Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

Taken (Rogers/Banner x reader)

Heavy Angst

The day of the incident, the day that your child was taken while you away at a mission, Steve wouldn't leave your side. There wasn't a moment that his skin wasn't in contact with yours, as if he were trying to provide his own strength, despite that he had felt like there was none to be given. Your needs were more important than his own; your pain was more important than his own. She was his daughter too, and as much as he wanted to scream and cry and destroy everything around him in his rage, he was doing his best to stay strong for you. He pushed the pain away so that he could push forward in the search, not realizing that the day would come when even he couldn't push anymore.

After one week, he began to drift from your side slowly, though he was still never far from your reach. Steve was consumed with the search, as were you, but his determination was eating away at the fabric of his life around him, and even though you understood, you began to worry that soon he would drift too far beyond your reach.

At six months, he had drifted so far that you couldn't even see him anymore.

"Any word today?" Bruce asked cautiously, setting a glass of juice in front of you before taking his seat at the table across from your position. He set his plate down with a long sigh, watching you wordlessly for a moment before trying again. "Tony tried to call him last night but he didn't answer."

"Nothing."

"Any idea where he might have been headed?"

"Nope."

The doctor sat silently after the brief exchange, still watching you stare blankly ahead at the juice in your glass, waiting for it to still before you looked away. He didn't know what to say; he felt like anything that he said now would either be misconstrued as pity or mistaken for prying. Anytime anyone on the team mentioned Steve's name, it was followed by a pained silence and waiting for your response. You had wanted to go with him on his search for her, but he slipped away in the dark of night so that you wouldn't; he snuck out to do this on his own. He likely thought it would protect you and that you would be safer at home, but he didn't take into consideration that your pain was just as strong as his, and that you wanted to find her just as much as he did. He didn't take you into consideration at all.

"What can I do, (Y/N)?"

"Tell me where my husband went," you replied softly. "Can you do that, Bruce?"

"(Y/N)..." he sighed, trying to reach across the table to take your hand, but you promptly pulled back and away.

"Tell me why he left without me. Tell me why he wouldn't want me with him. Tell me where she is. Just...tell me anything to make this better. I can't..." you stopped, pushing your chair back from the table harshly, "I can't do this anymore, Bruce. I can't stay here."

"Wait, what do you mean?" he asked nervously now, standing with you. "(Y/N), you can't leave too."

"Why not? What good am I doing here? He's obviously not doing any better out there on his own or he would've been home with her by now, right?"

"Okay, let's entertain that idea then," he agreed. "So if you leave on your own, do you think you'll do any better than if you stayed here? What if he finds her and you're not here when he brings her home? (Y/N), are you going out there to find him, or her?"

"I'm going out there to find-"

"Miss," JARVIS broke in emphatically, "Captain Rogers has returned."

~~~

Steve stumbled into the main entry of the tower, his face pale and blank, his body riddled with fatigue and aches that he hadn't felt since before the serum. The searing pain in his chest wouldn't stop, and his mind wouldn't clear of the images that he was now burdened with. Even when he saw you approaching to meet him, it wasn't you that he saw; all he could see was her; all he could see was the moment when he knew that he would never bring her home to you and the destruction the news was about to cause.