𝗀 𝗁 𝗈 𝗌 𝗍 | | 𝗌 𝗍 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗋 𝗈 𝗀 𝖾 𝗋 𝗌

𝗌 𝗂 𝗑 𝗍 𝗒 － 𝗈 𝗇 𝖾

𑁍 𝟤𝟢𝟣𝟩, 𝗎𝗉𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝗒𝗈𝗋𝗄 ＆ 𝗆𝗂𝗅𝖺𝗇, 𝗂𝗍𝖺𝗅𝗒 𑁍

MARTA WAS WITH A PATIENT when she got a call. The call. As soon as she could, she finished up with her patient and actually ran back to the compound. Marta took her jacket off as she entered Tony's lab, seeing him pouring over holographic screens excitedly with Rhodey. "Is this a joke? Because if you're messing with me–" Marta began, her short hair gathered in a clip.

        "It's not a joke. I did it. The tech works." Tony said, Friday printing off last minute data.

        "Are you sure?" Marta asked, moving to get a better look at the robotic features Tony had prepared.

        Rhodey nodded. He was still paralyzed, but Tony's tech and his weekly physical therapy sessions with Marta allowed him to walk and move effectively. "He tested it five times before he called you. It's supposed to zap in your brain, and grab the disk. Problem solved." Rhodey said, and Tony nodded in agreement.

        "It's gonna work. I just have to calibrate the system one more time, and we'll do it tomorrow morning." Tony said confidently. His test runs had gone perfectly.

        Marta sat down on a stool. "Do I have to go under?" she asked, a tad nervous.

        Tony frowned, wincing. "No, Marta, you have to be awake. You have to talk, and make decisions, so I know the tech hasn't butchered you." he said, showing Marta the holographic steps to the disk removal.

        "How much is it going to hurt?" Marta asked, staring at the hologram.

        "If you weren't a super-soldier, I'd be worried that you wouldn't make it more than a few minutes," Tony said, Rhodey's eyes widening. "This is the only way. It'll work, I wouldn't even be telling you if I wasn't absolutely sure." Tony said to convince Marta, shutting down his tech to reset it all.

        Marta nodded warily. "Okay. If it's the only way." she said, taking deep breaths. This could kill her, disable her, or save her. There was only one desired outcome, and a long process ahead of her.

        Tony told her she had to shave her head so he could to the parts of her brain the disk impacted, so she did. While he did more test runs and Rhodey briefed Ross on what was going on, Marta ate one last meal and went to her room, attempting to go to sleep. They were starting early in the morning. Tony had outlawed all alcohol, so Pepper collected all of Marta's bottles while she called T'Challa and Bucky to tell them what was going on.

        Marta couldn't sleep. She was tossing and turning all night, desperate to fall asleep. The phone she used to contact Steve was buried in her bedside table, and she felt like she had to call him, tell him what was going on. Marta didn't want to talk to him, but she did at the same time. She paced her room, bald, depressed, terrified and lonely.

        She called him. Sitting on the edge of her bed in her cold and dreary bedroom at two in the morning, Marta called her long lost husband. Ring, ring, ring, ring. Steve wasn't picking up. She shouldn't have been surprised. When her phone beeped, Marta had the option to leave a voicemail. So she did.

        In Italy, where Marta always wanted to go for her and Steve's honeymoon, Steve, Sam and Natasha were sleeping in an abandoned train late in the evening. Sam woke up at the subtle sound of Steve's burner phone, throwing something at Steve to get his attention. Steve grabbed his phone, seeing that he had a voicemail from Marta. He sat up, frustrated that he had missed her call again. "What is it?" Natasha asked, eyes closed, arms crossed over her chest.

        "Marta." Steve said with a sigh, running a hand through his growing hair. He put his phone to his ear and listened to his wife's voicemail as Sam sat up.

        "Steve, it's me. Of course you don't answer me the one time I need you, but that's not the point. I went to see Bucky, if you care. Shuri started reprograming his brain and removed Hydra's control. He's awake, and he's okay. That's not why I called you, but it's a great segway, actually. Tony figured out how to get Hydra's disk out of my brain. He's doing it in the morning. It's really rough. I have to be awake the whole time, and I don't know if I'll make it out alive. I'm scared, Steve. I just wanted to call and tell you in case I end up as worm food. Do what you have to do, call me back, don't call me back, I don't care anymore. I'll call you if I survive. Maybe you'll answer."

        Steve's phone fell from his hand. "What happened? Is she okay?" Sam asked, rubbing at his face.

        Steve tried to call his wife back instantly, but she had shut her phone off. "Tony's getting the disk out of her brain tomorrow." he said, repeatedly calling Marta back, coming up short every time.

        "Isn't that good?" Natasha asked. Her hair was in a bleached bob now in an effort to be unrecognized.

        "She might not make it, Nat. She said she might die, and she was calling me to let me know." Steve said. He didn't know how things had gotten so bad that he hadn't spoken to his wife in a year, and now she might die while he was an ocean away.

        Sam and Natasha glanced at each other. "Steve, you should go. You don't want the last time you'll have talked to her to have been in anger." Sam said with a sigh.

        That was plenty of convincing for Steve, so he took the team's quinjet and flew in stealth mode back to New York. He didn't think of how Tony would react, or if he'd be caught by the government. He only thought of Marta, of getting back to her. She had to make it through. She had to be free, and he had to be there for it to happen.

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