Nothing But Ash

Only a second ago she’d felt Bucky’s hands on her waist, steadying her. Her vision had gone black. She couldn’t feel his hands now and her ears were ringing. No, that was a voice. Someone was calling her name. Ren peeled her eyes open, she didn’t realize she had closed them. Blinking away her confusion she found herself laying on the floor she’d just been standing on. Her head was in Barnes’ lap and the others were crouched next to her. 

“Ren,” Rogers asked in a commanding voice, “Can you hear me?”

It took a second to make her mouth work, the small movement hurt like hell, “Yeah, what happened?”

“You passed out,”

“What? No, no I was fine. Just a little dizzy,”

Sam gave her a look, “Clearly not,”

Yeah, he was right. God that was embarrassing. She sat up and started to stand, Barnes helped her up. 

“Sorry about that,” She said.

“Don’t apologize,” Steve told her as he took her from Barnes, letting her lean on him, “You took a couple good hits, probably just needed a nap,”

She laughed, that hurt too. Her head had cleared up again as she looked over the fallen Hydra agents. Someone was missing. Seriously? There was no way he had gotten away again.

“Guys, we’re missing a body. Did any of you see a guy in a suit?” She asked. 

Barnes looked worried, “No, why?”

“GOD DAMMIT!” Ren exclaimed, “Daniel! He was the one I got your location from, and the person you tipped Hydra off about your location,” She told Steve, “He keeps getting away,”

But there was nothing to be done. In the few minutes she had been out he’d had the time to escape and would be long gone. That little cockroach was gonna come back though, she knew it. For now their goal was the same: find a way home. 

…

Honestly Ren wasn’t sure he would pick up. She sat inside a payphone booth, with the three boys sitting outside. It was a number she was fairly sure Hydra wouldn’t have tapped, and it was lucky that she remembered it. They had met only a few times while he was in the tower on business. The guy came across as very serious, and she wasn’t sure if he liked her much. But he was their best choice. 

“Hello?” Came a disgruntled voice.

“Happy!” She said, “It’s Ren Wright,”

“Ren? Oh, the fire girl from the tower,”

“Uh, yeah. Look we need some help and we can’t call the rest of the team,”

“We? Who’s we?”

“Uhm…” Was it safe to say? “I’m not sure I can say over the phone, but we need a ride back to New York,”

“Where are you? And why can’t you call Tony?”

“Great question, turns out Hydra got into our Avengers line and can see everything we say. Actually, could you let Tony know about that? That’s probably important,”

“Wait, Hydra? What are you involved in Ren,”

“I really can’t talk about it right now,”

Happy Hogan sighed, “Where are you guys?”

“Paris,” She told him.

After he asked a few more questions he told her where to meet the jet. Happy had gotten a lot more serious since becoming head of security for Stark Industries, though he had always taken his job pretty seriously. Despite that, she knew she could trust him. Hogan was a big softie when it mattered. 

…

It wasn’t the quinjet that met them at the private airstrip - it was Tony Stark's private jet. Nobody was complaining. After the week they’d had a little luxury was appreciated. Ren barely contained a moan as she sunk into the plush leather seats. 

“So,” Steve started, “You wanna tell me why you let yourself get captured?”

They were all settled into their seats, sitting near each other. Ren had poured herself a drink from the minibar. Even if she couldn’t get drunk the burn of the alcohol felt nice. 

“There weren’t a lot of choices,” She tried to explain. 

Steve gave her a look, one Tony had described as ‘The Eyebrows of Judgement’. Lucky for her, Sam took over the explaining, “We knew that there were too many Hydra agents in the city, so we needed a way to make them congregate. If one of us was captured then we figured they would regroup until they knew where the rest of us were. Plus, it would lead us right to their base of operations,”

“Ren volunteered,” Bucky cut in, “Insisted that she should be the one to do it,”

Yeah, Barnes hadn’t approved of that. She stood by her choice, “And I was right. You guys are both better at this than I am, with a lot more training,”

“They could’ve killed you,” Steve told her.

“We all know they wouldn’t have done that,” She shrugged, then regretted it, “I knew you guys would get me out of there,”

Wilson stood up to grab a drink too, “Guess that makes us all even,”

Everyone had been rescued at least once on this trip. Which really sucked for their egos, but was great for team building. They didn’t talk much for the rest of the flight. The hours were passed by sleeping, eating, and patching themselves up. Ren needed a little more patching than the rest of them. One good thing though - Hydra had the decency to take her new leather jacket off before they’d tied her up. The white leather was still pristine, and sat on top of her backpack. 

In the small plane bathroom she surveyed her injuries. It wasn’t pretty. The left side of her face was swollen, discolored, and a little shiny. Her cheekbone was bleeding and there was another small cut through her eyebrow, plus a split lip. Some light bruising appeared on the right side too, courtesy of Daniel. She didn’t bother to check her abdomen. The pain pills she’d found dulled the ache, and there wasn’t anything she could do for her brutalized sides. 

