Hell's Angel [Bucky Barnes]

32 - "мое чудо." ("My Miracle.")

32 – "мое чудо." ("My Miracle.")

"Are you gonna let me walk free, or are you strapping an ankle monitor on?" I sass Tessa. She's been watching me hawk-like for the past few days. And, annoyingly, she's kept James away from me, insisting that we both needed to rest, and that if we didn't, we'd get ourselves sick. 

I've already been sick, sick of her helicoptering over me.

"You feel strong enough to not pass out on me?" she asks as she removes the attachments from my arms.

"Considering I've healed faster than normal people in a few days, I'd say yeah."

"Just don't strain yourself. You're still beat up."

"Tessa, I'm stronger than a normal human. I'm not a freaking porcelain doll." I grimace.

She lets me up and hands me clothes to change into. I pull the curtain to shield myself from onlookers. I sigh in relief at having clothes on me that isn't a hospital gown. I let my blonde hair flow freely down my back. I glance down at my wrist. The wrappings are still on it, but I know it's getting better. It doesn't hurt as much as it did before.

When I pull the curtain back, I lock eyes with James Barnes.

Tessa is nowhere in sight. His mouth parts, and the both of us don't say a word. I'm not sure what's appropriate here. Do I say something? Hug him? Kiss him? I mean, the last I remember seeing him, he was carrying my bloody body out of a HYDRA base. The last time he'd seen me, I was hanging on for my damn life in a hospital bed.

Dude, say something. Do something. Smile. Blink. Breathe. You're not breathing. I inhale deeply, feeling only a slight twinge inside of me.

"Vick?" He says it so quietly, like he can't believe I'm up and standing, in one piece. Battered and mending, but still in one piece.

I smile tenderly. "Hey, Jimmy."

Instead of frowning like I expect, he returns my smile with his own. "I thought we agreed that was never gonna come out of your mouth again?"

"Give a girl a break, I'm hurt." I pout. "I would play the death card, but that's a little too much."

"Just a bit." He takes careful steps towards me, brushing hair behind my ear. His flesh hand pinches my chin between his fingers. "I've missed you." His cheeks go bright red, eyes full of embarrassment.

"I didn't go anywhere."

"Felt like you did. It felt like you were almost not gonna come back." He quirks his mouth. "мое чудо."

"Translation, please." I'm slightly irritated with how he keeps doing this. He knows I'm not fluent in Russian.

His eyes fall to the floor, and I hear the stutter in his voice. "'My miracle.'"

"I didn't do anything extraordinary to deserve that, James." I put a hand against his cheek, my thumb rubbing up high on it. "If anything, I should be calling you that. Doesn't sound as pretty in English as it does Russian, though."

"You're kidding, right?" he says. "Vick, you've...Don't get me started."

"On what?"

"You've bounced back. You've fought your battles, and you won them. Even when things looked bleak, you shined."

"Dude, it's not like I found the cure for cancer."