A/N: Short chapter, but that's because of the ending. Hope you enjoy! Next update will be tomorrow.
Eserechia - I'm so happy you enjoyed it! If I had to choose a main pairing, it would probably be Steve/OC, however each relationship will be heavily explored throughout the story. The third OC isn't Zach's mother, and she won't come in until a bit later when we get closer to the Winter Soldier storyline but I'm hoping to get to it by the end of this year. Thank you so much again!
It was like any other day for Steve.
He went to the gym early in the morning and got an hour of workout time in before he headed home and took a long shower. The hot water helped soothe his sore muscles that he had gotten from the mission he had been sent on with Natasha. The mission had taken three days in total so he hadn't been able to see Scottlyn since he was out of the country. Even if she wasn't on his mind when he was working, Natasha wouldn't stop questioning him about her.
"So, what do you think of Scottlyn's father? Usually you're supposed to go on a couple of dates before you meet the family, but I suppose your situation is unique," Natasha had said as they left the briefing room. He had shot her a look and she held up her hands in defense. "Sorry, Stark mentioned you were a bit touchy on that subject."
Steve scoffed and continued walking, sparing one glance over at the redhead. "Stark would hardly talk to me about the subject, why did he talk to you about it?"
"His little assistant was talking about it. She mentioned to me that she had to get him to call Scottlyn's father because he didn't want to get involved." Natasha revealed, eliciting a small sigh from Steve. Of course Tony was forced into doing it, he should've known. Well, he was going to have thank Theo next time he saw her. He felt bad that he hadn't realized and thanked her last time he saw her in the hospital.
Natasha hadn't dropped the subject of Scottlyn for what seemed like forever. And when he finally did get her to stop, she started talking about him getting a girlfriend. Natasha and he had been spending time together lately, and out of all the Avengers he would say she was his closest friend, but he wasn't looking for love. His attention was focused on doing missions and making sure that girl in the hospital stayed alive.
Needless to say, when Natasha and he parted ways, he breathed a sigh of relief. For now, at least, he had avoided her urging for him to go on a date with someone.
Now, Steve was walking through the hall with a bouquet of sunflowers in hand. He took the elevator up a couple of floors, thankful only one other person was in elevator and seemed busy on their phone to even pay attention to him. As soon as the elevator dinged, Steve hurried off and began to make the familiar trek to Scottlyn's room. He was ready to relax a bit after the mission and he believed that reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Scottlyn would relax him. Plus, he hadn't been to Scottlyn's room in three days and he needed to see her again to make sure she was okay. He had worried over her the entire time he was gone despite the kind nurse May saying that nothing would happen while he was away. Why wouldn't he worry? Scottlyn was in a vegetative state, there was no telling if she was going to wake up or not… Or if something bad would happen… No, I won't think of that, he thought firmly to himself as he neared closer to her room.
He walked into her room… And was surprised to find it wasn't Scottlyn in the bed. It was another patient – an older blonde woman who appeared in her forties – who looked at him in bewilderment. What was going on? Why wasn't Scottlyn in the room? Had the bad thing he refused to think about come true?
Steve apologized quickly to the blonde woman before rushing out. He felt like he was being squeezed to death, his heart beating a million miles in his chest. He could barely manage to form a coherent thought. Had they pulled the plug on her? Had her father gone back on his word? Or did her body give out? No matter what happened, he hadn't been there for her, he had left her once again and it had proven to have consequences.
As Steve stood outside the room, his hands squeezing the bouquet so tightly he thought it would rip the stems in half. A familiar voice pulled him out of his reverie, causing him to look up in slight alarm. He spotted the nurse, May Parker, that usually attended to Scottlyn speaking with another nurse. He didn't waste another moment before he rushed over to her. He knew it was rude of him to interrupt her conversation, but he felt like his entire body was a live wire. "Where is Scottlyn West?"
May Parker looked at him, an unreadable expression on her face. Her eyes were a mixture of emotions that he couldn't decipher no matter how hard he looked. "Steve, you didn't leave your number so I didn't know how to reach you…" She said, her voice shaking slightly but not giving anything away to him.
"Please tell me they didn't—" Steve couldn't finish his sentence.
"No, sweetheart," May gave him a small smile as she reached out and grabbed his hands that were still wrapped tightly around the bouquet. "Scottlyn was moved to another room… She woke up. She woke up from her coma."