★ ★ ★

Wakanda was a beautiful country, at least in Marlena's opinion it was. She enjoyed gazing out the facility windows and watching the animals roam through the trees of the jungle terrain; she enjoyed watching the rain fall against the windows of her temporary room; she enjoyed listening to species of birds she had never heard before chirp at night and in the morning. What she did not enjoy, however, was waiting to see Bucky.

After the confrontation between her, Steve, Bucky, and Tony, the three of them had taken off for the quinjet parked just outside of the Siberian facility, only to be met by T'Challa. He had apologized for his actions against Bucky and proceeded to offer the three care and a safe haven at one of his many medical facilities until they were able to figure out what their next step was. The Wakandan doctors began caring for the three of them the moment they walked through the doors, especially Bucky, and Marlena had been waiting on the chance to see him since.

Not only were the doctors preventing her from seeing Bucky because they didn't want her to further irritate her injuries, but the doctors were also still working on removing the jagged remnants of Bucky's arm. It was a long process, given the mechanisms of the arm, and Marlena was becoming very impatient. All she wanted was to see him and hold him and tell him that everything was going to be alright, but she couldn't, and she hated it; she hated being stuck in her room (which was much more lavish than she would've thought it to be for the equivalent to a hospital room) and she hated being drugged up on pain medications every other hour.

Marlena let out a sigh and pulled her white jacket over her chest in an attempt to ward off the cold. She sat back against her mattress and stared up at the flat screen television hanging on the wall in front of her, her mind drifting to the horrible events that had taken place the day before.

To say Marlena was upset was quite an understatement. She never would have expected something of the sort happening in the two years Marlena had known the Avengers and Bucky. They were a family that she (and Bucky) just so happened to be a part of, and seeing the way they were willing to fight each other broke her heart. She understood their reasonings, but she couldn't bring herself to care at all about the politics or the regulations behind them. In her eyes, families were supposed to stick together; they were supposed to fight for each other, not fight against each other.

The battle at the airport, however, was nothing compared to the fight that broke out between her, Steve, Bucky, and Tony. The fight between the four of them was brutal and a level of painful Marlena hadn't even known she could feel. Steve, Bucky, and Tony were without a doubt three of the most important men in her life, and watching them fight with each other had more of an affect on her than watching the team fight with one another. At the airport, they had actually cared about harming each other—they refrained from actually trying to cause too much damage—but in Siberia it was almost a fight to the death, and it would have been had Steve not destroyed Tony's arc reactor. Tony never would've stopped, and if that had been the case Bucky would have lost much more than just his arm. That was something Marlena couldn't bear to think about.

Marlena picked up the remote on her bedside table and began flipping through the channels. She wanted to find something to take her mind off of the fight and not being able to see Bucky. She was close to snapping and she needed a distraction to prevent her from doing do.

After about ten minutes spent watching a random American show, the door to her room opened. She had expected it to be one of her nurses, but it was Steve, which surprised her slightly. She hadn't seen him in several hours, as he had been talking to T'Challa about several things, things in which Marlena was not interested in.

Steve gave her a smile as he stepped into the room, though the gesture didn't quite reach his eyes. There was something wrong, and Marlena knew this. She didn't even have to read his mind to know either, though she couldn't have even if she wanted to. She had burnt herself out in Siberia after her attempt to stop the fight, and the doctors had informed her that it would take a little bit of time for her mind to start working the way it was supposed to. Part of her hated not having her powers—their absence made her feel so distant from the world and those around her—but the other part of her was quite relieved because of her lack of powers. She felt like her old self again.

"Hey, Mar," Steve greeted as he sat down on her mattress. "How're you feelin'?"

Marlena shrugged and switched the TV off. "I could be better. What about you?"

"I could be better." Steve chuckled before his face fell into an expression of seriousness, worrying Marlena slightly.

"What's wrong, Steve?" she questioned, placing a hand on his arm. "I can't exactly figure it out myself at the moment. Is it Bucky?"

Steve let out a sigh and nodded. "I've come here to bring you to him. They're allowing you out, but only for this specific reason."

Marlena furrowed her brows in confusion. "Reason? What reason? Steve, is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. He's just being a bit irrational if you ask me," Steve scoffed.

"What the hell are you talking about, Steven?"

Steve simply sighed and stood up, reaching his arms out to pull Marlena gently off of her bed. "You're not gonna like this at all, Mar," Steve muttered as he pulled her out the door and into the hallway.

"You're being very vague with me right now, and for a telepath who is temporarily without her powers, it is very annoying," Marlena said to him as they made their way to the elevator.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, "I wanna tell you, but I think he should be the one to do it."

Marlena looked up at him as the elevator began its descent. "Is it really that bad?"

