Against all odds you made it through another Monday. Congratz!

Chapter 4.

"Sergeant Barnes?... Sir?...Sergeant Barnes...James!" Friday called out sounding as flustered as artificial intelligence could.

"Mhmm Yeah what's going on?" He asked rubbing his face with his free hand.

"Sir, Dr. Banner is insisting entry. He says its urgent," Friday insisted.

"Yeah yeah of course let him in."

Bucky sat up a little straighter, while trying not to wake Tasha. Bruce rapped on the door lightly before entering.

Bucky noticed he was still wearing the wrinkled blue collared shirt from when he saw him last. His curly hair had at some point been pulled in 6 different directions during the night.

"Hey Doc rough nights all around I'm guessin'?" He asked knowingly.

"Yeah pretty rough, um Tasha is still here right?" He inquired sweeping the room with his eyes.

From the door he couldn't see very well into the living room. He was prepared to play hide and seek the Avengers Tower version with her if he had to. Suddenly Bucky became very aware of the situation. Nat had been adamant about not wanting Bruce around earlier. He didn't know how'd she feel about him seeing her unconscious and sprawled across his lap at that.

"Umm yeah the pain meds have her you know kinda loopy and stuff sleeping everywhere," Buck laughed awkwardly.

He made a circle with his index finger around his temple. Bruce looked toward the stairwell.

"So she's in your room?"

"Uh no she's right here... we were watching a movie and we uh fell asleep."

Bruce finally walked over to them, eyes widening a little at the sight.

Natasha's pink face buried in the soft throw pillow, with her cheek resting close to Buck's chest. Bucky felt bashful like a when his Ma had caught him and Steve stealing cookies from the jar. This time it was Bruce's cookie he had his hands all over. Technically Bruce didn't want it, so he shouldn't care, but oh he totally did. Bucky saw several emotions flicker across his face one behind the other before Bruce could compose himself. Bucky knew that face, it belonged to the face of a man who had it bad. Bruce caught Bucky staring and looked quickly at his Stark pad. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Umm I'm glad she's getting rest."

"Yeah, you missed the puke party. That was super fun. It tuckered her right out. I thought you said you were coming right up. What happened? Tony trap you in an elevator or something?"

"Nope Clint swung by. We had to run some tests."

"He was here? I thought he was sick too?"

"He is. The whole family is actually. Little Nathaniel spent the night in ICU. This thing is pretty bad man."

Bucky's heart dropped at the thought of the tiniest Barton. Bruce went on to explain that Clint had come to pick up a stronger dose of medicine. Bruce also drew blood and ran some tests to see exactly what they were dealing with. He was right the virus was an anomaly. It was definitely the instigation of some kind of biological warfare. The bacteria seemed to change and strengthen with every passing hour they studied it. The lab was now swarming with doctors and pharmacists that Tony had flown in to work on stopping it before it spread.

During this explanation Bucky noticed a weird distortion around Bruce's body. It reminded him of the force fields in Wakanda. Trained eyes could decipher the almost glossy film around the edges. Bruce explained that Tony had designed a high tech all encompassing germ bubble that should keep any of the other team members from getting sick and with those Coulson and Wanda had flown back with Clint to help out.

"Fingers crossed that it works,"Bruce added.

"I thought you couldn't get sick though?"

"Technically the other guy won't let me die but I've had a few ugly colds in my day. Plus if it got Steve the rest of us can get sick too," he quipped passing Bucky a small case with what looked like a tiny blue tooth headset inside.

Bruce pressed the middle button activating the shield around Bucky. His nose, eyes, and mouth suddenly had a strange tingle around them so he supposed it was working.

"Wait Steve is sick too?!"

" 'fraid so,"

"How's that even possible?"

"Like I said this thing is strong. Plus Steve's enhancements were done over 70 years ago.A Lot has changed."

It looked like someone had given up on trying to make super individuals and instead set a plan in motion to destroy any that existed.

"Where's Cap now?"

"On a plane back to New cleared him to leave mission before any civilians got sick," Bruce glanced at his watch," Hmm he should be here in about an hour give or take a few minutes."

Bucky was relieved to hear Steve was coming back home where he could keep any eye on him. He was almost as stubborn as Natasha when he got sick but most of the time Bucky could make him see reason.

Either way he could wrestle him to the ground if need be, he'd done many times before. Ahh it would be just like the good old days, accept the fact that he was dealing with super powered beef cake instead of a 90 pound asthmatic. Bucky scratched his head.

A virus with the strength to take down a super soldier was something you couldn't down play. His grip instinctively tightened around Natasha as if he could stop the virus by force and willpower. Bruce stepped around the couch grumbling about labels while taking several disassembled needles and swabs from his pocket and placing them on the coffee table.

