Love Like Ghost

if i fix you, will you hate me

warning; smut

And if you find me, will you know me?
Will you take me, or will you fall?

My hands shook as I stared in front of the cryo chamber my nerves completely wrecked. I was angry, and scared, and excited. Shuri sensed my wavering emotions since the moment she saw me. I came in last night in a flash never once leaving the lab until Shuri showed up in the morning. She never knew Steve wasn't updating me, she never knew I didn't know.

"Just open it." I told her exhausted. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't think about anything but him.

She moved around the room trying to get everything situated for him to come out. I stared at the frosted blue glass waiting for something to shift, waiting for it to hiss and rise and bring him back to me. All I heard was my pounding heart rushing blood to my head. What if he didn't remember? What if we still couldn't fix him? I tried to keep it together, I tried to shove down every bad thought, every bad memory. Suddenly the chamber gave a loud hiss as air released from the bottom the frozen walls slowly beginning to melt away his peaceful face coming into view. I knew water was forming in my tear ducts as more ice melted away from his face. Finally it slid upward feeling my body move before I could make it rushing to him trying to undo the restraint. He let out the softest groan as I undid the first clasp freeing him from this frozen prison. I cursed under my breath struggling to undo the rest, but finally breaking open the last one. "Kote..." He tried to say his body slumping forward. I caught him under the arms guiding him away feeling his legs give out underneath him.

"I got you." I lowered the two of us to the ground cradling half his body in my arms. "I got you." I ripped off my jacket quickly throwing it over his shivering body. "I'm here." I pushed his damp hair back holding his head in my hands.

"Kotenok." He sighed with relief. I felt him relax on top of me closing his eyes in my lap.

I smiled tears falling down my cheeks. "Hi." Drops fell onto his face. "Yeah its me."

His eyes peeked open at me. "Well of course its you. Who else would it be?"

My hands were combing stray hairs off his face as I laughed. "I just thought you wouldn't remember me."

"How could I ever forget you?" He closed his eyes again. I leaned down pressing my forehead to his feeling my eyes squeeze out more tears onto his face. "Stop crying." He grumbled underneath me. His hand reached up wrapping around my bicep.

"As cute as this is," Both our eyes snapped up to Shuri watching us. "We aren't quite done Sargent Barnes."

I furrowed my brows. "What do you mean? You said you figured it out."

"I said I figured out an algorithm to flush out the influence of the trigger words." She corrected me.

I straightened up. "What are you going to do to him?" Her face told me all I needed to know. "No." I began to move him climbing to my feet. "No."

"Ikathi." I helped Bucky up. "We need-!"

"He's been through enough." I snapped at her Bucky's grip tightened on me my stance faltering. "He's been through enough."

Shuri stepped forward. "Once it over...he'll be completely fixed."

My eyes glanced to Bucky's face confused and tired trying to read where the hell my emotions were at and then back to Shuri's concerned face,"Tomorrow...tomorrow we can try." I led us out of the lab before she could convince me otherwise. He walked next to me in my teeth gritted together face focused in determination.

"How long was it?" he asked me breaking my focused silence.

I didn't look at him, "Three weeks."