Unchained Melody

Chapter 17

At some point, my body got tired enough to put me to sleep. I just love it when I'm so tired my body shuts off and I don't even know it. After a while, I was woken up by something moving underneath me. My eyes opened slightly before I sat up, looking at Bucky.
Bucky was asleep, but thrashing violently. As if he was struggling to get away from something. He was clearly in distress.
"Bucky?" I whispered softly as I reached over to grab his right arm.
"N-No!" He whimpered in his sleep. "Don't touch her."
I squeezed his arm and tried to shake him, he was drenched in sweat. "Baby, wake up."
He wasn't budging. He just kept crying out, "No. Please don't hurt her."
I got up and onto my knees, pushing on him with both hands now. Trying to get him to wake up as I fought to stay calm.
Without even giving me a second to react, the vibranium arm shot up, wrapping his fingers around my throat and squeezing. He slowly sat up, turning his body to face me. His eyes were locked on mine, but he was looking straight through me as if I wasn't there. The only other time he had ever given me this look was when he was ordered to kill me.
I gasped, reaching up for his hand as I frantically tried to pry his hand away from my neck. "B-Buck..."
He was still just staring at me with no emotion as if he was still asleep.
I was struggling to breathe. After a couple of seconds, I felt my legs start to lift up from the bed. I closed my eyes, I couldn't stand to look at him, he looked soulless. I ran my hand up the vibranium arm until I got to his shoulder, digging my finger into the first pressure point before the next. The hand loosened around my neck before the arm fell from his side to the bed in front of me. My eyes opened to look at the arm then up at Bucky.
His eyes welled up with tears. He got up off the bed, backing up until he hit the wall. Mumbling to himself, "What have I done?"
I crawled across the bed, reaching up for his right hand. "Bucky?"
He lifted his hand out of my reach so I couldn't touch him. "I can't believe..."
I stumbled off the bed, rushing to him. I placed my hands on his cheeks, pulling his head down so he would look at me. "Bucky..."
His eyes were locked on the bed, on his arm. He sank down against the wall, falling to his knees. His right arm wrapped around my waist as he pulled me closer to him, pressing his face into my stomach. "I'm sorry, Mel. I'm so fucking sorry."
I got down onto my knees in front of him, leaning down enough to get into his line of sight. I used my thumbs to wipe the tears from his cheeks. "Baby, it was a bad dream."
He shook his head in my hands. "No, Mel. I hurt you. I don't care what it was, I hurt you."
I whined softly, shaking my head in return. "Stop it Bucky. I'm fine. I know how to handle this stuff when there's a problem. Don't worry about me."
"I hurt you. You had to do that." He pointed to the arm on the bed.
I crawled over to the bed to grab the arm before sitting down criss-cross on the floor. I lifted it so that the shoulder would meet with his, reconnecting it to him.
He rotated his arm and then wiggled his fingers before looking back up at me.
I took my hand and placed it in his left hand. "I trust you, Bucky. I also know what they did to you."
"I'm not a good person, Mel."
"Don't even start that shit with me. I was with you every step of the way. I helped you with almost every assassination. I am just as bad as you." I rolled my eyes as I stood up, crawling back into the bed. "Now, please. Get back into bed and try to get some decent sleep. Nothing will happen."
He didn't say anything. He got back to his feet before crawling into the bed.
I tried to cuddle up next to him, wrapping my arms around him and holding him against me. As soon as I was comfy he rolled over, laying with his back to me. I let out a soft sigh before pecking his back and closing my eyes.

I don't think Bucky slept after that, I think he was too scared to even try and fall asleep. When I woke up he was already gone. I rolled over to check my phone, finding a little note on the nightstand next to it.
'Sam offered a ride back to the compound. Please ride back with Wanda. Drive safe. -Bucky'
I rolled myself out of bed, walking over to the end of the couch to find my dress and slip it on. I grabbed my phone off of the nightstand and threw the note in the trash. Picking up my phone and dialed Wanda.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty." She sounded way too cheerful for the morning.
"Where are you?" I mumbled into the phone as I reached up to rub my eyes.
"Just give me one minute and you will see me." Wanda ended the call before a door towards the end of the hallway opened up. She walked out of it and waved to me. "So you and I will be heading back together. I think everyone else left already."
I shrugged a little, "It was a long night."
She nodded as we walked towards the elevator. The entire ride down she just sat staring at me, trying to act like she wasn't. She took off her sweatshirt and handed it to me, zipping it up once I put it on. "You need to hide that from Steve."
When the elevator door opened she grabbed my hand and quickly pulled me to the car. I used my free hand to pull up the collar of the hoodie. "O-okay."

