Lacuna [1] {Completed}

Chapter Eight

"Koi No Yokan (n.) The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love."

Two days and nothing changed. Bucky didn't have another seizure after Erin's last injection, but despite T'Challa's team bringing him from his cryo sleep, he still hadn't woken up.

Everyone on the team took turns watching him, keeping eyes on him 24/7. Steve took most of the shifts, almost never leaving Bucky's side. Erin took most of the other turns, mainly because she didn't know what else to do.

           Everything was quiet in the house and everyone but Erin seemed to have a groove, some kind of pattern to follow. She felt useless and out of place. Her shifts watching Bucky were the only thing keeping her from completely losing her mind.

          "Steve," Erin said walking into the lab three days after they reattached Bucky's arm. A book and some files were tucked under her arm and she held of mug of coffee in her right hand.

           Steve was sitting at the metal table next to Bucky's cot, his head resting against his hand. He was asleep.

           "Steve," Erin said again standing over him.

           "Hmm?" Steve said with his eyes still half closes.

           Erin slammed her book onto the table sending a vibrating noise that jolted him awake. "What?" He said rubbing his eyes, "I'm awake."

Erin raised an eyebrow. "You've only slept for three hours in the last two days. Being a super soldier means you need super sleep." Even though he was sleepy, she could see the edge in his eyes. It was an alertness that never seemed to go away. She learned to recognize the look in her grandfather. It seemed Erin knew PTSD all too well.

"I'm fine." Steve said unconvincingly.

Erin sighed, "Go get some sleep," Erin said, "I'll stay with him."

"How do you plan on staying awake?"

Erin held up her thick stack of files, "I have more research to do. And if I get done with that..." She held up her copy of a book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy , "I've got three hundred pages left," She gave him a smirk.

He gave her a sleepy grin and got up from the chair.

"I'll let you know if anything changes," She said.

           "Thank you," Steve said placing a hand on her shoulder.

Erin nodded and watched him walk out. When the door slid shut behind him, she turned to look at the Winter Soldier. He was still sound asleep. I wonder if he dreams. She thought to herself.

Shaking the silly thought from her mind, she put the files and book on the table, sat down, and got to work.

She first looked at the file she found in the room of the warehouse. The formulas she had seen on each paper had been bothering her for days, like a puzzle not quite fitting together.

She examined the symbol on the front of the manila folder. The symbol contained four circles each one inside of the other. The two smallest circles were closed, but in the two outer rims, there were wide opened gaps where two dots separated the circles from closing. She took out the phone Steve had given her and snapped a picture, reminding herself to look it up later.