@dontrequireyourhelp sent:
Peggy grew cautious at the sound of the loud thud at her door. She may be up but with the late hour the rest of the world should be asleep. Looking out she noticed a familiar head of brown hair and opened the door, revealing Carter. Before she could even greet her niece, the yong woman fell forward. Peggy caught her, looking out onto the hall to see if anyone followed before quickly pulling Carter inside. Carrying her niece to the couch, she laid the young woman down and began to look for any sort of injury as she asked EDWIN, the AI system Tony installed in her apartment to dim the lights. She wasn’t going to chance anything. "Carter, Carter darling, stay with me. I need you to open your eyes. I need to see those pretty eyes of yours. EDWIN scan for injuries please. I need to know what's wrong."
Carter knew she had to get help. That there was no way she could treat herself on her own this time. But... she couldn’t go back to the compound. There was no way she would make it back without blacking out, and no way she could face the others - not when she knew they would only ask a thousand questions as to what the hell she’d been thinking. Because... she hadn’t been. She had been reacting. Impulsively, recklessly reacting. There had been a threat, and--
She jumped in headfirst without her armor instead of falling back and figuring out a plan of attack. She thought she could handle a lone HYDRA agent, after all. It should’ve been fine. But they still managed to take her off guard and now she had a gash in her side that wouldn’t stop bleeding because she wouldn’t stop moving. All she could think of was that she needed to get help soon, and all she knew was that Peggy was close.
She just... hoped that her aunt would let her in. Even after all the time Carter had spent trying to avoid her like she had with everyone else.
Hands clutched tight to her side, Carter did her best to stanch the bleeding as she staggered to Peggy’s home - practically crumbling against the front door as she shakily pulled one hand away to knock. Her chest was heaving, her brows furrowed tight with agony as sweat beaded her brow, and she was barely even standing. Was her aunt even home? What if she wasn’t? She couldn’t go to the hospital - she refused to go. There was no way she was going to let more doctors experiment on her again--
The door opened, and she collapsed - a strangled whine catching in her throat as Peggy caught her. Carter’s head was spinning, her surroundings blurring together, and she was hardly even aware of her aunt carrying her own to the couch. Hardly aware of her speaking as she ordered EDWIN to dim the lights, or of her speaking to her - asking her to open her eyes.
But, somehow, Carter managed to do just that - one hand still clasped against the wound as she let out a shuddering breath. “Sta-stabbed,” she rasped, struggling to try and pull herself as together as possible. To make things easier for her aunt to understand. But she was hurting and her mind wasn’t completely there, and she flinched as she attempted to push herself upwards despite a part of her knowing she needed to stop moving. And, even then, another panicked thought flitted through her head, and she clutched at her side harder - blood seeping between her fingers. What if Peggy took her to a hospital anyway? What then? She couldn’t go - not when she didn’t have records pertaining to her reactor. Not when no one could know about it - family or otherwise.