Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter XI - I Can Live With That

The sickly sweet smell of the solution used to clean the wounded seemed to cling to the air that evening. Elizabeth dried her eyes once more as she moved between the beds, trying to maintain a gentle laugh at the soldiers' stories and making sure each man was comfortable. Taking a seat next to her next patient Elizabeth smiled at the man.

"Evening Soldier. How are you feeling tonight?" Her voice was calm and steady, while her soul was anything but.

Steve Rogers had left three days ago. Three agonising days and excruciating nights had passed since she sent Captain America to certain death. If she thought about it for very long she would be sick. She had been sick many times these last three days.

"I'm doing okay Ma'am. It hurts, but that's the price of war. I may not be pretty anymore, but I'm still free, so how can I complain."

Elizabeth smiled as she let his positivity radiate through her for the briefest of moments before removing his old bandage and beginning the steps of replacing it with a fresh covering. She was so focused on her work, on not hurting this man who had clearly been through enough, that she didn't hear it at first.

It wasn't until the familiar crunch of crutches against the stones beneath them crept up to her that Elizabeth noted the silence in the tent. Elizabeth noted the silence in the tent and chaos outside.

Her eyes darted up from her work and met the excited gaze of Sergeant Matthews.

"You're not in bed Matthews."

"I have a feeling someone else is going to need it more Miss Halsted."

"Matthews..."

"Go Elizabeth." He grinned at her as she turned to the nearest nurse and passed her the bandages.

"Lucy, please finish up here and add the time of change to his chart. Thank you."

Elizabeth might as well have ran from the tent, ripping the bloody apron from her uniform and throwing it towards the hamper the nurses used to store uniform that required cleaning. She pushed through the entrance to the tent and stumbled over her own feet.

There were hundreds of men. Hundreds of starved and exhausted men. Hundreds of patients she should start to triage. And yet, she stood rooted to the spot. Her eyes searching, unable to find him. With every passing second she felt the rising wave of despair growing. Where was he?

She brought a hand up to her forehead and twisted to look around the groups gathering near Colonel Phillips.

It was like the air was sucked from the atmosphere, like the world somehow span faster and stopped at exactly the same moment, like the very gravity that held her tethered to the ground beneath her was both amplified and suspended at once.

She couldn't move as he pushed his gun towards another man, never breaking eye contact. She couldn't think straight as she took in the man now marching towards her with determination. She couldn't breathe as he pulled her into him, one hand on the small of her back, pinning her against him, the other gently holding her face. She could do nothing but give in to him as his lips met hers with such a soft urgency that she felt every worry and every fear melt away. She felt her hands move, her fingers wrap themselves in his hair as she pulled him closer to her still, drinking him in as life itself came back to her.

When they broke apart, breathless and flushed, James Buchanan Barnes laughed as his thumb gently brushed over her cheek. It was music to her ears and she drowned in it.

"That was worth the wait." He whispered as his forehead rested gently against hers.

A roar of cheers and applause erupted from the men around them as the reality of where they were dawned on Elizabeth. The crimson of her blush spread from her chest up to her cheeks as she moved to take a step away from Bucky but his arm tightened around her and she let him pull her back.