All The Tiny Boxes We Fit

by touchnotthecat

'It's hard to pinpoint when that moment happens. When you realize that the way things had been going…. Well, they wouldn't be going that way for too much longer. The lid on the box won't close. That's the hardest, when you realize your reality has forever shifted. That it would never go back to the 'before'. No matter what you want.' Romanogers, Begins Post WS.

42. 42: Steve

Chapter Forty-Two

Steve

It is the longest four hours of my life. Sam in pacing behind me, he is getting eager to leave as dawn is close to breaking over the city and I understand why. We are cutting it close. Closer than we ever have before. But I just stand frozen. My hands braced on the ledge of the window looking into the lab. I can't see Nat anymore. She is totally encompassed in the cradle now.

But I stand here, waiting. Running through all the things we could have done differently. Why did we even go into that stupid warehouse to begin with? What was the point? A handful of ex-heroes still trying to make a difference in a world that no longer wanted us?

The door opened and I don't look up expecting it to be another assistants update, with vague info. But I hear Sam stop pacing and I look up to see Helen Cho standing, facing us, looking tired, waiting for me to look at her and she smiles, and my heart feels lighter, like I can finally breath. Just with that simply movement, her smile.

"She is doing well." Helen says and Sam slaps a hand on my back, but I stay focused on Dr. Cho, "Her body went through some massive trauma, but I am pleased to say that my cradle was able to repair it. All." She couldn't help but look a little smug.

"Anything we should know," I think about Clint after he went in the cradle. He was talking while it had been fixing him and that had only been a prototype of the real cradle but as I look into the lab the cradle is retracting and I see Nat, who looks surprising small, still unconscious on the table.

"As I said the repairs we have done were extensive and will be hard for her body to adjust to based on most recent traumas." Helen took a deep breath crossing her arms, "She needs to be somewhere safe, to rest for at least the next forty-eight hours."

Sam raised his eyebrows, "That is a big ask for us right now Doc,"

Helen shook her head, "She has been through enough and unless you want her body to shut down or go into massive shock, you need to let her rest."

I nod, "We can make that happen." Sam looked at me with a questioning look like he wanted to know just exactly how I was going to pull some R and R out of thin air but I didn't want to elaborate here. Right now, all I wanted was to get Nat on the jet and away from here.