We sat silently in the car for the three-plus hours that it took to get back to the compound, dozing in and out of sleep while Wanda drove. Soft music played in the background, the volume up just enough to hear it but not able to make out the words.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Wanda looked over at me as she put the car in park.
I shook my head before opening the door, sliding out of the car, and walking through the hanger to the entrance of the building. My shoes dangling from my right hand. I pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt and pulled the drawstrings to close around my face.
"Good morning, Miss Melody." Sam was sitting at the island, leaning over a plate of eggs. His head turned just enough to see me walk past towards mine and Bucky's room.
I kept walking, ignoring his greeting. When I got into my room I walked over to the closet, and dropped my shoes, listening to the thud of them hitting the ground. I turned towards the couch, and took a couple of steps, before letting my body fall over the armrest and onto the soft cushions.
Steve and Bucky must have been out doing something. Somehow I was able to evade both of them on my way in.
I rolled over onto my back and pulled my phone out of the pocket, raising it above my face and switching to the camera. There was a large bruise wrapped around my neck, in the form of a hand. I let out a sigh as I took the phone away from my face, letting my arm dangle off the couch. "Goddammit."
The door suddenly opened, followed by Steve barging in. "When did you get back?"
"Like 5 minutes ago." I turned my head to look over at him. "Why do you need to know?"
"Bucky has been in the gym all morning. I swear if he goes much longer we will have to replace that punching bag." He walked over and sank down into one of the chairs, laying his head back and closing his eyes.
"Do you think I shouldn't have done the memory thing?"
"You did what you needed to do. You wanted to know and it's not fair to you if someone keeps you from that."
"I think it fucked with James."
"We knew it would. He will be okay though. How are you?"
I shook my head as I sat up, turning my body to sit correctly on the couch. "I'm fine. I'm worried about him."
"Why are you worried about him?"
"Steve. He strangled me in his sleep last night."
"He did what?" Steve sat up straight, almost launching himself out of his seat. "He strangled you?"
"In his sleep. It wasn't him. He wasn't there, he didn't know."
He was standing now, walking towards the door. He was visibly angry, ignoring everything I said.
"Steven Grant Rogers. You sit your ass back down or I swear to god..." I was cut off by the sound of the door slamming. I stood up and followed him out and down the hall towards the gym. "Steve! If you lay a single finger on him, I will end you. He didn't know it. Why the hell do you think he's acting weird today? He hates himself right now and if you go barging into that room trying to play mean big brother you will make it much, much worse."
He stopped in front of the glass door to the gym, turning back to face me. He couldn't look me in the eyes, just at the big purple bruises on my neck. "I don't care who he is. He doesn't get to lay a hand on you. He doesn't get to do that."
I raised my hand and pressed my finger to his chest. "If you go into that room you are no better than what you fought for. You fought for him! Because you believe in him, in us." I moved my finger from his chest and tapped it against the door. "If you go through this door you are betraying us. If you enter that room you are no better than the people you fought to save him."
"That's different, Melody. So different you don't even understand." Steve growled at me as he grit his teeth.
"No, it's not. You fought your best friend because he was mad that, while under mind control, Bucky killed his parents. And you're about to go fight him because while he was asleep, having a nightmare, he hurt me. You want to know what you don't understand? You don't understand what they did to him. You don't understand how he feels right now, knowing that time and time again he nearly killed me, because they made him. How he felt waking up to his arm laying on the bed in front of him because I had to break his trust in order to save my life. Or how he would have felt if I didn't stop him? You don't know shit, Steve." I could feel someone's hand grab onto my shoulder. I turned around to see Wanda, Nat, and Sam had been watching Steve and I argue.
Nat's hand was on my shoulder. She pulled me a little to turn me around.
I brushed her arm off my shoulder as I pushed past them. "I'm done. Fuck you, Steve."
"Melody, don't... you know I..." He couldn't find the words he was looking for. Just mumbling out half sentences as I kept walking.
Sam walked past me, placing his hand on Steve's chest as he tried to follow me. "Let it be. Let her breathe."