Faces in the Ice Chapter 10, a captain america fanfic

Chapter 10

The moment Danny saw him, the living legend; he felt his weakened heart fluttered against his rib cage. He stood in the doorway with Bucky's metal hand fastened gently over his shoulder. His eyes watered with a toasty coating of tears as he stared at Captain Steve Rogers with a wondrous gleam in his cool blue eyes.

"It's really you?" he merely choked out, tasting the lingering metallic tang of blood against his strained throat. He was timid to move closer. Instead, he raked his glistening eyes over the massive super-soldier lying with his head and chiseled and bulky torso elevated, his face was marked with deep indents of light purple tinged bruises and scratches, but the ashen color of his complexion was returning to a normal vibrancy. Steve managed to crack a smile with his stiffed lips as he meet Danny's stare with his crystal blue irises.

"I wanted to see you, Captain America." the boy merely added, his thoughts addling against his small skull, and face beaming. "You're my favorite Avenger because you started out as a little guy just like me..." His voice hitched with strained pants of breath.

"What's your name, son?" Steve rasped in soft voice, his eyebrows creased as he stared at the boy wearing Captain America pajamas. Blue and red stars with the image of his shield in the center. He sensed the child's slight resistance, and gave Danny an assuring smirk as his lips held a line of warmth against the cuts at the corners, but his smile was bright and eyes gleamed with hope. The one thing Danny would need in the next few days to come. "You don't need to stand in the doorway. I'm not that intimating to talk too. I'm not a department store Santa," he said as his hand gestured the boy to enter the room.

Bucky guided the young boy towards the bedside, in slow, methodical steps; his combat boots thumped against the floor, as he reached the bed, and used his right leg to drag a chair to Danny. He released his grip on boy after giving him a reassuring squeeze with his metal finger and then he moved in hushed ghost-like strides to the window. He stuffed his gloved hands into the pockets of his frayed sweater.

He kept himself in a stoic stance, fighting to restore his humanness that HYDRA purged from him a lifetime. He felt unhinged with the concept of reason, but the sirens disturbed his soft thoughts. He became acutely aware of how much time had passed around, instead of moving to the bedside, he turned his intense glare of stark blue upon the window and tuned out everything around him. Silence descended over him. He wanted Danny to finally meet his hero face- to- face.

The boy finally spoke, his voice cracked at first, and he lightly coughed. "My name is Danny Richards, Captain Rogers." he managed and then he pulled out his chocolate bar, placing it over Steve's laden hand, watching it frail against the mattress. "I bought you this," he paused wheezing out a small, but strangled cough, which made Steve feel a tug on his will help make you feel better., because I know you're in pain."

"Thank you, Danny." Steve managed to smile against a faint grimace stifling over his lips. He angled his body mass into comfortable position, and reached an unopened plastic cup of apple juice. He pulled the silver cover up slightly, and handed it carefully to the boy. His shimmering blue eyes stared at him with an understanding gaze, as he took a long moment and stared at the pale skin and the small bone density of his new friend. He couldn't help, but show his concern for the child's welfare. "Here, Danny I want you to drink this, it will help ease your coughing."

"I'm fine, Captain Rogers," Danny said his tone low and straggled. He took the cup out of Steve's hand, his fingers were frail and nails had a bluish tinged. Steve looked at him with glistening eyes, the softness in his gaze made Danny feel stronger. He drew out a deep breath and decided to tell him about this condition. Fire left a trail along his throat, searing over his vocal cords, but he refused to complain. Instead, he took small sip of the juice and gathered enough courage to explain his condition to his hero. "My mother brought me in here when I was four, it wasn't supposed to last long, but after a few months my body never got better. She told me to never be afraid...To always think about Captain America and how strong he was when he fought for the little guys."

Bucky glanced over his shoulder, seemly paying attention to the conversation.

Danny sighed. He bit on his lower lip and rubbed his arm, trying to hide the distress welling inside his small frame. Steve placed his hand on his shoulder, easing the knots of tension twisting in his muscles. «After they operated on me and removed a few things were damaged. I got really sick and almost died. I fought, Captain Rogers. I fought every day. My blood is poisoned with a rare disease that can't be cured. They told me that I will be losing my left arm."

