Cold Sacrifice - Chapter 3

"You're alone again," a voice says from behind him. Steve groans as he rolls over, expecting to see Tony. His fever is raging and is body is so tired. He just wants to sleep, but he is drawn out of his stupor with what he sees behind him. "Hi Steve."

Bucky?" Steve whispers and his brow furrows. "What are you doing here? How is this possible?"

"I'm here because you, yet again, have gotten into a fight and got your behind kicked," Bucky smiles as he comes and kneels next to Steve. "Even 70 years in the future you still can't walk away from a fight."

"Hey, I didn't get my butt kicked that badly," Steve smiles weakly as he closes his eyes. "Besides, I could do this all day."

"Hey, Steve, no time for sleeping now," Bucky shakes his shoulder and Steve looks at his friend wearily.

"Bucky?" Steve starts as Bucky pulls him into a sitting position to keep him awake.

"Yeah, Steve?" Bucky sits next to him.

"I miss you."

"I miss you too, Steve."

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that I let you down, that I wasn't strong enough to save you." Steve says, not able to look at his friend anymore. "You were counting on me and I let you fall. Even with the super soldier serum, I still wasn't strong enough to help you." A voice suddenly speaks from behind Steve.

"You did let me fall," Another Bucky accuses from across the cavern. His face is pale and wet and ice has formed on his face and clings to his clothes. Steve doesn't understand what is happening. Bucky is sitting next to him, his kind and familiar face looking at him with concern, but now this other man has entered the picture. "You planned that mission. You took me with you and when everything started to fall apart you let me take the fall! You let me die in the ice, Steve!"

"Steve, whoever this is, it's not me. This is your guilt and your grief talking, not me. You need to let this go, Steve." Bucky says from beside Cap, but he is too focused on this new man's accusations.

"Bucky, I swear if I could have traded places with you I would have! I tried to save you! You are like my brother and losing you was something I never recovered from!" Steve's eyes are full of tears as he looks at his icy friend.

"No, you let me fall! You should have planned better! You should have thought of all the possibilities and protected your men. And now you are paying for your failure! It's only fitting you die in an icy grave just like I did. Cold and alone and forgotten!"

"Bucky, I'm so sorry," Steve chokes out before collapsing onto this side from fever and exhaustion, but he can faintly hear the first Bucky's voice speaking to him one last time. "I forgive you, Steve. Don't let your guilt destroy you." The words echo through his mind as Steve blacks out.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"….Steve?" a voice calls him out of his stupor again. Steve's half lidded eyes flutter open. His body feels numb and cold and his head is pounding, but all the pain and weakness melt away when he opens his eyes.

"Peggy?" Steve asks in a confused stupor. "Peggy!" He struggles to his feet, and only just catches himself on the nearby rock before stumbling back to the ground. Peggy rushes to his side and puts her arms around his chest to both embrace and steady him. Steve wraps his arms around her tiny frame and ignores the pain in his shoulder and side. "Peggy, I can't believe you're here. I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, Steve," She smiles, pulling away a bit from Steve's embrace to look at him. "You know, I waited for you at the club. I've never been stood up for a date before," she smiles.

"Peggy," Steve sighs and hangs his head and turns away from her. "I wanted so badly to be there. To dance with you. I had so many dates planned that I wanted to take you on."

Peggy laughs and places her hands on Steve's face and pulls his gaze back to her. "Always so hard on yourself, Steve. But if you really want to make it up to me, you will deliver on the dance you owe me."

"I still don't know how to dance," Steve smiles.

"I'll show you how," Peggy's eyes lock onto Steve's and she places his hand on the small of her back and wraps her own around his uninjured shoulder. She takes his other hand in hers and slowly they begin to sway back and fourth.

Peggy lays her head on Steve's chest and they just dance. Steve doesn't want this moment to end. Soon, the swaying stops and the two just stand together and Steve wraps his arms around her again. All he wants is to stay here in this moment and just hold her close. Peggy suddenly pulls away from Steve, her eyes filled with fear.

"What's wrong?" Steve asks.

"You need to wake up," she warns.

