I'll Keep This Secret For You

Chapter 99

It's funny how different people cope with things.

There can be two different ends of the extreme to one situation.

Take Bucky and Peggy for instance.

It's been two days now since that sleepless night that everyone was on edge, waiting, hoping, praying, that Captain America would make it out of that operating theatre alive.

Thankfully, after 10 long hours of surgery he made it. Not without many complications along the way though. And just because Seth said he would be okay if he survived the night, doesn't mean that you all don't still feel sick to your stomach waiting for something to happen.

A ruptured spleen, a collapsed lung, a blood transfusion and some serious damage to the muscle in his leg by the looks of it. Unsurprisingly, he's now in a coma. They reckon he'll make a full recovery What with his abilities and all but you never know. That just seems too good to be true with the seriousness of the situation. It's just a waiting game now.

You didn't manage to get back to sleep that night, too worried about Steve, Bucky and Peggy. And with good reason too. You just sat there, surrounded by your sleeping children, trying not to cry. Once you got back to the lounge that's when it reallu hit you, the seriousness of the situation and everything that could go wrong and what that could mean for you all. For the whole of America even.

Peggy is a funny wrong, you've hardly been able to get her in the room with Steve. She hates being in there, can't stand seeing her fiancé in that state, lifeless looking, tubes and wires stuck into him and hooked up to all kinds of beeping and whirring machines, oxygen having to be manually pumped into his lungs, silent and unspeaking, motionless and limp. It's the opposite of the bubbly, courageous, strong man you all know and love. You keep finding her sitting just outside in the hallway crying. And when you guide her back in there telling her you know it's hard but she has to be there for him it's always the same; Sarah curled up in his arm beside him and Bucky with a chair pulled right up to the head of his bed, watching him intently for any sort of change. Sarah keeps babbling away to Steve and touching his face as if he might respond. The sad thing is he probably has no idea that she's there.

Speaking of Bucky, on the other hand compared to Peggy, you haven't been able to get him away from Steve's bedside. He's clearly got massive survivors guilt. The fact that Steve is suffering so much and he's pretty okay is tearing him apart. Besides his check ups you've hardly seen him. He hasn't come home at all. He just follows Seth or Howard or any other doctor that comes and gets him off for his checks and dressing changes and then is straight back to Steve's room. One thing about it you guess is that at least it's making him rest somewhat, especially with that nasty concussion.

Howard fixed Bucky's arm up easily that next day like He said he would, implanting some kind of chip that he reckons will make it function better than ever, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Bucky was also the one to give blood for Steve's transfusion. It just happened to work out perfectly that they have the same blood type and both have super Soldier serum in their DNA. At least you guess that helps to make Bucky feel like he's contributing in some kind of way.

You feel bad too. You want to be there more than you've been able to but you also happen to have five kids, two of which are only a couple of months old and another isn't even two yet, to juggle, and a dog to feed at home too. So you get there when you can.

This morning, after having dropped Theo and Isla at daycare and Luke at school you push the pram up the ramp of the entrance to S.H.I.E.L.D, passing by the ever growing collection of flower bunches outside as you walk through the doors. Of course the story got out to the news and with the uncertainty of it all everyone is devastated, hanging on the edge of their seats waiting to know if Captain America will be okay.