Unravel

It hurt. She couldn’t really pin down where she had been hit but it hurt and she could feel her fingers coming in contact with liquid that she didn’t want to admit was very possibly her own blood.

She was still alive, so she had at least that going for her. But she was lying in a dark alley in a pool of something, incapacitated by a bullet somewhere in her body and the consecutive shock, completely alone with no idea whether her text had reached its recipient, whether they could even find her in this alley.

Coughing up and spitting out another bit of the blood she had swallowed before, Elizabeth tried to roll onto her side, letting her pain be known in the form of a groan. The taser’s barbs had kept digging into her back and uncomfortable wasn’t a sufficient enough word to describe the pain they caused while lying.

Resting on her stomach, her palms digging into the loose gravel on the tarmac, she tried to listen to the commotion that had gotten her assailants’ attention. Focusing was hard but except for the blood rushing inside of her ears, two sirens, agitated yelling, the metallic taste inside of her mouth and the putrid smell in the alley she couldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. No more gun shots at least.

Either way, it seemed there hadn’t been a huge fight which would probably mean that someone would come back to get her. Otherwise they would have hurt her more effectively, killing her on the spot. Wherever she had been shot, she could survive it if she could stop the bleeding on time. The only thing she knew was that she needed to get out. Even with all the fear and pain that had taken over her body, the only way she would go with them was if she was unconscious or dead.

Pushing herself up from the ground with her teeth clenched, Elizabeth gasped as she felt a searing hot pain in her left thigh. “Shit,” she gasped out and laid her body softly down onto the ground again. At least now she knew where the bullet had hit her, which turned out to be the best place they could have shot her. She probably wouldn’t even have been alive anymore had they shot her anywhere else.

Lying her head onto the tarmac, she blew out a breath and willed the nausea that had started welling up to go away.

She had a mental list compiled of all the things she needed to do: get up, get out, hide, stop the bleeding, get help. But even getting up proved to be difficult and she didn’t believe that she could get anywhere without drawing a ton of attention to herself, least of all because of the blood covering her face and body.

Compiling her strength for pushing herself up once more, she suddenly froze as she heard footsteps behind her, her whole body locking up in response.
The footsteps became louder until they stopped completely. Elizabeth sucked in a sharp breath in fear of it being someone sent to retrieve her, but as soon as the person started rushing towards her with a string of curse words leaving his mouth, Elizabeth broke down in relief and finally started crying.

“Shit,” James muttered and skidded to a halt next to her, helping her sit upright.

“What are you doing here?” Elizabeth whimpered, as he assessed the damage done to her.

“Helping you,” he told her and pulled the barbs out of her back with one swift motion that made her cry out.
Looking her over in concern, grabbing her hand and pushing her palm against the gunshot wound on her thigh, he asked, “Do you think you can walk?”

“I don’t know, my legs keep twitching,” she responded with a sniff and pressed her palm harder against her thigh. “A-Assholes tasered me.”

Looking her over, he obviously wanted to say something but hesitated. “What?”

“Give me your jacket,” he concluded and reached to grab it from her shoulders. Tentatively shrugging out of it, Elizabeth shivered as soon as the cold air hit her arms even though it was warm enough outside to do without a jacket.

Taking the piece of clothing from her, he started ripping off pieces of cloth. “Do you have your phone?” he asked and Elizabeth nodded frantically, searching for her bag. When she realized that it wasn’t anywhere near her, she whipped her head around to see whether her bag had been dropped somewhere further down the dark alley. But it hadn’t been.. “I don-, it’s not here, it’s not here,” she started repeating frantically.

“Hey,” James said suddenly, grabbing her shoulders to make her look at him, the ripped blazer on his knees forgotten. “It’s okay. You’re okay. We’ll get you out.”

“I’m really scared right now,” she admitted with a whisper, her brown eyes searching for his calm blue ones.

“I know,” he told her, squeezing her shoulders tighter for a moment before going back to ripping up the blazer. “Lift your leg. You’re as good as out of here. Just a moment.”

After tying a piece of long cloth around her leg to slow the bleeding, he helped her stand, holding her up for support. Elizabeth kept feeling her knees give way to her own weight but James had a tight grip on her.

She wanted to be relieved that he was here. Deep inside she could almost feel some variation of relief but due to the shock she was still in, all she could focus on was the way his grip tightened on her whenever she faltered and, to be honest, this was enough for her in this moment.

“Are you alone?” Elizabeth pressed out through clenched teeth as she willed her body to move forward with James’ help. They were almost out of the alley by now, Elizabeth hobbling beside him. She couldn’t move too fast but he thankfully seemed to be patient with her.

