Possibility of Tomorrow - 3

 

Cont...

They made it across town in two hours due to the unrest. They chose an empty back room that was only accessible from an alley to wait. The sun was still a few hours off as they did a perimeter check.

 Bucky scanned the roofs and skyscrapers around them, looking for anything or anyone. A flash across the street had him pulling Steve back from stepping out into the line of sight, "Someone's there."

 "Where?" Steve scanned the other side of the road. 

Where had it been? "Behind those parked cars, your eleven o'clock." Bucky nodded.

 Steve looked over in time to see dark fabric vanish into the side door of the office building, "Romanoff, you're with us. Sam, Wanda, double back and make sure no one else is boxing is in. Protect our position or get out of dodge."

"You got it." Sam's voice came through the phone in Steve's pocket, too quiet for anyone else to hear. 

"You sure this is a good idea?" Nat asked, popping up next to Steve. 

"I like to know who I'm fighting." Steve shrugged.

 With a nod and the three of them were crossing the street in sync, coving each other's six. They came over to the cars and looked around. The sidewalk was empty in front of all these mom-and-pop stores, and everything was locked up. 

Reaching out, Nat tried the door. It had some serious resistance, but it popped open after a sharp pull. Sticking her head in, you could hear footsteps running up the metal staircase. Nat stepped in, and Steve followed Bucky, bringing up the rear. Steve took the first position up the stairs, going two at a time. Nat kept up with ease as they were up six flights to the third floor.

 Easing open the door, Nat exited the stairs out to the carpeted floor silently. She went right. Steve went forward, leaving Bucky to go left. Clearing the floor room by room silently, he watched and waited. Someone was after them, and he could almost feel them there. 

He was coming to the end of his hall when he heard shots, two from a Sig in quick succession. Turning, he pulled his own gun and went towards the sound. There was another shot as he got closer. 

"-fired what's going on? Nat? Steve?" Sam's voice came through Steve's phone. There was a crunch. 

Bucky pushed the door open with his foot letting it swing open. He could see cubicles, boring old office cubicles. Sliding through the door, he listened hard—labored breathing coming from his right, the conference rooms.

 Keeping alert, he cleared the hall coming up to the turn to go down the row with the conference rooms. Turning the corner, he was met with Natasha lying on the floor in a stain of her own blood, trying to drag herself up. He had enough time to dive to the floor before shots went off, leaving holes in the cardboard cubicle walls where his head had been. 

Rolling over, he curled behind the water tank. Leaning just out, he spotted the shooter down the hall from him. Squeezing off two rounds, there was the sound of something shattering. He thought he heard a squeal of surprise or fear that sounded very un Natasha-like. Two more rounds marred the wall above his head. 

Bucky looked over in time to see the shooter move around the far counter, making a run for it. Leaping up, he launched over the cubicle sides and leaped from desk to desk, crossing the room in a straight line to intercept the shooter. They turned as he jumped and fired a shot. It grazed him, but at the moment, the adrenaline covered it as he landed on the shooter.

 They rolled to the floor, guns flying away. He winded back to punch them when they lurched left as he swung with his right, making him miss. Before he could wonder why a sharp pain shot through his shoulder. Arching back to look, he spotted a knife him his shoulder, of blimey course. 

Leaning back earned him two feet in the chest, sending him topping back. The shooter was up and running. Growling under his breath, Bucky hopped up and looked back, torn between the shooter and Nat.

 Luckily Sam was there waving him towards the shooter, "Go, I got them." 

Bucky bolted after the shooter. He skidded to a stop at a crossroads of halls, trying to listen. A moment later, there were two more shots and a crash.

 Sprinting toward the noise, he burst through a door to find a private office with a broken window. Standing at the broken window was the shooter holding a pistol in one hand, the other one clutching their bleeding side, looking ready to jump. 

"Wait!" Bucky said quickly. 