Steve felt his heart pinch. A cold, grim haze swelled into him; making him almost want to shed tears, unleash olden sorrow, anything to show Danny his true self, the kid from Brooklyn who always found a way to stand his ground against his illness. He refused to allow languish of grief build inside him. This boy, Danny Richards deserved to live a normal life without the sickness of his diseased blood cells dragging him closer to an early grave. He wanted to give the boy a chance to have freedom. This was unfair. This was condemning. He needed to raise the child's spirits and give him a glimpse of hope to break though the folds of darkness.

"Danny," Steve spoke in honeyed voice sounding gentle to the boy's ears. He felt wetness streak down his cheeks, but he ignored the pain churning in his veins. He looked at Danny with an honest face, and his lips pulled into a sincere smile that reached his eyes. "How would you like to hold the shield?"

Danny's blue eyes widen like saucers and a giddy smile played across his lips. "You mean I can touch your shield, Captain Rogers?" he asked in a voice laced with excitement. His eyes sparkling. "I can really touch the shield of our greatest war hero?"

Steve nodded in response, pulling the covers off his body, he eased himself off the mattress; towering over the boy, and interlocked his fingers with Danny's small hand. He wove a touch of warmth into the cold bones, and held on tight and felt the child's hand squeeze over his large fingers.

"Can you hold on a second, Captain Rogers?" Danny slipped his small hand out from Steve's clutch and moved towards Bucky standing in stupor in front of the window. He inched in slow and tentatively steps, and brushed his fingers over the metal plates. "Don't worry, Bucky. I didn't forget about you." he whispered close to the displaced assassin, pressing his weight cautiously against Bucky's side.

Bucky frowned, turning his head over his shoulder. He sighed with a disdained pitch ghosting over his tight lips and looked down at Danny's humble eyes meeting his dagger like blue embers burning with intensity underneath tresses of hair swathed over his temples. Panic gurgled in his mouth, unrestrained and timid, "Danny I..." he closed up his voice, and hung his head low, clenching his metal fist. His clamped his eyelids shut, blocking out the sunlight from his swimming vision.

Haunting images of faces sprawl behind his lids like filaments of weaved webs. Images of lifeless chains chained to metal poles outside a warehouse, each head of the victim penetrated a black dot in the forehead caused for his sniper scoped rifle. Blood oozing from Kevlar vest of Russian operatives lying on the floor. Shapes of men lying flat on shards of glass with marks of strangulation etched on their blue tinged necks. Screams of children wafting in falling snow and the stench of crackling embers saturating the cold air with thick smoke. Rose petals floating in puddles of murky red, with ripples formed by departed tears of heart ache and cold remorse.

His mind was damaged; memories twisting like tampered and frayed wires and electronic shock waves jolted in his skull. Blood was running cold, heart thudded against his chest and tears leaked under his lashes. He withdrew an alarming step back, shaking his head, and reopened his eyes, glaring out the window with threatening glower; his blue eyes became flares of molten steel and teeth gnashed. When he heard Steve's sluggish foot patterns echo in his ear; he raised his arm, stopping the super-soldier with a pleading expression twisting over his face.

"Get Danny away from me," he snarled menacingly at Steve, knowing that he was fighting to contain the raging beast of HYDRA inside his vessel of flesh and blood. "I don't want to hurt him, Steve."

"Danny?" Steve called out in a gentle voice, Danny backed away from Bucky with confusion written on his face. "Everything is going to be alright, son," he soothed, and rested his warm hand on the boy's shoulder, and gripped it firmly, "Bucky is just going through something right now, he is fighting like you are, Danny."

"Will he be okay?" Danny asked, swallowing as he stared up, and watched the face of his friend morph into a dangerous and monstrous semblance. He started back away slowly, but then froze when he noticed tears rolling down Bucky's sharpened cheekbones. "Bucky?" he asked weakly as he blinked and stared at the man in front of him shift into a thrashing and violent monster. His heart dropped into the pit of his stomach, and looked back at Steve with glistening eyes. "What's happening to him?"

