Winter & Summer: A Marvel Story in an Alternate Universe!

Chapter 24

Heartbeat racing, Bucky shuffled between the halls of the abandoned office building where his tracker had located Summer. But the old walls were so thick, the device struggled to pinpoint her exact room, leaving Bucky with only one clue to finding her.

The sounds - the muffled crooning of Frank Sinatra and tortured screams in between.

It pained him to hear it, but Bucky silently begged Summer to keep screaming. He needed to follow the sound, though his chest wrenched at every shrill cry as he scrambled between the winding corridors. I'm coming, Summer. I'm coming, he continually repeated to himself, as if she could hear. Getting closer...getting closer...

Then, just as he reached the hallway where the sounds had grown the loudest - the music stopped, so did the screams, and Bucky's heart felt as through it had frozen solid.

Panicking, he stopped between the hall of locked doors; he swore Summer had to be behind one of them. He shifted left and right, wondering which room she could possibly be in.

There was only one way to find out. Raising his vibranium arm, he pounded down the door beside him. Empty.

He pounded the next one. Empty.

And the next one. Still empty.

He knocked down nearly ever door in the hall until finally - finally - he found them. Both Kirishima and Summer sprawled lifelessly on the floor, the empty counter-serum syringe lying nearby. She had done it.

Immediately, Bucky pinged his location and radioed S.H.I.E.L.D. "I've located Summer and Kirishima! Both are down! I need a medevac out here immediately!"

"Copy that."

He rushed into the room and knelt by Summer, turning her body over, cradling her carefully in his grasp. Her goldenrod dress was stained with splotches of blood, vomit, tears, and sweat. He didn't care.

Her head, resting against his metal arm, drooped helplessly over to one side, so he placed his free hand on her cheek to hold it upright. With the same hand, he pressed two fingers between her neck and chin, feeling around for her pulse. But he felt nothing, and told himself that perhaps it was because he wasn't good at this sort of thing.

"Come on, Summer..." he spoke aloud, frantically tapping her cheek. "Come on, come on, come on. Please wake up..."

Then, suddenly, she flinched, though just barely. Consciousness weakly returning, Summer struggled to open her eyes, her mind and memories muddling like watercolors. Her vision blurred everything around her - she could tell someone else was there, but couldn't quite make out who it could be.

His voice sounded like a faded echo in the empty room. "Summer..." Bucky uttered once more.

Then, in her near-death delirium, she formulated the simplest response. "Yeah?"

"It's okay, I'm...I'm right here," Bucky soothed. "Help is coming...but you've got to stay awake..."

"Hmph..." Summer groaned. "But I'm so sleepy..."

"No, you can't go to sleep. You've gotta stay awake..."

"But why?"

"Because...because you just have to."

Summer heaved a heavy breath, a cold feeling spreading through as her body continued to weaken. Yet somehow, there was also an overwhelming feeling of peace, and what was left of Summer's consciousness began to understand what was happening. "I think..." she whispered. "I think it's time for me to go..."

"No!" Bucky protested. "You've gotta stay awake. You've gotta try to hang on..."

"No, no...I...I think it's time..."