The next person to find out about Marc's baby-space was Steven. Not his Steven, Steven as in Captain America, as in thee Captain America. Marc almost started gleefully flapping his hands every time he thought about it.
The Avengers + Marc had been called in emergency to a villain exploding an entire office building in the suburbs of New York. He had locked up all the doors to the building and then set the bombs off. Apparently the man's daughter has been left comatose for a year after sustaining injuries in the big Loki-alien-fight and he blamed the Avengers for it. No one could quite figure out what that thought process was but it was too late to think about criminal psychology.
The building was five stories and filled to the brim with innocent office workers. When the man set off the first explosion, the wave of dust and pulverized concrete plateaued out onto the streets. The foundation was weakened and half destroyed and every so often you could hear the building groan and shift. Glass and concrete fell in small piles occasionally, raining down on the unfortunate first responder under it.
Steve, Marc, and Tony had been sent in to retrieve survivors and survey the inside damage, their super strength powers and Tony’s suit being perfect for that. The building hadn’t collapsed completely, more so falling onto its side, so there were many small pockets where people could be trapped. Tony scanned for heat signatures and the other two played fetch with the victims. Together they had rescued more than two hundred people. They headed back in one final time to sweep the area.
“I'm checking over here.” Tony told them, his voice streaming through the suit's speakers as he flew off down a hallway with a huge piece of concrete blocking the way. Steve and Marc continued on as they were, hunting around a large cavity of the building. It looked like it used to be the main office space, with the cubicles and everything. Now it was all exposed wires and smashed room dividers covered in glass and sections of the ceiling.
Marc leaned around a corner to check for a person. He went back to Steve's side when he found nothing.
“Nothin’?” Steve asked, addressing Marc without looking at him. Marc simply made a grumbling sound. This was the longest mission he had been continuously on since joining his Avenger pals. Normally it was more stealth assignments or public appearances or just patrolling as Marc liked to do. There were plenty of bad guys to beat up in New York but on team missions like these, his social energy lacked by the end of it, most of the time retreating and leaving Steven to deal with their new friends.
The two kept walking around the office area, calling out every so often and making sure they weren’t missing anyone. Marc fidgeted with the edge of his chest plate, rubbing the overhang where it met his torso. He ran his tongue over the backs of his teeth, trying to quell the rising tension in his body.
All of a sudden the entire building started trembling. Dust fell from the ceiling like a waterfall, coating the pair in gray soot. The floor shifted sideways, rumbling loudly the entire time. Steve looked around wildly for Marc yet among the chaos he couldn't recognize his figure. He flung his arms out to catch something or steady himself but it didn’t matter. His body toppled over and he instantly went to cover himself with his shield to protect his body from any falling debris.
The shaking continued for several moments before subsiding. Steve didn’t come out from under his shield until he was absolutely sure it was over. Peeking out from under his defense, he gazed around the room at his new situation.
Most of the ceiling had collapsed, leaving him in a small, cave-like space. The ceiling was low enough he probably couldn’t stand all the way up,and there was a concrete support that had broken off from its place and landed over where Marc was. By some miracle nothing had fallen on Steve. He wiped the dust out of his face before realizing the gross taste in his mouth and turned to his right, spitting it out as well. He strained to see in the inky, unlit cavern.
“MARC…TONY?” He yelled out into the dim light. His breath labored as he listened for a reply. Nothing. He shouted again. Still nothing. He reached towards the walkie talkie on his belt and held it up to his face.
“Hello? Does anyone hear me? Anyone?” All that came out of the walkie-talkie was static. He lowered it, letting out a big breath of air, trying to calm his nerves. Someone would come for them eventually. Tony was probably looking for them right now. Right now all he could do was look for Marc and keep trying the walkie-talkie. He smiled, feeling better already with a straightforward plan.
Finding Marc wasn’t hard. He was just a couple yards away from him to his left. The reason he hadn’t noticed him was because he was lying motionless on his back, the only movement his slow, controlled breaths in and out. His arms were up, like they were protecting his ears. Steve scrambled over to his side. When he got closer, he saw that Marc’s eyes were squeezed shut and he was biting down hard on his lower lips. His hands were clamped down on his ears. When Steve’s eyes swept down the rest of body, checking for injuries, he realized with alarm that there was a concrete rod that had fallen down onto Marc's leg. He couldn’t see well in the darkness but it looked like it was really on there.