Bucky's eyebrows pulled together.

"What are the needles for ?" Bucky questioned.

" I need to take blood from her and Steve .See how the virus affects supers," Bruce answered.

"Oh perfect she's gonna love that," Bucky said sarcastically.

"You wanna do the honors?"

"What wake her up ? Nope,You're her doctor don't look at me."

"Well, she wouldn't exactly appreciate me jabbing a needle in her. She seems like she likes you soo..."

"What she would really like is if you both would shut up," Nat murmured calmly.

Her voice was the only thing betraying the fact that she wasn't asleep.

Bucky and Bruce both startled at her comment wondering how long she'd been listening.

"Woah, hey. Hi, Nat how're you feeling?" Bruce stuttered.

She sighed.

"That bad huh?"

She sat up straighter, though still in Buck's lap, her back against the armrest. Bruce's nimble fingers quickly assembled the needles between them. He made sure to keep his eyes down and off the pair.

" Umm we need to take some blood Nat okay?"

Surprisingly she didn't put up a single fight. She took the three needles from Bruce and drew out the blood herself like only Natasha would do. They all watched quietly as the dark red liquid pooled and sloshed in the small vials. After that was over Bruce handed her several small red tablets and a dark yellow liquid antibiotic that was to be injected right below her hip every 6 hours.

"We have to treat this pretty aggressively so the meds are pretty strong. You might feel a little high but that's normal."

He made eye contact with Bucky before saying,"You think you can stay close and keep an eye on Bucky for awhile until we get this thing under control?"

She nodded tiredly already drifting back off into her fitful sleep. Bucky tucked the blanket back under her chin. Her head lulled to the side before both men shared a weary glance.

Suddenly the T.V behind Bruce and the coffee table lit up with a message stating incoming video call from none other than Tony Stark. The TV began displaying the scene of a chaotic lab alive with the bustling of white coats rushing back and forth behind it. It seemed like Tony was holding the phone's camera at an angle as he yelled at someone off screen.

The hd camera picked up the dark blue and black circles under his eyes. They made an appearance in only the most stressful and obviously sleep depriving situations maring Tony's otherwise handsome face. Neither him nor Bruce had slept in the past 16 hours, and it didn't look like that would be changing anytime soon.

"Ugh what an idiot," Tony growled under his breath before flashing a fake smile at said idiot when he walked by. He rolled his eyes, then a blank look flashed across his face as if he had forgotten what he was doing at the moment.

"Tony!" Bruce called loudly.

The sound seemed to register to him and he finally looked down at his phone.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, hey Brucie Bear how's everybody looking' over there?"

"They're alive Tones. Not feeling too good though."

"Hey since when are their cameras in my T.V Tony!?" Bucky cried.

"Hey calm down Robocop i'll have you know I've got cameras on every inch of the tower. I only use them in emergency situations. Don't worry your make out sessions with Cap are completely off limits," Tony answered snidely wiggling his eyebrows.

Bucks nose flared. "Ugh I am not dating Steve! Does everybody think that?"

"Yes," Tony answered in sudden seriousness, while Bruce just shrugged in agreement.

"Well I'm not , and I'd appreciate if you all would drop it."

"Denial," Tony chuckled, "Anyways where's my favorite deadly Russian?"

Bruce moved out of his vantage point revealing the woman in question .

"Oh god, is she dead?" he deadpanned quoting Loki without knowing it.

"Nope just knocked out...I hope," Bruce answered taking her wrist in his hands looking for a pulse just to be on the safe side. "Yeah she's okay just asleep."

"Alright we gotta get this thing under wraps. This thing is really starting to annoy the hell out of me."

Both men could discern the worry laced in the billionaire's voice. The virus wasn't just annoying him it was scaring him as well. It was a problem he couldn't blast through or fly away from no matter how badly he wanted to. His friends lives were on the line, and even making the sacrifice play wasn't an option.

Tony finally realized what was wrong with the scene in front of him. One person was not where she should be. Or so he thought.

"Hey, when did you two get so close?" Tony asked Bucky almost accusingly.

Buck didn't get a chance to answer before he turned that same accusatory tone was on Bruce instead.

"You see I told you Bruce ya snooze ya lose. You should've got with her on Clint's farm, but oh no "Mr. Holy Hulk and righteous" got in the way. For a smart person you sure are dumb!"

Bruce was now turning various shades of red and purple, while Bucky assigned himself the task of finding more out about the " Clint's Farm Event". It sounded hilarious.

"Tony stop that! Leave him alone!"

