Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter LXXIV - Unplanned

"Enough!" Bruce shouted as he span round to stare down the blue eyed super solider questioning his every move. "I have seven PHDs Barnes. Seven! I am perfectly capable of looking after the two of them and I have a lot more knowledge on this stuff than you do, so enough. I want you out."

Bucky stared dumbfounded as the doctor stood with his arms folded and a stern expression across his face.

"I'm not going anywhere." His voice was low and quiet.

"Yes," Bruce countered with a sigh, "you are. If you want me to help them I need to be able to concentrate Barnes, so I need you to leave. Lizzie and Peter need you to leave."

Bucky glanced back to where Elizabeth lay, her hair fanned out beside her, the darkness surrounding her icy skin and her lips parted as she lay in a deep slumber. Seeping from her still were tiny wisps of blue, spilling from the bed she occupied and across the empty corridor. They pulled themselves towards the child in the bed in the room across from her, wrapping gently around his wrist and twisting their way into his wound. They lapped at his skin, stitching him back together. Even in her rest she was saving people.

His eyes misted with tears as he looked back to the doctor working to keep them safe and healthy and he nodded. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay and wrap himself around her. He wanted to stay and keep an eye on Peter. He just wanted to stay. But he knew Bruce was right. His panic was consuming him; his pain at the idea of losing either of them was controlling him. He was in the way.

Bruce sighed as Bucky stalked from the room and he moved from Lizzie's bedside back to Peter. He watched with wonder as the blue flames that seemed to tickle at Peter's skin wrapped themselves into his wound, pulling at the edged of his skin as it knit itself back together, fixing the damage from the inside out. He marvelled at how incredible Elizabeth truly was. He smiled as he thought about the miracles her body was capable of. The miracles she carried with her.

"You look like death Doc." Peter groaned as he opened his eyes and glanced at the trickle of blue that retreated from his side, leaving nothing but a faint pink line where there had once been a gaping hole. "Anyone would think we just fought a giant grape or something."

Bruce smiled as he ran a hand over his face, wiping away any threat of tears as he listened to the youngest Avenger crack a joke even after facing the edge of death.

"Glad to see you awake Kid. You're probably gonna be sore for a while, I think." He pushed Peter back as he went to sit up, furrowing his brow as he realised he wasn't actually sure what damage had been left due to Lizzie's intervention. "No more training with Barnes for at least six weeks, okay?"

Peter nodded as he stared at the scrape on his skin. He could recall darkness and Lizzie. Lizzie was floating and there were stars and colours. Did she fix him? He thought he had dreamt of the blue, but now? Where had he been with her?

"Hey," Bruce took his hand and squeezed it as Peter looked back to him with panic in his eyes. "What you did today? That was something special Kid. Stupid, but special."

Peter laughed, followed swiftly by a fit of uncontrollable coughing that left him clutching his side and wincing in pain.

"Yeah. No one told me she could do that whole force field thing." Peter scrunched his nose as he smiled. "Thanks for that."

"No problem Pete." Bruce laughed as he turned back to his other patient and was met by warm brown eyes that swam with fear. "Lizzie." He sighed her name as he moved to her side.

"Hey," she croaked as she moved to sit up, Bruce's hand firmly gripping her shoulder and holding her down. "What happened? Why am I in here?" Her voice was thick with panic and as the feeling of fear rose within her the pitch of her voice seemed to climb. The monitors strapped to her let out faster blips and images of flames and force fields consumed her mind, wrapping her mind in the pain of failing to control herself. "I thought I could control it now." She held back a sob and Bruce shook his head. "I really thought I could."