"What are you talking about?" Steve asks, confused and not wanting to leave Peggy.

"You're in danger," Peggy's voice is panicked.

"Peggy, everything is fine. Please, let's just stay here for a little while longer."

"No, Steve, you need to listen to me. There isn't much time. Please, don't blame yourself for leaving me. You did what you had to do and I never once blamed you for the decision you made that day. I had a good life and now I want you to have the same. You have to let me go."

"No, Peggy, I can't let you go. Not again." Steve pleads as he holds her closer to him.

"Steve," she says as she caresses his face with her soft hand. "I love you."

"I love you too," he whispers and he holds her face in his hands and they kiss one last time.

"Steve," Peggy pleads. "Please, you have to let me go."

Steve gasps and jerks up from the ground, covered in sweat and panting. The fever and weakness instantly flood back and he remembers where he is and what happened. Peggy's warning flashes into his memory and he stumbles to his feet and grabs his shield from the shore, his hands still shaking. He can hear foot steps coming closer. Too many to be Tony and the Avengers returning.

He limps his way to the edge of the cavern, holding his arm to his chest while his shoulder and side object to the movement. Whoever the footsteps belong to will be here shortly and he needs to find cover. There's no way that he can take on an army in his current state. Steve musters what little strength he has and jumps up to grab onto a ledge at the edge of the cave. He holds in a groan as he painfully pulls himself up onto the small ledge. From there he continues to climb until he's about 15 feet off the ground and finds cover behind a line of boulders. Once safely behind the rocks he collapses and tries to catch is breath, but instantly stills when he hears a voice call from below.

"Captain!" the voice calls. "I know you are down here somewhere! I must speak to you about the damage you have done to my compound. I have been searching for you for quite some time now, so please come out so I may finish my business with you."

Steve rolls onto his stomach with a great deal of effort and peers around the rocks and sees Zemo with at least two dozen soldiers with him. Steve leans his forehead on his hand on ground. He doesn't seem to be able to catch a break today.

"I thought you might not want to talk to me with how undoubtedly injured you are, so I have brought something to motivate you," Zemo announces. The army parts and a small child is pushed forward in front of Zemo. Steve's eyes go wide at the sight. The little girl has her hands tied and she's filthy and shivering. "If you do not come out I will be forced to stop this small creature's suffering, Captain." Zemo pulls his sword from his side and holds it threateningly to the little girl's neck.

Steve doesn't hesitate for a second. He jumps out from behind the boulders, landing more roughly on the ground. Gritting his teeth and wincing with the shooting pain, he throws his shield up to the rocks he just jumped from and hits the cliff, shattering the rocks. He quickly catches his shield and runs as the rocks above start to crumble and roll down the cave wall. The rocks start to roll faster and faster with Steve running ahead of them with his shield up to block the onslaught of bullets flying at him. He grabs the little girl and immediately runs off to the right, out of the path of the rocks that are tumbling and crushing enemy soldiers in their wake.

"Stay here and don't come out for anything, no matter what. Understand?" He asks as he deposits the little girl in a crevasse in the cave wall. She nods and Steve turns to take care of Zemo, but he's immediately hit with a blast of heat on his thigh. The force knocks his feet out from under him and he lands on his stomach. His leg is hissing against the cold air and smoke is rising up from the ugly blistered wound. Steve rolls onto his back and tries to inspect the wound, but before he has a chance a hand comes down and grabs him and throws him against an unforgiving pillar of ice extending from the floor to the ceiling of the cave. The impact knocks the wind out of him and he lands on his side, curling in on himself and coughing, trying to catch his breath.

A boot comes flying at his face and he quickly catches it and twists. A snap is heard and the soldier cries out and falls to the ground, holding his broken ankle. Steve pulls himself up with a great deal of effort and raises his shield just in time to block another blast from the nasty weapon that had burned his arm and leg. The force knocks him back into the lake. Steve breaks through the surface of the water and struggles to keep his head up combined with his already failing strength and the shock of the icy water.

