Mark On My Heart ~ Sequel to 'Mark Of The Star'

Part Six ~ Soldier

*Your POV*

You wake up and roll over, seeing a peaceful-looking Bucky, shirtless and laying on his back, taking slow breaths in and out.

You smile to yourself at the thought that he sleeps so calmly when he's with you, he hardly even gets his nightmares anymore, and when he does, you always know how to calm him down quickly.

You rub the sleep out of your eyes and quietly get out of bed, not wanting to wake Bucky. You decide to take a shower and get ready for the day.

You choose comfortable clothes because you know today will be somewhat of a day off for you and the girls considering you just had to do a few days on a stake-out.

After your shower, you put on your favourite pair of sweatpants and one of Bucky's shirts that was pretty oversized on you, and head out to the kitchen to find the others, closing the bedroom door behind you.

"Morning." Your brother greets you lazily as he eats a piece of toast at the kitchen island.

"Morning, Tony." You reply, stifling a yawn as you go to make some breakfast of your own. "Is there any updates? On...uh..."

"Chase, I know." He finishes the sentence for you, knowing it's probably hard for you to even say his name. "Just that he seems to be planning something. He's been meeting with high power people at Hydra which is obviously worrying. We're doing more surveillance today to figure out what the meetings are about."

"Right. Good." You mumble back, turning to face Tony as you wait for the toast to pop up. "But Buck and I are going to be okay? Like he's not after us?"

"I...I can't say for sure. But you've got a compound full of people who can do cool shit so you know you're safe here." He replies, trying to lighten the mood and you let out a small laugh, rolling your eyes jokingly at his light-heartedness.

Eventually, more of the team starts waking up and trailing into the kitchen. After your breakfast, you take a seat on the couch in front of the TV between Steve and Sam, Nat sitting on the other couch.

"How are you feeling, (Y/N/N)?" Sam asks softly, wanting to make sure you're okay.

"Nervous." You tell him and he gives you a sympathetic smile. You also catch a sad look on Steve and Nat's face. "Do you think he'll come back for me and Bucky? He always needed his revenge when someone did something bad to him."

"I don't want to lie to you, I think it's a possibility." Steve replies sternly. "But you've experienced his violence...more than once. And we're here to protect you this time. You know Bucky would never let anything like that happen to you again, especially now. He beat himself up for months after what happened on your mission together."

"I do feel safer here with all of you, and with Bucky next to me every night." You admit and Nat and Sam let out a simultaneous 'awww'.

"Speak of the super soldier." Sam jokes and you turn your head to see Bucky coming down the stairs.

"...I don't even want to know." Bucky chuckles as he leans over the back of the couch to give you an upside-down kiss on the lips, before getting a water from the fridge and joining you all on the couch.

The day goes by quickly, and before you know it, Bucky, Sam, and Steve are on their surveillance mission after they heard intel that Chase was seeing Hydra leaders for a late night meeting.

Natasha and Wanda have headed to bed, considering it was around 11pm and none of you got much sleep on your stake-out. Tony and Bruce were working on something in the lab downstairs and you've been watching a comedy movie with Peter for the last hour or so before you feel your eyes start to flutter shut.

You say goodnight to Peter and leave him to finish the movie, before heading upstairs to bed. You're just about to drift off to sleep, when you hear the quiet sound of your bedroom door opening and closing again.

You open your eyes and faintly see Bucky place down his tactical bag, take off his shirt, and crawl into bed next to you, the warmth from his body instantly filling you with comfort as he wraps his flesh arm around you, making you drift off into sleep.

"Longing."

You're snapped out of your sleepy state when you hear a voice coming over the speakers of the compound. You check the clock on the bedside table and see it's 2:38am. Everyone would definitely be asleep by now, so what is that voice?

You sit up in bed and see Bucky also sitting up, awake and panicking, not knowing what to do.

"Rusted."

"No, no, no. What the hell is happening? This can't happen." Bucky panics even more, jumping out of bed and trying to focus himself by taking deep breaths. After you hear the second word, you know exactly what's going on and you start to join Bucky's panicked state.

"Buck...this isn't you anymore. You can fight this." You tell him softly as you take slow steps over to him, taking your hands in his.

"Furnace."

"(Y/N), you...you need to get away from me. Now. Go and find Steve or Tony or anyone else who can protect you." Bucky tells you as he pushes you off him and you can tell he's starting to slip away from his own mind. How is this happening again? Whose voice is that? And how do they know Bucky's trigger words?

You decide to ignore Bucky's demands and your endless questions and stay with him instead. All that mattered to you in this moment was him, and if anyone could help him get through this without turning back into 'the Winter Soldier', it would be you.

"Daybreak."

The strange voice continues over the speaker system of the house as Bucky places his hands over his ears trying to drown it out.

"I can't fight this. You need to go." He tells you, getting frustrated but again, you refuse.

"Yes, you can. Just focus on me." You tell him, trying to meet his gaze. He looks you in the eyes and tries to take deep breaths as he focuses on you. "We can do it together."

"Seventeen."

Bucky closes his eyes as he tries to stay calm and keep breathing along with you. Your heart breaks to see him like this, trying not to slip back into his old controlled consciousness that he was trapped in for so long.

"Benign."

.....

"Nine."

Apart from the voice, the rest of the bedroom is filled with silence as you try to help Bucky remain concentrated on his breathing and keeping his mind calm. Slowly, as the words continue, you can start to see it work less and less and his mind and face slipping.

"Homecoming."

....

"One."

.....

"I'm here Bucky. You're James Buchanan Barnes. You're born in 1917." You tell him slowly, using a tactic Steve told you to use if something like this ever happened, but it doesn't seem to be working. "Steve Rogers is your best friend. You're an Avenger."

"Freight car."

Your whole body freezes as the last word comes over the speaker, and you know there's nothing else you can do. You step back from Bucky and look at him. His face is cold and he seems almost unrecognisable as he looks at you with no emotion.

.....

"Soldier?"

......

"Ready to comply."