Bound By Purpose

Blood Of A Supersoldier

---Evelyn's  POV---

I've done a decent job of keeping myself awake for this journey. My whole body is trembling as Steve continues to run through the last stretch of forest. This rhythm of feet falling has become a pattern and if I wasn't afraid of dying I could easily fall asleep to it. Hopefully me not being able to move has made it easier to carry me all this way. I start to feel him slow down as we enter a familiar space. Around us is American vehicles, and soldiers. Everything is a blur, and there is a buzzing in my ears. I can tell Steve is yelling though because men from all around are starting to crowd us. 

Steve carries me carefully into a tent where he sets me on a stretcher. A masked nurse is waiting above me along with a doctor and Howard Stark. The cloudiness in my head starts to dissipate as Steve kneels down beside me taking my hand. I can hear. Steve tells them about what happened back at the compound.  I'm okay, I have to be. I take another look around at the faces and realize that I just might survive. I find Howard's gaze who puts a reassuring hand on my good shoulder. He kneels down beside me and peels away the makeshift bandages. The look on his face screams intrigue.

"She's not an experiment Stark." Steve says upon seeing the same thing as me.

"Steve..." I say cutting him off. He clenches his jaw and doesn't say another word. 

---Steve's POV---

I watch as Howard's team gets to work. They bring her heart rate down and then help her drift off. "Is that really a good idea... putting her under like that?" Howard has come over to join me for a moment before the surgery.

"It's not the safest thing no, but if we didn't any procedure would be extremely painful... We're keeping a close eye on her Steve don't worry." He takes a sip from his mug. I glance over trying to conclude what it is. His shoulders slump. "It's coffee Steve, have a little faith."

"What are you going to do to her?" I ask trying to get the topic back on track.

"We're gonna open her shoulder and see what the hell those bastards shot her with. Once I know what they did I can come up with something to help her or at least stabilize her long enough to get an antidote." He's quiet a moment as Evelyn finally slips away. "How'd it happen?" He asks. I hear a slight hint of fear in his voice.

"I don't know." I say frustrated. "Bucky was with her when it happened. She just... collapsed." I answer not taking my eyes off of her for a single moment. "I thought she'd dropped dead from the way he reacted. If anything happens to that girl he'd never forgive himself."

"Neither would I." Howard says rather sadly. It was an emotion I'd never seen from him before. It's in this moment that I know I can trust him fully with Eve's well being. "How far would you go to help her?" His question comes off a full minute of quiet reflection from the both of us. It's one that surprises me, but not one with a particularly hard answer.

"I'd do anything." I state planely. I know it's the truth. 

"Good." He says. Turning to the other doctors in the room he starts to bark orders.  "Finish up that  IV and then I need someone to get to work on that shoulder, take a blood sample so we can see what we're up against. Also someone prep Rogers over here for a minor blood fusion."

"Wait Howard... My blood?" I know we're the same blood type but with all the alterations to my body recently... "What about her father?"

"He's away Steve." Howard calls over his shoulder. "He left after he got word of the infantry's capture. I'll have to see exactly what they put inside her but your blood might be exactly what she needs. I'll keep you updated." He turns back to Evelyn and starts to cut away her shirt. His face is confused as he looks into her wound. Grabbing a set of long tweezers he digs down into her shoulder. He comes back up twice dropping two metallic objects into the steel bowl next to him. He turns back to me an instant later. "Pal. I'm gonna need your blood."