Dead Memories

15

Chapter Fifteen

The illusion of privacy at Stark Tower always bothered Sam a bit. There was no such thing as being truly alone in this building. He was not a loner sort of guy, but most of the time he still didn't really like it. Right now though, with nothing but the sound of Steve's breathing filling the room, he would've appreciated some company. Not the invisible kind.

He was concerned about Steve being asleep this long, but he kind of also dreaded the moment he woke up. There were a lot of unhappy people in the tower right now, so he could already picture the upcoming shitstorm. Sure, how bad it was gonna be depended on Steve's answers, but oh man, he knew it was gonna end like this. And he was not the only one who was unsurprised. Natasha sure as hell looked like she expected this to happen. Thor was suspiciously nonchalant too. He was kinda glad Maria left before any of this went down. Because that woman's death glare was a thing to behold for sure.

There was a knock on the door and Sam turned around in the sitting chair.

'Come on it,' he called out. He didn't bother keeping his voice down. They literally couldn't wake up Cap for the last 17 hours, no matter what they tried. Stark blared loud music, and Clint even poured ice-cold water on his head. Nothing. They all balked at using meds for now... the adrenaline was only going to come out after they passed the 24 hour mark.

Bruce popped his head in.

'May I come in?' he asked. Sam grinned and stood up.

'Man, Bruce, when did you get back?' he asked as he shook his hand. And then pulled him into a short hug just for the hell of it.

'Just now,' Bruce said. 'I'm so jet lagged, you have no idea. Natasha called me.'

'Steve didn't want to bother you,' Sam told him. Bruce wanted to be left alone unless it was an absolute emergency. Steve didn't think this was an emergency just yet.

'Yes, I heard about Steve disagreeing about a lot of things,' Bruce answered, then he finally looked at the bed where Steve slept peacefully. HELEN was constantly monitoring him. He was in and out of REM stage, pulse and breathing all nice and calm. Okay, so he was more in REM stage than normal, but he was physically still fine.

Bruce walked closer to the bed, so Sam did too.

'So, I heard bits and pieces form the others,' Bruce said. 'But you've been around Steve more than them. How is he really? Not now, in general.'

Sam sighed and walked back to the other side of the room to sit back down in his chair. Bruce took the other armchair.

'Not bad, but... he had some real shitty days even before Barnes showed up again,' Sam answered honestly. 'Don't know about sleep or nightmares, but he pushed himself with training he doesn't need a lot. Gone real quiet too occasionally.'

'Never a good sign with him,' Bruce remarked. Understatement.

'So now... I guess he's been better, since this started, but this whole mess is complicated. And maybe Natasha thinks he's not a good liar, but I've been impressed with the poker face lately.'

Bruce nodded a few times, then looked over to Steve again.

'So James Barnes... heard about him too... quite colourful things from Clint and Tony, but...'