Edelweiss || Bucky x Reader

Chapter Forty One

My ears ring.

My head is heavy.

My body is tired and sore.

The air is warm, as am I.

But I don't care that I'm uncomfortable. I don't care at all.

I can feel again.

I can feel again.

My chest rises and falls peacefully as I breathe for the first time in so long. I notice the voices talking over each other in the background as the ringing fades out.

"Sam- Sam please, she's my baby sister."

He sounds like he's trying not to beg.

"I know that, but she doesn't."

"Sam-"

The second man's voice drops.

"She doesn't know you Steve."

I groan as my head tilts to the side. Floor boards creak as someone walks over to me.

"Thanks, guys." He says, and several sets of heavy feet walk away. He stays. His voice is one of the two that had just been arguing.

I squeeze my eyes shut as I attempt to shake off the rest of my fatigue.

"Y/N?" He asks. I blink a few times. Sunlight blinds me and I turn my head to the ground with my eyes shut tight.

"Somebody close those blinds, please."
He— Sam? Sam. — calls behind him. I hear shuffling and then the room gets darker. I slowly open my eyes and look up to the room again. I sit on the floor, leaning up against a wall. Sam sits a few feet in front of me. "Better?"

I look away from his eyes and nod.

Questions spring up on me.

"How long have I been gone?"

"Did she complete her mission?"

The flowers...

The mask...

Where's the mask?

"Do you know where you are?" He asks.

"...mask..." I say as loud as I can.

"We've already sent it off for forensic testing. Whatever's in there, we know it's controlling you." I turn to look at him, fear rising up in my chest. His eyes are soft. "None of this is your fault."

"Let me go...please let me go..." I say with what little strength I can muster. "...they'll hurt her...they a-always hurt her.."

"Her? Who's her?" The second voice of the pair shows himself. He steps out of the dimly lit corner, his arms crossed over his chest and his face torn between covered up anguish and poorly hidden anger.

His question...I don't think I have an answer.

I lift my hands. They've been stripped of their gloves, exposed to the world. Light spills into the room from a door behind Sam. I hold my palm in front of my face and watch in awe as the orange glow weaves through my fingers. They fall to my opposite wrist, running slowly down and then back up my forearm. I feel my skin. I feel my touch.

These are her hands. These are her scars. The triggers pulled by these fingers are deaths to her name.

But I feel them.

I know the answer to his question.

"...me." I say, knowing the truth. "They'll hurt me."

"No one's going to hurt you anymore." He says tenderly as he walks into my line of vision.

A new voice.

A new man.

I recognize him.

And my heart sinks.

I don't know how he found me. But here he is.

Klein.

"No, no, no, please no!" I stutter out as my heart picks up speed, feeling like it might fly out of my chest. "Please not again, please not again!"

He looks behind him, sees no one, and then back to me. He looks hurt. Hurt in a way I've never seen him before.

"Sweetheart, I-"

His voice is different

Different but familiar

The blonde one in the corner walks over to him and stops him with his hand on his chest. He says something to him in a hushed voice.

"No, fuck you, Steve!" Klein steps back from the other man, offended.

"Bucky-"

"I'm not leaving her!"

"You're both scaring her." Sam scolds. "Give us some space, please."

"Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, please leave the room." Says a woman in tactical gear. They both give each other a look before complying with the officer's request.

"You with me?" Sam asks. I look back at him and nod. "Good. I want to make something clear to you. I don't know who you thought that was, but it's not him. No one here will ever hurt you or use you. No one anywhere will ever again. We won't let them. You're safe here."

I feel something so new.

Something so strong it makes my shoulders heave and my arms shake as I sob rivers.

I think this is relief.

"Yeah kid, you're safe." Sam says as he moves next to me. He doesn't touch me, and I'm grateful for that. But his presence is comforting.

"You're safe."