Chapter 32 (corrected in word July 12)
"They've got him, he'll be alright." Felicity assured Steve, squeezing his hand. She and Tony had come back to the Arrow Cave as soon as they'd gotten word that Bucky had been found. Steve's childhood friend was still unconscious as Bruce hovered between the stretcher they'd laid him on and the readings on the computer he was working on. Bucky almost regained consciousness a couple of times but between Bruce and Sara, they were slowly figuring out how much of her pit viper venom would keep him under consistently.
Tony and Bruce were talking back and forth between the readings on the screen as test results came through. Sara and Roy were busying themselves on the computers, but Felicity wasn't fooled. She was fairly sure that Oliver had asked them to stay and keep an eye on things. Sara was the one that understood the venom that kept Bucky under and Roy had enough strength to hopefully prove useful if the former assassin woke up and couldn't be controlled. Felicity said a silent prayer that neither of those options would be needed. She wasn't sure what Steve would do if they couldn't help his friend.
"I can't lose him again," Steve's quiet words were a testament to just how affected he was. It was everything Felicity could do to keep him at her side and give the others room to work. Bruce had already told them how bad the situation was from a medical standpoint. Bucky Barnes' body was shutting down. He had a cocktail of drugs in his system and his pain level was off the charts. It was a wonder he was alive at all. They just couldn't figure out how the drugs levels were so high and weren't coming down despite the time he'd been on the stretcher with IV's running full bore through him.
Steve was almost vibrating with energy and restlessness. He was usually so stoic and steady, it was hard to see him so out of sorts. Felicity gripped his arm and squeezed, trying to give him comfort. He looked so helpless, so young. "You won't lose him," she assured him, praying her words were true. "They will take care of him. You said yourself that Bruce was the best with how the serum works." Steve's eyes focused on her for a moment and his face softened.
"Thank you," was all he said, but he squeezed her hand where it still lay on his arm and smiled at her. When he would have turned back to his friend, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled his head to her shoulder. Steve relaxed a little as she held him to her and scratched lightly at his scalp. She was sure his eyes were still locked to his friend, but at least he accepted some comfort.
She wished that he'd let her treat his wounds, but Steve had refused. Felicity had started to push Steve into accepting help until Oliver had quietly stepped in. Steve would heal. She could see it already beginning, but she wanted to be able to do something for him.
"Smoak," Tony called from the table where he was working on Bucky's arm. "I need you and any fine computer circuit tools that you have lying around here"
She stepped out of Steve's embrace but he held her back. "Be careful, Felicity," he warned.
"I have her, Steve," Tony assured with a quick glance up. Surprisingly there was nothing but sincerity in Tony's voice. Steve released her hand though he didn't look convinced. He'd been staying out of the way since Bruce had gently pushed him aside and told him to wait over by the desk. Now he hooked a chair with his foot, spun it toward him and took up a place at Bucky's head. Tony gave him a raised eyebrow but no one commented.
As Felicity got a look at the area Tony was working on, she had to catch herself from gasping. The tangle of wires and flesh melded together in what made up Bucky Barnes' arm was horrifying. There was a stump of bone showing through the tangle inside the metal of his arm. Clamps and wires started there and made their way through the man's flesh binding man and machine. "Holy assimilation," she whispered, gaining a smirk from Tony.
She focused on what she was seeing. The skin around the connections was angry and red inside the plated metal arm that Tony had laid open. The scar tissue on the outside looked healed; it was as if the arm had started to degrade from the inside out.
Tony glanced at the tools she'd brought to him. He selected a small screwdriver. "I'm going to need your help," he pulled aside a bit of wire and fished into the flesh. The squelching noises made Felicity's stomach turned. "See this yellow section of wire?" he pointed out.
"That part that is next to the…" she questioned, only to be cut off.
"Yes," Tony's voice stopped what she had been about to say. He glanced at Steve. Felicity caught on. What was inside the arm was bad. Steve didn't need to be made more aware of the abuse his friend had suffered than he already was.
The yellow section of wire looked like it was sitting next to some kind of trigger. The little device was pressed up beside the exposed bone. After her experience with the bombs in the undertaking, Felicity had studied up on different types and their workings. She wasn't an expert by any means, but she could apparently correctly recognize a trigger. She'd always been good in a crisis, especially if she just focused on the mechanisms and not the flesh and blood man. They were trying not to worry Steve any more than what he already was.
