[Virginia AU] we rose up from the falling waters

[nerves_of_ice]

A little over a week goes by, and as it does Bucky falls into a pattern, slow but sure. He wakes with Sharon in the mornings, shares coffee and something that suffices for breakfast, then works a little on searches and checking contacts and sources from other time zones and locations. Mid-morning finds him at the Task Force offices with Riley and his team. Early afternoon finds him meeting with Ross, if there's any reason to; mid-afternoon he checks in with Steve, with Tony, or with Natasha before he goes back to tracing rumors and hints.

Today's different, though. Today is Sharon's first day back at work after her suspension, and Bucky's determined not to do a single damn thing that might possibly make it difficult for her.

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"I'm so sorry, baby," she whispers. More filters back: the pressure between her shoulders, the terror, the impossibility of breathing, his desperate voice. "I didn't want to go. I heard you and Ross, and..."

She frowns, trying to remember, and fully bucks orders by shifting, pushing herself up to sitting so she can reach between her shoulders. "What the hell?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He doesn't realize how scared he'd been that she'd have lingering problems, miracle healing or not, until she moves. Still--

"Hey!" he protests. "Take it easy. Slow down."

[from_the_outside]

"But I feel fine."

She's tired, she's sore, she's wildly confused, but fine. Her questing fingers can't feel even the ridge of a scar, and she stares at him. "How long have I been out?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Not quite a day." Bucky takes her free hand again and holds on. "There's a lot that's happened, Sharon, and a lot of it's going to sound impossible. But I promise, it's real."

[from_the_outside]

"Bullet wounds don't heal in a day," she says, trying to cling to some semblance of reality.

"They do here," says a cheerful voice, and Sharon turns her head to see a smiling young Black woman striding into the room, Ross behind her. He looks exasperated. "Didn't I tell you not to try moving?" he grumbles, and Sharon looks from him to the woman to Bucky, her eyes full of confusion.

"What's going on?" she asks. It's a little more plaintive than she'd prefer, but, to be fair, she'd almost died.

[nerves_of_ice]

"You saved Nakia's life," he says, gently. "When you put yourself between her and the gunfire. King T'Challa brought you here to save yours."

He tips his head toward the others. "This is the Princess Shuri. Of Wakanda. Which, it turns out, isn't what anyone thought. Not even close."

[from_the_outside]

"Wakanda?"

She's beyond bewildered. It can't be possible. And everything feels too much, like whatever the cure was had renewed her nerves to the point where she feels like she can almost ascertain the thread count in the sheet that's draped over her.

The young woman – Princess Shuri – comes to her bedside and glances up at something above her head. "How do you feel?"

"Fine – hey!" The princess had leaned down to tweak one of her toes beneath the sheet; Sharon snatches her foot away as the young woman laughs.

"Full mobility," the princess says, sounding pleased and a little smug. "As I expected."

[nerves_of_ice]

"The princess is your doctor," Ross explains. "And, uh, a scientist or something too."

Bucky places one hand low on Sharon's back in support. "Take a second," he suggests. "It's a lot, I know."

[from_the_outside]

The princess scoffs at or something and taps at something on her wrist. "Everything looks very good," she tells Sharon, who leans slightly back into Bucky's touch, feeling like she must be losing her mind. "Would you like to try standing up?"

Sharon can't see a reason not to; she feels like standing up is the least of what she could do right now, despite the fact that she'd caught a bullet in the spine less than a day ago. She swings her legs over the side of the bed and pushes herself to standing, shivering as her bare feet come in contact with the floor. "Okay," she says, and looks at the princess. "What next, cartwheels?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Carter--"

Shuri laughs. "You could, if you wanted. No, I have all the data I need from the monitoring systems. The more important thing is how you feel."

"Please don't," Bucky says. "Save cartwheels for next week."

[from_the_outside]

"I feel a little like I've been sick," she tells the princess. "Or like I went a really hard round with a bruiser yesterday. But aside from that, I feel fine."

