Steve- Saving a Brother

A/N: Final Chapter! I hope that you guys all liked the story so far, because it was really fun to write it! Uhm, I have more ideas for other adventures starring the Avengers, but I want to reach out into other domains first. I can write an epilogue—if you all want it—about Clint, Thor, Natasha, Bruce, and Tony's reactions regarding the various states of their alarm clocks. But I leave that one up to you! I really hope that this final chapter ties it off for you and that you had just as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They are strictly Marvel's and Stan Lee's, I only borrow them for the entertainment of myself, as a writer, and you as a reader.

Steve could feel the rough surface of the concrete underneath him as his captors dragged him away from his hideout. He had been undercover doing a SHIELD mission when the small group of Hydra copy cats took him. Needless to say, Steve did not go down without a fight, but when all the factors were stacked up against him, there was no way he would have won this time.

He had broken his record for days without sufficient rest. And if one did calculate the total amount of hours he did sleep from those he didn't, most people would have restrained him and given the Captain a sedative by now. It was in this instance that his serum enhanced senses could not keep him safe on the field. And the only thing that went across Steve's mind while he was being attacked by the huge group of agents, was that at least no one but him will get hurt.

Bucky didn't know what was worse, that fact that Earth's Mightiest Heroes were a wreck trying to find Steve, or the fact that they still hadn't found him. His eyes were the only part of him that moved as he sat on the corner of the sofa and watched the movements of everyone in the room as the situation gradually got worse.

"He was supposed to be back a four days ago! Steve is never late for anything! Heck! He isn't even late to wake up and take a dump at zero dark thirty! Or to get a cat out of a tree for some spoiled brat on the street! Where the heck is he?!" Tony hollered at Jarvis because he was the only one that Tony could vent to without the fear of breaking something.

The poor AI had endured the brunt of Tony's venting for the past few days, seemed frazzled with trying to both find the missing hero and calm his creator. "I am not sure of the Captain's whereabouts, Sir. At the moment I have hacked into almost every router on the internet and electronic device to find his location."

"Well try harder!" Tony growled, before continuing his pacing around the coffee table in the middle of the room. Bucky wasn't entirely sure if he meant to sound harsh to Jarvis, but like he had just said, Steve had been gone for four days over his time in undercover co-ops for SHIELD. That to the Avengers seemed like a life time, and to him…it practically was one.

The group had overwhelming numbers. For every two Steve knocked out, five more would take their place. And the numbers just kept steadily growing until one of the agents was able to get close enough behind him and taze the back of his neck, thoroughly rendering him unconscious.

The American symbol of hope went down in a pile of limp limbs as Hydra swarmed him with their many tentacles. They manacled his appendages and carried him like a prized deer kill and took him to their base.

He couldn't feel anything from the time that the one lucky soldier got him, but when Steve woke up, he knew that nothing but a world of pain was meant to follow. As he was being dragged, he had overheard one of the copy catters discussing how they could get noticed by Hydra and finally be accepted into their ranks to join the cause. The men that were carrying him underneath his arms, relinquished their hold and let Cap fall face first onto the harsh concrete. A startled and pained yelp escaped him on impact, but the men made no move to help him. They just continued with on with their conversation like he had made no noise at all.

Steve cracked open his eye that wasn't on the cement and looked around the room. There were guards everywhere.

Men decked out in rarely expensive battle armor and bullet proof vests lined the walls in what Steve assumed was an abandoned military base. He assumed that he was still in Germany, based on the men's' remarks and bouncing back and forth in German and English. Continuing to let his eyes roam over the room, Steve found a seemingly unguarded hallway in a corner on the far left. Of course it would be that far away…nothing is ever that simple.

Steve started to devise a plan that either one of two things: A) he would be able to escape through that hallway and find a way out. Or B) he would get shot by one of the many loaded guns aimed in his direction from every possible corner of the room. He lifted his head up in the slightest motion to make it seem like he was trying to take a breath—which he was due to the fact that he broke his nose on impact, but they didn't need any further indication as to what he was really doing—and looked back at the men still talking a few feet away. With his head now on the opposite side, he counted five guards on the first level and watched their movement patterns. Every ten minutes, one guard would move and alleviate the one the one that was standing there previously. The one who was relieved would go through a hallway on the opposite side of either wall and disappear.

