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

Chapter 60

∼⋄∼⋄∼ ○❖○ ∽⋄∽⋄∽

In the distance, she heard whispers. Over and over again, the words came through to her.

'I... love... you...'

Only with extreme difficulty did it break through the darkness. The louder it became, the lighter her eyelids felt.

'Bucky?'

It took a few more moments before Emilia managed to open her eyes. By the dim light of a lamp in the corner of the room, she made out the white ceiling above her.

She barely noticed the steady beeping. Still the words of the familiar dark voice echoed in her head.

'I... love... you...'

Suddenly she became aware of who this one belonged to. Her pulse shot up. With joy, with excitement. The endorphins flowed through her and made Emilia sit up with a jerk.

Only now did she realize where she was. And that she was alone in the sterile hospital room. The elation flattened out.

'Maybe I just imagined it...'

A little disappointed, she looked around and tried to remember what happened.

Josephine took control again. There was nothing she really could do about it. Just before everything went black, Emilia was only able to think of one person.

Bucky.

And that he would be safe.

She had no memory of what followed. It almost seemed like her old ego was suppressing them like before. But it felt different this time.

Rapha was dead. She could sense that. Josephine made her know it.

Beneath that enveloping shroud of relief and security were regrets mixed in. Not toward Rapha, but toward Emilia herself.

She couldn't make sense of it, and ran a hand through her open hair, a little confused.

"What...?!"

Astonished, she looked at her left arm. It had healed. So had everything else, she noticed with a quick scan of her body and the formerly rather painful wounds.

Looking out the window, Emilia saw that it was night. Or at least late evening. Outside, the many lights illuminated the city. A few days must have passed already, because otherwise she wouldn't feel so fit.

"Well, it seems our Sleeping Beauty has finally woken up. And she did so without her prince."

The rather experienced, raspy voice made Emilia jump around. Startled, she didn't really get what the woman, who came through the door with quick steps, meant by that.

"How are you, Ms. Carson?"

The short, rather stocky older nurse stood beside the bed and surveyed the IV.

"Tha... Thank you. Pretty good..."

Emilia looked from the slightly chunky face, on whose nose sat a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, over the collar of the pink scrubs. The name tag was literally popping on the opulent bosom.

"... Nurse Paulette."

"I'm glad to hear that. Enviable, what self-healing powers your body has. Your fiancé will be overjoyed to see you safe and sound when he is back."

With a smile on her lips, the nurse looked at the perplexed Emilia, took her hand and removed the IV needle.

"My... fiancé?!"