Come Back With Me

I Was so Scared Mama

Ellie is immediately taken away when the ambulance pulls up to the hospital. Bucky is ushered to a small waiting room outside the emergency room. He paces the floor for what seems like hours waiting for some kind of news.

"Bucky?"

He looks up to see Sarah standing there in her scrubs.

"What are you doing here?" She questions.

Shoot. He was so worried about Ellie that he totally forgot to contact Steve and Sarah. Steve is probably panicking because he hasn't heard from him in hours.

"Sarah... It's Elizabeth," Bucky admits.

He doesn't want to look at her. He doesn't want to see the pain in her eyes. He doesn't want to be the one to tell her that her daughter may die.

"What happened?" She gasps.

He finally looks up at her and can see the devastation on her face. She's already lost a husband, she can't lose her daughter too.

"She didn't show up for school today so Steve asked me to go look for her. I found her she near the old warehouses. She hit her head and she lost a lot of blood," he says.

He hesitates because he doesn't know if he should tell Sarah she stopped breathing. She flatlined twice in the ambulance but they had her mostly stabilized by the time they reached the hospital. He knew that she still might not make it.

"Sarah... it's really bad," Bucky admits.

Her face is blank in shock. She can read between the lines of what Bucky is saying and knows her baby might not make it.

"Do you think you could stay with Steve tonight? I don't want him here but I also don't want him to be alone," Sarah asks.

He didn't want to have to explain what happened to Steve but he knows that Sarah had to be near Ellie.

"Sure Sarah," Bucky says.

She walks past him whispering a brief thanks before going to hunt down her daughter.

Luckily Bucky's house was on the way to the Rogers' house. He enters without knocking and his mother runs over and hugs him.

"Where have you been? I've been worried sick," his mom says.

He finally gets a look at the time and sees that it's 10 o'clock. She expected him to be home 6 hours ago.

She releases him from the embrace and that's when she realizes he is covered in dry blood.

"What happened James? Are you okay?" She asks urgently.

He wants to answer no, that he's not okay. He wants to say that he'll never be okay after all he had seen that day but he knows she meant if he's okay physically.

"I'm fine mom. It's Elizabeth Rogers, she got really hurt. I'm actually still not sure how but it was bad," he says.

He has been in a surreal state since he found her that afternoon. He doesn't know if it's being in his mom's embrace or if today's events finally setting into his brain but he bursts into tears.

His mother pulls him tighter to her.

"I was so scared mama. She was missing so I went to find her and I found her covered in blood. I had to hold her as she literally died. They brought her back but she still died in my arms. She stopped breathing. Why did this have to happen to her? Why did I have to find her like that? How could something so bad happen to such a good person?" He sobs.

She doesn't know how to answer her son. If the world was just, Elizabeth Rogers would never be in the hospital and her son would never have to face death so early in his life.

Sometimes she forgets he's only 13. He always finds ways to make sure everyone is happy and taken care of. He rarely complains and he always is ready to lend a helping hand. This is one of the moments when she realizes that he is still a young boy.

"Shhh, it's okay sweetie," she whispers as she strokes his hair.

He continues to sob until he can't cry anymore.

"I have to go tell Steve. Sarah asked me to go stay with him," Bucky says.

There goes her selfless son again. She doesn't want him to go. She wants him to stay home and sleep off the horrors of her day but she also knows that Steve will need him.

"Take some dinner with you. I know you haven't eaten and I'm sure Steve hasn't either," she says.

She packs him a couple plates and some spare clothes while he silently sits on the couch. She brings the stuff to him and kneels in front of him. She holds his head in her hands and looks him in the eyes.

"I am so proud of you James. You were so brave today. If you weren't so brave, then Lizzie might have died. The Rogers are so lucky to have you," she says.

"I'm lucky to have them too," Bucky adds.

She smiles at him and kisses his forehead.

They walk to the door together and she hugs him one last time.

"Tell Sarah that if she needs anything at all, she can call me," she says.

"I will. Bye mom, I love you," Bucky responds.

"I love you too honey," she says.

Bucky leaves the house and begins the short walk to Steve's house.

He is not looking forward to breaking the news to Steve.