Leave Me Bleeding [Winter Soldier] I

Take a Chance [Chapter 21]

"Love is the only thing capable of turning an enemy into a friend."

-Martin Luther King Jr.

                She wasn't dead.

                She couldn't be.

                She was thinking.

                She was aware.

                Forcing her eyes open, Ophelia saw a blur of blackness and dark blue combined. Taking a moment to let her eyes adjust and adapt, the blur took shape; Steve and Bucky were still fighting. 

             Blood pooled around her, and she gasped as she lifted her head off of the ground to watch the fight happening around her. Below her she could see the water that was underneath them; the carrier had lifted quite high in the air now. She was able to get onto her hands and knees despite the pounding in her head and the sharp bouts of pain everywhere else. The blood, she discovered, was her own. 

             Her eyes focused on Bucky as Steve grabbed his arm and pulled it backwards at a hyperextended position. She could see his muscles straining against the flesh surrounding them, but she could only imagine the pain.

                "Drop it!" Steve shouted, demanding Bucky to release the chip that was in his grasp.

                When he gripped it tighter, Steve wasted no time and popped his shoulder out of the socket. Steve was running out of time, and running out of options. Bucky's scream caused Ophelia to wince, she just wanted all of this to be over. She knew they would face something like this when she agreed to help, though, she never imagined it would be this difficult. She knew that this man in front of her was not Bucky, and might very well never be Bucky ever again; that made it harder to watch.

                Even after having his arm popped out of the socket, that sound having been heard by Ophelia a few feet away, Bucky still held onto the chip. So Steve flipped him onto his back and wrapped his arms around his neck to choke him into unconsciousness. Ophelia felt the tears mix with the blood that pooled from her left temple; surprisingly it was only a minor head wound, likely a concussion, but she was alive. 

                Steve's leg wrapped around Bucky's metal arm, holding it down so that he could finish what he started. Ophelia could hardly bear to watch as Steve strangled Bucky, telling herself over and over that this was not Bucky in front of her. Steve wasn't planning on killing him today if he didn't have to, and was avoiding that possibility at all costs.

                When his body went limp, Steve grabbed the chip and ran for the control panel. Ophelia dragged herself along the glass, glad that it was slick with her blood as it made it easier to bring herself towards Bucky. The risk she was taking by getting closer to him could mean her life, but  she needed to see his face once again. Rolling him over took all of her remaining strength, and though she managed, she was wheezing at the end of it, coughing up blood onto his black shirt. Gaining control of her weakened body, the searing pain blinding her again for a moment, Ophelia looked upon Bucky's face.

                He had the appearance of serenity for the first time ever.

                He looked so peaceful.

                She brushed a strand of his brown hair out of his face; the scruff on his cheeks tickled her bloodied wrist. As she pulled herself over him slightly, in almost a protective manner, she wanted to press her lips to his as she had in the snow. Of course he would be non-responsive, she knew that he would not wake like in some fairy tale. He would not remember who she was, and he would not have a change of heart like she had so desperately hoped.