The guards at the facility's entrance never saw Alex coming. She was nothing more than a shadow to them. Her suit and her speed made her nearly impossible to detect, especially in the darkness of night that shrouded the facility.

In one swift move, Alex hurtled a small ninja star at the throat of one of the guards. He fell to the ground choking on his own blood.

The second guard, alarmed by the sudden death of his partner, went to grab his pistol but was too slow. Alex's feet were as light and fast as a cheetah. She use the dead body of the first guard to catapult herself on top of the second guard. With a quick twist of his neck, he fell to the ground before Alex even landed back on her feet.

The super speed she acquired from the hybrids allowed her to bypass all external warning systems without tripping a single one. If there was any reason to thank one of those horrible creatures, Alex figured this might be it.

She pulled the key card from the guard's lanyard and swiped it through the security panel near the door. With a satisfying swoosh, the heavy metal door glided open. She entered, tossing the card behind her before the door closed again.

Before Alex could even hear the creatures, she felt them. Their minds were connected to hers now, especially in such close proximity. Their foreign voices and screams pummeled her brain, but she held onto her focus and continued her way through the facility. She heard human voices too, but not many. She could sense their heat through her improved vision, and could also feel their auras pulsating throughout the facility.

Avoiding those heat signatures, Alex blew through the hallways using her super human speed. Any guard she saw, she had their necks snapped before they realized she was even there. Luckily, she only had to remove two very unlucky guards that stood in front of the hybrid-generation room. Just hearing the artificial, alien-like screams gave the room away, but Alex could feel their beating hearts. It felt as if hers was a part of all of theirs, all beating in an unnatural succession. It was an unsettling feeling, but it drove her to make quick work of what lay ahead.

After another swipe of a borrowed key card, Alex was inside. What she saw, however, was something out of a sci-fi horror film.

On a platform near the end of the long room was a horrific looking amalgamation of some kind of predator...or whatever kind of predator it used to be before Hydra claimed it. It had the body of something like a lion or a panther, but was very clearly mixed with physicality of the Chitauri. All the skin had been stripped away, replaced by an artificial leather-like outer layer. Tubes were attached like tentacles to various parts of its body, with liquid streaming into some and out of others. All the liquid traveled to other containers where bodies of future hybrids were kept, suspended in a clear gel to incubate and grow to their full size.

It was gross and inhumane and reeked of Hydra. The sight of it made Alex's hate for them even stronger. Inside her brain, she heard the full-grown hybrids in the rows of cages calling to her. They were welcoming her. They were asking her to kill.

Oh she would kill, all right.

Given her newly enhanced eyesight, Alex could detect the heat of the laser sensor grid surrounding the mother hybrid and the growing samples. It was invisible to the naked eye, of course - but not to Alex. Layers and layers of laser lines meshed together in angles that no human would be able to avoid unless they disabled it. Unfortunately, she didn't have that kind of time. She wouldn't be as lucky as she'd been outside, but she was prepared for it.

Alex pulled out one of the syringes that Tony had given her, doing her best to quiet the sound of the hybrids inside her mind. She removed the cap with her teeth, gave a test squirt, then set her eyes on the prototype hybrid at the end of the room. Closing her eyes to muster all the force behind her new powers, she let the energy within her to build up...like a slingshot being pulled backward to its fullest extent. When her muscles began to shake and her insides felt like they were being stretched to the brink, Alex let go in an explosion of power.

The second she was on the mother hybrid, alarms began to sound.

With a screech, the creature beneath her hissed and strained against the tubes in its sides. With all the power left in her, Alex slammed the needle of the syringe down into the base of its neck, puncturing the impervious layer. Within seconds of emptying the liquid, the creature was dead.

Every single hybrid in the room began to wail. Alarms atop the containers with the growing bodies flashed red, blaring horns to sound a new alarm. All the lights inside the room went out.

None of it mattered to Alex.

She could see perfectly. She could smell the fear coming from the agents who were rushing to get to the room. All of it made her smile.

Grabbing the gun from behind her, Alex loaded three full grenades and waited for the door to open. In her chaotic mind filled with the screams of dying hybrids, Alex remembered Bucky's pointers for firing a grenade rifle.

