"Steve!" Bucky knelt down beside him as Steve pushed himself up to a sitting position with a badly concealed wince. "Are you o..." He stopped himself with a small wince of his own. Of course Steve wasn't ok.
"I'm fine." Steve replied gruffly, standing up. As soon as he reached full height, however, he dropped back down to his knees with a hiss of pain.
Bucky blinked away a sudden stinging sensation in his eyes and reached out to Steve. "No, you're not." he said quietly. "You need help, Steve."
"I'm fine." Steve bit out again, pulling away from him and slowly standing back up. He succeeded in staying upright this time, keeping a straight face but his eyes gave away his pain. He started to walk to exit the alley but stopped quickly with a pained sound.
"Steve..." Bucky approached him again. "You can barely walk, just let me help you to get to my place." Bucky was sure Steve would do better going to a hospital but that wasn't an option. He'd probably go from hospital room to jail cell. He would have to sort this out himself.
Steve hesitated, but with a defeated sigh, nodded slightly. "Fine."
Bucky stepped up beside Steve and wrapped an arm around his waist as gently as he could while still supporting a good deal of Steve's weight. Which, really, wasn't that hard even in better circumstances. The two set off slowly out of the alley to Bucky's apartment, both completely silent the whole way, other than occasional sounds of pain from Steve which he was obviously trying to hide.
After a less than easy climb up the stairs, they finally entered the apartment and Steve stepped out of Bucky's grasp but otherwise made no move. Bucky was at a loss himself, mind working desperately to fix this. What the heck was he supposed to do?
Steve was the first to speak up. "I need a shower." he stated simply, heading to the bathroom and shutting the door behind him without a word.
Bucky stared at the closed door, speechless, but decided to leave Steve be for the moment. If he suddenly fell again, he would be able to hear it. So he walked away from the door and went to work gathering a pillow and blankets for the couch, which he intended to take himself and put Steve in the bedroom. Steve would probably insist on going home but Bucky was definitely not letting that happen.
As the sound of running water came from the bathroom, he searched around for any first aid kits or medicine or something that could help Steve, wondering if the only supplies were in the medicine cabinet in the room that was currently occupied.
If the muffled sounds of forced back crying mixed in with the spray of the shower, he pretended not to hear.