Brown Eyes

Chapter 28

You wake up hours later, opening your eyes, and squint at the bright hospital lights. You blink a few times to adjust to the light, and look around the room. You are dressed in a hospital gown, and laying on a hospital bed in a regular hospital room. You look around to see if anyone else is with you, but you are alone. You lift up the gown to look where your incision line should be, but find your skin perfectly healed. You figure you can ask about that later. You move to sit up, and are a little sore on the inside, like a period cramp but higher. You groan. Should have expected that, you think to yourself, carefully sitting up slower this time. You see on the table beside the bed is a pile of your clothes from before surgery, and you stand up slowly, testing your legs, before moving to the washroom to get dressed.

As you try to put the shirt on, you groan from the stretching, putting your arms down to catch your breath.

"(Y/N)?," you hear a worried voice call from your room. You are thankful it's Bucky.

"In here," you call out, and here a small knock shortly after.

"I leave for 5 minutes and you wake up. You shouldn't be moving around yet," Bucky says, opening the door a little. You open the door all the way, standing in the pants Natasha had given you before and your bra. Bucky's eyes travel down to where your scar should be, and nods to himself. You cough awkwardly.

"Can you help me?" you ask embarrassed, and he nods as you hand him the shirt. He helps you slip it on, and you only groan a little this time. He holds you at an arm's distance for a moment, before pulling you into a hug. You hug him back, a small smile on your face.

"How is he?" you ask, pulling away, your smile fading to a look of concern. He grabs you hand and leads you back to the bed, making you sit down, him sitting in the visitors chair you now notice was pulled up to the side of the bed.

"Alive, thanks to you." You squeeze his hand and let out a shaky breath you didn't realize you had been holding. You wait for him to say more, and he explains further. "Dr. Cho arrived with the cradle, which is why you have no scar, but it currently only works for healing most tissue wounds, which is likely why you are still sore. You both will have some healing time still. Tony more than you. He's in the cradle now, and Helen is hoping to fix as much as possible so all his body has to focus on is accepting and growing his new liver. They will know more when he wakes up" You nod in understanding. You take a moment to think.

"How did everyone react?" Bucky gave you a small smile and squeezed your hand.

"Sam almost passed out, which was funny. Steve was hurt that Vision hadn't told the team, but I agree with what Vision told him. It wasn't his truth to tell. Nat didn't seem surprised, but I could tell she didn't know beforehand. Probably pieced everything together in the moment. Pepper seemed the most shocked. Might be worth a conversation with her." You grimace.

"She's scary."

"She's scarier if you avoid her," a new voice sounds from the doorway. Pepper stands in the doorway, one hand resting on her belly, the other holding the door open. You smile sheepishly.

"You weren't supposed to hear that."

"I think there were a lot of things you didn't expect us to hear today. That was the least shocking one." Bucky huffs a laugh and stands up to offer Pepper the chair. Pepper smiles in thanks as Bucky kisses you on your forehead before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him. You play with the hem of your shirt anxiously, avoiding eye contact until the awkward silence is too much. You look up to see her watching you, a thoughtful look on her face.

"I can see how we never suspected. You look nothing like him." You nod in agreement, but a small smile crosses her face. "Except the eyes." You smile a little too.