Hi guys. I wrote this back in 2015, before I knew about Hydra, before I knew about the plot of Winter Soldier, it was literally based on a single scene from the very first trailer. I want to finish this story because it is almost five years old, I know it has flaws, I know it has things in it I would not have included if I was first writing it today but I just want to see it completed. I am also trying to update each chapter to improve it a bit, so that will explain any discontinuity.

It had all happened so fast. One minute they were standing there, they thought the fight was over. That they had won. Natasha wiped a splattering of blood from her face, she was obviously out of breath. They had fought hard against the Winter Soldier, and they had defeated him.

"Are we done?" Natasha asked cautiously, her body still tense in the aftermath of the fight. Steve looked at the bodies around him, took in the wreckage, he did his best not to look at the corpse of Bucky. The empty shell of a human who had once been his best friend a hundred years, a half dozen lives ago.

"I think so. We did it. We're done" Steve smiled at the assassin cautiously, she didn't smile back. Natasha wasn't exactly the smiling type. "Good job Captain, I guess we're done here." She turned, and began walking out of the room, Steve followed. finally letting the exhaustion of the fight wash over him. He had to fight the urge to turn around and look back at Bucky's body one last time. Part of him wanted to, but he just couldn't. It was time to let go, move on. His friend had been gone for a long time, all Steve could do now was leave him in the past. Exactly where he had left everything and everyone else. Natasha was standing near the door leading to the exit now, waiting for Steve to catch up to her. She scooped up an empty gun from the ground, one that had been discarded in the early throes of the battle. She paused as she was tucking it into her holster, her body was still tense, coiled like a tightly wound spring forever ready to burst. Steve always got the impression that she was constantly waiting for something to go wrong. Always ready for the next disaster.

She looked up from the gun she was still fiddling with, and her eyes met Steve's. "What? What's wrong?" His hand tightened instinctively back around his shield, his eyes darted around the room looking for the trouble she might have sensed. "Are you ok?" She asked this cautiously, fingers tensing and relaxing, and then tensing and relaxing sporadically around the handle of the gun she had picked up off the ground. Steve tried to scoff, tried to smirk, tried to tell her he was fine. Then his eyes darted back towards the body of his childhood best friend, and it felt like someone had dumped ice water into his stomach. So instead he forced himself to look away from the body of Bucky, and shrugged. "We did what had to be done, Natasha. It doesn't matter how I feel about it. You of all people should know that."

She didn't object to this, didn't agree with him either. She just nodded and turned away to take another step towards the door. Steve closed his eyes for a split second, ran his hand over his face trying to wipe away the emotions that were suddenly causing turmoil inside of him. His eyes darted back towards his fallen comrade, he wanted to say one final goodbye. Instead Steve's entire world froze when he found himself looking into the suddenly open eyes of Bucky Barnes. It all happened in less time than it took for Steve to say Natasha's name. The Winter Soldier pulled out something, something that sparkled in the dark room, and as Steve realized what it was Bucky pressed down on the detonator.

The world exploded in a burning wave of heat, and noise, fear and the rush of uncontrollable movement and force. Steve was sent flying across the rom, there was nothing but the feeling of being utterly out of control, sheer terror, and then physical force as he was slammed into a wall. And then there was darkness.

When Steve woke up the air was thick with dust and his head was filled with a fog. A stinging ache pierced through the fog, he looked down at his arm and flicked away a clump of something that was burning him. A quick self check revealed that Steve didn't have any obvious injuries, besides the dull throbbing ache at the base of his skull and some superficial surface wounds. Ok, nothing immediately or obviously life threatening, good. With a grunt Steve hefted himself to stand, and took in the scene around him.

It was complete carnage. Anyone that might have been left alive in the course of the fight, was without a doubt dead now. Or else they were certainly wishing they were. Many were crushed by hunks of rubble, half a dozen of which were ablaze. Since they were not moving, Steve could only hope those particular victims were dead. He couldn't remember everything…. Just give it a minute.. Why was he here? What exactly had happened? He forced himself to take a step, for a second the room spun dizzily around him. His vision shifted in and out of double focus, eyes focusing randomly and intensely on things. The wall he was now using to support himself, a twisted chunk of metal that had once been a gun, and then the bloody mass of a victim in the corner of the room. With a shock of clarity, Steve realized he was looking at what was left of Bucky. For a split second he felt a stabbing wave of nausea rise up from the pit of his stomach; And then he remembered Natasha. And everything else was wiped away as he realized he had no idea where she was.

