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

Chapter 26

The gentle hum of the air conditioning and medical machinery in the room had an oddly comforting sort of effect, something like a gentle alarm clock bringing Summer back to her senses. Her eyelids flickered open, greeted by the sterile white hospital walls and intensely bright lights on the ceiling. But she could see clearly again. That was good.

Her eyes landed on a corner of the room, where a droopy, giant teddy bear sat innocuously on his own chair. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of this, wondering who brought him here.

And then, her mood turned sour the moment she turned her head and saw someone disappointingly familiar sitting just a couple feet away.

She rolled her eyes and looked somewhere else. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you're alive," Bucky replied.

"Oh, so now you care all of a sudden," Summer said sarcastically, head turned to the opposite side, avoiding eye contact. "What became of Kirishima?"

"Counter-serum wound up paralyzing him from the neck down. Pretty awful stuff," Bucky explained. "But he's going to the Raft. He'll be living out there for the rest of his life."

Summer gazed down and nodded. "Good," she said softly. She looked up and eyed the bear again. "I told you, you should've returned him."

"I can't return him. We're past the return window."

Summer scoffed. "Being smart with me, okay," she muttered. "Ugh, of all the people for me to wake up to, why'd it have to be you?"

"Well, you don't really have family, and I'm the one closest to you."

"Ha, good one. That's funny," Summer chuckled. "You know who they should've brought in here? That handsome man whose arms I almost died in. Why don't we find him? There's gotta be a button to call the nurse somewhere around here. We should track him down. Where is he?"

As she shuffled around for that button, Bucky sighed. "He's right here."

Suddenly, Summer stopped, staring at Bucky with her face carrying a look of utmost disdain. "What?!" she exclaimed. "No..."

Bucky nodded. "Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"But...this or that? The little game we played? The..."

"That was me."

"Oh no no no no no..."

"Oh yes. There's no denying of it."

"But..." Summer stuttered. "But how? But why?"

Bucky sighed, feeling surprisingly at ease in this moment. Gone was the anxiety he had carried into the room. He looked Summer in the eyes and let the lingering weight on his chest finally come loose.

"Summer," he said earnestly, "I told myself that the reason I didn't want to be your partner was because of the way you made light of everything we'd been through. And that was partially true; it's hard for me to talk about these things because...I'm still healing. It's still rough for me sometimes. But, I didn't realize it was rough for you too. I only judged you for what I saw on the outside..."

To Bucky's surprise, Summer remained silent through all of this. For the first time since he'd known her, she was listening.

So, he went on. "But the truth...the real, honest truth...is..." He stopped, staring blankly, a feeling of nervousness creeping in all of a sudden. Just say it, he told himself. Taking a deep breath, slowly in and slowly out, he continued.

"I got scared. I felt like I was getting really close to you, and it scared me, so I backed myself away. What I did was selfish and cowardly, and I'm sorry. But what you need to know is..."

He paused again, lump forming in his throat as he realized his voice was now beginning to have a slight quiver. There was no way getting around it, and Summer was still silent, anxiously waiting for him to say more.

Nervous out of his mind, but resolved to say what needed to be said, Bucky breathed in and out one more time, and made his confession with a soft, slow, breathy tone.

"I've never cared about anyone the way I've cared about you, Summer," he said. "I waited all night here for you. When you were in Wakanda, I waited three years for you. But, I think the truth is...I've been waiting for you my whole life."

A tear slowly began to roll down Summer's cheek. She didn't even bother wiping it. She only sat frozen, unable to respond. Just feeling.

"So," Bucky went on, "if you allow me to ask - and you can say no but - number one, do you still think I'm handsome? And number two, will you still take me up on that date?"

His face winced at this, expecting a hard negative. But instead, Summer pulled her covers up over her face, let out a high-pitched noise - and began sobbing.

She was like this for a good minute, until finally, she lowered her blanket down, swiped off her tears, and shrugged. "I guess..." she whimpered.

"You guess?" Bucky repeated. "Does that mean 'yes'?"

Summer nodded, sniffing. "Yeah."

Lips forming into the widest smile, Bucky pulled his seat up closer to her bed, the chair making a comical, Chewbacca-like sound as it dragged against the floor. Faces now close, Summer reached her hand over and cupped Bucky's cheek. He leaned into her soft touch, and both soldiers let themselves feel. They smiled. They cried. They laughed. At last, their walls were broken.

At last, they felt human again.