Captain

Part thirteen

*Warning! Nightmares/ ptsd

The day after my surgery I got to move to a more comfortable, more permanent room in the tower. My leg had healed enough that I could walk, though painfully slow. So after I was discharged from the med bay Steve walked me to the room which was just down the hall from his.

"Here we are," Steve opened the door to the room for me. I sat on the bed beside a duffel bag of clothes Nat picked up for me. "It's late. You should get some sleep, and if you need me I'm right down the hall." Steve leaned down kissing my lips, "I love you."

"Love you too," those words gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. He blew me another kiss before leaving the room.

I threw the bag on the floor then sprawled out on the king-size mattress, which was an upgrade from the small hospital bed I had been sleeping in. Once my head hit the pillow it didn't take even three minutes for me to be out cold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked around at my dark damp surroundings. The smell of mildew was so heavy in the air I was close to gagging. 'Why am I back here?' I looked around at the interior of the rusted warehouse that was lit by a single swinging light.

'This isn't right, Steve rescued me.' I thought seeing hands shackled to the table in front of me while the insane Hydra agent standing over me cackling. I wondered for a second if I had just dreamed up my rescue after he had beat me senseless. The wild-eyed man wielded a hammer and brought it down on my left hand. The sound echoed off the walls so loud it drowned out the sound of my screams.

I shot up in the bed disoriented, shaking, and in a cold sweat. "No no!" I whispered angrily that those horrors had followed me home. It took me a minute before I whipped my tears away and found some dry clothes. The thought of staying in bed and going back to sleep and reliving that again scared me senceless. Not wanting to wake Steve, I decided to get familiar with the tower, since it would be my home for a while.

As I explored I noted that the gym was on our floor, Tony's workshop was on the floor below, and Jarvis sees all. At around six I started heading back to my room and had a full-on heart attach when Jarvis greeted me.

"Miss (y/n)?" I jumped, remembering Tony's AI butler.

"Oh! Jarvis you startled me," I felt weird talking to the ceiling.

"Sorry ma'am, Captain Rogers quite worried and wondering where you are," I didn't even think about that. I rubbed my tired eyes and hurried, as fast as my leg would let me, to my room.

"Hey Captain," I smiled limping his way.

"(Y/n) are you okay? I was worried cause you were gone," he grabbed my hand giving me stability.

"Yeah, I'm an early riser remember," I said tapping my temple with my index finger, "And I thought I'd get the lay of the land since I'll be here for a while."

"Right," he said slowly not entirely believe me. I wanted to tell him about my nightmare but I couldn't think of a way to tell him. "I asked Dr. Michaels and she said I could take you for some coffee as long as we stayed close. What do you think?" He wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me close, swaying a bit.

"I think that sounds perfect," I offered a tired smile that he gladly accepted with a kiss. Maybe a little coffee date would help distract me from reality for an hour or two.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was going on night four of no sleep and people could tell, but my fear of the nightmares greatly exceeded my desire for sleep.

I have spent the last four nights scaling the halls of the great avengers' tower. On a couple of occasions, I'd nearly run into a tired Avenger or two looking for a late night snack. And Jarvis had become my midnight confidänt, he is actually great company.