Zemo runs out to meet him as Steve is crawling back to the shore. Zemo grabs him and pushes him under the water. Steve thrashes against the other man as darkness begins to creep in around his vision. At the last second, Zemo pulls him up out of the water and Steve coughs and gasps in air desperately.

"Struggle all you want, Captain," Zemo lets out an evil laugh. "You are all alone this time and vengeance will be mine. I will destroy you. Slowly. So I can enjoy this moment," Zemo pushes him under the water again and soon, Steve stills under the water, too exhausted to fight any longer. The noise and light above the water begin to fade away when a flash of lightning bursts above the surface and suddenly strong hands pull him up to the air. Steve sputters and coughs up water while he swings and struggles wildly at the body grabbing him.

"Take it easy, Cap!" Tony yells, struggling to hang onto the floundering Soldier as Thor runs up behind them. "It's me! I've got you!"

"Tony!" Steve coughs and looks up at the Iron Man helmet. "Where the hell were you?"

"Went and got the cavalry," he says, looking up to Thor and the other Avengers that are rushing into the cavern, taking out Zemo's men easily.

"There's a little girl that Zemo captured. She's at the rear of the cave."

"Don't worry, we'll get her." Tony signals Thor and he rushes over to find the girl. "Let's get you out of the water." Tony hoists the Soldier up and throws his arm over his shoulder. Steve flinches and his muscles tense. "Sorry," Tony says. Another blast from that damn heat gun flies at them and hits Tony, throwing him back into the water and sending Steve flying off to the side, landing roughly on the rocky shore.

Tony's screen is flashing damage reports in front of his face. The shoulder of his armor took the brunt of the damage and the joints are melting into themselves. Luckily the water instantly cooled the metal before it melted through to his skin, but now the armor is locked up and he can't move his arm. Tony raises his other arm up and fires at the soldier holding the smoking gun, taking him out.

Steve is laying on his side with his back to Tony, not moving. Zemo is standing over him with a gun poised over the still soldier.

"Avengers!" Zemo yells over the chaos. "I highly suggest you all stop what you are doing unless you would like to have one less team member to carry home tonight."

All the Avengers freeze at Zemo's threat. He picks up the the dazed Captain America by the neck and Steve chokes and struggles, trying to pull himself free as his hands grasp around Zemo's forearm.

"All of you need to walk away from here and do not return. You have my word that I will leave your Captain here without further injury for you to retrieve after I have escaped."

"Put him down, Villain," Thor threatens with his hammer at the ready.

"I shall put him down after you leave, Thunderer."

"No deal," Clint snaps, keeping an arrow trained on Zemo. "Forgive me if I don't have much confidence in your 'word.' We're bringing you in and you're going to have a lot of alone time in a tiny SHIELD cell." The archer takes a step closer.

"Ah, ah, ah," Zemo warns as he squeezes Steve's neck tighter and the Soldier wheezes and struggles to pull in air. He presses the gun to Steve's chest. "Remember, that I still have the upper hand in this situation. I would keep your distance unless you want your Captain to have another injury to recover from or, perhaps, sustain one from which he cannot recover." The archer backs off and a smug smirk spreads across Zemo's face.

Everyone is caught off guard when Steve gathers a last push of strength and knocks the gun out of Zemo's hand. Clint and Tony seize the opportunity, firing a repulser blast and an arrow at the disarmed man. The arrow hits Zemo square in the shoulder, causing him to drop Steve and the repulser blast sends him flying to the ground.

The Avengers all rush the two men in an instant. Thor, Hulk, and Natasha cover Zemo with guns, fists, and hammer trained on the man, making sure that he stays down. Clint rushes over to Steve with Tony.

Steve is hazily aware of small cold waves of water splashing against the side of his face. Normally the cold would have bothered him, but it feels so cool and soothing against his burning leg.

Something pulls him onto his back and he hears muddled voices talking over his head as swirls of fuzzy images and blurs of color flash through his vision. Something is touching his neck checking for a pulse and something else is patting his face as he tries to focus, but no matter how hard he tries, he can't make his eyes pull the images together.

