The Avengers x Reader Inserts

trauma | steve rogers

a/n: super short but long enough to share from my Tumblr imagines.

summary: Steve watches over you as you recover after a mission that turned tragic. 

word count: 640

warnings: mentions of injuries and torture

Steve watched as your limp, battered body lie motionless on the exam table. Bright holograms hovered above your body, blinking and highlighting different areas of your nervous system and bone structure. Something bright blared red on the bottom corner of the image of your brain. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best physicians had been recruited, busying themselves around the clock to repair the extensive damage that had been dealt.

You had gone missing not long after you had left the compound. Clint and Natasha had figured out that you had been abducted by HYDRA operatives based on the location of your last signal, which had meant only one thing - you would be tortured until they had no use for you. You had been found by the team not long after your attempted escape, but you had yet to regain consciousness. They fear you may be changed forever.

But no matter how much they poked, probed, and prodded, you still hadn't responded. You had been like this for four days since you had been recovered - and several more before your body had been found with a barely beating heart.

His gaze faltered only for a moment as Natasha's soft steps came nearer until she stood next to him. Her arms were crossed and her eyes were dark. She had been the only one to check on your more than once - the rest of the team couldn't stomach the sight of your disrepair. Not because it was bloody or morbid, but because it was you. No one else seemed as hopeful as he that you would be alright, that everything would be alright.

"You have to know she's not coming back from this. She'll never be the same."

"We don't know that. She's strong, she can pull through this."

"Steve, there comes a point when you have to accept the reality of the situation. She didn't just break a few bones or strain a wrist," her body angled toward his slightly more as she strained to meet his eyes, "She was thrown from a tower after three weeks of imprisonment and torture. These were the same operatives who oversaw the training program in the Red Room. It wasn't just your run of the mill interrogation."

"I'm not just going to accept that, Nat. When she comes to, she's gonna need someone to help her stay on top of it, and I'm not going to give her a death sentence before she's even had her chance,"

"Even if she does wake up, what are you expecting from her? There's a guarantee that she's been seriously traumatized, Steve. That won't go just away. And you know there's a chance that they altered her mind. She may not be on our side anymore."

"You don't think I know that?"

"I just want you to be ready for the worst if and when it comes."

Steve's jaw was set as he nodded at her, inwardly dismissing her words. He knew that Natasha meant no ill will against him or your will to fight through; he knew she was trying to spare him the pain of losing someone else he loved.

He felt her touch his arm with her hand in a dismissive gesture. He barely managed to hear her offer of sandwiches with the team who had congregated on the upper level above the infirmary. He didn't realize she had left until the door shut behind her and he felt the hollow pit in his stomach return to his senses in full clarity.

He knew you might not be the same (Y/n) that left the compound a month ago, the same (Y/n) who bought him his first set of paints since his new life, the (Y/n) he had fallen in love with.

He knew you might be broken like Bucky.

But he loved you just the same.