Chapter 4
Caught in the riptide
I was searching for the truth
There was a reason
I collided into you
Calling your name in the midnight hour
Reaching for you from the endless dream
So many miles between us now
But you are always here with me
Oh inside me
I find my way
Back to you
Back to you
Two words
In your hands
In your hearts
It's whole universe
You are always here with me
Steve keeps to his silent promise and doesn’t visit again but, as also outwardly stated by the man he was avoiding, there is some sort of pull between them. Steve just chalks it up to his concern over the clearly lost man and how that could’ve easily been him. Still he finds himself on the medical wing standing outside the door of the man he knows as James. He knocks, though he’s not sure why. In all of his other visits he just came in.
When the door doesn’t open or any acknowledgement that his knock was heard he knocks again. “It’s Steve.” He says in the crack of the door. If something happened to James he’d have no way of knowing. It’s not like anyone would call to tell him. Maybe Tony would.
“James?” Steve calls through the door again. Still no answer. “Okay I’m coming in” Whether you want me to or not.
“James look-” He starts to say opening the door but looking inside he sees no one there.
“James?” He calls out again as if the man would be hiding under the bed or something. “James? I just wanted to apologize.” He calls out again going over to the bathroom that was vacant as well.
“What the hell?” He gives the small room one last look around like James was going to pop out from behind the curtain, the curtain which he already checked...twice. Would he have left? Steve thinks. It doesn’t seem like a far stretch based on their last encounter.
He leaves the room and takes out his cell phone.
“Hey this is Rogers. Is Tony in?” Steve asks. “Went on a coffee run? When will he be ba-? Few minutes okay. No that’s fine I’ll just call back.” Steve puts his phone back in his pocket a little annoyed. Well maybe he’ll just wander around till then.
He decides to make a game of it. Pick out an agent follow them until it got too obvious or he could no longer squeeze behind barely opened doors.
He follows one that proves to be really tricky as the man keeps looking behind him. It’s not that it’s even fun, Steve doesn’t really know the meaning, it’s just something to do now that there really is nothing going on where he was needed.
It starts to stop being entertaining when they reach what seems to be an abandoned section of the building. Steve follows the man still but now with a higher alert.
The man uses his fingerprint to get into the next door and Steve waits a few seconds, long enough for the man to be far from the door, before he takes out some Stark tech to copy the fingerprint and use it himself.
He goes through a few other doors following the man until he’s in the same, somewhat large room, with him. The man then goes through one last door this one seems to be swinging doors similar to ones you’d see in a hospital surgical room. Was this another medical wing? Steve thinks. As the door is closing, the man long behind it, Steve dashes towards it holding out his hand to catch it and leave a crack open . Enough for him to get a peak, enough for him to listen.
He can hear beeps and whirring of machines. He peaks in more and can see monitors one that would be used to measure vitals. Did Tony provide another medical wing? And for what?
“No, no, no. I don’t want that.”
Steve hears a man say and it sounds so familiar.
“Please…”
Steve takes a minute trying to process the voice.
“I want to go back to my room,” the voice says and a small relief washes on Steve as he recognizes it as James. It’s tired or drained like he was the first days Steve visited. Was James resisting treatment again?
Steve is about to step in to reassure the man that the doctors know what they’re doing, while wondering why Tony sent him to another part of the building for this, when he hears James again and his relief is replaced by something else.
“What are you doing?” He hears him ask. “Why are you doing this please? What is?” His voice breaking. “What is that? No, no, no.”
Steve moves around the corner to get a better view while trying to not make the crack in the door bigger. He sees to his horror why James sounds so scared. He’s strapped to a chair surrounded by men in lab coats Steve doesn’t recognize. Even the “doctor” who is checking the IV’s piercing James’ skin isn’t familiar and with the amount of time Steve has spent in the medical wing he’s pretty familiar with all of the “medical” staff Tony hired.
