I tried to breathe through her crushing hug, blinking rapidly to try and clear the remaining tears in my eyes as I looked over her shoulder at everyone else that I suddenly realized was gathered. I slowly pulled away from Pepper's hug, my eyes darting over all of their expressions, which was a mix or happiness, relief or anxiety.

"What's happening?" I asked, wincing at the sound of my voice, which was still croaky and raspy.

Bruce gave me a glass of water and I took it, giving him a hesitant smile as I quickly guzzled all of the water, soothing my parched throat. Everyone looked at me, but as soon as I met their gazes, they gave me a tight-lipped smile and looked away. 

"How are you feeling kiddo?" Tony spoke up and I looked over at him to see him giving me a hesitant smile.

"What is happening?" I demanded, my voice a little stronger this time as I felt my anxiety wake up and begin to take its grip on me. "Why are you all here? In the Lab?"

"Look down kiddo." Tony murmured and I looked down at myself and saw that I was in a hospital-like gown, my legs completely hidden under sheets but my hands were exposed, covered in tubes that I traced back to the machines all around me.

"What happened?" I repeated again, for the third time, but my words were weaker than previously, my tone shaking as my hands began to tremble.

"You don't remember?" Steve spoke up, and I turned to my left to see him standing there, his face grave, but the sharpest thing that stood out to me was that Bucky wasn't standing next to him, like he almost always was.

"No." I replied uncertainly, my eyes darting over all of the faces in the Lab, finding that Bucky was the only one that was missing. "Where's Bucky?"

"He's... in his room." Steve murmured, his response somewhat hesitant. "He's not exactly... stable at the moment."

"What do you mean?" My anxiety had its full grip on me, squeezing my head painfully. "What happened to him?"

"Something happened to you." Tony spoke up and I looked to the right again to look at him as he stood behind Pepper, who was sitting on my bed, trying to smile comfortingly. "And Barnes didn't take it well."

"I want to go see him." I said, but before I could even move a finger, everyone took a step forward to stop me, causing me to flinch away from the sudden movements.

"Sorry kiddo." Tony saw my terrified expression and Pepper squeezed my hand comfortingly. "What we meant was that we will bring him to you."

I nodded and Tony looked at Steve, who hurried out of the Lab. As he walked out the door, I spotted a figure in the shadows of the room, behind the crowds.

"Loki?" I called out uncertainly, and the figure jerked slightly for a moment before the Avenger's parted and he slowly walked over to me.

The first thing that I noticed about him was that his face was paler and thinner, it was drawn tightly across his cheekbones and jaw. His green eyes were dull and he had purple rings under his eyes, which darted over my face like he was seeing me for the first time.

"Are you okay?" I asked softly, moving my legs a little so he could sit down on the opposite side of the bed to Pepper.

"I should be asking you that." He chuckled weakly, but there was no humor behind it as he slowly sat down.

"Everybody out." I heard Tony whispering to the other Avengers.

I watched them leave through the door and as soon as the door clicked shut, Loki took my hand, his finger running across any of the skin that wasn't covered by tubes. For some reason, I didn't even try to flinch away.

"Gods Emily." He whispered, seeming to crumble right before me. "You don't know how good it is to see your eyes again."

"What happened to me Loki?" My voice had a tone of begging to it as I asked desperately. "Why is everyone acting so strangely?"

"Something happened to you that we probably shouldn't say just yet." Loki looked down at my hand that he was holding. "I will tell you in time, but not just yet. All you need to know was that it was bad. Bad enough to rattle us all."

"Why can't I know?" I pleaded, horrified that something had happened to me to scare the whole team. It would have been pretty bad if it gave them a shock.

"Its not good for up here at the moment." He seemed to smile through the emotional pain I could see written all over his face. He slowly reached out and gently touched my forehead before sweeping a strand of hair behind my ear.

"Did I hurt my head?" I was desperate to try and piece things together, since my memory was providing useless.

"Somewhat." He gave me another smile full of pain, looking down again and taking to a deep breath, seeming to steel himself. "Look, can we please not talk about it right now?"

