Finding Love in France

Part 23: Night Terrors

When she reached the house, she realized he was not there. She was obsessing over the fight they just had. Were they going to get past this? Why couldn't she take him on his word? Why was she so stubborn? Why was she self-sabotaging her potential for happiness?

She was pulling the floor cushions out to make herself a bed for the night. She assumed he would prefer her keep her distance, no? His left arm was acting up a little during the day, so he should have the bed. Then she started to make some dinner and straighten up the house. She could not hear him and it scared her.

He was sitting at the edge of the pond, wondering what to do next. Though he was far enough from the house that even if she was home, she probably couldn't "hear" him, he wasn't taking any chances. He was so exhausted from blocking her out and from the argument, he fell asleep in the grass.

Just after sunset, she grabbed a lantern and started looking for him around the property. She was worried about him for many reasons, but was able to breathe again when she heard his heartbeat as she came up to the pond. She looked around and didn't see him immediately. Instead, she followed the sound of his breath until she found him curled up in the grass. Without thinking, she touched his arm to wake him.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" he screamed and grabbed her arm "WHO SENT YOU?" His eyes were open, but he obviously did not see her.

She dropped the lantern and started screaming "James, it's me! It's Mila! Wake up!" She was searching his eyes for some glimmer of recognition.

Instead, he was on his feet in seconds and had her by the arms "WHO SENT YOU?!" He started to shake her violently. "START TALKING BEFORE I CUT YOUR FUCKING TONGUE OUT!"

Though she knew it was a night terror, he had them when he first arrived, he was now also able to block her, which was a severe disadvantage. "JAMES! WAKE UP! YOU ARE HAVING A NIGHTMARE! WAKE UP BEFORE SOMEONE GETS HURT!"

As he continued to shake her, he had lifted her off the ground and she was trying not to panic. She did not want to have to hurt him to snap him out of this state.

"JAMES! PLEASE!" No luck. She broke his grasp by kicking him in the thigh. He dropped her and fell to the ground, clutching his leg, screaming. Then he jumped back up and things got worse.

"THAT ALL YOU GOT?!" He screamed, pulling an Army-issue knife from his pocket and holding it to her throat. "I don't know who the hell you are, but you're gonna regret not killing me when you had the chance!"

"Okay, James. Please try to calm down." Her voice got lower to make him have to stop screaming and pay attention to hear her. As she pled with him, she stepped to the side and got his right arm behind his back. The knife fell from his hand. She had him pinned on the ground in moments. "James, do you know where you are?"

"Fuck you!" and he screamed in pain as she pushed on his arm.

"James, do you know who I am?" she was trying her best to restrain herself from doing serious damage.

"You gonna kill me or what, you Hydra bitch?" he hissed at her.

"Okay, we tried. That's it, we're not going to do this anymore." And she pushed his arm hard, until she felt his shoulder pop.

As he screamed in pain, she let go of him and stepped back to see if he was still out of it. He saw her and started crying. "Mila! What happened?! Where are we?"

She knelt down beside him and looked in his eyes. He was horrified but there. "Oh thank god! My love, you had a night terror. You thought I was trying to kill you." She dropped her voice "unfortunately, I had to dislocate your shoulder to get you out of it."

"Jesus, Doc! You did this?!" He was holding his right arm with his left and wild-eyed from pain and confusion.

"I am afraid so, my darling. But I can fix it. Here, let me help you up" She helped him to his feet and said "Sorry, my love." And smashed his shoulder back into its joint.

"SHIT!" He almost collapsed on her from pain and shock.

She helped him back to the house and put him to bed. She gave him a dose of morphine and put his arm in a sling.

As he drifted off, he was able to say "Thanks, Doc...I love you..."

She smiled weakly and let the tears come. She sat at the bedside and tried to read him, hoping the morphine would lessen his ability to block her.

His mind was a mess, but she was able to pick out some details to help explain what had just happened. She already knew he had been held captive and tortured. What she didn't know until now, was that he had been targeted, specifically, and used as bait for his friend. Because it was taking longer than expected to draw Captain America out, the Hydra goons had started using James as a test subject for their experiments. The scars on his shoulder were from serial injections of unknown chemicals and the cauterization burns from tissue sampling. He had spent days at a time being beaten for information he did not have. He had endured being kept awake so long he should have gone completely mad. He was made to watch as other captives were tortured and murdered in front of him. He was told daily that he was going to die. By the time he finally was rescued, he had resigned himself to dying alone in the tiny, filthy cell he was being held in.

Then, to her surprise, he started to think about her. She listened intently as she heard her own voice play in his mind. He was replaying every detail he could remember about his time with her. He was trying to calm his tortured mind with thoughts of her...

She curled up at the foot of the bed like she had months earlier and fell asleep.