The Black Winter

Chapter 22

Bucky's pov
  "She's not a monster! This is what happens when you can't control your powers and start prying your way into peoples minds!" I snap.

  "She was just trying to help Buck," Steve says in a defensive mode.

  "At what cost Steve? You guys always talk about how Joan can't be trusted. You knew her for a year! A fucking year guys! And then Rose came and you all sided with her and made Joan sound like the bad guy!" I yell. I have my arms wrapped around her, I was ready to protect her at all costs. I wasn't going to let them get to her.

  "She didn't tell us what she was," Tony chimes in.

  "What? What she is?" I ask in disbelief, how could he use that term for her?

  "Buck, what if she's working for Hydra still? Why does she wear that mask? Why does she dress like them?" Steve asks.

  "Clearly, you guys haven't noticed that she has ripped all and any Hydra logo's. Look at her arm!" I yell, lifting up the sleeve. I had only now just realized that she was unconscious.

  Nonetheless, I show them the scrapes on her metal arm where a red star was once painted on. It wasn't fully gone but there are marks and scratches, showing that she tried to get it off.

  "So what? That thing is how old?" Tony asks.

  "She tried to get it off. She tried to part herself from them! She has taken down how many hydra bases in the last eight months? She is not a monster! All of you guys just don't give her a chance! And really Rose, don't go calling her a monster when you have killed just like her," I state, fuming with anger.

  I pick Joan up bridal style and right as I'm about to walk out the door, Steve speaks up.

  "Rose didn't have a choice Buck, she was ripped away from her family," Steve says.

  "Ask Joan how she got to Hydra, they did a little more then rip her away from her family," I say through my teeth.

  "Bucky wait," Natasha says.

  I turn around to face her.

  "I'm with you, we can't be treating her like this. She's been helping us from the start. We have no right to call her a monster, because if your calling her a monster then your calling me and Bucky a monster. She trained us, I owe Joan my life," Natasha says.

  "I agree, we need to stay on task. Besides, none of this was her fault. She was brainwashed just like Bucky, just like Rose. She didn't have a say, so why are we acting like she did?" Clint chimes in.

  I look down to Joan's resting figure, watching as her chest slowly rises and falls. All I want to do is help her, all I want for her is to be safe and the two of us to going back to being friends, and maybe more.

"Look, we'll do a better job of treating her better. But we know Roses past, there's very little on Joan, not only that, but we know that Rose didn't kill more than fifty men. How many did Joan kill?" Tony goes on.

"She needs to rest," I reply, walking out of the door, walking out of the conversation.

Once we're back to my room, I pull back the covers and lay her down. I pull the covers up to her face and she immediately curls up. As weird as it sounds, I love watching her sleep. It was the only time that she ever seemed at peace, she always curled up into a ball, tightly wrapping her arms around her legs.

I grab one of the loose strands of her black hair and place it behind her ear. I gently close the door, looking back one last time before I close it and leave.

Joan's pov
All I could hear were screams. Nothing but crying and screaming. It was like I was in hell, all the ungodly noises. Except, instead of fire, it was ice and snow.

I'm in the middle of a snowy desert with people surrounding me. All of them have some sort of wound on them. Whether it be a bullet hole to the head, or various slashes on their bodies. They're all screaming, it's starting to become too much. Until, it becomes too much.

I could hear their thought. They were all screaming. In each persons head was the way that they all died. They were all replaying their deaths. I couldn't help but drop to my knees, clutching onto my head. I was bent over with tears streaming down my face. It's too much, too much, too much, too much, too much. No no no no no no no no no.

I sit up with a scream. I am covered in sweat. I want nothing more than to disappear and die. It's, it's all too much.

"Hey, it's ok Joan. I need you to lay back down."

I whip my head around to see Bucky and immediately I can feel tears well up in my eyes and I do the unthinkable. I burst out into tears. I turn my head back around and bring my knees into my chest. Bucky holds me as I cry into him.

I would be lying if I told you I was a pretty crier. The truth is, it was ugly. I could feel the snot from my nose run down my nose and past my mouth. I couldn't help but hiccup, and wheeze as I cried.

I had a death grip on Bucky's shirt, I couldn't let go. I can't. He won't leave me. He wouldn't. He promised all those years ago. He wouldn't leave me. He promised. He promised.