“Where is he?” Thor demanded swinging open the doors to the medical wing, the other Avengers following behind him.
“Sir, you can’t see him yet he is still being examined!” The doctor said.
Thor stopped to look at the doctor, “You dare stop me from seeing my teammate?”
The team eyed each other warily as they, and the other occupants in the room, heard the thunder outside.
“Look doc, we can either do this the easy way or the hard. Either you let us all go back and see the captain or we can go find him ourselves and make a mess in the process.” Tony said looking bored.
“Mr. Stark, SHIELD has given me direct order not to let anyone-” Her sentence was cut off by a blood curdling scream that made the whole lobby freeze.
“No! No, no no no, help me!” Steve screamed from somewhere in the building. No one even bothered to continue arguing with the doctor, the team immediately took off running.
“Steve! Where are you?” Thor shouted, shaking the walls. The only response he got was another painful scream from the captain.
“Thor! He’s over here!” Barton called out from in front of a room with the blinds pulled closed. He opened the door immediately.
The sight the team walked into was chaotic. Steve was strapped down and thrashing against the restraints, sweating and screaming. But the most unsettling part wasn’t the screaming, or the fact that they had to restrain The Captain America, it was the look of pure terror in his eyes. He was absolutely distraught, tears streaming down his face with a far off look in his eyes.
“No, no, no, please stop…please.” Steve whimpered which seemed to snap the rest of the Avengers into motion.
“What the hell are you doing to him?” Stark yelled
“We’re trying to sedate him! He doesn’t seem to remember where he is, he’s-”
“Enough!” Bruce yelled and the room immediately quieted, save for Steve’s weak attempts to get free and his sniffling.
“He is having a panic attack and you are all making it worse. Get out. All of you.”
“Dr. Banner we-”
“I am doing my best to be calm but walking into see my friend in a clear state of panic and those trained to help him doing the exact opposite is not helping. Please leave before I lose my temper.” Bruce stated. The medical staff in the room did not hesitate to vacate.
Once the room was significantly emptier, the team moved to circle the bed, Thor standing right next to Steve.
“Steve…what troubles you?” Thor asked softly.
“According to his chart, there’s nothing physically wrong with him. No broken bones, no head injury, nothing.” Banner stated, flipping through the paperwork with Tony looking over his shoulder.
“Rogers, do you know where you are?” Natasha asked, leaning over to look him directly in the eye. She wasn’t able to catch his eye though, Steve kept looking all over the room, not truly seeing anything. She leaned back off the bed and shook her head,
“Whatever’s going on, it’s in his head. It’s like he’s disassociated.” She sighed.
“Did anyone see what happened before he went down?” Barton asked. Everyone shook their heads.
“No, one second he was fighting with no issue next thing I know he’s laid out on the ground.” Stark said, clearly frustrated with this situation.
A door slammed out in the hall and startled Steve out of his momentary calm.
“Please help me, let me go! No, please!” His voice was steadily getting louder.
Thor climbed in the bed next to him, “I think I know what’s wrong.” Thor mumbled.
“Well, please share with the class.” Stark pushed
“I’m not completely certain, as this has never happened during the day.”
“What has never happened during the day?” Barton asked.
“Steve, like all of us, is no stranger to night terrors. However, his are much more…intense. His mind goes someplace else. He’s trapped in his thoughts. Usually I can get him back to sleep within a few minutes. It’s never been this bad.” Thor shared, he wrapped his arm around Steve’s shoulders. Steve was still resisting being restrained but putting up a weak fight, the earlier battle and the stress taking an obvious toll on his body.
“How long has this been going on? JARVIS has a protocol to alert me if anyone is in danger.”
“Three weeks ago, after the mission in the Arctic. He and I stayed up in the common area talking, I noticed then that he seemed a bit…tense.”
“We stayed up talking and eventually we both must have fallen asleep on the couch because I woke up to him crying, just like he is now. It took me ages to wake him up, JARVIS told me he was having a nightmare but it seemed like it was impossible to wake him up. Eventually, he did wake up and when he did he was clearly traumatized. It took him even longer to remember where he was and that I was with him. It has happened almost every night since ”
“He insisted I keep the instance between us, and I assured him I would. I’m no stranger to warriors being plagued by their past battles in their dreams. I even suffer from it myself. I promised him I would keep it between us as long as he agreed to let JARVIS alert me when he was in distress.” Thor finished.
“Which explains why JARVIS didn’t notify me.” Tony sighed
“My apologies friends, I never would’ve kept this a secret had I known this would leave him vulnerable, especially during a battle and in public.” Thor said, looking each of them in the eye.
