Chapter 13
By: MysticFantasy
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Natasha kept her eyes on the man before her as he continued to dream. His face and breathing were indicating that he was not having a good dream.
She wanted to try to wake him up to end his silent suffering but something was telling her to just leave him be. Maybe it was something telling her that he needed to have this dream in order to be able to better handle the situation that was going on.
"Bucky..." Steve whispered as his head moved to the side. "I di...I didn't mean..."
That's it. He's going through too much. Natasha declared as she sat on the edge of the bed and shook his shoulders.
"Steve? Steve. Wake up!" she said. "Please wake up. You're having a bad dream."
With a small gasp, Steve's eyes shot open and he looked around frantically.
"Steve. Steve, it's ok." Natasha said as she placed her hands on the side of his head to keep him still and to look directly at her. "It's ok. You're safe."
"Natasha." Steve gasped.
"It's me, Steve." she confirmed.
Steve sighed and relaxed back into the pillows as he lightly panted.
"Are you alright?"
"I had a dream about the mission where Bucky fell from the train." Steve answered. "When I wasn't able to get to him in time. I watched him fall. I thought for sure that he was gone. I was haunted by it all this time."
"Seeing him again, alive and well, must have caused you to suffer some mental and emotional shock." Natasha figured as she held onto his hand to let him know that she was right there with him.
"I guess so." Steve agreed. "All of the guilt and pain I felt when I saw him fall...It was the biggest pain I've ever felt in my life. Even after waking up from the ice, loosing Bucky was still the worst pain I ever felt. Seeing him alive...It really shook me up. I admit even I thought I was going crazy."
"You weren't going crazy." Natasha said, holding his hand comfortingly. "I admit that it must have been a confusing time for you. I don't think anyone would have handled seeing someone they thought was dead very well. But...what are you going to do when you see him again?"
"I don't know." Steve answered honestly. "I don't know."
"Well, we'll worry about that when it comes to it." Natasha said and gently caressed his cheek with her hand. "Right now you should try to rest as much as possible. You're going to be on bed rest until Bruce says that you're completely healed. But it should only be about a week or so."
"Alright. I don't think I could stay in bed more than a week." Steve said.
"Knowing you, Captain, I'd have to agree with that." Natasha said with a small smirk.
Steve lightly smirked as he held Natasha's hand. He was really glad that he was able to see her again. When he'd been lying in his safe house bleeding to death, he was scared that he would never see Natasha and his team again.
He thanked whoever was looking out for him that he was able to be here right now.
Natasha appearantly thought the same thing as she leaned down and placed her lips upon his. Steve eagerly returned her kiss with the same love she was showing him. He never wanted to leave her again.
He'd already been seperated from one woman he loved. He didn't want that to happen again.
They slowly parted and Natasha manuvered herself to be able to lie down next to the soldier. She placed her head on his shoulder, careful not to hurt any of his wounds. Steve was able to place an arm around her shoulders and held her close.
He knew that eventually he and Bucky would meet face to face again. It wouldn't be pretty and surely his once only friend would try to kill him again.
But Steve knew that he had to think of something to try to get through to James Barnes.
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Clint lightly knocked his head against the counter top repeatedly. Cursing himself for not having a better tactical mind.
He and the rest of the men had been trying to come up with a plan to capture the Winter Soldier when he made his next appearance but without Steve it seemed hopeless to come up with a good enough plan.
"Sir, Ms. Romanoff asked me to inform you that Captain Rogers has awakened." Jarvis announced.
"Is he still awake?" Tony asked.
"No, sir. Agent Romanoff has persuaded him to continue to rest. He has fallen asleep again." the AI answered.
"That's good." Bruce said. "Steve needs to rest if he wants to be off of bed rest any time soon."
"Especially if he wants to confront Barnes as badly as we all think he wants to." Tony said.
"It is a sad time when a friend betrays another in such a way." Thor said.
"It may not be his fault, Thor." Bruce said. "From everything that we know about Steve's past, there's a chance that Sergeant Barnes may be under some kind of mind control."
Clint lightly twitched at the mention of mind control.
"If he is, then is there a chance that the captain's friend will return to normal?" Thor asked.
"Maybe." Bruce answered. "It all depends on Barnes himself and what kind of control he was under."
"More than likely that it would have been something Hydra related." Clint said.
"If it was Hydra, then getting him out of that control won't be easy." Tony said. "We're definatly going to need Steve's help for this one. He could try to talk Barnes down long enough for us to get a hold of him and figure out what's going on."
"We'll just need to take extreme caution." Bruce added. "Apart from being the Winter Soldier, he's a world war two vet and was trained by Steve himself. Steve may be the only one who can take him since he'll know most of his moves."
"But we cannot allow Steven to fight on his own." Thor declared. "What if this Winter Soldier tries to hurt him again?!"
"We won't let Steve fight him alone." Tony said. "We'll be there to back him up in case he needs the help. But we know that he's going to want to try to handle it himself. We'll just be there as back up."
"I do not like this." Thor said.
"None of us do big guy." Clint said. "I just want all of this to be over with and Steve to be ok."
"I as well." Thor agreed.
"Still, when all of this is over and if get the mind control to wear off, how are we going to handle having another man from the past here?" Bruce wondered with a thoughtful expression.
"It'll be interesting. That's for sure." Clint said.
"Yeah." Tony agreed with a weak smirk. "Pretty soon we'll be hearing stories about how bread was a nickle and everyone had manners."
Bruce lightly chuckled. He'd asked Steve about what a few things were like when he'd been growing up. Steve didn't skip on any details and Bruce liked that. Just the small conversations he and Steve had about the past were informative about several things.
"Do you really think that SHIELD would let Barnes out of their sight so easily?" Clint asked curiously. "Even if we remove the mind control and he proves himself trustworthy, do you think that Fury would let him be around us after he nearly killed Steve?"
"That's a good question." Brue said. "We never know what Fury or the council are up to. Steve is going to want to prove that Barnes can be trusted but even his word will only count for so much."
"If Steven trusts him, then I will as well." Thor said.
"Me too." Clint agreed. "Cap's given me no reason to doubt him. So I won't do it now."
"Neither will I." Bruce said.
"Same here." Tony added.