The Earth's Child: A Bucky Barnes fanfiction

The Kiss

Bucky's eyelids felt so heavy that he thought someone had loaded concrete girders on them. He used whatever strength he had to pry them open. His entire body was aching as if he had spent hours climbing up a really steep hill.

The room was dark except for a small nightlight in the corner and he looked at his watch.

3am.

He felt hard surface around him as he tried to adjust his eyes to the dark. He realised he was on the floor.

Why was he on the floor?

When his eyes finally adjusted he saw Bella sitting up against the wall and it puzzled him.

"Could you please switch on the light?" said Bella and she was almost pleading, like she was in pain.

He got up immediately and switched on the light. He snapped his hand over his mouth to keep from screaming at the sight in front of him.

The room was a mess and there was a blood stain on the edge of the bed. Bella was leaning against a wall, one side of her face covered in blood that was oozing from the cut on her forehead. Her left arm was bent in an unnatural angle. There were cuts and scrapes all across her body. She had a really painful looking black eye and prominent scratches across her cheekbones. There were finger shaped contusions on her neck which looked like she had been choked.

"What the hell happened?" said Bucky, his voice shaking in horror.

"Your ear," whispered Bella, "I think I saw something when you were passed out. There is something in your ear that might have helped to trigger it."

Bucky automatically put his fingers in his ears and as Bella had expected, pulled out a very small earpiece from his left one. It was battery operated.

Bella sighed painfully as Bucky ran to her.

"What happened, doll?" demanded Bucky as he placed a hand gingerly on her right shoulder. "Who did this?"

"You," whispered Bella. "That earpiece must have had a recorded message waiting to be played at a particular time. They used the trigger words to get to you and possibly order their Winter Soldier to come back. And maybe, just maybe kill whoever tries to stop you."

"The Winter Soldier beat you up this bad?" Bucky automatically removed his hand from Bella's shoulder.

Bella shifted painfully and let out a groan. Bucky immediately held her back and very gently, as if he was touching a crystal structure, poked her left shoulder. It was dislocated. He looked around for other wounds and realised that there were two major ones. A dislocated shoulder and a cut forehead which definitely needed stitches.

"You were supposed to be asleep for longer," said Bella, "I guess the adrenaline burned the morphine."

"You need to go to the hospital," said Bucky, attempting to pick her up.

"No."

"I wasn't asking."

"No."

Bella caught Bucky's shoulder with her good arm firmly and he had to stop to listen to her.

"They want this," said Bella, pausing for breath. "They will have every hospital under scrutiny. You have to help me with what you can do, here itself. No hospital."

"You will be taken to the hospital by William and he will abandon you there and go to the Hydra. If they want their assassin back, they can have him back, but I will not risk your life. Your shoulder needs treatment. And your forehead needs stitches."