"Why does my arm itch so much?", Bucky asked as Mole took a deep breath. "Bucky, stay calm... but I'm afraid you've lost your right arm below your elbow... nothing could've been done for that one even if we got you to the best medics within a second.", Mole admitted as Bucky groaned again.
"Damn it...", Bucky slowly opened his eyes to look at it. "Fuck...", he cursed in a low tone. "Fate really wanted me to lose this thing...", he was obviously referring to his wounds back during the Vogues mission.
Mole replied, "Aye...I suppose Jacques had delayed it really long enough by saving you back there which you should be grateful for, otherwise you wouldn't have met Audrey then.", with a fond chuckle.
Bucky gasped, "Audrey!", suddenly remembering the mission, and how he really tried to reach to Steve and vice versa, and that he thought he was going to die, but there were flashes and such as he recalled the horrifying endless and painful fall while feeling a strange new feeling of being protected and seeing Audrey's beautiful smile from their first time of being as one in his memory, and got up before yelping in pain, falling back before Mole caught him in time, feeling the pain of his crushed hand on the left and the sprained leg.
"Easy, Bucky! I've been dragging you on the toboggan all this time after I found you bleeding and all...You had hypothermia and a fever on the first whole night before it was gone.", Mole reprimanded.
Bucky panted, gritting his jaw, looking around, and blinked, "A-are we underground?", and Mole nodded, "Yep! Figured tunneling is safer than being top and being caught by a patrol, and we're almost home to France, to the airport base.", with a smile.
"Allied or German occupied?", Bucky raised an eyebrow as Mole bit his lip. That was a good point, who knows what may have happened in the past couple of days, a German offensive in the area might have happened, maybe HYDRA retaliated for their losses, nothing was certain at that moment. But either way, that was where they were going.
Mole replied, "Either way, you know our friends would do anything to push the offensive away, and besides, you have been away long enough as I dragged you through the Alps for almost a week now.".
Bucky nodded, "Fair enough...Any sort of breakfast for me? If I'm going to watch your back when we resurface, I need to warn you.", and Mole replied, "I've been really quick in resurfacing from the tunnels as I ain't stupid to have them exposed in open land, hidden in forests and such, and as for breakfast, I only got edible Spam, unless you want me to get a squirrel or something, though I kept grabbing fresh water from hidden spots of springs, in the canteen.".
With a groan, "Fine, I'll take the Spam.", Bucky replied, and Mole smiled, taking up the steaming can of Spam from the side of the fire, and replied, "And I promise I won't speak of this part, deal?".
Bucky nodded roughly, "Thanks.", before Mole went to feed him the Spam with a carved spoon, with Bucky glancing around again, "Let me guess, there's a tiny tipi of leaves hiding the air hole with the smoke.".
"Yep.", Mole nodded, and so, they were in silence, eating and listening, and after giving him some water to wash it down and give him a bit of cooling relief from having dry lips, Mole then got ready with the harness, with Bucky to the toboggan, "Ready?", while smashing the fire out, and kicked some surface dirt over it.
Bucky replied, "As much as I'll be.", before Mole smiled at him, and then went to dig onto more tunneling, dragging the toboggan, pulling and grunting, and Bucky was stunned at the strength and determination of his friend while behaving like a literal mole. He knew Mole had built up bulk among his unique short stature thanks to digging in various places and all, but dang.
"How are you feeling right now?", Mole asked Bucky since he had to know just in case anything quickly changed. "Like hell... everything practically hurts...", Bucky admitted. "The sheer fact that I feel fine in the head is probably a damn miracle.".
Mole replied, "Good thing that you had the crystal, eh?", with a chuckle as he focused on his digging, and Bucky chuckled, "Yeah...I'm really glad that Audrey drilled it into my head how to be good to the crystal because of the Great Kings thing and all...Funny, I don't really remember much, but I felt like I was protected...".
"I guess those crystals really are durable, alright...Good thing I used my crystal to get to the superficial injuries and serious cuts you had...You looked like hell, Bucky...To hear that you still hurt...Must be really sore inside, huh?", Mole replied.
Bucky snorted, "More than you'd know, Mole. So, how far do you think?", and Mole replied, "I am really confident that we'll get there before lunch, so not really far! Hmm, I can practically smell the caviar, and the escargot...Heck, maybe I'd be lucky this time to finally be approached by a really pretty and lovely French dame, after hearing that I saved a Sergeant, eh, Bucky?".
"Yeah, keep dreaming...", Bucky chuckled. "Maybe you'd have some luck if you actually washed once in a while.", he teased as Mole zipped it. "Look, just leave me behind here for the time being so you can check things out...", he suggested.
Mole replied, "No, I ain't leaving ya. And besides, Audrey would kill me if I ever did intentionally leave you more than necessary, and I did all week, and now, you're talking and alive. And I ain't going to be out all the way of the tunnel until I know it's safe.", as he dug carefully to the surface, using his gear to peer around the tunnel hole like a literal mole, listening and sniffing and watching, finding a familiar route marker before ducking down.
