Two days had passed since Bucky had taken the serum. They had fled from the Hydra soldiers that had found them in New York and were currently held up in cabin somewhere in Canada. They happened upon the hunting cabin in the middle of the night, not really sure where they were or what they were going to do next. Bucky had developed a fever and was growing paler by the second. Kara was sure there was something wrong with the serum he had taken. She blamed herself for not checking it out or at least trying to contact her father before giving it to him.

"Kara…" Bucky called out to her as sweat clung to him, his body on fire from head to toe. The serum was working, or so he thought.

She ran to his side with a bowl of cool water and a cloth for his head. He gave her a faint smile as she knelt beside him, dabbing the cloth on his searing skin. "I need to talk to my dad. He knows about the serum. Buck… you're getting worse. Your skin is so hot I can barely touch you and you haven't been able to eat all day. I'm going into town in the morning and calling Jenny," she wiped the cloth across his forehead when he grabbed her wrist. She stopped and gave him that pleading look he had become familiar with.

"No. I can't let you do that… not for me," she kissed his forehead, ignoring him and he knew it. He tried to sit up, but fell back on the couch. The cabin was small but had everything they needed for the time being. He wasn't sure how long it would take for the serum to run its course, but he couldn't travel the way he was.

Kara hadn't slept beside him since that night in the bunker. Part of him was grateful she was keeping her space while he was sleeping, but a more needy part of him craved her touch and longed for the feel of her body next to his. As she tucked a throw around his legs, she grabbed a book and curled up in an armchair. This was their relationship now. He was in love with a woman that was his light, his hope that he couldn't get too close to. She was a flower that dared to bloom in his shadow and he nearly crushed her fragile petals under his metal fist.

As the fever raged on, Bucky slept on and off, feeling Kara's soft hand swiping a cool cloth over his forehead, face and chest. The soft light of morning greeted him when he woke, his fever burning him alive. He lifted his heavy head briefly as he scanned the room for Kara. "Kar… you there?" The emptiness of the cabin answered him back as the wind caused the cabin to creak and moan. Her stubborn streak ran a mile wide and on a better day he would have found that stubbornness cute, but today he was just annoyed. "Kara, dammit!" he shouted as he dragged his body from the couch, using the wall and furniture to make it to the kitchen. He slumped over the kitchen sink, turning on the cold water and tucking his head under the stream. "Stupid. How can you do so stupid, Kar?"

"Are you talking to yourself or are you seeing things now?" she giggled from behind him, holding a kitchen towel over his wet locks. "I didn't go into town. Didn't have to. There's a phone upstairs and it still works. Called Jenny at Laura's. She's going to ask dad about the serum and get back to me."

The fire in his blue eyes matched the fire on his flesh. He was seething mad, nearly on the edge of erupting at her. Through clenched teeth, he began to scold her. "We are on the run. People that have the means to track a call are looking for us. We have to leave here… now."

She pushed him back in the kitchen chair, taking very little effort to do so. "No."

"No? Do you know something I don't?" he was taking everything in him to stay sitting upright and even more energy not to yell at her.

Kara cupped his heated scruffy cheek as she stared back into his stormy blue eyes. "I used a code Jenny gave me. She told me before we left Laura's that if I needed her call, to use that code. She called me back on Clint's secure cell phone. Really Mr. Barnes, do you think I haven't learned anything from you? Give me a little faith and some trust."

Those words cut into Bucky, causing his heart to sink further in his chest. He reached his hand out to her and she took it, kissing the back of it. The smile she gave him made him feel unworthy of her or her love. The bruises from that night were starting to turn a darker color, the ones on her left side deep and purple. Kara covered her neck with her hand, casting her eyes down to the floor. "Don't. I need to see them. I did that to you. I told you Kara… I'm a monster."

"Stop saying that. No you're not. The monster that they woke up wasn't you. Every time they pulled you out of your cold sleep you fought the Hydra monster and found James Barnes, only to have your true self wiped clean. If you think you're a monster, you're wrong. There is nothing you can or will do to make me believe you are," the spark of love in her green eyes sparked that lump of dead tissue in his chest, making his heart beat again.

She helped pull him up, walking him back to the couch. Before she walked away, he whispered his response to her. "I promise, I'll never hurt you again."

Three more hours passed by with him trying to eat, sleeping and having Kara trying cold compresses to keep his fever at bay. When the phone rang upstairs, she bounded them two at a time. Bucky lifted his heavy limbs, using his metal arm to pull him towards the stairs. Kara was speaking in a low tone with long pauses in between.