It was the exact same for the other side, so that lead to the conclusion that it would be the same for all four walls of the building. Steve did the math quickly in his head, the trained Army strategies and Avengers' leader coming out in full swing. There are five guards on each of the four walls in the building. That means that every ten minutes a new guard would either come in or switch spaces with another man or woman from one of the other sides. All together there are at least twenty armed soldiers on all four corners, but every ten minutes there are twenty four until the relieved officer goes through the opening. If those men try to come back and grab me before taking me to another room, I have about two to five minutes to get out of their grip, run to the hall, and sprint for an exit. Piece of cake, maybe.

Steve continued to lay there and rehearse the plan in his mind as the guards broke apart and two burly ones came toward him.

Tony grew more anxious by the second as he continued to make a race track in his satin carpet. He stopped pacing for a moment and temporarily quite stabbing his fingers through his hair to glance around the room. Clint was throwing darts into the dart board adjacent the kitchen entrance with ferocity usually reserved for the enemy. Bruce had his head on the table his hands laced behind his head while his thumbs visible moved beneath his curly locks. Thor sat at the kitchen table looking depressed. Pepper was actually yelling at someone on the phone in Korean. Natasha was sitting opposite the end of the sofa occupied by Bucky glaring a hole in the wall. And the former Winter Soldier himself sat with his arms around his legs and head in his hands, looking dead center at him.

Well, looking was not essentially what he was doing, Tony corrected himself. James was more or less glaring pointed little daggers at the billionaire with the ferocity and deathliness of one of Clint's arrows or Natasha's knives. Tony looked behind him to make sure that the assassin was indeed staring at him before turning back to the man with an arched eyebrow.

"What do you want Terminator? I already apologized for not oiling up your hinges."

Everyone in the room turned to look at the two, making Tony feel even more anxious and angrier. He was wasting time with someone who probably didn't give a rat's butt about Steve, when he could be telling Jarvis to look in other places for a signal.

"You don't know do you?"

The team sent Bucky confused looks before looking at each other. The other two assassins shared a private communication with glances as Clint sent his last dart to the bull's eye and went over to the center of the action. "Don't know what?"

Pepper hung up just as Bruce got up from his chair to the center of the room, Thor stayed where he was at the table.

"How exhausted your "beloved" Captain is." Bucky gritted his teeth and gave everyone in the room the same look he had just given Tony. "He hasn't slept in ages."

Tony snorted and crossed his arms over his chest in defiance. "Yeah, right. He goes to bed at the same time, if not earlier than we do! If anything, we should be the tired ones! You come back here for all of two weeks and you are telling us,' Tony gestured toward the others in the room,' that Steve is tired?"

Bucky dropped his legs to the floor and stood up from the couch, taking measured steps toward Stark. Natasha got up and went to stand behind Tony on the right, while Clint took the left. Bruce put an arm out to protect Pepper, his eyes already showing flashes of green. Thor still remained at the table.

"Yes. Some team you are for not noticing that he hasn't slept properly in months and none of you have ever noticed. My first day here, I saw the exhaustion that he was hiding without having to be an assassin." Bucky stopped a foot away from Tony, his voice deepening as his anger steadily grew. This group, Steve's team, had neglected to take care of their leader. When he knew without a doubt that Steve took care of them. What little he remembered from his past before becoming the Winter Soldier was full of such times as Steve tried to take care of him even when the kid looked to be on death's door! And this insolent group of people never saw the façade that Steve surrounded himself with!

Tony's expression was red with rage as he began shouting at the man not a foot away from him. "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE US FOR NOT TAKING CARE OF HIM! AS I RECALL, WE WEREN'T THE ONES WHO BEAT HIM TO A BLOODY PULP AND SHOT HIM OUT OF A FREAKING PLANE WHEN HE WAS TRYING TO HELP US!"

Bucky's mechanical fingers ground against his palm as he once again took on the mask of the Winter Soldier. "Say that again and I will rip the core from your chest."

Tony smirked, "Which part? The one about the bloody pulp, or the plane?"

Bucky lounged at Tony, but was blocked from grabbing his throat by a muscular chest blocking the smaller man.

Steve's plan was set in motion the moment the two men none-so-gently picked him up off the floor. He slightly opened his eyes to see that they were taking him through a different door. Now it was time for him to act.

Steve applied his Army training knowledge from the 1940s to aid him in a hopeful escape. He made his toes point down on the cement, making the sole of his tracked boots connect with the surface enough to halt the soldiers' progress. This caused the men to stumble which was just what the Super Soldier needed to shoulder the one on his right in the gut and head butt the one on the left.

Two minutes.

