A/N: The song for this chapter is, Not Alone, by Red. Enjoy the chapter!
The first thing she noticed was the smell.
The whole room reeked of death and decay, the smell alone made her want to turn tail and leave, but she knew that, if James was here, she could never leave him. No matter what Hydra did to him. Or what they'd do to her.
After fighting with herself about whether or not she was ready, she took a deep breath and was able to finally look around the room.
It was dark and dank and bleak. The lighting was poor, light bulbs flickering every so often, emitting a ill colored yellow. There were stainless steel tables and stools all around the room, all of them covered in tools. Some medical. Others regular tools, like a hammer, and a chisel. But all of them shared one thing; were covered in the same liquid.
Blood.
Fresh. Old. It didn't matter. It was all the same. The same putrid smell permeated throughout the damp cell-like room.
Nicolette could only guess whose blood was painted across the walls and floor.
No. Please. Not him. Anyone but him.
And finally, after looking over the tools came the one thing that completed the room's nightmare-ish look, was a cot.
It was small, and looked hard and uncomfortable. Like a medical table.
She swallowed heavily, walking closer to the bed, and she saw was something that would would never forget. No matter how many times she tried.
Because, lying there, on the metal medical cot, was James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barns. Her long lost husband
"J...James?" Nicolette had always preferred James to Bucky. He always said that he thought it sounded cute and funny whenever she tried to call him Bucky. Said that her accent was adorable, and then he'd grab her hands and press a kiss to the back of each one before telling her how much he loved her. But she still preferred James, loving the way he responded to it.
"James?"
Her only response was a low, almost inaudible groan
"James!" She cried in relief
"N'cole'te...?"
Nodding her head quickly, even though she knew his eyes were closed "Oui, mon mari, je suis ici.(Yes, my husband, I'm here.)" Nicolette grabbed his bruised, bloody and cold hand and squeezed ever so lightly. He was such a mess, she didn't want to risk harming him anymore.
'Hydra will pay for what they've done to my James.' She thought venomously
"Ouvre tes yeux, mon cheri.(Open your eyes, my darling.)" she whispered lovingly in his ear, causing James to turn his head.
"He is responsive." Zola stated from behind Nicolette, a clipboard in hand "Most interesting."
She turned swiftly to face him, a confused glared fixed on her face "Responsive? What do you mean?"
"Simply that, until now, he has not made any noises or acknowledged any of scientists outside of when the operations take place, other than his name, rank and serial number."
Keeping James' hand clasped softly yet firmly, Nicolette took a single step closer to Zola, glaring. "What kind of operations?"
"Well, Hydra needs all the information we can get. Sargent Barnes may be resilient, but enough force can make anyone talk."
She squeezed his hand tighter, her anger showing plain as day on her face. "Leave us, uncle." She turned back towards her tortured, and barely conscious love.
Zola opened his mouth to speak, but Nicolette quickly sent the nastiest glare she could muster his way. He nodded slightly, before scurrying out the door.
Nicolette listened as all seven locks locked and Zola's footsteps faded away.
"James? Darling, you need to open your eyes for me. Can you do that?" She asked softly, gently pushing back some hair from his brow, before dragging her hand softly from his brow to his sunken, stubble-y cheek
have they fed him even once?
"James. Regardez-moi , ouvrir ces beaux yeux bleus que je aime tant. Je sais que tu peux (1)."She encouraged, knowing that he could understand her...At least she hoped he still could, who knows what those Hydra bastards did to him.
James groaned in pain, his sweaty forehead wrinkling before he cracked one eye open. Making Nicolette sigh in relief
Placing her other hand to his opposite cheek, she in leaned closer, knowing that he couldn't quite focus yet.
Nicolette zoned in on all the cuts and scrapes on his face, taking in every small change that would be otherwise unnoticeable to naked eye. Sometimes, like now, She wished she didn't have unnatural eyesight, she didn't really want to see what Hydra did to her husband, and yet, she did.
Opening his other eye, James looked up at the short blonde, first with shock and relief, then with anger and pain, which shocked Nicolette almost as much as when she first saw him lying on the table, bloody gauze wrapped around his chest and left arm and scars littering all visible parts of his body.
"...James...?" She tentatively asked, unsure about the look of pure hatred James' giving her. Making her feel like she did something wrong
James moved his head to face the wall. Away from Nicolette, and she dropped his hands in disbelief, she didn't know what to do, for Nicolette, her husband had been dead for a long time, and now that he wasn't...He wouldn't even look at her.
