Unchained Melody

Chapter 8

It was late by the time that I got back to the hut and Bucky was already asleep. He had taken the time to push the beds together and find bed sheets and blankets to fit the new bed.
I giggled softly as I walked over to the bed. Leaning down to whisper softly in his ear. "If you are going to make me sleep next to you, you better cuddle me, Barnes."
He opened his eyes just enough to look up at me. A sleepy smile formed on his face.
I left a gentle peck on his nose before I stood up and walked over to our bags or clothes and quickly changed into my PJs. After I changed I crawled into bed behind Bucky, using my fingertip to gently trace shapes on his back. "Did you prep everything for your surgery tomorrow?"
He rolled over to face me. Putting his hand under his head to support himself while he looked down at me. "Yes. Everything is ready. Are you gonna be okay without me around?"
"I will be perfectly fine without you for a couple days, Bucky. It will take you like a week to get better, then we can go home. Not like 3 months." I rolled over to face away from him. Yawning softly. "Goodnight, Bucky."
He slid his arm under me to pull me against his chest, nuzzling into my shoulder, "Goodnight, Doll."

Bucky went through surgery well. After the surgery, they decided to put him into a cryogenic chamber as HYDRA did to us between missions. They told me that it will allow him to heal from the surgery while they monitor his progress without him doing anything to damage it before it is fully healed. It would also allow for him to heal faster than if he were awake. I have no idea how they can do it. I'm not a scientist. I just let them do what they need to do to make him better.
I spent all of my time in his hospital room. The nurses started making jokes about giving me their jobs because I wouldn't leave him alone. I didn't want to leave his side. I trusted their work and what it was doing, but I got too anxious sitting alone, stuck in a room with that file. I couldn't help myself. I know that Bucky said not to read it, but my past was sitting on a shelf, and I needed to read it.

The file had so much information about me in it. HYDRA took notes of every punishment, every injury to myself or someone else I was training with, everything. There were also pictures in the file. There were pictures of the injuries I had received while I was being held, the items I was brought in with, and even some of my training, but most of my injuries.
FEB 1945 - Osiris needed a second dose of the serum. The subject did not react to the first dosage. We determined to try a second dosage. If dosage #2 does not work, the subject will be eliminated, and we will move to another subject for testing.
Note: Osiris will be held under extreme conditions to try and trigger the serum before being returned to cryogenic sleep.
...
March 1991 - Subject Osiris will be moved to another HYDRA facility with the Winter Soldier it was brought in with. They have both proved as promising assets to the mission of the organization. The subject will be removed from cryogenic sleep for relocation, then put back into their chamber until the next training date.
The last thing that they had noted was about the mission in December. They must have moved us to the US for that mission. They didn't keep any files from Siberia with them when they moved us, clearly. I wouldn't have found this if they had brought it with me. Unless they kept files on us in the US, which, to my knowledge, I had no access to.
The more I read the pages the more numb I got to what I was reading. It was all so much to try and take in, yet I couldn't remember any of it. Nothing at all.

