Chapter 4

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Everything was heavy. And foggy. Her brows furrowed as she tried to surface from the exhaustion and weariness settled deep within her. The last thing she remembered was...

Fire. Heat. Pain. Exhaustion. Blood. Blue eyes...

The warehouse. The Soldier. Was she dead? Her eyes were so heavy.

She focused on wiggling her fingers. Movement. Good sign. Then her toes. Okay. Not dead. Or paralyzed.

As the weight lifted, she could feel...something soft beneath her. Must be a bed. A blanket.

Warmth. Sunshine?

Voices murmuring from somewhere. Soldier? No. Bucky. And...Sam.

And the smell of - Bacon! God, it had been so long since she'd had bacon. Had any real food. Being on the run, in hiding - didn't lend itself to a steady job and food security.

As the last bit of drowsiness lifted, the pain quickly took its place. Her right side was aching, throbbing. Slowly, she lifted her left hand beneath the blanket and reached toward her right side. She felt something cotton over her side, the edges of a bandage of some soft beneath.

Finally, she pried her eyes open, greeted by a white ceiling. She turned her head to get a better look at the damage. She noted the large white t-shirt and sweatpants swallowing her small frame - that's new. She remembered the Soldier - no, Bucky - She remembered Bucky cutting her suit away and...

The pain in his eyes at the sight of her scar.

She took a shaky breath, any movement of her body painful, the expansion of her chest exceptionally sharp.

Her stomach rumbled. With the pain, she wasn't sure how successful moving would be, if she could even get herself up. Still, there was bacon somewhere in this place, and she was not going to miss out on that. She lifted the blanket back with her left arm, trying not to jar her body too much with her movements. Slowly, she moved her feet to hang over the bed, twisting toward her right side, trying her best to ignore the pain searing through her. As she began pushing herself upward, she realized there was no way to do this without engaging her right side. Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself to sit upright as fast as she could, toes finally coming to rest on the hardwood floor. She felt something snap on her right side, and she sucked in a breath, black spots creeping into her vision as she reached her left hand across her abdomen to hold her right side. Her fingers met something wet, sticky, but her mind couldn't comprehend what it was.

She raised her right arm gingerly, reaching for the wall across from the bed, and straightened her legs to stand, bracing herself against the wall. The whole room tipped. Just focus, she thought. Breathe.

"Ow."

She gingerly straightened, feeling more grounded for a moment, until she tried to step forward and the room lurched again. She saw the floor rising towards her but before she could hit the floor, her chest hit something hard and arms wrapped around her.

"I've got you."

She looked up to see who was holding her up, blinking rapidly to clear the black spots threatening to overtake her vision. "Sam."

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Sleeping Beauty."

"Can you tell the room to stop spinning now?"

Sam laughed. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

"But I smell bacon."

Sam laughed again. "Let's get you back in bed and order some room service for you."

Death Where is Your Sting? - B. BarnesWhere stories live. Discover now