A/N. Hello! Back to Tania and Steve this time. We finally get to learn what happened after the fall of SHIELD! (Well, you get to learn ;) ). Without further ado, please enjoy! :D
Chapter Eighteen
She was breathing. She knew that much. Her mind felt cloudy and slow, like someone had hit the play button one too many times. The air felt… false. Cold. There was something on her face. Plastic? She couldn't be bothered to move her arms to feel what it was. It wasn't restricting her airways so she was fine.
It was kind of peaceful, actually, lying here, wherever here is. She was pretty sure that she knew where she was, but consciously thinking about it seemed like too much work. Her thoughts were languid and flowing like waves on the shore; like her breath.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
"No, of course I don't mind."
Tania's bubble of dreamless, thoughtless drifting popped and her peace began to drain away. Her head twitched, turning toward the sound.
"If you trust her, then so do I." There was a pause during which Tania started to regain feeling in her fingers. There was something clipped to her right index finger. Someone laughed, soft, like they were trying to be quiet. Like a whisper. "No, I promise, it's fine. She's welcome as long as she wants."
It was Natasha.
"Well that's your fault for not telling me earlier."
Tania tried to take a deep breath, but the oxygen mask she was wearing wouldn't let her. Her eyes fluttered open. She shifted her focus from her lungs to her sight. Everything was blurry and white but there was a blob of red to the right. That must be Natasha.
"Clint, she's awake."
Clint. Natasha was talking to Clint. Tania didn't see any blobs except Natasha. She was probably speaking on the phone.
"Tania?"
She closed her eyes and tried to groan, but nothing came out.
"Tania?"
Realizing that she can't acknowledge Natasha verbally, she forced her eyelids to lift once again and met her gaze, her vision clearing for the first time in what felt like a very long time.
Natasha's green eyes came into focus, distinguishable amongst all that bright red hair. Pale skin pinched slightly to form a slightly concerned expression, lips parted as she waited for a response. A Starkphone was held loosely by her ear.
Tania's hand tingled with pins and needles, but she moved it anyway, inching toward where one of Natasha's hands rested on the sheets. Their fingers brushed. Natasha looked down and grabbed Tania's hand. When she looked up, she had a small smirk. "Guess you can hear me, then."
Tania tried to nod but wasn't sure if she succeeded. Her head felt heavier than usual. Instead, she squeezed lightly
Natasha smiled before angling her mouth toward the phone. "Clint, I'm gonna put you on speaker. Tania can't talk at the moment, but she can hear you." She pressed a button and set the phone on the bed, near their hands.
"Hi, Tania."
A smile threatened to tug at her lips. She hadn't heard his voice in so long. She squeezed Natasha's hand again, stronger this time.
"She says hi," Natasha translated, speaking up so that Clint could hear. She reached over and pressed a button to call the nurse.
"I want you to know that I'm safe. We both are."
It took Tania a second to remember who he was with if it wasn't Natasha. Viola. Right. Mission in Africa. Months-long mission in Africa.
"I also want you to know that you did good."
Did good? What did she do? She looked to Natasha, pulling her brows together slightly.
Natasha seemed to read her expression and scooted closer. "It's okay if you don't remember. You will later. You're still healing and you need rest. It's just… it's really good to see you awake."
How long has she been out?
Clint voiced her thoughts.
"A few days," Natasha replied. "The surgeries were… complicated, but nothing the doctors couldn't fix."
A few days? Surgeries? Complicated? What the hell happened?
As if sensing her growing unease, Natasha placed her other hand on top of Tania's and gently hushed her. "I will explain everything. I promise. But right now you need rest."
What? No!
"Alright, Tania. I'll see you soon, okay?"
Wait! Don't go! She wanted answers. Where was he? Why was he suddenly able to have long phone conversations with them when he couldn't before?
At that moment, a nurse entered the room with a calming smile. "Well look who's awake."
Natasha hung up the phone and stood, removing her hands from Tania's. "I have to go deliver something to Steve. It figures the one time I try to find him, he's not where he usually is." She shook her head fondly and kept speaking; something about a quick return and not knowing she was gone, but Tania stopped paying attention.
Steve.
The new haircut. Drew's arrival. Steve's detachedness. Fury's assassination. Pierce. Hydra. Sam. Falcon. Winter Soldier. Fury's alive. Helicarriers. Bucky. It all came back. Someone hit play on the remote again and memories were flooding in at normal speed. She remembered everything.
Her head hurt.
The nurse leaned over her, having finished checking her vitals, and smiled. "Everything looks good, Ms. Banks. You'll be up and at 'em in no time. Now get some rest. Lord knows you could all use some."