The shooter looked back at him, those same eyes that had run from him earlier that night wide, and shoved forwards. Bucky rushed forward, instinctively looking down, prepared to see a person splat on the pavement. Instead, it was ripples in the bay below. Right into the commercial docks. Great. 

Bucky ran back to the cubicles area. Nat was sitting in an office chair now holding her jacket to her abdomen, pale as she tried to stem the bleeding. Bucky turned and looked into the conference room. His blood went cold. Steve's chest had growing red spots, blood seeping through his shirt. Sam had stripped off Steve's jacket, shoving it under his head. 

"Call Wanda, I'm gonna need to operate now, and I need her to put him under." Sam's voice had an authoritative tone as he stepped into an emergency medical mindset. 

Bucky nodded, fumbling for his phone as he knelt next to Steve away from the shards of the shattered phone next to him, giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze. 

Dialing Wanda, she picked up instantly, "What is wrong? It all happened so fast-" 

"Wanda," Bucky cut her off before she could keep panicking, "I need you here now, don't ask, just come. Leave the stuff, bring Sam's med bag."

 "Okay," Wanda answered softly after a moment.

 Bucky hung up and grabbed Steve's hand, "I know you can hear me, so listen up. You're gonna put all your stupid punk energy into staying alive. If you don't so help me, I'm gonna beat your butt to Sunday, got me?" 

Steve moaned softly, and Bucky felt him squeeze his hand. 

"Okay, good. You're gonna be fine." Bucky let go of Steve's hand, turning to Sam, "I'm gonna check on Nat." 

Sam nodded as he began cutting Steve's shirt off.

 Bucky turned away, quickly coming over to Nat, "Where are you hit?" 

"Abdomen, it feels like it missed everything vital," Nat said, groaning as she shifted. 

"Yeah, well, it's clean through, took out a good chunk of your side like a gash. Now the problem is internal bleeding." Bucky said, pulling the jacket back enough to see the damage.

 Nat hissed as the wound was exposed to air, "It doesn't feel like there's any but-" 

"You never know." Bucky finished putting the pressure back on. "It's not spurting, so no arteries and the bleeding isn't that bad compared to serious internal bleeding. We'll need to stitch it up and wrap it tightly." 

Nat nodded agreement grunting as she shifted, "How's Steve?" 

"Two to the chest. That's all I know." Bucky said, looking around for things that could be used in this emergency situation to help treat them. 

"And the shooter?" Nat pressed. 

"Nicked 'em. They went out the window, four stories into the bay." Bucky recounted grabbing scissors. 

"That's practically cement from this height. And- hey! If that a knife in your shoulder?" Nat asked, shocked. 

"Yeah, they grazed me in the ribs too." Bucky sighed, "I liked this jacket." He cut up from the bottom of his shirt up making it open in the front using the scissors. "Ya mind making it easier to take off my jacket?" Bucky held out the scissors to Nat, "I'll hold the wound." 

Nat took the scissors letting him press his hands on her sides. Screaming pain came as the clothing pushed and pulled against the knife as Nat cut a bigger diameter around the blade. "There. That should be big enough to get it out." Nat put the knife down, putting pressure on her wound herself. 

Bucky carefully pulled off his jacket and shirt without antagonizing the knife. 

"That looks clean, not too deep, no arteries. Just don't twist it when you pull it out." Nat nodded, looking at the wound. 

"Is that a knife?" Wanda's voice wavered from where she stood now in the doorway, eyes wide with horror on hand covering her mouth in shock other wrapped up in the bag strap. 

"Yes. Sam needs you ASAP." Bucky nodded towards the conference room behind him. 

Wanda came forward quickly before gasping again when she saw Steve. Rushing forward, she dropped the bag next to Sam and fell to her knees next to Steve, "Oh my- oh- what happened?"

 "We got baited. I need you to put him under." Sam dug through his med bag. 

