Bound to You - Steve Rogers

Chapter 33

When I was your man: Bruno Mars

My pride, my ego, my needs, and my selfish ways

Caused a good strong woman like you to walk out my life

Now I never, never get to clean up the mess I made, oh

And that haunts me every time I close my eyes

He's been restless since the day you've been taken. When he woke up the next morning, alone when he knew for a fact that he had fallen asleep on you and now you were nowhere to be found. He started to panic. Then when nightfall came he started to freak out. Racing around the compound searching for you, calling your phone or asking FRIDAY to find you. He did it all. But he knew.

You were gone.

Steve knew Hydra got you. He saw the CCTV footage. He saw the way they simply grabbed your body off the street and pushed you into a van. He watched and watched it over and over again. He was replaying the last few moments where he knew where you were. Where he knew that you were still alive.

His eyes strain as he looks at the monitors. Eyes flickering back and forth, scanning over the information. Not being overly fond of technology Steve keeps his research old school. He doesn't trust it completely either so Steve has your notes spread out beside him. From the chicken scratch notes, you've written down to the clean reports done after each mission.

The map spread in front of him was the same you have used to pinpoint each and every location a base was found with traces of the serum. Overwhelmed by it all, Steve didn't know where to start. There was just so much information, he had to start somewhere. Taking the cap of the marker between his teeth, Steve starts marking up the map. He feels a sense of deja vu bubbling inside him. The last time he was in front of a map, marking bases and creating a strategy for his troops was when he was at war.

He still was at war. It's the same story, different time. A deranged Hydra leader, trying to play god and build themselves an army of super soldiers. Steve just hopes that is where the similarities stop and someone that he cares about doesn't get hurt. Just as he did for Bucky. Steve will do anything to get you back.

He's already doing so. Sacrificing his wellness in order to find you were just the first thing he would do. It seemed as if he was the only one looking. Tony claims he has FRIDAY scanning for you and Natasha and Clint put all the cards on your abilities. They said that they would find you when it was time, whatever that meant.

Leaning back in his chair he holds one of your reports in his hand. He looks and looks at them, knowing every word scribbled down by heart. His photographic memory helps with that but also remembering the slope of your nose or curve of your lip. Carding his hands through his hair, he sighs at the memories he has kept of you. But it wasn't the time to reminisce. He wanted to be actually able to see your features, to hold you in his hands.

"She has a plan, Steve." He looks at Natasha leaning against the bookcase with her jacket in her hand. "And what plan is that? Getting herself kidnapped and possibly killed." Silence follows Steve's words. You told Nat yourself you had a plan, one that would determine the fate of who wins this war. But now she might be questioning your plan as well. "Also where were you this whole week that she was gone for?"

"Retrieving this." She throws a small metal object at Steve. "What is it?" He looks at it in the palm of his hand, feeling its coolness and lightness of it. " I think you know what it is." Nat leaves Steve alone with the USB still frozen in his hand. So much information, so much value in a tiny chip, which he stared at for a good while before plugging it into a computer. The only reason he could think of for receiving the USB is because of an untimely death. This is why he ignored the beep sound the computer made signifying that the information was uploaded. Albeit he wasn't sure about that explanation it was the only one he could come up with to answer the question he repeatedly asked himself. Why would she give me all of her information? Everything about you smushed into one piece of technology, everything you have kept locked away.