till the end of the line

8 Confrontation

Waking up, I opened my eyes to see white sheets stained red as I sat up.

"Where am I?"

I looked over to see Natasha watching me before she stood up, "You're in SHIELD headquarters. You were injured when you jumped on that grenade."

I looked down to see no scars under my shirt and I felt no pain.

"Injured?"

"You had shrapnel buried in your skin but you were regenerated by the time we arrived, so they had to open your skin again just to remove it. We had to hold you down because you were sending magic blasts every which way."

"I need to leave."

I threw my legs over the bed but she only stepped forward, "I can't let you do that. Director Fury would like to have a word with you."

I shook my head as I got to my feet, coming face to face with her, "Bite me."

Waving my hand, I was wearing normal clothes again, rather than the patient outfits they put you in. I walked out of the room and soon a hand was placed on my shoulder, "Let me go, Natasha."

"I'm sorry. I can't."

"I wasn't asking."

Her grip becoming firmer, I rolled my eyes and placed my hand on hers before she pulled away in pain.

"Argh! What the hell..?"

"I warned you, don't try and stop me next time." I sighed and left the room, finding myself in the halls of the building. I started running down one way but only caught the attention of other people as they began to chase me.

I turned the other way and ran past the room I came from as Natasha came running out, after me, chasing me.

Sending energy blasts behind me, I brought down walls as I ran faster with each stride. Running up to a door, it opened, to reveal Steve.

"Woah, Kat what's wrong?"

I grabbed his hand and looked over to my right, seeing an exit, "We need to leave."

I pulled him after me as we left the building. I turned around and welded the doors shut as Steve started a motorbike, "Come on, get on."

"Is it safe?"

"Do you trust me?"

I nodded and got on behind him as I looked back to see Natasha let out a groan, banging on the glass doors.

But by then, we were gone and on the road.

I leaned into Steve as I wrapped my arms around his torso. "Katerina, what was that all about?"

"They wanted to speak to me about my abilities. I couldn't let them, I'm still trying to work things out without trying to become a science experiment. I won't let it happen again."

He let out a sigh and nodded as he soon pulled down a street. He parked at a museum and helped me off as we soon headed inside. We walked around for a bit in silence before entering a new part of the museum.

I smiled softly as I looked at all the photos and read all the information.

"Remember when Carter used to catch the three of us sneaking around. That was before Bucky was taken."

He nodded and chuckled, "Yeah, back when-"

I looked up at him and stifled a laugh, "Back when you were scrawny."

"Yes, I know." He let out a quiet laugh before turning over to a kid who stared at us. Holding a finger to his mouth, the kid's mouth dropped as we sent him a smile before walking away.

"I miss him."

We walked up to another screen, that showed the three of us, standing side by side before everything changed.

I looked to the original uniform Steve used to wear and then I looked over to the one Buck would wear, "He would've been happy that you're back. He really did care for you."

"Yeah, I cared for him too. I still do."

We walked up to the memorial display that held my own face along with Buck's.

"Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes, Katerina Eriksen, and Steven Rogers were inseparable, on both schoolyard and battlefield. Barnes is the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country. As for Eriksen, she disappeared not long after and she was never seen again."

After a while, we soon left before Steve made a stop at a Peggy's. I waited outside as he went in while I only kept myself amused. I couldn't bear seeing her the way she was now.

Closing my eyes for a moment I opened them again upon hearing the door open.

"Alright, let's go."

I looked over seeing Steve sigh as he rubbed his head, "You okay?"

"She's only forgetting more every day. Come on." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we got back on the motorbike, heading to the VA.

Once we arrived, we stood on the side as we listened to a woman speak, "A cop pulled me over one time and thought I was drunk. I only swerved to avoid a plastic bag, I thought it was an IED."

She lowered her head as Sam nodded, "Some stuff you leave there, other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it going to be in a big suitcase, or in a little man-purse? It's up to you."

After they finished up we waited idly by as I sat against Steve's shoulder, falling asleep. But it wasn't long before he nudged me as we then approached Sam.

"Look who it is, the running man. And of course his mysterious partner?"

I looked up and met his eyes as he reached out to shake my hand, "Katerina Eriksen. A friend of Steve's."

His eyes widened as he looked me up and down, "Katerina... like from the museum exhibit. That Katerina Eriksen?"

I nodded and he shook his head, "Well, I'll be..."

There was a moment of silence before Steve spoke, "Caught the last few minutes, it was kinda intense."

Sam nodded as he collected some papers from the table on the side, "Yeah brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret."

"You lose someone?"

He nodded again, "My wingman, Riley. Flying a night mission. Standard PJ rescue op. Nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before. Until an RPG knocked Riley's dumb ass out of the sky."

He sighed, lowering his head, "Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch."

"I'm sorry."

"After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?"

"Are you happy now, back in the world?"

"The number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell yeah. You thinking about getting out?"

I looked up at Steve as he turned and met my questioning glance before he shook his head, "No. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I'd do with myself if I did."

I slipped my hand into his palm as he interlocked our fingers, meanwhile, Sam thought for a moment, "Ultimate fighting?"

We all let out a chuckle before he shook his head in defense, "Just a great idea off the top of my head. Seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?"

Glancing at me again, I raised my brow as he sighed, looking back at Sam, "I don't know."