Thaw

Sokovia Accords.

A week passed, then another, and another, all without a call from Peter. I eventually lost hope and put everything into training to distract myself from it. I even gave up on trying to finish the suit for him, truly believing I ruined it for us.

It was Sunday afternoon, July 6th. Steve decided to train us outside for a mission we were going on tomorrow in Lagos Nigeria. Rumlow, a man working for Hydra when SHIELD was still operating has plans to steal weapons there. Steve has been wanting to catch this guy since he escaped months ago. 

"Just one more minute," Steve cheered on, I couldn't even tell if I would be able to stop at the speed I was running at.

My legs were on fire and for a moment I totally blanked on what I was doing and was thrown to the ground, my ankle making a terrible cracking noise as I fell hard to the grass.

I winced as I sat up from the fall and lightly touched my foot. It was clearly out of place.

"Astrid!" Steve said running over to me in less than 20 seconds.

"Oh shit."

"That doesn't look so good, we're gonna have to get you to medbay." He declared, circling his arms around me.

"It doesn't hurt," I quickly regretted my words as Steve gently picked me up, making sure t support my ankle in one hand.

"That much," I added, biting my lip and squeezing my eyes shut to keep from crying out.

"I'm going to put it back in place." Dr. Helen explained as she inspected my foot, just as I suspected the ankle bone had come out of place and caused my ankle to swell to an abnormal size.

"Astrid, stop it," Steve said seeing me bite my lip again hard enough that it pierced the delicate skin and drew blood.

"I can't help it!" I exclaimed.

"Helen, can we get her something to bite down on?"

A moment later, I had a spare shirt in my mouth and Steve's hand grasped tightly in mine.

"This is going to hurt," Helen said, smiling sadly and grasping my foot.

A muffled yell followed a painful yet somewhat satisfying pop of bones going back into place.

"Oh god is it over?" I asked yanking out the shirt from my mouth and opening one eye at a time.

"Yep, you did great," She said patting my knee.

She finished by wrapping my leg in a splint and compression wrap.

"Because you're Asgardian and half goddess, it'll only be a few hours for it to fully heal, maybe a day," she explained.

"Well that's a relief, I'm going on a mission tomorrow." I told her.

"No you're not." Steve butt in.

"What?" I asked turning to him.

"You're not coming tomorrow, I need to be sure you're in absolute health for a mission like this."

"We've been planning this one for so long, you need me."

"We'll improvise, it'll be fine." He replied shaking me off.

"But-"

"No buts, this is not up for debate." he diminished.

"Steve you heard Helen! She said I'll be fine by tomorrow!"