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Alexei nearly THREW Yelena onto the bed at the infirmary, and they immediately went about stopping her bleeding; team members running around with gauze, scissors, and an IV-drip. But then Bob yelled, "She needs blood, just hydration won't be enough," and everybody stopped.
That was until Walker said, "We have the same blood type, so take mine."
"What about your serum?" Alexei asked, catheter for the blood transfusion already in hand.
But Walker shrugged and offered, "If it helps her heal faster, all the better."
Alexei nodded and inserted the needle into the inside of Walker's elbow while attaching the other end to the back of Yelena's hand. He did not say anything else, but he quickly patted Walker on the shoulder before going back to help his daughter.
They had managed to stop Yelena's bleeding, and she was already looking a lot better. Walker's blood seemed to be helping. And the life-giving liquid was still streaming from him to her, so she was going to be fine.
As Walker's eyes began to droop, Bucky briefly wondered how much more blood they would be able to take from him. Given that he was, what, about 190 pounds, that 7-8% of a human's body weight is blood, and that you can take about 15% of blood volume without much problem, Bucky figured that they could take around 1000 cc, so two times the volume of a normal blood bag, before it would even start becoming an issue. Walker would be fine. And it had been a hard mission, so the man was probably just tired. Still, he asked, "You good?"
Before Walker had even opened his mouth, Bob said, “Nonono, he HAS to be good; she still needs more blood!”
Bucky looked back at Walker and asked again, “Are you good to keep going?”
Walker nodded.
It was yet another while until Yelena opened her eyes. When she did and was able to confirm to them that she was going to be fine, they stopped the blood transfusion. Walker seemed to have dozed off and looked to be confused for a while, but when he glanced over and saw that Yelena was awake, he nodded, grinned, said ‘good to have you back’, and then walked out of the infirmary to finally get changed and be able to relax.
Bucky had put away some of the used equipment and went back to the bed to check on Yelena – even though Alexei and Bob were hovering near her, making sure she had everything she needed. Ava had gone to get some sleep a while ago, like Walker.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Bucky spotted something strange on the chair Walker had been sitting on during the transfusion. It looked like blood. At first, Bucky found nothing odd about that, Yelena had bled a lot. But then he realized that it was too far away from the bed to have come from Yelena.
Not wanting to interrupt the moment that Alexei and Bob were having with Yelena now that they finally knew that she was going to be fine, Bucky went to talk to Walker by himself.
Bucky had been standing in front of Walker’s door knocking for what felt like an eternity, but he had never gotten a response. Eventually, Bucky decided to just go in – let Walker yell at him for the invasion of privacy, he could deal with that.
But when he opened the door and found Walker passed out on the floor, Bucky froze. He had not expected that.
Running up to him and turning him over, Bucky could see how pale the tall man was, ashen. And there was the fact that Bucky’s hand had touched something warm and wet when grabbing him. Tearing off the top of Walker’s uniform, Bucky discovered the reason: Walker had an abdominal wound that had bled a lot, had even soaked through the sturdy fabric. But if he had already bled a lot and had continued to bleed, and if they had then blood-transfused him dry on top of that, then… shit. “Walker, can you hear me? John!”
In the end, Bucky had not had another choice but to take Walker to the hospital. They had looked at him funny when he had barged in with Walker in a bridal carry, but they had stopped laughing pretty soon. With Walker’s wound treated and the first blood bag already in his system, the blond man blinked his eyes open. Bucky couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly was your plan, Walker? Quietly bleeding to death in your room?”
Walker’s voice was as faint as Bucky had ever heard it. “I figured the serum would take care of it. Didn’t think it would keep bleeding.”
“That cut was pretty deep.” Bucky stated.
Walker shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”
Bucky decided against commenting on THAT and instead asked, “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Walker said, “Yelena was hurt,” as if that explained anything. As if that meant that HE didn’t matter.
“Walker,” Bucky began but realized that he did not actually know what to say. Then, he asked, “Why didn’t you tell us to stop the transfusion once you started feeling dizzy. I mean, you must have realized that you were reaching the limit of what was safe to give her.”
When Walker did not say anything, Bucky added, “Wait, do you think that you’re less important than her?”
Walker tiredly chuckled, then stated, “Oh, I KNOW I’m less important than her.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“Bucky, please,” Walker said. “She has her dad who loves her, she has Bob who loves her, and you guys like her too… Me, I don’t have anyone. Nobody would even miss me.”
“That’s not… John, that’s not true!”
Walker closed his eyes again while saying, “You don’t have to pretend, Bucky.”
When the nurse came to set up yet another blood bag, Walker told Bucky, “I can get myself to the tower after. You don’t have to stay. It’s okay if you want to leave.”
And Bucky said, “I know, John. I understand now that you truly believe it would be okay. But that doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere… Now get some sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
The whispered ‘why’ nearly broke Bucky’s heart.
“You were right, I like Yelena. But, John, I like you too.”
THE END