There's a sharp stab of pain in his abdomen and shoulder and he gasps as someone is prodding at his wounded side. Steve blindly grabs at his side when something grabs his arms and holds them down. His breathing quickens as his side and shoulder are inspected. The pain intensifies as he's pulled up to sit and the top of his uniform is pulled off. His head is so heavy and his chin slumps forward to his chest. He is too exhausted and delirious to hold in a groan of discomfort while his injuries are tightly bandaged.

Finally, relief comes and his body lets go against the constant wave of pain, and Steve passes out. The next thing he remembers is feeling like he's floating. His body being held and his head bobbing back against a strong arm with each step. He looks up to see Thor's face looking down at him.

"Be at peace, Captain," Thor assures. "We have you and we are bringing you home." Steve tries to say something to Thor, but nothing comes and sleep overtakes him again.

Flashes of moments continue to come and go. One of him on the Quinjet, Clint leaning over him attaching something to his chest and Natasha putting something soothing and cold on his forehead.

Then bright lights passing overhead as he's pushed down a hallway. Steady beeping wakes him next. An unfamiliar face holds a mask on his face and sharp needles are poking his arms while people are rushing in a frenzy around him. The unfamiliar woman tells him to just breath slowly and then everything goes dark.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Tony is sitting in a chair next to the sleeping form of Captain America. Cords and IV lines are littering the area around the bed and monitors are beeping and reading vitals. Steve starts to become aware of his surroundings. He can feel the oxygen mask pressing on his face. There's a dull ache covering the majority of his body. His leg and arm are covered in thick bandages where he had been burned and he can feel something wrapped very tightly around his abdomen and chest. His ribs ache every time he breaths in and his neck is sore and his throat is raw. Something is keeping his arm bent and still against his chest. He starts to shift and stir with the discomfort and Tony is at his side in an instant.

"Good morning, Starshine," Tony greets while placing a hand on his uninjured shoulder. "The earth says hello."

Steve blinks a few times and furrows his eyebrows at Tony's strange greeting. "Never mind," he dismisses, his wit, once again, lost on Steve and his lack of pop culture. "How are you feeling?"

"Never better," Steve whispers hoarsely through the oxygen mask, his eyes half-lidded as he gives a weak thumbs up. He notices how odd his voice sounds, muffled from the mask and rough from being choked. He reaches up and pulls the mask off of his face to talk. "How long have I been out?" he rasps.

"Few days," Tony answers as he reaches over and replaces the mask on Steve's nose and mouth. "You came out of surgery about 2 days ago and your fever finally broke yesterday. We had a hard time flushing Zemo's poison out of your system."

"Zemo," Steve's eyes widen and he jerks up, pulling his mask off again. "Did he get away? Did you find the little girl?"

"Whoa, easy there, Turbo," Tony says pushing Steve back down into bed with surprising ease. Steve was in no condition to refuse and even Tony could muscle him down right now. The simple movement was enough to exhaust whatever strength he had and he sags against the pillow. "You really need to leave this on," Tony orders as he replaces the oxygen mask again. "We caught Zemo and we found the girl. She was fine, thanks to you. We returned her to her family before we took off."

Steve weakly nods in relief. Memories he had while in the cave creep to the surface. He remembers dancing with Peggy and Bucky forgiving him. He wonders if it was all the fever, his own imagination, or if it was really possible for someone to speak to someone else from the other side. Maybe it didn't really matter. Maybe there was a truth to the words that were said that Steve needed to grab hold of them and run with it. Tony can see the far off look in Steve's eyes.

"You going to be okay?" he asks.

"Yeah," Steve answers. "Yeah, I think I will be."

Bruce walks in shortly after to check in. Steve is obviously uncomfortable, but is putting his regular stoic face on over it. Bruce insists that Steve accept pain management and he is optimistic it will provide at least a little relief. Since his body is already so taxed in healing and weakened from the toxin, he theorizes that his metabolism won't burn through the drugs quite as fast. In the end Bruce and Tony didn't give Steve a choice and he pushes a clear liquid into Steve's IV. Steve can feel the cold liquid flow into his arm and his tense muscles relax against the bed.

