The combination of slow falling snow, and my general elation of how the afternoon went, added a particularly noticeable skip in my stride as I fell into step besides James as he carried our shopping bags back towards our truck. I was coasting on cloud nine. Not only had I gotten Bucky to smile and laugh, but I was a bit lost in post-orgasmic bliss.

The afternoon almost felt surreal in a way - when I woke up this morning I never would have pictured the day going like this. His kisses.. his touch.. his smile and laughter, it was burned into my brain and playing on a deliciously torturous loop. Gods, I wanted to make him laugh again. I was pretty sure I was sporting a permanent blush and would be for the rest of the day at least. My mind had played scenario's like that in my head since I had met James, but fucking hell, the real thing was a hundred times better.

"Stay close." He demanded quietly, shooting me a quick look. He had gone back into 'Serious-Super-Soldier' mode as soon as we had exited the alley, he wasn't happy that we had spent so much time out in the open, it was making him extra paranoid. As it was, I was practically glued to his hip anyway. His warmth was comforting as it burned against my side, snow crunching under our boots.

As we got closer to where we left the truck parked, the foot traffic increased. I could hear people talking around us as we carefully navigated through people, some spoke in Swedish, and others in English. I was startled to realize as I overheard a couple of gals talking that it was early to mid December - Yule was upon us, with Christmas fast approaching.

I wonder if James used to celebrate Christmas back in New York with Steve..?

I suddenly ached to be able to do something special for the Holidays. Suddenly craved that small bit of normalcy with him.. I wanted to get him a gift, but what? And how? It's not like I could surprise him with it.. he was with me at all times. Nibbling on my lip, I tried to think of something that I could do for him. Something that he'd genuinely like.. He was a complicated man, and it's not like we had a permanent residence or even stability. It had to be simple.

My thoughts literally came to an abrupt halt as my shoulder collided roughly with someone else walking by, sending me staggering back a step. As I tried to stop myself from sliding on the icy pavement and falling on my ass, I felt a fairly sharp tug on my hair and then it was gone - leaving a dull ache on my scalp.

"Sorry, sweetheart." A deep, dry, raspy voice apologized to my side.

Turning, I caught sight of a fairly tall, muscled back blending back into the foot traffic. He had short cropped, messy black hair but that was all I could see of him in the dim lighting; and then he was gone, dissolving into the crowd like a ghost.

Frowning, I turned to find James staring at me. He had a peculiar expression on his face, as if he was trying to think of something important.

"You alright?" He questioned, shooting a weary look into the crowd around us. He definitely wanted out of here as fast as possible, he was getting twitchy.

Nodding my head, I shot one more glance over my shoulder before hastening my pace next to James, I just wanted to get back already. The run in with the random pedestrian had reminded me how vulnerable we were like this... As happy as I was about how the afternoon turned out - it wasn't safe to spend this much time out and about, not for us.

The ride back to the abandoned apartment complex was mostly silent. When I had tried to sit myself in the passenger seat, James had scowled at me and yanked me into the middle seat next to him. He spent the entire drive back with his normal hand on the steering wheel, and his metal hand on my thigh - his thumb idly stroking my leg through my dark jeans.

He looked troubled, his eyes were a million miles away, as if something was bothering him and he couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"What's wrong?" I breathed, staring up at the side of his face, tracing his stubble with my eyes while I waited for him to decide if he wanted to answer me or not. His eyes slid to mine briefly, before turning back to the road.

"It's probably nothing."

Frowning, I nodded and decided to let it drop for now - he seemed extra edgy.. it wasn't wise to push right now.

It felt like a load of tension had been taken off my shoulders when we arrived back our current 'safe-house'. I hadn't even fully realized how anxious I had gotten being out there in the open during the afternoon rush. Which probably had something to do with the fact that I had been wonderfully distracted with thoughts of James and his wickedly talented fingers.. And that deep, captivating laugh.. Fuck.

It seemed that I really was going to be thinking about it all day - not that I minded. It was nice to know that he wanted me in that way, that I wasn't the only one that was affected by lust and need. I just hoped that next time I'd be able to touch him more.

Having secured the front door again, James moved to put all of our new supplies onto the old dinning room table so that he could sort it into our bags. Wanting to get comfortable so that I could help out, I reached down, grasping onto the bottom of my hoodie to pull it up and over my head. As it slipped past my hair, I felt it brush against a rather tender area near the base of my skull. Fuck, why did that sting so bad?

