Even if I wait forever

Chapter twenty two

I was sitting on the wall overlooking the forest. I came here to feed and think. It has been a few days and no word from the captain.

I made my way inside and found Maria next to Fury's bed.

Maria with hope plastered on her face. "Steve and Natasha was seen together. He is alive Sarah. I made arrangements to extract them."

My heart skipped a beat this is very good news. "Thank you for telling me."

"Sure. I am leaving tonight."

"I'll come with you."

"I'm afraid you can't. It's to dangerous for you. They still think you are dead. Besides I need someone here that I can trust. I don't trust these men with him."

"Off course. Make me just one promise."

"What's that?"

"Please bring everyone home safe."

"I'll do my best."

******

I was standing at the door waiting impatiently for Maria. She left about 1 and a half days ago and the waiting is getting to me.

"Do you play?" Fury had a deck of cards in his hand.

"What's your game?"

"Poker. Because no one can beat me, not even Stark."

I smiled. "You've never played against me." I heard about this Stark character. And he sounds just like his father. "Bet you can't beat me."

"Sit down then. Let us see."

The cards were dealt and the game started.

"I raise."

"Your pokerface doesn't..." my sentence was cut off by the entrance door opening.

"Stay here."

I made my way down the hallway, that's when I saw him. I ran to him and threw my arms around him. His body was stiff. I took a step back and looked at his face.

"I thought I was never going to see you again." His face without expression. "Steve, what is it?"

"I... I..."

"Steve?"

"He is alive."

"What?"

He walked past me. Shock and hurt in his eyes.

"Hi I'm Sam. We met running but that is not important. He saw his pal. He saw Bucky."

The name felt like a double sided knife dipped in vervain in my heart. It felt like my world was spinning. He is alive. I can't believe it.

They enter Fury's room. "About damn time."

The docter gave Natasha a chair and treated her wound.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache." Fury explained his condition.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor chirps in.

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open, your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." He looks over to me. "Plus we got some healing help from agent Darling."

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?"