Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter XXI - Oblivion Never Came

She could feel his fingers brushing over her bloody and bruised skin as his voice, muffled and broken, clawed through the hazy blue galaxy that engulfed her mind and left her stranded, without a sense of gravity. She was floating in space. Lost in time.

"Lizzie," he dragged her away from the remnants of burning weaponry and pulled her into his arms. "Come on Halsted. We need to get this jet down. Come on. I've got you. Just open your eyes Lizzie."

It was as if she was fighting with what consumed her. Her rage, her pain, her fear all seemed to burn in the blue. She burned in the blue. Silent screams echoed through the chasm of her mind as she called to oblivion.

Oblivion never came.

"Steve?" She was unfocused, dizzy, but she was alive and she clung to the voice of the American Hero now pulling her towards the controls of the jet as she hung lifelessly at his side.

"Come on Halsted. Let's get this thing out of the sky."

He lay her across two seats, careful not to add more pain to her fragile frame, and turned to the panel of flashing lights and computer systems.

"Damn it," he muttered. "Where's Stark when you -" His voice trailed off as his eyes fell on something he knew would change everything. This would be it.

Elizabeth watched, afraid to close her eyes, afraid to give in to the burning blue once more, as Steve ran his fingers across a dull screen on the panel, pausing for a fraction too long. He took a seat calmly, sombrely, and dialled the radio until he found the frequency he had been searching for.

"Peggy? God I hope you can hear me Peggy." His throat clung to the words as they clawed away from him. "I'm so sorry."

Elizabeth stood and stumbled forwards until she was beside him, her eyes roaming over the screen Steve had fixated on: the screen showing all the bombs on board, ready to be deployed. Her fingers, stained with blood, traced over the centre bomb. On it were three words: New York City. Steve looked to her. She looked back. Taking a deep breath she slowly nodded. She understood what had to happen.

"We can't get this thing down safely Peggy. There are - there are bombs on board. I have to crash land. There's no other way." He closed his eyes as Elizabeth took the seat beside him. "I'm so sorry Peggy. Please hear me."

The crackling static of empty air seeped through the radio. Lizzie closed her eyes.

"Steve? Lizzie?" Peggy's voice was like a knife to his heart. "Please don't do this. Please. We can get to you. We can get you out. Please."

He tried to speak, he tried to say something, anything, that could tell Peggy Carter what she meant to him. Silence hung from him like a shadow he couldn't step out from under.

"Peggy," opening her eyes Elizabeth took Steve's hand. "Steve's right. There's no other way. Right now we're in the middle of nowhere. If we keep going a lot of people will get hurt. We need to put her in the ice. There's no other way."

Steve's grip tightened.

"It's okay Peggy. We're going to be with Buck," Steve did not try to hide his tears. "And you... you're going to have the best life."

As Peggy's pleas for them to just wait, to just let her get Stark on the line, let her try to fix this, became nothing more than crackles and cuts of silence Steve closed his eyes once more and put his head back.

"I love you Peggy."

Silence washed away the pain and the fear.

Elizabeth took one more look at Steve Rogers, Bucky's Steve, before closing her eyes and resting her head on his shoulder. As the plane plummeted towards the ice she found peace in her mind.

He was with her, holding her, loving her. The lilt of his laughter sang out as he held her close. His fingers left fire where his touch had been and his eyes - those crystal blue oceans so deep she could drown in them for all of eternity - his eyes glistened with every glance. She thought of nothing but James Buchanan Barnes as he beckoned to her and the ice claimed them both, pulling them into the depths of darkness, encasing them, keeping them. She would find Bucky in  the oblivion.

*

"Ma'am? Ma'am can you hear me?" Bright lights. Blinding. "Ma'am can you tell me what your name is? Ma'am? We're losing her!"

*

The swell of the band drew her from her slumber. An unfamiliar melody. A woman sang a beautiful song about words waiting and how long it had been and Elizabeth felt peaceful. Her mind swam in the blue of Bucky for a moment longer. Where was her Bucky?

Her lids fluttered open as the bright white of the room overwhelmed her.

Oblivion had not come for her and her heart crashed into depths of despair as she realised her reality. She was not with Bucky. She was alive.

"I just want to see her!" His voice boomed outside of the door. "You are going to step aside or I am going to make you."

"Captain Rogers," someone spoke, the command of his voice suggested he was a soldier but Lizzie could not match the voice to any soldier she knew. "I have been instructed by Director Fury not to let anyone in or out of this room. Yourself included."

"Yeah? Did Director Fury let you know what happened to the guards who tried to stop me two days ago?" Steve bellowed.

"Captain Rogers -"

"No! She is in there alone. When she wakes up she is going to be afraid, and confused and her world is going to come crashing down around her so you are going to step aside now Soldier, or I am going to put you through that wall to get to her."

He was toe to toe with a man dressed in all black when Elizabeth pulled the door open. Something wasn't right. Everything was different. It was louder. Brighter. The man in black dressed strangely.

Elizabeth took a step forwards. Steve was dressed strangely.

"Steve?" her voice was the ghost of what it had been before. "How are we - where are - Steve?"

A flood of pain engulfed her as Steve wrapped her in his arms.

She had not found Bucky.

"Lizzie, it's going to be okay. I promise it's going to be okay. There is so much I don't know yet, even more I don't understand, but we're going to be okay. I've got you. We're going to be okay." He held her close as she shook violently in his arms.

"Where are we Steve?"

"We're in New York."

"I'm home? I - we made it home?"

His hand gently stroked her hair as she clung to him, afraid to let go, afraid she could not hold herself together without his help.

"Not quite Sweetheart... not quite."