This short novel has been previously published on both Wattpad and AO3 platforms starting in December 2021, by the same author, using the same username, SJSmith56. Please do not copy and paste this work into any other platform or translate it into another language. MCU characters are the property of Marvel / Disney and are used on a fair use basis for this original story, with other original characters that are the property of the author.

Chapter 1. Bleeding Daylight

The woman was almost finished. It had been three days, maybe more, maybe less, since she left her mother and son in the Sanctuary to find help. The Others had seen her, not near the Sanctuary fortunately, but they had still seen her. They tracked her into the Badlands. She knew the ground well, having hidden there as a kid before Ma found her and took her in.

"Ma," she tried to say through her cracked lips. "I'm sorry Ma, I died here. No one's coming."

If she had any moisture left in her eyes she would be crying now but her eyes were dry, red and crusted with the dirt from her hands whenever she rubbed her face. She tripped and the fall to the ground was agony as she tried to protect the wound on her side, the wound the Others had given her, the wound she was dying from. She looked at her hand which had been over the wound. It was bloody meaning the wound had opened again. The wound the doctor whose name she had already forgotten had closed.

"Fuck," she gasped.

Slowly, she placed her hands below her and lifted herself to one knee, then upright, screaming as she did it. Giving up wasn't an option, not yet, not when Ma and Ben were waiting for her to return to the Sanctuary. Even though she knew she was dying she wouldn't give up, not until she couldn't get up anymore. Five steps later she tripped again and this time she stayed down. She lay there, dying, waiting for the darkness to take her when she felt someone turn her over. Man, woman, she didn't know but they pulled her jacket open and pulled her shirt up then swore at what they saw. It was a man's voice and she tried to open her eyes but there was no lubrication left for the eyelids to open.

"Help," she said, except it came out "Heh", if it came out at all.

She felt arms lifting her up and movement as she was carried to a vehicle and laid in the back seat. They had a car. How could they have a car when there was no gas? But she heard the engine start up and even though the man, it was a man she heard, although she had already forgotten the voice, drove carefully each bump made her cry out from the pain in the wound the Others had given her.

"Hold on," said the man, yes, it was a man, "I'll get you to a doctor."

Doctor? Were there still such things? There had to be because she had seen one, in the desert when she was dying. Ma had told her about doctors, healers, angels of mercy, madmen, killers, responsible for death. It became harder to breathe and she knew this was it, death was in the car, sitting on the top of the back seat, looking down at her, rubbing its hands in anticipation. Death had found her and it was bleeding daylight away from her and replacing it with the darkness. She almost welcomed it because the pain would stop. She had no regrets. No, that wasn't true, there was a regret. That she couldn't say goodbye to Ma and Ben. I'm sorry, she said but there was no sound from her lips as it was all in her mind now. That's all that was left, her mind and that one regret. Then the darkness came.

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

Lovers in a Dangerous Time by Bruce Cockburn

"Jesus, Steve," said the doctor. "Where the hell did you find her? She's more dead than alive."

Dr. Bruce Banner looked at the almost dead woman on the gurney. Steve Rogers had carried her in from his vehicle yelling at Bruce for help. He stood back as Bruce started checking her out.

"She came out of the Badlands," said Steve. "I heard her screaming. She had raised herself from where she fell. Buddy alerted me. Can you save her?"

"I'll do my best but she's severely dehydrated, in shock, and the wound...," Banner shook his head. "It's from a weapon of the Others. They did this to her. I don't know how long the poison has been in her system but it looks bad."

Steve stepped back as there was nothing more that he could do. Finding her out in the middle of nowhere was a miracle. He felt a cold nose nuzzle his hand and looked down at his dog, Buddy. It was him that alerted Steve to the presence of the woman. He wouldn't have seen her on his own as her clothes were so dusty and dirty she blended into the landscape. But Buddy knew something was out there and had whined, then given a single bark when he saw and heard the woman get up from the ground, walk five steps and fall again.

