My Little Soldier

Chapter 11

Four weeks later

Weeks after Bucky was saved again, things became slightly calmer in the Wilson household. First off, Bucky's adoption was finalized and he was officially Sam's kid. Second, Bucky was meeting his service dog in a few days. Usually it would take months because of the training but the agency thought it would be appropriate seeing what Bucky went through that he needed one rather quickly. Hopefully once Bucky met his new service animal his black outs from his panic attacks would be a lot less.

Third thing was Bucky was slowly getting use to new arm. There were times when Bucky wouldn't use it but he knew it was there at least. Plus Bucky could feel texture and temperature.

The fourth thing was the move. The whole situation was a bit weird. While the Shield Police Department was under investigation, Sam was out of job. Not out of pay, the state was still giving him money. But he and Bucky were still required to move. Good thing was it a bit closer to Bucky's therapy building and it was in a gated community so there was a pool and playground that Bucky could go play at and actually right behind Steve and Nat's apartment building. The house was a one story brick home with a fenced backyard. The interior had a light gray walls and light oakwood hardwood throughout. It already came with the basic appliances, Sam would just have to change a few things but he liked it nonetheless. Bucky adjusted pretty quickly, he still slept with Sam even though he had his own room right next door plus he moved the bed from being a baby bed to a toddler bed. They were working on it but Bucky was not in any rush to move out.

On a good Friday, Sam and Bucky went to the service animal facility to do a final test and hopefully graduation. Bucky's dog was three year old female cream colored Golden Retriever named Lady though Bucky had the option to change her name and he called her Olive.

"Alright James and Olive will need to pass all the tasks that are asked in order to graduate. Sam, you told me James is called Bucky more at home so you can use that nickname. First we will do guide tasks. You may begin."

The guide task consisted of Olive finding Bucky if Bucky was lost or if Bucky needed to find Sam if they were separated and leading him out of a stressful environment. "Bucky go in the corner for a minute." Sam said. Bucky did as asked. "Olive, find Bucky." The dog got up, immediately went to Bucky and sat down in front of him. "Okay, Bucky say find daddy."

"Find dada." Olive immediately went to Sam. They performed the other guide task successfully though Bucky seemed to be in a bit of a mood.

They performed alert tasks which signals if Bucky's blood pressure drops due to an upcoming panic attack.

The final task was the interruption task. These were going to interrupt a flashback, nightmare, panic attack, self-harm and disassociation. For this Olive had to do one of two things depending on if Bucky was standing or laying down. If he was standing and hitting himself, she would paw at his arm to stop him. If he was laying down and sleeping, she would lay on top of him and lick his face.

The facility was given a shirt that Bucky wore during a bad panic attack. It had his scent on it so when Bucky had the attacks, Olive would be able to recognize the situation.

"Bucky lay down." Sam said. Bucky laid on the floor, Olive laid on her upper body on his stomach.

"Good job, I say that is passing." The instructor said. They put a little graduation cap on Olive's head and had Bucky and Olive take a picture together. "Olive is now your service dog, she must go wherever he goes. If anyone wants to whine about public access, there are little ADA cards in this pocket. You can buy little patches for her vest but these are the standard ones that must stay on." She gave Bucky the standard 'service dog, do NOT pet' and 'do NOT distract'. "Congratulations, Bucky."