Wanda looked so scared and out of her depth, but they didn't have time to walk her through it like Bucky wanted to. She nodded shakily as she gently set her hands, glowing red, on Steve's chest. He hissed, and she jerked back, but her red stayed, "Hey, shhh. It'll be alright. Shhhh." Her red drifted up, creating a halo almost around his head. Wanda kept murmuring comfort as she put him into a dreamlike state. "He's under." Wanda finally said. 

Sam reached over, pressing his fingers to Steve's neck, searching for his pulse. "Pulse is dropping. I need to get him steady now."

 "Did it hit anything vital?" Wanda asked quietly.

 "Sister, if it had, even with him being all super, he'd be dead." Sam muttered bluntly as he dug through his bag, "I need you to assist me. You up for it?"

 Wanda paled considerably, looking down at Steve, red spot getting bigger by the second, "Okay." 

Sam unrolled his tool roll revealing medical tools, "I know you don't know what the items look like, but I'll think of what I need and then and you can hand them to me. Okay?" 

Wanda started to really focus, going into a numb state, "Okay." Sam began to work, and Wanda's red magic began to surround them, tools floating here and there as they worked silently and in sync. 

Bucky ignored the blood that was a darker shade of red that coated everything as he came over, grabbing bandages and things to sew the wounds shut from the bag. Nat pulled out the knife, making him hiss. It had only hit soft tissue, but it still hurt. She sewed up his shoulder and put a bandage on it first. Then he put a bandage on his side where the bullet had grazed him. With his hands free and the blood from Nat's wound stopping bleeding profusely he began treating it. Carefully he cleaned it and stitched it closed. Putting a bandage on it, he wrapped the wounds, going all the way around her abdomen.

 "We'll need to keep an eye on that. You rest." Bucky cleaned up. Dumping the stuff back in the med bag, he pulled out the emergency shirt from the change of clothing they kept for each of them in the med bag. Carefully pulling it on so he didn't shift his wounds. 

"How's he doing?" Bucky asked quietly, kneeling across from Sam and Wanda as they finished closing up Steve's chest. 

"He's insanely lucky. An inch either way, and he would have bled out into his lungs, or it would have hit his heart. I was able to steady him. It's up to his healing factor now. We'll need to monitor him closely and keep him pumped with liquids and nutrients." Sam said, finishing his stitches. 

"I'll clean up. Could you check on Nat? I did what I could, but normally, I'm doing it to myself." Bucky asked as they finished.

 "Sure. Hurry though, we need to get back soon if we plan on making that boat." Sam nodded, getting up as he stretched.

 "Oh crap, what time is it?" Bucky internally calculated the time. 

"About 3am," Wanda answered, nodding at the clock on the wall.

 "Not too bad." Bucky used some gauze to wipe off the blood on Steve's chest.

 "We still have to drag his dead weight all the way down to the docks with you and Nat injured. I want all the time I can get." Sam retorted. 

"You do know I can move things with my mind, right?" Wanda quietly reminded Sam.

 "Yeah, but it's visible. There's only so much you can do in public without getting caught." Nat rasped out. 

"What happened to you?" 

"Bullet took a chunk of my side out. 'Nasty gash' is what Barnes called it." Nat shifted so Sam could see clearly. 

"Okay, we'll need to change the wrappings every few hours, so it doesn't get infected or bleed through clothing." Sam decided. 

Bucky finished with the bandage on Steve's chest and cleaned the medical instruments as best he could before putting them away. He could clean a gun with his eyes closed, medical tools not so much. Finishing up, he carefully maneuvered Steve into an office chair before getting a shirt on him. 

Wanda relived a lot of the weight while still keeping her magic from sight. Bucky put what was left of Steve's weight on his left shoulder. Wanda took the medical bag, and Sam helped Nat up.

 They left nothing behind but bloodstains, broken windows, and bullet holes.

Please tell me what you think in the comments!

Follow if you like it!