"James...?"
He started to shake his head "No, no. You're not real." He whispered delusionally
He continued to babble on about Hydra while Nicolette was just trying to figure out what he meant by 'This is new. Never tried this tactic before.'. Until it made sense.
"You don't think I am really Nicolette...do you?" she asked, heartbrokenly, knowing now that that was the reason behind his anger. She'll just have to prove to him that she was really who she says she is.
"James, it is me, it is your Nikki-!" "DON'T! Don't lie to me. Not about this. Not about Nicolette." Hot tears rolled down her face as James began to whisper hoarsely, over and over 'Not her. Not her.'. It broke her heart in half to see just how broken her darling James was.
"I am not lying to you, Ma chere (My darling), Hydra found me and brought me to you." She whimpered, heart aching when James shook his head frantically, even though the motion was obviously painful.
"Please. Please stop. I'll tell Hydra everything. Just...Leave her out of this...Please" He begged. The only other time she'd heard James beg was when he asked her to marry him. He actually got on his knees and grabbed her hands, kissing them between every sentence.
"I'm not lying to you James, I will prove it. there has to be something not even Hydra could possibly know that I do, like how I know that I am the only person other then your parents that you let call you James. I know that in the morning, you prefer sausage to bacon, but any other time you will want bacon. I know that your favorite thing to do at home is to read to me, you say that you like the way I cuddle up to you and almost always fall asleep on you" Nicolette was in a frenzy, why doesn't he believe me? She ran through everything she knew about her husband and belted them out as soon as the memory surfaced
"You hate it when another guy so much as looks at me, you will always put your arm around me and glare at them until they look away. Your first words to me after I moved from France was 'You're pretty' At our wedding, you forgot my middle name and instead of skipping over it, you tried to remember it, you ended up calling me Nicolette Genevieve Barnes, before you remembered that my last name was still LeClair at the time." She rushed out, hardly breathing, knowing that she needed to convince him that he's not being lied to above anything else.
"You like to hold my hand before falling asleep. It never mattered how close we were, you had to hold it to fall asleep." Random tidbits were now flowing from her mouth, anything that she could think of was immediately said. "You adore my height because I always need you to get something from a high shelf, and you love being my chevalier dans une armure brillante (Knight in shining armor)."
Throughout her attempt to get James to believe her, Nicolette didn't notice his eyes widening or his breathing go erratic as he began to realize that she was telling the truth.
"You convinced me to teach you French so that you could understand what I was saying when I hurt myself doing dishes or when I'd focus on something and start talking to you in my native language. You were so excited when you finally mastered the basics, that you started using it whenever we were together, ans you a;ways thought it was funny when I would scrunch up my nose at your American accent speaking French," She sniffled.
James looked at her and she finally noticed his hyperventilating and she stopped her spiel. "You hate it when...James?"
He locked his eyes with hers, "Nikki...?" Nicolette smiled ever so slightly, "Oui mon amour, elle est moi(Yes my love, it's me). I'm so sorry that I wasn't here sooner. If I had known...I would have-" James cut Nicolette off, grabbing her and pulling her to him, even as he winced in pain when she landed on top of him.
"Umph! James! don't, please, you are hurt. Don't make it worse on yourself." Nikki whispered, trying to get off him even though every limb in her body protested moving away from her James.
"It doesn't matter. You're here. That's all that matters." She smiled at his American accent saying his pet name for her in french. He grinned slightly before grimacing in pain, but tightened his hold when Nikki shifted, trying to get off. "you're here, with me. I need to feel you near me. I need to know that you're real, darling. Please."
Having not seen Him in what seemed like forever, Nikki allowed herself this comfort. "I missed you so, so much, Mon amour, I didn't know what to do. It was so hard, and I couldn't take it anymore. I just - I thought you were dead. I didn't... I couldn't...
"But all that does not matter anymore. You're alive." She smiled, tear tracks running down her cheeks, "You're alive. And here. And I'm with you. And that is all that matters. je t'aime, James. So, so very much."
James gripped Nikki tighter with his right arm, his left still wrapped in gauze at his side. Concealed from view.
TRANSLATIONS
(1) Regardez-moi , ouvrir ces beaux yeux bleus que je aime tant. Je sais que tu peux == Look at me, open those beautiful blue eyes that I love so much. I know you can