Shattered Thoughts : Book One(Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier)

Chapter 6

  Bucky and Willow were sitting in the living room. Bucky was sitting on the couch, Willow in her wheelchair. She was cleaning the cuts on his back, and they were discussing his favorite color. Willow had told Bucky that her favorite color was green, then she went through all the colors with Bucky, trying to figure out which one was his favorite."

  He was elated to remember that his favorite color was blue! He'd remembered something, as soon as Bucky had remembered, he'd written it down in his notebook. 

 Willow looked at her watch and cursed, "Ugh, I'm late."

 "Late for what?"

"I'll show you, come one," Willow said, heading for the door. Bucky beat her to it, and held the door open for her. He followed her as she went down the wheelchair ramp, and he helped push her wheelchair to a small barn that was set up behind her house. "Get the door please Buck."

  Bucky pulled the door to the side, and followed Willow inside. The interior was dimly lit, and Bucky could see several enclosures. In each enclosure was an animal, Bucky hated seeing anything in a cage, but these creatures seemed fairly content. There was a fox, a raccoon, a crow, and a coyote. 

 "What do you think Buck?"

"Why are they all here?"

"I'm a wildlife rehabilitator. A lot of these animals were injured, I care for them until they're ready to go back into the wild."

 Bucky was secretly glad that Willow planned on freeing the animals.

 "Okay, Bucky, you see that bag of feed over there?" Willow pointed to a burlap sack.  "Pick it up and fill those bowls."

 Bucky did as she told him, wondering how on earth Willow managed to lift it by herself.When he was done filling the dishes, she was reaching down into the foxes pen and stroking his fur. 

"Barnes, come over here."

  The red fox had a cast encasing on of it's legs, and wasn't able to stand on it's own. Willow grabbed Bucky's good hand and positioned his hand on the foxes back, "Just pet him, he won't bite you."

 Bucky ran his fingers through the foxes golden red fur, he could feel the creatures heartbeat through it's skin. He let his hand rest on it's back for a full minute, not realizing that Willow was no longer sitting beside him. It amazed Bucky that something so small could still be alive, and he was helping this creature to survive. 

  Willow was navigating her wheelchair around the barn, feeding the rest of the animals, and checking their injuries. "Hey Buck, looks like today is a big day for everyone."

 "Why," Bucky asked, as he stopped petting the fox cub and stood up. 

 "Because," Willow said, as she reached into the crows cage, "His wing has healed, he's ready to fly free." The black crow perched on Willow's hand, and she ran her finger down it's back.

  She wheeled out of the barn and into the cool morning air. "Here, why don't you set him free?" Willow grabbed Bucky's right wrist, and allowed the bird to hop onto his hand. 

 Bucky struggled to keep his hands steady, he didn't want to accidentally crush the bird. 

 "Just toss him up in the air, he'll fly home."

 Gently, Bucky tossed the bird, it started to plummet but then began to flap it's wings and it took off soaring into the air. 

 "See Bucky, your hands aren't always used to hurt people. Today you've used them to set an animal free."