"Just—just let him tell you."

Marlena let out a groan before leaning back against the wall, not bothering to care about the slight pain in her ribs. All she could bring herself to care about was what Steve wasn't telling her about Bucky.

The elevator soon stopped and Steve and Marlena began making their way out. Marlena latched herself onto Steve's arm to prevent from falling over or losing her balance and running into one of the many doctors and scientists scrambling around the floor. She didn't need another injury, nor did she need another broken rib for that matter. It was already difficult trying to take care of the one she had, and she doubted she would be able to stand having another one.

Her tight grip on Steve was of no help, however, as she was wearing socks on laminate flooring. She took a step and slid forward, only for Steve to grab her before she could fall from his grasp and onto the floor. She let out a squeal and grabbed his arm in a death grip, earning a laugh from the super-soldier.

"I just don't understand," Steve mused as he pulled her up gently, focusing on not further harming her.

"What?" Marlena breathed out.

"You are a trained assassin, technically, yet you are one of the clumsiest people in the world."

Marlena grunted as he continued walking down the hall. "In my defense, I'm not wearing any shoes."

"Oh yeah," Steve muttered as he pushed open a large door at the end of the hall. "I don't understand what it is with all the white."

Marlena looked down at her outfit, which consisted of a white shirt, a white jacket (for her cold-natured body), white compression leggings, and white socks. "I personally think I look good in all white. I mean, I don't look as pale as I normally do in this outfit."

"Are you sure about that?" Bucky's voice sounded, catching Marlena's attention immediately.

She looked up, her hazel eyes falling on his figure across the room. He was sitting down, looking at her with a small smile on his face and bright blue eyes. He hadn't seen her in about the same amount of time she hadn't seen him, and he was more than ecstatic he was able to see her now, even if it was only going to be for a little bit.

Marlena pulled away from Steve quickly and hurried over to Bucky, not even bothering to pay attention to the cryogenic chamber sitting across from him. She didn't say anything once she reached him; she simply wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug. Bucky let out a sigh and wrapped his arm around her as well, careful not to rip out the IV in his arm. He wished more than anything he had a second one to hold her with. One arm just wasn't enough for him as he held her. He hated how different it felt; he hated how he wasn't able to feel more of her.

Bucky pulled away from her, his blue eyes meeting her hazel ones. "Hey, love."

Marlena smiled and planted a kiss onto his lips before pulling away. "Hi," she said, her eyes falling onto his left arm. . .or what was left of it. She frowned and reached her hand out to touch it, only to pull her hand away at the last second. She looked to Bucky, who glanced down at his arm before looking back at her.

"Weird, huh?" he chuckled. "Definitely feels weird."

"I'm so sorry," Marlena told him, her voice shaky. It was weird not looking to his left and seeing his trademark metal arm, the arm she had grown oddly attached to during their time together.

Bucky shook his head and pulled her closer to him. "You have nothing to apologize for, Marlena. This isn't your fault, okay?"

"But I tried to stop him—I tried to stop all three of you, and I failed."

Steve then stepped toward the two of them, Marlena's words sparking a certain annoyance inside him; he was tired of listening to her blame herself for things that were out of her reach. "I would love to go a day without listening to you put yourself down over things that are completely out of your control. First it was Pietro, then it was Lagos, and now it's the arm."

"Okay, fine, but you can take Lagos out of that list considering it really was my fault," Marlena scoffed.

"If I didn't love you so much, and if you were a male, I'd probably smack the shit out of you, Marlena Claire," Bucky said with a roll of his eyes.

"It's not like you haven't done it before," Marlena remarked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Bucky gazed up at her for a few seconds before letting out a knowing laugh; he was going to miss hearing her daily remarks. "You're an idiot," he said with a shake of his head.

Marlena smirked and hoisted herself onto the seat at his right. "And apparently you're irrational. Care to tell me why that is, James?"

Bucky glanced up at Steve and let out a sigh before looking back down at Marlena, a frown falling on his face. "I. . .um. . .I've decided that I can't trust my own mind. Whatever Hydra did to me is never gonna go away, and I can't risk hurting you or anyone else that I care about."

"What are you talking about, Bucky?" Marlena asked with furrowed brows.

"I'm being put back in cryo, Marlena."

The sound of his words caused Marlena's heart to drop. Bucky being put back into cryo entailed him not being with her, and the very thought of it made her sick to her stomach. What made matters worse was the fact that he had actually chosen to do this—he had chosen to leave her. But why, though? Marlena was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. If it came down to it, she knew she could subdue the Winter Soldier. What she could not subdue, however, was the painful feeling of him leaving her.

"W-What?" Marlena squeaked, her eyes welling up with tears. "No. You're lying. Please tell me you're not serious."