The world began to blur again and Tania slipped away into unconsciousness.
Someone was whispering. She didn't know who it was or who they were speaking to or what they were saying, but there was someone there and they were speaking quietly. Were they trying not to disturb? Because they were failing.
She could feel her mind being pulled from the recesses of sleep like a chewed up piece of gum from under a table. Her thoughts and dreams stretched on and on as consciousness pulled harder. She groaned.
"Tania?"
She opened her eyes. The room seemed unnaturally bright. And white. She squinted at the silhouette in front of her. "Steve?" Her voice was coarse and she regretted speaking immediately. It felt like trying to gurgle rocks in a throat made of more rocks. She coughed and Steve was there, handing her a glass with a white bendy straw poking out of it. She sipped greedily at the water even though she happened to remember that water was what did this in the first place.
When she had had her fill, she lowered her hands and Steve took the glass away. He scooted his chair as close to the bed as it would go and grasped her right hand in both of his before leaning over and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'm so glad you're alright."
Ah. So he had been whispering to her.
"I'm…" She cleared her throat in an attempt to sound less raspy. "I'm glad I'm alright too."
Steve huffed out a laugh so suddenly that it was like he hadn't been expecting something so light-hearted to come out of her mouth. "I should hope so." He kissed the back of her hand, which felt warm from his touch. "You scared me."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're one to talk, Mr. Got-shot-at-least-twice-not-to-mention-stabbed-before-drowning-in-the-potomac."
"You were shot twice too," he pointed out.
… well, it was a fair point. "Yeah, but you got stabbed."
"But I have the serum."
"Which made you wake up earlier and worry longer."
He opened his mouth as if to keep the banter going, but closed it and shook his head, smiling. "I've missed you."
Her relaxed expression fell. "How long have I been out this time?"
"Overnight. A few days in total. There were several surgeries. One bullet almost hit your… well… let's just say that if it had been an inch further up, it was possible that… you might never have kids."
The reality of that statement stung with shock. Her left hand flew to her abdomen, where she could feel a few light bandages. "But I'm okay, right?" The thought of never having biological children… it terrified her in a way little else could. She was surprised at the intensity of fear she could feel coiling in her stomach for her unborn children that may have never ever been born.
He smiled and his shoulders dipped. "Yes. You're fine. You'll make a full recovery with everything intact."
She sighed in relief and closed her eyes, letting her head fall back into the pillow. "And you're fine too, I presume?"
"Yes. I'm already mostly healed."
She opened her eyes to glare suspiciously at him. "Mostly?"
He had the decency to look sheepish. "I, um, well, my skin is still healing so the wounds are still there, but all of my internals are intact. Some of them still hurt - a bit."
She crossed her arms.
"And I may have… pulled out the stitches the doctors insisted I have. But I don't need them! Honest. The serum will do just fine on its own."
She sighed. "You are the worst patient ever."
"That's not true," he argued, relief clear in his tone that she wasn't mad. "Tony is much worse."
Okay, that was probably true. "Where is Tony? How's he doing? Did he get Bruce back?"
"Yeah. He and Bruce are fine and so are Pepper and Betty and Thor and Jane. Bruce seems a bit shaken up. He did a lot of damage. But Betty's helping him cope. They're all here, actually. They wanted to make sure you were okay."
"We," she corrected. "They wanted to make sure we were okay."
His lips quirked upward.
"Speaking of 'we', how's Sam?"
"Good. He got some burns, bumps, and bruises, but he's okay. He likes to hover awkwardly around the wing when the Avengers are around because he doesn't want to intrude." She could sense amusement in his tone. "Natasha pretty much dragged him into the circle and everyone's getting along great."
"That's… great." She couldn't think of a better word. "And Natasha? I saw her earlier but I don't really remember…"
"She's the least hurt out of all of us. She's absolutely fine."
"And emotionally?"
He hesitated. "Less fine, but she's handling it. She's constantly on the phone with Clint. I think it helps her to deal."
"What about Clint?"
"I spoke to him once. He seemed okay. He was stabbed and Viola was shot, but they both made it out of Africa alright. They're in a safe house somewhere in the States. As soon as you're better, Tony's going to lend Natasha one of his private jets to pick him up."
Something just occurred to her. "And bring him where? The Tower's still under construction. I mean, he's invited to our place of course, but…"
"There's a giant hole in the wall from where…" He paused. A beat passed. Then another. And another. "Where Fury was shot."
This was the topic she'd been dancing around for the entire conversation. She was going to keep avoiding it because she wasn't sure she really wanted to know. "So…?"
"So apparently Tony has a surprise for us."
She blinked. "He does?"
Steve nodded and hummed.
"So… where is everyone right now?"
