Disoriented » Captain America

chapter twenty one

21 x been through the ringer anyway

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"They're on their way," Natasha informed me. She stood opposite of Steve -- who had refused to leave me, which was quite touching -- and the two of them were the last ones in the room.

Thor had informed all of us that Vision should be perfectly capable of removing the insanity dilemma from me without guidance, given he had the mind gem embedded in him, and thus Natasha had called Clint, and now the rest of the team was flying up to the Tower. Because apparently they couldn't be left alone in the Facility without a superior.

I had a feeling there was a great story behind that, but at the same time, now wasn't the best time to ask.

"Awesome," I said, instead of voicing any of the other multitude of things running through my head. I didn't look at Natasha, either; I kept my eyes on Steve, taking note of the downturn of his lips, the slight squint to his eyes as he watched me in concern, and the visible crease between his brows. "Worry," I said, without being able to stop myself, "is not a good look on you, Stevie."

I heard Natasha chuckle humorlessly, before there was the sound of the door opening and shutting, and I figured she'd taken that as her cue to leave. If I'd been able to sit up, I could've confirmed that, but alas, I was a bit . . . pathetic.

"Jo," Steve breathed then, his shoulders shaking somewhat as he did, and before I knew what was happening he was sitting on the table and pulling me up into his lap. I curved into him easily, ignoring the new stab of pain at my readjustment, and instead focusing on him. "You . . ." he shook his head then before letting out an empty laugh. "You're a good reason to worry. Have you seen yourself lately?"

"No," I answered honestly, quietly.

He paused. "You've looked better."

"That's a terrible thing for a boyfriend to say," I muttered in attempted jest.

Steve shook his head again, "Still with the sass, though."

I hummed at that, and relaxed further against him. "It's gonna be fine," I said, before I flinched at an increase in pain. I remained silent as I clutched one of his hands with too much strength, eyes squeezed shut, before I ground out, "I always am, right?"

"I just . . ." he let out another shaky sigh, "I don't-- if anything--"

"I'm going to be fine, Steve," I promised firmly, forcing my eyes open and pulling back to look at his face. He cupped my face with one hand, and I rested my hand over his, ignoring the way tears were starting to pool in my eyes.

In seconds upon looking in his eyes, I found myself flashing back to the memory of when I saw him for the first time, all big and strong and Captain America. Then all those other times, when he was just Steve Rogers, but there should never be a 'just' before anything describing this man, I knew. As my vision cleared and I found myself looking at the very real him in the present, I smiled with relative ease. "Besides, you're here, Cap, so why should I worry?"

Before he could answer, the door opened again, and in came one red-and-green Vision. Steve looked up the moment I looked over, and I forced a grim smile to my face as the android strode toward us both.

"Captain," Vision greeted. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you--"

"No," Steve said immediately, which seconds later was followed by my, "Yes, Steven."

Vision looked between the two of us perplexed as we had a brief stare down. My resolve was firm, and I nodded stubbornly even as his jaw clenched.

"If anything goes wrong," he started to say, before I cut him off.

"You'll be right outside," I finished for him. "I know. Please lay me back down now."

He sighed, unwillingness still visible in every fibre of his being, before he did as I asked. As he straightened, he paused beside Vision and said something I couldn't hear, before he exited.

"And then there were two," I said aloud, staring at the ceiling, hands clasped over my tummy.

"Thor has informed me of the nature of your issue," Vision said, closing the distance between both of us and thus popping into my line of sight. "Presumably I should be able to clear this issue out of your brain because of the given qualities of the gem."

"Exactly," I confirmed. "You know, if I was anyone else, I wouldn't have a clue about anything you just said."

He didn't laugh. "If you were anyone else, I do not believe you would be so well off that I could help you."

"Way to go morbid," I retorted.

"My apologies," he said briskly, before moving on. "All right. In order for me to access you, you realize you must lower your physical force field, correct?"

"Yeah, I kinda figured," I agreed, taking a second to turn said force field off. It didn't feel helpful to me -- kind of like it had been keeping everything inside me, well, there. I wasn't going to argue though (not this time).

Vision paused then, hands moving to either of my temples as he hovered over my head. "Thor also informed me of your . . . chronolock," he said slowly, uncertainly.

I grimaced. "Not what I wanted to hear, Christmas Tree."

"Childish nicknames will not help the situation--"

"Don't sass me, Vision," I said sharply.

An uncomfortable pause from him. "Apologies."

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed, before my eyes squeezed shut. "This is gonna hurt like nobody's freaking business," I muttered more to myself than him.

Given my current pained state, it made more extensive uses of my powers difficult. Where removing myself from chronolock would usually be slightly tedious, but entirely doable thing, now it was going to suck. Stupid Asgardian technology--

I took in a sharp breath, held it, then focused all of my energy into yanking myself back into the time stream. The moment I was confident I had, I got out, "Go," and then my mind was bright, white noise.