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She'd only been driving for a few minutes when the pain in her stomach started. She clutched it, not willing to let it stop her. She lifted her shirt, seeing that the wound was bleeding although it seemed to still be completely stitched. Ignoring it, she kept driving.
Her phone rang a few times as she went, various members of the Avengers trying to get ahold of her. She ignored them all.
She finally pulled up to the location his GPS was giving off about an hour later. It was an old warehouse, seemingly abandoned. She got out of the car, almost falling down from lightheadedness as she did so. She checked her stomach again, seeing a significant amount of blood. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she made her way inside, keeping her hands on the guns on her hips as she went.
The warehouse was seemingly silent. There didn't seem to be anyone there. She walked through the quiet, afraid of what she might be about to find. She'd been wandering around for quite a while before she finally found him. He was in a room by himself, just sitting there, seemingly waiting for someone. The thought crossed her mind that he was probably waiting for her.
"Buck?" she called his name as she approached, hoping that by some miracle that maybe the Bucky she was approaching was the Bucky she knew. She could tell almost right away that it wasn't. His eyes were empty as he looked at her and he mumbled something in Russian that she didn't understand.
He came at her swinging. She dodged him, pulling the knife out of her pocket and brandishing it. His eyes flickered to it but it didn't seem to phase him in the slightest. He swung again and she dodged again, circling him. He swung a few more times, seemingly annoyed that she kept dodging him. Thankfully, his Winter Soldier fight patterns seemed to be pretty similar to his Bucky Barnes fight patterns.
"Bucky, listen to me, okay? I think... I think I'm sick or something," she said, referring to the wound on her stomach that she could still feel steadily bleeding. "I think..." she started, but lightheadedness took her over and she couldn't speak anymore. She kept dodging him, just barely. She swung on him a few times and eventually he caught her fist in his bionic hand, much like he had the last time they'd fought in the ring. His grip was much tighter than it had been then, though, and she couldn't get out of it.
"B-Bucky, I think... I think I'm... there's something wrong. P-p-please..." she stammered, sputtering as he wrapped his flesh-and-blood hand around her throat. "B-Buck, please. It's me. It's Rosemary. It's your Rosie. P-Please," she struggled, mustering all of her strength to lash out against him. She planted a few hard kicks to his stomach but he didn't falter. "Bucky, I... I love you," she managed, almost losing consciousness.
Her eyes slid shut but flew open again as his grip loosened. She looked up at him and his face was pained, like Bucky was somewhere inside of him fighting the Winter Soldier. He let go of her completely and she fell to the floor trying her best to regain her breath.
Bucky was quiet a long time and then he fell to the floor as well. She dragged herself across the floor to him and realized he was unconscious.
"Bucky!" she yelled his name, not sure what else to do. She was feeling so weak she wasn't sure she'd even be able to stand herself, let alone drag him out of the warehouse and get him locked up somewhere. "Buck..." she mumbled his name again, collapsing on his chest. "I love you," she mumbled, her eyes sliding closed again.
•••••
"Let me fucking see her! Get out of my way! She's dying and it's my goddamn fault. I need to see her!"
"Buck, you can't go in right now. They're trying to figure out what's happening to her."
"What if she dies on that table, huh? It'll be my fault."
Angry voices were the first thing that Rosemary heard upon slipping back into consciousness. She vaguely recognized them as Bucky... her Bucky, and Steve.
Bright lights blinded her and the masked faces of doctors hovered over her. She was in pain, and a lot of it. Her entire body felt like it was on fire.
"She's waking up. Should we anesthetize?" one of the faces above her asked, but she couldn't tell which one because of the masks.
"No. Let Barnes come in. He may need to say goodbye," another one said casually, like she couldn't hear.
"Fine," the other replied, and all of them disappeared. Someone angled her up slightly and she could see Bucky running down the hall and into the room.
His face appeared in front of her and she tried to muster a smile.
"You're back," she said, her voice so hoarse it barely made any noise at all.
"I'm so sorry, Rosemary. I'm so sorry," he said quietly, tears in his eyes. "This shouldn't have happened. None of this should have happened."
"Listen to me, James. I knew the dangers, okay? I knew them and I knew exactly what I signed up for," she said, the words launching her into a coughing fit. Bucky reached for her, his hand gentle on her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry," he repeated, and she shook her head, waving her hand at him with as much energy as she could muster.
"Stop apologizing to me. I knew what I was signing up for and I don't regret a moment of it. I love you," she whispered, tears rising to her own eyes at the look of sheer despair on his face.
"I love you too," he told her, a tear slipping down his cheek.
"What's... happening to me?" she asked, and his face went hard.
"I... they don't know. Your body is just... shutting down," he explained quietly, sadly.
"Am I going to die?"
"They don't know."
"I love you so much, Bucky, okay? I love you so much and I don't blame you. I don't know what happened and I don't know what's wrong with me but I know I don't blame you for any of it. These last seven months... they've been the best of my life, okay? All I can hope is that they were even half as good for you as they were for me," she mumbled, her words running together with the sheer effort of saying them. Bucky seemed to understand her, though, nodding at her immediately.
"They were the best of my life too, Rosie. They were. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I love you," he whispered, taking her hand in his and kissing it.
"I love you too," she whispered back, feeling herself slipping away again. "I'm... I think I'm going now, but I love you so much, Buck. So much," she told him, her voice fading into almost nothing.
"No. Hey, Rosemary. Hey. Rosie? No," he yelled, his tone panic-riddled.
More tears slipped down his face as he stared at her. The heart monitor beside them started screaming with the tone of a flatline and he screamed himself, shaking his head. Steve was there in an instant, pulling him away so that the doctors could tend to her. He continued to scream hysterically as the doctors pronounced her dead a few minutes later.