Bucky nodded slowly. "Until they can figure out how to get this stuff out of my head, I think goin' back under's the best thing. . .for everybody."

"Not for me," Marlena exclaimed. "You do realize that you are the person I love most in this world, right? I've told you time and time again just how horribly I need you in my life, and now you wanna leave me? For the second time?"

"No, it's not like that, Marlena," Bucky said quietly, averting his attention to the floor.

Marlena wiped her face and looked away from him. "Then what the hell is it like?"

"I don't wanna risk hurting you."

"I can take care of myself against Winter, thank you very much," she forced out through her tears. "I can even take care of you. Me and Wanda have been trying to convince you for months to let us, but you never would. And now you're trusting a random group of Wakandan scientists that you met yesterday to reverse whatever Hydra did to you. Newsflash, Bucky, but she and I can actually see everything going on inside your head; they can't."

Bucky took a deep breath and looked at her, though she wasn't looking at him. "Look at me, please."

Marlena shook her head in response, only for Bucky to reach his hand out to her face, turning it so that she couldn't do anything but look at him. He hated seeing her so broken, and he hated even more that it was because of the situation he was in. What he was doing was for the best, though, not only for her, but for him as well.

"I love you, Marlena, and it's because I love you that I have to do this," Bucky told her. "Leaving you was never my intention. In fact, it's the last thing I wanna do, but I have to do it in order to keep you and everyone around you safe. It's not gonna be forever, I promise."

Marlena let out a sob and pressed her head to his shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around his torso. "You keep making promises you can't keep, Bucky. You promised me you'd always be there with me. Do you not remember?"

"Yes," Bucky answered, tightening his grip around her. "It's what makes this so hard."

"Please don't leave me," she cried.

Bucky glanced up at Steve again, who was standing in front of them with his arms crossed and a heartbroken expression on his face. Just like Marlena, Steve hated that Bucky was going back into cryo. He understood his reasonings for doing it, though, and he respected his decision to do so. Seeing Marlena's reaction, however, made the situation all the more heartbreaking for him.

"I'm sorry, baby," Bucky said to her, a few of his own tears managing to escape.

Marlena looked up at him. "Would you be mad at me if I said you should be sorry?"

"Not at all," Bucky shook his head, planting a kiss to the top of her head.

"I don't want you to go—I don't want you to leave me," she said, her voice strained.

"I know, sweetheart."

"Sergeant Barnes," an accented voice sounded, causing Marlena to look up. "It's time. I suggest you exchange whatever words you need to before we get started."

Bucky sighed and looked down at Marlena, who had her eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to fight back more tears. She wasn't aware that it had to be done so soon; she wasn't aware that this conversation with him was going to be her last; she wasn't aware she was going to be saying goodbye to him so quickly. The fact of it only made her pain worse.

"Listen to me, Marlena," Bucky spoke.

Marlena gazed up at him, but she didn't speak. She simply looked at him as if to tell him to continue.

"I love you. And I will never ever stop loving you—never. You're my entire life, Marlena Claire, and that's something I want you to hold on to," he told her. "I'm sorry that things have to be this way, but it's only temporary, and it's for the best. I promise I will do whatever I can to make this up to you when I get out, okay? We can do whatever you want, go wherever you want, see whoever you want, I don't care."

Marlena nodded her head in understanding, still nowhere close to being okay with his decision. She understood why he was doing what he was doing, but that didn't mean she was okay with it. "Please come back to me."

"I will, doll," Bucky assured her. "I will."

She leaned up in her seat and pressed her lips to his in a long and loving kiss, unsure of when she would be able to do so again. "I love you, James," she told him as she pulled away.

"I love you." Bucky smiled softly, raising his hand to run the pad of his thumb across her cheek. "I will always love you, Marlena Elisabeth."

"Sergeant Barnes?" a sweeter accented voice sounded this time.

Marlena could tell by the tone of the woman's voice, though, that they were out of time. She sighed and placed another kiss onto his lips before hopping back onto the floor. She ventured over to Steve, and he wrapped a comforting arm around her before pulling her to his side. The two watched as Bucky got up from his seat and headed over to the now-open cryogenic chamber. He stopped just in front of the chamber and glanced over at Marlena, a small smile coming onto his face as he looked at her.

"Take care of her, please," Bucky said quietly, averting his attention to Steve.

Steve merely nodded in response. He was afraid to speak, as he feared he would break down right then and there.

Bucky gave one last smile before stepping inside the chamber. One of the doctors hurried over to strap him inside, and once it was done the container began closing. Steve and Marlena could only watch with tear-filled eyes as the most important man in their life succumbed to the extreme cold, both unsure of when or if they'd ever be able to see him again.