There's a lot of shouting. That's all Steve can register. And the ringing. It's defining, and he's pretty sure his ears are bleeding.
There had been an explosion, a couple hundred feet behind Steve. And (Y/n) had been right on top of it when it went off.
He keeps seeing her smiling face, the twinkle in her eyes, the small wave.
But there's a hand by Steve's leg and he wants to scream, because the nails are (f/c), which Steve remembers clearly was the color (Y/n) had painted hers.
So as he grips his bleeding leg, trying not to pass out, staring at the hand with tears streaming down his dirty cheeks.
Steve doesn't remember passing out, but he wakes up in a hospital, head and leg bandaged. His heartbeat immediately races when he hears the soft murmur of a feminine voice on the other side of the curtain.
"(Y/-" Natasha pulls the blue curtain back, exposing her soot covered uniform, hair a mess and a faint spot of blood on her lip. "Where's (Y/n)?"
Natasha hesitates to answer, and that's when he knows that the hand belonged to (Y/n).
"I'm sorry Steve, but she.. she was standing right above the bomb when it detonated. We found parts of her but-"
"No," Steve whispers. His chest tightens, his head spins. The nurses end up having to sedate him, keeping him from storming out of the hospital room and going on a rampage.
A HYDRA agent had seen the opportunity, when Captain America was at his weakest, and used this to inject poison into his blood stream while he was asleep.
He dies a few hours later.
