Hello Captain (Steve Rogers)

Bittersweet

Post Brazil
Sarah's POV

We were in high spirits as we disembarked from the Quinjet back at the Triskelion. Our mission had been a complete success and I couldn't wait to tell Steve how it had ended. I'd been laughing at something Clint said as we were walking down the ramp when I saw Natasha and Maria Hill coming towards us.

I searched for Steve, knowing he should be here too. He'd said he'd be when I had called him earlier. I took one look at their expressions and my heart froze in my chest. I'd never seen such a blank look on Natasha's face and Maria looked like she'd been crying. I dropped my bag and ran over to them, Clint on my heels.

"What is it, Natasha? Where's Steve?" My eyes flickered back and forth between them and I fought down the panic that was clawing at me as a single tear ran down Maria's face. "Maria - talk to me!"

"Tasha?" said Clint, reaching out to hold her shoulders. He gave her a small shake. "Tasha, what's going on?"

She cleared her throat and spoke in monotone. "Sarah, Steve was badly injured today. He's alive, but we don't know if he's going to make it yet. He still hasn't woken up."

I sprinted for the stairs, not waiting to hear more. I parkoured down to the hospital floor and ran all out until I reached the doors to the ICU. There were two guards stationed outside of a room and Doctor Blake was just walking out the room; he paused when he saw me skid to a stop in front of him.

"Agent Evans; we've been expecting you. Captain Rogers is in here." He turned and led me into the room.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I cleared my throat and tried again. "How is he? What happened?"

"He took heavy fire this morning when we were on our way into the base," I heard Tony say as my eyes found Steve.

He was lying in the hospital bed with an oxygen mask on and a bunch of wires running to a bank of monitors. There were splints on both his left arm and leg and red tinged bandages around his torso. He was so pale and still. I took his right hand in mine and it was barely warm, unlike the last time I'd held his hand. I brushed his hair back and kissed his forehead.

"I'm here now, Steve," I whispered, resting my cheek on his. "Don't you dare die on me, Rogers." I kissed his cheek before straightening up again and giving my attention to the doctor, who was watching me with sympathy.

"Captain Rogers broke most of the bones on the left side of his body and took considerable internal damage. He lost a lot of blood before they got him back here. Frankly, Agent Evans, we don't know how he's still alive. We've done everything we could for him already, but as of right now, I'm afraid he won't make it through the night."

"Have you given him blood?" I was reading the numbers on the monitors and they were dropping steadily. It didn't look good. If we couldn't stabilize him, even his super-soldier serum couldn't help him.

"Of course." He pointed to a deflated bag on the IV pole. "Six pints so far and still running. It's helping, but he's still hemorrhaging internally. We can't get it to stop without making things worse; it's slowed substantially since his arrival, at least."

"Give him some of my blood." I met Tony's eyes and he nodded. "I have a similar serum in my veins and I'm a universal donor. It will give him a boost until his own serum production can keep up."

"It certainly can't hurt at this point." He looked over at the nurse by the bed. "Send for a phlebotomist stat." She nodded and moved to leave but I stopped her with a gesture.

"Tell them to just direct line me in. We don't have time to do a transfusion the normal way." The nurse's eyes widened and she quickly left the room.