"Natasha!" He called out, she was probably fine. She had to be fine. "Natasha! Where are you?!" He tried to run towards where they had been when the explosion went off, almost fell to his knees as dizziness swept over him. He didn't have time for this, he couldn't be weak when one of his teammates needed him. Steve stood, and moved as quickly as he could, forcing the dull throbbing pain to the back of his brain. He needed to focus. Natasha needed for him to focus. The Captain began searching for her, lifting rubble, tossing aside anything in his way, his stomach twisted every time he found the bodies of one of their enemies. What if she was dead too? She couldn't be, she was the Black Widow. He began looking faster when more and more horrible thoughts began to spring up in his mind. What if she was bleeding to death? Or a wall had trapped her with little to no oxygen? What if right now, Hydra was coming for them? There wasn't time for this. He moved faster.

He thought it was more blood at first, something already splattered liberally all around the room. It wasn't quite the right color though, spilling out from under a fallen wall. He looked twice at it, his heart stopped as he recognized it as red hair.

"Oh gosh, Natasha! God damn it…..!" He dove for the wreckage, started pulling away pieces of it, tried to get her to talk to him. Or prove she was alive. Finally he had the upper half of her body uncovered, and to his relief found that she was still breathing. A gash on her neck was close to her jugular, and her arm was bent at an unnatural angle. But she was alive. She was breathing.

"Natasha, come on. Come on, you have to wake up. We need to get out of here!" Steve lightly shook her by the shoulders, he wasn't thinking. Too stressed to think that shaking someone with an unknown injury wasn't the best idea. He just was thinking how if she woke up he could better find out her injuries, and decide how best to transport her. He didn't know what to do, he was a soldier not a doctor. Steve had had a few first aid classes during the war, but that had been so many years ago, too many. He hardly remembered anything from them that was not already obvious. His head was pounding to the rapid beat of his heart, if they didn't get out soon Hydra would come. They could both die, neither of them were in any shape to do more fighting today. He had to move her, but it would be so much easier if he knew what her injuries were first.

"Natasha Romanoff! Wake up!" He was almost shouting at her, it worked. Her eyes fluttered open, they didn't quite focus on him. They darted around the room, a beat too slow to be fine. "Natasha!" Steve spoke in her face, she wasn't focusing on anything. It was like she didn't see him, even though he was right in front of her. Natasha's hand moved slowly to her side, her fingers reaching for a weapon that had been lost in an explosion.

"Natasha, we have to get out of here, I need you to tell me where you hurt, so that I can help you. Where are you injured? Come on, we have to get out. Help me, you have to work with me!" Natasha's eyes focused on something behind him for a second, and she spoke. "Clint..." Before unconsciousness pulled her back under into the fog of oblivion.

Suddenly. feeling extremely stupid, Steve remembered his ear piece. He'd turned it off a few hours before, choosing to allow Natasha to communicate with Shield, seeing as she was more helpful to them anyway. Instantly Maria Hill was yelling in his ear. "Steve! What the hell?! What happened? Natasha was communicating with us, but about an hour ago we heard an explosion and her comm went blank. What is going on? We need information, now." Steve cursed to himself. He still didn't know how badly Natasha was injured, and she had already been here for at least an hour without medical care. This wasn't good. He hastily explained the situation to Maria.

"We thought the target was dead, he deployed some kind of, explosion I guess. I was unconscious until roughly a half hour ago, Agent Romanoff is down. She's trapped under some debris, I'm trying to get her out." Maria was silent for a half a second longer than she usually would be. "Captain, please confirm what you just said. Agent Romanoff is down?" Steve was back to pulling debris off of Natasha, and not in the mood for repetitive questions.

"Yes, Agent Romanoff is down. Requesting a medical jet immediately." At Maria's request, Cap explained what he could see of Natasha's injuries, and gave his coordinates so they could be picked up here rather than at the original meeting point.

Fifteen minutes later, the jet still wasn't here. And he had just found a reason for why Natasha wouldn't wake up. He pulled off the last large chunk of rubble, as he did a low moan escaped her lips. Natasha's eyes rolled frantically under their closed lids, she was clearly in pain. And now he could see why.

Her light leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, making her broken arm look almost normal and a pool of blood was collecting under her. But worse, a quick examination showed that she almost definitely had a spinal injury of some kind. Maria's voice was in Steve's ear again.

"Captain, we can't land the jet exactly at your destination. You will have to meet us, we can land roughly two miles away. But if you don't go fast, you will have to meet us a lot further. I'd get a move on." Steve grimaced, he probed at Natasha's side where he realized more blood was oozing out from. "Agent Romanoff's condition is worse than initially thought, I'm not sure she should be moved at all without medical care.

