CHAPTER FOUR

"I don't understand."

Tony sat at the desk in the office of the medical centre, and watched Bruce, who seemed to be at a loss.

In the past few hours they made several examinations on Steve, and after that, Bruce went through all of them. Till then they sent their patient for a walk with the idea, that it can do him good. And now they sat in the office, and the brown haired man didn't know, what to say.

"I don't understand," Bruce repeated his previous sentence, and shook his head too. Papers lay down before him on the table, he looked into them several times, and he still couldn't see the solution. "Tony, after your telling, there should be some sort of diseases, but there isn't any. Steve's heart is working as perfectly as it should. I don't understand, why he had almost a heart attack."

"You're serious?"

"Why can't I be?" Bruce stood up, while he gave the papers to his friend, then walked to the windows to stare out at the buildings of New York. He really couldn't find any answer, and this made him to despair. He very much liked the captain. "Definitely he's in pain, and yet the ECG tests don't show anything," he said, before he turned around to look at Tony. "How could he be near a heart attack, when his electrocardiogram is completely normal?"

"I don't know," murmured Tony looking at the results of the examinations. Previously he hoped, that they can solve his friend's ill physicality. "Jarvis!" called out in the next second, when a thought popped out from his brain.

"Yes, sir?"

"When you monitored Steve during the night, did you really observed a heart attack?"

"The captain definitely had almost one, sir."

Tony gave a nod into the air after the answer. He didn't doubt Jarvis' statement, because his personal AI system always said the truth. And this led to another question.

"Can you tell me, how is Steve feeling himself right now?"

There was a short silence, before Jarvis spoke again.

"The captain is in pain, that's all. His heart seems to work normally."

"I see. Thank you, Jarvis!"

"You're welcome, sir."

Tony still didn't quite understand everything, but at least Jarvis words confirmed his theory. He turned towards Bruce, who watched him with interest.

"I think I might have some ideas." The black haired man left the papers on the desk, then started to walk up and down around the room. "Firstly, in the past few months, when I started to watch Steve, he never came to near a heart attack. Apparently he was in pain, and although the situation didn't get better, neither get worse. Secondly, the result of the medical examinations doesn't make any sense. It should show some abnormality, if Steve has really some kind of disease. And thirdly, the last night was the only case, when his condition worsened. So this led to me the conclusion, that maybe we searched the answer in the wrong place. Everything point to the fact, that maybe the problem shows up just during the night. What if we can't see them, when Steve doesn't sleep?"

"It's possible," answered Bruce, and for a minute he scratched his chin. "Maybe we can try to examine Steve during his sleep."

"Why do you want to examine Steve?"

Tony and Bruce turned together towards the office's door, where their god friend stood, and clearly didn't understand the situation. For a moment, neither of them spoke, and this short moment was enough to Tony to remember the captain's words. Of course sometime they'll have to tell the others, what's going on with Steve, but till then he'll have respected his decision.

"Thor!" shouted out Tony, and immediately an enthusiastic grin appeared on his face, while he walked to the blonde. "What can I do for my mighty friend? Because you certainly might want something, if you came down here." He hugged the god around his shoulders. "So?"

"I just wanted to ask you, that perhaps could you allow Jane and his two friends to move into the tower? Everybody live here, but you're the original owner of the house after all." After a few seconds he added. "Jarvis said, that I'll find you here."

"Of course!" answered Tony quickly, then turned around the man towards the exit. "Inform Pepper, and she will know, what to do. Actually it's a fantastic idea. We'll can have a welcome party!"

"Thank you, Tony," The Asgardian smiled warmly at his black haired friend, and at first, he seemed to let himself lead out from the room, but before he could step out to the corridor, stopped. "But what was about that examination? Is everything all right with Steve, right?"

"Of course is everything all right. We just want to examine Steve's suit, because he did something with it in the last fight. There's nothing to worry about."

Tony knew, that his face doesn't show any signs of his lies, even the god didn't seem convinced. But fortunately Thor didn't query his explanation. Instead of he nodded, then walked out. Silence fell on the room after that, as the two men glanced at each other, then later Bruce spoke.

"I'm not sure, if he really believed your answer."

"Yeah," sighed Tony, then walked back to the table to pick up the papers about the results. "But I hope he isn't too curious to find out the truth." He look through the examinations once again, then turned his eyes at his friend. "What's your opinion? When do we examine Cap's sleeping, now or the evening?"

"I think, the sooner the better. I'm pretty worried for him," answered Bruce, and the other man nodded.

"Agreed," Tony said, and grabbed his phone. "Then let's call our patient."

---

Steve thanked the coffee, when the waitress appeared next to him, then looked down for the umpteen times.

If he would feel himself better, he didn't come to the coffee shop, instead of he rather went to the park for a walk. But the pain in his heart didn't stop, and he didn't feel enough strength to do more, than come to sip some black drink. But this came with the perplexing fans, and Steve didn't quite get used to it yet. In his original time he was a soldier, a captain, and maybe he became famous thanks to his incredible victories, on the battlefield he experienced nothing from it. Then he woke up in a totally different world. It was one thing, that his every friends were dead, but he had to adapt himself to this new world. The technology, the everyday life, and even the people's behaviour was unlike as he knew it from his time. Sometimes his newly found friends laughed at his politeness, but he couldn't change himself. His mother taught him, how he has to behave, and he kept doing this in this modern world too. And of course there were the fans.