Discarding my hoodie onto one of the rickety chairs with a quick toss, I reached into my wind-bitten, and semi-tangled orange hair to brush over the spot near the back of my neck. Pulling my fingers away from the area with a small hiss as I irritated the sore, I noticed the smeared red color over my fingertips. Blood? Why was I bleeding?

Frowning, my eyes caught onto the looming grandfather clock in my peripherals. It was odd, but something just didn't feel right about that clock, something was off and just.. wrong. Walking towards the clock slowly, I tried to discern what it was that was bothering me so much.. The wood paneling looked the same, the glass was as clean as I had left it...

Pivoting on my foot, I glanced over to where I had left the wristwatch that James always kept in the bags. I had used it to set the time on the aged Grandfather clock correctly.

Five-forty-three.

Shifting back around, I caught the time on the clock. Six on the dot... It was seven minutes fast.. that wasn't possible. I knew I had set it correctly.. Right after I had disabled the chimes...

I felt like I was moving on auto-pilot as I approached the clock - my brain felt weirdly hazy like I was in a dream. I could hear James shuffling behind me, but all the blood was rushing to my ears - why did I feel so uneasy? Something was wrong..

Opening the clock face I was met with a piece of paper taped to gleaming insides, insides that were now filled with wires - wires that shouldn't be there. There was no ominous ticking, which was the sort of thing I expected in this kind of scenario, instead it was quiet - the only sound being the quiet hum of the clock gears.

Dread.

Panic.

Hysteria.

The writing was done in red pen. It was a curly, but messy scrawl as if someone had been in a hurry when they wrote it.

Tick, Tock, 'Mrs. Barnes.' - X

I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach, stealing all of my air. I couldn't breathe, I was shaking.

"James..." It took everything I had just to whisper his name and turn my head to look at him, tears were welling up in my eyes, I was frozen in place, dread quite literally weighing my feet down. I couldn't get myself to move..

We had fucked up.. I had fucked up.

Time ironically felt like it had slowed down as he lifted his head to look at me, his gorgeous dark hair swaying around his face, his eyes catching mine worriedly. With a quick flick of his gaze, he zeroed in on the note in front of me, his eyes widening marginally and then he was bolting towards me, his powerful body tensing as he barreled towards me, closing the distance between us in a single breathe. I had never seen such utter panic take over his features before - it was raw and open, and it scared the hell out of me.

His arms wrapped around my waist, hauling me off my feet and back into his chest, violently. Pivoting on his foot, he dashed back the way he'd came - towards the window. Bucky was ridiculously fast, I had seen how quickly he could move - but even he seemed slowed in this moment, like he couldn't quite run fast enough. It was like those nightmares when the monster was chasing you, and your legs felt like they were being weighed down with lead and you were just a bit too slow.

His metal shoulder broke through the window first, glass glittering around us, I shrieked as we met open air, three stories up. The frozen spell on my body finally wearing off.

We were out of time.

The apartment exploded behind us, launching us forward. The heat was hellish, I felt like I was suffocating in a cloud of hellfire even as James' much larger form shrouded me from the majority of heat and debris.

The world's detail suddenly blurred, I felt the scream tear from my mouth, but I couldn't hear it over the crunching of wood and metal as we crashed through and into the adjacent building. Pain erupted in my skull and up my side as we crash landed onto the floor, I couldn't see anything - it was like my vision had been stolen from me. All I knew was darkness and nauseating agony. James' weight crushed solidly into my own and then it was gone. I could feel myself roll and my shoulder catch onto something - with a snap, I felt my shoulder dislocate, pulling another startled scream that I couldn't hear, but I felt the force of it tear from my lungs.

For a moment I felt the ground slide beneath me, and then everything was still - the ringing in my ears was loud, too loud. I was sure I was crying, I had to be. My cheeks were wet and they burned, throbbing was starting up in at least two of my fingers.. Something warm was leaking near my mouth. Where was James?

I couldn't move, nothing was answering my brain's signals.

I wasn't sure how many moments ticked by, I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, hell I couldn't even open my eyes to try and locate James. Everything felt like it was underwater, even my thought process was sluggish and disoriented. Too slow...

Tick

Need to get up.

Tock

Have to move.

Tick

Dangerous.

Tock

Blood on my scalp?

Tick

The time is wrong.

Tock

'X' Marks the spot?

Tick

Signed an X, why?

Tock

Message for me

Tick Tock

Crossbones

Tick, Tock, 'Mrs. Barnes'

James!