He sat back, exhaling as if to brace himself for a lot of words, but kept unhand entwined with Tania's. "Well, Tony and Pepper are doing what they can to keep the media under control. Natasha and Sam are helping with clean-up. Bruce and Betty are somewhere around here; I think they went to get something to eat. Thor and Jane are guarding the hospital from paparazzi, last I heard. And Clint is safe… somewhere."
She lowered her voice down to a whisper. "And Fury?"
He ducked his head as if to avoid being seen by security cameras. "In the wind. Last anyone's heard or seen from him was at his grave." His eyes bored into hers and she understood the double meaning.
"Pierce?"
"Shot dead by Fury."
She nodded, gaze straying to her sheet. She didn't want to ask. But she felt like she needed to. "And… Bucky?"
There was a long silence. It was so long that she didn't think he was going to answer. Except he did. "Also in the wind," he sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face. He leaned forward, bracing both elbows on his knees. Another silence ensued. Then: "He saved us."
She blinked with wide eyes. "What?"
"Bucky, he- He pulled us out." He stared at the floor. "I don't know how, but he got us both out in time."
"How… how do you know it was him?"
"Natasha and Sam found us a few minutes afterward, lying on the bank, unconscious. Well, I was in and out - mostly out. They loaded us in a helicopter and took us to the nearest hospital and here we are."
"But how do you know that Bucky's the one that saved us? What if he's-?"
"No." He shook his head, completely in denial. "No, it was him. It had to be."
Her heart leaped to her throat. "Steve-"
"Don't fight me on this, Tania, please. It was him. We were both unconscious when we fell in there's no way we could have swam there. We were both injured. And there was no one else close to us who could've known where we were and gotten us out in time. It was him."
He did make a lot of reasonable points. "Okay… Does that mean… he remembers?" She tried really hard not to sound too hopeful.
Steve worked his jaw for a few seconds before finding the words to answer. "I don't know."
"But he's alive."
"Yeah. That much I do know."
"And he's out there somewhere."
"Yeah."
The heart monitor continued to beep in the background. "We'll find him," she promised. "We'll find him and we'll get him back." Because, unfortunately, those were two separate things. She took his face into her hands. "Together."
He smiled sadly at her, reaching up to cover one of her hands with his own. That's when she noticed that her fingers were bare. A spike of panic shot through her. "Where's my ring?"
"It's here." He reached over to the stand by her bedside and grabbed a ziplock bag. It contained her earrings, her necklace, and her ring, all of which had completely dried. Steve removed the engagement ring and placed the bag back on the stand. The teal sapphires twinkled. Tania felt tears well up in her eyes and emotion well up in her chest.
She wanted to marry him. God, she wanted to marry him. She watched as he slowly slid the ring onto her finger. It felt right. It felt like she had always had a ring there; like it was an extension of her hand. It was perfect.
"I want to marry you," she whispered.
He laughed, a bit confused. "I believe I asked you this question already."
"No, I mean…" She sat up and snaked her arms around her shoulders. "… like right now."
His hands found her waist purely on instinct. "Now? In a hospital?"
She laughed, feeling giddy. Maybe it was the drugs, maybe it wasn't. She didn't care. "No, I mean… I don't want to wait. I said I wanted a long engagement, but… I changed my mind. I want to be tied to you forever and I want it as soon as I can get it."
He stared at her, aghast, jaw hanging open. "You… you do?"
She threw her head forward the short distance remaining between them and kissed him hard. Embers flared and sparked and flew. She was happy.
With a resounding smack! she pulled away. "Yes. I watched you get shot over and over. I watched as your best friend pummelled you to a pulp. I watched you fall into the river unconscious. And I almost died too. I almost lost the ability to have kids." Her stomach clenched. "I want the married life with you, Steve. I don't want to wait. Life's too short to wait."
His grin could light up a city. "I love you so much."
"I love you too."
As if pulled by an invisible tether, they both surged forward. Their mouths connected like two magnets that entered the field of attraction, yanked together until broken apart. At that moment, absolutely nothing could break them apart.
It wasn't until later (much later, after Steve had left and Tony and Pepper had come to visit) that Tania remembered Drew. With a pounding heart, Tania borrowed Tony's phone to call her friend. It had been several days since they'd last made contact and Tania had lost her phone in the explosion so she hadn't been able to check on her nor vice-versa.
Poor Drew. She'd come to Washington fleeing an abusive boyfriend to be safe and on her first night the director of an intelligence agency was murdered a floor above her. Tania could only hope that she and Rocky were okay.
The phone rang.
And rang.
And rang.
"Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system. 'Drew Pierce' is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you ar-"
"God damn it," Tania grumbled, swiping the screen to hang up.