Steve turned and ran for the other exit because now men were coming from the door that he would have gone into a moment before. But he kept running anyway.

Three minutes.

Shouts were going up in German as a shower of bullets rained on the Captain, many hitting their target but he still ran anyway.

Four minutes.

But he never made it to the hallway entrance. Steve watched in slow motion as a lemon shaped object hurtled toward him. His mind was to animate with adrenaline to register the danger that we was in until the grenade went off.

He was sent flying into the wall on the side he was trying to escape through. Blinding hot pain radiated through his body, every limb burned with ferocity equal to a thousand suns before meeting the icy cold wall and concrete. Whatever bone wasn't broken, or piece of flesh without blemished was nothing but a pulsing blot on Steve's body.

Six minutes.

Steve slumped over and landed on the scorched flesh on his back, but he didn't notice the pain because it was just everywhere.

Eight minutes.

He lay there, unable to breathe as his broken ribs grated against each other in his chest. Blood flooded from his mouth, nose, and ears that never stopped ringing. The sounds of people scuffling around him was apparent, but now he could feel nothing.

Twelve minutes.

Steve could feel the exhaustion of several months of sleep creep up on him as the world faded to darkness. Except this time…he didn't stop it from coming.*

Bucky was utterly surprised when the massive wall of flesh blocked him from strangling Tony. And he was even more surprised when that mass of flesh turned out to be the god of thunder. He never knew a man of his size being able to move that fast, or the quietly given his naturally loud nature.

"ENOUGH!" Point taken. "This animosity has gone on for far too long, my comrades! But alas, the Man with the Metal Arm doth speaks the truth."

Everyone, including Bucky, looked at Thor as he lowered his head and stepped from between the two men who were looking at him in both shock, and for Bucky, relief. Bruce scratched his head, "Now I'm confused. Are you seriously saying that Steve has not been sleeping for months? Thor, I don't know how it is on Asgard, but even with the Super Serum, that cannot not be physically possible!"

Tony looked heartbroken," Yeah, and when do you stand up for Joshua here, from Ricki and the Flash!"

Thor and Bucky gave him a look. "I do not understand that reference."

"That's not the point, Thor,'Natasha spoke up from her position beside Tony, 'how long have you known about this? And why have you not pointed it out before today?"

Thor looked up and glared everyone down under his now unnaturally blue eyes. "I have noticed the difference in our Captain the night that Son of Stark was trying to use me as a so called "human battery". "

Tony looked flabbergasted," AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME!"

"DON'T YOU USE THAT TONE WITH ME, SON OF STARK! IT WAS YOU WHO WERE INTOXICATED ON THE COFFEE AND SLEEP DEPREVATION THAT OUR CAPTAIN HAD TO CARRY YOU TO YOUR QUARTERS TO GET SUFFICIENT REST! IT WAS HE WHO WOKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO ENSURE THAT ALL OF YOU WERE NOT AWOKEN BY STARK'S EXPERIMENT! AND IT WAS I,' Thor lowered his voice,' who also didn't notice the effect that this tole cost on his health until today. We are all to blame here, whether we wish to acknowledge our faults or not. The Man of One Arm, noticed our Captain's decline months after the harm was done. And now we are here."

Pepper brought her hand up to cover her mouth as she wept into her palm. Silvery tears cascading down her cheeks until Bruce brought her to his shoulder and slowly rubbed her back in small comforting circles.

The entire room fell silent as everyone realized the costly mistake that would more than likely lead to the death of their teammate. No one moved from their spot on the carpet, Thor looking at the white material in mourning. Pepper sniffling, still in Bruce's firm hold. Natasha and Clint now shoulder to shoulder refusing to look at one another for fear of revealing how they were both feeling. Bucky continued to look at Thor in utter surprise and fear for his long ago friend. And Tony just glued his eyes to the far window and watched the lights play out from the city buildings all around them, this was their fault.

As if hesitant to disturb the moment, Jarvis very hesitantly addressed Tony in a voice that sounded oddly more human that machine. "Sir?"

Tony's eyes never left the windows as he nodded his head for Jarvis to continue, knowing full and well that the AI would pick it up on the motion sensor built into his programing.

"I have found a message chat on the dark web referencing to Captain Rogers in an abandoned military base in Germany. How do you wish to proceed?"

Everyone's attention shot toward the ceiling. "You found him?" Clint practically shouted, praising the Man Upstairs for letting this happen.