“It’s not your fault Thor, you did what any of us would’ve done. Do you know how to wake him up? Once we get him coherent we can discuss what comes next.” Bruce shared, giving Thor a reassuring smile.
“We need to untie him. Restraining him will cause his panic to be more intense, I will hold on to him to make sure he doesn’t harm himself.” Natasha and Barton made quick work of undoing the restraints.
“Next, we need to cover him completely. I think he dreams of his time in the ice because he trembles and is always trying to bury himself under the blankets. When he wakes up he is always saying how cold it is.”
“That would make sense. It would also explain why the night terrors started after the mission in the arctic. That must have triggered him.” Barton murmured to himself.
“Remind me to stop calling him Capsicle.” Stark said aloud to no one in particular.
Natasha layered 3 extra blankets on top of Steve while Thor maneuvered him to be laying chest to chest across Thor’s body.
“Now we wait.”
Thor kept running his hands up and down Steve’s back and whispering in his ear little encouragement to wake up, while the rest of the team watched on. After about 5 minutes, Steve let out a long whine and gripped Thor’s shirt.
“Thor?” Steve whimpered
“I’m right here, I’ll always be right here. Do you remember what happened?” Thor asked quietly.
“It happened again didn’t it? I’m so sorry I keep bothering you with this. I don’t know what’s wrong with me”
“Steve…do you remember what happened?” At that Steve opened his eyes, then he sat up almost too fast to see when he realized he was not in his or Thor’s room but in a hospital room with the whole team watching him.
“What happened? What’s going on? Did something happen?”
“Steve, what’s the last thing you remember?” Thor asked.
“I…we were fighting? We were fighting Doom, right?” When he saw the team nod he continued, “The fight was just about over and…that’s it that’s all I remember. Did I get hit?”
“No, you weren’t hit. You were right the fight was just about over but all of a sudden you dropped to the ground and SHIELD had to med-evac you out so you weren’t hurt.” Banner answered.
“After we finished, we came right here to come get you. SHIELD tried to stop us but Blondie wasn’t having it. And you were screaming like you were being murdered which made it easy for us to go along with him.” Stark added.
“When we got into the room you were…having an episode. It seemed like a panic attack at first but Thor quickly realized what was happening and explained it to us.” Natasha finished.
Steve sat quietly for a minute looking down at his hands, his face burning red.
“Steve…I knew that this happened at night but has this happened during the day before?” Thor asked him.
“It happened once during the day but I didn’t know that’s what was happening. I was in the shower and I…blacked out I guess? I’m not sure JARVIS told me only 2 minutes had passed so I didn’t think much of it.” Steve whispered.
“This could be a side effect of a lack of sleep, I know you don’t need as much as a normal human with the serum but you still need sleep.” Banner thought to himself.
“Well it seems like big, blonde, and beautiful has been able to help.” Tony chimed in.
“I’m sorry you guys…I didn’t think this would become a problem. I understand if you want me to step down as leader. I will talk to Fury-”
“Steve. Calm down, no is suggesting you step down as leader or from the team. We do, however, need to figure out how to keep this from happening again. And until we figure out how to keep it from happening you can’t be in the field. Temporarily.” Natasha explained.
“In the meantime, Thor, stay with him. You have experience dealing with him and we don’t know when or if this is going to happen again. Let’s all get back to the tower and regroup.” Banner suggested.
“It would be my pleasure.” Thor said, his hand coming up to the back of Steve’s head. Steve jumped, forgetting that he was still in bed with him. Thor smiled when he saw Steve duck his head and his cheeks turn red.
“Yeah, I’m sure it would be your pleasure, big guy.” Tony murmured to Barton, the two of them smirking. The rest of the team walked out of the room, aiming to give the two blondes some privacy.
“Thank you…for helping me today and just for everything these past few weeks. I know it must have been an incon-”
“Nonsense. It’s nothing. While I’m sad that you are dealing with this, it brings me a deep satisfaction knowing that I’m the one you seek for comfort.” Thor pauses, “I’ll always be there for you. Whether it be for comfort or protection, I will always be there for you.” He lightly grabbed Steve’s chin and turned his head so they were making eye contact. He held Steve’s gaze for a few seconds to let Steve search his expression and find what he was looking for. Steve smiled softly.
“Okay, I trust you. Can you take me home?” Steve whispered. Thor broke into a grin that took up his entire face. Because, he very much likes the sound of Steve asking to take him home.