Infectious

Chapter 13

She didn't sleep. The truth is, she was afraid to.

Steve seized. His body jerking, tears falling out of his eyes and foam filling his mouth. He couldn't breathe and he was in pain. She was absolutely terrified it would happen again, so she stayed awake, leaning against the headboard and went through his drawings.

One of buildings, New York, water falls, sunrises... but also the portal during the alien invasion a year ago. She studied it. The detail and the civilians screaming and running. She noticed a few spots where something wet must've dripped but realized it must've been his tears.

She turned to the next page. A woman, brunette, she looked stunning.

The next page was the perspective of a pilots view during a crash or something. When steve crashed the plane in the arctic.

She looked over at him and watched as he slept soundly. She felt bad for the man. Being pulled into a new century, she couldn't even imagine what that would be like. Now, he's dying.

She turned the page. A ceiling fan, a door, an old radio, a window, a bed and a dresser. It was small and looked very plain. At the bottom of the page where the bed finished, a few scribbled in almost black from the pencil. Like someone had put all their strength onto the stick.

Next page... it was a little blurry A around the edges, but in the center was a man falling off a mountain and reaching up. She could imagine it, falling and falling and falling until he hit the ground at the bottom. Little did she know that was Bucky.

Next, was him. Standing alone in a white room. No doors. No windows. No furniture. Nothing. He was alone and trapped.

All drawings from his past which haunted him, and gave him nightmares. Things he could barely handle then, still he struggles to cope with all of the things going on right now.

Honestly, she didn't know how to feel at the moment. She wasn't familiar with the feelings she is feeling for steve right now and certainly scared to find out.

---

Over the next week, tony never left the lab. His coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner... it was all sent to the lab by pepper. He didn't want to lose steve, even if he'd barely known the guy and wasn't putting all too much effort in doing so right now. He said, "I'll chat and get to know him when I know he isn't dying."

Bruce was in and out. He did do all he could, but he also had to take care of himself and steve whenever something else happened.

It got to the point the medication he was being given barely helped at all. He seized twice, vomited countless times, suffered of severe migraines, passed out, and couldn't even bring himself up to stand.

He was in the couch one after noon with Natasha on the seat next to him watching tv. That is, until he started coughing harshly and gasping for air when he could.

She immediately kneeled in front of him and patted his back, trying to calm him down a bit and yelling at Clint to get a glass of water.

He took a few deep breaths as instructed and sipped some water. After coughing a couple more times, tears welled up in his eyes and he clenched one fish weakly. "I cant... I can't do this anymore..."

Natasha was shocked by the words. "No, steve, you have to fight this. C'mon, tony and Bruce are still working on it, they've almost got it."

"It hurts... so much..." he coughed again. His hazed eyes closing and opening again slowly. "I can't..."

"Steve Rogers, I know you. You're a fighter. Don't give up. C'mon..."

Steve smiled weakly and looked at her, studied her a bit before finally saying, "'Tasha... I love you..."

She tilted her head and parted her lips. The air in her lungs escaped and was barely able to catch it again, just like her words. She was speechless.

She thought of it for a moment. All these feelings... "I-I love you too..." she managed to say, because for once, she knew what it must feel like. What love feels like.

She was terrified at how this was going to end now. It wasn't looking good and nobody had any idea how this was going to end. From the looks of it, she's going to be left alone and hurt.