Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Twenty: The Nurse & The Patient - The First Metal Arm

Finally they are ready to take it a step further. They are to start fitting the electronics.

Because you and Stefan are now aware of the details of the project you are both recruited to assist where needed. You want to not just so the patient won't be alone, but so that you can learn more about what they are doing to him. The more you know the better it will be for you and for him, because who knows if James is in there somewhere buried deep.

There is still a small bit of you that clings to that hope.

First they open up his shoulder, then add a tube of some type of metal you have never seen before. It is placed over the end of what is left of the bone and then driven straight up into the shoulder. That, they tell you, is the anchor point. They have to anaesthetise him for this and the future operations as the modifications will involve hours of painstaking surgery.

Next whilst the shoulder is open, they begin inserting the electronics into the bone and muscle. Each time they operate it is a learning experience for them all. Nothing like this has been done before. You can see the toll it takes on the surgeons doing the work, but you have no sympathy for them, none at all. A lot of the work is close up, requires much finesse, tying in human nerves to metal filaments and plastic fibres. It is technology well beyond anything you or your father's old magazines could ever have imagined.

Then they build and add to it. Small steps. You do not understand the glowing blue power source but you know it is going to be powerful. You watch as they carefully insert it, making sure that it will always be accessible; after all, they will need to know they can take it way from him should they choose to.

Or if they have to take him down.

There were arguments at the beginning. And because you had finally been let into the secret of the new project you were there for them. You and Stefan had no say in the matter but you watched both sides carefully and realised there was a divide even here.

It was simple enough for you to understand: two arms have been created. The argument was which arm would they fit.

You see the plans, see the arms themselves. The main circuity of the arm will more or less contain the same electronics no matter which arm they go with, but the builds themselves are different. Both have potential. The new arms could almost be thought of as impressive if you didn't know the cost paid by the wearer.

The first arm, developed by the European team, consists of overlapping metal plates, similar to the shell of an anteater, that would protect the electronics inside. At the end of this arm is a single round plate consisting of a port which different instruments can be fitted into.

The second, developed by the Russian team, is made of metal circular discs like thick bracelets linked in a downward patter of chevrons, enabling the arm to be flexible. This outer covering would cover the electronics. The arm ends with a metal hand which is made of the same circular metal bracelets, allowing the hand to bend and move as a normal hand would.

It is the first one that wins favour. That is the one they decide to go with.

Once all the electronics are fitted, the patient is ready for the complete arm to be fitted. They take the necessary steps and then it is done. So far the arm ends in just the port, with no implements fitted. Not yet.

You realise from the first day that the arm is complete that the patient does not feel comfortable with it. He does not like it at all, and by the third day his reactions to it are beginning to disturb you.

He won't use it and the doctors do not know why.

He ignores it completely.

At their request you ask him why, but he does not answer you. He will not even look at you. You ask him to flex the arm, nothing. A doctor reaches out and holds the arm up. There is power there, but as soon as he lets it go the patient allows it to drop back to his side.