"Oh, I can come back later," You say
"No, it's okay, is everything alright?" You notice that he looks slightly uncomfortable, you're going to be as quick as possible.
"I was just gonna say that I'm going to sleep now, so I'll see you tomorrow, you should get some sleep as well, you're still drunk remember," You smile at him, and he does the same back.
"Sleep well y/n," He backs away from the door, "I'll hopefully be seeing you tomorrow," He says as he closes the door, you step back and turn around to your room, only then do you realise how hot your face is, you must look such a mess. You enter your room and close the door behind you, you've decided to change your bed sheets, since you don't like the idea of sleeping where your dead body once was. After you've finished, you get changed into an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts before you turn off the lights and lie down in bed. Out of nowhere, a thought pops into your head, what if you don't wake up in the morning? What if Bruce and Tony blame themselves? You'll never know, all you can do is hope. The thoughts stay in your head until your mind shuts off and you fall into a deep sleep.
Luckily, you wake up the following morning, clearly some people hadn't expected you to, judging by the fact Bucky and Nat are stood at the end of your bed, staring you down. When they see you awake, they rush over to your side.
"What are you doing in here?" You ask, "I was just sleeping,"
"Well we just," Bucky starts,
"We just wanted to see if you were okay," Nat finishes.
"Really," You say, unconvinced, "Or did you just want to see if I'd wake up?"
"Maybe..." Bucky mutters
"To be honest I didn't think I would either, but here I am." You smile sadly at Nat, before swinging your legs off the side of the bed. "Well, now you know I'm not dead could you please leave. Thanks." Nat sighs as you stand up and practically push her out of the room.
"If you don't feel well y/n, you have to tell me, okay?"
"Fine," you smile as they both walk towards the door, Bucky turns around and smiles at you nervously before he leaves.
You close the door behind them and slump down onto the floor, you still have a pain in your chest, but hopefully Tony and Bruce will help with that. You stay leant against your door for a few minutes before pulling yourself up and going to get dressed. After that, you brush your teeth and hair. You're just about to open the door to leave when someone on the other side knocks, startling you.
"Shit," you mutter, before opening the door to see Tony stood there, looking happier but more tired than usual.
"It's good to see you too," he laughs, "Me and Bruce have practically finished if you'd like to come and check it out."
"Really?!" Your eyes light up, "I'd love to," Tony grins and gestures for you to go ahead of him. You stride out of your room and walk quite quickly down the corridor towards the lab. When you get there, Bruce is leant over one of the worktops, clearly busy.
"She's here Bruce," You hear Tony shout behind you. A few moments later, Bruce puts down his equipment and turns to face you.
"Good morning y/n," He says cheerfully, you can tell he hasn't slept, the dark rings around his eyes are a big giveaway. "Would you like to come and have a look at what's going in your chest."
"Sure," You grin and walk over to him, he's holding a weird-looking metallic object. It definitely isn't an arc reactor. A ring of black material holds a clump of metal (probably vibranium) together, it's shiny, and you can see two pieces of wire just sticking out of one side. Bruce explains to you that when implanted into your body, the metal ball will send tiny electric shocks through your heart to keep it beating. You're still nervous about the operation, but the fact Bruce is doing it makes you feel safer.
"Do you know when it's being put into my chest?" You ask,
"How about now?" Bruce smiles,
"Seriously? I thought you said it wasn't quite finished,"
You turn around to see Tony grinning, "Bruce is a very speedy worker when he wants to be. So, what do you say?"
"Anything to stop it hurting," Tony nods while Bruce smiles sadly.
About half an hour later, you're laying down on an operating table. Tony called in his friend Stephen to help Bruce with the operation, he's a doctor and a superhero apparently, and now he's talking with Bruce quietly in the corner. A few minutes later they walk over to you.
"Are you ready for this y/n?" Bruce asks sweetly, you nod in response, "You're going to fall asleep about ten seconds after Stephen administers the anaesthetic, so if there's anything you want to say now then please do so." You shake your head, Stephen then nods at Bruce. You immediately feel the anaesthetic affecting your body, and without realising, you reach out and grab Bruce's hand before your eyes close and the doctors get to work.
Quite a long time later, you reopen your eyes to see a bright light above you and immediately close them again. After a while, they kind of get used to the light and you manage to sit up slightly. Something feels different, your chest, the pain isn't there anymore. Well it hurts, but it stings now, and as you look down you can see the fresh stitches in a line, slightly to the left, they're perfectly sewn, that Stephen must be a good doctor. Surprisingly, you're not in a great deal of pain, and you slowly manage to get out of bed.
You leave the room, still dressed in a hospital gown, and head towards the kitchen. Out of the windows you can hardly see anything, it's late now, probably around midnight. The team will probably still be awake, hopefully not Tony and Bruce, they need to sleep. When you reach the kitchen, it's surprising that nobody's there, until you see the time, 3am. You must have been out of it for a while. You help yourself to a cup of coffee and sit at the table, looking out the window onto nothingness. Suddenly, you feel a hand on your shoulder and you spin around, knocking your coffee over yourself and the table in the process.
"Holy shit Bucky," You put your head in your hands, "Sorry, you terrified me,"
"I am so sorry," He looks around a few drawers before pulling out a cloth, "I'll clean it up," He wets the cloth and starts cleaning the coffee off the table, "So, how do you feel,"
"Honestly, so much better," You must be smiling a lot, because Bucky's doing the same.
"That's great, did you just wake up then?" He asks, you nod in reply.
"What about you, why are you up so early?" He pauses for a moment before answering you.
"Nightmares mainly, about hydra and all the Winter Soldier stuff, sometimes I just physically can't sleep, Bruce has tried everything, but he can't help." He sighs.
"Have you ever done anything that's worked?" You ask, "Has anything stopped the nightmares?"
"Actually yes," He smiles to himself, "When Steve's there I don't really have them. I guess that's because he makes me feel safe, you know?"
"I think I do actually," You smile, remembering the night Bruce was there, you slept perfectly. Out of nowhere, you realise something and gasp, "Bucky, what day is it?"
"December 24th if I'm not mistaken, the morning of Christmas Eve."
"Seriously? How am I supposed to get people presents?"
"We can go out later if you want, I haven't had time to buy anything either."
"Thanks Bucky," you smile, he's finished cleaning up the mess and he's turned towards you.
"That suits you by the way," You look down to see what he's talking about, your pale blue gown has a damp brown patch where the coffee spilt on you.
"Oh God, I'll go get changed, see you later."
"See you soon," Bucky smiles as you walk into the lift and back to the room you came from. You carefully peel your gown off and pull on your black sweater. Somebody, probably Bruce left them on a chair by your bed. You grimace as your hand brushes against your stitches, but you carry on getting dressed, just more cautiously.
When you're finished, you head back to see Bucky, and you're pleasantly surprised to see him talking to Bruce when you get there.
"Hi guys," You say, and they turn to face you,
"Oh hello y/n," Bruce greets you, "Do you feel okay?"
"Yeah I'm good,"
"Me and Bruce were just talking," Bucky pipes up, "I can't go out today, I'm helping Tony set the party up, Bruce just volunteered to go with you if you wanted,"
"That sounds great," You say, trying to hide your grin.
"Have fun you two, I'm gonna go back to sleep," Bucky walks past Bruce and winks at you before leaving the kitchen.
"So," Bruce begins, "Would you like something to eat?" You nod. There's no way Bucky isn't setting you two up, but for some reason you're not angry, if anything you're thankful...