An hour might have passed for Loki, who was gently smiled at by her half faced future daughter and bid a fond farewell until they might meet again, who managed to come out of her ordeal without needing the assistance of any of the gifts granted her by the All-Mother, mere moments of grief had passed for Steve. He'd been left alone for less than a minute and hadn't come to grips in the slightest about what to do with Bucky as he possessively held his body, much less what he'd do with himself, when the corpse in his arms drew in a startling breath.

Steve would not be ashamed to admit that he had screamed a little, and possibly even dropped Bucky. He did scoop him up a moment later, hands trembling and sure he was going mad.

Bucky couldn't be alive. He hadn't felt a pulse since he'd come into the room. He was kneeling in nearly all of the man's blood!

"Oh God, pleas-- Buck!"