Last of Us - Bucky Barnes Fanfic

3. Nightmares and The Scientists

Jessie had brought Bucky back to her apartment, letting him sleep in her room. It was two o’clock in the morning. Jessie was asleep on the couch. She woke up to a sudden thirst, falling off the couch as she woke, landing with a quiet thud. She rubbed her eyes before standing up and walking to the kitchen, grabbing a glass from the cupboard, filling it with water. Jessie finished the glass of water and began to walk back to the couch until she heard muffled screams coming from one of the bedrooms. She scaled across the icy wood floor to the end of the hall, listening for the screams. They were coming from her room. She opened the door to see Bucky screaming into the pillow, and seemed as if he was struggling to wake up. Jessie made her way over to the bed, pushing Bucky over and straddling his waist, grabbing his wrists trying to hold them above his head.

“Bucky,” Jessie said in attempt to wake him up. He began talking in his sleep.

“Нет, нет, нет. Отпусти меня! Я больно, больно...” Bucky broke his arms out of Jessie’s grip. His left arm got a strong grip on her right arm, breaking the skin with the metal. Jessie didn’t flinch at the pain. She held Bucky down by his shoulders.

“Bucky, Bucky! It’s just a nightmare.” Bucky heard Jessie. He opened his eyes and saw her holding him down, a hand now on his cheek. Jessie saw tears begin to fall from his eyes as he sat up, pulling her into a hug, resting his head against her chest. Jessie rest her head on top of his, letting him cry. “It’s alright, Buck. It was only a nightmare.” She could feel him shake his head.

“No, no, it wasn’t.” Bucky looked at her. “It was real… I can’t explain how real it is.” He looked away. Jessie got out of his lap, sitting next to him, holding his hands ignoring her bleeding arm.

“Would you mind telling me?” Bucky looked at the female, but didn’t make eye contact with her. He saw the blood running down her arm.

“Did I do that? I’m so sorry.”

“Bucky, it’s not your fault. I was trying to wake you. Don’t blame yourself. Please, tell me about your nightmare.”

“If you let me take care of your arm.” Jessie sighed and stood up from the bed, walking out of the room to the bathroom, Bucky following. She sat on the edge of the bathtub while Bucky got the medical supplies. The male Sergeant began taking care of the females arm. Jessie watched in silence as Bucky cleaned her arm. She winced at the pain of the alcohol against the wound.

“So, what was the nightmare about?” Jessie questioned as Bucky began to wrap gauze around her arm.

“Hydra, the brainwashing… Everything they did to me.” Bucky took a deep sigh as he finished wrapping his friends arm and putting all the supplies away. The two walked back into the bedroom to talk more. “You have no idea how much brainwashing hurts.”

“If it hurts like hell, then I have a pretty good idea.”

“No. If you think your transformation into the Super Soldier you are now was painful, try having electric shocks going into your head erasing your memories making you forget everything and everyone that you know. Do you know what it’s like to be unmade? They take your brain and play. Make you think you’re a bad person. Make you lie and kill, innocents, in the service of liars and killers.”

“We all have red in our legers. You. Romanoff. Steve. Me. We all do things, say things we regret.” Bucky stared at Jessie as she sat in silence. He could see the faint markings of scars on her face. In the faint lighting, he could see freckles dusting her cheeks from her nose. The corners of her lips were pulled down into a frown. Bucky remembered a memory. He took Jessie’s hand in one hand, and her face in the other. She looked into his eyes. Jessie could feel herself lean in slightly closer to Bucky. She caught herself, quickly looking away. She began to stand up from the bed to walk away, but Bucky held onto her hand. She looked back to see he had a pleading look on his face.

“Can you stay?” Jessie nodded and walked back to the bed, lying down on it, pulling the blankets close to her. Bucky kept a slight distance. He went to sleep, no nightmares occurring, remembering Jessie was there. The next morning, Jessie woke up early and got out of the bed making sure she didn’t wake the Winter Soldier. She walked out of the room toward the kitchen and saw a note on the refrigerator. Tony called saying he wanted to talk to you. –Steve. Jessie sighed and began to make breakfast deciding to call Tony later. Footsteps could be heard walking down the hall. Jessie looked over to see Bucky rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Sleep well?” Jessie asked as she looked back at the stove. Bucky looked at her.

“Better than ever,” he replied. Jessie turned the stove off and took out two plates setting one in front of Bucky and the other across from him. She took the pan from the stove and set two pancakes on each plate. Jessie got out silverware and maple syrup after placing the pan in the sink. The two ate in silence. Once they finished, Jessie put the plates in the sink and went to get her phone, dialing Tony’s number. Bucky turned the TV on to watch the news, keeping the volume low enough to hear and for Jessie to make a phone call. After the second ring, Tony answered the call.

“Hey, Snowflake,” he greeted. “Long time no talk. Where were you this morning? I called but Rogers answered.”

“It’s a thing I actually like. It’s called sleep. Now what is it you wanted to talk about?”

“Uh, Brucie and I are working on a new project and kinda need your help.”

“What is that? The two smartest scientists in the world need the help of a soldier?”

“Hey, you’re a scientist too. Besides, it will be nice to have a woman around that isn’t Pepper. What do you say?”

“How long will the project take?”

“Um, that will depend,” Bruce spoke up. Jessie realized Tony answered the call through Jarvis. “We’re not sure how long this project will take even with three people. We’re thinking maybe till New Years.”

“What!”

“At least you’d be here for the party,” Tony said with a laugh.

“But what about Steve and Bucky?”

“Who’s Bucky?”

“A friend.”

“Like you and Capsicle?”

“I- yeah.”

“They can come too. When will you get here?”

“I’d have to call back about that. Steve isn’t here to talk about it so…”

“Alright, just give us a call when you have a day.”

“Okay. Talk to you later, Stark. Dr. Banner.”

“Bye,” the two said in union before Jessie hung up the phone. She looked over to Bucky who was running a hand through his hair, looking at it, and slightly pulling the ends of it. She sat next to him on the couch. Bucky looked over to the female as she took a small part of his hair and braid it.

“Do you think I need a hair cut?” Bucky questioned. Jessie sat there thinking.

“Hmm… Truth is, I like your hair short, but when it’s long… I can braid it!” Jessie grinned as she let go of the finished braid. Bucky took the braid between his index finger and thumb.

“Would you like me to keep it long?” Jessie nodded. “So, that phone call..”

“It was Tony and Bruce. They need my help with a project, don’t ask what because I really have no clue. The thing is, they live in New York at Stark Tower and I don’t want to leave you and Steve here for maybe the rest of the year. I don’t know where Steve is, but I’ll have to talk to him about it when he gets home.”

“So this Tony is Howards son, as you mentioned once before?”

“Yes. And he’s actually like Howard in some ways. You got along with Howard, I’m sure you’ll get along with Tony. Hopefully.”

A/N: Longer chapter. I don't entirely have any ideas in mind, I'm just writing what comes up. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, don't hesitate to comment them.