The Guide To Moving On

Chapter 40 - PTSD

PLEASE NOTE:

This chapter contains PTSD and mental health descriptions. If any of those are triggers for you, please skip this chapter.

Thank you!💕

Steve's POV

"Captain Rogers, Ms Romanoff, you need to report to Director Fury's office immediately." JARVIS piped up, waking them both from their late morning slumber. They had spent the night together last night and had slept in, something that had been dying to do ever since they got together.

Before that, they had to hide it from the team, so they had no choice but to get up early and assume their regular routines. But now, the secret was out, they could do whatever they want. And this winter morning, they had decided to stay in bed in each others arms. But, it seems that JARVIS and Fury had other ideas.

"Do we have to go?" Nat mumbled into my chest and I laughed at her cute antics.

"You know we do. Fury will give us nothing but hell if we don't. That is if he isn't already on his way down here to drag us out of bed himself. Trust me, you do not want that to happen." I replied and she groaned.

We quickly got up and got ready, we had been sleeping with each other for months, so by now both of our belongings were scattered between our two apartments.

"So, how did the Captain America get a wake up call from Fury?" Nat teased as we made our way toward the elevator hand in hand.

"Back when I first joined SHIELD, I had had a really late night the night before, and when he called me, I answered, told him I was coming, and then accidentally fell back asleep again. So, he came and got me personally with a wooden stick and an airhorn. He had me do his paperwork for a week after that and excluded me from missions during the same time. I definitely won't make the same mistake twice, I think he only just forgave me for the last time." I mumbled, and Nat promptly burst into giggles.

"Agents." Fury greeted as we walked into his office, though we had stopped holding hands at this point. We hadn't told him yet, although I have a suspicion that he has known about us for quite a while now.

But I guess those are famous last words.

*Time skip*

We ran along the trainline, shivering in our tight leather suits. It was freezing, snow all around us as we ran. But we had a job to do, to shut down a base and potentially save hundreds of people, no matter how cold it is.

We weren't far out from the base, but as I looked back, I saw that Natasha had fallen a bit behind me, so I slowed a little and waited for her to catch up again.

I glanced around the countryside, it truly was beautiful. It was only then that I noticed what appeared to be a very long frayed rope hanging down a cliff face. It immediately reminded me of what The Howling Commandos and I did in the alps that time with the zipline. The time that I lost my best friend off the HYDRA train. I will never forget that day.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that we are a few hundred miles off where that happened. The most prominent thing that I can remember from that day was when I looked back up, after watching my best friend plummet. There was a rock ledge, with a strange shape that made it look like a bear. From then on, I associate that rock ledge with Bucky's death.

I pushed that thought aside as Nat caught up to me and we continued on along the railway, fast approaching the apparent location of the underground base. As we neared the base, we slowed down to take note of our surroundings and form a quick plan of attack before we got into the firing line.