Baz moaned and tried to open her eyes, but found that her body didn't agree with her mind about waking up. Her ears, however, seemed to be partially cooperating.

She heard shifting fabric and then the light tap of footsteps.

"Hey, baby."

Joy flooded through Baz at the familiar voice. The only external sign of this was a small twich of her lips.

"Tony, I think she's awake."

More rustling and footsteps.

"Hey there, Baz."

With considerable effort, Baz opened her eyes. Her lips curved slightly and she suddenly felt the drool on her face. She cringed internally at the thought of her big brother and boyfriend seeing her like this.

"You're in a hospital. One of the best hospitals in the country. Me and Tony are here with you. You're really drugged up right now so we don't expect you to be or act awake. I think that's all you need to know for now, so you can go back to sleep if you want to."

Baz blinked once at Bucky, then closed her eyes and sank back into black nothingness.

The second time Baz woke up, it was more like consciousness slammed into her than the cloudy half-awareness of before.

She yelled, suddenly feeling a tingling sensation through her entire body. Bucky jolted awake and rushed over to his girlfriend's side.

"Calm down, Baz. The doctor said you would feel some nerves firing weirdly as a side effect of the meds they gave you. You're fine, I'm here, Tony's here, and everything is gonna be okay."

Baz nodded, then said something Bucky didn't quite hear.

"Hmm?"

"I said, I need cuddles from my Bucky."

Bucky grinned and pulled back the thin covers. Baz scootched over for him and he tried to fit into the space she'd made. His arm and leg were hanging over the side of the bed, so they maneuvered themselves so that Bucky was lying on his back and Baz was lying on her stomach on top of him, her head over his heart.

Tony woke up to an empty chair by his side. He pushed himself up out of his chair, joints cracking. He looked around for Bucky until his eyes landed on the hospital bed. There was Baz, lying on top of the Romanian-American killing machine, both of them fast asleep.

They reminded Tony of those sickeningly cute kittens in "animal calendars" that people like Steve thought were the best thing ever.

Which reminded him...he had a call to make.

"Steve?"

"Tony! Oh my God, I've been trying to reach you for hours!"

"I was asleep," Tony said sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Oh, I didn't know. Sorry. Gia's been worried sick. How's Baz?"

"We're in the hospital. She was running a fever of about a hundred and four but they've got it down to a hundred and two. She's safe from organ failure but there's not much else they can do except let her sweat whatever she has out."

"Okay. Gia and I are coming over."

"She's barely coherent. If you want to come over here to watch her sleep, you can."

"We'll be there in half an hour. Bucky took my bike so we'll be walking."

"See you then."

Steve ran into the bathroom where Gia was leaning over the toilet, dry heaving.

"You good, honey?"

"Yeah, Stevie. I'm good."

"When I told Tony you were worried sick, it wasn't supposed to mean literally."

"I know, babe. I'm fine."

"You're not. We'll get you checked out when we get to the hospital."

"Babe, no. It's too expensive for us."

"Tony'll cover it, you know he will."

"But it's unnecessary."

"Okay, fine. Let's just go see how Baz is doing."

The walk to the hospital was inappropriately sunny and warm, almost perfect. The only problem was the high humidity, making it just the type of weather that Baz would complain about.

Gia really needed to stop thinking about Baz, or she was gonna make herself sick again.

Gia smiled when she saw Baz and Bucky curled up together under the thin hospital sheet. Baz's face was pressed up against the cool metal of Bucky's arm while the rest of her was draped over the heater that was his chest. Her legs fell around one of his, and she just generally looked too comfortable to be sick.

Steve, however, was concernedly asking, "How's her fever?"

Tony shook his head, looking grim. "Still up at one-oh-one."

"Is Bucky at risk of catching anything?"

"Simmons says no."

"You called her?"

"Mhmm."

"Good."