You held out your hand, finally accepting Steve's help so that you could stand, feeling a wobble in your gait despite your determination to keep it from him. Steve looked at you skeptically, but you ignored him, your eyes fixed on Bucky with each uncertain step closer. With his free hand, Steve pushed his own chair closer to the gurney so that you could sit again, but as usual, you declined him, much to his annoyance.

"(Y/N), sit. You look like you're going to fall over."

"I'm fine."

"The only way that you're getting rid of me is to follow orders."

"You're really pulling rank right now?"

Your answer came with only a look of determination and a hint of a smile at his ingenuity. Reluctantly and with a loud huff to be sure he caught it, you sat in the chair, looking back expectantly until he got the hint this time, finally turning to leave and give you privacy. You kept your eyes on him until the door closed securely after he passed through, and once you were sure that he had gotten far enough away, you stood at Bucky's side once again with a hand on the bed rail to keep yourself steady.

"Buck," you began in a whisper, "Steve's right. You need to wake up." Your eyes were drawn to the monitors over his head, the readings merely groups of that meant nothing to you; there was a time long ago that you might have been able to interpret them when Bruce had explained the basics, but now, they were just numbers. "And I do need you, okay? Is that what you're waiting to hear?"

A few quickening beeps on the monitor caught your attention, drawing your eyes up to study the waves and spikes that seemed to represent his heartbeat, at your best guess. You turned to look towards each door to the room to see if a nurse or anyone would respond, but there wasn't anyone coming in, so you took it to be okay. Of course, now that you had been standing for a few minutes again, you had to silently curse Steve for being right, feeling a little dizzy and off balance enough to make you take your seat at the bedside again.

"Bucky, I don't want the last things that we say to each other to be a fight, and if you don't wake up so that I can apologize...if you don't wake up, how am I going to tell you that I was wrong? I know that it wasn't you who made me into that person. I know that. Over this past year, I've seen the real you, and you've made me into someone so much better than that person you found on that very first day here." Another few beeps drew your attention again, only this time, they didn't slow. "Buck?"

He didn't respond outwardly that you could see, but when your hand wrapped around his, you could feel his attempt to grab back. Either that, or you had a very vivid imagination and that was what you wanted to feel. Your fingers intertwined with his, exactly as they had done so many times as you walked side-by-side through your now obliterated village, or when you sat by each other on a lazy night reading in silence at home, or as you pushed yourself closer to him as you slept, finding his high metabolism to be a fantastic warmth on cool nights. You closed your eyes and allowed your memories to run free, without saying a word; you allowed the immersion to take you from this moment filled with fear that you would never hear his voice soothing you to sleep again, or that you might never see the depth of the color of his eyes as he looked at you just before another perfect kiss. If you thought about it too much, you knew that the fear would win.

You sat up with a startle at the sound of a door opening behind you, but you didn't turn to see who was joining you. When a hand gently touched your shoulder and a soft kiss was pressed to your hair, you realized that you didn't need to ask. "Hey, Nat."

"Any word?"

"Just to wait," you sighed heavily, "like always. They say that like it's supposed to be hopeful, you know? Like, at least he's not dead, so just wait and see because it could always be worse. But, Nat, I don't know how they think that anything is worse than this. This limbo of just...nothing."

"Okay," she nodded sympathetically, her eyes moving to look at your joined hands, "so then let me wait with you. Talk to me." She found another chair on the other side of the room, hurrying to grab it and position it next to you, almost as if you would begin talking before she could get back and she would miss something.

"About what?"

"I haven't seen you in a year. Tell me what it was like."

~~~

"Hey, come here, doll," Bucky summoned, reaching out for you. He was standing by the door of a small village shop that you hadn't visited before, even in the long months that you had spent there, and as you looked at the sign above the door before entering, you wondered how you had missed it for so long.

"What are you up to?"

"Up to?" he smiled, clutching his chest in mock hurt. "Why would you think that I'm up to something? I would never!"

"Mmm hmm," you answered skeptically, taking his hand to allow him to lead you inside. "Alright, so if you're not up to anything, what did you find in here? I'm sure that it's terribly expensive and something that we absolutely do not need."

Bucky simply smiled, that stupid, lopsided grin that you couldn't help but smile back to, looking equally as lovesick as he was now. He led you towards the owner, who was standing behind the counter at the back of the shop and waiting for you as if he had been expecting your arrival. You looked around to be sure that your mind wasn't toying with you and making you forget something that you actually had seen before, because that was completely plausible now, but you felt secure that this place was new to you.

"(Y/N), this is Alex," he introduced you, "he helped me find my first place here when I left Hydra. He's a good guy."

"Nice to meet you," you joined in, extending your hand, which he took willingly and kissed before releasing it back to Bucky.

"Well, I do my best," Alex nodded. "Which I hope to have done for you again, sir." He turned with a hand up to excuse himself, hurrying behind a draped doorway and into the back of the shop. You could hear him forage around for a few minutes as Bucky seemed to do everything he could to avoid your eyes when you looked to him for an answer as to what he had planned.

"So, you're not telling me anything?"

"Shh," he smirked, "where's the trust, doll?"

"Pfft, I know you."

His hand tightened around yours when Alex appeared again, but only for a second before he released you and stepped closer to the man for a private conversation that you were clearly meant to miss. Bucky had let you go for only a moment, but something about him being up to something despite his arguments to the contrary left you more eager to be in contact than usual. You had both left a world of secrets behind, and even though there was nothing underhanded going on here, you still didn't like them. He must have sensed your apprehension, turning around with a calm look back, his hand out to take yours as if it had missed you. "So? What do you think?"

"About what..." you began, confused at first, but your eyes were quickly drawn to the small box in his other hand and the ring that shimmered in the light within it. "Oh...oh, my god, Bucky, is that-?"

"I know a good decision when I make it, (Y/N)," he broke in, taking a step closer. "And I know when something is right, and this is. You are. Nothing has ever felt more right than when you're here, next to me. I would be a fool to waste one more minute of my life by not asking you if you would spend the rest of them with me."

~~~

"Holy shit, (Y/N)!" Nat jumped from her seat. "Are you guys married?"

"Not officially, but yeah, pretty much," you answered quietly. "We had a little ceremony back in Romania, and we were going to make it legal whenever we decided to come back here, but we were having trouble deciding on when that was going to be. Honestly, Nat, I don't think he ever wanted to."

"Can't say I blame him. It sounds like you guys were pretty happy there."

"You're married?"

Both you and Nat jumped at Steve's voice from the doorway, echoing through the room around you, despite the lack of anger in it. There was no reason for him to be angry about this, but his tone was serious rather than carrying any happiness for either of you in it.

"We were going to tell you, Cap," you tried, but he put up a hand to stop you as he approached.

He took his place to stand behind you, looking at Bucky while resting his hands on your shoulders to both support you and to hold himself up from the anxiety he felt. This was all so unfair; the two of you had been so broken and so lost after what Hydra had done, and he couldn't believe that he was standing here now, hearing that you were so close to finding your own lives only to have them tear it all apart again. "Congratulations," he answered simply, moving so that he could kneel in front of you and meet your eyes. "I promise, we're going to do everything we can, okay? Tony's already called in the best doctors to get their opinion too. We're not going to just sit back and wait. We're going to figure this out and he's going to wake up."

"I know, Steve," you smiled, "thanks."

"That's my girl," he nodded, standing again with a quick kiss on your cheek before moving to his place behind you again, only to hurry out of your way when you jumped up to the sound of the one voice you needed to hear.

"That's my...girl..." Bucky mumbled softly, "get...your own...punk."

The End