Her skin was pale and cold. Her lips had lost the beautiful pink tint that he loved so much. Her hair was now a dull brown, rather than the vibrant and shiny brown it normally was. Multiple IV's had been placed into her skin, and a breathing tube had been forced down her throat to assist her in breathing, a simple activity that she could no longer do herself because of her wounds.

Seeing Connie in such a state broke Bucky's heart, and knowing that she was in it because of him only made him feel worse. She had come to save him, and in doing so she had almost gotten herself killed. Hell, she had gotten herself killed, but Jemma Simmons was good at what she did as Bucky had come to discover. Bucky would forever be grateful to her for bringing Connie back, but things weren't over just yet.

Even with her advanced physiology, Connie's wounds were still very life threatening. Ward had shot straight through Connie's stomach, her liver, and he had also perforated her small intestine, which left her with a 40% chance in ever waking up again. She was barely holding on, but she was holding on, nonetheless. She was a fighter, as both Bucky and Steve knew, as well as Phil, and she would fight until she couldn't anymore.

As Bucky stood by her room window, Steve walked up to stand beside him, shoving his hands into his pocket and looking through the glass at his battered sister. He let out a breath and glanced over at Bucky before once again focusing his attention on Connie.

"Any updates from Simmons?" he inquired, his tone one of defeat. Steve hated seeing Connie in her state just as much as Bucky and Phil did. He was the one that watched her go down, and he was the one who carried her as quickly as he could back to the plane as Jemma had told him to do.

However, Steve's efforts to get her on board had been less than careful as he had been told to make sure of. Connie's heart stopped only yards from the entrance of the plane. It was something he still had yet to forgive himself for, even after a blood transfusion and CPR had been successful. He believed that if it hadn't, her loss would've been his fault, and that was something he never would've been able to live with.

"Not yet," Bucky spoke quietly. He had hardly spoken to Steve since he had been on board. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but their situation with Connie and Bucky's reasoning behind keeping Steve in the dark prevented much conversation. He didn't know how to tell Steve why he wanted to keep him in the dark, nor did he know how to tell Steve that after all of this was over. . .he was leaving again.

Steve let out a sigh and looked at Bucky, tears pooling in his eyes as he did. He was so emotionally unstable at the moment due to the situation, so of course seeing and interacting with his best friend after so many years would provoke an emotional reaction from Steve. The last time he had seen Bucky, he'd been on the helicarrier in a completely different mindset than he appeared to be in now. As Steve looked at him now, he could sense that the Bucky he knew all those years ago was present, and he knew it was because of the small brunette laying soundly in her medical chamber.

"I was so mad at her for keeping you from me," Steve spoke to Bucky with a strained voice. "She's the one person on the planet I can trust to tell me absolutely anything, so when Phil was the one to call me and tell me that Connie had been staying with you in Bucharest to look after you. . .well, let's just say I've never felt so disappointed in my life."

Bucky swallowed the lump in his throat. "I told her not to tell you, don't be mad at her, Steve."

"She told me."

"Then wha—"

"Why didn't you want me to know?" Steve asked him with a frown on his face. "Why did she want me to know, but you didn't?"

Bucky sighed and ran a hand over his bruised face. "Because I was afraid, okay? I was afraid you'd look at me and hate what I had become, and that was something I couldn't live with. I couldn't give a single damn about what anyone else on this Earth thought of me, but if you or Connie ever hated me I wouldn't know what to do with myself."

"I could never hate you, Buck," Steve assured him. "I hate what they did to you, I hate the pain that they put you through, I hate what they turned you into, but never in a million years could I ever hate you. When I said I was with you 'til the end of the line, I meant every single word. Why do you think I've spent almost the past two months looking for you?"

"I'm sorry, but could you really blame me? I felt the same way about Connie before she showed up at the museum intent on trying to help me," Bucky told him.

"And did she help you?"

Bucky nodded and looked at Steve before shifting his attention back to Connie; the mere sight of her broke his heart. "She helped in me in every way she could help me, and now it's my turn to help her."

"What do you mean, Buck?" Steve asked skeptically.

"I mean that after all of this is over—after I'm sure that she's gonna be okay—I'm leaving again," Bucky answered.

Steve's eyes widened slightly at the sound of his words. The thought of Bucky leaving again after they had just gotten him back—after he had just gotten him back—was not okay with him. "What do you mean you're leaving again? We just got you back, Buck!"

