Burning Heart - Bucky Barnes x Reader

Part 3

1,500 words

It seemed to go by faster than anything before. Your heart was beating rapidly against your ribcage with excitement for your next patient, and a thin layer of sweat had gathered upon your forehead. It was hour six of you working nonstop and adrenaline was coursing through your veins. You were having so much fun despite the lack of communication between you and your patients. But everything played out smoothly.

Nancy was always within your vicinity, therefore she would speak to the patients about their circumstances. She always gave a brief summary of your condition to clear confusion but she never went so far as to explain every detail. It was just one of your requests. You didn't want anyone doubting your capabilities because of your predetermined state.

It was the last day of your first week working as a nurse at the military base and you couldn't ask for anything more. Everything was running smoothly at your job all week, curing soldiers of common colds, cuts, gashes, and giving the occasional vaccine if Bridget or Kathleen weren't available. You'd even overheard a few soldiers talking amongst one another about you being the favorite nurse out of all five of you.

It was about 7:30 in the evening and every other nurse except for you had gone home. You offered to assist a young soldier who had a stomach bug before you went home - well across the military base to the tent you shared with the other girls. You ushered the soldier outside the medical unit - silently of course - once you diagnosed him, and were cleaning up when you heard faint stumbling outside the unit. There was grunting and groaning, and the rustling of leaves underneath someone's feet.

You slowly walked away from your equipment and turned around, walking in the direction of the sound, but a sharp cry broke through the temporary silence and you broke from your daze. You pushed through the opening of the tent and jogged into the trees. The base was vacant and it seemed as if everyone had gone to their tents for the night. You picked up the pace once the groans became louder and your heart shattered into a thousand pieces at the sight in front of you.

It was a soldier who looked to be about thirty, with blood pooling out of his side and dripping across his fingers, scratches donning his entire face along with a large gash across the side of his forehead. It almost cut through his left eyebrow and it looked like blood was threatening to ooze into his left eye. He was leaning down; his body about to collapse into a heap on the ground and that's when you raced into action.

With legs moving at record speed and the pins in your hair falling out of place, you rushed over to the man, your brain neurons firing faster than you could process the information. Panic settled in your stomach as you thought of how you could get the soldier back to camp. You couldn't tell him who you were or that you weren't going to hurt him. You shook your head and decided to just let his reaction lead you to the solution.

His head lifted upon hearing your feet hit the ground with every stride you took, and you swore you could see relief flood through his body, even if it only lasted for a nanosecond. That's when you saw his facial features and your knees involuntarily grew weak. He was gorgeous. Probably the prettiest man you had ever come across. His blue, almost gray eyes were clouded with pain and worry, his nose was fairly small, and his lips were full and pink, and slightly chapped from what you assumed was nervous biting and licking. His jawline was so strong it was almost overwhelming to look at, but it made your heart break even more - seeing this beautiful broken man about to fall to the ground in pain.

Your strides shortened once you came near him and you caught him mid-fall. You hooked your arms underneath his underarms and hoisted him up using all the strength you had left from a whole day's work. He weighed much more than you had originally anticipated but you never let yourself give up. Once he was standing semi-straight again, your turned and laid his right arm across your shoulders. You wrapped your left arm around his waist and began assisting him in walking back to the medical unit.

You took a deep breath and chose to use one of the only tactics you could to calm him down. "Shhh." It was all you could do but it seemed to be enough to control his erratic breathing. Your heart rate sped up when you felt the fingers of his left hand lay across yours. You smiled and continued guiding him toward the tent.

You carefully laid him across the exam table and put a finger up, signaling that you'd be back soon. You headed to the washroom and scrubbed your hands for a solid minute before rushing back into the room where the soldier laid, eyes closed and lips parted slightly. He was asleep and the sight of it warmed your heart. His chest was moving up and down so all your worries about him possibly being dead disintegrated and you smiled.

The first thing you did was rid him of all his military gear and his shirt, leaving him in cargo pants and dog tags. You would check those later. Right now, there were more important things that needed to be tended to. You took a deep breath and began cleansing his main wound of dirt and grime. After a few seconds, you heard him inhale deeply and glanced up, watching as his eyes opened and blinked a couple of times before focusing on you. It must've stung otherwise he would have remained asleep.

You mouthed the word 'sorry' with an apologetic look on your face and he shook his head, the tiniest smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"It's okay, doll."

The pet name forced a smile upon your face and you proceeded cleaning his wounds. After a few minutes, the main wound was stitched and wrapped, and you were moving onto the gash on the left side of his forehead. It only took you a few minutes to wipe away the blood and bandage the slice. You decided, in the end, it didn't need stitches and made sure no blood went into his blue eyes. Offering the kindest smile you could muster up to encourage him, you merely cleaned the tiny cuts that littered his face and pulled your rubber gloves off with a smile.

You dusted off your hands and gently reached for his dog tags, somewhat scared to read the name, but at the same time, filled with adrenaline because of who this could be. You ran your fingertips across the plate and read the name, more than once, letting it repeat itself inside your head.

James B. Barnes.

You recognized it faintly, but no major bells rang.

You smiled and rested the tags back on his chest before smiling at the soldier. Reaching behind you, you grabbed a small slip of paper and a pen and placed it on the table beside you.

Nice to meet you, James. My name is (Y/N), I'll be your nurse for the remainder of the time you stay here.

You handed him the small sheet of paper and watched his eyes flick across the paper as he read the hand-written words. A small, subconscious smile formed on his face as he read the words and the paper remained in the same place as he looked up at you.

"Call me Bucky."

You smiled and nodded, mouthing the name with butterflies in your stomach and shaking your head at yourself.

Sorry, I can't speak. Otherwise, I would correct myself and give you a proper introduction.

He read the words and frowned softly, letting the sentence process itself in his brain before furrowing his brow. "You don't need to apologize, (Y/N)."

Normally, I have someone else who would communicate with the soldiers for me, but the other nurses left for the night. I'll try my best to make this easy for both of us.

You smiled as you handed him the paper again, and felt relief flood through you. You were successfully communicating with a wounded soldier and he wasn't annoyed by your method. Most people got tired of reading your handwriting after three times but he seemed genuinely interested in what you had to say, even if you couldn't literally say it.

"Sounds good, sweetheart."

You almost shivered at the pet name and let an ear-splitting grin form on your face to show how much you cared. You had no idea that you would be the only nurse to treat the wounded soldier for the rest of both your careers.