Terrified

Her Story

Bucky's blood ran cold, ice cold. His breathing stopped as he repeated the name in his head. Rumlow. No. It couldn't be. The man that brought the most pain and suffering to Bucky in Hydra was the same man that was living in such close proximity to the Avengers and was inflicting incredible pain on this little angel. He clenched his jaw and tried to control his want to kill that monster.

"He was awful," Amy continued after stating her boyfriend's name, "I don't know when he started becoming violent towards me but at some point he did." Amy went into detail about beatings, rapes, screamfests he took out on her, the times she tried to change him and times she tried to run where he would catch her and bring her back again.

"Doll," Bucky began as he held tight to her, both of them now laying down on the bed, heads on the pillows. They never noticed when that had happened but at some point it had, "what happened the night you ran here? What was different?" Amy took a deep breath.

"I was pregnant," she stated. Bucky's body went rigid. Oh God, he thought, no. He tightened his grip on her, his arms coiling around her like a boa constrictor. "I had the baby. He was angry that it was a girl. I gave birth to her at home. Brock didn't let me see doctors. I only got to have her for three days. I named her Caroline. Brock came in the room while I was feeding her and he said I didn't deserve to have her because I couldn't do anything right. He took her from my arms and...he...he...he was wearing his boots...he...he stomped on her head, it only took once. I-I tried to put her back together, I-I tried to fix her, I tried so hard to save her but I-I..." Amy's sobs overtook her. Bucky could only pull her in as tight as he possibly could. The blood on her hands that first night was finally explained. "He slapped me after," she continued, "he told me I would get it right the next time and give him a boy or he'd kill me. I ran right after he passed out in the living room from drinking." Bucky didn't know what to say or do. All he could do was try to soothe her and make her feel as safe as possible in his arms.

"Baby, I'm right here, you're safe," he said to her over and over. He let her cry in his arms for what felt like ten minutes before he soothed her enough to have her listen to him. "We gotta take you back to the Doc, he's gotta look at you since you just had a baby. He's gotta make sure you're okay." Amy nodded hesitantly and allowed Bucky to lift her off the bed and into his arms.

He called out to Doctor Strange in the medical ward and told him what she had just revealed. The doc immediately set up the equipment necessary to check out and ensure that she wasn't needing further medical treatment. Bucky stayed by her head, holding her hand and looking into her eyes, giving her small, sweet kisses on her face to distract her from the fact that there was a man she barely knew looking at her privates. She could barely relax enough for Doctor Strange to be able to give her a proper examination because she was tense from the doc touching her. Bucky could sense the doctor was becoming frustrated by the deep breaths he kept taking so Bucky did his best to relax Amy. Amy told Strange that she hadn't ever seen a doctor through her entire pregnancy and that she delivered at 7 months.

"Sweetheart, look at me," Bucky whispered to her seeing that her eyes were darting all around the room now and Amy did as he said, "You gotta try to relax sweet girl. I know it's hard, but I'm right here. I'm not going to let you go, I'm right here." He cradled her head to the crook of his neck, his metal hand holding her small one. He kept whispering soothing things in her ear, relaxing her more and more as he did. Strange was able to finish his examination and gave his conclusion to Amy once she was decent.

"Alright it looks like you had a very smooth delivery," Strange explained, "Which is amazing considering that you delivered at home and without having any doctors appointments as you told me. It helps that she baby wasn't full term so that's most likely why you didn't tear. However, considering what you've been through, I would like you to be at rest for a few weeks. Pregnancy is already a difficult thing to go through in itself, adding that you've been abused and under extreme stress, you body could have more damage than what we can see." Strange took a breath to let everything sink in. "So," he continued after a few beats, "if you don't mind Bucky waiting on you hand a foot, I would like you to stay in bed as much as possible and only walk for about an hour a day and only at a slow strolling pace, just to keep your muscles working. I'll come in and check on you daily and after a few weeks, we can go from there. Sound good?" Strange looked at her with soft eyes and Amy looked to Bucky who just gave her a reassuring smile which made Amy look back to Strange and nod meekly.

The three weeks went by a little slower than Amy would have wanted, but she did enjoy Bucky's company who was there every single day, helping her with her slow walks. She would loop an arm around his and he would take her on slow strolls through the gardens that were near the compound (Tony had insisted on having a place where you lose yourself among flowers). Every once in a while, he would hold her hand across his body and wrap his arm around her waist in order to keep her more steady and to bring her closer to him. They would talk about little things like the sight of a fat bumblebee looking for nectar from the orchids and roses and they would talk about heavy subjects, like what happened to Bucky in Hydra and what happened to Amy while she was dating Rumlow. There were lots of tears on her part while Bucky fought to keep his tears in check. He decided that he was going to be the strong one for her and not let her see him cry. He didn't want her to feel as though she needed to heal or help him. He was doing that on his own with this therapist (who Bucky would encourage Amy to see but she refused, saying she wasn't ready for that yet). The two of them became closer and closer and at the end of the three weeks, she was ready to go back to work as the Avengers little helper.