Winter (A Bucky Barnes recovery story)

30. Bucky

"We've got to find him." Natasha growls, Bucky had been missing for more than 3 months now and every once in a while they would catch a glimpse, a little alert from J.A.R.V.I.S. A body on the news. The sightings were rare, every two weeks or so. But they could never manage to find him. As everything else seemed dark
J.A.R.V.I.S. alerted them of a sighting. Steve and Nat raced to the place where he was and found him limping away from an alley.

When Bucky turned back to make sure he wasn't being followed, he saw Nat and Steve. He took off running but Steve and Nat had him before he could make it anywhere. Bucky tried to pull away from Steve who was holding both of his wrists. Finally he slumps against Steve and allows himself to be led away.

Nat was relieved to have finally found him but he didn't look that well, he was paler than usual, definitely a lot thinner and he had large bags under his eyes, he had multiple cuts and bruises on his face and there was definitely something wrong with his ankle. He didn't have shoes on and his feet were all cut up and bloody.

"Do you know who we are?" Steve asks quietly, studying Bucky's features.
Bucky remains silent, he somewhat knew who the man was. But every time he tried to remember his head would hurt.

"Please, James." Nat pleas, frowning.
With the word James his head began hurting, leaning forward he clutches his head and shakes.

"James?" Nat asks, worry filling her tone.

"You said, he told you he got headaches when he remembered, right? Well you've probably sparked something, I suggest you just give him some space till he recovers." Sam says from the drivers seat, he glances at Bucky who had gone even paler.

After a while Bucky recovered but neither Nat or Steve said anything more. Once they reached Stark tower Steve gently grabbed Bucky's wrist and began to lead him inside, Bucky followed slowly, his walk uneven.
It was silent, apart from the elevator music obviously chosen by Tony.

"Bruce, you need to take a look at his ankle." Sam says once they reached the floor everyone was on. Bruce nods and
approaches Bucky.

Bucky backs up and bumps into Steve, he frowns slightly but continues to press up against Steve.

"It's okay Bucky, he's a friend. he's going to help you." Steve looked down at the smaller man pressed up against him and frowned, he could see in Bucky's eyes that he was absolutely terrified.

"I just want to take a look at your a ankle. Does it hurt?" Bruce kneels in front of Bucky and studies his ankle without touching it.
Bucky stares at him quietly.

"You've got to tell him or he can't help you." Steve says, he watches Bucky look down at Bruce.

"Uhm. It hurts a lot." Bucky finally mumbles reluctantly.

"That's good to know. Can you come sit down?" Bruce asks.
Bucky nods and slowly limps over to the closest chair. Bruce rolls his pant leg up, eliciting a stifled cry from Bucky.

"Yeah that's definitely bad. This is going to hurt." Bruce says, he gently begins to press on Bucky's ankle. Bucky bites his lip and tries to stifle the agonized noises he was making.

"Well. It's fractured and obviously it's been like this for quite a while. How did you even manage to stand?" Bruce stares up at him with concerned and slightly surprised eyes.

"It didn't hurt unless I thought about it, so I kept myself busy." He replies frowning, the pain was getting to be overwhelming.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. do a scan please." Bruce says.

"Yes." J.A.R.V.I.S. Replies and brings up the scan, Bucky seemed startled by the sudden X-Ray image appearing before him.

"Yeah. It's fractured, you're not to walk on it at all. Understand?" Bruce says, looking up at him.

Bucky nods slowly, his ankle was really beginning to hurt now that he wasn't running for his life.

"Has you're ankle been like this the entire time you were on the streets?" Bruce asks, Bucky hesitates.

"It's been like this for as long as I can remember." He whispers, then shifts uncomfortably in his seat feeling multiple pairs of eyes on him.
Steve walks out and Natasha follows him into the elevator, the doors shut.

"He... He can't remember!" Steve sobs sinking to the floor.

"I know." Natasha sighs, doing what she was so good at; keeping composure.

"I... We had gone so far!" Steve continues to sob into his hands, the salty tears pouring down his cheeks.
"We'll just have to do it again." She whispers, her voice cracking ever so slightly.

"It was so hard last time. Hard on him, hard on us. What if we can't make it. What if we can't help him this time?" Steve frowns.

"I don't know. We just have to be positive." Nat sighs.

A/N: K so I know I haven't updated in forever and I'm sorry. I've had really bad writers block. But I'm back. And I'm not sure how often I'll be posting, but I kind of know where this is going now. So thank you all for reading this. This book has reached over 500 reads and that is spectacular. Thank you all soooo much. It means a lot to me. :)
Love spideymanandloki.