The Earth's Child: A Bucky Barnes fanfiction

Don't Leave

Bella woke up feeling extremely warm. She tried to move but felt a blanket wrapped tightly around her body. She opened her eyes to see that she was under a blanket and then felt vice like arms holding her from behind. She turned her head slightly to see a shag of chocolate brown hair hidden in the pillow behind her.

"Bucky?" Bella called out and he immediately lifted his head up, his forehead covered in a thin film of sweat by the warmth of the blanket.

"Bella, thank goodness you are okay!"

Bucky's voice was coated with so much relief that Bella couldn't help but smile.

"Of course, I am okay," she said, lifting the blanket off of her. The air outside the blanket was biting and she shivered.

"Do you know what you did?" asked Bucky, putting the blanket over her shoulders again to keep her warm.

"I tried to bring you back."

"No. You took two atenolol tablets instead of paracetamol."

"What?"

Bella looked seriously panic-stricken. Her eyes widened as Bucky threw his legs off the bed and looked away.

"I shouldn't be alive if I did that," said Bella.

"I know," whispered Bucky, hanging his head down. "I knew that all night. I didn't know what to do." Bucky's voice was so low that Bella had to strain herself to hear him.

"How? How did you-" Bella started when Bucky cut her off.

"How did I what? Save you? I don't know. I just- I just pleaded and begged. I was so scared."

"I am sorry. I really am. I put you through that and I am so sorry."

"I thought you were never waking up. I did everything to keep you warm but I feared every minute that I had already lost you."

Bucky's voice broke so many times that Bella had to swallow a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. She sat down on the floor in front of the bed so she could look into Bucky's eyes.

"And you saved me," said Bella softly, taking his hands in hers.

"Saved you?" Bucky scoffed. "I almost killed you. I injected the morphine and almost killed you. Morphine and atenolol are really bad together and I almost ended up killing you. I am a killer, Bella."

"No. You are not. I would have died in my sleep if you hadn't realised that I had taken the wrong medicine. I would have turned stone-cold and co-"

"DON'T SAY IT!!!!! DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT!"

Bucky's voice made her flinch but she didn't let go of his hands. "What I meant was, you are my saviour right now. And you have saved me before, remember? When I had fallen into the lake and almost drowned, you saved me then. You are not a killer, Bucky. You went out of your ways last night to save me. That was something else. Please don't punish yourself like this, Bucky."

Tears rolled down Bucky's cheeks as he clutched Bella's hands firmly, trying to erase the images of Bella lying cold and motionless in front of his eyes.

His eyes wandered to Bella's shoulders which was slightly exposed due to her oversized night shirt and he noticed round red marks on it.

"What is this?" mused Bucky as he removed the fabric a bit and then he gasped at the sight. Her shoulder was covered in cigarette burns, some very old and some slightly new.

"Nothing," said Bella quickly as she shrugged and freed her shirt from his grasp.

"Bella, is there anything you are not telling me? Did someone do this to you? Do you want me to take care of it?"