Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Steve stared at the young woman unconscious in the hospital bed. Her chest rose and fell evenly as though she had not a care in the world, a peacefulness which goaded him. Part of him wanted to reach out to the girl whose face would forever bear the scars of fire and hold her hand. To comfort her as Bernice would surely want him to do in her absence. But an even bigger part of him wanted to throttle the young woman and scream, how could you do this to your best friend?!

The door opened and closed. One of the other Avengers coming in to check up on where he had sat perched at her bedside like a ravenous bear awaiting a salmon for the last twelve hours?

"Steve." Clintgave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "It would help her find her way back if you talk to her."

"She's a shape shifter," Steve spat.

"No," Clint said. "She's not. She's just a young woman who got taken."

"You should understand how I feel better than anyone!"

Clint pulled up a chair and sat down, his expression filled with sorrow. His hands clenched together as though in prayer. Contemplating how to say something he knew Steve would not want to hear.

"Bernice called me the morning she was taken," Clint said. "I didn't want to hear what she had to say. So I was rude to her. But … I've given the matter some thought."

"She called me, too!" Steve slammed his fist down upon his thigh. "It was fake! This one punching text messages into Bernice's cell phone!"

"No, Steve. Bernice called me. In person. I spoke to her that morning."

"It was probably a shape shifter."

"All evidence indicates she was taken after she went out to meet Jacquie for lunch," Clint said. "Bernice called me in the morning."

Steve felt like … the Hulk! Looking for something to smash! He hadn't had this much trouble controlling his anger since … since … since the day he'd busted into Red Skull's fortress and found Bucky Barnes strapped to a table with a drill perched above his skull like an animal awaiting slaughter. He stood up and paced, the reddish-brown boots of his Captain America uniform, the only clothing he had left in this world after the fire, squeaking on the waxed linoleum to accentuate each turn. Was that what they were going to do to Bernice? Oh, god! He couldn't bear to think about it! Without his anger to lean upon like a crutch, all he was left with was his grief. He plunked back down in the chair put his head down into his hands, his words more of a sob than a whisper.

"What did she tell you?"

"She said she'd reviewed every video tape they could find of Natasha before she was injured." Clint's voice broke. "She said she was certain the Natasha who woke up and told me that she loved me was the real … Natasha."

"What does that have to do with this one?" Steve gestured towards the sleeping Asian woman as though she were a war criminal.

"It means this is still the real Jacquie," Clint said. "Not a shape shifter. Everything we know about them indicates they can only shift their external façade. Not their internal organs. Jacquie is still human."

"Not a shape shifter … yet!" Steve jabbed his finger at Jacquie as though he were pointing a sword. "How do we know she isn't suddenly going to turn into one? Like in that movie … what was that movie you made me watch after the first invasion? The one where the thing used humans as incubators and burst out of their chests?" Clint and Natasha had dragged him to all-weekend alien fest after they'd brought down the mother ship, all of humanity all of a sudden interested in all things alien.