puppet | barnes

4.0

4.1

S C O T T  L A N G
" i' m  k i n d  o f  a  b i g  d e a l "
micro / macro

~

She opened her eyes to see a corridor with lights on both sides of the roof. Her eyes wandered down to the seats on either side of her. The small team was there: Sam, Bucky, and the friend, Scott. She assumed Steve was piloting, and was a little confused why Bucky wasn't with him.

Sam noticed her, first, and nudged Bucky. Scott looked over as Bucky knelt beside her.

She furrowed her brow.

She looked at her hands, still swollen from the medicine — though the swelling would be purged from her body soon enough.

She had a bandage where the IV would've been.

She tried to sit up and was hit with a wall of pain, and Bucky helped her down.

It was quiet. She opened her mouth.

"No," Bucky said, seriously. "Don't talk. Don't try."

He sat beside her on the floor and helped her to slowly sit up. He pulled her hand to him and closed his hands around hers.

"I'm not sure what you remember," he began. He explained it all — the accident, the surgery, what it meant, and what would happen or not.

She remembered and visualized being thrown into the steering wheel. She blacked out before the ditch.

"He said you shouldn't even try to talk for the first two weeks, to let the cords heal. He gave me some lines for you to practice when it's time. He said there's a chance you'll never speak again, Rosy, and you have to prepare yourself for that."

She wanted so bad to tell him that this couldn't be true, that she'd wake up any minute and that he shouldn't worry, that they would be able to fight. Instead, she kept her mouth sealed and felt the bandage that wrapped around her neck. She watched his hand around hers, and the team watched her.

She felt so far away.

Eventually, she stood and went to the restroom. In it, she locked the door. She took off the bandage and threw it away. She looked at the cut, stitched up.

It was a gnarled tear from the seat belt, sewn up after surgery. A tear fell, and then they didn't stop falling. The door threw itself back and her mind began to pull combat items off the wall and to the ground. Teeth grit, she wanted to break the unbreakable tools. She wanted to be unbreakable, and would try to ruin what was.

Bucky came running to the back rooms and she avoided him with the destruction. He stood in front of her and took her face in his hands, forcing her to stop, to look at him. The items fell and she unclenched her fists.

He wiped her hot tears and kissed her face where they once fell and stained her skin red.

He kissed her cheeks and forehead, and held her against his bruised chest. She sobbed, silently, into him.

"It'll be okay, I promise. We'll figure it out. We always do. It'll be okay, Rosy, I promise."

~