What followed after she woke up the next time was torture. The only thing she felt was pain. And she felt it throughout her entire body. Every cell.
Her drug-induced haze was interrupted by a scream. It was a scream full of pain, like nothing she had ever heard before. Only after Steve rushed to her side, trying to calm her down, did she realize that it was her own scream. This might have seemed embarrassing to Peggy, as she never allowed anyone to hear her scream. But in this moment, in this moment of absolute suffering, she couldn't even comprehend who she was. There was only pain. That was all she perceived; that was all she was at that moment.
"What's happening?" Steve sounded scared, trying to soothe her, pressing her shoulders into the mattress to stop her from thrashing, but he occasionally let go to place his hand on her forehead. It was something his mother used to do when he was sick.
Natasha had to go to the adjacent room to make a call, so she could hear something other than Peggy's screams. It hadn't even been thirty hours, and they already had to use the secret phone to reach Helen Cho. She returned looking pale as a wall and had to repeat everything twice for Steve to understand.
"She said her body is fighting the implanted cells. Does she have a fever?" "She's burning up, but we can't measure it; she'd break the thermometer."
Natasha rolled her eyes and came back with a contactless infrared thermometer. "She has about 109 degrees." "How do we cool her down?" "I'll fill the bathtub with ice-cold water."
Steve nodded, still trying to keep Peggy calm, but he was losing the battle.
Natasha filled half of the bathtub with the coldest water possible. Helen Cho's instructions were clear: they shouldn't worry about possible shock; they had to cool her down rapidly.
Steve took the struggling Peggy into his arms. His initially gentle attempt had to be replaced with a firm grip; otherwise, she would slip away. He tried not to cause bruises, but he didn't know how else to hold her.
For a moment, he paused in front of the bathtub, hesitating on how to place her in it. "You can't just put her in there; she might hit something or inhale water."
Steve clenched his teeth and nodded. All three of them were still in their pyjamas. Natasha wondered how Steve, who blushed every time he saw a woman in a swimsuit, would deal with this situation.
He dealt with it like the classic Captain America. With gritted teeth, he stepped into the bathtub and slowly, carefully, placed Peggy in it, manoeuvring her so that her head ended up resting on his chest. As soon as he got into the cold water, he started hyperventilating. The shock, caused by anything cold since he woke up in a different century, was only suppressed by his strong determination not to lose his head while holding Peggy.
At first, Peggy struggled even more, likely due to her own reaction to the cold environment. Underwater, her hand slipped from Steve's grasp and hit the edge of the bathtub with a loud thud. Natasha winced at the sound, as if Peggy had just broken a bone, and quickly grabbed her hand, returning it to Steve's hold. After a while, Peggy's screaming subsided, replaced by an even more terrifying silence.
"She's breathing," Natasha reassured Steve, who looked scared when Peggy stopped fighting. Natasha placed her hand on Peggy's forehead.
"We should keep her cool." She looked at Steve with raised eyebrows, but he was unable to speak, focusing all his efforts on holding Peggy and not panicking in the cold environment.
"We'll wrap her in a towel to keep her wet, hopefully, it will help. Come on, you need to get up." Natasha gently helped Steve step out of the bathtub, holding him to prevent him from slipping. Water was dripping from him, but he ignored it. Natasha spread the towel in the middle of Peggy's bed, where Steve wrapped her in it, and then he silently went to change clothes.
When he returned to the bedroom, Natasha was sitting on the bed, her eyes fixed on Peggy.
"She looks okay," she whispered.
"For now." His voice sounded hoarse, uncertain.
"Hey, hey, calm down. We managed it now, we'll manage whatever comes. You've both come so far, don't give up now."
Natasha stood up and left them alone. Steve was still trembling slightly from the chills. He lay on the bed next to Peggy but didn't dare pull her close, well aware of his constantly elevated temperature due to his accelerated metabolism. He lay at the other end of the bed, his eyes still open.
He kept pondering the last... was it really just half an hour? He looked at Peggy with worry in his eyes. Peggy had never been so close and yet so distant from him as she was right now.
He remembered how he had feared for her similarly before. When she was shot in the shoulder. It was the second half of autumn and it was really cold at night. Back then, he could pull her close under the pretext of maintaining body temperature. None of the Howling Commandos said anything about it. Some nodded, and others averted their gaze.
Now he was afraid to even touch Peggy. He didn't know if his concerns were exaggerated, but he didn't want to risk it. He watched her chest rise and fall, listened to her breathing, and quickly placed his hand on her forehead every now and then to check if the fever wasn't returning. Every time he touched her, she leaned into it. And every time he withdrew his hand, she frowned slightly in her sleep.
At this moment, he was more afraid for her than he had ever been. He felt like his fear in the past few hours, since they found her, revived and then intensified.
Natasha entered the room just as it was starting to dawn.
"We need to leave. People in the other rooms must have heard. We need to disappear before they start asking questions."
Natasha nodded and started packing quickly.
Steve took a deep breath and stood up.
After changing clothes in the bathroom, he returned to the bedroom and looked at Peggy. She was still sleeping. He hoped she would stay that way throughout the car journey. He didn't know where they would go yet, but he knew the journey would be long.