girl ― saved by captain america

[five] no more owwies

[Steve]

"Wait- you let her out of her restraints?" Bruce asks in a somewhat frustrated tone as we both make our way over to Natasha.

"She looked miserable," she retorts, glaring at him. Bruce leads the way down the hallway. As we reach the door, Nat comes to a stop. "I can't go in there; I'm sorry. I can't see that again. I-"

"It's okay, just take a deep breath. Go out and sit with Clint and Thor, okay?" I cut her off, placing a soft hand on her shoulder. At this point, she looks as if she could become sick again, and that wouldn't help with anything. She looks at me guiltily, clearly unsure of whether or not Girl will be okay without her. "I'll go in there with her again. Please, Nat. You don't look so good." Sighing, she nods, making her way back out to the cabin.

Turning to me, Bruce hesitates before he opens the door. "I don't know exactly what we're going to be dealing with here, but if you're not feeling up to it, then I can go ask Clint or-"

"It's fine," I interrupt him quickly, "I'll be just fine."

"You sure? She's going to be unbelievably upset, no doubt-"

"I just want to help," I say anxiously, looking pleadingly into his eyes. Softening his gaze, he nods understandingly.

He opens the door slowly and we both enter with caution, shutting it behind us. My heart skips a beat when the bed is empty and Girl is nowhere to be seen. "Shit, do you think she escaped?" Bruce asks, the alarm evident in his voice. Before I can say anything, though, a quiet whimper sounds from one of the far corners of the room. Taking a few steps back, I peer over and see two little feet sticking out from behind the armchair I was sitting in earlier. I point wordlessly to what I've noticed, and Bruce follows my finger with his eyes, nodding silently.

"Hey sweetheart, it's alright. It's just me again, and Bruce is here too," I call out gently, not wanting to startle the poor thing. The whimpering grows slightly louder as she's probably realized that we now know where she is.

"N-Nat told Girl you'd come, please don't hurt Girl, please don't make Girl show you," the heartbreaking, all too familiar voice begs from behind the furniture. Feeling my heart sink in my chest, I take a few more steps forward, slowly reaching out and sliding the armchair aside. Girl is tucked in the corner, her long brown hair tangled all around and covering some of her face. I notice that her IV has clearly been yanked out, a thin trickle of blood forming down her arm. Her little body is curled up into itself, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. Softening my posture, I prepare myself to approach the little child like you would a wounded animal: gently, with extreme care.

"It's okay Girl, there's no need to be afraid," I say as softly as I possibly can, bending down onto my knees to hopefully appear less intimidating. The child cowers away from me, pushing herself as far as she can back into the corner. "Sweetheart, Nat told us that you have a- a really big owwy," I say with a frown, trying to simplify my language to help the girl understand. "She said it was hurting you a lot, and we wanna see if we can help you, okay? I promise we won't hurt you or do anything bad to you."

"Please, please don't make Girl show you, please don't t-take c'othes away," she sobs, her voice trembling with every word. Sighing, I glance back at Bruce. On one hand, the last thing I want to do is force Girl to let us examine her wound. Almost every fiber of my being is screaming at me that that would be a bad and wrong thing to do, especially given how many of the poor thing's boundaries have already been crossed. But at the same time, the way Nat described it made it seem as though this could be a very grave injury, and of course we want to make sure that Girl has the best chance at healing properly that she can possibly get.