One Day ~Bucky Barnes~

Chapter 15: Readjusting

"Because I couldn't sleep and I wanted to know you were safe."

Jacqueline smiles, "Well thank you for looking out for me and we'll talk about this later. Now come on, I'm going to introduce you to a fantastic thing called coffee." She states and pulls Bucky into the kitchen.

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The first month was an adjustment for Bucky. He rarely spoke and when he did it was only to Jacqueline, usually when they were alone or during one of their Therapy sessions. The sessions proved to be slow moving and somewhat helpful. Jacqueline tried to get Bucky to tell her about the memories that he'd remembered but he refused to talk about them, saying they were too dark and would scar her for life. So instead of prying it out of him Jacqueline encouraged him to write them down. Jacqueline tried to help Bucky readjust back into society and talked to him gently. Most times Bucky would just listen to her talk but occasionally he'd say a sentence or two.

Aside from getting Bucky to talk, he had difficulty sleeping. Most times he couldn't sleep at all because of nightmares. Jacqueline tried to help him the best she could and got him to stop sleeping by her door. Instead he slept on the couch, an exact 20 feet away from Jacqueline's room, so he could still keep her safe. When he did manage to get a couple of hours he woke up screaming and thrashing.

"Bucky," Jacqueline calls trying to wake him up, "Wake up it's okay."

After more yelling and shaking Bucky finally woke up by pinning Jacqueline to the floor. Once Bucky realized what he'd down he sat quickly back up and started to pace back and forth muttering under his breath.

"Bucky," Jacqueline says making her way over to him.

"No go away," Bucky cries, "I don't want to hurt you."

"You're not going to hurt me." Jacqueline reasures giving Bucky a hug.

Bucky is slow to return it but eventually puts his right arm around Jacqueline, still fearing that his metal arm would hurt her. Jacqueline sighs and brings his other arm around her back. The rest of the night Jacqueline sits and holds Bucky as he cries as she tries to reassure him that he's good and not responsible for his actions as the winter soldier. Bucky doesn't listen to Jacqueline a mutters the reply that it was still him.

Hydra's hold on Bucky reached past his sleep habits and into his daily life. Jacqueline noticed Bucky had a habit of giving her a knife every time she was in the same room to her. She later found out that Hydra had Bucky arm his handlers who weren't already armed so that if they wanted to they could put him down at anytime. Jacqueline had brought it up in there next therapy session.

"It's a smart Idea." Bucky states. "If I try to hurt you, you have the means to protect yourself."

"Bucky," Jacqueline groans holding both hands, "You're not going to hurt me. I trust you and I'm not going to stop until you trust yourself too."

And although Bucky didn't speak much, didn't mean he just sat around. He trained with everyone else, much to the frustration of Tony, who still was wary of him.

Bucky was in the gym punching the punching bag when he threw a punch too hard sending the bag flying across the room.

"Hey Metallica," Tony shouts walking in, "Take it easy on the bag will you. Between you and Cap you're going through these bags like there water. It's like you think I'm made out of money."

"Aren't you though Tony?" A voice says behind them.

Standing there is Jacqueline with her arms crossed sending a slight glare Tony's way. "Hahaha, very funny Jack." Tony replies sarcastically and begins to walk out, "I mean it about the bags though."