"Good, we're on the right track.", Mole replied before digging the hole back up and went to keep tunneling, dragging the toboggan, stopping every half hour to help Bucky drink water and such after drinking some of the water himself, and so, after about three hours by Bucky's estimation, Mole carefully resurfaced in a dense meadow within a glade of trees, peering around before grinning lightly as he saw the last mountain of the Alps behind them by some miles, and he can see the faint border line that's guarded by two familiar flags.
"I see the French flag, and the American flag!", Mole replied excitedly, "Almost home!", as he tugged the toboggan out of the tunnel, and Bucky chuckled, "Music to my ears. I hope Audrey's doing okay...She must be wrecked out of her mind for me.".
Mole replied, "Don't worry, she will be over the moon when she gets to smooch you up that she won't care what you look like for a bit.", with a grin, "Let's not wait for lunch then. Rather not want the border guards to think that I'm a spy if I tunnel up to them.", before starting to move, walking down with a grunt, pulling the toboggan, heading through the glade, straightforward for the border that he estimated within a mile which he can happily do as it's nothing to him.
Bucky took into the fresh air, smiling as he listened to the birds chirping, feeling the warmth of the sun, seeing the beautiful blue sky and the lively trees gently blowing in the wind, and seeing the glint of metal behind one of the trees, wait, metal?!
"Mole, cover! Gun!", Bucky screamed, warning Mole as his heart raced. Not now, no, no, just as they were so close! He survived a damn fall, and he's going to be killed like a helpless animal!
Shots cracked and rang out as Mole and Bucky took cover. "Damn it all...", Bucky cursed. "Of all the places... we just happened to run into a German scout patrol... please tell me it's just scouts...". He looked to Mole, who could probably better tell with how connected he was with the earth.
Mole tried to focus despite the sound of bullets hitting the boulder they took cover behind, his hands and boots touching the earth, "3 scouts.", before taking out a grenade, "Last one I got.", taking a deep breath.
He took three rocks, and judged every scout's location, determined to get them closer so he can throw the grenade to get the scouts together, like two birds, one stone, or in this case, three scouts and a grenade.
He used his gear to peer over the boulder, and threw the rocks, feeling the scouts' footsteps getting closer and closer between each throw, shooting over the boulder, and then knew the right moment, and pulled the pin, throwing the grenade as he appeared, and grunted as a shot landed into him, ducking back.
"Get your head down, Bucky!", Mole shouted, covering his head, as Bucky used his bandaged left hand to cover his head when the grenade exploded, the shrapnel killing the scouts.
There was silence for a few moments; no sounds of footsteps or any cries of pain from the scouts, so the grenade seemed to have killed all three of them almost instantly. "Hey... I think you got them, Mole...", Bucky panted. No response from Mole.
"Mole?", Bucky turned to look at where Mole was. Bucky crawled over to where Mole was panting. "You alright?", he asked.
"Y-Yeah...", Mole said. "Just... too close for comfort there...", he told him as Bucky nodded. "Yeah, like I said, just our luck that we happened to run into a patrol. At least though that's certainly a sign that we're really close to the frontlines... and that we probably just slipped right through the German front.", Bucky chuckled.
"No man's land...", Mole whispered as Bucky nodded. "Yeah, well, doesn't look like the ones from the last one, no mines, barbed wire, fields of mud... come on, let's move, we're almost there.", Bucky groaned as he tried to help himself back up.
Mole replied, "Don't, Bucky. Your sprained leg ain't helping matters. I got this.", before rigging the harness again, and Bucky sighed, "Alright.", as he held on to the toboggan once more, secured, and so they moved on, a bit faster yet steady, watching around.
Mole can feel the pain in one of his lungs, gritting his teeth as he can feel the rib just getting a bit looser with every movement from the bullet, and he knew he's dying, but come hell or high water, he's going to get Bucky home to Audrey, and he's going to die with dignity in his homeland as he always wanted...
They heard the border guards soon as they made it to the border of France, "Who comes here?!", and Bucky called out, "Sergeant Barnes, Ranger, aided by Digger Mole, of the Howling Commandos!".
Gasps and shocked shouts call out, "Open the gate! Get a truck!", as the gate opened, and Mole grunted, pulling the toboggan, smiling as he made it into France, "Come on, help them into the truck! We heard an explosion a mile off, was that you?".
"Grenade at German scouts.", Bucky grunted as his toboggan sled moved into the truck bed, with Mole gritting his teeth as he climbed up, sitting on the truck seats, and one of the guards jammed on the window of the driver cab, "Hospital at base, quick! And radio Dr. Sweet!".
They started moving as Bucky took a deep sigh. "Well, at least we're safe now...", he told Mole. "Still, war's probably over for me now; doubt they'll let me serve while missing an arm...".
Mole whispered, "I think there's a way to give you a chance again.", pointing to their crystals with a nod, and Bucky looked at Mole, "You think so?".
