Hidden | Bucky Barnes

eight

•••

Natasha and Bucky walked inside the room that Shuri showed them too. Bucky's heart broke as he opened the door and saw a very fragile looking Ellie, who was hooked up to so many machines.

"I didn't make it to Berlin." Ellie joked weakly.

"Are you sure? Looks like Berlin to me." Bucky laughed quietly sitting on the chair next to her bed and taking her hand and kissing it lightly, causing her to smile slightly.

"Are you-"

"Are you-" Ellie and Bucky began to ask at the same time.

"Sorry, I keep jumping the gun today." Ellie told him laughing at her own joke.

Bucky smirked. "Gun puns? Really?" To which she just shrugged with a small smile on her pale face.

"How's everyone else?" Ellie asked as Natasha sat down on the other side of her bed.

"Eliana, you were shot 9 times and you want to know how everyone else is?" Natasha laughed.

"Well that is why I asked."

"They, uh, they're ok." Bucky lied easily, earning a curious look from Natasha.

"Oh thank God." Ellie muttered.

Natasha and Bucky caught each other's eyes for a moment almost as if they we're communicating with their eyes.

"What's wrong?" Ellie asked catching both of the attentions. "What aren't you telling me?" She panicked looking frantically between the two of them.

"El, I need you to calm down or you're going to hurt yourself even-" Bucky was cut off by Ellie putting her hand over her mouth holding in a cry, as she realised what might be happening.

"I'm gonna go." Natasha muttered leaving the room quickly.

"Is it, gone?" She whispered a few tears rolling down her face as he gripped her hand tighter.

"Ellie-"

"Is. It. Gone?" She repeated.

"Yeah." Bucky said quietly, choking back his own tears.

"I'm so sorry." She cried as he sat next to her on the bed, putting his arm around her and resting his head on top of hers.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault, Ellie. You did it to protect me. It wasn't your fault." He reassured her a hint of pain in his voice, as her cries got louder.

- - -

Almost 4 hours had passed and a peaceful nights sky had fallen over Wakanda. Steve had finally managed to drag Bucky and Nat away from Ellie and had convinced them that they should sleep.

Ellie was pulled from her uncomfortable sleep by somebody sniffling and talking to who she assumed to be her, but decided to keep her eyes closed.

"I'm so sorry." The voice, Ellie recognised as Tony's, muttered. "I never meant for any of this to happen, I was fighting for what I believed to be the best thing for everybody. I was wrong, you didn't deserve to be dragged into this. Barnes was right, I don't get to be sorry because it was and it is my fault. I killed your child." He spoke, she could tell he was crying as she felt a tear drop onto her hand that he was holding lightly.