Snowfall

1

"James" you whispered in the dark. The caution and fear in your voice as you blindly searched for him. "James" you tried again. It was miraculously silent. Your heart pounded so loud it was all you could hear through your ears until you heard him groaning slightly. Sweat poured from your glands dripping down your forehead as if you had suddenly become a fountain. "Please tell me you're alive." You begged your voice breaking. The time to sound brave was far past and now you were left with raw emotion.  A hand reached out and grabbed you by the arm pulling you back at the same time another hand covered your mouth suppressing your scream. Your body tensed instinctually before calming itself once the familiar smell of Bucky reached your nose.
"It's me" he barely breathed. You could tell he was in a fairly large amount of pain.
"I feel like I'm drowning" you rasped as you attempted to breathe. The breaths came short, shallow and painfully slow.

"It's probably a collapsed lung" Bucky diagnosed as his hand held you up. 

"You?" You wondered as the two of you crouched attempting to leave without any more combat.

"Stabbed in the thigh" he groaned sounding completely irritated. The mission had gone to hell the moment your cover was blown.

"Where's Steve?" You hurriedly whispered. Bucky signaled to be quiet with his finger as his brow furrowed. The hunter in him ignited as he crouched forward like a cat ignoring the searing pain in his thigh. He barely breathed as his eyes took in every sound and movement around you. He quickly pointed to the side then upwards indicating Steve was on the roof of the east entrance and that's where you needed to get to.

Footsteps above you alerted you of the teams position. You counted quickly in your head and made out three operatives heading Steve's way. You knew they wouldn't stand a chance against him but you worried anyway. You worried about your whole team that way, it just came with the business. Bucky held you closely tightening his grip every once in a while when the pain got too bad for him. Your own pain you could barely feel you just wanted to make it to your bed tonight. Buckys breath on your neck made your heart rate hasten. He always did, anything he did caught your attention. But he would never know it, at least that's how it felt to you.

After a few hundred feet your lungs met the cold winter air. Instantly a chill ran deep inside your bones as you tried to adjust to the weather. The darkness only adding to your chills. The gentle snowfall was the only sound that registered to your ears. The muffled pitter patter of the snowflakes hitting the ground played tricks on your senses. A quick but soft whistle broke through your wandering thoughts. Your head shot up to the roof to see Steve signaling to you. He was telling you to meet behind the tree line. That mean the coast was clear and you both had a safe path to the quinjet. Immediately Bucky started towards his ride home not letting you go too far from his grasp. Torturously you trudged through the bramble of branches on the ground. One caught a hold of your foot and caused your overtired body to fall straight to the ground. This was just adding to your list of bullshit for the night. Bucky instantly wrapped his strong hands around your arms causing your blood to race through every part of your body leaving you nearly breathless. He helped you to your feet. Your eyes locked and in that moment time seemed to slow all together. You know the whole cliche movie moment was playing behind your eyes as you took in your own reality. You couldn't leave his gaze no matter how hard you tried to. He kept you there hypnotized.

"Are you ok?" He asked quickly as he shook his head slightly.

"Just barely" you answered truthfully just trying to assess yourself for a pulse. After many painful steps you were finally able to plop your exhausted body down on the bench.

"What the hell just happened?" Bucky heaved as he tried to recover from the nights activities.