Not Without You - A Stucky Fanfic

Chapter Nine

Steve wakes up and looks around the room. White walls, a beeping sound, a poking sensation in his right arm, the everlasting aroma of cleaning materials and a metallic tang fills the air inside the room. The medical bay.

No one was in the room, it was just him and his thoughts. He kept going back to the cold, dimly lit room he was in a day before.

"This can all stop if you just tell us what you know!" Sharon yelled as she was stabbing and cutting Steve.

"You'll never get out of here, you'll be stuck in here and die, slowly and painfully."

"Water board him."

At that moment Steve started to feel the drowning feeling again and he started to struggle to breath. The monitors started to beep like crazy.

"I got to put her in the water."

"Water board him."

"I don't have any other choice, Landing this could cause many people their lives."

*Water seeping through the towel on his face, going into his mouth causing him to cough and struggle for air*

Just then, Bruce, Bucky, Wanda, and Tony all ran into his room.

"Steve what's going on?" Bruce asked looking at his vitals and the monitor seeing it beep continuously.

"Hey Steve, you have to calm down, okay? Breathe with me alright, just like old times" Bucky said rushing to Steve's side.

Bucky started to over exaggerate his breathing, hoping it would calm Steve down. "Breathe in" Steve started to breathe in slowly. "Breath out" Steve let out a rigid breathe and continued to do it. "There you go" Bucky said as Steve's breathing eventually came back to normal.

"You think you can tell us what happened to make your heart beat faster?" Bruce asked, curious on what happened since everything was normal.

"I uh.. I was just choking that's all." Steve replied, hoping that his lie- that wasn't exactly a lie- would be believable. He did feel like he was choking but how was he supposed to tell them that it was because of what he was thinking of?

Bruce looked up and insisted, "okay, just be careful next time since you have been asleep since we rescued you yesterday. Do you mind if I check you now?"

"Go ahead."

"Stand up for me, please." Bruce instructed.

Steve did as so but the second he tried to, he stumbled into Bucky who was right next to him because his legs still felt weak, the taser also made him feel like he couldn't feel his legs.

"Okay how about you sit on the edge of the bed for me, Steve" Bruce said with a hint of sorrow in his voice.

Bucky put him back on the bed, and Bruce came to check on him. Steve has slashes and cuts all around him, bruises, bruises that had two holes in the middle from the taser, burnt marks from cigarettes, taser marks all over him that hadn't bruised, and dried blood all over him.

Bruce pulled up the longer part of his shorts to check his thighs and he gasped. The word 'pumpkin' was carved into his upper left thigh.

Steve looked down at what Bruce was looking at and all he could see was the horror. Steve couldn't believe his eyes.

Steve could feel the pool of tears forming in his eyes but instead, he decided to bolt out of the room. He got up and stumbled but he ran away, away from the med bay, from people calling his name, and leaned against the wall while slowly running to the elevator.

He went up to the 49th floor, hoping and praying no one would be in the commons as he needed to get to his room, but he was wrong.

He stumbled out of the elevator and bolted down the commons where the rest of his friends were, almost falling and tripping as he couldn't feel his legs and went straight to his room. He ignored the voices as he shut his door and locked it, collapsing to the floor as he screamed, wishing for the word on his thigh to disappear, but he knows that they cut it deep enough to stay with him. Forever.

Steve started to sob, he didn't know what to do. He already had the trauma living in his brain, now every time he looked at himself in the mirror, he would see the physical pain that they gave him.

All of sudden, Steve heard a knock at the door. "Steve? It's Nat, I came to check on you after seeing you run" Natasha said from beyond the door. She also added, "I've got food."

"Just go away, please" Steve responded, he didn't want to deal with anyone, and plus he could barley walk and run without stumbling or falling.

He heard Natasha mumble something, then his lock clicked open and the door swung open. In walked Natasha with a plate of burritos with rice on the side. Steve sat up as Nat sat down beside him, Steve wiped his eyes and took the plate. He was starving, hydra rarely fed him so he could've eaten for days.

"Thank you, Nat" Steve announced, he appreciated the food.

"No problem. You want to tell me what that scene was a few minutes ago when you were attempting to run through the commons?" Natasha asked.

He didn't really want to tell her, he didn't want anyone to know. Bruce only knew since he saw it first but he'd rather it be kept between them for as long as possible.

Steve just replied, "I'd rather not say."

"Okay, you should come hangout with all of us though, we all really missed you, Steve" Nat explained. She was glad to have him back.

"I would, but I kind of can't walk that well." And with that, a portal appeared under him and he dropped onto the couch in the living room. The avengers and Pepper were all smiling at him while Nat came back from Steve's room.

On the big couch sat Steve in the middle, Bucky to his left, next to Bucky was Nat. On the right sat Tony and Pepper. On the loveseat to the right of the couch sat Thor and Wanda since Thor took up a lot of room. The arm chair on the right side sat Bruce, and Peter, Clint, Stephen and Scott sat on the floor.

"Guys, lets play Monopoly!" Clint yelled, eager to play.

The group all looked to Steve and he shrugged and said, "That works for me." The team all got excited and started to scream out "yes!" And which piece they wanted.

As Tony and Pepper started to set the game up, the elevator dinged.

Steve looked up, and at that moment, he wished he never came out of his room.