Captured // A Winter Soldier Story

chapter twenty five // death

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"I think I worry a lot. I need to take it easy. I got this anxious feeling, but it goes away for a minute when I'm with you, breathing."
-Cry Baby by The Neighborhood

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reyna's point of view

Three days later, Natasha came home. Her red hair was slung up in a ponytail and her face was bright and happy as she walked into the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, and the second I saw her, I launched myself out of my seat and tackled her with a hug. She dropped her bag and squeezed me so hard that I never would've guessed that she'd just been shot clean through her back.

"Jesus, Nat. You're pretty damn strong for someone who was on death's door a few days ago," I exclaimed, pulling back to give her an incredulous look. She laughed.

"Yeah, well, I gotta keep you guys on your toes somehow."

I laughed and released her, a smile spreading across my face, because my family was whole again. Steve stepped past me and enveloped Nat next, her muscular form looking tiny compared to his.

"We missed you, Nat. Welcome- well, welcome to our temporary home. Hopefully we'll be at our actual home soon," Steve said, and Nat smiled.

"You know, I do have my own apartment," she replied. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

"Natasha, you haven't slept in your apartment at all in the last week and a half."

"True, but technically, I still do have a-"

"No, you don't. We all live at Steve's. Admit it."

Her eye twitched. "Ok, fine, we all live at Steves."

Steve laughed, looking around at all of us. His expression was one of relief and contentedness. After all his bouts with depression, after all the medicine he's had to take to control his anxiety, after all the nights I've spent comforting him until he fell asleep...well, seeing him so happy and carefree lifted my heart. Bucky was even smiling a little, and seeing him happy lifted my heart even more.

"Let's head down to the cafeteria," Steve suggested after our laughs quieted, and everyone agreed, Steve leading the way. It was around noon, and my stomach was growling. None of us had had breakfast because we'd been waiting in the lobby to greet Natasha, so we all dove for our trays the second we walked into the cafeteria, grabbing anything we could find.

We gathered at a table in the corner and caught up with Nat. She told us that the only thing she remembered from the fight was being shot by the Winter Soldier and blacking out; after that, the first thing she remembered seeing were the blinding hospital lights. All the details in between were hazy and unclear. As far as I could tell, her back was still a little sensitive, but a majority of the pain was already gone. Just a scrape, she said. I've had bigger mosquito bites. Bucky smiled at that- a real, genuine smile that reached his eyes and everything.

Although Natasha isn't normally a very talkative person, she talked our ears off at lunch. I think her near death experience made her realize just how much of her life she's spent being closed off from others, and after nearly dying without ever really connecting with people, I think she considers this her chance to change that.

I was happy that she wanted to talk, because I'd missed hearing her voice in the last couple of days. With her gone, things just didn't seem quite right. Now, with her voice echoing through the halls, with Steve and Bucky's laughter following it....everything was falling back into place.