"It's okay, boy," he said, scratching behind the dog's ear. "Let Bruce work."

He turned around and the dog of unknown parentage followed at his heel, devoted to his master. Leaving the medical room Steve walked down the long hallway to the common room. Bucky was making a pot of coffee, artificially flavoured coffee but it was what they had.

"She lived long enough to get to Bruce," he said, not turning his head. "She might have a chance."

"The wound is definitely from an Others weapon," said Steve. "We're going to have to find out where she came from and go after them."

Bucky stopped and looked at the wall before turning to his friend. "It's a losing battle, Steve," he said. "We get rid of one nest and two more nests pop up. It's HYDRA all over again.

"Well, we beat them," he said, in exasperation. "I can't...I can't turn my back on people, Bucky. Being an Avenger still means something to me, even if you've given up."

Bucky had been holding an empty coffee cup but at the insinuation he had given up he squeezed the cup until it shattered, sending porcelain shards all over the kitchen counter. He swore and used the dish cloth to wipe up as much as he could, dropping the pieces into the garbage container. Then he poured himself a coffee using someone else's mug.

"I haven't given up," he said trying to sound objective as he faced the coffee pot. "I'm just more realistic than you. We can't save them all. There's too many of them and not enough of us."

Bucky felt a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," said Steve. "That was a low blow. I know you that still care that you haven't given up. Since Lily died you haven't been the same."

"I'm over it," said Bucky, unconvincingly. "I just wish the baby had lived so I still had something of her."

Steve patted Bucky again. "She was a good woman," he said. "We all miss her."

They were interrupted by the arrival of Peter Parker. He was in jeans and a T-shirt and opened the door to the cupboard looking for something.

"Either of you seen my Einstein coffee mug?" he asked. "It was here an hour ago."

Bucky looked at the garbage can and didn't say anything. Neither did Steve. Peter gave up looking and grabbed one of the spare ones pouring himself a cup. He plopped down on the couch and looked at the two.

"So, what's up?" he asked cheerfully.

"Found a woman on the edge of the Badlands," said Steve. "She had an Other's wound. I think we need to have a mission to locate the nest."

"Cool, I'm in," said the 20 year old. "Is she still alive?"

"Bruce is treating her," said Bucky. "But she was hurt quite bad."

Slowly, other members of the Avengers drifted in having smelled the ersatz coffee scent as it made its way to the residence section. As more of them came in the noise level went up. People started gossiping, laughing and telling jokes. Bucky looked at Steve and smiled grimly.

"There's my cue to leave," he said. "See you later."

Steve watched his friend walk down the long hallway. Bucky was still very introverted even three years after the Snap ended. He had close relationships with a few people, but he didn't like being in a crowd. Lily, his late wife, had helped him fit in better but since her death he had closed himself off a little more. Steve heard someone call his name and he turned to the conversation.

In the long hallway, Bucky sipped his coffee and walked to the medical room door. He could see through the window that Bruce was looking frustrated and stuck his head in the door.

"Do you need help, Bruce?" he asked.

"Yeah, just wash your hands well first," he said.

Bucky pulled his bandanna out of his pocket and tied it around his head to keep his hair out of the way. Leaving his coffee on the counter he stepped close to Bruce and looked at the woman. She was still dirty, covered in blood and dust.

"Could you undress her and clean her up?" asked Bruce. "I've got my hands full with this wound, but I can't see if she is injured anywhere else. Just fill a basin full of warm water, put some of the disinfecting soap in it and swish around a face cloth in it. Start at her abdomen and work up."