"Fucking hell!" I set the file down on the table next to the chair I had practically been living in. I stood up and stretched, gently trying to crack my back as I yawned. My phone began to ring. It was Steve trying to FaceTime me.
"How is he doing?" He didn't even let me say hello before he spoke.
"He is doing the same as he was last time you called." I glared into the phone, watching Steve as he ate a bowl of pasta. I decided to start walking around the hospital.
"I just wanted to make sure. How are you?"
"I found my file when we went to the HYDRA base..."
He sat quietly, nodding a little.
"I don't remember any of it, and it kills me. Bucky said that he didn't want me reading it, but I couldn't help it. It was just there."
"Sounds right, he told me about it."
I sighed softly. Looking for a spot out in the hall to sit. "I think there's stuff he remembers that he won't to tell me about. Like what was going on right before we were taken... stuff between him and me."
"You two were inseparable. You stole my best friend from me," he chuckled. "He was head over heels for you, and you didn't even notice."
I mumbled under my breath, "No, he was not."
"Who do you think picked that picture of you two dancing out? I hunted that thing down just for that exhibit."
"What even is it though?"
"Haha, he hasn't told you?" Steve smiled as he set his fork down, "that was my baby sister and best friend's first date. Bucky wanted to take you dancing on one of our free nights, so we all went into the closest town and found a little restaurant that had dancing."
"A date?"
"Mhm. You two were both so happy by the time we got back. Ya'll just sat up talking all night, couldn't get you to sleep."
I sunk down into my seat, placing my hand over my face to cover my blush, "Alright."
"Oh, so you guys should be flying here soon, right? Stark wants to know living situations. We have two free rooms, but they are separate from each other, and I wanted to make sure that it's alright with you."
"We will share one," I peeked through my fingers back at the phone to see Steve's reaction.
He smirked and nodded, "Alright, I will let him know."
"Whaaat!"
"Nothing. Nothing. I could have guessed."
"You used to want to beat guys up when they looked at me funny... then Bucky would actually beat them up."
"Hey, at least I know that he will protect you," he chuckled and shrugged before going back to his pasta.
"Hello... Mrs. Barnes?" One of the nurses walked up to me.
All I could hear from my phone was Steve laughing. I cut him off by hanging up. "H-Hi, it's ms Rogers, but you can call me Melody."
"Sorry, miss Rogers. Shuri would like to talk to you about Mr. Barnes." She stood in front of me, holding onto a stack of files.
"Thank you, hun," I smiled as I stood up. Making my way back to the room where Bucky was.
Shuri was in the room with a case open on the table. It had a black and gold arm in it. The one that was meant to go on Bucky once they woke him. "So everything is ready. We can start to wake him up now. He hasn't shown any issues with the surgery, and he seems to be healed up."
I squealed happily at the news, "Yay, alright! And we can start that now then?"
She nodded, picking up the arm gently before showing it to me. Pointing to two spots on the arm, "These are the pressure points you can hit if you need the arm to come off. As I said, it is better to keep this information from him than to tell him about it."
She walked over to the machine that Bucky was in, messing with a keyboard before opening it up.
I smiled big as I sat down in the seat next to him. Grabbing onto his hand and held it while I waited for his eyes to open.
It only took a few minutes before he woke up. Gently squeezing my hand as he turned his head to look over at me. "What are you doing waiting on me, Doll?"
I giggled, "Where else would I go? Huh?"
"Rise and shine, Bucky. It's time to test out your new arm." Shuri walked over to the arm sitting in the case before picking it up. Letting Bucky walk over to her before holding his arm up to his side, attaching it to his shoulder.
He swung it around a bit, making sure he had full motion. He looked over at me with a big smile on his face.
"Someone has a cool new toy," I laughed at his excitement.
He rolled his eyes. He watched his new vibranium arm form a fist and then open its hand. "Yes. Yes, I do, Mel."
Shuri giggled at his excitement as well, "Alright. Now it should stand up to almost everything but you still need to be careful. That thing wasn't easy to make, so don't go breaking it on me."
Bucky walked over to hug Shuri. "Thank you. For everything."
"Of course. We were all glad to have you visit." She hugged him back. "I know you two will be leaving soon. T'Challa would like you to meet him at the palace before you guys leave. Your jet will take off from there anyways."
I nodded. "Thank you, Shuri. We will head there as soon as we get out of here."
She grabbed her case off the counter and went to leave the room. "You two take care!"

We got Bucky checked out of the hospital and headed straight to the palace. I had already packed up all of our stuff, which fit into two backpacks, so everything was at the hospital with us.
T'Challa greeted us when we got to the palace and escorted us down to the jet we would use to go home.
"I just wanted to see you guys off. It was a pleasure having you guys here. I would like to lend you guys this jet. It can be used to get through our barrier, so you can come and go as you please." T'Challa had that noble tone in his voice. You could never tell him no to something, even if you wanted to. He always sounded like he was the correct one, even if he wasn't.
I walked over to him and hugged him tightly, "Thank you. Really. For everything. You helped us through something we probably couldn't have gotten through if you hadn't."
He watched as we boarded the jet, Bucky was in the pilot's seat with me sitting in the copilot. I waved as we took off, admiring the view out the window. Taking in one last glimpse of the beautiful skyline before it disappeared.