| The Amelie Chronicles | (MCU)

Part Two: Chapter Eleven

"Amie."

"Ja?"

"Are you sure you don't want me to take you home? So you could grab a shower or sleep in your own bed?"

The girl was curled up in a chair next to Steve's hospital bed, several days after the fall of both Hydra and SHIELD. After Sam and Nat found them, they used Fury's chopper to lift them to the hospital. Amelie was fine after a few hours of treatment, but Steve needed emergency surgery and still hasn't woken up.

"No." She said quietly, wiping her tired eyes as she stared at Steve's resting body, "H-he is going to w-wake up. Ich kann es fühlen."

"Steve will be fine. He's stubborn." Sam said, "How's the arm?"

"It onl-ly hurts when my m-muscles spasm." She answered slowly, her thick accent tripping over words more severely than she used to. It helps when she speaks in short spurts, or uses her native tongue. However, it was a stutter she was going to have to learn to live with- no matter the language she spoke.

The sling and bandages were tight around her injured arm, the whole contraption shaking every now and then from the slight nerve damage she possessed .

"Do you want to at least go to the cafe and grab something to eat?" Sam offered. The girl hasn't eaten properly in days- the only adequate nutrition she received was through IV to replenish the malnutrition she developed when she overused her powers.

"Nein." Amie shook her head, "I stay."

That's when Steve sucked in a larger breath than the steady monotonous ones he'd been breathing for the past few days. Amie sat up, her eyes widening as Steve slowly opened his eyes. One of them was still a bit swollen shut, but he was awake nonetheless.

"On... your... left." He said to Sam, which caused the man to chuckle from his friend's humor. Amie grabbed Steve's hand, a smile plastered on her face from his condition's sudden improvement.

"Steve!" She said, eyes filled with happy tears.

"Trooper." Steve smiled, giving Amelie's arm a squeeze.

"He's awake." Sam said to Amelie, "Why don't you have Nat take you home? I'll call if anything changes?"

Amelie looked to Steve, unsure if she should go. He just woke up! She wanted to spend some time with him.

"Go, kid." Steve smiled, "I'll be fine. Promise."

With a small smile, Amelie got up from her chair and left the room, going to find Natasha out in the hall. Steve turned to Sam, brows furrowed.

"Is she okay?" Steve asked, "Amie's acting a bit different."

Sam sighed, "When they brought her back to Hydra... they experimented on her. Hydra has some scepter, something they didn't have before."

"Loki's scepter..."

"Yeah, I guess."

"How much?"

"It was a pretty large dose... and they injected her with some organic substance." Sam explained, "When I found her, she was trapped, the room was collapsing and she was holding up rubble. She could have been like that for hours. Doctor said she has nerve damage in her right arm, and the trauma might have caused her speech to regress."

"I should have been able to stop it." Steve said bitterly, "I promised her she'd never go back there, and now she did-"

"Hey, it's not your fault." Sam cut the man off, "There's nothing any of us could have done. What happened to Amelie was life changing and terrible... but you have to help her get better."