Target [Winter Solider/Bucky Barnes short story]

Epilogue

(It isn't over yet! Read the epilogue! - 9/1)

The slow, steady beeping of the heart monitor fills my ears when I wake up. I glance up at the visual representation of a heartbeat and smile faintly. The fight hadn't been lost yet.

I turn my attention to the man in the bed beside my chair. His dark hair had fallen into his face, which gave him a slightly childish look. His eyelids are closed, he's still sleeping, but hidden behind those eyelids are the most beautiful blue eyes I'd ever seen. I toy with the wrist band on the man's right wrist.

James Buchanan Barnes

My James. He's still alive.

The shot hadn't been fatal, not like everyone thought it had been. And SHIELD agents had arrived just in time.

James is in a hospital bed at SHIELD and I am in the chair next to the bed, waiting for him to wake up. Its been three days since the fight, but it feels like it had been three years.

I've only left James's bedside to shower and eat, I occupy my time waiting for him to wake up by reading to him. Its a stupid notion, yes, but it helps me. I can't just sit and do nothing.

Captain Rogers had made the comment that in the months since he'd last seen me, I'd grown from a slightly reckless eighteen year old to someone who was wise beyond her years. I told him he was full of crap, he laughed.

As it turned out, Eli had been out of the country during the fight. He ended up going to university in England, on scholarship at some really fancy college.

SHIELD was pissed I ended up running off on my own, but after I explained why they decided not to punish me too horribly. I have to live here, Director Fury's orders. James will have to live here to once he woke up.

I killed his former boss that day. I didn't regret it. I don't think I ever will.

The quiet difference in James's breathing draws my attention back to him.

"James?" I ask hopefully. Slowly, his eyes flutter open.

"Hey." He says weakly. I smile widely.

"Hey sleepy head. How're you feeling?" I ask, ruffling his hair.

"Better. A lot better. And hungry." He laughs. I laugh with him. "You didn't leave?"

"Not really. I had to shower and eat, and get myself patched up. But I've been here every moment possible." I admit. "I did my best to keep my promise." James smiles at me.

"That's good enough for me."

I catch myself staring at the former assassin. I was his target, yes, but know I think I'm more to him.

"I'm so glad you're okay." I murmur.

"I couldn't leave my girlfriend. I just wouldn't be able to bear being away from you for that long of a time." James teases me. I smile.

Things will go back to normal, hopefully. James and I will live at SHIELD. Perhaps we'll get married, maybe we'll have kids.

But for now, I'm ecstatic to be his girlfriend. And I'm absolutely, inexplicably in love with the man that had been sent to kill me. I was an assassin's target, but I wouldn't change it or give it up for anything.

(And that dear reader, is the end of their story. Thank you for reading my book. I know it's been a pain, waiting for updates. But I enjoyed writing Target and I hope you enjoyed reading it. There won't be a sequel as far as I know, but hey, the future is unpredictable so maybe keeping this in your library will serve of some use. If not, them I guess you can always re-read the book whenever you're feeling bored. Stay Strange. Pixie~ word count: 639)

(Edit, 9/6, thank you @hyperboles for the legit cover :3)