Her White Wolf

Chapter Twenty-Six

"If you want to." James lifted his head and sighed. "I feel like this is my fault."

"Buck," Steve prompted, reaching out to rest his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Her symptoms are not your fault. I'll give you that you're the one that got her pregnant, but there wasn't any way to know anything about this." He was worried about Bucky; he didn't want him to pull away from Cleo when she needed him. "What can I do?"

"I just want to know that she'll be okay. Is... are you able to get ahold of Bruce?" He asked. "Could he help?"

Steve considered it before nodding faintly. "I'll reach out to him, see if I can get him here. But the most immediate thing is getting Cleo to the infirmary. If you don't think you can do it, I can."

"I need to sort Eagle out in the backyard if we're going to be there for a little while," James answered. "I'll be there as soon as I can, okay?"

Steve frowned but nodded, resting his hands on his hips. "Okay. We'll see you down there." Steve went back upstairs and carefully picked up Cleo from the floor. He laid her carefully in the back of the car before he drove her over to the palace, where Shuri got her set up.

James quickly made sure Eagle was secured and had access to his large doghouse, then made sure he had fresh food and water. After that he made an entry in his journal before jogging to the palace to join Steve and Cleo.

Steve sat at Cleo's side holding her hand, trying to soothe her. She'd woken up as she felt needles slipping into her veins and she was immediately disoriented. The confusion caused by dehydration was setting in and the best thing they could do was get her on an IV of fluids. She weakly tried to pull away from the medical team as Steve spoke to her.

"Cleo, it's okay, you're okay," he attempted to soothe, but it wasn't working. He glanced behind him as he heard footsteps, and he waved Bucky over. "Your presence must work better."

James quickly walked over to them and got into Cleo's line of sight. "Hey, baby doll. I'm right here. Let them help you."

James's voice was enough to pull her attention and as her confused eyes settled on him, she released Steve's hand and reached for the dark-haired man. "What... why? Why are they..." she tried to ask.

"Cleo, it's okay," Shuri tried to coax from her other side, using two of the staff to hold the other woman's arm down so that she could get the fluids attached.

"They're just giving you an IV. You're dehydrated and the baby is taking everything it can," he explained softly.

Something in the quality of James's voice held Cleo's attention long enough for Shuri to get her connected to the IV. Along with fluids was nausea medication in hopes that she would be able to keep something down later.

"The baby... is the baby okay?" she asked, feeling a new flush of panic.

"The baby is fine, Cleo," Shuri tried to assure her.

"Please, don't hurt the baby, please," she begged, looking between Shuri and James.

"Shh, nobody is going to hurt the baby." James moved to wrap his body around Cleo, cradling her to him. He looked up at Steve with tears in his eyes, forcing them not to fall. I did this. I did this to her.

Cleo whimpered against James's chest as Steve stood beside them, wishing there was more he could do to help. It was clear that Cleo wanted this baby. The hurt in his best friend's eyes triggered redness in his own. He reached out and rested his hand on Bucky's back.

"You'll feel better soon, okay?" Shuri's voice said as she added a large dose of anti-nausea medication to the drip along with the fluids. She then turned and picked up some sensors from the table beside her before she leaned in to put them on Cleo's lower belly. "I'm monitoring the baby too. Everything is fine." It was a moment or two later that an audible fluttering heartbeat could be heard along with Cleo's vitals.