Captain's Hart

Chapter 24 Reconciliation

July 1 2013

Steve woke up slowly, painfully. Every cell in his body seemed to be screaming in agony and he almost groaned as his senses returned, wishing he was unconscious again. He could feel the stitches on some of the more serious ones such as his shoulder and stomach wounds, and the dull throbbing in his thigh told him that bullet wound wasn't fairing much better.

He vaguely became aware of music playing from somewhere and he slowly opened his eyes to see he was in a hospital bed. Glancing over, he saw Sam sleeping lightly in the chair beside him. The man looked okay aside from a few bruises on the side of his face, and Steve croaked out jokingly: "On your left."

Sam's eyes immediately opened and he glanced over before his lips curved into a crooked half-smile. Steve answered in a similar fashion, although it ended more in a grimace as he felt a stab of pain. He leaned back heavily against his pillows as Sam scrutinized him.

"You look like hell." Sam told him and Steve chuckled, although that also ended in a grimace.

"Yeah, thanks." Steve told him as he groaned against the pain and Sam grinned as he added: "You're looking better than when we found you though."

"Yeah, thanks a lot." Steve retorted, wincing as he tried to make himself comfortable.

He also tried to catalogue all his injuries while simultaneously not feeling the pain it caused.

Sam seemed to understand and he listed: "You've got, or had, several bruised ribs, a nasty knife-wound to the shoulder, bullet wound to the stomach from the back and one in your left thigh. You also have a couple other scrapes and bruises, most heavily on the right side of your face."

Steve grimaced, feeling all the injuries worse now. Sam added helpfully: "On the bright side, the doctors deemed you didn't have concussion."

"Aren't I lucky." Steve deadpanned.

Sam's lips twitched with amusement, but he became more serious as he told the Captain: "It could've been a lot worse, and you can thank that super serum that you're alive and even awake right now. It's helping you heal at an incredible rate, which is good. You'd have been a goner if your body hadn't already been starting to mend when we found you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Steve groaned but before anything else could be said the door to Steve's room opened.

Steve blinked and then his eyes widened slightly as Arianna stepped through. She looked like she'd cleaned up hastily since their battle, dressed in a simple shirt and worn jeans that looked like they'd been thrown on without thought, and her hair tied in a loose braid across her shoulder.

Arianna froze as soon as she met Steve's eyes, pausing mid-step in the doorway. She had clearly not been expecting him to be awake and his heart clenched at the thought. Would she not have come if she knew he'd woken up?

But his breathing eased up as she slowly closed the door behind her and walked inside. Her eyes roamed him, checking him, and as she lifted her gaze back to his, she gave him a small, almost shy smile.

"Hey." She murmured as she took the seat beside Sam.

"Hey." He answered softly as a small smile appeared on his face as well.

Sam rolled his eyes at them and he announced, getting up as he did: "Well, I'm going to go get some food now that Arianna's back. You want anything, Cap?"

"Er, not real- wait 'back'?" Steve asked, Sam's words sinking in a little belatedly.

Arianna winced but Sam replied easily: "Yes, back. She's barely left your bedside since we found you on that riverbank- it was hell trying to get her tended to, because she refused to let you out of her sight."