Maybe they’re new, Steve thinks so briefly. Maybe this is some kind of therapy for his memory. But his gut isn’t sitting right. The men seem so robotic, not at all comforting, like they’re dealing with a car other than a human.
One of the men barks out an order in a language Steve doesn’t understand and Steve’s gut gets proven right.
He watches as the machine in the room starts up and hears a small voice beg one last time before the machine takes him back. Steve’s eyes go wide as he sees the machine attach itself to the man in the chair’s face. Steve turns away when the screaming starts, it’s blood curdling. He puts his hand over is mouth to stop the gasp trying to escape. He feels sick. He has to get out of there but he knows if he rushes he’ll surely slip and slam into a wall alerting everyone in the room of his presence. Who knows what they’d do to him if he was found and what good would he be to James if he got caught. He slowly moves back, away from the door, away from the innocent man in the chair. He retraces his steps best to his memory and luckily finds his way to known territory in no time.
Steve reaches into his pocket again with shaking hands and calls Tony’s office again.
“Yeah get me, Stark” Steve orders. “What do you mean he’s not in his office? Still? Okay that’s fine I’ll just call him myself. Of course I have his number!”
Steve hangs up with the new receptionist Tony had hired, rolling his eyes. He really shouldn’t yell. The poor girl probably doesn’t know what he just witnessed or why he was so desperate to get a hold of Tony.
He looks through his phone.
Tony okay. T...T...hmmm not there. Stark? S...St...not there either. That’s odd. Did he really put Tony in his phone as Ironman? I..Iron… not there either. Stupid phone.
Steve shakes his head and turns the screen on his phone off. Going to have to call the company to get a new one or something.
He heads to Tony’s office anyway despite what the receptionist says and sure enough Tony isn’t there. He turns around to leave when he spots Clint.
“Clint! Oh good I could use you.” Steve grabs his friend’s arm to turn him away from Tony’s office.
“Oh, hey. I was just heading to Tony’s-”
“Yeah he’s not there.” Steve cuts is friend off.
“Fuck.”
“Yeah uh can you help me with something?” Steve asks, turning Clint away from Tony’s office.
Clint gives Steve a questioning gaze. “Umm sure.”
“It’s kind of a ‘do first ask Tony questions later’ kind of thing.”
Clint smiles. “My kind of thing.”
Steve nods and gets more quiet. “It’s kind of a rescue mission. At least I think it is.”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s about Barnes.”
“Oh?” and Steve can’t quite read the expression on Clint’s face. Was this a thing that happened regularly?
He knows Tony knows Barnes but did Clint? Why was Steve the only one that seemed to not know this man?
Steve lets his thoughts wash away temporarily. He’ll deal with that later. He explains the situation. He tells of how he found him a week ago, which Clint already knew thanks to Tony, and what he just saw a few minutes earlier.
“Oh shit, again?” Clint asks after Steve describes the device that James was strapped to.
“It’s happened before?” Steve asks.
“Well not here but you know…” Clint gestures. “...obviously” he trails off ignoring how lost Steve looks. “So anyways, what’s the plan, man?” He notices Clint's tiny laugh and then a small "Sorry" after.
Steve nods and starts explaining the plan, which he had to formulate as he talked to Clint. They seperate to investigate for a little bit, trying not not take too much time as Steve wants James out of the situation as soon as possible. As soon as they determine that the area they are looking for isn’t on any kind of building plan or security monitor they realize they have to rely fully on Steve’s memory.
“Anyone else able to join?” Steve asks as they meet up again by the main elevators.
“No one in the time frame.”
Steve sighs. “Just us then.”
“Shouldn’t be too hard.” Clint gives Steve a reassuring smile.
Steve would be lying if he said that Clints overconfidence doesn’t make him feel a little bit better.
“Ready?” Clint asks, strumming the string of his bow.
Steve grabs his shield, turns it over, and snaps it to his back. He nods. “Ready.”