Sorry this is late! Like Chapter 20, this was not cooperating with me!

I seem to be torturing Darcy a lot, lately, aren't I? Drowning, police brutality, and paralysis? Not that it's a walk in the park for Bucky to watch.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Marvel Cinematic Universe or any of the characters contained therein.

WORD COUNT: 996

"Where is she?!"

The nearest person, a generic lab assistant in a white coat, froze like a deer in the headlights. Then again, so would anyone when confronted by a frantic Winter Soldier.

A nearby woman wearing a uniform identifying her as part of the building's medical team spoke up: "Sergeant Barnes-"

"Where is she?!" He and the other Avengers had been on their way back from an intel-gathering mission at a suspected HYDRA base (which had been abandoned and stripped by the time they got there) when they got the news of an incident in the labs. Apparently, there'd been an accident in the biochemical lab, causing the entire floor to be put into quarantine.

Jane's lab was on that floor.

The elevator hadn't even let him off on that floor, but delivered him to the next one up, instead.

"Sir, you need to calm down-"

"DON'T FUCKING TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!"

"Bucky?" Jane appeared from a nearby hallway, tears in her eyes and a tablet in her hand.

Bucky immediately ignored the medic and went straight to someone he trusted to give him some goddamn answers. "Jane, what happened? Where's Darcy?"

Jane wiped some tears away, and Bucky felt his blood run cold. "I wasn't in the lab; my mom called, and I went up to my room to check something she asked me about. Everyone's been quarantined on that level, but I've been messaging with Darcy. We were just about to open a video chat when I heard you yelling."

She ushered him into the room she'd previously been in, and opened the video chat.

Darcy had looked better. Bucky tried to fool himself into thinking that it was the lab lighting and the display settings on Jane's tablet that made her look so pale. She was lying in a bed of some sort. "Hey Jane, everything's- Bucky!"

Bucky feigned a reassuring grin. "Hey, Doll," he greeted his fiancée, wincing at how badly his voice was trembling, "Heard you've been getting some excitement down there."

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's been really exciting. Some of the guys in biochem were working on a vaccine or a cure or something for a new virus, or something like that, and some idiot accidentally broke a vial of the virus – I still don't know who."

Bucky resolved to ask J.A.R.V.I.S. which idiot it was. As soon as the quarantine was lifted, he was going to 'explain' to them the consequences of putting his girl in danger like that.

Darcy coughed wetly, reminding Bucky of all the times Steve got really sick and he had to take care of him.

"Darcy?" Jane gasped, paling, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Y-yeah. Yeah, just a little tickle in my throat." She coughed again, several more times.

"Doll, try telling saying that again. Maybe I'll believe you the second time." Bucky had to release his grip on Jane's shoulder, not wanting to break her collarbone from squeezing it so hard, and instead moved his hand to the cheap plastic chair she was sitting in.

Darcy shuddered, looking away from her iPad. "Darcy…" Jane whispered, wiping away a stray tear.

"I'm sorry," Darcy whimpered, "They don't know if they're going to be able to fix this in time. Some of the others are worse."

At that, Bucky had to close his eyes and count to ten, focusing on controlling his breathing. This couldn't be happening. He was the one putting his life on the line on a regular basis, not Darcy. He didn't know how he could survive losing her. Steve was the one who'd first pulled the pieces of him back out from the wreck of the Winter Soldier, but Darcy was the one who put them back together again.

Eventually, the quarantine on the lab floor was mostly lifted, save for one large room that had been converted into an infirmary. Jane and Bucky were able to actually see Darcy, albeit through a glass wall. Both handled seeing her rapidly declining state in very different ways. Jane coped with a mixture of avoidance and productivity, playing gofer for the biochemists working on a cure ("I was an intern myself, once, back in college."). Bucky coped, for lack of a better term, by refusing to leave Darcy's side. He read Darcy's favourite books to her, discussed wedding plans with her, and generally just tried to keep her (and himself, to be perfectly honest) distracted from the reality of the situation.

When Darcy's condition worsened, she started begging for one thing, and Bucky could never really say no to her.

A lot of staff members from the nearest hospital had been called over to help with the crisis, including a chaplain. Darcy wanted to get married. Right there, right then. It was scary, because it felt like admitting that she wasn't going to live to see their planned wedding date. But she was insistent.

The impromptu ceremony was quick, with both Jane and Steve serving as witnesses. The marriage certificate had to be passed through a machine that irradiated it to kill any traces of the virus after Darcy finished signing it. Bucky couldn't even kiss his bride.

The new Mrs. Barnes was being kept on life support when the scientists finally cracked the code. Bucky sat outside the containment area, holding Jane's hand while Thor enveloped the both of them in his arms and Steve stood rigidly beside them, gripping Bucky's shoulder. They watched as the doctors administered the apparent cure to all the patients (except for one, who had perished earlier thanks to having already been coming down with the flu when she was infected).

Darcy woke up to her husband sitting by her bed and holding her hand.

I actually considered killing Darcy off in this one, but to be honest, I didn't want to. I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to kill any of them.

Next up: Seizure. This one took some research until I could figure out which type and cause I would go with.