yenta, I think I've done a good job of matchmaking."
"I do like him, but he's practically a stranger. I'm familiar with his career, but that's hardly the sum of a person. I've got the clearance, I could request his Shield files and read up on him, but that feels a little stalker-ish. You two know him, what's he like?"
Helen spoke up first. The brilliant scientist was very soft spoken. She was properly assertive with her work, as she needed to be to run a lab as prestigious as hers, but when it came to social situations, she tended to watch and wait shyly. But we were old friends, and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind when I asked her to.
"I've seen him in action a few times. He's quick to intercede, and quick to see what needs to be done. He's no scientist, but he more than keeps up with Tony, Bruce and I when discussing non-scientific matters."
Anna interjected, "I've read Dr. Erskine's notes on why he chose Steve. His thought was that the serum enhanced whatever was in a man. Not so much making a super-soldier, as a super-Steve. Of course his physique was enhanced, but as his first outings in WWII showed, it enhanced his tactical mind and memory as well. More than that, Steve was a good man, and the serum has helped him become a great man. I've seen that myself.
"Oh yes," put in Helen, "He's always treated me with kindness and respect. He's a little slow to open up to people, and I'm so quiet myself that we aren't the closest of friends, but I know he's a good person, and I wish the best for him."
"We all want to see Steve happy, and you as well. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I wish I had set you two up ages ago. Although I suspect you both would have resented my meddling. He has such a strong moral compass, and service ethic; you two have that in common. But, you're so calm; he'll shake you out of the complacency you tend towards. And you'll offer some stability and give him someone to make him take better care of himself. Yes, this is probably going to be very good for you both." Anna finished smugly.
Just then Natasha strode into the room, coming to check on the progress of Steve's situation.
I knew Natasha Romanoff by reputation only, the Avengers' Black Widow. She was supposedly an ex-KGB special agent, trained in espionage and hand to hand combat. I knew that Steve and Natasha had taken down SHIELD together, and been on the run together several other times as well, so they must be close.
"Ah, Natalia, you're just the person we need right now," Anna called out to her.
"Oh, how can I help?" Her concern for her friend was clear in her face.
"Oh we've got the situation in hand; we'll have the science sorted soon enough. We've moved on to girl talk."
"Yes, I heard Steve finally got laid" She said, sitting down with us, and helping herself to a cookie from the box we had opened. But, seeing my expression, a mix of embarrassment and anxiousness, she quickly changed tack. "I'm glad he's got someone; it'll be good for him. Despite the friends he's made, and built into a team, I think he's been lonely. I didn't think he was ever going to find someone, the situation's given him a push in the right direction is all."
Her words were not as reassuring to me as she thought. I had the sudden idea that Steve hadn't wanted a relationship at all. "So he really hasn't wanted anyone."
"There've been women. He was hung up on his first love for so long. You know, from the fourties. He met her again when he came out of the ice. I think he was waiting for her to pass before he could move on. And then there was that brief thing with her niece. But that fizzled out quickly. Probably for the best.
"But Steve… Steve is heartbreakingly earnest when it counts and a sarcastic little shit when it doesn't. Don't let those baby blues fool you; he'll tease you mercilessly if he gets the chance. He can be stubborn as an ass, too. When he thinks he's right he'll just dig in his heels, come hell or high water," Natasha said. "He usually is right, though."
"Natalia, why so harsh?" Anna broke in, "You'll scare poor Rachael away."
"You should know what you're getting into," she replied, addressing herself to me, unrepentant.
"Thank you," I say softly, "I can handle him, I think."
"Well," Anna said, rising, "This old woman is going to bed. It's been a long day, and you ladies would do well to do the same. There's not much more we can do until morning, anyway."
We took her advice. I did one last walk-through the lab, double checking some things and making a few adjustments. With one last glance at the containment suite, windows darkened and with a night-nurse watching over Steve's condition, I left the lab.
Anna had a small suite she regularly used when she was attending on the Avengers, and Helen had an apartment on site, so I was directed to the guest suites, set up near the lab for visiting researchers. Someone had thought to send a personal assistant to my apartment to pick up a few things for me, so I had my own toothbrush and pyjamas, and a clean set of clothes for tomorrow.
I thought that with all that was going on in my head that I would never be able to fall asleep, but I was so exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally, that I was gone as soon as my head hit the pillow.