Battlefield ★ Bucky Barnes

XLI. A Startling Blood Analysis

Jemma studied the new blood sample intently. It had been several hours since Connie had been injected with the GH. 325, and although Jemma knew there was a very slim chance in Connie developing side effects the way Phil had after his injection, she still wanted to make sure of it. She wanted to be sure that she hadn't missed anything during her last analysis, but she highly doubted she had, especially after the startling comparison she made between Connie's blood and Skye's blood. Jemma was still unsure how such a thing could be possible, but the science of the matter proved it to be just that.

After grabbing an eyedropper from the table, Jemma carefully dropped a small amount of fluid over Connie's blood samples. One had been taken before the injection, and the other had been taken just several minutes ago. Jemma placed the two slide beneath the microscope and peered down, closing an eye so she could see if anything was going on with the samples.

Several seconds had passed before Jemma had finally been given the results, and as she looked over the samples her face fell. The samples were more or less identical, but there was now one particular aspect of Connie's blood platelets that was no longer present, and that terrified Jemma.

"Oh my god, what did I do?" Jenna muttered to herself as she ran a hand through her hair. She was now regretting ever using the GH. 325 on Connie. The results she now stared down at were far worse than any side effect Connie could have suffered from, and it was because of that Jemma now felt an overwhelming amount of guilt.

Fitz then walked into the lab, startling Jemma slightly.

"Hey, Jemma, what's going on?" Fitz asked as he walked over to her. "Have you checked on Connie lately?"

Jemma nodded and tried to quickly clean up her workspace, which earned a peculiar look from Fitz. "Yeah, um, she's doing okay as of right now."

She's not going to be okay when she finds out what you did to her, though, Jemma's thoughts tortured her. She was quick to dismiss them.

"So, what are you workin' on?" Fitz asked. He moved towards the microscope to take a peek at what it was she seemed to be trying to hide from him, but Jemma was quick to push him away.

"N-nothing, Fitz," she reassured him. "Just analyzing some blood samples is all."

Fitz raised a brow at her. "And what is so important about these blood samples that I can't look? What did you do?"

Jemma let out a sigh and took a step backward, gesturing him towards the microscope. She couldn't keep the truth from him no matter how much she wanted to, and the thought of someone else knowing before she told Connie made her feel slightly more comfortable about what was happening, though it did nothing to take away the guilt she felt because of it.

"Who's blood samples are these, Jemma?" Fitz asked slowly as he studied the differences between the two. He had a hunch about whose they were, but he didn't want to believe that his hunch was right, especially if he was looking at what he thought he was looking at.

"They're Connie's," Jemma told him.

Fitz pulled away from the microscope and ran a hand over his face. "Jemma, what did you do to her?"

"I injected her with GH. 325, but I only did it because of what I found in her blood samples from earlier," she answered him nervously.

"And what did you find?"

"That's not something that needs to be discussed at the moment," Jemma told him. "But after the injection, I took another blood sample just to double-check my work to make sure that nothing had changed."

Fitz threw his hands up and gestured to the samples beneath the microscope. "But it has changed, Jemma—everything has changed. Can you explain to me how that's even possible?"

Jemma shrugged and began playing with her hands. "What I'm hypothesizing is that the GH. 325 believed the serum to be of a foreign substance, seeing as it has literally burned it from every single strand of her DNA."

"So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Connie isn't a super-soldier anymore," Jemma breathed out shakily.

"Oh my god," Fitz sighed. "Is there any way to reverse it?"

Jemma shook her head sadly. "I could extract Bucky's blood and Captain Roger's blood and try to find a way to replicate the serum as they did back in the forties, but even if I did it could take years just to find the right components outside of the blood to work with."

"How could this happen, Jemma? I thought the super-soldier serum was permanent once injected into the host's bloodstream," Fitz wondered.

"That's what I thought as well," Jemma told him. "But it appears as if that's not exactly the case with Connie, and honestly, I don't know why."

"She's not going to like this at all."

"I know." Jemma frowned as she thought about Connie's reaction to the news. She figured Connie was feeling the after effects of not having her abilities, but she was sure she didn't know what was going on inside her. It was something she would never even think about happening to her, but Jemma knew that once she did find out she would be devastated.

"Listen, don't be upset," Fitz said as he took notice of her saddened expression. "It was an accident. You didn't know what was gonna happen, okay?"

Jemma looked up at him. "But that doesn't change the fact that my decision is the reason why she no longer has her abilities. Do you know how long it will take Connie to adjust physically without the super-soldier serum? For the past seventy years, everything she has done has been done with the assistance of the serum. It's not going to be an easy road for her to travel down, and it's all my fault."

"You saved her life, Jemma," Fitz reminded her. "I'm assuming you didn't tell the others about her condition before injecting her with it, did you?"

"I didn't," Jemma said with a shake of her head. "I couldn't tell them, especially Director Coulson; Connie's important to him, and she's important to Bucky and Captain Rogers. I just couldn't bring myself to tell them that she wouldn't be waking up, so I went to work and I made a decision."

"A decision that kept her alive," Fitz reminded her again. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll go with you to tell her."

Jemma smiled up at him and nodded her head. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."

"Then let's get to it."