Saving Steve

Unseen

You ran quickly through the woods that served as the battlefield, your eyes scanning for any sign of Steve.

You saw his round shield from behind a low crumbling embankment of dirt and hurried towards him, ignoring the dozens of armed Hydra agents in the trees. They couldn't see you. Nobody could. Not even Steve.

Not for years.

You crouched down by him, watching his face anxiously. You pressed your fingers, fingers Steve would never feel, onto a cut on his arm. You felt it begin to knit together under his skin, the muscle reforming from your touch.

He looked down at his arms, and you quickly drew your hand away. Steve pushed away his hair, grimy and unslicked, to have a closer look.

"What the-" he muttered, but his thoughts are interrupted by Natasha, who came racing past a stream of bullets and slid next to Steve, gun cocked and eyes ablaze with adrenaline.

"We're outnumbered and outgunned, Cap. We can't go through with it." She yelled over the noise. He grunted, pulling himself into a crouching position. You braced his wounds, healing the worst as well as you could before he could run off again.

"Maybe we're outnumbered and maybe we're outgunned, but we can still win this. We just need to get the bomb to the base."

"Harder than it sounds." You grumbled, running your thumb over a scar on his hand.

"Harder than it sounds." Natasha echoed. You startled, letting go of Steve. Turning your head, you allowed yourself to look at the snow through which you had come.

Still no footprints. So how-

"Now!" Steve shouted, and him and Natasha jumped up. He held his shield over her as she shot down agents all around them. You sprinted after them, throwing stones at agents they missed. The stones did enough, knocking them off-target.

They reached the base only moments ahead of you, and Steve pulled out the bomb, lining a wall with the wires. Natasha continued to fire at Hydra, but the criminals just kept coming.

"Hurry!" She shouted to Steve over her shoulder, red hair whipping around her face. He placed the last piece and turns, just in time to deflect a bullet that would've hit Natasha. You quickly changed Natasha's aim of her gun as she shot, hitting an unsuspecting agent who was mere moments from killing them.

"Steve I don't know what you just did but-"

"You need to run!" You screamed as loudly as you could. The bomb ticked down, barely a minute left on the clock.

They began to run through the snowy woods again, with you next to them in every second. You took a chance to look behind you and nearly screamed out of joy and maybe a touch of fear.

Footprints. Three sets of them. Steve, Natasha....and you. You have footprints.

You turned forward, and saw someone in the distance. Someone with a very, very big gun. A rush of adrenaline shot through your veins as you sprinted towards Steve. Steve hadn't seen him yet. And he wouldn't, not in time.

Time slowed down for you. Everything in your body was targeted towards one thing. Saving Steve. The gun was raised, and you could feel the trigger tightening because your own heart tightened with it, and you threw yourself in front.

You knew he would died if you didn't.

Time began again, and you fell to the ground, a blinding pain in your stomach area. You'd been shot. A tear escaped your eye, and in that tear was all the pain of the years and all the happiness of the moment. You'd saved him.

Your vision blurred, but you could distinctly feel cold arms wrapping around you, and you could feel the cool air on your face as he began to run again. You heard a shot, and knew that the man who would've killed Steve had died. You'd saved Steve.

And now it's Steve's turn to save you.