Chapter 16
By: MysticFantasy
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"Take it easy on the movement." Bruce ordered as Steve stood up.
"But I feel fine." the soldier replied.
"Super soldier, I know, but still take it easy." Bruce said. "It can't hurt for you to be able to relax every now and then, Steve. When was the last time you had a real vacation anyway?"
"Never had one." Steve answered. "Youth was spent trying to stay alive, adulthood was spent fighting the war, then being frozen and then waking up to this new world and fighting wars again."
"Wow. Even I have had more vacations." Bruce said. "When everything has quieted down, we have to make sure that you go to Hawaii for a month or so. In fact, I'm going to tell Tony about it right now."
"No. Bruce, please." Steve pleaded as the doctor left the room.
"It might help you to take a vacation." Clint said as he dropped down from the ceiling. "Everyone needs one and you've earned one more than any of us."
"I'm never going to understand why you like crawling around in vents." Steve half muttered. "Anyway, taking a vacation is just a waste of time right now."
"Nonsense." Clint replied. "We don't need you to take one right this minute. Honestly, if you did, we would be screwed. We'd fall apart without you here to keep us in line. We just need you to relax every now and then. I don't know what the Army did to you but they really wound you up good."
"Can you blame them? Especially for what was going on at the time."
"Ok. Good point. Guess you can't really relax when a world war is going on." Clint said rubbing the back of his neck. "But seriously, they never gave you any time off during the time you were serving?"
"Nope." Steve answered. "Only super soldier, remember? I was making a good enough impression for them to keep sending me on missions and being in command of all of them. I barely saw the states after becoming a super soldier. Don't even ask if I was ever near a beach without it being part of a mission."
"Wow. The forties sucked!" Clint exclaimed which caused Steve to laugh at his expression. "But seriously, when everything has quieted down, we're sending you to a tropical beach to get a rub down by a hot hula lady. OW!"
"You might want to look over your shoulder every now and then to make sure a man's girlfriend isn't around to listen to every word you're saying." Natasha said.
"Cranky, spider...sneaking up...hitting my head..." Clint marched off as he continued to mutter under his breath.
"Someone's cranky." Natasha teased before turning to Steve. "How you feeling?"
"Much better." he answered. "I've felt better for a while but Bruce wanted to make sure that I was completely healed."
"He is a smart man." Natasha said. "So, what are you going to do now?"
"Well, I want to go out there and start looking for Bucky but I know that none of you will let me do that on my own." Steve answered.
"You got that right." Natasha said. "Since you're healed, why don't you just workout until we can figure out what to do next?"
Steve nodded. Being confined to a bed for so long made him restless and he was ready to get back to the gym to workout.
It would also provide a distraction to get his mind off of things for a while. Not long but just long enough for him to forget for a short time.
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Clint lightly rubbed the back of his head where he felt the bump forming and looked at his laptop when the message alert tone sounded. Clicking on the message, he saw that it was from the SHIELD director himself.
Fury: How is Rogers?
Clint: He's healed up and Banner is looking after him like a hawk.
Fury: Has he asked about coming back onto duty to help find Winter Soldier?
Clint: He hasn't stopped asking since we brought him back to the tower. I already explained that we don't have any leads yet and that he shouldn't worry himself sick about it. He's burning off some pent up frustration in the gym right now and Natasha is keeping an eye on him. I don't think we'll be able to keep him seated for long.
Fury: As long as he doesn't go running around trying to do it on his own then let him vent. Later, I want all of you to get him to tell you everything about James Barnes so you can be ready for him in case he shows up and tries to mess with Rogers mentally. He may fight it but this needs to happen. Just make sure that he doesn't go into a relapse of any kind or loses touch with reality. We all know very well how some war heroes can get lost in their memories.
Clint: Understood. I'll keep you posted.
Nick Fury signed out.
Clint logged off his private shield account and lightly sighed.
Getting Steve to talk about his best friend that turned assassin. he thought. This is going to by far be the hardest mission yet.