From the plane's first aid kit she pulled disinfectant and some bandages. In her red tank top, the old bandages on her arm were visible. If she wasn’t careful, she was gonna end up looking like a mummy. Scared to touch her face she decided to redress her arm first. The gauze was filthy. Once it was peeled off, it revealed the gross wounds beneath. They were mostly healed, but were still oozing a little and smelled awful. The rubbing alcohol stung and she gritted her teeth. Laying the gauze was difficult one handed, but she did her best. 

“Didn’t like how I did it?” Barnes asked.

She jumped, not having heard him approach. He leaned against the doorway casually. This was the most at ease she’d seen him. 

“You did it perfectly, I just messed it up a little,”

He gave her a small smile before tucking the edge of the bandage in for her, “You should’ve started with your face,”

“That bad, huh?”

“It’s fresh, more likely to get infected,”

“It also hurts like hell,”

“Yeah,” He grunted, “I can imagine,”

Without asking permission he grabbed the disinfectant and poured it onto a cotton ball. He made a little spinning motion with his finger and she turned to face him. His hand cupped her chin while he cleaned the blood off her face. Ren did her best not to flinch. 

Barnes’ hair was falling into his eyes, she fought the urge to push it back for him. The silver arm was gentle as it held her steady. Even though she trusted him it surprised her. It had been built to kill, yet it was able to move so delicately. It was beautiful. 

“Can you feel with it?” She asked.

He followed her gaze to his prosthetic, “Yes,”

Reaching over to the countertop he grabbed a few butterfly bandages and set to work placing them on her face. Once finished he examined her again, “Where are the others?” 

She gave him a quizzical look, “Your other injuries,” He clarified, “I saw the way you were walking,”

Of course he did, “Just my ribs, there’s nothing I can do for them,”

“Let me see,”

Since there was no point in arguing she just lifted her tank top. The bruising was worse than she’d thought. Shades of purple and red faded into nasty looking yellows and greens. Barnes’ flesh fingers were featherlight as he probed the area. Ren sucked in a breath when he reached an especially tender spot. 

“They’re probably broken,”

She nodded, “I figured. But I heal fast, it should be fine in a couple days,”

His brows knitted together but he agreed. She pushed her top back down and put the remaining supplies back in the first-aid kit. They walked back to the other two. After settling back into her seat Ren popped a few more painkillers. Her enhanced metabolism made the medical grade pills feel like ibuprofen. Once they started to take effect she drifted to sleep. 

…

Back at the tower, Steve immediately took Bucky down to the medbay. After spending so much time with the guy, Ren felt a strange pang in her chest watching him walk away. Hopefully they would be able to get him some help now that they were back. She wondered what he would be like once his memories were back. Would it still be the same Barnes she had gotten to know?

Sam was still with her, looking unsure of himself. “You can stay in the tower if you want, Stark won’t mind,”

“Are you sure there’s space?”

“Have you seen this place? The top floors are basically a glorified hotel, let’s find you a room,”

Taking the elevator up she asked JARVIS which rooms were unoccupied. Most of them were, so she took him to one on her floor. The massive common room had a wall of windows that looked over the city’s skyline. A sleek staircase led up to a mezzanine with a few more couches and a couple cafe style tables. Not as cozy as the layer below, which had a kitchen, dining area, and a couple massive couches surrounding the TV. They went up to the second level of the floor. Her room was on the first, but she figured Sam might like a little space. 

She stopped by the first door in the hallway, “Here we are,”

“Thank you Ren, really,” He paused, “And thank you, for taking one for the team. I’m… I’m sorry we didn’t get there sooner,”

“We knew it was a risk,”

“Still-”

“It was my choice Sam, and you guys got there before anything bad happened. The important thing is that we all made it home,”

He took a deep breath, “Technically home is D.C., but this’ll do,”

“Yeah, a massive penthouse full of superheroes, how awful,”

They laughed together as Sam opened his door, he paused before closing it, “Do you think Barnes will adjust? I just know how much he means to Steve, and if anything happens…” He trailed off.

Ren had been wondering the same thing, “I think he will, it’s just going to take a while. We’ll all be there for him,”

“Well I don’t know about we, ”

“Wilson,” She said in a warning tone.

“He tried to kill me!”

“That wasn’t him and you know it! And I can tell you guys like each other, just a little bit,”

“I don’t know where you’re getting your information Wright, but it is dead wrong,”

“You saved his life,”

“After he saved mine,”

“Exactly! So you guys are even,”

“That’s not-” He glared at her, “I’m gonna go shower,”

She smirked as he shut the door. Sam and Bucky might not like each other at the moment, but she had a feeling they would grow on each other.