Not gripping. Holding.
I slowed my pace just enough to match her breathing. She was doing that thing where she tried to pretend she was fine,shoulders back, chin level, but her steps were a fraction too careful.
“You with me?” I asked quietly.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Her voice was steady. Too steady.
I pushed open the door to the small side room near the bunks, the one we used when someone needed quiet without being isolated. I kicked it shut behind us and turned, blocking the space automatically.
She sank onto the edge of the bench along the wall, hands dropping into her lap like they didn’t know what to do without something to cling to.
I stayed standing for a second, watching her. Memorizing the signs.
Her color was still off. Breathing shallow but controlled. Eyes tracking the room like she needed to know every exit.
Not frozen.
But not okay.
I crouched in front of her, resting my forearms on my thighs so I didn’t tower. “You did good back there.”
She huffed softly. “I didn’t feel like I did.”
“That’s not the measure.” I kept my voice low, even. “You fought your way through it. That matters.”
Her jaw tightened. She stared at the floor between my boots. “I heard the lights go out and my body just… left me. I hate that.”
I didn’t correct her. Didn’t sugarcoat it.
“I know,” I said. “And I also know you fought your way out of it.”
She glanced up at me then, searching. “How?”
“You breathed. You listened. You stayed.” I held her gaze. “Freezing doesn’t look like that.”
Something in her shoulders eased. Just a fraction.
Good.
I straightened, rolling my neck once, trying to work out the tension that had lodged there the second Cap showed me that phone. I could still see the image burned behind my eyes. The elevator. The hair.
Her hair.
“They wanted you scared,” I said. “That’s all tonight was.”
She let out a breath. “They fucking succeeded.”
“For a minute,” I corrected. “That’s not the same thing.”
Silence stretched between us, heavy but not uncomfortable. Outside the room, a radio crackled softly. Footsteps passed, then faded.
I was just about to tell her to lie back, get some water in her, when the hair on the back of my neck lifted.
Not intuition.
Training.
