Silence Speaks (Book Two to Silence Series)

Forty-Two

4 days later
"I love you." I kissed Loki and hugged Cooper. I climbed back into the plane and sat in the seat. "Be safe!" Loki shouted before the ramp closed. I waited for them to drive off before I took off.

"Peter should be here by now." I heard Sam stress and Shuri groaned. "Sammy, there was a huge storm on the coast, he's fine." I stepped into the lab. "I don't know, I might've died." I joked and the two whirled around. "Oh thank!" Sam hugged me and Shuri rolled her eyes at him. "There was a giant storm in the coast, I just went over it. I also brought some of Loki's cookies because I know how much Sam loves them." I pulled off my backpack and handed him a bag full of them. "Merry Christmas to me!" Sam walked over to Bucky, who was wide awake and staring at the floor. "Is he okay?" Shuri nodded and grabbed my arm. She pulled me to a secluded part of the lab. "He's been a bit depressed since you left. I think it's the abandonment issues and he's gotten close to you." My eyes widened. "But he knows I didn't abandon him right? I just went to see my family." Shuri nodded and I huffed. "Well then, I'll make sure to visit with him before we put him under. Is the arm finished?" She nodded once more and turned on her heel.

"Hey Buck." He lifted his head and smiled. "You're back." I pulled him into a hug. "The kids really miss you, everyone does. Christmas was weird without you or Sam." He grinned and I pulled out a bag of cookies. "I know Sam will probably eat all of the cookies, but I grabbed an extra bag just for you." "Thank you." He breathed and I smiled softly. "Of course. I'm going to call Steve, update him and let him know our plan of action. I'll be right back." I set my bag by the hospital bed and pulled my phone from my pocket. I clicked Steve's contact and put the phone to my ear. "Hey Pete! You're on speaker, everyone's here." Steve informed and I hummed. "Great, hey guys. Bucky is eating and we're setting up, then we'll get started." I looked to Shuri and she held up two fingers. "Two? Shuri you're going to have to be specific." She huffed. "We start in two minutes." I nodded and craned my neck to look at Bucky. He's leaning against Sam, eating cookies. "Okay, we start in two minutes. Listen, later today we're going to hold a virtual meeting to discuss some things I learned while with Scott. That being said, you are not permitted to share this information with anyone and it will not go into any databases, not even our own. Then, you all will be briefed on this coming up year, some of the things we're going to watch out for. And-" "Pete." I turned and Shuri held out her hand. "That's my cue. I'll talk to you guys soon." I hung up and slid over to her.

"Okay Bucky, we're going to have to pull off the metal plating." He grimaced and reached for Sam's hand. Shuri slowly slid a knife under the metal plating on his shoulder and the metal pulled away from his skin. Bucky yelled out in pain and I bit my lip. "Peter, wrap it." I grabbed gauze off the bed and immediately applied it to the area. "Okay, all done." Shuri assessed Bucky's vitals and I tapped off the wrap. "We're going to let you heal, then we'll fit your new arm on. For now, sit and rest for a few minutes and we'll get started." Bucky leaned against the wall, sweating and grimacing. "Sam is your hand okay?" He breathed and Sam held out his hand to me. "Nothing broken. I think you're good. Buck, since you are a part of the team. I'm going to inform you of some of the things I'm telling the team. Sam you'll just accompany me to the meeting. You don't really have to concern yourself with the missions or the heavy military shit because you won't be available for it, but I know you really want to be there for Steve and Nat when they have their baby. She's due in May and we'll assess your progress then. Then we'll proceed with how we want you meeting the baby. Other than that, you are completely relieved of your duties for now. I just want you to focus on recovering and integrating back into society okay?" He nodded tiredly and I looked back at Shuri.

"Alright Bucky, we're going to start. I am going to put this helmet on your head. It won't hurt and you won't even feel anything. This will allow me to send brainwaves into your brain to disrupt the bombardment of electrical signals. It should kick start the healing of your neurons okay?" He nodded, though he looked a bit confused. "Basically, you're going to have signals going into your brain that will heal the damage Hydra did." I simplified it and he nodded again. "Go ahead." He breathed and Shuri fit the helmet onto his head. She turned it on and the computer to my left lit up. Bucky is out like a light and I leaned forward to shift him into a laying position. "Shuri. That's Ultron code." I pointed out and she nodded. "It is a more complex version yes. This is more organic and will flush out his triggers. I cannot successfully remove all the bad memories, but he will no longer be compelled to react when these words are said. He will have to deal with the psychological damage and he will have some PTSD, especially more so now than what you may have seen." I placed my hand on her shoulder. "I trust you Shuri. In that case, I don't need Stark coming down here because he heard we were using old Ultrom code. I'll keep it under wraps. The same goes for you Sam, you cannot tell anyone what we're doing. They can only know we're fixing him."