Hello Captain (Steve Rogers)

I'll come with you

Sarah's POV

We stopped at the beautiful black Corvette Stingray I almost always saw parked next to Steve's spot and my jaw dropped. "I think I'm in love. I want one." She laughed and threw my bag in her trunk as I got in the car. I laid my head back against the soft leather and breathed in the new car smell. "Who do I have to kill to get one of these?"

Natasha laughed delightedly. "This one was a gift from one of my admirers."

"Sounds interesting. Tell me more," I commanded, leaning into the supple leather.

"Not a lot more to say other than he was most appreciative of me keeping him alive for the past several months."

I snorted. "I should have known – my dad is still trying to get in your pants, isn't he?" Her laugh was all the confirmation I needed. "He does know he doesn't have a prayer, right?"

"Yes – Pepper and I are actually quite good friends. Do you know how I first met Tony?"

"Nope, do I want to? It's still a little weird that he's my dad, you know."

The drive passed quickly as she told me the story and I found myself relaxing. We parked in front of my building and she grabbed my bag before we headed upstairs.

I showered, packed a backpack for the next couple days and ate breakfast as we chattered amicably. Over the past two months, we had become good friends, which I think was as surprising to her as it was to me. Natasha Romanoff wasn't an easy person to like and tended to shy away from unnecessary physical contact from everyone - including Clint - a large majority of the time.

When I noticed that, I'd specifically worked on getting her – and the rest of the team - used to being touched by me and even hugged. In their line of work, sometimes the only human contact they had was when they were fighting an enemy. Surprisingly, they all allowed the intimacy - sometimes even without me having to initiate contact.

When we got back to Shield, the rest of the team were already there. I gave Tony a hug from behind, squeezing him firmly. "Morning, Papi."

He shifted so he could hug me back and kissed my cheek, his goatee tickling my face. "Morning, kitten. Did you sleep well? You still look pretty tired."

"I'll take a nap later. How's Pepper?"

"She's coming by in a little while. You can ask her then." I raised my eyebrows at him, but he smiled enigmatically and shook his head.

I walked over to Bruce, who was standing by the window looking out at the Potomac. I put my arm around him and he pulled me tight, burying his face in my hair. He did that sometimes when he was trying to stay calm - he said the combination of scents from my shampoo and my body spray were comforting - and the other guy liked them. I rubbed my hands up and down his back until he let me go.

"He's improved a lot since yesterday," he said quietly.

"You didn't think he was going to make it through the night," I stated.

"I hoped he would, but he's not out of danger yet, Sarah. There's some shrapnel that needs to be removed before he heals much more. It shifted overnight and is now working its way to his heart. We think it's why his internal bleeding couldn't be stopped earlier."

He handed me a tablet with Steve's latest scans on it. I enlarged the images so I could scrutinize them. He pointed at the problem, and my heart sank - I knew this wasn't going to be an easy fix.

"What are you trying to tell me, Bruce?"

"He needs to go to surgery again, but he's awake and we already know that normal anesthesia doesn't work on him since he metabolizes it too quickly. I hate to ask this of you-"