Hey everybody, how's it going? Ready to have your hearts torn open again? I'm (mostly) joking, this is a less feels oriented chapter
Shoutout to Qweb for being the only reviewer worried about Natasha nearly dying, but I'll assure everyone that she's doing okay, and she isn't holding much of a grudge, she kinda saw this coming
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything, I just love them like they were my children
He didn't open his eyes right away. He concentrated on keeping his breath calm and even, like he was still sleeping. When he was satisfied with that, he focused on his surroundings, what he could feel and hear and smell.
There was soft breathing coming from the light familiar form in his lap. This was most likely a sleeping Wanda.
There were steady beeps and a clean chemical scent that meant he was still in medical.
There was a metal chair underneath him, confirming he had not been moved from where he and Wanda had sat down.
There was another scent, which smelled familiar but just slightly off due to the looming medical smell, paired with very faint short breathing that didn't sound human.
He opened his eyes to see the small animal lying on the bed in front of him, awake but clearly drowsy. Its front left leg was wrapped in plaster, and its body was wrapped in bandages.
It barked weakly and tried to extend its uninjured paw towards him, but it was too tired to move.
"I'm sorry small dog. I didn't... I never meant to hurt you. You were good, and I helped you. You helped me too. Now I've hurt you more... I'm sorry." He said to it quietly. It simply kept pawing at him limply, and he sighed. Sometimes he wondered if maybe it couldn't understand him.
Wanda made a stirring noise from her place in his lap and he looked down.
She looked up at him and blinked a little. "Morning." He nodded to her in reply, and she shifted and stretched a little. "Did you sleep well?"
He remembered nothing since when she had helped him go to sleep, so he assumed he had slept well. "I think so. What happened after I went to sleep?"
She sat up a little and reach to the small animal to rub its head, which it accepted drowsily. "The doctors scanned him, and they sedated him so they could keep him from making himself worse. He has a broken leg and two broken ribs, but they said it is all clean so he will heal fast."
He nodded a little. "Steve?"
"Steve came back after you fell asleep and arranged for you to stay here with small dog. He asked me about your nightmare, but I'm not allowed to look that far into your mind." He could tell she was trying to get permission, but he wasn't letting her.
"I won't have you hurt too. Don't look. You know what happened last time you tried, I won't let that happen again. At any rate, you shouldn't see this nightmare anyway." He pulled her into his arms a little and she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, still rubbing the small animal's head.
"I was in it, wasn't I?" She asked softly, and he slowly nodded. "Natasha too? And Clint?" There was a pause where he said nothing. "You tried to kill her Bucky. You said she and Clint hurt me. Nothing happened in training to trigger that, it had to have been your nightmare."
Sometimes he forgot she was as old as she was, and could figure these things out on her own.
"You were in my place in the chair. You were already screaming when it started. I was in a cage, I couldn't break it. I tried Wanda. I tried to get you out, but I couldn't break the cage. Then they arrived, and they started beating you, and I started breaking the cage. When I broke it I think I woke up. That's when..." He looked at the small animal and she understood.
"I'm okay Bucky. I promise, I'm not hurt. They've never tortured me. Clint stuck an arrow in my head once, but I was trying to make him relive his worst fear and I was working for a genocidal robot so I deserved it that time. He apologized later anyway." He nodded a little, she had told him about her role in the events surrounding Ultron before.
The small animal whined a little and twitched its paw at him, and Wanda looked up at him. "I think he wants you."
He shook his head. "I hurt it. I can't touch it now. I might hurt it again." He hoped he had made her understand.
He hadn't.
She took his hand gently, and he hesitantly let her. "Bucky, you won't. I know you. You love him more than anything. More than me, more than Steve, more than Steve loves Brooklyn. That is a very high bar to pass." She was trying to joke to lighten the mood a little, and he appreciated her effort, but no emotion got anywhere near showing itself on his face.
She guided his hand to the small animal, and his fingers twitched away a little when the small animal licked them, but as she took her hand away from his he reluctantly left his hand there, and after a moment let his fingers reached forwards and rubbed behind the small animal's ear. The small animal leaned into his hand and he relaxed a little.
"You never do fear me, do you small dog? Even after I hurt you, you still want me with you."
The small animal barked a little and nudged his hand, and he kept rubbing the small animal gently.
