Finding Love in France (Alternate Version)

Part 43: Aftermath

The medics hit Bucky with a sedative as soon as they were through the doors. As they wheeled him away on a gurney, Mila slid down the wall and stared at the floor. She barely heard the nurse ask her if she needed help. "Can you call Captain Rogers and Agent Carter, if they are on base, please?" Mila could hardly get the words out.

One of the surgeons came to take her to see Bucky as he was being prepped for the operating room. When she walked into where he was being held, she saw his left arm was already hugely swollen and turning blue. Her stomach dropped. She cautiously approached him. "I am so sorry, my love..."

He was heavily sedated and also on pain killers. Barely keeping his eyes open, he reached for her with his right hand. He kissed her hand and smiled, and as he drifted off, he was able to say "Thanks, Mils...I love you..."

She smiled weakly and let the tears come. When she wandered back to the waiting room, Peggy was looking for her.

"What the hell happened?" Peggy gasped when she saw the bruises on Mila. "Who did this to you? Is Bucky okay?!"

Steve burst through the doors and panicked when he saw how rough Mila looked. "Is he dead?!"

Mila collapsed in a chair. "He's not dead, Steve..." she managed to croak. Her neck was swollen, her throat raw. "...he had a night terror and I had to get him out of it...I broke his arm..." she started crying again.

Peggy sat down next to her and took her hands. "Did he do this?" She motioned towards her neck.

Mila was shaking. "Yes, but he didn't know what he was doing..."

"I'll fucking kill him..." Steve growled.

"Language, Captain..." Mila tried to joke to calm him down. She had never heard him use that word before and it scared her. "I need you to tell me everything you know about what happened to him when he was taken so we can make sure this never happens again."

She already knew James 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 Steve into the fight, the Hydra goons had started using him as a test subject for their experiments. Hydra cruelly took out their frustrations on him. He had spent days at a time being beaten for information he did not have. They had injected him with god knows what. 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 Steve rescued him, he had resigned himself to dying alone in the tiny, filthy cell he was being held in.

Steve reported that the night terrors had just about disappeared shortly after he met Mila.

So why had they come back now, she wondered?