It took another shot of adrenaline and 30 minutes to stabilize her, a couple pints of Steve's blood to get her back up to less deadly levels.
If they had been only a few minutes later they would be transporting a body, rather than their friend.
She was largely silent on the trip, the young man Nicolas staying close and staring at Steve as they traveled back to the tower wear she could recover more fully, when they were 20 minutes out she stirred and turned her head blinking slowly, Nicolas said something to her and she muttered something back and the boy moved away seeming reassured.
She quickly fell asleep again so Steve didn't bother her.
Arriving back at the tower they transferred her to the medical room set up in Bruce's lab and Steve and tony took turns keeping watch even though Bruce told them it would be a couple of days before she was coherent again.
They didn't really care.
It was during one of Steve's watch's that she woke up, it had been about a day and a half since they returned and he'd been sitting with his sketch pad in his lap for what felt like hours.
And she didn't wake up in the usual way, confused or questioning, well not questioning about her.
"did you take her to dinner yet?" he nearly jumped out of his chair when she spoke so suddenly and stared at her as she chuckled weakly and looked at him smiling slightly.
He took a moment to remember the question "Sharon?" she gave a half nod and he rubbed his neck wincing slightly but he hoped she just thought it was because of the subject.
"Not really. You've been missing almost four months, and she got reassigned a few weeks ago" she tilted her head a little looking at him closely, lips pressed together and he noticed again how thin she was.
When he'd first seen her he hadn't noticed because he was more concerned about her being alive but her ribs were clearly visible, her muscle tone all but gone and her cheeks nearly sunken giving her a skullish appearance in the right light.
"You got injured didn't you?" he should have known better than to think she wouldn't notice he shifted a little "just a little scorch on my back. I'm fine" she snorted despite the way it seemed to pain her.
"thanks for the cover" his lips twitched a little "least I can do" she tilted her head a little and saw the way his face became distant and slightly guilty "before you say it, this wasn't your fault, swear to god if you blame yourself they'll need to pull another fucking bed in here"
He glanced at her "language"
She smirked at him and stuck out her tongue "hey what's with your friend anyway?" he changed the subject rather badly and she made a mental note to go back to the former later.
"He was the scientists slave basically. Adopted him as a kid treated him more like a work hand, he helped me" Steve nodded slowly "well why was he staring at me since he saw me?"
She laughed actually laughed then winced "he likes you cap, huge fan from what little he told me" she saw the realization dawn on his face and saw the faintest traces of pint on his ears and grinned accepting that challenge "from what I gathered he literally adores you, I think if you said hi to him he'd probably faint"
The pink spread and followed by a shade of red and she grinned wider "cute" she hadn't meant to say that out loud but he thought she was still talking about Nicolas she it didn't matter.
"what should we do about him?" he questioned she leaned back in the bed and shifted a little out of the impression shed made "I say let me recover then we'll decide" Steve nodded again and reached out for his note book "if your drawing me I'll choke you with that paper" he smirked at her but stayed silent and soon enough she slipped back into sleep.
She didn't have to know what he was drawing, it wouldn't hurt to keep it from her, and it actually sounded like it would help.
He shook his head to clear it and went back to etching.
It took only a few weeks for her to rebuild her muscle tone.
Not to the extent of before she got kidnapped but enough that she didn't look like a good wind would blow her over anymore, though it took about two weeks before she was able to eat as much as she used to.
As it turned out Nicolas was quite a talented chef, when the team first tasted his cooking they all took him under their wing.
She didn't even have to argue for him to stay, not that shed spent the last hour mentally preparing arguments and plotting out every possible opposition the others could have had.
She'd just walked up to them while they sat around the table Nicolas in the living room and said they needed to talk about him.
Everyone had looked at each other come to some silent agreement then looked at her and said in unison 'he's staying', after shed shaken herself from the shock shed told them to pass the food.
Since she was back home safe Steve returned to his apartment, but Nicolas refused his room instead taking a spare room beside Beth's, leaving the captains room to once again remain empty.
She kind of missed him even though he was there almost daily for food and free gym usage.
One suck day he was sitting back at the kitchen island, freshly showered and watching Beth and Nicolas bump hips and work around each other as they fixed lunch.
His sketch pad was open on his lap and he was randomly skritching in it not really focusing on it as he half watched them joke and cook.
If the random skritches came out looking more like her, well, no one had to know that now did they?