Felicity could get behind that thought. If Steve realized that his friend was carrying some kind of anti tampering explosive device, he would not be happy with her being there. He'd be torn between worry for all of them and his friend. Felicity needed to be there, it was obvious that Tony needed more than his own set of hands. They didn't have the time to argue. She glanced over at Steve. Bruce was talking in low tones to him. He was probably telling him how bad things were from a medical perspective by the look on Steve's face.
"What do you need me to do?" she asked, pushing down her own feelings. She needed to be clear headed. Tony nodded his approval.
"As far as Bruce and I can tell, Barnes is being pumped full of a cocktail of drugs." Damn, talk about paranoia. His captors were determined that even if he got away from them he wouldn't live long to enjoy the freedom.. "It's got his system so whacked out I'm surprised the man is still alive. Bruce's job is to keep him breathing, hopefully. Our job is to stop the drugs that his arm is pumping into his system. This is in our way so we're going to get that little bugger out and see what's underneath. Might get a bit dicey."
Tony caught her eye and glanced meaningfully at the trigger mechanism and the mechanisms that it blocked them from getting to. "You good with this Smoak?" She couldn't believe HYDRA had booby-trapped the inside of Bucky Barnes' arm. Hydra didn't want anyone messing with their asset. The whole thing was seriously messed up and this poor guy didn't ask for it any more than Roy had asked for what happened to him. Of course she was in.
At her nod, Tony smiled slightly, and then turned serious again. "Think you can be my steady hand and keep this little puppy from touching anything else while I remove the wires and disconnect it from the system?" Tony was already clearing himself space inside the metal arm. He'd removed most of the plating and a few other parts that she didn't recognize.
"I can do that," She told him taking the long tweezer type clamp from him and carefully placing them on the part in question. "I always won Operation when I was a kid." Tony snorted. Blood that had collected on the mechanism oozed out around the edge of the tweezers as she squeezed gently. She held in a grimace for what was done to this man.
"You Okay, Felicity?" Steve asked her softly. She wasn't surprised that some of what she was feeling was showing on her face, but Felicity didn't risk a glance at him. She had all of their lives in her hands at the moment. It was a testament to how distracted Steve was that he hadn't questioned exactly what was causing her tenseness or caught onto the fact that Tony and she were both protecting him from being aware that his friend was not only in danger, but putting them all at risk as well.
"No talking or distracting the girl with the touchy peace of tech in her hand," Tony corrected. Felicity expected Steve to question, but he must have taken Tony by his word and didn't say anything. Tony continued to work until she felt the little trigger in her hand come free. At a quick nod from him she pulled the mechanism free, finally releasing a breath.
"And there it is," Tony announced. Felicity laid the trigger aside on the stainless steel pan next to her and looked back at the same time Steve stood to look. Tony was carefully removing two metal clamps. The arm popped off with a sickening squelch. The man on the table moaned and twisted away slightly but didn't stir other than that. Steve had his hands on his friend's shoulders, talking quietly to him. Sara stepped forward, but when Bucky didn't move anymore she relaxed.
Tony reached in to disconnect the last set of wires. When he removed the arm, what was left was horrifying. "Why isn't it healed more," Steve asked his voice stricken. "Buck's had the arm for more than 70 years, why does it look like a badly healing fresh wound?"
"I'm not sure, but I'd say it is the chemicals being released into his body through the arm." Bruce answered, laying a comforting hand on Steve's back as he moved around to Bucky's shoulder and began cleaning the wound. "It was probably healed long ago, but with the cocktail being pumped into his system, the area has started to fester. Now that there isn't anything harmful being pumped into his system, we can treat him."
"I'm sure that's what it is," Tony agreed. "I don't know exactly what everything does, but according to what Jarvis and I've been pulling up out of the arm's diagnostic system and what I've seen as we opened him up, it's a failsafe. When the arm isn't in statist, which I'm guessing means when Barnes isn't frozen, it has to have regular maintenance."
Tony turned the arm so they could see some of the inside. "There's a reset sequence that if it isn't activated at specific intervals will slowly start to flood Barnes' body with toxins as well as induce pain and delusion. There were very small chambers in the arm that were almost empty." He started turning the prosthetic arm, studying it as he spoke.
