Chapter Text
"Why it has to be so fucking hot?" Clint whined, wiping the sweat on his forehead with the back of his wrist. His face was flushed bright red, partly from exertion, partly from sunburn. "It's even hard to breathe."
"I swear if I hear you complaining one more time, I'm gonna kill you." Tony grumbled, lifting another piece of concrete and putting out of the way. "You don't have the right 'cause I don't see you doing any of the hard work. You're just babbling non stop." Tony grumbled. He knew he was being a asshole but he was tired as hell and all he wanted was to go anywhere that had an A/C on.
"I'm sorry. It's not my fault I don't have super strength or an iron suit that can help lift all these debris." Clint spat out, watching as Steve lifted a pile of twisted metal and threw away.
"Can you two kids stop bickering for one second? Please." Steve muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. He knew he was lacking his usual leader tone but right now he couldn't care less.
Tony and Clint both nodded and went back to their respective functions.
To be honest Steve was exhausted. This cleaning duty was taking longer than all of them had expected, mainly because since it was so hot out there, they kept having to take breaks and turns cleaning up. Well, not all of them.
Steve knew he was the most efficient at this part of the job, since Thor was at Asgard at the moment. Therefore, he had been avoiding taking any unnecessary pauses, only stopping for bathroom breaks, water and energy bar which he knew wasn't ideal for anyone but especially for a guy like him with his superfast metabolism.
"Cap? Earth to Steve..." Tony waved his hand in front of the super soldier's face, smirking when Steve's already red cheeks turned even brighter. "You zoned out for a sec. You good?"
"Y- Yeah. What did you want?"
"Give me a hand on this one?" Tony nodded in the direction of a big piece of concrete.
"Yes."
Steve and Tony each held a corner of the concrete. "Ready?" Steve nodded and quickly stood up while Tony did the same on his side.
Big Mistake.
Steve's head swam and pulsed in time with his heartbeat due to the suddenly change in altitude and he could definitely hear the blood roaring in his eyes. He felt himself dropping the concret as he closed his eyes tightly and pressed his fingers to his temples as an intense pain hit.
"Steve? Cap, you okay?" He heard Tony dropping the piece of concrete and seconds later he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, talk to me buddy."
Steve opened his eyes when he felt Tony tap his cheek and felt the world spun before him. His vision blurred considerably. " 'm dizzy" was all he could manage to mumble. His heart fluttered and he started falling forward, but Tony quickly held him.
"Whoa, easy, Stevie." Steve thought he heard Tony talking to Clint, but he wasn't sure because his ears started ringing and then everything went black.
***
Tony couldn't process how fast things had gone downhill. One second Steve was fine or at least as fine as someone could be while working under an extreme heat and then one second later he's the only thing keeping Steve from face planting on the floor.
"Fuck." Tony looked to his right side and saw that Clint was watching them with wide eyes. He didn't blame the guy for panicking it wasn't everyday they saw their captain passed out but right now he needed him to focus.
"Hawkeye, I need you to help me. We can panic later."
Clint nodded, swearing under his breath as he rushed to their side. He couldn't believe his eyes that he had just seen their captain passed out. That just didn't happen.
"He's cooking. Help me lay him down."
Together they both carefully placed Steve on the ground, noticing the lack of reaction from Steve. He didn't twitch or made a sound, he just lay there limp like a ragdoll.
Clint took off his shirt and gently placed it under Steve's feet. He didn't remember where he had seen someone doing this but he remembered that it helped blood flow back to the brain.
"Jarvis, tell me what's going."
"Captain Rogers seems to be severely dehydrated and he is showing signals of heat exhaustion. His temperature is currently 104.8 and climbing and his heartbeat is elevated."
"Damn it". Tony placed his fingers on Steve's carotid artery, finding a really rapid pulse. "He's heartbeat is going through the roof. We need to cool him down."
Clint stood up and ran to their little cooler where they had a stock of water bottles. He grabbed the whole thing before rushing back to their teammates. He dropped down to his knees next to them and quickly opened one of the bottles, before handing it to Tony.
"What should I do?" Tony really thought he had everything under control but seeing Steve so pale and unmoving was so unnatural that made him question all that he knew.
Clint took the bottle from Tony's hand and emptied all over Steve's face, being careful to not let the super soldier breathe in the water. "He stopped sweating. We need to rehydrate him. Give me another bottle."
Tony did as Clint told, gladly that he had taken control over the situation.
After Clint had emptied three water bottles all over Steve's body, the super soldier started showing signs that he was going to wake up soon. The colors on his too pale cheeks were slowly returning and they could hear him groaning.
"Steve? Can you hear us?" Tony lightly tapped his face and Steve groaned louder. "C'mon Cap, it's not naptime yet."
Although Steve's eyelids felt like they weighted a ton, he finally managed to open them. He blinked a few times to try clear his vision but that didn't seem to do much, it just made his headache worse. All he could see were a couple of blury faces that were directly above him.
He tried to lift his hand to his head but just as he was able to lift his hand a few inches off the ground, a weight stopped him. "Hey Steve, don't do that." He recognized that voice. Clint.