Mole gave a small smile, "The things I saw, I have no doubt that they would have something to help you out.", and Bucky felt a bit better by hearing that, but knows that he will be much better if he knew that Audrey is safe and good.
Mole can feel the pain decreasing the capacity of his lung, getting to the point of not being able to take a deep breath, and even with the other lung normal, he can feel internal bleeding, and the rib really grinding against each edge of bone in the rib.
He is determined to make sure that Bucky gets to reunite with Audrey that he'd be willing to delay his death as much as he could, hoping that while he was gone in the Alps, that Audrey had stayed back with Sweet, as he hadn't known the last orders of the timeline of recovering Bucky.
"Maybe...", Bucky said, in regard to what Mole just suggested. "Sort of about time I should go, in a way.", he chuckled as they hit a small bump and he then groaned from the injuries.
Mole winced, gritting his teeth, and held onto the seat, hoping that Sweet heard everything. Meanwhile, about 10 miles off, through the truck is going fast, the small Allied airport base is busy and such.
Sweet had finished up a patient who had gotten cut while training, replying, "There, you should be good for a year or two.", as he did a tetanus shot on the patient, and bandaged his arm, mildly healing the bandages with the crystal to seal the cut into a healed, slight scar, to be less suspicious and less quick than normal, considering that they are in a hospital tent within deep of the base.
"Thanks, Dr. Sweet!", the soldier nodded, smiling, "Can I still eat at the mess hall?", and Sweet nodded, "Yep. Drink more water and food than usual. It'd make up for the blood loss of that cut.".
The soldier saluted, "Yes, sir!", before leaving for the mess hall, hungry for lunch, and Sweet chuckled, cleaning up some things, humming before he heard Audrey's voice, "Hey, Sweet..".
Sweet looked up, and smiled gently, "Hello, Audrey...Just cleaning up, and heading over to mess hall. How are you feeling?", as Audrey truly didn't look like herself, having not put 100% in her job, though she really tries, and she has been avoiding mess hall because she couldn't handle the crowd or the looks, and has been eating with Sweet if he's too busy to go to mess hall at times.
"Sad and hurt and scared and angry...Today is the last day...the due date to recover...Bucky...I know I can't ask Phillips to prolong this as it's...there's more important things to do for the soldiers, and a single man's recovery...", Audrey replied with tears in her eyes.
"And still no word from Mole... for all we know, he might still be looking.", Sweet shook his head. "I'm sorry, Audrey... Maybe none of this would've happened if I was little bit more careful... Bucky only was in that situation because I got wounded. If I was fine, he probably would've taken cover somewhere else...".
Audrey looked at him, "Sweet, it wasn't your fault, and besides, any of you didn't expect there to be a second wave of Hydra gunners like that when you thought you had the first wave down and out for good...I'm still wanting to put a bullet in that Zola bastard, but if Phillips is interrogating him really through, I'll take it because Phillips is damn good at interrogation and trials...", more than grateful that the men who harmed her that day when Bucky saved her, was dishonored, punished with community service, and excluded from any related service jobs, and shipped back in shame to the good and old USA, thanks to Phillips.
"Hopefully what Bucky sacrificed for will bring an end to this war soon.", Sweet sighed. "Yeah... hopefully...", Audrey rubbed her arm as she sniffled.
Sweet was about to offer grabbing lunch for the both of them when the hospital radio called out, "Calling for Dr. Sweet. Calling for Dr. Sweet.", and Sweet immediately went to the desk with the hospital radio, picking up the radio communication speaker, "Dr. Sweet here. Giving permission to report.".
"Picked up emergency from border gate. Patient is Seregant Barnes, accompanied by Digger Mole who brought him by toboggan.", the voice said.
"Wh-? Wait, would you repeat that? Did you say patient?", Sweet stammered as the voice responded, "Yes; still alive but in pretty terrible shape...".
"Where are they?!", Sweet shouted. "Coming your way right now, should be a few minutes.", the voice reported.
Sweet replied, "Roger that! Prepping now!", as he put the speaker on the desk, running to grab everything from the medicine table cabinet, "Audrey, get hot water and towels!", before looking at her who was stunned, tears falling, sobbing quietly, "Am I dreaming?".
"Nope! Now get hot water and towels from the back, stat!", Sweet shouted, and Audrey replied, nodding, "Yes, yes!", running immediately to the back of the tent where the bathroom is.
It was a practically a frantic effort as they rushed to get things prepped. The unfortunate thing for Sweet was that they didn't exactly tell him what Bucky's injuries were so he couldn't try to narrow down what he would need.
But luckily, he had everything on prep and on hand as Audrey returned with a bowl of hot water and towels, so it couldn't be too hard to see what happened to Bucky, though he has a feeling that Mole had healed some things during the recovery, if only superficially and such.
And so, after two minutes, the sound of the truck was heard, with the back opening up, with the back guards carrying the toboggan, "Dr. Sweet!", and Sweet shouted, "Bed Three!", as he went to them.