Emma Joan Tallis

chapter forty-seven: Do Something

"It is difficult, when faced with a situation you cannot control, to admit you can do nothing."
~ Lemony Snicket

~*~

When I woke up again, I was leaning against Steve on a bench. We were in a van with two HYDRA soldiers guarding us, along with Natasha and Sam across from us. Nat looked like she was about to pass out from blood loss.

"You okay?" Sam asked when he saw I was awake.

I looked down at my blood-stained shirt, and was relieved to see my intestines hadn't fallen out. "I've been worse," I said simply. "Was that really him?" I questioned Steve when he looked me over carefully. 

"It was him," Steve confirmed. "He looked right at me. at us, like he didn't even know who we were."

"How's that even possible?" Sam questioned. "It was like seventy years ago."

"Zola," I said darkly as a shiver ran down my spine thinking back to those days. 

"Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him," Steve said.

"It's where we met, bonding over being guinea pigs," I said sadly.  

"Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall," Steve said. "They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha reminded. 

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

"I would've lost my mind when I was there if it wasn't for him," I added. Natasha looked like she wanted to say something else, but almost slumped forward in a faint. 

"We need to get a doctor here," Sam snapped. "We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck."

"That doesn't scare us," I muttered as the HYDRA soldier pointed a weapon at Sam, but then turned around and used it on his fellow soldier. 

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," Maria said as she took off her helmet. "Who's this guy?" 

"I have no idea," I said sarcastically. "He just climbed into the van." 

~*~

"GSW," Maria said to a doctor as we walked in. Sam and Steve were supporting Natasha. "She's lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam added.

"Let me take her," the doctor said. 

"She'll want to see him first," Maria said, and we followed her hesitantly. 

"About damn time." 

"You son of a bitch," I swore when I saw Fury. 

"Please, don't try to kill me," Fury said blandly. "I probably wouldn't survive this time."

"You're lucky you survived the last try," I shot back. 

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache," Fury counted off.

"Only a lacerated spinal column?" I asked. 

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor said. 

"Because that makes all the difference."

"Oh, let's not forget that," Fury agreed brightly. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open, your heart stopped," Natasha said. 

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress," Fury said and I raised an eyebrow. "Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."