"I know, but just after I broke free of my restraints and left Agent Ward groveling in pain on the floor, he told me Hydra would never stop coming for me." Bucky sighed, "As long as I'm alive, as long as they keep looking for me, you two will be in nothing but danger. Connie almost died for me, Steve, and that's something I can't let happen again."

"I'm sorry to say it, but she's literally gonna kill you," Steve breathed out.

"I know."

Both of the men knew that Connie would not react well to the news of Bucky's decision. She would be upset, yes, but she would also be palm-twitchingly livid because of it, and neither one of them were ready to see how that played out.

"She just got you back and now she's about to lose you again," Steve muttered. "I can respect your choice, I really can, and I'm sure under different circumstances Connie could as well, but it's been seventy years, Bucky; she's lived seventy years without you, and to lose you again, especially after learning why, I just don't think it's going to settle very well with her."

"I know, but I'd honestly rather her be miserable and safe without me than be happy and in danger with me," Bucky said to Steve.

Steve let out a breath and clapped Bucky on the shoulder. "I'm glad to see that after everything you've been through over the years, your love for her hasn't faltered."

"She's the best thing that's ever happened to me, Steve."

"I know, Buck," Steve said, a warm smile on his face.

The sound of footsteps caught the two men's attention, and they glanced around the corner to see Jemma strolling quickly down the hallway. She stopped in front of Connie's door when she noticed the two of them and let out a nervous breath before pushing her way into the room. Bucky and Steve followed her in and watched as Jemma removed a large syringe from the pocket of her jacket.

"What is that?" Bucky asked the brunette.

Jemma sighed sadly and studied the syringe in her hand, unsure of how she was supposed to tell the two of them exactly what was going on. She was trapped in a continuous battle with the inner workings of her mind as she tried desperately to figure out what it was she needed to do, and it had been that way for several hours now.

"It's a vial of a very special medicine left over from Skye's injuries configured with several other medications I've been testing," Jemma answered him.

"Define special, please," Steve told her.

"It's a vile of GH. 325," Jemma told him as she removed the cap from the needle. "It will help her."

Jemma quickly shoved the needle into Connie's arm before the two of them had the chance to respond and allowed the fluid to flow into her body.

Jemma had spent the last few hours examining Connie's blood samples and comparing them to samples of Skye's and Phil's before they had been given a dose of the medicine, only to find startling results. Skye's blood and Connie's blood was the same in every way, yet it was also very different in every way. Jemma wasn't sure how such a thing could be possible, but she knew that because it was, the side effects of the GH. 325 would be next to nonexistent inside Connie, just as they were inside Skye. Jemma also hypothesized that the super-soldier serum would help further counteract those effects as well.

Originally, Jemma had been saving the GH. 325 for a special occasion, but she believed the situation Connie had gotten herself into was special enough. Also, aside from Bucky and Steve, Phil cared deeply for Connie, and Skye seemed to have taken quite the liking to the super-soldier. Jemma, Fitz, and Trip liked Connie as well, and they believed that if she stuck around they would grow to love her. Jemma would feel horrible anyway if she allowed Connie to die knowing that she could've helped save her.

The three waited for a reaction from Connie, and the moment they got one, Skye burst into the small room with a fearful expression on her face.

"Simmons, what's going on with her?" Skye asked as Connie's body began to convulse. The sight reminded her much of what had happened to her after she'd been injected with GH, and the moment realization hit her, her stomach dropped. "Jemma, please tell me you didn't do what I think you did."

"What the hell is happening to her?" Bucky exclaimed.

Jemma pursed her lips and ignored the two of them. She knew the serum would work, and her thoughts were confirmed the moment Connie became stable. A sigh of relief escaped Jemma's mouth and she ran a hand through her hair, her eyes falling on the three in the room.

"She's going to be okay," she assured them.

Skye looked away from Connie to Jemma, her eyes still wide with fear. "What did you do, Jemma?"

"What's she talking about?" Steve followed.

"You know what happened to Phil, Jemma," Skye said, earning a strange look from Bucky.

"Jemma, what did you do?" Bucky asked cautiously.

"I saved her life," Jemma retorted as she began to carefully pull the breathing tube from Connie's mouth. "That's what I did, okay? You can either keep yelling at me for it or be thankful that you'll be able to speak to her again in about two to three hours."

Jemma quickly left the room after situating Connie and headed back to the lab. There was no way she could share the information she had found regarding Connie's and Skye's blood analysis, especially since she could not understand it herself. She felt that leaving them to wonder was better than providing them with information that she knew was far from being the least bit possible.