“No. Steve-, he’s here, too. But I need to get you down to the car, do you think you can manage that? It’s not too far.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk this much,” Elizabeth retorted and started taking purposeful yet wonky steps forward. James looked at her with confusion for a moment but tightened his grip once more and started picking up speed.

She could manage, she wouldn’t falter, she wanted out, with James and maybe even Steve if he would let her stay. Even Clint, if he was part of that whole band. Just out.

James didn’t answer or question her reply, or lack thereof, but kept supporting her and even through all of the winces and groans on Elizabeth’s part they made it to the car. James had tried to keep to less frequented streets and alleys and Elizabeth had tried to ignore any of the people they still encountered. But she was glad when she was finally able to sink into the soft fabric of the black SUV’s worn backseat, her head hitting the headrest and her eyes closing on impact.

She felt worn out and tired and plain dirty. Of course she wouldn’t really be able to sleep until she was somewhere safe, if such a place even existed for her. But for now she could at least try to rest in some way.

James hands immediately went to her leg again, making sure that the cloth was tight enough to do its job. But when he let out a disapproving grunt, Elizabeth cracked one eye open and asked hesitantly, “What?”

“The bleeding is not too bad but the bullet’s still inside. We’ll need to get it out, later.”

“Do what needs to be done,” Elizabeth mumbled in response, her eyes closed tightly and her forehead creased in thought of the impending pain that apparently still had to be added to the one she had tried to suppress all throughout their walk to the car.

“Buck!”

She knew the voice before she even cracked open her eyes again. Maybe she should have left them closed, leaving her mind to replay ‘The Star Spangled Man with a Plan’ over and over again. But she opened them anyway and watched as Steve stepped closer to them, frazzled and out of breath.

“Is she okay?”

“Peachy,” Elizabeth retorted, closing her eyes again and lifting her right hand from her lap, pressing her thumb and index together to emphasize her sarcasm. Well, at least she was still capable of that. She definitely wasn’t going to kick the bucket, not anytime soon.

“We should go. We still don’t know how many guys were down there,” Steve told them and went to sit behind the steering wheel.

James patted Elizabeth’s leg to get her attention but she only turned her head towards him with a light ‘hm?’. She didn’t feel like sleeping but her eyelids felt too heavy and the strain of keeping them open didn’t seem appealing to her.

“Try not to fall asleep. You should be fine if you do, just… We’ll get you sorted out soon.”

She felt him leave her side and then there was a row of different sounds. One bang, two bangs of doors closing, body heat next to her, the ignition and engine, the car’s wheels turning on gravel.

She really wanted to fall asleep but everytime she came close, she had to think of the way her body had given out as soon as she had been tasered. Only the soft murmur of Steve and James talking and debriefing posed as some sort of relief and reassurance. The conversation seemed calm and familiar, and Elizabeth was glad that even with all of the 21st century’s madness they had managed. Especially with all of the doubts that James had had when it came to Steve.
Gradually the conversation got sparser and then stopped completely until Steve spoke up again in a more playful than serious tone.

“She means a lot to you,” she heard him state and forced herself to stay still. She really didn’t want to listen in, this was a private conversation that she probably shouldn’t witness. But this was also about her and both men apparently thought she was fast asleep. On top of that she couldn’t really leave. “Right?”

James breathed in audibly before replying, “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters when you almost have a heart attack like the 90-year-old that you are when she’s in trouble. If we hadn’t been close by anyway, you’d have sprinted there,” came Steve’s instant reply.

After a moment only filled with the sound of the car’s engine and three people’s soft breathing, James repeated himself, more forcefully this time but with his head turned away, “It doesn’t matter.”

Elizabeth heard Steve violently breath in and rhythmically drum his fingers onto the steering wheel before replying, “There are things that you can go after. You know that, right?” he told James. “Bucky, you’re allowed to be selfish at times. There’s no need for this path of retribution you’re so set on. You don’t need to punish yourself for what Hydra made you d-.”

“She’s Falsworth’s grandkid,” James suddenly interrupted Steve, making him fall silent. Elizabeth knew he only wanted to deviate from the discussion - and she couldn’t blame him.

After a short moment of silence Steve replied with a soft chuckle, the rest of the conversation all but forgotten, “Well, damn. Are you sure?”

“She told me,” James replied with audibly less tension than before. “It’s odd, isn’t it?”

Steve agreed and Elizabeth could almost hear his facial expression in the way he spoke. A smirk that didn’t really express amusement but was more on the wry side. “When has anything ever been normal for us...”