To the end of the line - stucky

Little Soldier Boys

It was early morning when Bucky woke up. The sky still dark, and the air bitterly cold. Yet he felt burning heat across his right side. He assumed it to be healing muscles from the strains of previous days, but as he brought himself fully out of sleep, it didn't hurt too much to move.
That was when he turned to Steve and felt bile rise up in his throat. It had finally happened. He had been pushing it down for days now, but the occasional warmness and cough Steve had, finally turned into a fever.

He lay in the sleeping bag shivering and sweating, eyes still closed. Bucky wasn't sure if he was asleep, so leant over and placed a hand on his forehead. He didn't wake, but the heat clearly showed a horrible fever. Bucky didn't know exactly how bad, but if they were back home, he'd be rushing Steve to Bruce.
But they weren't. So Bucky was lost. The man needed medicine and actual help, but that wasn't something they could get right now. So the only thing he could do was try and get the fever down, so his body wasn't so overwhelmed.

Bucky stretched to reach the rucksack containing the last of their bandages and drenched it in cold water. He knew he would have to keep Steve warm whilst he cooled him down, even though it didn't make much sense. He could just open the sleeping bag and have the cold air cool him down, but the sudden change in temperature would be too much, and if anything went wrong, he wouldn't be able to deal with it.

So he placed the bandage on Steve's head to have it warm almost instantly. Putting more cold water on, he placed it back down, and this time Steve opened his eyes.

He looked disoriented as he glanced around, head dropping to the side before he looked up and the bandage being held against his head. He gave Bucky a panicked look before going into a coughing fit. It sounded like it rattled through his chest and took his breath away until Bucky slightly tilted the man on his side to try and help.

"It's okay, just a cough", he found himself saying.

Even though he'd said it, Bucky was shocked when he realised what he'd said. That was something he'd tell Steve when they lay in their crappy old apartment in the middle of winter. The air so cold they could practically see their breaths. And when Steve had another bout of pneumonia and woke up coughing in the middle of the night, finding it hard to breathe. 'It's just a cough'.

When they subsided, and Steve rolled back over, Bucky noticed his blotchy skin, pale and red. And his dry, cracked lips that must have been extremely sore. He put more cold water on the piece of material and looked into Steve's eyes. His eyelids looked heavy and dropped low as he seemed far away, not quite here with Bucky.

"Go back to sleep", Bucky whispered. "I'll be right here".

It was almost instantaneous as Steve closed his eyes and fell back into a deep sleep. Bucky watched as he took loud wheezing breaths between dry lips and sweat never stopped dripping down his face.
Bucky couldn't go back to sleep after that. He stayed awake and watched over him like he used to. Staring at his chest and filling with relief at every movement, only for it to be replaced with terror when it seemed the last breath was far too long ago. He replaced the bandage with cold water as often as he could and watched the man breathe until morning came.

*

"I've got something!" Tony yells.

It was already the next day, and this was the first piece of useful information. They were getting worried that with so much time passing since the explosion, they would already have left the country, but it's possible they haven't.

The others run in as Tony types on the computer, double-checking everything and getting a location up on his holo device.

"IF his mothers right, and this is Nathan's phone, it's just been turned on in an abandoned school two hours away".