Bucky Barnes' Daughter

Chapter Thirty Eight

"Please come back to me."  Jason's voice pulls me from my slumber.  My eyes flutter open and he sits up quickly.  "How are you feeling?"  He asks and I groan.  His voice was making my head pound.

I quickly became aware of the tubes going into my arms and I start to rip them out.  Jason freaks out and runs to grab a doctor.  I head my parents voices as they come into the room.  Everyone was worried about me but before I could finish separating myself from the tubes, someone sedated me again.

I woke up several hours later feeling a little bit better.  I was hooked up to the tubes again.  Nat was passed out on the sofa next to the bed.

"Mom?"  My voice was barely audible over the sound of the machines monitoring my recovery, but she heard me nonetheless.

"You scared us."  Nat was at my side within seconds of me calling her name.  "How's your head?"

"A little better."  I reply as I move over on my bed so she can sit next to me.  She pulls me close to her as I start to feel exhausted again.  She strokes my hair as Bucky comes into the room.

"Should I get the doctor?"  Bucky asks and Nat nods.  

The doctor came in after a few minutes but I was having a hard time staying conscious as Nat strokes my hair.

"Serenity, how's your head?"  He sat on the edge of the bed as Nat tries to get me to respond.

"Still hurts."  I reply as I attempt to keep my eyes open.  "How long was I out?"

"A couple days.  Your body needed time to recover."  The doctor explains.  "How much of your accident do you remember?"  

"How long has she been unconscious?"  The paramedic asks as they lift me onto the gurney.  

"At least ten minutes.  She did not respond to pain stimulus when I arrived."  Jason's dad explains.  I hear Dima whining as Ryan pulls him into his truck.  My dog didn't want to leave my side.  "We wouldn't have found her if it wasn't for her dog."

"You might want to get him checked out my a vet.  He looks a little worse for wear."  The paramedic closes the ambulance doors.  

I started losing consciousness again but a sharp pain along the inside of my forearm makes me wince.

"She's responding to pain now."  

I felt myself drifting off again but Nat gently squeezes my shoulder.  I realized I didn't respond to the question he had asked me.  "I don't remember anything after leaving the house."  I lie.  Bucky studies me as if he knows I'm lying.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dima refused to leave my side as I made my way upstairs.  Ryan was talking to my parents downstairs as I was getting ready for bed.  It was only eight but I couldn't keep my eyes open another minute.

"Dima, I'm fine."  I assure my dog as he rubs against my leg.  "I'm fine."  He didn't believe me and I didn't even believe myself as I kept repeating the sentence.  My head continues to pound as Dima starts barking.

"Serenity, are you okay?"  Bucky appears in the doorway.

"My head is killing me."  I felt my heart beat in my skull.  I put a hand to my forehead as I start to feel the darkness inching into my vision.  Dima starts barking frantically.

Bucky managed to catch me in his arms before I lost consciousness. 

"Come back to me."  Bucky begs as I hear him call for Nat.  She runs upstairs with Ryan close behind her.  "She passed out again."  He was frantic as he kept begging me to wake up.

The mat met me as Winter slammed me onto the ground.  I groaned in pain as the sting from the mat reminds me that I am still alive.  I kick his feet out from under him before scrambling away.  

Winter was going to kill me, I knew that much for certain.  He's killed me before and every time I die, I age back to age five.  We still haven't figured out why it happens but the Red Room finds my inability to die entertaining.

Sometimes they kill me so they can start over.  Make me more compliant this time around.  Sometimes, it's an accident but not this time.

His metal hand wraps itself around my throat and I feel panic setting in.  I couldn't win this fight.

I sit up quickly as I frantically pull oxygen into my lungs.  I could still feel his hand around my throat as he took my life from me.  I touch my neck expecting it to be tender but I was fine.  This didn't happen recently.

"Serenity,"  Bucky's voice pulls at my attention.  "Are you okay?"

I shock my head no.  I wasn't okay but I didn't want to hurt him more by telling him the truth.   I would keep this to myself until I could figure out what was happening.

"Can I talk to Nat?"  I ask quietly and I see the hurt flash across his features.  I usually wanted to tell him everything and now I was going to someone who he believed, didn't know about my past. 

Bucky goes to fetch my mother as I pull out the notebook I kept in my side table.  

I was using the book to keep my memories straight.  I tried to piece together my past but due to the fact everything was coming at me in a jumbled order, I couldn't keep everything straight on my own. 

I quickly recorded my most recent memory hoping it would offer some clue into what happened to me.

Nat knocks on my door as I'm finishing.  She looked like hell and I knew it was my fault.  Parenting wasn't easy and it was seeming to take a bigger toll on the assassins then their past did.

"I can't die."  The words hung in the air like a thick cloud.  Nat waits for an explanation but I don't even know how to tell her this. Then everything spills out of my mouth in a flurry of words.

"How many times have you died?"  Nat asks as she sits on the edge of my bed.