Tony turned toward them and clicked a plate closed on the arm. "The guy didn't have a chance. Probably within a week or so after the helicarriers, his arm started flooding him with so much of the drug mixture it's amazing he didn't kill everyone he came in contact with or drop dead himself. It would have kept getting worse, the more that was pumped into him and the more time that passed. I'm surprised he had the ability or will to keep going after the Hydra bastards that did this to him."
"Hydra must have hoped the pain would send him back to them," Steve said, his hand resting on his friend's shoulder.
"And if it didn't, they wanted him dead," Bruce agreed, "I think they underestimated the effects of the serum. It appears to be a less effective form of what was given to you, Steve, but it is protecting him. As it is, without intervention he was only a few days from his organs shutting down."
There was silence in the room. No one seemed to know what to say. Tony was the first to find his voice. "Don't let him wake up Alibaba," Tony said, looking over at Sara. She just nodded, didn't even comment on his name for her. Even her face was pale at the site of what Bucky Barnes had been living with. "I'll be back in 24 hours, 48 tops."
"What are you going to do?" Steve asked, his voice barely betraying his emotions.
"The way this is set up, him not having his arm, on is going to be painful to say the least. Those wires that are just lying out there are connected into his nerves. He will be in excruciating pain until he has an arm giving feedback to those wires. And before you ask, no, I can't just pull out the kills switch and slap it back on. Take my word for it. I'll get this to my workshop and get back before you know it."
"Thank you, Tony," Steve said. "Is there anything you need?"
"Just time," Tony replied. "I'll get suited up and get back to New York. Hold down the fort." He stopped on his way up the stairs. "Come to think of it, there are some papers that Pep is sending for Queen. I need him to sign those and get them back to her right away if we're going to get things in motion before the next QC board meeting."
"I'll take care of it," Felicity volunteered. She'd been helping get QC records together for Tony and Pepper, she knew what was needed. The trust Tony placed in her felt good. It had been a while since she'd felt as needed or trusted in business as she'd been under Tony's direction. It felt good to be moving toward a goal with strong direction. Tony and Pepper were both strong willed and sure of themselves. If Oliver listened to Pepper Potts training after SI became QC's parent company, he could learn to be an amazing CO.
Bruce looked over at Felicity. "I'm assuming you need Steve to drive you to do whatever it is that Tony needs?" Wow, so he wanted Steve out of the way. She wondered if it was going to get messier fixing Bucky than the doctor thought Steve should deal with.
"I can't leave him," Steve started to say.
"We've got him, Steve," Bruce was already breaking in. "Sara can keep him under until you get back. I need to get him cleaned up. Honestly, I'd rather not have you here for that."
"Bruce," Steve started. This wasn't going to go well, Felicity decided.
"I do need to go take care of what Tony needs and no doctor wants family over their shoulder while they clean a wound." She pointed out, holding his arm to pull his attention back to her. "He's not going to wake up while we're gone. Sara has this." Felicity looked over at the other blond woman.
"I have enough to keep him under for quite some time, now that Doc has an idea how long each dose will last." Sara pointed out. She was being uncharacteristically quiet up until now. "The league treats even its enemies better than Hydra has treated this man. We'll take care of him until you get back."
"Thank you," Steve answered finally, turning his attention on Sara. Sara nodded, her eyes had lost some of their hardness as they'd rested on his face. Dropping her head, she moved near the table to watch Bruce work.
"I better get back upstairs and hold down the fort for Thea, like I promised," Roy declared from the other side of the room. "I'm just upstairs if anyone needs me."
Steve nodded to Roy and thanked him for his help as well. Felicity heart broke for him. He was holding himself together and taking care of everyone, but it had to be tearing him up inside to see his friend like this.
"I've got your friend, Steve," Bruce told him, turning to rest a hand on his shoulder. "We'll take care of Bucky until you get back. Between Sara and me we'll keep him under, get his wounds clean and work on getting Hydra's drugs out of his system. It's better for him to be asleep right now. Nothing you can do for him and frankly, Felicity's right. I would prefer you not be over my shoulder as I clean these wounds and figure out what we're working with." Steve was still hesitating. It was obvious he didn't want to leave Bucky's side. Bruce just waited him out. Finally he nodded, turning back to Felicity.
"You have some paperwork to pick up?" She didn't need to be asked twice. She would keep him distracted for as long as she could. The more time they had to fix his friend up without Steve having to watch the process the better.