The Hurt And The Healing: Bucky X OC

Chapter Forty Five: Heaven

TW: Medical content, gore, blood, needles

"You're going to burn a path in the carpet if you keep pacing," Nonna said without looking up from her sewing.

I'll burn this whole place to the ground if it gets him back sooner, Mara thought to herself. She ignored the chiding and looked out the window into the woods. Thanks to Shuri's gift of a Wakandan jet, they were able to finally leave Nizakgrad. Oeznik opted to stay behind and tend to the estate while the others moved to be closer to where the satellites had detected Bucky's arm. The metal had only been picked up for a few minutes, but it was enough. Unsurprisingly, Zemo had a small bunker within fifty miles of the location, an unassuming cabin in the woods with enough supplies and room to house half a dozen people, an armory, a missile detection system, and even a small library.

After two days of frantic planning Sam and Zemo had left Nonna and Mara behind with assurances that they would return with Bucky or at least a better idea of where he was. Mara had almost asked to go along with them so she could tend to his injuries immediately, but the thought of leaving Nonna alone and defenseless stopped that idea. So she compromised by ensuring that everything was ready for when they came back. God only knew what condition Bucky would be in after two months with those monsters, and she did not want to be caught unprepared.

She thought of the bandages, the morphine, the scalpels, the blood, knowing that any minute now they were going to burst in like bats out of hell, looking bloody and beaten but alive dammit they had better be alive.

"And you're sure the refrigerator was on when you checked the blood bags?" Mara asked for the fifth time that night. Nonna nodded.

"Yes, I'm sure. And the sterilized tools were properly stored and the entire kitchen disinfected," she recited calmly. "We're as ready as we'll ever be."

Mara ignored the reassurances and hurried to the kitchen to wash her hands in burning hot water again. She scrubbed at every crevice and cranny, making sure that nothing was in her nails that she had cut to the quick. The differences between this and every other surgery she had been a part of were numerous, but that didn't mean she was going to let her standards slide.

"Mara?" A voice crackled over the coms. She ran back into the room as Nonna snatched the receiver up.

"I'm here!" Mara replied, Nonna staring at her as they listened. "Do you have him?"

"Yeah, but we're coming in hot!" Sam yelled. Someone cursed in the background and an explosion shook her to her core. "You'd better be ready for us!"

Mara looked to Nonna and the two women sprang into action, ripping open the bags that sealed the tools and dunking them in rubbing alcohol to keep them sterile. They checked and rechecked everything, from the sheet that covered the kitchen table subbing in for an operating table to the lamp in the corner perfectly angled to illuminate every tool at Mara's disposal.

Too soon and yet not soon enough the sound of the jet flying overhead and then landing drowned out any noise in the room. Nonna ran to the door to hold it open as Mara washed her hands one more time before snapping on gloves.

Sam and Zemo burst into the cabin, carrying Bucky between them. They hauled him onto the kitchen table where the bright lights could shine directly onto him. Mara took one look and audibly gasped.

The bruises on his face and body were a horrifying range of colors that made his skin appear to be rotting. His hair was caked with dried and fresh blood and his nose was broken into a lump. His lips were tinged blue and no amount of noise seemed to be enough to make him open his eyes. He was barely clothed, revealing massive gashes and a large dark pool of internal bleeding on his side. The tendons in his calves had been sliced and his left fibula was broken. His right hand was mangled and the arm was snapped in at least three places. Yellow puss seeped from the angry and hot wounds, mixing with the blood that continued to flow despite coagulation. His ribs were angled strangely beneath his paper thin skin and as he struggled to get in enough air Mara watched his chest barely rise and fall.