I forced my eyes to snap open, I needed James! We had to get out of here, it wasn't safe! My vision was hazy, unclear... their was a bunch of ash and airborne debris floating through the air around us, it made the air feel thick and disgusting as I breathed. Slowly, everything came back into focus.

Bucky was lying across the room from me, his weight had slowed him down and stopped him from rag-dolling across the room like I had.. but he wasn't moving. He was facing me, sprawled out on his stomach on the floor. His eyes were closed, an illusion of serenity on his face. Is he unconscious?! How fucking long had I been laying here? Seconds? Minutes? I wasn't sure.. I had to be concussed.. That's the only thing that would explain why it felt like I was mentally swimming through syrup.

"James..?" I couldn't hear my own voice... I couldn't hear my own voice?! That infernal fucking ringing was too loud, it was overpowering everything. Squeezing my eyes shut, I willed my hands to move, I needed to get up! My fingers twitched and I groaned, I could feel the sound vibrate my chest - my fingers ached something horrible... Opening my eyes I turned my gaze onto them.. they looked fine? Maybe not broken? Fuck knows how bad my injuries were.. but I knew without a doubt they would have been one hundred times worse had James not taken the majority of it all.

Lifting my arm to my face felt like I was trying to lift it out of drying cement, my arm trembled with effort as I touched my ears lightly - trying to discern my problem. My fingers came back sticky and red...

Oh.. the bomb. We were too close... Concussion.. right.

Fuck.

Ringing is going to be there for a while then? Think I read that somewhere... My head pulsed violently as I tried to focus harder.

Catching movement from the corner of my eyes, I slid my gaze back over to where James was sprawled out on the floor. He was moving now, his legs shifting across the floor first, then he tried to move the arm that was almost seemingly stretched towards me. That's when I noticed the break. His arm was bent too far backwards at the elbow.

Oh god.

"James.." I barely muttered it, but his frozen-blue eyes snapped to mine, instantly alert. His eyes scanned over me, his scowl deepening as he took stock of injuries I couldn't see. Furrowing his eyebrows, he clenched his jaw tightly as he grimaced.

Leaning his head down, he braced his forehead against the floor as he slid his legs under him and pushed up with his knees. I couldn't hear his breath, but I watched his chest falls get a bit more rapid as he reached out with his metal arm and grasped onto his normal forearm. Tilting his head slightly, while still bracing it on the floor, his eyes met mine, determined. And then he yanked inwards with his metal hand, snapping his arm back where it should be. I didn't hear the crunch of his bone realigning - but I did hear his snarl as he bared his teeth rabidly. It was distorted, and very muffled.. but I could hear it and it made my insides twist horribly.

Having snapped his bone back in place, he braced himself with his metal arm, the metal arm abnormally shook as he pushed himself up into standing position. Now on his feet, he arched his back slightly, rolling his shoulders backwards and then forewords with a hard-set frown. His metal arm twitched at his side erratically and I could do nothing but stare as Bucky's face contorted into a silent snarl as he snapped his attention to his glitching, metal arm.

Damage... his arm was damaged! Something must be wrong with the insides? I could see no visible breaks in the metal, no structural wreckage.. definitely internal. Fuck, that wasn't good, one arm down, one faulty.

Tired.

Could just close my eyes for a moment?

My eyelids drooped slightly as I tried to think of how to fix his arm, but the thoughts were slow and corrupted, it was hard to get a single proper thought finished. Just.. so exhausted, everything hurt. I could sleep, couldn't I?

No!

Concussion!

Forcing my eyes back open, I watched as James clenched his silver fist tightly, he rolled his wrist joint in annoyance and then lifted and rolled his shoulder forward. With one last, dark look towards his metal arm, he headed for me. I still hadn't managed to get my body to move past my arms, and I could only stare at his legs as he approached.

He stopped in front of me, I could feel his gaze roaming over me carefully, inspecting. With a calculated, wider step, he stood over me, one leg on either side of my body as he slowly crouched, keeping his weight off me.

"Don't move." He instructed when I tried to follow him with my eyes - his voice was still far too quiet. It was difficult to keep my eyes locked forward, I needed something to focus on - and a hole in the side of the building wasn't exactly friendly to my eyes. We had made that hole by crashing through it... After a moment of nothing, I felt what I assumed to be his metal hand smoothing down the back of my torn long-sleeve. I grimaced slightly, but otherwise remained impassive.

Rolling across the floor.

Lacerations maybe?

Boom!

Burns?