"Yes, Agent Barton, I have found his cordinance, but the activity in the encampment seems rather odd. Our satellite imaging has found activity along the lines of explosives inside the building's structure."

"Regardless, it's a lead,' Tony turned and looked at everyone in the room. With Steve gone, he was in the lead until their Captain was safe and sound. 'Jarvis, start the quinjet. Avengers, suite up. We're going to take down those sons of ***** and bring our Steve home. Everyone went into a states of organized chaos as they proceeded to get Cap. Tony went over to Pepper and kissed her forehead, while she burrowed her head into the crook of his neck. He whispered assurances into her ear before letting her go and heading for the stair to get the Mark 33 before he noticed that Bucky hadn't moved. Without skipping a beat, he yelled over his shoulder to the Winter Soldier, 'Come on Mad Max, we'll need all the help we can get."

Then Tony bolted down the stairs, knowing that Bucky would be ready by the time they got in the jet and booked it the Germany.

-AVENGERS-

Once they landed in Germany, there was no force on earth or in any other realm of the galaxy that would be able to contain the fury of the Avengers. Tony had split the team in groups to allow the best chance of 1) getting Steve out—alive, 2) making sure that everyone was safe and well protected, and 3) they would all be able to repay the damage that they had done to Cap. Hulk and Thor were the powerhouses who took the middle of the battle, Hawkeye and Ironman blasted and shot at whoever they saw and stragglers that just so happened to escape Hulk and Thor. While the Black Widow and Winter Soldier stormed the castle and grabbed their friend. No one kept track of how long they were fighting, but when the woods was nothing more than craters, body parts, and the four of them, they too went inside to find Steve. It didn't take them long, Tasha had "interrogated" one of the officers then shamelessly broken his neck in one quickly motion before looking back on the boys. "WS went to get him after we found his location. He's this way." Natasha took off at a dead sprint and really caring if the others were able to keep up with her.

By the time they got to the door, they found Bucky punching the lock mechanism trying to pry the stupid door open. "He's in here!" He grunted as he stepped away upon seeing Hulk gravitate to the door. Contrary to some people's belief, Hulk is not a mindless green body builder. When one of his family is in trouble, he was more than a force to be reckoned with.

He shoved his huge hands into both sides of the door and pried it effortlessly off of its hinges. Then stepped back to let his smaller companions enter the room before relinquishing his control to Bruce.

The sight of the man before them would leave them all with nightmares.

Steve lay adjacent to the wall with the door in a crimpled heap on the floor surrounded by a pool of his own blood. His suite was beyond torn and revealed every wound that was inflicted on his body. His face was a mass of bruises and disfigure features half of the damage was hard to discern because of the scarlet liquid glistening menacingly on his face. He was nothing but a massive bruise covered in an uncountable mass of cuts and gashes that still sluggishly oozed blood. Various bones jutted out from under his skin as if he were a hilly pasture, and others were a stark white from some of his more easily breakable appendages. Burns practically covered every surface in layers of dark flakey skin or revealed the muscle and bone in some areas. Shrapnel from the supposed explosive that Jarvis had detected earlier lay all around him and in his body in a gory variation of connect the dots.

No one dared at first to move closer thinking, no, knowing that they had come too late. Natasha turned and left the room in favor of sitting outside the entrance, Clint followed her out. Bucky went over to the prone figure of his friend and knelt in front of him, not at all caring if his blood soaked through the knees of his pants. Bruce touched Tony's shoulder before going outside too, but Tony remained there. He lifted up his face plate and looked at the display before him. Steve was never too late for them, but the one time he needed them…they let him down.

Tony stood there in the quiet of the room and wept silently for the loss of his friend. And brother.

Bucky kneeled in front of Steve without moving. He knew that Tony was the only one still in the room, but he still didn't trust the man enough to let him see the weakness in his eyes. He reached out his left arm and gently ran his fingers through Steve's blood soaked hair. Memories were all he had of this man now. This legend.

The one who still had faith in him in his darkest hour. The one who would always pick fights he would never win. Bucky closed his eyes, hiding the tears wanting to fall and let his head drop until his fore head touched the space where Steve's heart was beating and felt the steady rhythm against his skin. That's when he realized that something wasn't adding up here. Why was his heart beating? Not that he wanted his to be dead or anything! Then Bucky felt the very slow and grinding movement of Steve's chest rising up once then down twice, in a very unsteady and off balanced motion.

