Together Tomorrow

Chapter Fourteen: Ending

         

            Lea nestled against Steve as the taxi took them back to the Faylin complex. They were silent, listening to the sound of the engine and the whir of traffic around them on the freeway. Lea gazed out the window, contentedly watching the lights wiz by. The steady speed of the traffic jerked a rough halt with a curse from the cabbie driver; both passengers were thrown forward into their seatbelts as the anti lock brakes came on. Lea grunted as shoulder strap digging sharply into her collarbone. Steve instinctively braced his hand on the seat on front of him and held Lea back as smoke rose from the rubber tires. Break lights blared up all around them as all four lanes came to a squealing stop on the freeway. Several cars slid sideways at the abrasive reduction of speed, jutting out into other lanes and filling the shoulder of the road. Horns honked and lights flashed in the darkness of the late night. Lea pulled herself up straight quickly and looked out the front of the vehicle to see what was going on. There was some commotion five cars ahead of them that she couldn't decipherer. People started getting out of their cars and men were running in front of the lineup of vehicles under the lip of the bridge.

            "What the hell is going on?" Lea leaned forward vainly attempting to see more through the windshield. The moonless night was illuminated by the sharpness of headlights that washed out most of the details.

            "I dunno." Steve commented, one hand on the door handle. Lea glanced at him, and his face said a lot more than his words had. It was serious, and the commanding air of Captain America was starting to show through those speculating blue eyes.

            "It could be another suicide miss. This is the jumping bridge of the city." The driver said darkly, a frown etched in his face as he glanced up at the bridge over the freeway. Lea didn't doubt it, it was a foot bridge that was ridiculously high and over a freeway, but that just made her heart sink even more.

            "I'm going to go check it out." Steve popped open the door and stepped out, his shoes crunching against bits of glass and trash on the road.

            "Not without me." Lea hurriedly unbuckled and slid over to the door, but he stepped in the way, blocking the exit but still looking towards the hold up.

            "I think it might be better if you stayed here." His tone was stern but quiet as he snapped into super soldier mode.

            "I think not. I have some medical training, and there aren't any EMTs on sight yet." Lea insisted and stepped out of the car forcefully, wishing she wasn't in a dress and heels.

            "You do?" Steve looked at her hesitantly before he shut the cab door and started making his way through the halted vehicles.

            "Yes. I took a year of nursing school before I changed my major." It was true. Lea had been in the process of becoming and RN before she was kidnapped and her whole life had changed.

            Steve didn't respond to that but kept walking forward, already assessing the situation. They were still two cars between them and the end of the line and so many people had flocked to the edge of the bridge Lea couldn't tell what had happened. The scent of oily asphalt and engine exhaust stained the air. The sound of cars flying by going the other direction, people shouting and cursing, and horns blasting reverberated off the road beneath and the bridge above, clouding out the sanity of half the pedestrians present. The closer they got, the louder it was until Lea could hardly hear herself think. Lea elbowed her way through the mix of people, shouting that she was there to help. Steve did similarly, but with less resistance as his muscular form pushed through the clustered men with ease. Lea should have just followed him instead of trying to make her own path.