As Sam lowers his hand, Bucky wants to pull back. He doesn’t want to feel the still, cold chest of a man so bright and full of life. However, when Sam’s heart beats strong against his fingers, Bucky’s eyes go wide. The first beat sends a pulse through the water, a ripple that causes the skeletal fingers around Bucky’s legs to loosen. Sam’s alive. Sam’s really, truly alive and breathing for him and the manacles of bone fall away. Something overhead breaks and fragments of glass glisten as they fall. Then, a tide of that wine-red water rushes from beneath them, washing both of them up onto frozen steel.

The first thing Bucky’s body does is half-vomit, half-cough blood out onto the already rust-colored metal beneath him. He’s shivering as he raises his head to look for Sam and spots Pierce and the chair first.

Get back in there, Pierce’s voice barks in his ear despite the yard or so between them. You failed, Soldier.

He failed.