epiphany || bucky barnes

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

TWO MONTHS LATER.
MAY, 2024

Where am I?

Oh god, it feels like I've been asleep for years.

I'm nauseous.

Why the hell is it so loud in here?

Christ, since when did my nose get an upgrade? Everything smells so damn strong...

My eyes fluttered open slowly, quickly shutting again to protect my virgin irises from the bright white lights. I attempted to move my hands to cover my face until I realized I was strapped in place. I forced my eyes open again, adjusting weakly to the light as I turned my head slightly. A blurry figure came into view, resembling Shuri.

"Shuri...." I whispered. Oh, my god does it hurt to talk...

She didn't hear me, talking to another scientist. I could barely hear anything, their voices muffled. "Shuri...!" I breathed, the sudden influx of air making me cough.

This time, she heard me loud and clear. Hurriedly, she unstrapped my restraints and grabbed a light, shining it in my already irritated eyes. I winced and blocked my eyes with my cold hands. "Stop..."

"I had to make sure you were actually awake... sorry." She said, turning off the light and setting it down on the medical table beside me.

Slowly, her voice became more clear the more I grew used to living life outside of being an ice cube. My mind was cloudy, not being able to form a coherent thought. "How long was I out for...?"

"Thanks to the research done on Bucky's brain before yours... We were able to cut your time spent in cryofreeze in half. Two months." she said, typing some notes down on her laptop before continuing to attend to my medical needs.

"Is she out...? Is Pandora gone...?" I asked in a hoarse whisper.

Shuri smiled, "She is..."

A sigh of relief left my parted lips as I fell back on the padded table, blinking slowly. "Oh... oh thank god... Bucky... Where's Bucky?"

"He should be on his way now. We took you out a few hours ago, but you needed to defrost and come to first..." She responded.

I nodded, bringing my hand to my neck to feel the now warm dog tags resting against my cold skin. My hand brushed over the metal before my arms encircled me entirely in response to my still freezing extremities. When my arms pressed against my chest, a wave of pain soared through my body. I gasped, taking my arms away from my chest.

Shuri turned back when she heard my surprise. "What's wrong?"

I blinked a few times,  before bringing my hand to one of my breasts and prodding around it. I groaned, grimacing and shaking my head. "Ow... oh god, my boobs are sore as hell..."

Shuri blinked, tilting her head. "What?"

"I told you my boobs are sore, Shuri!" I replied, looking up at her. "That's not a side effect of cyrofreeze, I can tell you that much."

She furrowed her brows in confusion. "You're correct... you really shouldn't be feeling any pain right now," she said, pushing off her desk with her rolly chair rolling to her opposite computer. 

"Man, that rolly chair looks like fun right about now..." I whispered.

"Let me run some tests. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's a freak thing. After all, we're always trained to expect the unexpected, huh?" She hummed, grabbing another needle and readying it to extract blood for bloodwork.