AN: Thank you NocturnalRites for the beta work and for all the support! You rock and are very much appreciated!
Thank you everyone who has been reading and everyone that has left comments and Kudos! I love hearing what people think.
Chapter 18
Felicity watched Digg and Roy leave with Thea. Oliver's sister was shaken and they needed her checked out at the hospital. Felicity didn't think anything had been broken, but the girl was bruised. What worried her more and made her break her promise to stay in the building and monitor from there was the blood on her hands. When Steve had handed Thea off, Felicity had been afraid the blood was from the girl shaking and sobbing in her arms, but as she checked her over Felicity realized that it had to be Steve's blood.
Slade's gunshots were a sharp report in the quiet night. They'd made Felicity shout Steve's name in fear. She'd been relieved to see him running toward her with Thea in his arms. It never occurred to her that Steve could be shot and bleeding and still moving as fast as he was.
Now watching him move against Slade, she could see Steve's movements becoming just that much slower. He was still holding Oliver's crazed ex-island buddy away from the others. He was still a match for Slade, but he'd started out stronger and faster than Slade, now he was a match. Felicity was scared he was bleeding out or something equally as terrible. He seemed to be losing energy pretty fast. She knew he had super serum in him but Mirakuru infused warriors could be hurt or killed so she assumed that Steve could be as well. Judging by the amount of blood she had on her hands he had to be bleeding badly.
As Felicity picked up her phone, she looked up to see Slade's blade coming at Steve. Sara was starting to move, but she was obviously dazed, Oliver was trying to pull himself up, but he too was moving too slow. One of Slade's kicks had caught him in the knee he'd injured fighting barely two weeks ago and he looked dazed. He wouldn't be moving fast even if he did make it back to his feet.
Her heart in her throat, there was nothing Felicity could do but watch as Steve slammed into Slade, before Slade's blade had a chance to finish its arc. Somehow the next thing she knew, Wilson's sword was flung to the side and the mercenary was skidding backwards from the force of Steve's blow.
"Think, Felicity," she ordered herself. An idea sprang into mind. She sorted through programs on her phone, found what she wanted and typed furiously. Task completed in seconds, she was dialing even as she ran toward the fight.
..
Steve saw the short sword coming straight for him. Blocking the blade by throwing himself at Slade and grabbing the man's fist, Steve was able to twist the limb viciously, but a wave of lightheadedness hit Steve like a ton of bricks. The world slid sideways and suddenly he was too off balance and could no longer completely block the blow that came at his side. Wilson's heavy fist hit him more in his side than center as the other man had been aiming.
Slade packed a wallop. The crack of another rib tore a groan of pain out of him. Steve slammed his fist into Wilson's face. A feeling of satisfaction coursed through him at the sensation of bone giving way in the other man's jaw and seeing him stagger backward.
Steve had no illusions. Unless he could put this man down in the next minute or so, he was going to be too weak from blood loss to counter blows like he'd just received. Bracing himself to throw everything he could into his next move, he was distracted by the sound of running heels clacking on the pavement. Felicity, his brain supplied. His heart did a flip. If he failed, she was no longer in the building where she was safe, but right there for Slade to hurt. Sara and Oliver were injured and would be no help in defending her.
"I've called the police, Mr. Wilson," Felicity's voice was strong and close by. Steve didn't dare take his eyes off of Slade to see where she was, but he knew it was way too close for his comfort.
As if on cue, sirens blared loudly and not all that far away. "Nicely done, Ms. Smoak," the Aussie said, voice slightly slurred by his broken jaw. He turned on Steve. "You've made yourself an enemy today. I'm going to enjoy killing you before I kill the kid," Slade told him as he turned to disappear in the alley behind them.
Standing up from his fighting stance, Steve let him go. It was a relief. It was dumb luck on Slade's part that at least one of Slade's bullets had hit something important. Blood loss didn't usually get him this quickly.
Steve wasn't sure how much longer he'd be standing and if the police were coming they'd need to get Oliver and Sara out of sight. Then he was going to have a talk with Felicity about throwing herself into danger like that even though part of him just wanted to kiss her for thinking so fast.
"We'd better hurry before the police get here. This is way too close for comfort." Sara was saying behind them as Oliver helped her up.
"Well it would be if I'd actually called the police," Felicity told them as she came to Steve's side. "I triggered a fire alarm on the building behind us. I didn't figure Slade would stop to question when he heard sirens."
