Broken Together

Chapter 23

Bucky POV

    Steve comes to get me once the doctors give the call. Cassie is downstairs with Natasha, and all I know is that she is trying so very hard not to over excite herself. Steve picks me up from the bed and helps me into a wheelchair. I am unable to walk for the next month, or until the stitches on the bullet wounds begin to heal and fall out.

    We roll to the elevator and I know to keep my head down. It was easy to disguise Cassie, but I am not that easy to forget. My face is quite easy to remember. I pull my sweatshirt close to my head and pull the hood up as much as I can, over my face. I listen to the music from the elevator and use it to calm myself down as much as possible.

    "How you holding up, Soldier?" I know that Steve is trying. He's my best friend and I don't want to lose him, but I don't really know what to say or do right now. I could have died, but I didn't. I saved Cassie, and she saved me. I really don't know what to say.

    "Pretty good," I start off."For someone that got seven shots through his back."

    "Eight." Steve's short reply gives me a tense feeling.

    "What?"

    "You got eight to the back, and one of those bullets went straight through your body and went into Cassie's arm too. It could have destroyed your liver or your intestines. We don't know what to think about how it managed to go straight through and barely damage anything." Steve lets out a brief exhale and I can hear the relief in his voice.

    "You know you aren't that lucky Steve," he looks at me confused and I just smile, jokingly. "You can't lose me that easily. I'll always find my way to annoy you." He places a hand on my shoulder,and laughs at the joke.

    "I think I am just that lucky to have my brother back from the war." His voice sounds so distant as we exit the elevator, but I know what he means. Best of friends since grade school, and he always needed me to be there. I never left him alone, ever. Now he is here for me, and I can't help but feel whole again, now that I have my brother back.

    "Sometimes the best family isn't biological. Sometimes the best family are those that we chose to call our own. Like I choose to call Cassie mine, and you will always be my brother. It's really amazing." I look up at Steve and feel the slight burn in the back of my neck, but I don't care. He looks down at me and the smile we share has the first understanding of undying love I have felt. I know Cassie loves me, (because I could hear her while I was asleep). but I think as the Winter Soldier, I knew I missed Steve. I knew who he was and I wanted what I had. I wanted my brother back.

    "I'm always with you." He smiles and then looks up to keep pushing.

    "Till the end of the line," I finish. I had said this once before to Steve and I could now feel the strong meaning behind it. We would always be there, no matter what.

    "Bucky?" I look across the room and search for the voice that called out for me. "Oh my gosh, Bucky!" I feel the arms wrap around my neck lightly, and I feel warm skin touch my face. The smell of green apples coming from the familiar soft hair that I will always know.

    "I missed you too sweetheart." She pulls away and I look at the skeptical look in her eyes. "What?" I don't know what I said,but she likes it. She just wasn't expecting it.

    "When did you start calling me that?" She asks.

    "Since you've been gone, I have just missed you. It felt right to say. You do have a sweet heart. A heart made of purified gold." I smile at her and touch her face with my hand. She leans in and touches my forehead with hers and my nose with her nose. I can't help but feel my entire body get completely warm, and I know it's because she loves me. I heard her say it, and then the same warmth went through my body.