Steve took Danny aside, and conveyed him closer to the bed; he didn't know how to explain to the details of Bucky's dehumanized, tortured and inhumane past. He sighed out a heavy breath, "Bucky isn't well, Danny," he whispered down to the boy. "Some bad people in his past did things that made him become a monster," He shielded his broad arms over Danny's frail chest, interlocking him into a safe hold. He knew that Bucky was fighting his Winter Soldier programming, but he had to keep Danny out of harm's way. Calling a nurse wasn't an option; he couldn't risk the safety of the lives in the hospital, not when the lethal, master assassin was having a melting down. He had to keep calm, and protect the boy. "He's trying to break free, Danny. He's trying to become a human again."

"Bucky is not a monster, Captain Rogers...He's my friend."

"He's my friend too, Danny," Steve replied in modest voice, moving closer to his propped up shield, he quickly swiped it from the bed frame, slid his free hand into the leather straps, and lowered his primacy defensive and offensive piece of weaponry just enough to form a barrier of the boy's chest. "Do you want to hold it with me, soldier?"

Silently, Danny nodded and he felt his small hand being placed under a strap, his knuckles grazed over the unadorned vibranium alloy. "Do you carry this with you all the time?" he asked rubbing the padding his fingers over the strap.

"It helps when I'm engaging dangerous conflict on the battlefield...Or on the freeway," Steve quipped back, intently watching Bucky storm into the bathroom, banging his left shoulder into the wall before the door slammed behind him. Lowering his shield down to the floor, Steve settled the boy gently on the edge of the bed. He cringed as the ear shattering cries wafting throughout out the room, the anguish of destructive and riving soul. He held his hand into a fist as his lashes sweep against skin, and eyes closed enough to leave traces of his pain undetectable in the pools of shimmering azure before he added, "Sometimes it even saves lives...Even the ones who don't want to be saved."

Danny was crying. Not because of his illness, but for Bucky.

"I want him to be okay!" he blurted.

"He will be, Danny," Steve promised in a pacifying voice, kneeling down on one knee, and he stroked his finger under the boy's eyes, collecting the salt encased tears, and wiping off his temples. "I want you to do something for me. I want you to be brave no matter how scary things be, never lose hope in yourself and in the people you care about," He narrowed his eyes down at his shield, looking at the silver star in the middle of the red and white rings. Then, he eased a tarnished chain off his neck, placing it over Danny's small head, easing it over the baseball cap. "I want you to hold on to these for a while, but be careful; they're old just like me."

Lowering his teary eyes, Danny stared, just stared at the metal plated dog tags with Steve's full name and rank number polished with age, "These are your dog tags from the war?"

"That's right," Steve nodded in return, giving him a tenderhearted smile, looking deeply into the boy's eyes, suddenly they were interrupted by a frizzled, middle-aged nurse standing in the doorway with a worried look shrouding over his pudgy face. "Madam," he acknowledged her presence with a curt of a nod.

"Danny," she called out, instantly the boy whipped his head around to meet her concerned stare. "What are you doing out of your room? You know it's not good for you condition."

Steve gave him a wink, and then he settled his virtuous crystal blue eyes on the older woman. "It's my fault, Madam. Danny wanted to see me, and I received clearance from another nurse for him to pay me a small visit. I was going to bring him back to the children's ward." he halted in his words, raking his hand over his golden locks, "I guess I lost track of time."

"This young boy has a terminal condition. We have staff monitoring him every hour." she explained with an empathetic voice ragging up her throat. "He is not allowed to roam the hallways, if you want to see him again, Steven Rogers, then you visit him in his room under my clearance." She held out her hand and spoke to the boy in a firm voice, "Come on, Danny,"

'Just a second, Martha," Danny replied back, he wrapped his small arms over the muscular span of Steve's ample shoulder and whispered, "Thank you, Captain Rogers."

"No, Danny," Steve countered back, resting his chin on Danny's jutting shoulder, knowing because of this humble and little boy he was gradually getting his best friend, James Barnes restored back. "Thank you."

He helped his little friend to his feet, and Danny lumbered back to the doorway, turned and looked at the bathroom door, "Tell, Bucky that his friend Danny Richards will see him soon," he said, taking the nurse's hand and walked out of the room, fiddling with the dog tags as proud smile beamed across his thinned face.

A/N: A monster sized thank you to all the readers who reviewed, put this story on their favorite list and followed. Thank you guys, so much. I have a lot more planned out for this story, don't worry Danny will live.