"Nice," Sara complimented. She and Oliver were leaning on different sides of the car. They both came to stand near Steve.
"Can you walk?" Felicity was asking as she maneuvered to get her arm under his shoulder. "We need to get you to the hospital."
"No hospital," he told her. "I just need to remove the bullets to stop the bleeding and let everything heal." She didn't look convinced. "Super serum healing, I'll be fine once the bleeding stops, doll, I promise." Now wasn't the time to bring up how she'd run into danger or the fact that she'd done it knowing she was bluffing about backup coming. That was a conversation he planned to have with her later.
"We can take you downstairs and take the bullets out," Oliver offered limping over to Sara to check her out. "How is Thea?" He asked, turning to Felicity.
"Digg and Roy took her to the hospital to be checked out. We didn't think she should be alone in case Slade made another attempt or had any of his people go after her." Felicity was quick to say.
"Why did she even get into a car with him?" Steve asked.
"She said that her car had a flat and no one else was around. Slade showed up and she'd met him at her mother's so she accepted when he offered her a ride home."
"And your sister wouldn't see any danger because she doesn't know Wilson is dangerous," Steve stated. He couldn't completely keep the irritation out of his voice. He'd told Oliver that he needed to warn his family. Oliver had the good sense to keep his replies to himself for the moment.
Within a few minutes Steve found himself seated next to Oliver on a metal table in the team's lair. Sara was busy stitching the deep slashes Oliver had across his stomach and wrapping his knee while Felicity turned to get supplies for Steve. She'd given Oliver clean gauze to hold over the wound in Steve's lower back that was bleeding the worst. He was the only one with a free hand that could keep pressure on the bullet hole. The other wound, as soon as Steve sat down and stopped moving was already clotting with barely any blood loss. With no foreign object to stop healing, his body was making short work of it.
The problem was the one that the bullet was still in. "You know how to take a bullet out?" Steve questioned as Felicity laid supplies next to him. He couldn't help that his voice rose a little. Super healing didn't mean not feeling the pain in the first place and truth be told, digging in a wound that was trying to heal over was painful on a good day with an experienced surgeon. Add that to the pain from his ribs and he wasn't sure he wanted a beginner, even if it was Felicity, digging at his flesh to retrieve the slug in him.
"I've done it before," she assured him. So she wasn't a beginner at treating bullet wounds. He wasn't sure how he felt about what that or what it said about her involvement in all aspects of Oliver's night work.
"She's good at taking bullets out," Oliver told him. "She's even gotten pretty good at stitches." He leaned over conspiratorially toward Steve. "Still not good at giving shots," he warned in a stage whisper.
"I heard that," Felicity snapped over her shoulder. She turned with a syringe in her hand.
"If that's pain medication, it won't work," Steve pointed out. "My metabolism will burn through it by the time you're finished injecting me. It has to be a continuous drip of something pretty high powered before I'll feel it at all." Felicity's eyes were wide.
"That sucks," Sara pointed out, looking up from where she was working on Oliver.
"I can't dig bullets out if you can feel me doing it," Felicity told him. Steve put his hand on hers.
"It's OK," he told her, ignoring the voice inside his head wanting to avoid the pain. She was willing to do it and he didn't have a lot of options. He'd had a lot worse. He picked up the forceps and handed them to her. "Just be quick as you can. I've had worse and I heal fast."
"You heroes and your 'I've had worse'," she muttered. Her hand was shaking slightly. Steve didn't blame her. Taking a bullet out of someone that could feel it was quite a bit different than taking it out of someone that couldn't. He'd had more than one nurse balk at removing shrapnel and bullets from his body once they realized he'd feel their every movement inside his body.
"Do you want me to do it?" Oliver was quick to offer. Steve glanced over to see that Sara was finishing taping bandage over the last of her boyfriend's wounds. Felicity hesitated. Oliver put a hand over hers and carefully took the forceps. "Why don't you let me take the bullet out and you do the stitching," he insisted, meeting her eyes.
"Oliver's right, doll," he told her, catching her hand with his. "I trust you, but I'm already starting to heal," he told her, ignoring Oliver's eyebrows rising into his hairline at Steve's use of 'Doll' in reference to Felicity. "You might not have the strength to push through the mending muscle."
There was relief in her eyes as she handed the sterilized pan to Oliver. She moved around the table but didn't go far. Felicity walked to Steve's other side and laced her fingers in his.
