girl ― saved by captain america

[thirty four] willa's

[Steve]

After about an hour or so of addressing her wounds, Willa fell right asleep on the make-shift cot. I've wrapped her up in a blanket and placed another under her head, folded up as a pillow. The poor girl cried the entire time. She didn't say much, just cried. With the amount of pain she seemed to be in, it didn't surprise me that she was struggling to form words. Fortunately, I guess, Tony's blasters didn't do much more than surface damage. While the kid's got some pretty nasty burns, I didn't detect any critical injuries. That doesn't mean, though, that she's in any way alright. This was a big hit for her to take, especially from Tony. I get that he was trying to shoot at me, but at the end of the day, he shouldn't have been shooting at all.

After packing the last of the medical supplies back into the storage compartments, I make my way to the front of the ship to find Bucky. He's sitting in the pilot's seat, staring straight ahead as the world flies by through the window. I come up beside him and take the seat to his right, not saying anything at first. He's silent as well; he doesn't even turn to look at me, but I can tell he's aware of my presence.

"How is she?" he asks after several more minutes of silence.

"Asleep," I reply simply, shifting slightly in the uncomfortable seat.

"What kind of damage did Tony do?"

"Burns," I tell him. "Nothing more, at least from what I could tell."

"I can take a look at her too, when we land," Buck offers. I nod.

"Did you put the plane in stealth mode?" I check.

"Yep. No way in hell they'll find us," my friend assures me. I sigh, thinking silently to myself, he better be right. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my phone. Ten missed calls from Tony Stark. Unlocking the screen, I pull up his contact. With shaking fingers, I silence his notifications. Whatever he might have to say, I don't want to hear it. Unless it's an apology, but I know it's not.

Shoving the device back in my pocket, I sigh again, gazing aimlessly out of the window in front of me. "She took that hit for me, Buck," I say quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. The man's expression softens slightly as he looks over at me, his grey-blue eyes meeting mine.

"I know," he nods roughly. "I thought it was gonna kill her."

"I did too," I admit, heartbreak building up in my chest. "It very well could have. If it had been a blast from Wanda, or Vision-"

"They wouldn't shoot at you like that," Bucky argues. "Tony's reached a new level of dangerous. His side's entire objective was to stop us, just stop us. When he pointed his fist at you like that, the look in his eyes gave him away. He was firing to kill." I look down at my lap, unsure of what to say. In the end, I'll never truly know what Tony's intent was. He had orders to bring us in, sure. But could Bucky be right? In that last moment, at his last chance to get me, was he coming for blood? "Maybe I'm not worth all this, Steve." my friend's voice trails off.

"Hey- no, okay? None of that. Of course you're worth it, Buck; you know I'd do anything for you."

"I know," he says, swallowing hard. "Maybe that isn't the best idea."

"They're trying to take you down for something you didn't do. They want you locked up for the rest of your life; I can't let them do that to you," I try to reason with him.

"Maybe I belong locked up," Buck mumbles. My heart drops in my chest as I look over to him. He keeps his gaze from meeting mine, staring straight ahead out of the window.

"Bucky- hey, listen to me. What you did- that wasn't you," I tell him sincerely . "They had control of your mind. You were a victim."

"I know," Bucky chokes out. "But I did it."