I don't think I can remember the last time I saw someone so close to snapping. The fact that there isn't a who or what for Bucky to snap at just makes things worse. There is, however, a matter more pressing even than Bucky's current state, and that's Jason's.
"How are you feeling, son?" I ask the young man now relegated to the next bed over. I keep my voice down- now that the activity has calmed down, I don't want to disturb Mr. Desmond's sleep across the room. The man needs it.
"What do you need?" Water, food, a decade of counseling. It's astounding the things people are put through, sometimes put themselves through. To experience this kind of trauma ever, let alone more than once, and all before you're even an adult... It makes more and more sense why Bucky and Jason have fallen in together.
"I don't, uh..." Despite the painkillers snaking thick, warm lines through his veins, Jason's as wide eyed as when Bucky helped pull him from the ground, head packed full and empty at the same time, and he can't...figure out what the hell it is he's meant to need.
"I don't need anything," he says, and all the same he can't look away from Bucky. For long, long moments, throughout the entire casting process even, Jason had thought the set to Bucky's jaw was anger, that he'd been rescued from the earth only to have blame heaped on him instead, too many years spent under a man who treated every injury like a failure to believe otherwise. And yet, looking now, Jason begins to see it differently. Bucky might not talk to him, might not say what Jason wants to hear, but right now he sees it. Bucky's pissed, and it's because he cares. So Jason looks, watches like a man starving, observes all the things that Bruce never let him see. He's still shaking, nerves scraped so raw that even the warmth of drugs can't soothe them, and he fists
( ... )
Bucky snorts, though there's nothing funny about the situation. His gaze flicks back over to Steve, meeting his old partner's eyes for just a moment as if to say, Sound familiar? It's strange, he thinks, being the only one in the room without injury when so often in his youth it was the other way around. As a member of the Invaders, he'd been unique, the only one without powers, and while that made him all the more dangerous, a constant target for underestimation, he was more susceptible to injury than the others. Not that he ever let that stop him, not for long; they had a war to fight. There was always somewhere else to be, some other battle to wage; he's a quick healer out of necessity.
But there's no necessity here. There's nowhere else to be. Jason can do what Bucky never got the chance to, and take the time to heal -- at least physically. Mentally, of course, is a different story, and for good reason; how do you ever get over being buried alive? The kid's shaking like a leaf, doped up on painkillers. The opposite of okay"Bull
( ... )
"Just take it easy," I say- to Jason, although he's not the only one who could stand to heed the advice.
"You're probably dehydrated and in shock. You just went through a hell of an ordeal, Jason. I know it might be hard to focus, but your body's going to tell you what it needs- probably a lot of water and rest. Bucky and I are both right here, even if a doctor's not on hand, so don't hesitate, Jason, to let us know."
Comments 24
"How are you feeling, son?" I ask the young man now relegated to the next bed over. I keep my voice down- now that the activity has calmed down, I don't want to disturb Mr. Desmond's sleep across the room. The man needs it.
"What do you need?" Water, food, a decade of counseling. It's astounding the things people are put through, sometimes put themselves through. To experience this kind of trauma ever, let alone more than once, and all before you're even an adult... It makes more and more sense why Bucky and Jason have fallen in together.
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"I don't need anything," he says, and all the same he can't look away from Bucky. For long, long moments, throughout the entire casting process even, Jason had thought the set to Bucky's jaw was anger, that he'd been rescued from the earth only to have blame heaped on him instead, too many years spent under a man who treated every injury like a failure to believe otherwise. And yet, looking now, Jason begins to see it differently. Bucky might not talk to him, might not say what Jason wants to hear, but right now he sees it. Bucky's pissed, and it's because he cares. So Jason looks, watches like a man starving, observes all the things that Bruce never let him see. He's still shaking, nerves scraped so raw that even the warmth of drugs can't soothe them, and he fists ( ... )
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But there's no necessity here. There's nowhere else to be. Jason can do what Bucky never got the chance to, and take the time to heal -- at least physically. Mentally, of course, is a different story, and for good reason; how do you ever get over being buried alive? The kid's shaking like a leaf, doped up on painkillers. The opposite of okay"Bull ( ... )
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"You're probably dehydrated and in shock. You just went through a hell of an ordeal, Jason. I know it might be hard to focus, but your body's going to tell you what it needs- probably a lot of water and rest. Bucky and I are both right here, even if a doctor's not on hand, so don't hesitate, Jason, to let us know."
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