Steve heard Maria curse over the comm. "We can't land there Captain, it's too risky, and could cost us a lot more than just one agent. Just be careful with her, we will be waiting for you." As Maria gave directions on where to meet, Steve hastily attempted to administer his clumsy first aid. He tore clothing from the corpses of a few soldiers, and haphazardly bandaged the wounds of his friend. Once he had done what he could, he picked Natasha up in his arms. Maria was in his ear again.

"Captain, the jets ready. All you have to do is get there. You have half an hour." Hearing this, Steve wiped more blood from the Black Widows face, and readjusted his grip on her. Her vibrant hair spilled over his arm, blood started flowing freely from her wounds. To Steve's alarm, his arms under her back soon became drenched in the crimson liquid. Natasha let out a whimpering wail he never thought he would hear come from her. Steve began walking and then jogging in the direction of help.

"Come on, Natasha. We have to get to the jet, they'll fix you and you will be fine. I am sorry, I know this hurts. We just have to get you out of here." Steve tried to be gentle, but every time he had to readjust his grip on her, or if his steps faltered, another cry of pain slipped from her lips. Every sound she made physically hurt him too. He felt he had let down his fellow soldier, he had failed her. He had failed his team. He had failed- Oh god, how was he going to tell Clint that he had let this happen to Natasha?

As if hearing his thoughts, Natasha suddenly gasped, "Clint... Hawkeye..." Another little twist of pain stabbed through Steve. He had privately always thought Natasha was the strongest of the group. Everyone else had their powers. Tony had a suit. Thor was practically a God, Banner could become a giant green monster who could single handily take on an alien army, and Steve? Well, he was a genetically altered soldier.

But Natasha had none of this. Nothing at all. She had her training, and her gun, but she still took more risks than any of her teammates. He had never seen her falter, never seen fear in her eyes. On one mission she had a knife buried in her arm, several bullet wounds, and what they later found was a cracked rib. She had continued fighting without even complaining, they didn't even know she was hurt until they were finished with the battle.

But now, she looked so fragile. So wounded. Was she supposed to be this pale? How much blood can a person lose? Oh god if she died he would never forgive himself. He was half a mile from the jet now, and Natasha was fading fast. Her hair looked even redder than usual against her stark white skin.

Eventually, after a trek that seemed to last years, Steve could see the field where presumably the aircraft was hovering. When he got close enough the invisibility shield came down and the jet landed. The second they got onboard, a team of medical personnel whisked Natasha from Steve's arms, he watched as she was wheeled away in a gurney. He was almost alone now, a doctor was ordering Steve to follow him to be checked over, but all Steve could see was Maria Hill staring at him at the end of the hall. He felt he owed her an apology. He knew that he did.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It all happened so fast, I don't know what else I could do or what I could have done." Steve blinked hard, his eyes suddenly burning. The words fell out of him, the dizziness and pounding in his head had stripped him of his filter temporarily. Maria looked more stunned than angry as she spoke. "Steve, it's not you're fault. I know if you could you would have done everything you could. And you already did everything that you could. It's just... I've seen Romanoff go through a lot, but this time is different. I haven't seen her injured like this in a while. Last time she was in this bad of shape, Barton had just brought her in after being sent to kill her….." Maria swallowed hard, shrugged, trying to compose herself before continuing.

"She's tough though. I'm sure she'll be fine. She's been through a lot worse than a bombing before. A lot worse. She'll be back on her feet before you can blink. She's a fast healer." She made eye contact with Steve, and though they wanted to believe the words coming out of Maria's mouth neither one of them could quite allow themselves to. Maria started to walk briskly away, the doctor probed at a burn on Steve's arm. Panic, guilt, pain were all pounding against Steve now as the Doctor began to tweeze pieces of debris out from under Roger's flesh.

"Maria!" Steve called after her before she turned a corner. She stopped, and turned. "Is anyone else onboard? Any of the Avengers?" They both knew what he was asking. Is Clint Barton onboard. Maria shook her head, pursing her lips. "No. But I can confirm their locations, get their information to you." Steve nodded, and worry turned his gut over. Maria started walking, he called her again.

"Maria!" Again, she turned around to him. "Captain? What?" She snapped, the anxiety could be heard in her voice. Steve hesitated. Saying this would admit his worst fears, add realism to this nightmare. But he had to do this. He had to acknowledge his terror and act accordingly on it. If Natasha were to, die, the Avengers would never forgive him. But if she died and he didn't do everything he could to alert the person who she cared the most about of it, Steve would never forgive himself. He saw Maria's eyes burning. Captain America looked into them, saw the fear in them that he was sure was also evident in his own.

"Maria, find Clint."