The nightmares had begun almost immediately when Bucky returned, but they were only getting worse.
When sedatives failed to calm the screaming, Steve moved Bucky into his apartment where he could be close by. When the neighbors complained about the noise, he found a new place. Former SHIELD dormitories. It was a bit bleak and barracks-like, but soundproofed and reasonably comfortable.
Still, the nightmares continued. Even as Bucky's strength came back and his face lost its gaunt, unhealthy look, his mind remained fractured. Most nights, he would bolt upright in his bed, screaming, eyes wide, staring at something only he could see.
Sometimes just shaking him awake and breaking the dream's hold would be enough. Bucky would shiver with terror he refused to give name to and they would sit up for hours talking, until the adrenaline faded and he could lie down again. Steve got into the habit of telling him stories from their childhood. The ones nobody else remembered.
On what Steve had started to call 'the bad nights', Bucky would hallucinate and have to be restrained before he hurt himself or someone else. Steve started pretending to get into intensive sparring matches with The Hulk after 'the bad nights'. He needed to explain his injuries, when Bucky would finally snap out of it and ask what had happened. Bucky hated himself enough as it was.
The worst nights though, oddly, were the ones when Bucky was quiet.
Sometimes he would lay there for hours, near comatose, just staring emptily at nothing. He had passed entire nights this way, occasionally shuddering, and mouthing silent streams of incoherent muttering. He didn't even appear to notice when Steve tried to talk to him.
It was almost a relief sometimes, on these nights, when Bucky would abruptly snap upright from the delirium with an agonized scream, as if he were being electrocuted. His eyes would dart around the room like a hunted animal until he found Steve's face across the room in the darkness. It hurt to watch, but at least then it was Bucky; and not this empty shell that wore his best friend's face.
Nothing seemed to be helping.