"No Daddy we did find a serum, but it's making him sick. Is there something I need to do, something I did wrong," Kara's words were laced with concern and worry, each syllable carrying her fear for Bucky. A few beats passed before she spoke again. "It was in the Rebirth lab. I don't know, they might have made it from Steve's blood. What? Those bastards were experimenting on making more super soldiers. Fuck. So, what does this mean?" the words leave her lips as Bucky made his way up the stairs and collapsed at the top. "Daddy… thank you. Love you. I have to go." Kara raced to him sitting down on the floor beside him, placing Bucky's head in her lap. Her slender fingers stroked his face, moving his sweat-soaked hair from his face. "I have something I have to do. You should rest."

The words to protest this or even ask her what she had learned from her father wouldn't pass his lips. Fever, exhaustion, pain and shivers controlled his body, rendering him mute. After helping him to bed, Kara walked away. The creak of the stairs were the last he heard of her until the sun had set. He woke to soaked sheets and his fever broken. The pain that had crept into his bones was still very much there, but the fire that had been licking at his skin was quenched. He wasn't sure if Kara had done something or if the fever broke on its own. He bounded from the bed with ease, glad to have the use of his body again. The sound of water running in the kitchen gained his attention as soon as he entered the living room. He wanted to wrap his arms around Kara's waist, kissing the back of her neck and thank her for everything she'd done for him, but instead he found the water running in the sink with blood staining the once white porcelain. With his heart resounding in his ears, he screamed her name over and over. Frantically, he searched the house, tossing the furniture about, hoping to find her.

"Kara! Please answer me!" his fear began to grip him as his metal hand snapped the kitchen chair in his hand in two.

The house began to grow colder as if the fall day had turned into winter. A frost formed on his cybernetic arm, chilling him all the way up his shoulder. Bucky stood there watching as the room became frozen, like the sleeping chamber his Hydra handlers locked him over and over. Looking down at his hands, numbness tingling in his fingers, he saw blood dripping from his fingertips, making droplets on the floor. "What the fuck?"

A dark figure stepped out from the darkened corner of the living room, the face that of his tormentor. "Hello, Sergeant Barnes. Welcome back."

Bucky looked from Dr. Zola's face to the room that had transformed around him. He wasn't at the cabin any longer, but the lab the Winter Soldier was created in. With a primal scream, he began to rip and tear at the metal door as Dr. Zola closed it over him.

~~OO~~

Kara feared the worst for Bucky. There was no doubt left in her mind that something was very wrong with the serum she had given him. After speaking to her sister, she was even more sure it. His new symptoms weren't just his body adjusting to the serum changing him, but his body becoming weak because of it. She paced the floor as Bucky slept on the couch, his chest falling and rising slowly as beads of sweat dribble off his brow. Her worry was about to consume her. She loved him, would gladly walk through fire for him, but she was uncertain if her Bucky would emerge from his slumber or the man that was locked in a Hydra nightmare. The PTSD he suffered gripped his mind, making him see and do things that he had no control over. There was no doubt he loved her, but the soreness in her throat and the bruises on her skin were a harsh reminder that his love for her couldn't save her if the Winter Solider took over. The phone rang in the bedroom and she darts up the stairs. Her hand trembled as she picked it up, hearing her father say hello on the other end.

"Daddy… I need your help," her voice cracked, laced with worry and stress.

"Sweetheart, the only thing that can help him is the serum…" Ben was about to ask about Bucky's condition when she cut him short.

"No daddy, we did find the serum, but it's making him sick. Is there something I need to do, something I did wrong," Kara bit into her lower lip, letting her eyes drop to the stairs.

"Serum? Did you find the vial Pierce had? I'm sure it was in his possession," her father sounded stronger, more confident of his memories, but what he was saying made the thoughts in her head scream at her that she had royally fucked up.

Her throat felt like sandpaper, as if she might choke on her words. In a rush, she pushed the words from her lips. "It was in the Rebirth lab."

"That old lab. SHIELD abandoned it. They made more serum… but how?" Ben sounded puzzled, as if none of this made any sense to him.

"I don't know, they might have made it from Steve's blood," the flash of a vision from the Rebirth experiment came to her, blinding her thoughts for just a moment.

"Kara… Hydra had tried for years to duplicate the serum used on Steve Rogers, but they failed. Twenty men died in those experiments. The serum Zola developed for Bucky was different than Steve's, designed to mimic the Rebirth serum. Bucky was the first man to survive it," Ben trailed off, wishing his mind wasn't so full of cobwebs.

