Phoenix Fire (Book 2 in the Winter's Series)

Chapter Twelve: House on the River

"Take it off then." He says in all seriousness and I stumble for words. Sitting up I start to unzip the suit and before I get down far enough to see anything rated R he covers my upper half with a sheet. Providing for my modesty huh? I internally chuckle at his action. I remove the suit completely but cover myself with a quilted blanket for my dignity by wrapping it around my body and securing it to my chest.

"Okay, I'm ready. Just warn me before you take it-" I don't even have time to finish speaking before he pulls the shard from my leg. "JESUS YOU COULD HAVE WARNED ME FIRST!"

"Oh I'm sorry are you making demands now?" He retorts while working on my injury with one hand. I would complain of pain but I'm too exhausted to really comprehend pain. "Try and get some sleep, I'll wake you up later." He says and it's not really a fight as I close my heavy lids and drift off to sleep.

------

I slowly blink my eyes, the room is still dark and I've been moved to some kind of cot. How long have I been asleep? Where's Bucky? I slowly sit up wincing slightly. My leg hurts, it should have healed by now. Something is wrong, very wrong. I look down at my leg and lift the bandage. Infection has taken over as my veins turn dark purple, almost black at my injury site. Pus leaks from the stitches and the sutures are angry red with inflammation. It smells like rotting flesh and it's nauseating.

"B-Bucky?" I say still in shock from my wound. I don't know why I'm not healing? Was the glass shard coated in something? I try to get up but I can't move.

"Bucky?!" I try again but I still get no answer. Where could he be?

"Stop shouting I'm right over here." He says from the recliner in the corner. I didn't notice it before.

"I think somethings wrong. I'm not healing and my wound is infected."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is look-" I say lifting the blanket and showing him my perfectly fine thigh. "What? Just a second ago....I swear it was-" I ramble on in disbelief.

"Hmm you still have stitches, maybe your healing factor is delayed." Stitches? but it's perfectly normal now... I blink hard and when I open my eyes I do see stitches but no infection.

"Something's not right. I think maybe I've been poisoned. Maybe there was something coating the glass shard." I hypothesize while tracing the stitches. "I'm going to call Jesse, my contact from before. Maybe he can take a look at it and possibly fix your arm."

"Jesse?"

"Yeah you've met him before, you just don't remember it yet. He's harmless so do try to be hospitable towards him." I say standing and wobbling over to the duffel on the ground. I rummage through the contents and pull out the sat phone. Dialing Jesse's number I wait for him to answer.

"Yello, this is Jesse."

"Jess, it's Eden. I need your help. I think I've been poisoned and my friend here has lost the use of his arm. Can you maybe come and take a look?"

"Eden? It's been a while since I saw you. But, I'll always make time for my girl, where you at love?" He says in his sassy yet comforting voice.

"Uh we're at..." I say stopping before covering the mouth piece. "Psst, where are we exactly?" I ask with bug eyes staring into Bucky.

"New York." He answers reclining in his chair.

"Where in New York?" I ask slightly frustrated by his vague answer.

"Near the Brooklyn bridge in a floating house."

"Oh come on be serious." I say rolling my eyes.

"Look out of the window." I get up and go over to the window and sure enough we are on the water. It's not exactly two stories. The first floor is kind of inches above the water while the floor we are on is a three feet off of the water. So really it's a step a big step. The house itself is rather small as it's 400 square feet in total.

"Uh Jess we are near the Brooklyn bridge on the water. Small floating house, if you come at night I can come pick you up.."

"That's okay love, I have means of transportation. I'm in Queens currently so you're lucky I'm so close. I'll be there in a little while. I'll bring the goods too. " He says with his natural southern charm.

"Thanks Jesse."

"No problem, I'll see you later love."

"Okay, bye bye."

"Bye." The phone call ends and my stomach growls loudly. I feel my face flush with embarrassment.

"There's food in the kitchen." Bucky says without moving or looking at me.

"You cook?" I ask in astonishment.

"You don't?" he replies

"Not really."

"You should probably learn."

"YoU sHoUlD pRoBaBlY lEaRn." I mock all nasally while I hobble to the tiny kitchen area. There on the small stove top is a pot of tomato basil soup. I dish some out into a bowl and dig in. It tastes so good that I have a second bowl. Afterwards I set out a bowl for Jesse so he can eat when he arrives. On my way back to the couch I peak outside of the window to see a boat heading our way. But it's not Jesse's signature red boat, this is a tactical boat and they're headed straight for our home.

"Buck, we got company and it's not the southern kind."