Gallium // Bucky Barnes // 18+

63. She Better Be.

I light the fire when it's cold out
And she lights up the room
I hope that she'll love me forever
She hopes I'll be back soon
I take her out to the movies
She takes away my pain
She is the start of everything
And I'll be there 'til the end.

~Pointless.
(By: Lewis Capaldi.)

Terror. The extreme form of fear. No matter how trained or used to you are to pressure, in a situation of sheer terror, the best of the professionals, crack. The feeling that you might lose a loved one, makes you go numb. You brain seems to have shut down. Nothing makes sense.

Bucky was in one such situation. After Krystal had suddenly collapsed at the skyscraper launch, he had called Ron to take her to the ER of the closest hospital.

"Krystal?" Bucky had tears running down his eyes, as he was still trying to wake her up, with her head laying over his lap as they both sat in the back seat with Ron driving the car.

"Hold on, please, hold on." He cried, brushing his fingers over her cheek, holding her palm with his other one. "Please, babygirl, I can't lose you, not you, please." He repeated, yelling at Ron to drive faster.

"Doll, hold on, please. Just a little bit longer." He was praying repeatedly, "don't leave me, huh?" He said, wiping his tears and placing kisses behind her palm. "Please don't leave me."

"Sir." Ron hurriedly said, parking the car and getting out to open the door for Bucky.

Bucky picked Krystal up in his arms and sprinted out of the car and went inside the hospital with Ron on his tail.

"Can we get a doctor?" Ron yelled as Bucky carried her inside.

"Doctor, please!" Bucky yelled, hysterically shaking.

A few staff members along with a few residents reached them.

"Please, lay her down, sir." One of the residents asked him as there were beds in the ER. "What happened?" One of the residents asked while Bucky kept holding her hand.

"I- I don't know, she was fine one moment and the next she collapsed." Bucky stuttered a little looking at Krystal and the doctors, operating on her, back and forth.

"BP is dropping." One of the residents said.

There was chaos all around them, everyone checking something of Krystal's internal organs.

"Her trachea and esophagus are swollen, cutting the oxygen supply-" a resident said observing her neck with her palms, "the cervical spine could puncture them, if it hasn't already."

"It's an alergic reaction." The other resident said, looking at the screen, "Is she alergic to anything?" He asked Bucky.

Recalling one of their old conversations, "Rohypnol." Bucky said with certainty, thinking that maybe that's what she was trying to say right before passing out.

"How long has she been like this?" A doctor asked, pressing her neck a little.

"9-10 minutes." Bucky said in a throaty voice, still holding her hand, not letting go.

"She could go in cardiac arrest. Take her to the OR stat!" The doctor ordered listening to him, and everyone hurriedly stepped back while the staff, took Krystal away, slipping her palm from Bucky's.

After they had taken Krystal to the OR, Bucky was left standing with a bolt from the blue after he listened to the horrifying findings by the doctors regarding Krystal's physical condition.