The visual was out of focus for a moment as the phone was ripped out of his hands. It refocused on Pepper's beautiful smiling and freckled face instead.

"Sorry about that. Hey guys how's it going up there?"

"Were fine Pep thanks," Bucky said giving her a small smile.

"I would take the day off to come and help but I leave for a meeting Japan in an hour. I just can't reschedule, but I'll be back as soon as I can. I sent a care package up with Dum-E. It has blankets, NyQuil, Dayquil, fuzzy socks, and fruits and veggies for the nutri- blender we got you. Um I can't think of anything else," she chewed her bottom lip adorably in thought.

"That's great babe you're so thoughtful," Tony interrupted kissing her on the cheek. He sat his chin on her shoulder so he could be in the frame as well.

"Thanks you are too. That's so nice you're letting Bucky use DumE to help out until everyone's better. That's just the sweetest!"

Tony's face screwed into a confused scowl.

"I didn't let Bucky use DumB. He's mine."

"You just did" Pepper," informed promptly while stomping on his foot.

"Ow ow, oh yeah Barnes DumEs coming to help. Ouch you have heels on! "

In all honesty Bucky didn't want or need Tony's robot but he would put up with the accident prone bucket of bolts if only to annoy the genius. He was nice like that.

"Thanks Pepper. Have a safe flight."

"I will and keep me updated. If anyone gets worse I will turn the plane around no questions asked okay James?"

"Yes Ma'am."

Pepper nodded then waved a goodbye, and gave the phone back to her fiancee.

"Alright signing off. Bruce we could use a hand down here, that is if you're not too into your feelings right now," Tony ended the conversation leaving the two men and one very sick assassin by themselves again.

Bruce rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, then pushed his glasses up further on the bridge of his nose.

" Umm I better go help. Let us know if anything you know... um changes. Steve will be here soon. You think you can handle them both or you need backup?"

"I'll hold the fort up here Doc. Don't worry about me."

Bruce nodded. He picked up all he had brought with him carefully labeling Natasha's blood before heading back to the lab. Bucky huffed out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding . He glanced at Natasha who still managed to look gorgeous despite having a potentially deadly disease coursing through her body.

He didnt know whose shoes he'd rather be in Bruce and Tony with all their stressful scientific confusion or his in dealing with two very sick and obstinate individuals. Of all the missions had been given this one was somehow one of the most terrifying.

Killing bad guys was easy. Burn a building to the ground? No problem. Knock a couple a hundred of heads together? Not an issue. Take down a hostile terrorist group without mercy? Done without breaking a sweat. . You never had to worry about them eating or if their leggings were warm enough to keep the chills at bay. Keeping someone you care about alive and comfortable, now this was way harder than any of those. Watching them suffer and being so helpless was never something he handled well. He was trying not to mull over worst case scenarios. Bruce and Tony would fix this they had to. An hour later Friday announced DumE's arrival, breaking into his thoughts.

The bot was balancing a massive basket of Peppers get well goodies. The robot rolled in looking no less happy to be there then he was to have him. Somehow it was able to convey this despite lacking a face. It approached apprehensively. It's wheels somehow getting tangled in the fringes of the living room carpet. The robot let out a somewhat disgruntled beep as it did it best to keep the items in place. A rebel orange knows dived from the top of the basket and onto the floor followed by several of its fruit followers. At the noise Natasha stirred uncomfortably.

"Hey keep it down you clumsy bastard!"Buck chastised.

In response it slowly backed up and untangled itself the best it could hustling into the kitchen and placing the basket on the table carefully. DumE then came back to retrieve what had fallen chirping something eerily similar to the word bastard in Bucks directions.

"What did you say punk?"

It only disrespectfully waved his arm in response going to a corner and making a big display of turning itself off. Attitude. It was definitely Tony Stark's child. While the mechanical one sat and pouted, the half-human half-spider one unexpectedly knocked on his door.

"Come in man," he yelled thinking it was Steve.

Usually his best friend just waltzed in, being the only other person in the tower with a door key.

"Umm sir? It's me Peter, the doors locked" a small voice answered.

"Peter?"

"Yeah sorry to bother you,"

"Friday open the door."

"Yes sir."

Bucky could tell in one glance the spider baby was sick too. He looked just about ready to fall over.

"Not you too kid?"

"Yeah I think so."

Peter wiped his nose with the back of his hand, still standing in the doorway looking had started feeling really off yesterday evening after patrol. For the most part it was a pretty slow night.

To Be Continued:

-Thanks for Reading and Forgiving the typos. I promise to keep correcting as I go. -

-hey cutie, thanks for reading-