Keep it low. Don't overcompensate the angle of the nose. Brace your core.

She held it close to her waist, kept the nose straight, and tightened every inch of her upgraded muscles.

When the first round of Hydra agents appeared, she fired the grenade. Just like in her lesson with Bucky, it gave quite a kick to her smaller frame but Alex was ready for it. The explosion tore through five agents, sending body parts flying in every direction as the orange glow of the blast lit up the room.

The explosion was Tony and Steve's signal.

With the second grenade, Alex fired it at the left side of the room, blasting through the cages of hybrids. Some fought free of their constraints, but they were weakened now without their prototype. Alex fired the third and final grenade as the right side of the room, taking out that row of cages as well. The remainder of the weakened and wounded creatures she killed with ball grenades as she walked calmly out of the room.

Alex stepped through the smoking, burnt doorway to see Iron Man fly overhead. She followed him with her eyes, watching as he shot towards the second level of the facility. Blasts from various parts of his suit began to decimate the room where most of Hydra's core operations were contained.

Steve's shield rang somewhere nearby. It was the most beautiful sound Alex ever heard. With no more hybrid voices inside her mind chewing at her psyche and scattering her thoughts, she was able to take in the sight around her. With a smile on her face, she watched her teammates finish the job.

Facility Number 1 was successfully destroyed.

Facility Number 2 was next.

When Bucky first opened his eyes, he forgot where he was. The starch white surroundings left him feeling disoriented, and his sluggish brain didn't help the situation. He blinked a few times only to discover that his body was just as sluggish. When he tried to push himself into a seated position, someone rushed to help him.

"Not so fast, buddy. You've been through the ringer."

"Wilson?" Bucky blinked again, struggling to see clearly.

"You're coming off some pretty hefty drugs, so just take it slow. Here - let me." Sam pressed a button on the side of the bed, raising it a little to give Bucky a better angle to sit up.

This allowed Bucky to adjust the pillow behind his head, which hurt like a son of a bitch. His ears felt full of liquid, if that was even possible. "Alexis..." He rubbed his eyes, which helped a little. They came into focus to see Sam taking a seat on a plastic chair next to his bed. "Is she okay?"

"Here, drink this." Sam handed Bucky a Styrofoam cup. "The nurse told me to give you this whenever you woke up."

Bucky almost salivated at the thought of water. He couldn't remember the last time he drank anything, so he ended up chugging the small cup of liquid in one swallow. Instead of water, it was something viscous and chalky. "Fuck, what is that?" He handed the cup back to Sam with a curled lip.

"Not sure, but you drank that a lot faster than I would have" he said with a chuckle.

Bucky actually felt a little of his strength return. Whatever the nasty concoction was, it seemed to be working. His eyes cleared and his brain felt a little less shaken, but his memories were as jumbled as ever. The last vivid memory he could recall was getting attacked, but he also sort of remembered being brought into the medic room. Everything was so blurry. He felt weak and useless, and his confusion made him angry.

"How do you feel now?" Sam asked.

"Horrible."

"Need another cup of the tasty stuff?"

Bucky glared at him.

"Because I can get you another cup of the tasty stuff."

"How about just some water" Bucky said flatly.

Sam stood and nodded. "That I can definitely do."

Bucky watched as Sam left him alone with his thoughts. His side ached with a pain that resonated deep beneath the surface. Since he was shirtless and his eyesight was clearer, he chanced a look down at the bandaged wound at his waist. In doing so, his eyes saw something he wasn't expecting. A silver chain containing two dog tags lay resting in the center of his chest.

Those are my tags.

Fear began to knot in the pit of Bucky's stomach.

They should be on Alexis, but they aren't.

Something isn't right.

He could feel his breathing turn ragged as troublesome thoughts came on hard and fast. Next to the bed, alarms started beeping from his heart rate monitor. The ticking line that indicated its pace began to pulse frantically.

Feeling cornered by fear, Bucky ripped the IV needle from his arm, then yanked the sensors stuck to his abs and pushed himself off the bed. A rush of pain shot from his waist up to his head, causing him to waver. He placed a hand on his side and groaned low in his throat. Waves of pain tore through his abdomen, threatening to overwhelm him.

Doing his best to get a hold of himself, Bucky staggered towards the window that looked in on the nurses' station. The floor seemed to teeter as the pain continued, but he swallowed it. When he got to the glass, he hammered his metal fist against it. "Where is Alexis!?"

The nurses jumped in their chairs at the sound. They turned their frightened eyes towards Sam, who remained still as stone across the glass.

Bucky ground his jaw. "Where is she, Wilson!?" His face was pressed almost totally against the glass. "Tell me where she is!"

Sam quickly crossed the distance separating them, exiting the nurses' station back into the medic room. Whatever happened in those last few minutes had changed Bucky's total demeanor. His eyes were wild with fear, his face a splotchy crimson red. His dark hair fell over his brow, which now gleamed with a fresh sheen of sweat. "You have got to calm down, Barnes. I'll tell you where she is if you just calm down."

Bucky felt his hands tremble. His body was hot and his eyes throbbed as he met Sam's gaze. Something wasn't right. His goddamn sluggish brain wasn't working the way he needed it to, so all he felt was adrenaline coursing unchecked through his weakened body. The thought of losing Alex became real, and it scared him to death. "Where is she?" His voice was crippled by the pain of his fear. He clutched at the chain near his chest. "My tags...they're supposed to be withher."

"She wanted me to tell you everything when you woke up" Sam said, trying to steady him. He looked like a wild animal; lost and scared and injured. "Her, Steve, and Tony are on a mission."

"Mission?" Bucky repeated. The words didn't even seem real as they left his mouth.

"She made the decision to do a transfer with the hybrid so she could end them once and for all."

The color drained from Bucky's face.

"She wanted me to tell you it was her decision" Sam continued. "And I can confirm it was all hers because I was there." He gave Bucky a chance to process the information, watching as he kept his gaze directed at the floor but not really looking at anything. In fact, Bucky hardly moved. After his bout of intense anger, Sam was more worried now by his lack of response. "Barnes?"

Bucky lifted his head, revealing eyes burdened with fear. "Do you know if it worked? The transfer?"

Sam shook his head. "I wish I did. Lines have been silent since they left."

"You said Steve's with her?"

"Yes. And Stark."

Bucky exhaled. There weren't two better people to help her than Steve and Tony. Bucky knew Steve would protect her. He promised nothing would happen to her, and he knew Steve would keep that promise.

He ground his palms into his burning eyes, feeling helpless and alone. He was surrounded by people, but the only two people he loved in this miserable life were together on a mission that had already failed once. He didn't believe in odds. Wouldn't believe in them. But the odds weren't good. And all he could do was wait. He couldn't help her. He couldn't be by her side. He couldn't do anything but accept her decision...and he would.

Alexis had always been her own woman. Since the first day Bucky laid eyes on her, she'd been a beautiful combination of stunning and stubborn. She was strong-willed, with a fire inside her that burned regardless of whether she was with him or not. It was what he loved about her; she was as kind as she was determined, with a sense of humor that challenged him and a desire to prove he was worthy of the love she gave him. Together, they were partners. They were teammates. They were lovers.

But beyond all this, Alex was as strong of an individual as she was part of a team. Bucky knew she could - and would - take care of herself. He'd seen it before and he felt it with all his heart. If this truly was her choice, then he trusted her. Perhaps the past few weeks of their training would help her. He could only hope so.

But the thought of losing her...

Sam was there to catch him when he faltered. "Sam..."

"I'm here, Barnes. Let's get you back to the bed." Over his shoulder, Sam motioned for the nurses to come and help him. Both entered into the room and helped guide Bucky back to the bed. They readied a fresh IV and straightened the blankets that had gone askew as Sam propped him into a comfortable position.

Bucky's eyelids grew heavy as the air seemed to leave his chest. His head pounded. His throat was raw. A fever burned in the wound at his side, making it hard for him to concentrate. He felt his world fade from view as they pierced his arm once more, feeding him more drugs that would take him back to a more peaceful state. He muttered Alexis' name deliriously until he drifted back into his medically induced slumber.

The destruction of Facility #2 didn't go as smoothly for Alex, Steve, and Tony as the first facility did. It started out as flawless as the first facility's take-down, but they lost control right around the time Alex shoved the syringe into the neck of the second (and final) prototype hybrid. She'd done exactly as she had before: wound up, used her speed to blow through the alarms, and then killed the prototype. Alex drove the needle home inside the prototype's leathery neck to a chorus of alarms blaring. The rows of hybrids wailed in protest, feeling the connection to their life force cut off. She leapt from the center table where the dead creature's body now lay and readied her grenades. Feeling like the end was near and victory was close, she loaded the rifle with a brewing sense of triumph. She tried to contain herself, knowing it wasn't over until the fat lady sung...but as far as she was concerned, the fat lady was practically warming up her vocal cords.

With steadiness in her stance, Alex fired the initial grenade towards the entrance to the laboratory, giving Steve and Tony the signal they needed. The trouble began when she fired the next grenade into the first row of hybrids. When the blast exploded through the cages and decimated the creatures within them, the doors to the second row of cages all opened in unison. Whether it was done internally by someone, or via an unknown alarm system that was tripped, Alex never knew.

As the creatures fled their pens, their ugly screams deafened Alex's enhanced hearing. She dropped the rifle, her mind overtaken by the utter confusion of dozens of hybrids bellowing inside her skull. Each of the bones of her face rattled individually as if they were about to shatter. Alex fell to her knees, clutching at her head in agony.

Without their mother hybrid, the remaining hybrids scattered aimlessly around her. Some attacked one another while others ran for the exit. Several more set their sights on Alex in her compromised state. She sensed their heat as they came towards her. When she lifted her head, she saw several pairs of golden yellow eyes honing in on her. Their color was fading as they weakened, but there was still a desire to kill within them.

Focus, Alexis.

Squeals of delight were heard all around her. Whether it was inside her mind or outside her, she could no longer tell.

Focus. They're weakened. You can overpower them.

With as much energy as she could muster, Alex rose to her feet. The hybrids took it as a signal. The first attacked her head-on, lunging and slashing at her. Alex blocked the slash with her arm, then spun and kicked the creature dead center in the face. It went flying backwards into one of its kin, toppling them both into the corner of the laboratory.

The howling grew louder within Alex's mind as the creatures called to one another, warning of the danger she presented. They came on faster, but Alex blocked and punched and rolled them off of her. The smell of death was all around her, their movements frantic and sloppy without their prototype. Her muscles reacted with the same strength and agility of the hybrids that attacked her, but she wondered how much longer it would take until they became too weak to fight.

"Hey Rogers!?" Alex swung a fist and punched another of the hybrids as it lunged at her. "I need some help down here!" Another two hybrids dove at her with their screaming mouths aimed for her head. Alex successfully blocked and defended each of their attacks, tossing two ball grenades into their mouths before catapulting out of the way. The explosions pummeled her with the sludge of their disintegrated bodies, which she wiped off her face with disgust. "Rogers! Stark! Do you copy? I need backup!"

They never radioed back, and that made Alex more nervous than the attack she was currently trying to handle.

Fine. I'll do this the old fashioned way, she thought. Alone.

Using the power of her transferred strength, Alex jumped and dodged each of the hybrids that tried to come for her. Her flexibility made her feel like a gymnast; catapulting off surfaces, using anything solid in her way to get an edge on them. Their weakness was her advantage, as was their hive connection inside her mind. She quickly learned that she could sense their movement before they attacked, anticipating them and aiming ball grenade after ball grenade at their gaping mouths. One by one, Alex picked them off. The more she killed, the quieter the voices inside her head became.

Exhausted, out of breath, and with a throbbing ache being her eyes, Alex managed a back flip onto the platform where the dead mother hybrid lay. She landed on her feet with her hands braced on the floor, crouched and ready for the last hybrid to attack. It lined itself up to her, ready to run dead on and attack her from the front.

Come on, you son of a bitch. Alex reached out to it through their mental hive bond. It screamed at her, a sickly yellow froth dripping from its mouth. She could tell it was weakening, but its desire to kill was stronger than its deteriorating body.

Come on. Let's end this!

The hybrid's scream nearly split Alex's skull in two. It sprinted for her, leaping up over lab furniture strewn about the floor as it aimed for the platform. Alex fingered the ball grenade in her hand, pressing the detonation button that would begin the 5-second countdown. She waited...counted the seconds...timed it just right...then tossed the ball into the mouth that was lunging right at her.

Her aim was perfect.

The grenade exploded, erupting in a spray of marbled leather skin and bone. Black blood rained down on Alex, covering her in a sticky, pungent substance that coated her from head to toe. The smell was nauseating to the point it made her lightheaded. With one of her gloved hands, Alex wiped the gunk from her face. Whatever their blood was made of wasn't human. It was greasy like tar and bubbled against the material of her suit. She tried to wipe more of it off her as she stood, but a voice behind her caught the very air in her lungs. She turned in alarm, blood dripping down her face.

A man ran forward, screaming something at her in a foreign language. He held a small device with a red button in his hand, shaking it at her as his voice frantically yelled something over and over. It was a Hydra agent, for sure, but who he was or what influence he had here was unknown to her. His clothes gave nothing away, and Alex sure as hell couldn't understand what he was screaming at her.

She raised her hands, trying to make herself seem less threatening. "I don't understand you!" Her eyes lowered to the device in the man's hands. "English? Do you speak English!?"

The man pointed the device at her, appearing as though he was going to push the button. His face was twisted with fear; the same fear Alex could plainly hear in his frenzied speech.

"No, no - don't push!" Alex waved her hands, trying to tell him no but seeing sweat dripping down his face. "I'll stop! Just let me go! See? I'm walking away!" She took a few steps backwards, never taking her eyes off the man. "Just let me go, okay!? No more harm. No more fighting."

The man's breathing came in short, ragged wheezes. Alex could see the whites of his eyes as she backed away, careful not to move too abruptly. When she got to the part of the platform where the dead hybrid prototype lay lifeless, the man shouted at her. Again, it was in his native language and was delivered in the same agitated tone as before.

Fuck, what is he saying?! What the hell is that button?

Alex kept her hands up as she took one cautious step over the body. When her second foot cleared the body, the man pushed the red button.

Alex froze. In front of her, the tentacle-like tubes attached to the prototype disengaged from its body and rose to life. Their ends, now glowing bright red, all turned and faced her like antennae. Rows of tiny needles emerge from the glowing red ends like some sadistic alien leech. They sensed her connection to the hive, the heat emanating from her, the powers she borrowed from the other hybrid.

The glowing red tentacles lunged at Alex as she sprung into a backwards flip. It was enough to avoid two of the tentacles, but the other two grabbed on to her. Their needles tried to pierce the impervious Wakandan material of her suit and failed, but Alex still felt the force of their attempt digging into her skin. The slammed into her body and knocked her down, then began worming around her to get at the exposed skin of her face. Alex grabbed on to one of the arms and used it to sling herself back onto her feet. The other metal arms wriggled and wound about the table, but it was no use. Her martial art skills and her enhanced powers outmatched their limited movements.

Springing off one of the tubed arms, Alex landed beyond the length of the table and began to sprint towards the man. He was muttering wildly now, and he dropped the small handheld device as he began to flee. He was too slow for Alex. She kicked him in the back, knocking him onto his face on the floor. He lifted his head just in time to see the heel of her boot smash his device to pieces.

Behind them, the tentacled arms slowed to a stop.

Alex was exhausted, in pain, and angry. Vitriol flowed through her veins like venom, fueling her hate for Hydra as she stared at the man below her. She rolled the man forcefully onto his back and crouched over him.

"I am sick and tired of you people." She tipped her head so her eyes were directly lined up with his, forcing the coward to stare at her. "I'm done with your fucked up looking experimental pets. I'm done with your sadistic little organization hurting the people I love. And I'm DONE with this mission."

Alex retracted the glove to one of her hands and held up her palm.

"Consider this payback for hurting my soldier."

She palmed the man's face and closed her eyes. His scream vibrating against her hand, so she gripped even harder. She dug her nails into the flesh of his face until he bled. In her mind, she could see his recent memories, past memories, pain, joy, love, fear. She blew past all of them, going to the very heart of his psyche with all the power she had left within her. He screamed against her hand, but Alex never let up. She dove head first into the darkness of his past with Hydra, watching as the memories of all the horrible things he'd done flashed before her.

Torture.
Killing.
Sensory deprivation.
Pain.
Suffering.
Isolation.
Delight in other's misery.

Alex turned the emotions back on him, forcing him to feel each emotion individually as if he was experiencing them instead of causing them.

The unadulterated anger she felt threatened her control. She could have gone further than she did. Her anger for what Hydra had done to Bucky, both in the past and in the present, was enough for her to lose control and take everything she could from the man.

But it wasn't just his fault.
This one man was only a fraction of an entire entity of evil.

The lab, the creatures, the horrible things Hydra created...it wasn't just one person's doing, but decades and decades of evil done by the hands of hundreds of individuals. The men on Comoros Island. The agents in Thimphu who put her in a collar. The lab workers who made the hybrids. Dr. Matheson and his team of slime balls. Hydra was an entity that required all of the Avengers and all of their talents to take down. Snuffing out this one man's life wouldn't solve anything. It wouldn't make Bucky better. It wouldn't heal the hurts of his past. It wouldn't prove anything to anyone, and Alex knew it. Their fight against Hydra would wage on whether she killed this man or not, and this wasn't the way she wanted to avenge the people she loved.

With exercised control, Alex withdrew her hand.

It took her a second as she returned to her normal state, feeling her powers retract back into her and out of the man. When they finished and Alex opened her eyes, she stood. She gazed down at the man as he slowly regained consciousness. His breathing was weak, but he was alive. When he looked up, his eyes widened in horror like nothing Alex had ever seen. He muttered something in his native tongue, sounding timid and scared.

Alex took a few steps back. "Go. Get out of here, before I change my mind." She waved her hand at the door, giving him an out. He scrambled to his feet, slipping on patches of black blood stuck to the floor. He half-limped, half-ran out of the room. Where he went, Alex didn't care. For all she knew, Steve or Tony took care of him outside.

With her mind devoid of any hybrid screams or the memories of evil men, Alex leaned against the wall and slowly slumped to the floor. Her body was spent. The ache she felt in her chest made her wonder if it was an injury, or just her tired soul. She was tired of fighting. She was tired of hurting. She closed her eyes and rested, doing her best not to think about anything.

She had no idea how long she sat there among the broken lab equipment and the dead creatures. When Tony and Steve emerged through the wreckage, they found her propped against the wall and covered in black goop. Steve stared in awe at the carnage strewn about the room. Even Tony took a second to admire the work she'd done in their absence.

Alex saw them approach and gave a weak smile. "Long time no see, Fellas."

Steve knelt and inspected her with troubled eyes. "You did all this?"

"Don't act so surprised, Rogers."

The corner of his mouth ticked upwards. "Are you alright?"

"I could use a shower, but I should be fine."

Steve's tiny smirk turned into a full-blown smile. "Glad to hear it." He extended his hand and helped her to her feet.

"Everything else taken care of?" she asked. The look Tony and Steve gave one another was all the assurance she needed.

"I'd say Hydra won't be making any more of these things." Tony gave a rather distasteful glance at the dismembered hybrid bodies around the room.

Alex was relieved to hear it. "You still have that medicine you showed me before we started all this?"

Tony pressed a button on his suit, revealing a compartment that opened on his forearm. He brought out the syringe with the green liquid, much to Steve's surprise.

"What is that!?" His face was bent with alarm.

"An easier way out of Hydra's hive." Tony pulled the cap off the needle. "You sure, Markos?"

Steve stared at Alexis, not understanding anything he was seeing.

She placed a comforting hand on his arm. "Tony developed a way to get the hybrid connection out of me quickly." She rolled the sleeve of her suit up, exposing the inside of her arm. "I might be knocked out for a while, but it's the best method of ending this."

Before Tony inserted the needle, Alex met Steve's gaze with a smile. "Just get me home, Rogers. Get me back to my soldier."

She felt a tiny prick, then a cloud of warmth spread over her. Her vision went black as she slumped into Steve's arms. As gently as he could, Steve lifted Alex into his arms and carried her back to the Quinjet.

Facility Number 2 was successfully destroyed.

Hydra's hybrid experiment was no more.

Hours passed before Bucky opened his eyes again. The sound of his health monitors drew him from the depth of his slumber, gently nudging him awake with their steady beeping. When his vision cleared, he noticed a marked difference in the pain inside his head. The burning ache in his side was still very much present, but his eyes weren't as foggy and his brain wasn't nearly as fuzzy.

His first instinct was to push himself into a seated position, but to his surprise he found he was already propped up in the bed. He blinked, wincing a little as he felt his wounds talking to him. He looked down at his waist, only to realize another bed had been wheeled in next to his. Lingering stiffness in his neck made it hard to turn his head, but he wanted to see who'd joined him.

His breath was stolen from his chest. "Alexis?!"

Dark lashes slowly fluttered opened. Her eyes drifted his direction and when she saw him, a drowsy smile played on her lips. "Hey Sarge."

Her voice was frail, but Bucky could still hear her spirit beneath the weariness. She was propped up similarly to him, wearing a blank tank top with her legs covered by a thin white blanket. Her hair lay limply over her bare shoulders, covering a part of the ink that marked her right arm. To Bucky's relief, she looked unharmed. Given her drowsy affect, he guessed she'd been on her own cocktail of drugs.

"Thank God you're okay." His voice quaked a little. "I was so scared..." He couldn't finish the sentence. Across from him, he saw the comfort of Alex's full smile appear and it breathed life back into him.

Alex weakly lifted her hand across the space between their beds. Bucky reached out and wrapped his metal hand around it, careful not to hurt the site where her IV was. The security of her touch and the warmth it gave him did more for him than any drug could.

"I'm here now," she said, her fingers tightening around his. "I finished it, James. Hydra lost this one."

Bucky felt pride expand inside him. He no longer noticed the pain in his body; only the brightness of life within the woman across from him. He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it, wishing he could take her into his arms and wrap her up in his love. "I knew you would."

His gaze lowered only momentarily, which Alex caught, even in her drug-hazed state. It was that little bashful way Bucky had of alerting her whenever something was eating at him but was too shy to mention. "What is it?" she asked, worry slipping into her fragile voice. His blue eyes lifted; open and honest and beautiful.

"What made you do it?"

"You." Her throat bobbed. "Seeing you hurt like that..." She looked away so he wouldn't see the water welling in her eyes. "I couldn't bear seeing you in so much pain. I had to put a stop to it."

Bucky could count on one hand how many people he respected in his life, and Alex was one of them. "I felt you that day, you know" he told her. She heard this and blinked; water settling behind her lashes. "When I was knocked out, I felt something. I don't know what it was, but a part of me knew it was you. Like when you enter my mind and work on my memories. It's become familiar and comforting." His mouth twitched upward. "Sounds dumb, but I think my heart recognizes yours."

Alex knew exactly what he meant, and she didn't think it was dumb at all. It drew the water that hung in her eyes down her cheeks, her heart filling with the wholeness only Bucky could give her.

Lifting the blanket from over her lap, Alex slipped from her bed and climbed into Bucky's. She heard the plates of his arm shift as he tried to give her more room, but she halted him. "This is fine. This is all I want." She nestled onto her side, finding a spot in the crook of his arm. "I just want to lay here with you...like this."

Bucky closed his eyes and let his heart relish in the love he felt in that moment. His teammate was back. His friend. His lover. His everything. Their connection was whole again. Neither of them was alone anymore. They had one another, and they always would.

Bucky drew Alex in closer, his arm hugging her slim body in a protective embrace. He buried his nose in her hair, savoring her. "Rest, darling. I'll be right here."

"I know," she said, feeling another tear slip down her cheek. "I know you will be."