"See, isn't that better?" Tony smirks.

"Modern medicine," Steve gives a little nod and smiles weakly. "Works better than whiskey and biting the bullet… But I think I like the whiskey better," Steve pauses, suddenly aware of the IV in his arm. He studies the tape and frowns at the tape sticking to his arm.

"You can't get drunk and I don't believe you ever drank whiskey, Captain Boy Scout," Tony laughs.

"When you get shot, you drink what they tell you to drink. This feels weird," Steve frowns and drowsily pokes at the IV.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Bruce rushes over and pulls Steve's hand away from the IV. Tony can't help but laugh at the sight of Captain America getting a little high on pain medication and Bruce string to keep him from pulling out the IV. "You gotta leave that alone, Steve."

"What is this?" Steve blinks and stares at the probe monitor attached to his finger. "Here, this looks like something from your armor," he hands the probe to Tony who looks at Bruce with a very amused look on his face.

"What's with all the buttons on the bed? Does everything have buttons nowadays?" Steve scrunches his nose at the control panel on the bed.

"It's so you can call a nurse to come and help you if you need someone, Steve," Tony smirks.

"You need a button for that? You guys are way too dependent on tech. Back in my day, my dad would just yell for me when he wanted me to come downstairs," Steve frowns. "Watch," Steve points a drowsy finger at Tony before he turns to the door of the hospital room. "Hey! Nurse!" He shouts.

"Shhhhh," Tony quickly stands and laughs at Steve's drunken rant.

"Nurse?" Steve shouts again and Tony covers his mouth with his hand, muffling his yelling.

"You don't yell in a hospital, Steve," Tony can't help but snicker. "You press the button."

"Oh. Sorry," Steve shrugs and starts to mess with the buttons on his hospital bed while Bruce draws up and administers more of the sedative. "Hey, that does work," Steve is amazed when a nurse walks into the room, looking rather confused.

"We're good. Sorry about that," Bruce apologizes and the nurse leaves. Despite Bruce pushing his hands away, he manages to call in 3 separate nurses 3 times in a row and raise the bed up about half way before the drug finally starts to kicks in and he starts to get tired.

"Steve, cut it out," Bruce frowns and knocks Steve's hand away from the button again.

"I feel tired," Steve slurs as he pokes at the buttons again.

"It's okay if you want to go to sleep, Steve," Bruce pushes Steve's hand back down to the bed again.

"No, you want to stay awake, Steve," Tony disagrees.

"Tony," Bruce scolds.

"Come on, drugged Steve is hilarious," Tony laughs.

"No, Tony," Bruce frowns at him and the Billionaire just smirks at the frustrated man.

Steve has becomes very quiet as he relaxes against the side of the bed, his face smooshing against the plastic railing. Bruce sits on the other side of the bed across from Tony and crosses his fingers that Steve is finally settling down.

"Steve, look," Tony holds up a remote. "This has buttons for the television so you don't have to get up to change the channel."

"Tony," Bruce shoots him a look. "Don't work him up anymore."

"You can't tell me you don't find this entertaining," Tony raises a brow to the Scientist.

Bruce is about to answer, but holds his breath when Steve rouses a bit.

"No more buttons," Steve mumbles and sighs deeply before he passes out, his face pressed against the plastic side of the bed.

"Such a killjoy, Brucie. No more drunk Steve," Tony looks legitimately disappointed that Steve has gone to sleep.

"Kid's tough," Bruce smirks. "I gave him enough to knock down a small elephant." Bruce presses the button on the bed's control panel and it slowly lowers itself back down and he re-adjusts Steve back to the middle of the bed.

"Captain America; flying high," Tony shakes his head and laughs. "Never thought I'd see the day. But if anyone deserves a little something to take the edge off, it's him. He's been through the ringer today." Tony walks over and pats Steve's uninjured shoulder.

"Yeah," Bruce agrees. "He'll be out for the next few hours. We should let him rest." Tony nods and the two leave Steve to sleep and dream of his dance with Peggy and his time with Bucky and their wishes for him to be happy again.