Bucky's head shot up and scanned over his friend's form. Is this really happening? Hesitantly bringing his right hand up to the area of Steve's neck were his pulse should reside, Bucky pressed down and waited for the sign that meant there was still hope for the group.

That was when he felt the thread, but very much present pulse of Steve Rogers. Bucky laughed a true genuine sounding laugh as he called everyone back into the room. Bruce immediately settled down next the Winter Soldier and placed his hand where Bucky had just removed his. Bruce sighed in relief and told Natasha to hand him his medical bag just outside the doorway.

Bucky got up and moved from the Doctor and the other two assassin's way so that they could treat their comrade before transport. He stepped back and stood close, but not to close, to Tony who hadn't uttered a word since this discovery.

"He's alive." Tony's voice was a mere whisper compared to his usually boisterous personality.

"We made it just in time." Bucky's eyes never left Steve as Thor scooped him up bridal style and hurriedly walked to the quinjet. They all knew that Steve had a long road to recovery, but they would be there every step of the way.

Steve opened his eyes to the dark room around him. He wasn't certain as to where he was, but his fact that there were soft silken sheets beneath his body didn't bother him a bit. He used his enhanced hearing to try and figure out where he was, and to his surprise, he actually recognized the place.

The busy cars on the streets of New York were once again honking in their usual way. The light being cast by the outside world, illuminated the room revealing the many hand drawn sketches that always occupied the walls. The classic wooden dresser was on the left side, a picture of Peggy, Bucky, and his team smiling back at him whenever he went to change. The comfy lounge chair right beside his bed with a frowning Natasha looking over him.

Now that part caught him off guard.

Steve nearly jumped out of the bed, but stopped with a muffled scream as his many injuries made themselves know with his sudden movements. He knew that this couldn't have been a dream, because how else would Natasha be here! But at the same time, how could she have gotten him out of the military building with God knows how many armed men. Tasha reached out her hands and gently ran her fingers through Steve's hair while the other pushed him back down.

She got up from the chair and gently deposited herself on Steve's bed in a way that would not jar his injuries. The Black Widow gently wiped away the stray tears that fell from his eyes as she continued to shush him and murmur endearments in Russian. When Steve had a better grasp on his pain, he cracked open his eyes and looked at the woman.

Tasha was wearing her usual black sleep shorts and red tank top that she used for sleepwear, her hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail that only the Avengers had the liberty of seeing. Seeing her in clothing made Steve blush as he realized that the only thing he had on were bandages and a really thin blanket.

Natasha laughed as she reached over a pulled a small cloth from the nightstand and gently dabbed at Steve's damp forehead. The cool towel was pleasant against his burning skin. "You're safe now, Steve."

"Bu—" Steve's voice cracked and he tried to swallow, only to find that there was no saliva in his mouth to give the desired relief that he needed. Sensing this, Natasha produced a cup of water with a straw and gingerly lifted Steve's head so he could get a drink. He slurped the water down eagerly, and almost whined when she took it away.

"Sorry, but Bruce said that too much at one time would make you sick." She helped him lay back down and then began to card her fingers through his hair again.

Steve cleared his throat, attempting for the second time to speak. "How did you guys find me?" Breathing and talking was hard, but he still wanted to hear his teammate's voice. Just to be sure that this was all still real.

"Jarvis,' was her one word reply as her hand dropped from his head to the bandages covering his neck. There was very little of Steve that wasn't covered in gauze due to the bullet and shrapnel wounds all over his body and the countless other wounds he had endured. But Natasha put that aside for now in favor of smiling as Steve's eyes began to flutter with drowsiness.

She moved her finger gently over his neck until he closed his eyes and drifted off into oblivion. However, she still had one more mission to accomplish before leaving the room. Looking at the practically empty nightstand, Natasha Romanoff found the alarm button and switched it off, leaving the numbers to display, but the sound of an annoying beep would not wake their Captain today.

Once she was positive he was asleep, Tasha gracefully got up and left the room and its sleeping occupant behind. It would be a while before Steve heals physically, maybe even a bit longer for him to mentally. But now whenever they saw their Captain, they made sure he was well taken care of…even if it means hitting the snooze button.

A/N: Okay, here is the final chapter! Sorry it's so long…they wouldn't shut up! What do you guys think? I hope you all liked it and thank you soooo much for reading them! Steve finally gets rest, the team is whole, and now the story ends. If you guys don't mind, though…how did I do on the action part? I am not entirely sure if I got it right this time, but please let me know if there is something I need to fix! I am going to bed now…So, thanks again! -WM