Chapter 3
Sam looked to his side, to the woman lying in the hospital bed. She'd been bad off when they found her. She still was rough. Days. She'd healed in days what would have been weeks or months of fraught recovery.
He may have been wrong, maybe Barnes was the kind you saved. She hadn't gotten to the shore on her own. She'd been in a recovery position, her head tilted to her side, lying on her back, legs straight. The river didn't spit her out, she'd been dragged from the water and there was only one in position, in condition, to do it.
Once the helicarriers were down, the rescue crews scrambled and Sam reported. He had training, he had the will. They did find survivors. They also found a lot of victims. There was no way to know how many were Hydra. How many weren't Hydra.
It had been nothing but bodies, parts of bodies when they spotted her. He'd gone down, because if anyone could survive... Sam doesn't think anyone else could have held on on that beach. It had been a fight keeping her alive. In transport, in surgery, in ICU.
Col. Rhodes appeared at the hospital. Sam had stolen his wings, and they were wrecked thanks to the Winter Soldier. "Good flying. We'll talk. Get a shower, some clothes, and hunker down. She wakes up, she sees you. Got me?"
Yes, sir. And so he'd been playing her Marvin Gaye and pretty much anything else he's got. He's got some suspicions. Tony fucking Stark swans in and out. Sam thinks HIPPA has just been pwned but isn't willing to have the machines further interfered with.
He wakes up and sees a very rumpled man looking at the chart. Abashed. That's the expression he gets as the chart is returned to its hook. Sam doesn't think the man hasn't seen everything he wanted.
"I'm Dr. Banner."
Right. This was his life. Follow Captain America into battle, meet interesting people in her hospital room. Like her boyfriend. "I'm Sam."
"Thank you. For being here. Backing her up."
Just when he thinks he knows up and down. "My privilege." Dr. Banner grins wryly. Poor choice of words. He's at a loss. They don't have much in common and she's still unconscious. He watches Dr. Banner open an insulated bag and pull out a small container popping the lid.
"It'd be better if she woke up and ate something."
Sam could smell the chocolate and coconut. "Ice cream?"
"It's almost pure protein and fat."
Sam shook his head. Of course it was. At least it didn't have to be stable above 100°F.