The gesture touched him in ways he wasn't prepared for. No one had held his hand through pain since Bucky was lost and Peggy had found him trying to get drunk. Everyone assumed that as Captain America, he could take anything and somehow it wouldn't touch him. He could take a great deal, but that didn't mean he wanted to or that it didn't hurt even if he ignored it and fought through it. He wasn't fond of taking a bullet or the resulting pain involved. Felicity's presence and care felt good.
Steve smiled at her. Somehow this amazing woman saw him, Steve Rogers. She never seemed to see him as the more than human superhero the world did. She just seemed to see the very human man. His heart felt a lot fuller with her holding on to him, offering him what comfort she could.
"Ready," Oliver asked, his voice pulling Steve back to the here and now.
"Not really," Steve replied, nodding to the other man to begin. Oliver pressed into the wound on his back. Steve clamped down on his pain. He could sit there and not let her see the pain that Oliver's digging was causing him he told himself. Despite his best intentions, Steve knew his reaction probably showed at least somewhat on his features because it hurt like hell. Her worried eyes were on his face. He tried to smile at her in reassurance, but Oliver turned the forceps right about then and he couldn't hold back a small groan.
"Almost there," Oliver assured him. Steve was pleasantly surprised to discover that his friend was right. The pressure was letting up. Oliver finished locating and extracting the bullet. He dropped it in a pan and set it aside.
"Even if you heal faster, the way its bleeding, I think you could use a couple of stitches." Oliver suggested. "You're lucky, Steve," Oliver said, picking up a towel to wipe his hands off as Felicity moved to stitch the wound. "Considering how much you'd already healed and how much fresh muscle and tissue I had to push through, it was still bleeding pretty heavily." Yeah, no wonder he'd been feeling his strength leaving during the fight.
Steve didn't voice his thoughts, just nodded, thanking Oliver as Felicity wiped the area clean and finished stitching. She was fast and efficient. It only took her a few minutes to have him stitched, bandaged and done. He'd barely felt her poking the needle through him.
"You did good, Felicity," he told her. "You both did." He included Oliver. "I've had doctors do much worse." Felicity's smiled at his praise.
"I've had some practice," was all Oliver would say.
He'd pulled on a clean shirt while Felicity was cleaning up. "Oliver," Steve stopped his friend as the man grabbed his bag off one of the counters and whispered something to Sara. "Tomorrow we talk to your family. What happened tonight means Slade is upping his game. He's obviously going after those closest to you."
Oliver didn't look happy. At first he stared at Steve like he was going to argue, then the air seemed to go out of him. "I got a message from John. My mother met them at the hospital. Thea is fine and John is taking them home. Sara and I are on our way there. Get some rest, heal. I've got everything covered tonight." Oliver paused, his head dropped before turning to meet Steve's eyes. "Steve," he started, his voice deep with emotion. "You saved my sister. I can't ever repay you for that."
"You don't owe me anything, Oliver," Steve told him. "You had pretty good timing yourself."
Oliver smiled at that. "All the same, we'll do it your way with my family. Tonight was too close."
"It was good to see Slade walk away with more than just a scratch, or should I say limp away." Sara pointed out. "Thanks."
Steve nodded. Slade had been moving slow when he'd left the fight. He'd been hurt as well. Wilson wasn't going to be much of a threat tonight, but he was glad Oliver agreed with their need to regroup and tighten up security on Oliver's family.
"Do you need us to drop you at home," Oliver offered. Steve raised an eyebrow. His injuries were already healing. He didn't think he looked that bad. But maybe Oliver was just trying to be a friend.
"I've got him," Felicity spoke up, surprising both men. "I'll make sure he gets home OK." Steve's pulse picked up a little.
A look passed over Oliver's face that he got sometimes with Felicity. Steve wished he was better at reading that sort of thing. It bothered him, but was gone as quick as it was there.
"Oh and thanks for the sparring." Oliver called over his shoulder as he turned away. "It was…" he hesitated a moment. "satisfying to land a few blows Slade didn't see coming."
"You're welcome," Steve didn't know what to say. People didn't tend to thank him or maybe he just didn't hang around long enough to hear it. "We'll regroup in the morning." As Sara pulled Oliver out, saying good night over her shoulder, Steve turned back to Felicity. He wanted to hear more about her making sure he got home Okay.