Valorous (Book Three)

Chapter: 8

DAY: 108

Winter Soldier

We managed to get out in time before half of the mall caught on fire and fell apart, though a few of us were caught in the building when we felt the impact on the other side shake the place up. Steve got everyone out. Only someone was missing. When we were all being told to get out, I asked Steve were Lark had gone and he told me that she was helping get people out at the back entrance where we were going. I expected to find her there, helping away. But she wasn't there. I almost ran back inside but Steve and and Natasha kept me back. A part of me thought, in that moment, that Lark was gone and someone killed her. But another part told me that she was alive, that she'd be there somewhere, that I'd find her.

Gambit, a friend of Logan's, sent over his men to help us our with recovering our supplies and tending to anyone who may have been injured in the blast. A few of his men, along with myself, searching a partial area in the debris for any sign of Lark.

"Bucky!" someone shouted. I looked up from the pile of broken concrete at my feet. Natasha was waving me over. "Get your ass over here!"

I took off running after her, leading the way around the pile back towards the worst of the damage.

"We found her." she answered as I slowed down, we both ran around the corner. Natasha stopped in her tracks, I slowed down to a halt beside her. A pang in my chest made my heart drop. Steve was emerging from beneath one of the fallen steel rafters, pressing it shoulder in to keep it up. He carried a small, burnt body against his chest. "Get a medic, now." Steve said. Natasha took off running, faster than I had ever seen her run before. "Bucky, take her." 

I hopped over the rubble towards him, slipping my arms beneath her body carefully as Steve leaned against the concrete block that once served as a wall, pushing back to keep it from collapsing on us. "Oh, Lark." I turned and quickly carried her out of the debris to an open patch in the street, dropping to my knees, cradling her body close to mine.

I barely recognized her, half her body was blistering and bloody, the other smudged in dirt and smoke. Her eyes were wide with fear, scanning everywhere and flinching at every sound. When Steve approached a moment later, she jerked abruptly. 

"This is bad." I shook my head, fighting back a horrible sense of hopelessness. There was a gnarly gash over her shoulder, bleeding profusely. "Take my jacket." 

"What?"

"My jacket." I gestured to her shoulder and gently laid her over into Steve's arms; ripping off a part of my jacket before pulling off the rest. I folded it over and pressed it into her shoulder. She cried out in pain, squirming in protest.

"Easy Lark, we've got help coming." I tried to be reassuring but even I was facing doubts they'd get there in time.

"Hey!" we both looked up, Steve looked over his shoulder as we saw Gambit jogging over. "What's going on over here?" Gambit stopped, froze in the middle of the street when he saw the three of us covered in blood. 

"Damn." Gambit said. Three guys ran past him in our direction, each one carrying different supplies, bearing medical badges on their shoulders.

"Back up, back up!" One of them shouted, startling everyone else. I kept my hand firmly on the hoody, applying pressure while Steve shifted and laid her onto the ground. One of the medics pushed me aside and lifted away the makeshift gauze. I forced myself to step back and take deep breaths, but all I could smell was smoke, blood, and steel. It made me feel sick.

"On three..." The three men carefully lifted her up off the ground, they had a moment where they couldn't balance her out between them all and it surprised me, I stepped in and caught her, adjusting myself so I bore most of the weight until they realized everything was alright.