When he met Phil Coulson, the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the man revealed his enthusiasm towards him, Steve didn't really know, how to react. At the end he just smiled at him, and tried to cover his embarrassment. He guessed, that he can handle one excited person. Then the Chitauri attack happened, and the one person widened to a whole city. After that a simply and uninterrupted walk became almost impossible. Every time, when he put out his foot from his apartment or the Avengers Tower, there were always several people, who wanted to speak with him. At the beginning he tried to accept their furore, but after a several months it was too disturbing, and when the pain started, he couldn't put a good face on this anymore.

He sipped from his drink, then looked at his watch – he sat at the coffee shop's table for an hour now. He would like to go back to the tower, but before it he wanted to wait for Tony's call. Steve just hoped, that his friends can find out what's wrong with him, because that was obvious, that something isn't quite right with him.

Who will campaign door-to-door for America, carry the flag shore to shore for America, from Hoboken to Spokane. The Star Spangled Man with a Plan…!

Steve almost jumped out from his skin, when he heard his ringtone, as always in the past, and because everybody looked at him immediately, hearing his unusual music, he felt as if he would be in a shop-window. While he rummaged out the smartphone from the pocket of his jeans, he silently cursed Tony, who changed the telephone's ringtone. The black haired man regarded his action very funny, and refused to change it back to the previous one. He said, that Captain America should be proud of his first appearance before the American nation, and deserved that masterpiece as his ringtone – Steve was sure, that the man didn't leave alone Jarvis till his AI system didn't found this old music on the internet, and he purposely cut the song, so when anyone called Steve, the right part of the music started. And of course somehow the others assisted him, and neither of them was willing to show him the phone's use.

On the screen was Tony's name, and his well-known grinned face.

"Did you find out, what's wrong with me?" asked right away, after answering the call.

"It isn't so simple." His friend voice was neutral, but Steve felt, that actually Tony's really worried. "It would be the best, if you come home. We would like to do one more test."

"All right," nodded Steve, even if Tony can't see this, then looked down at his coffee. "I'll just finish my coffee, then I'll go."

"Okey, Cap. We're waiting for you."

Steve broke the call, then picked up his cup. It was slightly cool, but warm enough to drink it. This drink was the one with a few other things, which he liked a most in this new era. He told it a lot of times, that during the World War II. there weren't any luxury. At least not there, where he was. The 21th century was refreshing with the delicious foods. Like the coffee. Steve quickly became addicted to it.

When the black caffeine ran out, he placed the price with tip on the table, then stood up. In the last few minutes there was a young woman, who peeked at him constantly from the corner of the terrace, and as he stood up, she also jumped up from her chair. It was evident, that she wants something from him, but Steve hadn't get the mood for it. So before she could approach him, Steve quickly left the shop.

Apart from the embarrassing people, he really liked this coffee shop, because it was halfway between the park – where he usually did his daily running – and the tower. He chose it today for this reason, because he needed only a couple of minutes to get back to the tower.

"Welcome back, Captain."

Steve smiled hearing Jarvis' voice, then closed the lift door, and pushed the number of his apartment level.

"Thank you, Jarvis."

He was sure, that Tony and Bruce are waiting for him at the medical centre, but before going down there, he wanted to put down his jacket. After a few seconds the elevator arrived at his floor, so Steve stepped out to the corridor, then turned towards his front door.

"Steve."

At that moment the blonde wanted to open the door, so he stopped, and looked towards the voice. It was Thor. His god friend leant against the wall, and seemed very comfortable, even so Steve suspected, that something is still there in the background.

"Thor," Steve nodded to the other man, and didn't slip his notice, when the asgardian looked over him. It was a faint movement, however Steve got a sight of that. "Can I help you with something?"

"I was just thinking. You vanished yesterday too quickly. Are you all right?"

Steve didn't know why, but he had the feeling, that maybe Thor suspects something, and he couldn't be happy because of this. As he scanned the man, suddenly realized, that he had to answer, while he's an awful liar.

"Of course I'm all right," he still lied, then hoped, that his friend doesn't pick up on this. "And you? How is Jane?"

This was an abrupt thought to divert the subject from himself onto the man's lover, and in the next second it turned out a very good idea.

"She's great," said Thor, while a smile appeared on his face. "Actually she will move into the tower in the near future. I just checked the details with Pepper." He paused for a moment, and quickly looked around, evidently checking their surroundings, but they were alone. "I asked her hand two weeks ago."

"Really?" This time Steve didn't have to pretend his smile, even as his pain didn't lessen. Of course his smile was smaller, then in the past, but it was a real one. "I'm really happy for you!"

"Thank you, Steve." Steve stepped forward without a thought, then hugged the blonde god, who returned it with a strong hold. When he stepped back, Thor continued. "The others didn't know it yet, so please don't tell them. Jane and I thought, that we will reveal it, when she will arrive here."

"Certainly." Steve felt himself touched. It was one thing, that they liked each other almost from the beginning, and easily could match their fighting style during the missions. But he didn't think even in his dreams, that he would be the only one, who learns the asgardian's engagement before everybody else. "Thank you for telling me."

Thor answered with a nod and a smile, then slightly sobered.

"Are you sure, that you are fine?"

"Yes," said Steve immediately. The blonde god's previous attitude was touching, but he didn't feel the urge to do the same politeness. At least not now. Maybe Tony and Bruce will be able to find the cause of his unknown illness after this new examination. Thinking of this, Steve realized he had to go. "I have to go," he said aloud too, not just in his mind, then motioned towards his apartment. "We will speak later."

Steve didn't wait for any answer, instead of he turned, and stepped into his living room. As he closed the door, he didn't dare to look towards his friend, who certainly remained there, where he stood before. He just hoped, that when he will leave his apartment after a few minutes, the god won't be in the corridor.

Notes