Chapter 5
The hug caught him off guard, rocking him back on his heels a bit with the force of it. Just a minute ago Celia had seemed fine, sitting quietly as he washed his hands. But then he heard her breathing start to pick up and saw fine tremors start to shake her body. He called out to her, trying to ground her in the present instead of falling back into a memory, but she didn’t seem to hear him. He finally got her attention when he yelled her name, kneeling in front of her. Steve felt terrible, Celia was crying in earnest now. He never knew how to comfort people who were crying, most people in his day hiding their emotions. He actively avoided thinking about how Peggy must have looked during their last conversation, as he put the plane into the water. Steve gently patted Celia’s back, needing to do something to show her support. She slammed into him, wrapping her arms around his body and burrowing into his chest. He could feel her tears soaking into his filthy shirt, both of their blood staining it beyond repair. Steve cautiously wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the ache in his injured shoulder. He pulled her onto the floor with him, gently rocking her while she rode the waves of her emotions.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” he soothed, running his hand through her hair. “We’ll figure this out.” They stayed that way for a few minutes, Celia’s hiccupping sobs quieting down until they were just sniffles. He rubbed her back, feeling more comfortable with the closeness instead of awkward. He didn’t really touch anyone now, except for during battle. He missed the easy touches and pats and hugs he shared with Bucky during his youth, snuggling with his mom when he was a boy. Steve let himself soak up a little of the comfort too.
“I’m sorry,” Celia whispered into his neck, pulling away slightly. “I guess it just all caught up with me.”
“No need to apologize,” Steve waved off, wiping at her face to clean the tears off her cheeks. “I’ve heard it’s a good idea to not keep things bottled inside.”
“Have you cried?” Celia asked, looking deep into his eyes. “Since they found you?” Steve frowned a little, not enjoying talking about his own emotions, no matter what he said about it being healthy.
“Not yet,” he admitted, tucking a stray hair from Celia’s bun behind her ear. Steve definitely wasn’t ready to process all the emotions he had from the crash, even with Shield’s standing offer of intense therapy. He didn’t feel strong enough to deal with his past when he was still trying to just survive the present.
“If you ever needed someone to talk to, you could talk to me,” Celia offered sincerely. “I know we don’t know each other, but sometimes that makes it easier.” She unfolded herself out of his lap, reaching a hand down to pull him up to his feet. Celia gave his hand a quick squeeze before she let go, walking over to the sink to start washing up.
“Let me go grab us a change of clothes,” he said, walking toward the door. “Tony usually has a stash in the bedrooms for guests and emergencies.” Celia nodded as he left the room, heading to the nearest dresser. He grabbed a few options for her, happy to find a good selection of women’s clothes that seemed close enough to her size. The men’s options were more limited, the serum having made his shoulders too big to fit the mediums he was finding in the drawers. He groaned when he opened the bottom drawer, seeing only Iron Man themed shirts. Tony had become obsessed with collecting Iron Man branded things when people started making it, having to buy at least one of everything he found and stashing it around the tower. Steve even had an Iron Man bobblehead on his nightstand show up one day, which quickly found its way into the corner of his closet. Of course the only shirt in this room that would fit him is one that said “Iron man is my idol” in bright red and gold lettering. He sighed, resigned to his fate and grabbed it along with the other clothes for Celia. Steve walked back to the bathroom, turning away quickly when he saw Celia standing shirtless at the sink, washing her arms.
“Sorry!” he squeaked out, embarrassed by his startled voice and walking in on her undressed. He heard her chuckle behind him, his cheeks heating up.
“It’s fine Steve, I promise. Remember the sports bra?” she asked, still washing herself at the sink. He reluctantly turned back around, keeping his eyes averted.
“I still should have knocked, that was rude of me,” he said, setting the clothes for her on the toilet lid. “Let me know if those fit. I can grab more if they don’t.” He turned around again, painfully starting the process of changing his own shirt. Taking his ruined shirt off was easy enough, Natasha having cut one sleeve open to gain access to his shoulder wound. Getting the Iron Man shirt on would be tricky though, with its tight cut and narrow openings. He growled a little as he looked at the neck opening, the material having barely any stretch to it.
“Wait,” Celia called from behind him, turning the water in the sink back on. “You still have blood on you.” Steve turned to face her again, watching her wet a washcloth for him to wipe off with. She handed it to him and he wiped down his chest where his old shirt had hidden the blood left on his skin. He used the mirror to look at his back, a few trails of blood running from his shoulder down past his waist. Steve hissed as he tried to twist to wipe off the blood, the movement pulling at his stitches.
