The Winter | Bucky Barnes Fanfiction |

Chapter 4

Monday morning came into the world kicking and screaming. I was awoken by the sound of broken glass sometime around three am. I kicked off the covers and was out the door to my room in a matter of seconds. My heart was racing as I stood in the hallway. I mustered up what courage I had to look into the doorway that led to Bucky's room.

Steve had already dealt with the situation. This was the first night of many where I would find these scenes. Steve out of breath and Bucky would be on the floor somewhere looking like he had just seen a ghost.

It was then my job to calm him down, and patch up anything that had been cut or scraped during the whole ideal.

I went and pulled the small first-aid kit from out of the bathroom. I sat on the floor near Bucky, and waited patiently for his breathing to return to a regular pace. When it had I moved closer. I held out my hand, and Bucky gave his own. I used a battery powered lamp with a magnifying glass to get a better look at the area.

"I'm sorry about the lamp," he spoke softly as I pulled out a shard of what looked like lightbulb out of his index finger.

"I'm just glad you're alright. Well, as alright as one can be with glass in their hand."

We sat in comfortable silence while I continued to pull glass out of his hand. It was nothing too deep. All of the shards were able to be removed, and I was even able to put a Band-Aid on some of the scrapes.

"You don't have to talk about want you saw if you don't want to," I sighed as I stood up. "As much as I would like to know, you can tell me when you're ready to."

"Thank you, Doctor Amherst."

I nodded, "I'll start making breakfast. Would you like to join me downstairs?"

He stood up, and ran a hand through his hair. I gave him a quick once over..., looking for wounds of corse. He was in nothing but a pair of navy sweatpants. I made note of the angry scars around the attachment point.

We made our way down the stairs together. Steve was already hunched over a cup of coffee. He had turned on the Tiffany chandelier that that hung above the island. I took out two mugs, one for Bucky and one for myself, and turned on the electric kettle.

"Unfortunately, Bucky, from this point on you're not permitted to have coffee."

"More rules?" Bucky asked as he mirrored Steve's hunched posture.

"No, more of a safety precaution. Your treatment starts today," I paused to pour the hot water over the tea, "unless you believe you're not ready."

"It's just meditation, right. I think I'll be alright." Steve smiled as he took a sip of his coffee. I handed Bucky the tea as well as move the sugar container closer to the both of them.

"I would recommend a good bit of sugar."

I got to work on breakfast after that. It wasn't much, in fact it was one of the pre-made tins of cinnamon roles. I found that sugar lessened the pain of the whole therapy session. Of corse I didn't tell Bucky that, I wanted to lessen the chance of him loosening his grasp on reality.

I brought pitcher of orange juice with me into the library for after the session, and started prepping my space.

The library was at the very center of the house. A large two story space with balconies run around the sides. The only natural light given to the space was from a large dome skylight in the dead center of the roof. Below that was 'the study'.

Originally part of the basement, it was sectioned off to become a lab of sorts. There were no lights there, only lamps and a large assembly of candles. I began the prep by lighting seven white candles in the shape of a circle along a mark on the floor. These, with the help of not very many others, would not be enough to light up the room but the were the only light needed.