THE FADING FALLEN ● Bucky Barnes X OC ● 18+ ● ENGLISH [COMPLETE]

Chapter 26

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The underground wing spanned many winding corridors, but looked like a normal sterile hospital, except for some South African influences.

It had been almost two hours since Shuri brought them to a kind of waiting room outside the operating area.

Every minute that passed felt like an agonizingly long hour.

They were fine. Except for a few scrapes, bruises, and cracked ribs, neither they nor the Dora Milaje were hurt.

Quite the opposite for Emilia, whose life the doctors were still fighting for.

Sam had positioned himself at the entrance to the room, from where he had a direct view of the swinging doors.

Sitting on one of the two large gray couches facing each other was Wanda, whose head rested wearily on Vision's shoulder.

Steve walked around the room with his arms folded and his eyes downcast. His nervousness made everyone uneasy and Natasha had already asked him to sit down several times. She herself was sunk into a corner of the other sofa, letting a cup move back and forth between her hands.

She regarded the undrinkable brown liquid in it with skepticism before finally pouring it down. Wondering involuntarily if such a multi-functional vending machine came free with every hospital facility on top, she looked to the other end of the sofa.

With his elbows propped on his knees and slumped over, Bucky sat next to her. His hands buried in his hair, he gazed fixedly at the clear floor between his feet.

Why hadn't he insisted on staying with her?

How could he have missed the fact that she had been injured during the fight?

And why hadn't he been able to avoid it?

His fingers continued to clench. He squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he could to get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind. Yet he didn't succeed.

For many decades he had been trained, manipulated and forced to do only one thing. To kill - without conscience or remorse.

This sudden pain, this despair overtook and swallowed him without return.

No one had warned him about all this. Neither before Hydra, and certainly not during it. How was he supposed to deal if Emilia didn't survive?

Like a movie, the pictures ran before his eyes. From the moment of their first meeting to the moment when he held her motionless body in his arms.

He wished more than anything to see behind the closed eyelids. Where those enveloping warm ambers were, brimming with curiosity and fire.

Not being able to see them anymore constricted Bucky's chest. That sense of security seemed to dissolve a little more into thin air with each passing second. It made him involuntarily wonder why it was so.

When he was near her, he always felt the trust that Emilia had shown him from the beginning. She was the reason why, for the first time since the 40s, he had a safe anchor, a place in life where he could be himself.

Suddenly he realized that she herself had become that safe place for him over the last few weeks. And at that moment, he was about to lose that exact one forever... he was loosing her.

The approaching footsteps echoed through the hallway. Bucky looked up with a jolt and saw Sam disappear from the doorway.

A few seconds later, Shuri came around the corner with an excited Sam behind her. "Tell us, what's going on with her?"