“Let me,” Celia said, taking the cloth from his hand and wetting it again in the sink. She gently rubbed the towel down his back, careful of the area around his wound. He shivered a little at the feel of the cool air in the room hitting the warm water on his back. It definitely wasn’t due to the fact he had a beautiful woman, who still hadn’t put a shirt on, practically giving him a sponge bath. A few hours ago he had never met this woman and now he was getting more intimate with her than he had with anyone since he came out of the ice. “All done,” she said quietly, stepping away to put the towel back in the sink. He resumed his fight with the shirt, slowly threading his injured arm into the sleeve. Celia wordlessly appeared in front of him, pulling at the neck of the shirt to give his head room to slide in. She laughed when she noticed the design on the shirt, making him chuckle a little too.
“How do I look?” he asked after he got the shirt fully on, giving her a little twirl to show off the picture of Iron Man’s mask covering the back. Celia was doubled over now, holding her stomach and laughing until she ran out of breath. Steve couldn’t help but join in, giving the heartiest laugh he could remember in a long time, since before Bucky and the train.
“Very nice,” she laughed, walking back over to the pile of clothes and quickly putting on the black tank top that was on top.
“We should probably get back,” he said regretfully, feeling guilty when Celia immediately sobered. “I’m sure Tony has had a chance to cool off and will be willing to listen more. He really is a good guy under all that posturing.”
“Right. And I have nothing to hide,” she said, stooping down to pick up her bag. She gave him a short nod and they made their way back to the room where they left the team. Tony and Bruce were gone when they got there, Clint and Natasha sitting at the bar whispering to each other in what sounded like Russian. They turned when they heard them approaching, Clint immediately laughing and pointing when he saw the Iron Man shirt.
“Oh my God! What the hell!” Clint gasped out between laughs, leaning back on his stool. Natasha just grinned, shaking her head at Clint’s antics.
“It was the only one that fit!” Steve defended, crossing his arms over his chest to block their view of most of the shirt. “Where’s the rest of the team?”
“They went downstairs to do some sciency stuff. They should be back soon,” Clint said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“Sciency stuff? Really Barton?” Tony asked as he glided back into the room, Bruce right behind him. Tony walked to the center of the room, getting ready to address the group. “So kiddos, I have good news and bad news. Which would you like first?”
“Good news! No, bad news. Wait, how bad is the bad and how good is the good? That will affect my answer,” Clint said, receiving an elbow to the gut from Natasha for his trouble.
“Right. Well the good news is, I’m almost all the way convinced that Celia wasn’t involved in a plot to take out our good captain,” Tony started, turning to address Celia. She looked relieved to not have the suspicions of Tony pointed at her.
“What changed your mind?” Steve asked, wanting to know what Tony found out.
“Although the cameras in the elevator weren’t working, the others in the building were. Jarvis was able to backtrack all of your movements leading up to entering the elevator. So, the fact that none of you had any contact prior to the elevator and the fact that Celia got on the elevator before you, which you failed to mention, makes it most likely that it was coincidence that she was in the car with you. We’re still going to do a more thorough background on our shooter, but until then, we’ll assume she is just an unlucky bystander,” Tony said, giving Celia a small nod. “And that brings us to our bad news. I had the bright idea-”
“Ahem!” Natasha interrupted, glaring at Tony.
“Natasha had the bright idea,” Tony resumed, glaring back at Nat, “to test Celia’s shirt for her blood. If you guys were right about her being shot, it should mostly be her blood on the shirt. We already know what Cap’s blood looks like, so we compared it to the blood on the shirt. Cap’s blood type is O, the blood on the shirt is type B. Congratulations Celia, you were shot in the chest.” The rest of the team was silent, finally having proof of what Steve and Celia had told them all along. He felt glad that there were no doubts anymore, but was scared to not know what this meant for Celia.
“So then what the hell happened to the wound?” Clint asked, confused.
“I have a theory, but it’s gonna sound crazy,” Bruce said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Crazier than a disappearing bullet wound?” Clint huffed out.
“We know that the bullet went through Steve and entered Celia’s chest, piercing her heart. But this wasn’t a normal bullet, it was an electrified bullet. So, in theory, when the bullet pierced her heart, it should’ve killed her, but the shock could have reestablished a normal heart rhythm,” Bruce explained.
“Even if the jolt restarted her heart, she should still have a bullet wound,” Natasha said.
“Yes, but the bullet going through Steve’s body means some of his enhanced blood made it into Celia’s blood stream, directly into her heart. What if the serum healed her?” Bruce said, pointing toward Celia’s heart.
“We tried in the 40s to see if me donating my blood to someone would heal them and it didn’t work,” Steve argued.
“But did you shock them too?” Bruce asked. At the shaking of Steve’s head, he continued. “What if these exact variables came together and healed the gunshot wound? The blood and the electricity of the bullet, straight into her heart kickstarted the ability to rapidly heal. What else could it possibly be?” The team stared at Celia, shock on all of their faces. Celia sank down into the nearest couch, looking ready to pass out. Steve moved over to sit down next to her, putting his hand on her shoulder in support.
“So what do we do now?”