"W- Wha' happened?" Steve shook his head, wincing at the stabbing pain that sprang behind his eyes but at least now he could see Clint and Tony faces.
"You passed out. That's what happened." Tony answered, placing his metal hand on Steve's forehead.
Steve almost moaned when he felt the coolness of the genius's hand on his too warm skin. Both Clint and Tony smirked but the inventor left his hand there.
"Need to sit down." Steve mumbled all of suddenly. He tried to sit up but Tony's other hand was preventing him from doing so. "Get off" He said in a strangled voice that Clint and Tony wouldn't recognize it as him if they hadn't personally seen the words left his mouth.
"Cap, you need to stay down." Clint joined in.
"Get off" Steve insisted, squirming a bit. Tony obeyed, taking off his hand, figuring that Steve was getting overwhelmed.
However, as soon as he could move, Steve shot up. He coughed wetly, turning his head to the side so he wasn't facing any of them and both his teammates' eyes widened as they watched him heave suddenly, losing the little he had eaten all over the ground.
"Shit" Tony muttered, holding Steve from behind as he gagged again, his stomach splattering against the pavement floor. "Call an ambulance." He said to Clint.
"I already did that, Sir." Jarvis interrupted. "But there was an accident a couple blocks ahead of your location and the paramedics are having problems getting to where you are."
"That's exactly what we need it." Clint said sarcastically.
"Think you're done, buddy?" Tony asked when he saw that Steve was only dry heaving. Instead of answering Steve just slumped against Tony, burying his face on the iron suit.
"No hospital." Steve's voice was muffled but they could understand him loud and clear.
"I don't think you have much of a choice on this one, buddy." Clint said, twisting the cap of one of the water bottles and handing it to his sick friend. He ended up having to hold the bottle to Steve's lip when they found out he was too shakey to hold it without spilling.
"And don't even think about telling us you are fine. You clearly are not." Steve's was still very pale and he had dark circles under his eyes, not to mention how much his hands were shaking.
"I just need to sleep this thing off and eat something. Then I'll be good to go." Steve said through a yawn.
"Well, you should've thought about that before you decided to push yourself beyond your limits. What were you even thinking when you decided that you could go days without getting proper rest or a decent meal?" Tony asked.
"Someone needed to clean this place." Steve shrugged, his head still throbbed and the last thing he wanted to do was argue with Tony.
"There's other five people who could be done that." Clint said, stopping the super soldier when he saw he was about to protest. "Yeah, you're right it might've taken longer but then this wouldn't have happened."
"I know." Steve whispered, wincing when a cramp shot through his stomach. "But I needed to do this." His stomach cramped painfully again and he couldn't hide his whimper this time. "Gosh, it hurts."
"What hurts?" Tony blurted out, his voice laced with concern when he saw Steve squeezing his eyes shut.
"My stomach." Steve mumbled, gripping his belly tightly. "I don' know why"
"He needs fluids in him ASAP. Cramps are another symptom of heat exhaustion." Clint whispered, running his fingers through Steve's hair.
Steve's eyes shot open when he felt something damp touch his forehead. "Sorry, Cap, that should help reduce your fever until help gets here." Clint said, placing the cold wet fabric on Steve's feverish brow.
The super soldier nodded, wincing a little when the motion still made his head swam.
"Good 'cause I'm really hot." Steve slurred, curling into a ball.
"I'm gonna fly him to the hospital. I didn't want to that earlier because we didn't know what we were dealing with it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. We don't know how long it's gonna take for the medicals to get here and he doesn't need to suffer because of that incompetence."
Clint nodded and watched as Tony stood up easily enough with Steve in his arm. Cap had his eyes closed and Clint really hoped he was just simply asleep.
"I'm gonna update the rest of the team and Fury. I'll meet you at the hospital." Clint yelled just as Tony took of with Steve.
"Hold tight, Cap." Tony whispered more to himself than his precious cargo.
***
Steve slowly started to stir when he felt a hand ran through his hair. The first thing he noticed was the well known smell of antiseptic. Hospital. He carefully opened his eyes, blinking a couple of times to clear his vision and he was really glad when he found that not only his vision wasn't blurry as before but this time his head wasn't pounding that badly either, only a slightly persistent throb.
"Steve?" He turned his head at the sound of his name and saw Natasha sat by the side of his bed. "How're feeling?" She placed her hand on his forehead, sighing when she noticed it was way cooler than when he was first brought in.
"My body still aches and 'm really thirsty."
"That's what dehydration almost having a heat stroke does to you." Natasha said lightly but Steve could hear the worry in her voice.
"Hey, I'm fine, Nat"
"I know that now." She grabbed a cup full of cold water and held it to Steve's lip. "Small sips." Steve did as told, sighing when the water felt amazing on his sore throat.
"Cap?" Steve looked behind Natasha and saw Tony rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up on the too small couch. "You awake for good now?"
"Guess so."
"That's good."
"Thanks for having my back out there, by the way."
"You're welcome, Steve. But please don't you ever think to do something like this. again. I'm too old for this." Tony said while walking over to Steve's bed. He gently squeezed the younger man's shoulder before he turned to leave the room.
"I'm gonna update the others. Keep an eye on him." He said to Natasha.
"Always."