Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 65

Chapter 65

Steve stared at the yellow tape barring the inner door. Do not cross. He ripped off just enough to slip the key into the lock and get inside. The scent of disinfectant assailed his nostrils. The cleanup crew had done a good job of eradicating all signs of what had happened here, but the apartment still had the uneasy feel of a crime scene. The window was open, the frigid December air chilling the lingering scent of death.

The carpet had been removed, as had the door to her bedroom. With creatures that could regenerate, the crew had erred on the side of caution and seized anything with genetic matter from the shape shifter on it. Steve stared at what was left of Bernice's old bedroom. The bed was gone. The carpet was gone. Large swaths of plaster, including the ceiling, had been scraped off of the wall. Her bureau was gone. Her pictures of space ships and the autographed picture of the movie star were gone, as were the items he had tripped on while fighting for his life. Dismemberment was a bloody process. There was little left in the room that had not been splattered with gore.

The hand that held the Klingon Bat'leth trembled, the metal sculpture a shield against the misery that threatened to consume him. Gone. All gone. Bernice had already moved her most needed personal effects to their apartment above the gym, leaving only furniture and items she didn't immediately need behind until he could help her move them. He hung the Bat'leth upon its hook, the instrument looking as forlorn and out of place as he felt with no pictures around it to give it context.

A pile of boxes had been left in one corner, things she had packed up for the move to the gym which had been protected by an outer layer of boxes. Wooden slats that had once held plaster taunted him, reminding him of the gutted church where he had learned tales of a loving god who cared about people. He felt like Job, having everything he had ever loved taken away from him until he had nothing left but anger at a god who would make him the subject of a wager with the devil. Not just once … but twice.

His hands shook as he opened the boxes, all that he had left of her. Summer clothing. He lifted it to his nose and inhaled. It smelled of laundry detergent. He tore through one box after another, not knowing what he was looking for. His search became almost frantic, a crushing feeling in his chest as he looked for something he could not name. At last he found it, not packed into one of the boxes, but stuffed into a bag marked 'cleaning rags.'

He lifted the old flannel pajamas to his nose, his hands trembling as he inhaled the familiar blend of Lux soap and the light musky scent that was his wife. She had been wearing these pajamas when he'd appeared at her door, wounded and still wearing his battle armor, and told her that he'd loved her. For some reason, despite the stains from his blood and gore he'd had on his armor that night, she had washed these pajamas and worn them again. Probably for the same reason he had gone back looking for them now. It was the only thing he had left to prove their love had not been a myth.

Bernice…

At last he let go and allowed the tears to flow that he'd been keeping at bay ever since Jacquie-drone had uttered the terrible words that she'd been taken.

X

He awoke, disoriented, unable to see in the dark. Where was he? The scent of the soft flannel clutched to his heart brought back the terrible nightmare that was his life. He wanted to crawl back into the pleasant dream he'd been having of the two of them asleep in each other's arms, floating in an icy peacefulness which tried to shield them. He wanted to go back there. Oh, god! How he wanted to crawl back into that glacier and do nothing but sleep! But the next time he embraced Eternity, he would do it with his wife.

He found the light switch and flipped it on. Six-thirty. It only felt late, his exhaustion from lingering injuries and two days without sleep making it feel as though it were three in the morning. He resumed his search, moving into the larger apartment which Jacquie had begun to claim.