"What? Those bastards were experimenting on making more super soldiers. Fuck. So, what does this mean?" those words left her lips as Bucky made his way up the stairs and collapsed on the top. "Daddy… thank you. Love you. I have to go."

Kara raced to him, sitting down on the floor beside him, placing Bucky's head in her lap. Her slender fingers stroked his face, moving his sweat-soaked hair from his face. "I have something I have to do. You should rest."

She helped him into bed, kissing his lips softly as she whispered she loved him. Bucky was soon out, his fever burning her lips. Her feet swiftly moved down the stairs, barely making contact with each step. She looked the cabin over for a laptop or computer. Kara hadn't really left Bucky's side much since they'd took the cabin over. It was a surprise to find a landline upstairs, so she wondered what else could be hidden among the real owner's possessions. The cabin was small but roomy enough to hold a living room, kitchen and bathroom downstairs with a bedroom upstairs. She began to rifle through the cabinets and shelves in the living room, finding nothing. Kara tossed her hands up in the air, wondering if any of the cabins nearby would have a computer. She slipped on her shoes and begins to make the hike to the cabin down the hill from them.

The log cabin looked like the one they had taken up residence in but newer. She walked up to the back of the cabin, seeing drop cloths over the furniture. This was a complete bust, there couldn't be anything electronic in there. Her heart fell in her chest as she made her way back up the path. The sound of a vehicle approaching made her take cover in some shrubs.

"God… this day just gets better and better," she mumbled to herself as she peered through the foliage to see who it was. There, sitting out front of the neighboring cabin was a Jeep with two young men climbing out. She watched them for a moment, listening to them brag about throwing one hell of a party as they unloaded boxes of food and beer. Kara waited until they were inside to check out the Jeep. They had two suitcases in the back and a backpack. She grabbed the backpack and took off up the hill, running as fast as she could. She didn't care what was in it, she just hoped it was something she could use. When she was out of sight, she sat down under a tree and began to pull out the contents. Kara giggled when she found two bottles of whiskey, a box of condoms, a bag of what she assumed was marijuana and a smartphone.

"Yes!" she shouted, turning the phone on. Luck was on her side as she slid her finger over the screen to find it without some kind of security lock. The picture of some pretty little blonde blowing a kiss blared back at her, making her giggle again. "Sorry kid… I hope your parents had insurance."

Kara ran back to their cabin, plopping herself down in a chair and pulled up the internet search engine, typing in Alexander Pierce. Kara spent what felt like an hour in the woods, finding out everything she could about Peirce, how to treat a high fever and sharpening her skills on war vet PTSD. She woke up with a crook in her neck, the smartphone on her chest and the backpack at her feet. After tucking the phone in her pocket, she climbed to her feet, stretching out the soreness in her body. Her stomach began to grumble as she approached the kitchen. Taking an apple from the table, she began to cut it into wedges when the smartphone rang, making her jump, causing the knife to slip. Blood squirted from the cut in her hand into the kitchen sink. "Fuck," she shouted through gritted teeth as she grabbed a kitchen towel. Rushing off to the bathroom to find the first aid kit, she was rambling through the medicine cabinet when she heard a commotion in the kitchen. "Buck?"

After applying gauze and tape to her hand, she made her way back into the kitchen where she saw Bucky standing there, eyes wide and locked in fear, the table and chairs lying in a splintered pile on the floor. Bucky stood frozen like a statue, his chest heaving as his face grew paler. Slowly she approached him, her outstretched hand hovering but not touching him. "Buck… it's me. It's Kara. You're safe, you're here with me. Buck… come back to me. Look at me, love."

His head slowly turned, his eyes still wide with tears about to fall down his cheeks. He dropped the chair in his hand, cocking his head to the side. "Kar?"

"Yeah. It's Kara… your Kara," her hand stayed just over his chest, her eyes locked on him. Bucky closed his eyes for a second, letting out a slow sigh.

"Help me," he whispered out before he fell to the floor. Kara moved quickly to move under him, letting his body crash hard on hers. All his weight rested on her body, his head resting on her shoulder. She ran her fingers over his forehead, feeling not the fever she expected, but a cold, clammy sweat that was thick on his brow.

"I got you and I'm never letting you go," she kissed the top of his head as she wiggled around until she could retrieve the smartphone. Using her thumb, she dialed the only number she could, to get the help she needed. "Clint… I need you."

A/N: Thank you for all the follows/ favorites and for continuing to read this story. I hope you continue to enjoy it.