Part of Me

Chapter 24

Morning awakes, everyone was tense, barely touching their food, staring into blank spaces, hardly keeping themselves together. Especially for Steve. He'd smashed broken one of the tables in the facility last night as frustration and guilt made their way to him, shouting at him to be let out. So he did, stomping his way here and there, smashing stuff, punching some bags. There was no such thing as good night sleep in a day like this. Dark eye bags and empty stares.

Bruce, who seemed to look the worst, hairs tousled and eyes red, quietly rushed into the room. Everybody was anxious as he made his way to speak to them.

"How is she?" Clint asked eagerly.

"We tried to help her as much as we can, but there's no progress. I have found the substance that got into her, it seemed to be damaging her organ cells. If we leave it for long, I'm afraid it'll damage more organs. From my observation, there's something that's triggering it," he paused and display the simulation of said observation, "once I got it out from her body, it showed no reaction. I believe it's a substance or reaction in her body that triggers its work."

"Why isn't her body countering it? I thought she had a similar serum as mine running in her blood," obvious Steve had read her files.

"Similar, yes. But not in the quick recovery way, her serum is more too keep her physique and abilities younger than she is, kind of like a not getting old serum. Her body is supposed to be countering it, but I detected hints of immunosuppressants in the substance."

"And that is?"

"It's a drug which reduces the performance of a body's immune system, so it won't reject something the body receives."

"What do we do now?"

Bruce sighed, took his glasses off and pinched his nose, "we've got to wait again, we need more results."

"Can I see her?" Steve asked and the others looked at the doctor, hopeful.

"No, you can't, for now. The room needs to be completely sterile as we still don't know what triggers the substance."

Steve let out a frustrated sigh and left the room. Stomping his way through hallways and up to his room. He sat by his bed and palmed his face and ran in to his hair. What is he gonna do?

He opened a drawer on the bedside and pulled out his sketchbook, he flipped through the pages but couldn't find a single sketch of her. Oh, he just remembered, he tossed it in the trash when he was mad at her. His fingers stopped at a page of a half done sketch, that of her looking down and gave a smile. He remembered that day vividly, they'd cancel their quinjet flying training as the weather was very not friendly, the others decided it was the perfect day to have a nap, while Natasha and Steve were in the living room having light conversations when lightning struck and Steve swore he saw Natasha jumped in shock and he laughed because he finds it funny that the Black Widow people deemed as lethal jumped in shock out of lightning. She was pouting after that, to enlighten her he told her 'the only reason a thunder that big strikes is because Thor was mad the Black Widow defeated him in a game of UNO' and she laughed as she remembered that time the team gathered to play, and gave him a beautiful smile afterwards. How he loved it so much, he made a promise to himself to draw it down.

Natasha hadn't seen his sketches, he had planned to show it to her one day but now he's not even sure if there would actually be a chance for him to show it to her.

Regret. Regret. Regret.

There were so many things he should've done to her - take her to an actual date, make her smile all day, distract her from all her problems, keep her safe. He definitely hadn't done any of them and he'd only realize it then it was too late to do any of them and whose fault was it? His.

"Can I come in?" He glanced up to find Wanda by his door.

"Sure," he said as he shoved his sketchbook back into the drawer. She walked towards and sat beside him.

"This is my fault," she said after a moment of silence, considering she was the one who angered Steve and one thing leads to another.

"If I have had enough patience, this will all never happen. It's my fault."

"I guess, it's our fault then," she said softly and he nodded in response.

"You shouldn't have doubted her."

"What?"

"That night when you were mad to her, after her talk with Bucky. You doubted her feelings towards you. You feel threatened of his presence, you're afraid he'll take her away from you. That's why you're mad, right?" She explained her observations,"I didn't eavesdrop. I can hear your voice all the way from my room, I came down to see what it was."

Steve looked down and replayed that night. He didn't know why he was so enraged, now with the help of Wanda he can finally see the cause of his anger,"yes, I doubted her. I feel like someway somehow, Bucky's gonna have her instead of me. As much as I don't want to force her to be with me, letting her go to someone else is just too much to bear. Just the thought itself hurts."

"I know. I see it."

---
Being impatient, Steve went down to the lab where Bruce is still doing his research, cup of teas lying everywhere, he guessed Bruce hadn't had sleep since Natasha was down.

"Any progress?" He asked to the doctor who didn't realized his presence until he spoke.

"Uh no, I-I keep on trying everything but I still can't find it's trigger," he answered him. Tony walked in and went to them.

"What do we got?" Tony asked them.

"So far no progress. I've been observing the samples for hours now and the substance didn't even react," he said as he gestured to the microscope in front of a screen which displayed the simulation of the substance behaviour. Tony walked to the microscope and took a look on the microscope.

"I'm not that great in these things, I gotta admit, but have you tried everything?" Tony said and the doctor sighed and nodded.

"Everything?" He asked again.

"Yes, everything. Some doctors suggested to boost her immune system, but inside the body these substances work fast and they've spread everywhere, it won't work. I tried to find the trigger to it, I tried every single different scenarios for a trigger but none worked. I hate to break it to you guys, but her chances are low. The machines are the only thing keeping her alive," he said honestly to the both of them. Steve dragged him to the wall and pushed him against it.

"Then find a cure for her damnit!" He shouted at the doctor. He was about to say something else when Tony spoke.

"Wait, what if her being alive is the thing triggering the substance?" He said as he furrowed his brows, thinking hard. Steve let go of Bruce and turned to him.

"You mean her heart keeps on working?" Bruce asked as he gathered composure after Steve's rage.

"Yes! Yes! You said it didn't work outside the body, maybe it's because outside there's no pressure or heartbeat triggering it's work," Tony said and looked at the doctor, Steve watching the two geniuses work.

Bruce rushed back to the microscope and did some simulations to test their hypothesis, Tony standing beside him. After few intense minutes, Bruce looked up at Steve.

"I know how to help her."

---
Hello, been a while since I've posted. Iw as so excited because I met Brianna Hildebrand 😍
Anyways I wanted to ask you guys regarding a really important thing. This story is coming close to an end, would you want me to end it the way I planned or do you want me to extend the chapters? Let me know!
Comment and vote guys!