"Good!" Shuri tells her, then shakes a finger. "But you still need rest."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Listen to her," Bucky says. "Real rest, not pretend rest."

Ross eyes her. "Don't make me order you to take medical leave."

[from_the_outside]

"How would I even do that?" Sharon wants to know. "We're in Wakanda. Can I even call HR from here?"

But both he and Bucky look a little like they've both been on edge for hours, which has probably been the case, and she sits back down on the bed in deference to their feelings.

Also, she's tired. She looks at the princess. "Do I have to stay here? In this..."

She looks around. "Hospital?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Lab," Shuri says, firmly. "This is my lab. And you do not have to stay, now that you are awake. Nakia has arranged rooms for all three of you. We can call her."

"Better brace yourself," Bucky murmurs.

[from_the_outside]

"For what?" Sharon asks, then stares at the tiny, perfect hologram of Nakia that forms over Shuri's wrist. "The hell?"

The hologram laughs Nakia's delighted laugh. "Look at you!" she says. "You're awake!"

"Look at you," Sharon tells her, nonplussed. "Kinda buried the lede about Wakanda, Nakia."

[nerves_of_ice]

“I could not tell you before,” Nakia says, “and this is not how I would have chosen to tell you, but I am glad you are here in my homeland.”

She looks around at the others. “Have you explained?” Bucky shakes his head. “Not everything.”

[from_the_outside]

"It can wait," Shuri says, with the comfortable equanimity of someone who already has all the answers. "She only just woke up. Nakia, are their rooms ready?"

"Yes," Nakia tells her. "I will come back to guide them."

"Cool," says Sharon, grasping desperately for anything like normalcy. "In the meantime, where are my clothes?"

[nerves_of_ice]

A muscle at the corner of his jaw twitches. “They were ripped and bloody.” Bucky enunciates each word very carefully. “You don’t want them.”

[from_the_outside]

She looks up at him, and reaches for his hand to lace their fingers together, setting her other over the back of his to hold it between the both of hers; a silent apology and proof she's here and alive and in reach all at once.

"I will bring you something to wear," Nakia promises. "Give me fifteen minutes and I will join you at the lab again."

[nerves_of_ice]

"In the meantime, I will show her around," Shuri says, cheerfully. Ross gives her bright smile a wary look. "You're not going to shock her right back into a sickbed, are you?"

Bucky pays no attention to this. Instead, he focuses on the feel of Sharon's hands on his, and makes his breathing careful and steady.

[from_the_outside]

"Give me a little credit," she tells her boss, as Shuri banishes the laughing hologram of Nakia.

Ross is less amused. "You almost died," he gripes at her. "I'm telling you to take it easy. That's an order, Carter. One you'd better follow."

She feels a rush of affection for her grumpy boss, and a smile flickers at the corner of her mouth. "Copy that," she says, her hands still warm and firm around Bucky's.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky squeezes her fingers as Shuri says, "This will be easy enough. Come, come and see!"

[from_the_outside]

She gets up off the bed and shivers slightly once more as her bare feet come into contact with the cool floor. Sharon keeps her hand in Bucky's – Ross can just deal – assuming he's unlikely to let her far out of reach, anyway.

"Okay, princess," she says. "Lead on."

[nerves_of_ice]

"This way," Shuri chirps, bright and visibly amused. Bucky can guess what she's anticipating.

With Ross on her other side, he walks with Sharon out into the main lab, where displays of inventions and experiments in various stages are arranged in illuminated glass cases.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that show the heart of Mount Bashenga, a mag-lev train races by in elegant silence on its stabilized track.

[from_the_outside]

It's not that she's completely unflappable, but she does, generally, feel like it takes a lot to flap her.

This is no a lot. This is a full on shift in reality. She stares out the window at the – are they in a mountain? – and has no idea what to say. Which is fine, because Shuri is explaining about the mine and the meteor and she's just trying to absorb it before it runs off her like so much water.

"This is all vibranium?" she manages, finally, astonished. "The whole mountain?"