It wasn't what Bucky was expecting but he had offered. Her jacket was intact, so he carefully extracted her arms out of it and put it on a chair. Then he scrubbed his hands, prepared the basin, and determined where to start. Her tank top was already torn apart from the weapon that caused the wound, so he got a pair of scissors out and cut it away. She wasn't wearing a bra. Wetting the face cloth, he gently cleaned her abdomen near where Bruce was working on her wound. Grimacing he cleaned her breasts then her shoulders and neck, noting her sunburnt tan line followed the tank top. Then he cleaned her arms. So far there didn't seem to be any more wounds. The water in the basin was filthy so he poured it into the grey water reclamation unit and filled it up again. Using a clean facecloth he cleaned her face, especially her eye lids which were crusted over. He was struck at how delicate she seemed, and young. Her face was unlined, very fair, and her pale eyebrows made her seem even fairer. She was maybe in her early-20s. It was hard to tell for him. He had thought Lily was younger than 20 when they met and hadn't even thought of becoming involved with her. When he found out she was 32 he was blown away. He preferred an older woman as they had more life experience and less expectations of the perfect man. Shaking himself out of his reverie he emptied the second basin and started a third one.

"Bruce, do you want her back cleaned?" Bucky asked.

"I haven't even looked at her back yet," he replied. "Hold on, I'm going to put a dressing on the wound then we can both turn her. She's going to need a top to wear. There are some scrubs in the cupboard over there. I'm sure there's a top that will fit her."

Both men gently turned her over and Bucky started cleaning her back as Bruce went to get a top for her. As Bucky washed her back a tattoo appeared between her shoulder blades. It was only visible when it was wet, once it dried it lost its colouration and was invisible.

"Bruce, have you seen this before?" asked Bucky, showing Bruce what he had discovered.

The doctor whistled. "She's a unicorn," he said. "Not literally. She's associated with a religious sect, Children of Adam, but they haven't really been around since before the Millennium. Based on her hairstyle and clothing I would say she's not a member anymore, but the tattoo is usually applied when they are children. Don't say anything to the others. They were connected with some doomsday groups at one point. Until we can talk to her, I don't want to make assumptions."

Bucky nodded and finished cleaning her back. He asked Bruce for a comb and combed the dirt and debris out of her pale blonde hair before gently washing it, leaving the basin on the floor to catch the water he carefully poured to rinse it. Then he dried it with a towel and combed it through again. Bruce helped to sit her upright and they pulled the scrub top over her head. He handled one arm while Bruce handled the other. Bruce noticed her jeans were filthy and pulled a pair of scrub pants out of the cupboard. Together they removed her pants and pulled on the scrub bottoms. Satisfied Bruce patted Bucky on the arm.

"You're a good nurse, thank you," he said, smiling.

Bucky nodded and poured the dirty water into the reclamation unit. Then he used a disinfectant wipe to clean the basin before putting it under the UV cleaning light. The towels and face cloths went in the disinfecting laundry bag. He went to his coffee mug and drank it, making a face because it was now cold. Looking at the clock he was surprised to see he had taken almost half an hour to clean the woman. He looked back at her and realized he hadn't cleaned her hands. Putting the coffee down he got another basin, filled it up with soapy water and cleaned her hands, even using the edge of a dull scalpel to clean the dirt out of her fingernails. She wore a plain gold band on her left ring finger. Married...interesting. Bruce noticed Bucky looking at the ring.

"She's had a child as well," he said. "Stretch marks, very faded. You probably didn't notice but I did. I wonder where it is."

"Bruce, let me know when she wakes up," said Bucky. "I'd like to be here when we ask her what she was doing in the Badlands."

He cleaned the basin and left it in the UV cleaner. Waving goodbye at Bruce he made his way back to the common room to microwave his coffee. It wasn't as crowded in the room now, so he sat next to Steve.

"I just helped Bruce clean the woman up," he said. "She's wearing a wedding band and Bruce thinks she's had a child. Someone might be missing her so I guess you're right, we should investigate. I'm in."

Steve nodded smiling. Bucky sometimes took time to warm up to an idea but once he did he was all in. He had already formed a squad of himself, Peter, Clint, Maria and Sam. Once the woman woke up and they talked to her they would head out to the Badlands. He asked Bucky to check the ammunition stocks, knowing that he likely already knew what state they were in. But it would give him something to do while they waited for the woman to come around.