The White Wolf's New Life

The White Wolf and The Fever

Steve wasn't a heavy sleeper. Decades of fighting have left him a light sleeper. He was only a deep sleeper is if he's a long, exhausted day. Yesterday was certainly one of those days. Bucky had been acting so strange. He was head tossing most of the day and shaking his head, like something was bothering him. Steve asked if he had a headache or something but Bucky only said his head hurts. Steve gave the last of the liquid ibuprofen and that didn't make a difference. The day ended with a near meltdown because Bucky was complaining about his head so much. He finally managed to calm down after he took his medication. But Steve had a gut feeling that there was something else going on.

He wasn't sure what woke him up tonight but he was steadily registering a noise. A whining noise. He was just barely to open his eyes when he heard screaming.

"Daddy!" Steve quickly jumped out of bed, spooking Chase and running to Bucky's room. He opened his door to see Bucky was screaming and cowering in the corner of his bed. Harley was licking his flesh arm.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm right here." The screaming stopped. Steve slowly hugged him. Bucky was trembling terribly, this had to have been a nightmare. "Hey, Bucky, what's going on?"

"Daddy. Daddy." He kept repeating it.

"I'm right here."

"Mr. Rogers, his temperature is a bit elevated. 100.1." Friday said. Steve noticed Bucky was sweating a bit. He was pretty sure Bucky had been sweating in his sleep. It has happened before. "Sweet boy, I'm right here."

"Daddy."

"I'm right here, I promise." Steve looked at Bucky he wasn't blinking. He snapped his fingers in Bucky's face, still wasn't blinking.

"What are you seeing? Talk to me."

Bucky hit his thighs, which was already bruised. Steve grabbed his hands. Not really restraining, more of a grounding technique. Steve could see his pupils were dilating and contracting a bit fast.

"I'm right here, you're still at home." Steve rubbed his back. Bucky's trembling was starting to die down but his mind was still elsewhere. "Bucky, we're going to my room, okay? Just to lay down so you can relax." Steve was waiting for a response, a nod at the least but nothing. Steve picked him up and brought him to his room. Harley followed them into the room. Steve laid Bucky on the bed and covered him in his weighted blanket. Harley jumped on the bed and laid on his body. It was a tight fit with two large dogs and two super soldiers, there were going to be days and nights like this.

Bucky didn't usually have nightmares that left him dissociated. When he did, something had to been bothering Bucky. But this was concerning that the nightmare was so vivid that he fought through his medicine to wake up. And the more Steve began thinking about it, Bucky has been acting a bit strange since his ordeal with Rhodey.

Steve sighed deeply then hugged him from behind. He wish he could peek into Bucky's mind for just a minute to see what was going on. But all he could do is hold him.

Steve stayed up as the sun rose to make sure Bucky came out of his dissociative state okay but now something was more revealing, Bucky was still sweating. He has in and out of consciousness, whining and clinging onto Steve. This was either still the effects of his nightmare or something was actually going on.

A few hours into the morning, Steve's fear came true when Bucky began hacking. He looked over and saw Bucky was throwing up on the floor. "Oh, Buck." Steve rubbed his back. Bucky coughed, sitting up then began to cry. Steve touched his cheeks, he was unusually hot. "Sweetheart, you're getting a fever. Okay, let's get you in the shower so you can cool off." Steve helped him out of his onesie then sat him in the shower on mildly cool.