“Marc!” Steve put his hand on Marc's shoulders to comfort him or let him know he was there or maybe to just feel him and know he was mostly okay. Steve didn’t know but he had barely touched him when Marc jerked away from him.
“NO!” Steve pulled back like he had slapped his hand down on a hot stove as Marc screamed, his voice higher than its usually low gruffness. His eyes didn’t open but he bit down even harder on his lip and hands moved to grip each other behind his head. He was still covering his ears with his trembling forearms.
“Marc wh.. What’s wrong?” Steve pleaded. When there was no answer he sat-fell back and tried to figure out what was wrong. His first thought was obviously the concrete seated on his leg but Marc had been in worse pain and never acted like this. A boy from his childhood popped into his head. There had been a kid who lived in his apartments who acted similar to this sometimes. He would sit criss-cross applesauce and rock back and forth till he almost touched the ground. He would cover his ears and hum loudly, a single monotone note. His mom would always play music for him when he was like that.
Well, Steve didn’t have music but the next best thing adjacent to music was white noise. He grabbed Marc’s walkie talkie, grateful it hadn’t broken in the building's collapse and switched the channels until he found one that was just static. He reached over and put the walkie talkie down next to Marc’s head, not too close tho. He sat back and tried his own walkie again. Still no reply.
Over the next couple of minutes, Marc seemed to be feeling better. His breathing sounded less forced and his arms loosened a bit. Seemed like his music theory worked. He looked down to his walkie talkie fiddling with the controls a bit.
“Oh god. Ow. Jesus.” A british accent made him look up immediately. Marc's costume had changed completely into a fancy white suit.
“Steven?” Said man turned to him, bringing his arms down. He looked around in confusion, his eyes landing on Steve.
“Steve? What the bloody hell is going on? What's on my leg? ”
“Me and Marc were rescuing people in a building that collapsed and then it collapsed all the way. When the building fell Marc’s leg got trapped under some debris.”
“Oh. That’s why my leg hurts so bad.”
They sat in silence for a moment.
“Is Marc okay?” Steve blurted out.
“I mean-oh shit that hurts really bad give me a sec ahhhh.” Steven flapped his hands quickly as he pushed his head back into the floor, feeling the pressure.
“He’s as well as he can be if I was needed.”
“It’s just I've never seen him act like that before.” Steven opened his eyes curiously.
“What? What was he doing?”
“He was like…” Steve held his hands up to his ears like Marc had and squeezed his eyes shut. Steven looked happy at that, which Steve didn’t understand.
“And he yelled at me when I tried to touch him.”
“Really? That’s good we’ve actually been working on that!” Looking at Steve’s confused face, he smiled.
“When Marchad meltdowns in the past, he would like, hit himself and stuff. And obviously I didn’t want him to be hurt, yeah. So we’ve been working on solutions and distractions and that, the ear thing, was a really good one. I’m actually impressed he remembered it in this bloody cave. God. When are we getting out by the way, I am knackered.”
“Uh…Guys can anyone hear me?” Steve said into the walkie talkie. There was once again no response.
“...Ste.. we c.. Hel..” The two men looked at each other in shock.
“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” He waited with baited breath.
“Steve, yes we hear you loud and clear!” He let out a huge sigh of relief and both he and Steven cheered.
“Yeah! Hive five for modern technology!” Steve grinning and brought the walkie-talkie back up to his face.
“Does anyone know if Tony got out?”
“Aww. Glac to hear you care, Cap.”
“ We’re trying to locate you guys right now. We're gonna get you out.”
“Amazing. We have one injured party. Mr.Knight has a concrete support on his leg, trapping him.”
“Affirmative. We have a crew ready to extract you guys and medical attention waiting for you when you get out here.
“Good to hear. We’ll be waiting.” With that Steve placed the walkie-talkie next to him and groaned, trying to stretch. His arms smacked the ceiling and he quietly exclaimed.
“They’re coming, all we have to do is wait.”
“Yeah I heard I’m literally right here.” Steven huffed.
