Red Thorn

Chapter 9

May 2014

To say that Red was happy to see Maria Hill was an understatement. Not only because she hadn't seen her friend in years, but also because she saved the four of them from certain death. After escaping from the truck, Maria ushered them into an escape vehicle and drove them to what seemed to be an abandoned dam where she told them to follow her.

Steve and Sam helped to two women out of the van, Sam wrapping one arm around the redhead whilst the super soldier picked up Red without any warning. The master assassin instantly rolled out of his arms, landing surprisingly quietly on the gravel floor.

"Nice try, Rogers," Nat teased. "She won't let you help. Not again."

"She's not going to be able to walk on her own with that bullet in her thigh," Sam exclaimed, flailing his free arm towards her bleeding leg.

Red pushed down on the wound, making him grimace as Natasha explained, "She doesn't feel pain."

"She's still lost a lot of blood," Steve retorted, but Red simply glared at him. "What?"

Nat sighed. "She blames you."

"How is this my fault?" he asked. "She was the one recklessly ordering him to shoot her in the head."

"Guys!" Maria piped up. "We need to get inside, you can argue later. Red, let him help."

The headstrong assassin didn't budge, simply folding her arms across her chest. "Please..." Steve said, holding one hand out to her. Reluctantly she accepted, allowing him to hold her steady whilst she walked. In truth, she was thankful for his help as she was feeling lightheaded due to the blood loss, but she was still mad at him for making the gun go off.

"GSW," Maria shouted to an approaching medic as they entered the facility. "They've both lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam added.

"Let me take them," the doctor said but Hill shook her head.

"They'll want to see him first."

Him? The four unlikely teammates followed Maria Hill down a hallway, wondering who she could have been talking about. They went wide eyed as she pulled back a plastic curtain, revealing none other than Nick Fury lying in a medical bed, alive and as well as he could be considering he was supposedly dead. "About damn time," he said upon seeing them.

Red couldn't believe her eyes. He was alive... She was both relieved and infuriated at the same time, delighted that he was alive, but beyond furious that he'd let them think he wasn't. As she tried to understand what was happening, the nausea she'd been ignoring since their fight on the highway became too much and the room started to spin around her, black dots clouding her vision.

Steve was still staring at Fury in shock when he felt Red's grip on his arm tighten. "Red?" he said, panic lacing his words as he felt her leaning more into his body. "Sir, she needs medical attention, now," he told the doctor, sitting her down on a nearby chair before whispering so that only she could here. "Don't die on me, Charlie, not without me, remember?"

"I need to get the bullet out her leg," the doctor said, crouching down next to the super soldier. "I can't suture if it's still in there."

"Then stop talking and do it already," Fury snapped.

The doctor nodded, asking Steve to carry her to a nearby makeshift operation room, Sam and Natasha following close behind them. A discussion with Fury could wait, they needed to make sure Red was going to be okay. He didn't bother putting her under, knowing that she couldn't feel any pain and that even in her lucid state she would protest.