Hello Sergeant (Bucky Barnes)

No one puts baby in the freezer

Sarah's POV

I woke up to cold and pain - more pain than I remembered before everything went dark. I looked up at a familiar face and steel blue eyes as I fought to get my own eyes to focus. Clint. From the corner of my eye, I saw the red and gold of Tony's armor, so I knew he was here, too.

"Don't talk, Sarah," Clint said, sounding a little out of breath. "We're getting you out of here, but you've got a punctured lung. I'll tell you everything when we get to the Quinjet, okay?"

I nodded, relived that the team had found me. The jolting of Clint carrying me was too much and everything went dark again.

*   *

I woke again to bright light - we were home. They were carrying me off the Quinjet on the stretcher we kept on board, not even waiting for the medical crew to meet us. I thought I saw James as they were carrying me away, but I wasn't certain my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. I reached out a hand to him, but Sam gently took my hand in his warm one and put it back on me.

"He's here, Sarah," Sam assured me. "He doesn't remember anything yet, though."

I closed my eyes, ignoring the tears that leaked from my eyes. I wasn't sure if they were from relief or frustration - maybe a little of both.

Steve refused to leave my side, holding my hand as we waited for the scans to be done. I could see how worried he'd been.

"I'm sorry, doll. We tried to find you but your trackers didn't show up until a couple days ago. Something about the base was blocking them until you were both closer together again."

"James?" I asked, my voice raspy as I squeezed Steve's hand.

"Don't talk, doll. We found him. He's here, getting tested by Bruce. He's still the Winter Soldier and he doesn't remember anything again. Not even me."

Or me. I tried. I tapped into his hand in Morse code since Steve didn't know sign language very well yet.

"I know you did," he said, leaning down and kissing my forehead. "I sent Sam to get some of his journals and Skye set up a new phone for him with all of his pictures and videos."

Mom? Dad? I asked.

"They've known since the day you were taken," Steve said, brushing his hand over my cheek lightly. "They're on their way here now. Jace wanted to come but Maria and Natasha vetoed him; they said it wasn't safe right now and there might still be some Hydra sleeper agents."

I nodded agreeing with Maria and Natasha; it would be best for Jace not be seen here in DC for a while because he looked so much like James.

Next came the scans. I knew I wasn't in the greatest shape right now, but I wasn't prepared for how bad it really was. Along with the dehydration, malnourishment from my high metabolism, concussion, broken ribs and punctured lung - all of that I knew about going in - I also had a solid dozen hairline fractures from the beatings, along with some internal bleeding.

The new IUD I'd had put in a week before I was taken was still in place and doing it's job, so that was one less thing to worry about. I saw the relief on Steve's face when he read those results.

* * *

Steve's POV

I stayed with Sarah for as long as I could while they prepped her for surgery; one of her broken ribs was so badly splintered the doctors were concerned about more internal damage from the pieces. Tony and Clint joined me in the waiting area shortly after the nurses kicked me out.

"Dr Blake said it would take around an hour; there's a lot of bone fragments in that area and they don't want them floating loose." I told them. 

"It's better than I thought it would be for as bad as she looked when I first saw her," Clint said. "Running with her like that didn't help her out, either."

"Skye found some footage for the team to look at later," Tony said. "Tasha planted a link for her while we were there."

"How's Bucky?"

"Not himself," Clint said, studying me. "He's a completely different person than he was the last time his mind was tinkered with; he wants to be called Bucky now."

"Does he remember anything?"

"Not yet. Tasha's with him; he thinks they're still together again," Clint said reluctantly. "Why don't you go talk to him?"

"I will," I said quietly, leaning forward and putting my head in my hands. "It's just...hard...him not remembering. Every time I think we're back to where we should be, something happens and I lose him all over again. How many times am I going to have to lose him before he doesn't come back again?"

"I don't know - hopefully this is the last time," Clint said, clapping me on the back. "Fury's got everyone else on roundup duty. By the time they're done, they won't have a way to control him anymore."

"All their cryo equipment is toast, thanks to that little gift I left them," Tony said with a quirk of his lips before becoming more serious. "No one freezes my baby girl and gets away with it."

A streak of yellow fur came in just then, bee-lining for us. Lucky whimpered and crawled in my lap so he could lick all of our faces, knowing better than to bark.

"I know boy. You missed them, too. Thanks for bringing him, Sam."

"Any time," he said with a grin. "All I had to say was 'Bucky' and he was dancing at the door waiting for me to get the rest of the stuff together. Pepper gave me some clothes for both of them and she'll be up as soon as Archie and Betty's plane gets in."

Lucky made himself comfortable half in my lap, half in Tony's and Tony petted him absently, his phone in his other hand.

"Nat says they're on they're way down," Tony said. "Bruce is done with Bucky for now. God, it's going to be weird remembering to call him that after a couple months of James."

"You mostly call him weird nicknames or just Barnes anyways, Tony. How is that going to be any different?"