Longing •Bucky Barnes•

•Twenty Five•

"I'm in." I said flatly turning to Fury.

No one said a word, but we stood in silence for a long moment. The dream tried to shift somewhere else, but I could hear a loud noise that sounded much closer to reality than I expected. I was jolted awake and I rushed up and answered the door ripping Bucky and the sheets from me. Bucky woke, but I was already to the door because clearly someone was trying to get us up urgently.

"Pepper?" I asked because lord knows what hour of the morning it was.

"Tony." She said frantically.

"Tony?" I asked confused, but my eyes shot right open when I realized what she had meant. "Oh my god."

"Come!" She said pulling my arm.

I looked back at Bucky and he was already jumping out of bed. I followed Pepper out the front doors having no idea what the hell was going on. The moon was still out and went we came outside I saw Steve and Nat. I was about to ask what was going on, but I saw a ship coming down from the sky.

To my amazement it wasn't exactly being flown, a person was flying underneath it with the ship in their hands. I was so confused, but my eyes couldn't help but just watch. I was so confused and was just pulled from sleep I had no idea what was even happening. I just prayed that Tony was in this ship and that he was alive. The woman who was setting the ship down stepped away and I saw Mariah approach her and the doors to the ship opened.

I stood there filled with tension hardly able to move. Pepper rushed forward and I could see two figures waiting at the entrance. Just then Bucky came up behind me and I felt his hand at my side. My eyes immediately watered as soon as I saw the small glow of a blue light at one of the figures chests. My knees went to buckle, but I felt Bucky grab me and hold me up.

Pepper nearly flew into his arms as he came to the end of the ramp. I saw her nearly jump into his arms and I heard her cries. He look a lot skinnier and much paler than he had the last time I saw him. As soon as Pepper let go of him his eyes went to me. I was already crying, but I ran forward and hugged him and an involuntary sob left my mouth.

"Val." He said I heard his voice crack.

"I thought you were gone." I said hugging him as tightly as I could. "We were looking everywhere."

"Titan, we got stranded on Titan." He said out of breath.

"How are you alive?" I asked him shakily.

"I don't know Val, I'm so sorry." He said and my eyes looked to the ship behind him.

"Peter, is Peter okay?" I asked him and I pulled back from his arms. His eyes looked empty and I felt his shoulders slack.

"The snap Val, there was nothing I could do." He said and stood still for a moment. "I lost him, I lost the kid."

"I'm sorry Tony." I said softly.

"I can't believe you and Pepper are okay." He said hugging me again tightly.

"Tony you feel cold we should get you inside." I said feeling how cold him limbs were.

Steve and Bucky were at my side and they helped guide him back in. He was walking shakily and he looked very weak. He had lost an abnormal amount of weight but if they had been stranded in space ever since the snap that didn't surprise me. We went back inside and I was happy to get back inside the warm building. Fall breezes rushed through the area as the season's chill neared closer.

I followed them to the medical labs and Bruce did a full examination of him. Apparently he had an infection, but it had run most of it's course. However, you couldn't ignore that it took a lot out of him. His hair was more grey than I had ever seen it before. I sat next to the window allowing me to look and watch and I could see he was tired.