DYER | STEVE ROGERS

𝐈.𝐗

〚 BELIEVING 〛

Darla sat with Coulson, her hand in his. She couldn't help but have tears streaming down her face. She hated this, she hated not being able to help.

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" Coulson whispered weakly, which made Darla cry more. "It's okay Darla, I'm okay."

"I'm sorry. I should have done more-"

"You did all you could." Coulson reassured the girl. "Will you do me a favour?" Darla nodded. "Make sure Steve signs my trading cards, he promised." Coulson let out a half hearted chuckle, causing him to cough.

"Of course. I won't rest until he does." Darla reassured the man as Fury walked in.

"I'm sorry boss, the God rabbited." Weakly muttered Coulson. Darla's bottom lip began to quiver, she knew a good person was leaving this word.

"Just stay awake. Eyes on me." Fury grabbed Coulson's face and forced him to look at the man.

"No, I'm clocking out here, even Darla said so." Coulson whispered, he gave Darla's hand a light squeeze.

"Not an option." Fury shook his head. "The voices can change. They can change." He repeated.

Darla bit her bottom lip, the voices weren't changing. Instead they were repeating

'Coulson's dying. Coulson's dying.'

It was almost as if they were taunting her.

"It's okay boss. This was never gonna work if they didn't have something to..." Coulson took a deep breath, which happened to be his last one.

Darla broke down sobbing as she looked at the man. Her hand covered her mouth to quieten her sobs.

The medical team rushed in, but they were too late. He was already dead. Fury grabbed the girl by her biceps and pulled her up. His arms wrapped around her and allowed her to cry into his chest. His hand cupped the back of her head, holding her.

"Agent Coulson is down." Fury announced over the comms.

"A medical team is on its way to your location." Another agent responded.

"They're here. They called it. Darla called it." Fury said calmly. He couldn't imagine what it was like for the girl, to know that someone was going to die before they even died. It must have been torture.

~

Steve's eyes landed on Darla who walked into the bridge. Her eyes were bright red and her cheeks tear stained. He opened up his arms for the girl, which she ran straight into.

She clung onto his shirt as he held her. She didn't even know Coulson well. She had only spoken to him a handful of times, but the voices made every death worse.

Tony placed his hand on Darla's shoulder, hoping to bring her a sense of comfort, although he knew it wouldn't. So, instead, he pulled out his flask and handed it to her.

"Drink up, kid." Darla pulled away from Steve to take the flask and drink the remainder of its contents. She took a seat in between both of the boys once Fury walked in.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Fury held up the Captain America trading cards. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury threw down the card, which landed on the table.

Each card had a bit of blood covering it. The sight made Darla feel sick to her stomach.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the locations of the Cube, Banner, Thor, I got nothing for you." Fury continued as Steve picked up one of the cards. "I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier."