"I heard that!" Sam greeted us, his lips pursed, but his arms were wide and welcoming me for a hug. "You feeling better, Brooke?" Hugging me tight he told me I looked better, and I hummed my agreement to the feeling matching my looks.
Bucky rolled his eyes when his partner in heroism released me. "She's perfect," his fingers linked with mine and his lips were on my temple. "Like always."
"You two," Sam's smile was almost blinding and I almost snorted again - oh how he quickly forgot Bucky's dig at how he stacked up to Steve. "It's damn difficult to stay irritated at how disgustingly cute you are -" he groaned, "come in before breakfast gets cold and Sarah wants to beat all our asses."
The scent of a full breakfast hit my nose as soon as our feet hit the top step of the porch, and instead of the same hunger that I had the day before, my stomach curled and I pushed away from Bucky and was hanging off one of the white pillars as I emptied my stomach of the water I'd drank that morning. I dry heaved once my stomach had nothing else left - Bucky's left hand was cool on my forehead, brushing my sweat damp hair back from my face, and lifting it off my neck with his right hand.
"Brooke?" He wasn't AS freaked out as he'd been at the cookout, but he wasn't calm either. "Sweetheart, are you -"
"Empty?" I huffed out a breath. "Yes," I slumped against the pillar. "I HATE throwing up." His chuckle was soft, like the kiss he pressed against my clammy forehead as he wrapped himself around my back to hold me steady.
"Sam rushed inside to get Sarah," he murmured, "I don't think you have to worry about ME telling anyone ANYTHING about the test you took." Shit.
Sarah came out shaking her head and telling her brother that I was FINE. "Sam, stop being a worrywart," she pointed out how calm Bucky was this time. "See, Bucky isn't freaking out."
"She just -" Sam's eyebrows met in the middle as his brow furrowed so deeply. "I swear to -" Then the sun caught my newest accessory and his eyes widened. "Is that an engagement ring?"
"Are you a cat?" I asked, squinting at him. "I mean you fly, so I'd go with bird as the first guess, but you have this 'ooh, shiny' thing going on that screams 'cat'."
"Don't deflect," his grin was growing. "Are actually going to marry Methuselah?" I shook my head at the getting very old - har-har that was punny too - jokes about Bucky's age. He sighed. "I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised after -" Sarah clocked him in the back of his head and my own grin started to come back. "What was that for?" He shot his sister a look of shock and betrayal.
"Brooke is sick and you're mocking her," she stared at him like he was a complete and utter disappointment - Captain America or not. "I expected better from you, Sam." His eyes widened and he started to stumble and stutter out an attempt at an explanation and an apology -
"It's fine," Bucky assured Sarah, containing his glee, but JUST barely. "At least ONE member of the Wilson family understands how to treat a lady who's under the weather -" I bit my lip - the two of them ganging up on Sam, dear GOD.
"Ah, come on now," his eyes met mine, pleading with me to toss him a bone. "Brooke KNOWS I was only kidding, don't you?"
Leaning into Bucky, not having to dig too deep into my dramatic stockpiles - I was pretty damn weak after emptying everything left in my stomach - I knew I looked pathetic. "I'm sure you weren't TRYING to hurt my feelings, Sam." He looked stricken and I started to feel bad about laying it on too thick. "I'll be fine, once I get inside -"
"Yeah, let me help Bucky get you in the house," he rushed forward and tried to figure out where best to offer aid - finally I held out my free arm and he smiled as he took it. "Are you sure you can handle the smell? Seemed like -" and then, with a flash like the sunlight hitting my ring - his eyes met Sarah's and then came back to mine. And I knew that Sam Wilson had finally put two and two together and figured out why I might not be able to keep food down - "OH," his eyes widened, and his smile grew. "OH."
"Could we get Brooke in the house," Bucky muttered, shooting Sam a look that warned him - against everything that I could think he wanted to warn him about. "And then you can maybe move past 'o' and prove you know the rest of the alphabet."