The Pretender (Trying Your Luck Sequel) - Bucky BarnesxOC

Part 8: Crashing

A/N: Smut.

The nights after his missions – the nights Shannon takes care of him and stitches up his wounds – are the nights he sleeps like a baby. Fully unconscious, body relaxed and diving into a dreamless, blissful sleep. No horrifying movies playing in his head, just an endless black hole of exhaustion consuming him. It's not ideal, but it's better than the alternative.

Bucky snores softly. From a dead sleep, he feels a small hand on his metal arm, followed by the sound of someone calling for him. Someone small. It sounds so far away. The softest voice.

"Daddy... daddy... daddy, wake up."

Bucky's eyes flutter open. Sammy is standing in front of him, shaking his metal arm.

"What's up, baby?"

"I had a nightmare."

Bucky immediately goes into dad mode, sitting up and making sure not to wake Shannon up in the process. Silently, he picks up Sammy and heads downstairs.

"You know what might help with that?"

"What?" Sammy whispers.

"A snack and some TV," Bucky replies. "Whaddya say?"

Sammy gasps and nods as Bucky carries him toward the couch. He plunks the kid in front of the TV and turns on an old horror movie while he pads to the kitchen and quietly opens cupboards. Sammy's eyes are glued to the TV. He doesn't know why the boy is so drawn to monsters. Part of him fears that he's inherited something dark from Bucky, or that on some level, he knows who Bucky used to be, but Sammy really just seems interested in the makeup and the howling. So, Bucky and Shannon let him watch them. They don't scare him. Nothing really scares Sammy. He's basically fearless.

Bucky makes them a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches. Not ideal, but Shannon doesn't need to know. He'll tuck the pan and plates in the back of the dishwasher, she'll run it in the morning and have no idea. Bucky stretches out on his favorite recliner with Sammy tucked in beside him, munching away on his sandwich. He ruffles his son's hair and smiles at him.

"Do you know what you dreamed about, pumpkin?"

"There was a boy in a cage. He was crying."

"What did he look like?"

"I don't know," Sammy replies. "It was blurry. I was scared. I was in a cage too."

Bucky's jaw clenches.

"What kind of cage?"

"Like a jail. Where bad guys go." Sammy takes a bite of his sandwich. "But I'm not a bad guy, daddy."

"No," Bucky whispers. "You're not."

His heart is hammering in his chest. HYDRA used to keep him in a cell. A single cot and toilet with a moth-eaten blanket. Is Sammy inheriting his nightmares? The things he's seen? The only other Super Soldier he's ever spent a significant amount of time around was Steve. But Steve was different. The ideal. The person that every single asshole tried to recreate for their own psychotic end. Bucky watches as Sammy eats his sandwich.

"I like this part," he says, pointing at the screen.

He smiles.

"Pumpkin, do you remember anything else about your dream?"

Sammy shakes his head.

"Just yelling. Lots of it."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

Bucky nods and strokes his hair, deciding to drop it. They watch the movie while they eat. It's awful. It's some '80s horror movie about a bunch of kids who visit a wax museum and get murdered by the exhibits... and then become the exhibits? It's very confusing.