"Something wrong?" Tony asked, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, one hand still outstretched for his phone.
Tania began dialling again. "Don't know yet."
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
"Your call has been forwarded to an-"
"No! Damn it." She hung up and tossed Tony the phone, who barely managed to catch it.
"Hey, watch it! Those things are expensive."
"Sorry," she grumbled. "I'm just worried about my friend."
"I'm sure she's fine," Tony assured, tucking the phone safely in his jacket pocket. "You'll be out of here tomorrow, so we can go check on her then."
She sighed, leaning back into the pillow. "Yeah. you're right."
"Aren't I always?" He flashed her a toothy grin.
She rolled her eyes as Pepper lightly smacked him in the stomach from where she was sitting to the right of Tania's bed. "I can go visit her if you'd like?"
"No, I don't think she'd feel very comfortable with her old boss paying her a visit. No offence."
"None taken. I understand."
"And I don't think she'd like any attention being drawn to her either, especially not by the Avengers."
"Some of us know how to be discreet," Pepper pointed out.
"Yeah," Tania acknowledged, "but still, I mean, I doubt anything happened to her. She was safe there. It's highly unlikely her boyfriend would've- Wait." A memory came back. A text.
Dad set me up with a SHIELD safe house. Rocky and I are safe. Thank you for everything.
It was something along those lines. Tania couldn't remember it perfectly. "No. Give me back the phone." She made grabby hands for it and Tony quickly shoved the device into them. She began dialling again.
"Tania, what's wrong?" Pepper asked, placing a calming hand on Tania's knee.
"She's not at my apartment building," Tania explained, holding the phone to her ear. "She's in a SHIELD safe house somewhere. Her dad was SHIELD."
Realization dawned on Tony and Pepper's faces. "I'm on it." Tony pulled out a second phone and plopped down in the chair to Tania's left.
The phone in Tania's hand kept ringing.
And ringing.
And ringing.
You've reached an autom-
"No!" Tania squeezed the phone tightly, wanting to throw it at the wall as hard as she could, yet knowing that was a bad idea. She dialled again.
Nothing.
"Maybe we should send someone…" Pepper tentatively suggested.
Tania sighed. "Steve. I'll send Steve." She dialled again, fingers flying across the screen.
He picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"
"Hey. Could you please do something for me? It's really important."
"Of course. What is it?"
"You remember how I gave Drew some money to rent an apartment near ours?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Yeah."
"And then when we were driving to New Jersey I told you that she was in a SHIELD safe house with our dog?"
"Yeah…"
"Tony's working on finding her exact location and when he does, I need you to check on her. Please. I'm really worried about her. With the fall of SHIELD…" She trailed off, unsure what could've happened.
"Right. I'll make sure she and our dog are safe."
She felt better knowing that he was on the case. "Thanks, Steve."
"Anytime."
About a half an hour later, Tony's phone rang and Tania picked it up as fast as she could, barely giving herself time to check the caller ID before answering. "Steve," she breathed. "Is she okay?"
She was met with silence.
"Steve?"
"She's not here."
Her stomach dropped. "What do you mean she's not there? Did Tony-?"
"Tony's here with me and he swears this is the location of her safe house. When Nat released all of SHIELD and Hydra's information, she released all of it. Tony was able to use it to find out which safe house she was in but…"
The heart monitor began beeping faster. "Maybe Tony's wrong-"
"Tania." His tone was dismayed, but firm. "Rocky's here."
But if Rocky was there…? Then that meant… Drew had been there. Tania swallowed. "Maybe she went shopping or something?"
Steve sighed. She could almost feel his breath against her neck. "There are signs of a hasty exit. Drawers opened and emptied. Suitcase tracks and dirt on the floor."
Tania hardly dared breathe. "And no note?"
"No. I found Rocky in a kennel. Drew must have bought it for her. She seemed scared, but she's fine."
"Rocky?"
"Yeah."
Tania exhaled. "Okay. Okay, so… she left of her own free will. She's okay."
A beat. "Yeah. I think so. The place is clean otherwise. Really clean. Was she always this clean?"
She laughed, leaning back and sighing against the pillow. "Yeah. Drew's always been a bit of a neat freak."
They paused, not sure where else the conversation could take them. "I'll see you soon, okay? Once you're out of there, the three of us will be reunited again."
Tania could do nothing to stop the smile from spreading across her face. "I can't wait."
A/N. So all of the movie scenes are officially finished. From here on out, the work is original (using characters that don't belong to me, of course). I can't imagine there being too many chapters left. Five at maximum if all goes according to plan. I hope to hear from you all via reviews until then ;)
Stay tuned!