The door opened behind him and he kept his hand over the small animal protectively until he heard Steve's voice.
"Hey Bucky." Steve put a very light hand on his shoulder and Bucky did his best to relax. "How're you holding up?"
He considered, and lacked the words to really describe it. A part of him was still furious, both at Natasha and Clint and at himself, another was terrified for Wanda and the small animal, and yet another was simply tired and just wanted a break from things going wrong.
"Things will be okay." He said simply. It would pacify Steve for now, until he found a way to tell him what was going on in his head.
Steve leaned down a little to watch the small animal, and it pawed tiredly at his nose. "How's he holding up? Okay?"
Bucky let Wanda answer that, she had been awake with the small animal longer. "He is alright. The breaks are clean, the doctor said it will only be five weeks to recover. He is young and strong."
Steve nodded, and they sat in silence for a moment. Steve and Wanda were watching each other, he was watching them, and the small animal was watching Bucky.
"You should get out for a bit." Steve said to him softly. "He's gonna be here for a while, and I know you're probably gonna wanna stay with him tonight."
Bucky nodded to that point. "I don't want to leave the small dog."
"Did you ever give Wanda the stealing lessons you promised her?" Steve added.
He thought about it and slowly shook his head. "Do you want them?" He asked Wanda as he looked to her.
She slowly nodded, and he looked to the small animal. "Will you be alright here without me? Steve can stay with you to keep watch and make sure the doctors don't hurt you."
The small animal barked and pawed at his nose and he let it for a moment before looking back up at Steve.
"Will you stay with him? Just until I return?"
Steve paused. "I can, but we've got a team meeting, is it okay if it's here? I know you need me to stay with him, but we've gotta get together."
"Will Natasha and Clint be here?" He asked worriedly. Wanda put a hand on his arm to keep him steady.
"Yeah." Steve nodded.
"Do not let them touch him." He instructed Steve, and Steve nodded again.
"You have my word." He promised.
He leaned down to the small animal. "Take care of Steve for me small dog. He gets very involved in his work, and sometimes he needs someone to tell him to calm down. Okay?"
Steve made that odd choking noise again, and the small animal barked contentedly.
"We'll take care of each other. You go grab some food, teach Wanda how to be a master thief." Steve nudged him, and he got up with Wanda and left.
They went to the cafeteria for now, which was largely abandoned.
"Are we stealing first, or eating?" Wanda asked him.
He considered, and looked back into the kitchen, where there was only one person visible for the moment.
"Both."
He gave her some basic instruction and watched her sneak into the kitchen. She was doing fairly well, and he tossed her phone in his hand. He'd stolen it from her while he was considering theft or food.
She managed to come back with a box of cereal, two small bowls, and two individual cartons of chocolate milk. He held up her phone as she set them down and she looked to her pocket quickly.
"The first rule of being a good thief. Don't let your guard down." He handed her phone to her and she put it back in her pocket before sitting down.
They each made their own cereal bowls and started eating.
His mind went back to last night, and he started spiralling again in his familiar cycle of blame. Wanda must have noticed, because she looked up at him.
"What's the second rule?"
He looked up at her and blinked himself back to the present for a moment. He thought for a moment, and he was grateful that she accepted the time it took him to recover without any comments or undue staring.
"The second rule would be never do anything big. The bigger you act, the more likely you are to get caught. Steal small things, move as little as possible, stay casual in public, don't get noticed."
She nodded, and two people walked in. Bucky still wasn't entirely sure what this compound was, it was one of the things he had never gotten to asking Steve during his exile, but they were wearing the uniforms that most of the people here wore.
He noticed one of them had a pen in his front pocket and he nodded to them. "Try stealing that pen."
Wanda looked a little surprised. "That seems like a difficult target, shouldn't I start with easier ones?"
He stood up. "Watch."
He went up to them as calmly as he could manage.
They both looked up at him, and as luck would have it they didn't seem to recognize him. "Hey dude." One of them nodded to him.
He nodded back. "Hey. What's up?" He sat down at a reasonable distance from them both and leaned in a little to indicate he was part of the conversation.
"Not much, we just finished training. You?" His target asked.
He shrugged. "Just grabbing a bite to eat, figured I'd say hi."
"Cool talking to you." The other male said to him, and he stood as if to go get food.