"Okay." I whispered, nodding, knowing I would ask all of the questions I had later.

Before I could even say anything else, the glass door of the Lab swung open so harshly that it shattered against the nearby wall, the sharp sound causing me to flinch a little.

"Buck." Steve sighed as I slowly looked up and saw Bucky standing there.

He looked even worse that Loki, his hair was mattered and messy, like he had been pulling at it. His eyes held a kind of crazy like I had never seen before, like he was about to loose control of himself. He was in a navy blue singlet and the black HYDRA cargo pants, but the thing that drew my eyes back to him was the horrible scratches on his body where his metal arm joined with his skin. They looked like claw marks, somewhere concerningly deep and others were still bleeding onto the navy singlet.

"Эмили." He whispered, his whole body seeming to freeze for a moment as my brain immediately recognised my name in Russian.

Loki quickly moved off the bed and Bucky stepped forward, his movements seeming hesitant, his eyes wide like he wasn't believing that he was seeing me.

"Баки" I whispered his name back, smiling through the horror I felt from the scratches on his arm that was no doubt inflicted by himself.

That seemed to break whatever trance he was in, lurching towards me so quickly I thought he wasn't going to be able to stop. He grabbed my face with his hands and the metallic tang of blood filled my nose as I felt his non-metal hand rub over my cheek. His eyes darted over me and sharply pulled me into his chest, resting his head on top of mine.

"Я думал, ты умрешь. (I thought you were going to die)." He whispered into my hair as I breathed in the faint scent of his cologne and I couldn't stop the tears streaming down my cheeks, soaking his singlet.

"I'm okay." I whispered back to him, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Ты выглядел как смерть." He pulled his arms around me tighter. "Мы попробовали все, что могли, но ничего из этого не помогло. Я думал, ты умрешь. (We tried everything we could, but none of it helped. I thought you were going to die)." I pulled away from him and looked up at him to see tears shining in his eyes.

"Really, I'm okay now Bucky." I reached up and wiped away one that managed to escape his eyes.

He didn't say anything and looked at me with broken and sad eyes. My eyes drifted down to the scratches on his shoulder and he followed my faze, his body slumping a little.

"I couldn't bare the sight of it." He murmured softly to me. "I couldn't get it off, not matter how hard I tried." He held his hands out to me and I noticed all of the blood on his non-metal hand and underneath his nails.

"Tony." I looked over at him, where he was standing behind Pepper at the doorway, their gazes still on me. "Can you get a cloth or something?"

He nodded and grabbed a cloth from the sink nearby, handing it to me. I gently held Bucky's flesh hand in mine and began to wipe the blood off, fighting back thoughts that my imagination conjured up of him trying to tear off his metal arm. I gently rubbed under his nails and made sure all of the blood was off his hand before I moved up to his shoulder, making sure to be gentle around the deep scratches. Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I looked over sharply, only to see that it was Tony holding out some bandages. I gave him a small smile and carefully began wrapping them around Bucky's shoulder.

"Emily..." He began, looking down at me and seeming to want to pull away.

"You're still bleeding." I said gently, giving him a look and continued to wrap up the wounds. Once I was done, I handed the bandaged back to Tony before looking at Bucky. "Что со мной случилось? Никто больше мне не скажет (What happened to me? No one else will tell me.)"

Bucky looked at everyone, who was still in the room and watching both of us. He turned to look back at me, gently moving some of my hair out of my face. He began to open his mouth.

"I believe that is classified information, Miss Emily." JARVIS suddenly interrupted and I jumped, not at all expecting him to speak, and Bucky held me close to him, his body tense for a moment at my surprise.

"What did you ask him Emily?" Tony asked, his voice slightly wary.

"She was asking about what happened to her." JARVIS replied and I looked away, hiding my face in Bucky's chest as I felt Tony turn to look at me.

"I can't tell you if they don't want you to know." Bucky murmured, gently brushing my hair with his fingers.

"We'll tell you in time Emily." Steve spoke up. "We promise. But for now, you need to rest and get your strength up."