After another second that felt far too long, his cool metal hand smoothed up the back of my shirt, carefully prodding at my spine with his finger tips. I felt it all, which I was pretty sure was a good thing? Pulling his arm out from underneath my ruined shirt, he stood back up, stepping back in front of me again. I felt so fucking helpless laying there, I was a burden and I was slowing him down.

Crouching in front of me so he was balanced on his heels, he caught my eyes purposefully with his, making sure to keep my gaze. Reaching out with his metal arm, he splayed his hand across my sternum, firmly, before pushing me backwards so that I rolled onto my back. I hissed lightly, but didn't protest any. His eyes narrowed as he looked at my shoulder for a heartbeat longer.

"You look like shit, doll." His low voice was music to my ears - despite how hard it was to hear him.

"You don't curse." I mumbled back in what I hoped was a clear voice. He really didn't, I think I had heard him curse once or twice in the entire time we had been together.. I suppose I cussed enough for the both of us.

"Seems you're rubbing off on me." He deadpanned.

I tried to smile, I really, really wanted to, but the action pulled at my lip something horrible and left me gasping in pain.

"Split lip." He informed me, almost robotically.

Grasping onto my chin with his metal fingers, he slowly tilted my head side to side, pulling a low groan from my mouth. I realized it must have been weird for him to be only using his metal arm, especially when it was fucked up, his motions weren't as smooth as normal.

"Concussion too." He checked off, letting his eyes linger on what I assumed was my ears a bit longer. He was listing off the worst of my injuries..

Reaching down he pulled up my shirt again, this time gazing at my ribs. I watched as his frown deepened as he reached to smooth his fingers over a particularly tender section that wrenched another groan from my throat.

"Bruised, not broken." He informed me, which I was thankful for. His voice and retelling of my injuries was giving my sluggish brain something to focus on.

"Shouldn't we be leaving? It's not safe.. people will come." That was right, wasn't it? The explosion would draw attention.. We should have bolted by now, that's what we normally did. Clenching his jaw fiercely, he took a low steadying breath, his eyes were burning with white-hot anger. Had he been trying to keep his anger in check this entire time?

"I know, but we can't yet." He ground his teeth together as frustration bleed into his tone. "Have to set that shoulder first."

"What?" I questioned, weakly. What the hell was he talking about?

Shoulder?

Snap!

Fuck.. it had dislocated, hadn't it?

The memory was almost hazy as I fought to think back just to it. The memory should have been fresh and clear, but my disoriented brain was having trouble finding small details through the bigger details that kept slamming around in my skull.

James ignored my question. With a slow sweep of his eyes, along with a roaming metal hand, he checked for any other injuries he may have missed on my hips and legs, the check came back fine - I had thankfully only managed scrapes and bruises for my bottom half, nothing worth mentioning right now.

"Few jammed fingers." He told me with a chin nod towards my hands. "I'll have to fix that later."

"Fun." I grumbled.

His eyes slid to mine, just staring for several moments. I could practically see the gears turning in his brain as he thought over his next course of action. His eyes shut momentarily as he seemingly steeled himself as well as metaphorically yanking the leash on his rage. With a slow breath, he reopened his eyes and leaned down towards me. Using his metal arm, he wedged it between my upper back and the floor, slowly lifting me into a sitting position.

My head swam as my vision swirled in and out of focus as he pulled me into his chest, letting my head slump against him. Sitting up seemed to be exactly what my body had needed, and yet the opposite of what my head screamed at me. The movement had jarred some of my muscles into working order again, but it just made my head pound and scream painfully, my thoughts clashing worse than before.

Ignoring my aching cranium the best I could, I held tightly to Bucky as he shifted back and lowered himself into a sitting position, his long legs stretching out on either side of me. With a bit more shuffling, he had my back pressed to his wide chest comfortably. Well, as comfortably as we could manage right now.

"You were out.." I mumbled. "When I opened my eyes." I furrowed my eyebrows in annoyance.. had that made sense?

He seemed to know what I was referring to.. He had been knocked unconscious when we got blasted in here, hadn't he?

"Just for a few seconds." He rumbled, his tone still laced with frustration as the muscles in his chest tensed. He was angry about it, I realized. "The blast was bigger than I anticipated." He admitted, bitterly.

Had it only been a few seconds? How did he know? Well, this was James.. he generally knew most stuff - and I imagine if anyone knew if he had blacked out for a moment it would be him.