"You too." He nodded and clapped his target's shoulder. When he was sure their eyes were on his face he slipped the pen into his palm with two fingers and walked away.
He came back to Wanda and slid the pen across the table to her.
"Just like that." He ate some more of his cereal as she picked up the pen and flicked it through her fingers. "It will work better for you when there isn't as much of a risk of being recognized. Anonymity is essential."
She nodded a little.
He taught her a few sleights of hand he had picked up on the streets, and they practiced on the pen until more people began arriving to eat their food and he started getting uncomfortable.
They went back to the medical place, and the entire team was gathered in chairs near the bed the small animal had been laid on. Natasha and Clint were furthest from it to his faint relief, and Steve and Doctor Banner's chairs were the ones next to the bed, and Tony in the middle of the two groups. Doctor Banner was rubbing the small animal's head distractedly, concentrating mostly on the meeting.
"Bucky, hey." Steve noticed him before he could eavesdrop much, and he walked in slowly. He walked around the circle of chairs to the other side of the small animal's bed, and it rolled over to face him with a small whimper.
He rubbed its head gently, and it burrowed into his hand. "How were you small dog?"
Doctor Banner answered for the small animal, presumably having been rubbing it for the duration of the meeting. "He was good. That's a pretty well behaved dog you have, most dogs don't really like me." The doctor seemed very shy, and Bucky remembered that about the last time he'd seen him, the first day arrived.
"Indeed, it is a very well behaved small dog." Bucky kept rubbing its head. "Did Clint or Natasha touch it?" He asked Steve, and he could feel some surprise from everyone assembled, but he kept his eyes firmly on Steve.
"No, I let them know." Steve assured him, and Bucky returned his gaze back to the small animal contentedly.
"Team meeting over?" Tony Stark asked, and they all nodded and stood. Natasha and Clint left, Steve and Tony migrated to a corner a little further away, and Doctor Banner turned to him and the small animal, mostly the small animal.
"You're a good little guy." He rubbed the small animal's head gently, and the small animal nuzzled the doctor's hand happily.
"I think it has grown used to fear. My memories... Most dogs I saw avoided humans who were afraid of them. The small dog tries to comfort instead." Bucky was surprised he was speaking at all, he certainly hadn't planned to.
The doctor simply accepted his outburst with a nod. "Am I that obvious?"
Bucky assumed he was speaking about the fear he could see, and nodded. "You do the things I do when I feel fear. Which I think is most of the time, to some degree."
The doctor watched him, and he could feel the analysis the doctor was performing, but it didn't feel as judgemental as when others did it.
"Steve told me you were a bit of a science nut back in the day?" His gaze returned to the small animal, and Bucky attempted the vague noise of confirmation he had heard some of the others give. "If you're having a good day, you can come by the lab. I spend most of my time in there."
Bucky could see the cautious peace offering, and he understood very clearly that there was an emphasis on "good day". The doctor was scared of him, but he was willing to put some of it aside, if Bucky accepted.
Bucky could see Wanda in the doorway and could tell she was listening in. It was just her nature, she was possibly more protective of him than he was of her.
He slowly nodded. "I think I would like that."
"You can bring him too, as long as he won't mess with the equipment." Doctor Banner nodded to the small animal, who nudged his hand looking for more affection.
Bucky smiled a little internally. "The small dog will behave, I assure you."
The doctor nodded, both in acknowledgement and farewell, and took his hand away to leave, and Wanda moved aside so he could pass through the door. Steve and Tony were finishing their conversation in the corner and Tony quickly caught up to Bruce and presumably took him to go do science.
Steve and Wanda came back over to him and sat down. Wanda filled Steve in on the events of her first thieving lesson, and Bucky sat down and rested his head on the bed to watch the small animal as he kept rubbing it gently.
He remembered slowly getting drowsier as the sun set, and he remembered saying good night to Wanda. He didn't remember his eyes closing and his head falling to one side next to the small animal in exhausted sleep.
Just so we're clear, I planned none of the interaction with everyone's favourite doctor, it just kind of happened and I liked where it went
I've got a couple options for next chapter working in the background, so as always feel free to let me know what you would like to see and I'll do my best
Here's a couple hints at what, or who, might be coming next: the android, the monster, prison break, the adopted brother
