Dark heart

Chapter 7

Hey guys! Before you start reading I wanted to point out that from now on chapters might get a bit bloodier or mental health issues might be addressed. So I just wanted to put out a quick trigger warning to those of you who might be having trouble with something like this. Otherwise, enjoy reading and of course, thanks for your support!

I dropped to my knees next to Nat who was trying to stop Steve's bleeding just under the ribs on the left side of his abdomen. He was barely conscious and groaned in pain. " Steve? Eyes on me, okay?" I said, and he actually managed to look at me. " That's good", I praised him and then gave Nat a meaningful look, which she immediately understood. She slipped aside and slightly removed her hands from the blood soaked compresses with which she had sealed the wound, and I pressed mine on it. " He must go to headquarter immediately", I told the others. „Okay, guys, you heard her. Withdraw!" Tony now asked the others too. In the mean time, I turned Steve slightly to the side with the help of Nats to see if there was an exit wound. Of course not, that would have made things too easy. I sighed, in this area of the body, the bullet had been able to damage a lot.

It wasn't long before we were all assembled in the Quinjet, where we had at least first aid supplies. Bruce had now joined me and was kind of assisting me. " More compresses", I told him, as the last ones were already completely blood-drined. Damn he had lost at least half a litre of blood and I was only able to give him a transfusion in the lab. " This is taking too long!" I called in Clint's direction who flew the jet. " We'll be there soon", he returned, giving Steve a worried look. " How is he?" wanted to know Bucky who was tigering back and forth all the time behind me. " We need to get the bullet out of him and see how much damage it's done, and then we'll know more. I gave him something for the pain, but much more than controlling the bleeding, I can't do for him right now", I explained to him and the worry on his face didn't go away.

After a felt eternity, we were finally back and immediately took Steve to the lab. " You wait here", I told the others strictly before closing the door behind me and went to Bruce who asked Jarvis for a scan. " Let's see what we have here", I muttered, projecting the scan onto the big screen. „Give him a transfusion, he'll bleed it out faster than we can get it into him", I told Bruce and then turned my attention to the scan. It looked as if the bullet had injured the spleen, but no vital organs. Relieved, I took a breath and didn' t even notice that I had held it. " I'm not a surgeon, Bruce. What if I make it worse?" I voiced my concerns after we clearly came to an end that the spleen needed to be removed. " You know a lot more about medicine than I do, and we don't have time to get him to the hospital. You can do this. "

At least I had worked in the hospital several times to further my education and had been allowed to watch some operations. We had both made ourselves sterile and put on scrubs before finally putting Steve under anesthesia. I took another deep breath before I applied the scalpel and made the first cut. Jarvis was doing a scan on the side the whole time, so I had a good overview of the situation. I accepted a long pair of thin pliers from Bruce and inserted them into the incision. That's when I hit the metal of the bullet and carefully pulled it out. As was to be expected, this caused the bleeding to increase. The bullet had closed the vessels it had injured and because of its absence it could now bleed there as well. Now came the hard part. As I had seen it once in an operation I was allowed to observe, I carefully removed the organ and actually managed to do it. With the help of Bruce and the navigation of Jarvis I managed to stop all bleeding and close the wounds again. Steve was thankfully stable and his blood pressure also went back up after we closed all the vessels. " I'll put him in one of the hospital beds, you go to talk with the others. I'm sure you want to know how he's doing," Bruce said with a smile and I nodded exhaustedly. " Oh, and Alex? I'm proud of you. That he is still alive is largely due to you," he added. Now I couldn't help smiling proudly and I felt some of the tension slowly fall away from me.

As I walked through the door, all heads turned to me. The team's concern was clear from their faces and Nat was the first one to get up and come to me. " How's he doing?" she wanted to know. I waited for everyone else to be with us before I replied, "For the moment he is stable. We had to remove his spleen but that shouldn't bother him too much, you can life without one without any problems. He's probably going to be unconscious for a while. He's lost a lot of blood, and in general, it's a trauma to the body. I guess it'll be a while until he is recovering but now we have to wait and see when he wakes up, he is not yet on the safe side. " Some nodded, lost in thought, most of them just looked at the ground in silence. " Alex and I will take turns staying with him to keep an eye on him", added Bruce, who just came in behind me.

"You're welcome to visit him but remember he needs plenty of rest to get better," I put on a final word before planning alternate surveillance with Bruce. But suddenly his cell phone rang and he sighed in resignation when he saw Fury's name appear on the display. After he finished his conversation, he turned to me with an apologetic look. " They want me to join S. H. I. E. L. D. Apparently one of my PhDs is needed for something. Are you gonna be okay here by yourself?," he wanted to know and I nodded even though I knew that I was already totally exhausted. He apologized a few more times before he left and I sat down on a chair next to Steve's bed. Today had worn me out. The adrenaline was ebbing away, leaving only an intangible fatigue, and my body felt heavier by the minute. I knew for a fact that this night was going to be exhausting.