With a sharp and rather irritated inhale, he lifted his injured, normal arm to wrap around my chest tightly, startling me. The steel band that was his arm held me snugly against him, right under my collarbone, his palm settling before the socket firmly. It was easy to deduce that he was pissed that his arm had broken at all, he had denser bones than I did.. way denser. Lucky him however, it wouldn't take very long to heal. Not that I imagined that improved his mood any.. especially since he was forced to use it now while it was weakened. His pain tolerance had to be through the roof...

"On three." He rumbled.

Tension gathered in my spine as he lifted his metal arm, grasping onto my left elbow tightly to the point of pain. I could feel slight tremors in that silver hand, his grip was fluctuating.. it wasn't much, but it was enough to be noticeable..

Internal damage, my mind whispered at me again.

It needed to be fixed.

I could fix it? Maybe. I could certainly try..

My thoughts still felt choppy and lethargic, and it was annoying me. Slowly, he pulled my arm back until it was outstretched out at my side, his persistent fingers keeping my elbow bent so that my forearm was pointed forward, towards our feet.

"One." He whispered, gruffly, loud enough for me to hear, his breath hot against my ear.

Without warning, he shoved inwards in one swift and fluid, horrible, movement. The sound was jarring, even to my muffled ears. It crunched as it solidly and audibly popped back into position, wrenching a shriek from my mouth from both the intense flare of pain, and the shock.

The pain didn't last long however, just mere seconds and then it was fading. But I was irked.

"That wasn't three!" I groaned through clenched teeth.

"Time to go." He informed, ignoring my irritation at him.

Dropping his normal arm a bit lower, he wrapped it around my midsection securely as he shifted to stand, pulling me along with him. The world tilted and rolled as he did so, and I had to fight to keep the stomach acid down. Fucking hell..

He let go, just for a second, and my knees buckled uselessly underneath me, my head rolling back as I started to fall. I tried to latch onto him, but I shouldn't have bothered, his arms were back around me well before I met the floor - his face swimming into focus in front of me, almost nose to nose. His blue eyes were angrier and beyond frustrated as they burned into my own - but I could see the concern too.

"I'm sorry." I groaned.

My fault... all my fault.

"Shut up." He demanded, coldly, his teeth clenching tightly as he shifted to haul me up into his arms, bridal style. My legs were stretched over his metal arm, as his injured normal one supported my back. "Arms around my neck." He barked impatiently, grinding his teeth.

Stretching upwards, I wound my arms around the back of his neck as tightly as I could.

"Good girl." He breathed, his voice still a bit harsh. Was he angry that I was hurt this badly? That I was essentially incapacitated? Or was he angry that I tried to apologize for it?

"You can't hold a weapon, carrying me like this." I realized. "What if people are out there? Hydra, or Cros-"

"I'll handle it." He rumbled, cutting me off. "I've got you." He affirmed, shifting me just a bit tighter into his chest as my eyelids drooped again without my permission. "You can't sleep, understand me?" His voice was impatient, cutting even.

I tried to listen, I really did, but I couldn't cling to consciousness anymore. The last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me was James' magnificently handsome face, twisted into a furious expression as he stared down at me, his eyes however.. were filled with something I had never seen on him.

Fear.

Sorry you guys had to wait so long for this chapter.. The last month or so has just been awful... I haven't been sick this often since I was in middle school! Thankfully, I am ONCE AGAIN, on the mend. (Hopefully I edited this chapter okay, I'm still a bit brain-foggy.) I'm hoping I don't suddenly catch another flu or some shit. I'm beyond annoyed with how often I've gotten sick this year already. I would have had this up to you guys a few days ago.. but while still recovering from this last flu, I had a convention to go to. I got to meet Jason Momoa and it was amazing! As it is, I'm going to be working on cosplay for the next month and a half as well as working on this story since I am no longer sick, so I should be updating regularly again.

Anywho, as you can see.. shit has gone to hell in this chapter. Poor Katarina is super out of it, her brain is scrambled and her thoughts are jumbled, fractured, and just.. bad. Lucky for her she's still alive though.. thanks to Bucky. If anyone is curious, I'm going to let you in on a secret. That bomb wasn't intended to kill them, just... a bit of fun from our villain honestly. If it had killed them though, well, it would have been no big loss for him. But there's your little secret tid-bit for this chapter!

Oh, and since some of you are apparently still under the assumption that I'm going to follow Civil War's plot? I'm not. I'm going to use a few elements from it, but I will not be following it directly. Sorry if that upsets anyone, but I have my own plan for how this story is going to go - I have since the beginning. I hope you all still trust and like where I take this. Read and review my lovelies! Until next time!