“Whoa man sorry.” Steven groaned and rubbed his eyes with the bottom of his hands.
“No it’s fine, it’s not you. My leg just really hurts. Fuck!”
“Just stay in there, help is coming” Steve reached out and rubbed the other man’s shoulder in reassurance.
“Mmm I know it’s ju…” He trailed off, still palming his eyes. He could feel himself drifting from the pain and the body. It was like retreating to the back of his own head and watching a TV show go on. He wasn’t built for pain, that was Jake's thing, which was probably who was fronting now. He let go as his arms lowered without his permission.
Jake blinked. He lowered his arms and looked around at the small cave he was in. He looked to his right and saw Captain America with his hand on his shoulder. He slowly reached over and moved the hand off his body, eyeing Steve the whole time. He brought himself to a sitting position, leaning back on his arms. His leg wouldn’t move.
“What happened?”
“Jake, I presume. Nice to formally meet you.” He held out a hand. Jake stared at him. He lowered his hand.
“A building collapsed while Marc and me were in it. Help is going to be here in a bit.”
“Ahh mierda!” He let his head fall back harshly onto the ground. So he was to be stuck in a cave with Captain America for the foreseeable future. God damn it.
.
.
.
“Ma’am I promise I’m fine.” Steve said for the umteeth time cince they got him out. They had him in the back of an ambulance, checking his vital signs and bringing him yet another bright orange shock blanket.
“Well, Amazingly you only have a few scratches and bruises. Technically you’re okay but you should still take an advil…or five when you get back to the Tower. And make sure to get some rest and drink some water.” The paramedic would have worriedly continued but Steve cut them off.
“I will be sure to do all that but right now I want to check if my friend is okay. Thank you for treating me”
The paramedic blushed and opened their mouth like a fish.
“You’re welcome Mr. Captain America sir.” Steve chuckled and stood up, grabbing his shield. He started scanning the ambulances, looking for Jake and quickly spotted him with Bruce.
Marc felt like shit. His leg hurt like a bitch, except he couldn’t say that word when he was small cause Steven said so. His head hurt and the fingers he had been steadily chewing on for the past 10 minutes had begun to hurt too. The only positive to this whole situation was that Bruce was here. Bruce had been in charge of looking him over.
Bruce had checked his chest with that thing doctors wear on their neck and he had wrapped a balloon thing on his arm and put a clippy on the hand that wasn’t in his mouth.
Right now though he was just content to sit on the edge of the ambulance and tuck his head into Bruce’s chest and let Bruce rub his back as someone else put a cast on his leg.
Suddenly Bruce was moving away from him. He whined at the loss of contact and looked up. Steve was standing next to Bruce. He looked nervously at Bruce and then at Steve with watery eyes.
“Steve, this is Adam.” Bruce glared at Steve in a way that made him slightly scared. He smiled at Adam.
“Hi Adam. I’m Steve Rodgers. I was with Marc and Steven and Jake when they were in the building.”
Marc nodded, having been there.
“How old are you, bud?” Marc just shrugged. He put his head back in Bruce’s chest with a thud, the lights starting to make his head hurt and wanting the rubs back.
Bruce let out an umf as Marc knocked his head into him. He went back to rubbing his back up and down.
“I didn’t know about Adam.”
“Yeah, I didn’t know about him until a couple weeks ago. Apparently he’s not allowed out much.”
“Seems like a cute kid.” The paramedic setting Marc’s leg cast took one final look over and stood up.
“Hey, I'm done, I'm done, I’m gonna head out. Let that cast set for a couple minutes and then you guys can head out.
“Thanks.” Bruce looked back to Steve.
“You can go back to the Tower if you want, you must be exhausted.” Steve laughed.
“Come on man I can’t leave you stranded with a kid. Especially one that weighs two hundred pounds.” Steve walked over and sat down on the edge of the ambulance.
“Ha ha very funny. But that’s actually really helpful, thanks.” Bruce smiled. Steve smiled.
They sat for a while longer before getting into one of Tony’s company cars and going back to the Tower. Steve carried “Adam” into the elevator and up to his room. Bruce turned the light off as they walked out and the two of them went to bed, falling asleep as soon their heads hit the pillow.