Cry of Rage

The only sound coming to Bucky’s ears was the distance sound of Gwen screaming. He looked in every direction before he made his choice and ran down the hallway to his right. As he ran he could hear her screams becoming louder and louder. With every step he took her screams echoed in his ears and made his heart break.

Finally he came to the end of the hall and a steel door stood in his way. Gwen’s screams were coming from the other side of the door. With his left arm Bucky pushed the door back and when it was opened he blotting into the room. What he saw what not what he was expecting.

Gwen was strapped down to the Winter Soldier chair. He ran over to her and tried everything he could to shut the machine off. Punching out the computer screen, ripping cords and wires out of their places, then the screams stopped and the machine died. Turning his attention back to Gwen, Bucky pulled the head piece off of her and broke the metal restraints that held her down.

“Gwen. Come on, babydoll. Wake up.”

He told her as he cupped her face in his hands. Gwen’s face was unchanging. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was open slightly.

“Babydoll, come on.”

He said in a voice above a whisper as he looked down at her face. He could feel tears welling up behind his eyes as he looked at her unmoving body. Slowly Gwen’s brown eyes flickered open and looked up at him with a blank emotionless stare.

“Gwen?”

“Who?”

From behind them Bucky heard a laugh. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as it echoed throughout the room. Whipping his head around Bucky saw Arnim Zola standing in the doorway. Bucky’s face harden and he lunged at the Swiss doctor. Pinning the short man against the cement wall, Bucky glared at the man.

“What did you do to her?”

He demanded as he held the doctor almost a foot off of the ground. Again the man laughed at him.

“You know full well what I have done. You really think you could keep her safe, Sergeant Barnes?”

“You know damn well I can.”

“You have just put your sweet little lamb up for slaughter. Even you surely knew that we would find her eventually.”

Bucky let out a cry of rage as he punched the doctor in the face. This made Zola laugh again as blood dripped from his lips.

“You will lose everything Sergeant Barnes. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. Hail HYDRA.”

Bucky shot up out of bed. He was drenched in sweat and adrenaline ran threw his body. He was in his room. He was safe. Putting his hands on his face he let out a sigh as he thought about what he had just seen.

“Gwen.”

He said to himself then he bolted out of bed and down the hallway to Gwen’s room. Busting in he saw that she was sound asleep in her bed. Letting out a sigh, Bucky leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor with his hands over his face. Images from his nightmare kept replaying over in his mind. Bucky just looked over at Gwen as she slept. Her screams from his dream echoing in his ears with Zola's words;

"You will lose everything."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Gwen opened her eyes and just looked up at the ceiling. She heard voices from down the hall, her ears perked up when she heard Steve's voice. Flipping the down comforter off for her Gwen ran out of her room and down the hall.

"Steve!"

She yelled when she saw him standing in the kitchen talking with Bucky who was sitting at the island counter. The super soldier turned and saw her running towards him. She jumped into his arms and hugged him.

"You're back!"

He laughed as he hugged her.

"I'm back too you know."

Sam said walking out of the bathroom when he saw what was going on in the other room. Steve put Gwen back on the floor and she turned to see Sam walking up to them, holding out his arms for a hug from her. Gwen laughed and walked over to him giving him a big hug as well.

"Well, how'd it go?"

She asked when she let go of Sam and walked over to the island counter. Steve crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Sam then to Gwen.

"Good. We didn't learn anything. We found Natasha and Clint."

"Where are they?"

"We don't know. They left the day before we did."

Gwen nodded and looked over at Bucky. He had a blank stare in his eyes again.

"How'd things go here?"

Gwen thought about what had happened in the last week and a half. Should she tell about how Bucky had fallen back into the Winter Soldier and shot her? How the two of them are now romantically involved?

"Great. Just a few hiccups. But nothing serious."

Steve nodded and Sam went to the fridge. Gwen yelled at Sam that he had his own floor with a fridge and Steve looked over at Bucky. Ever since Gwen had walked into the room he had crawled into his shell. He didn't look or talk to Gwen.

"So Gwen, when are you going to start running with us?"

Sam asked when he got a glass of orange juice. Gwen rolled her eyes and looked over at Steve who was giving her the same look Sam was giving her.

"When I feel like it."

"And that will be?"

"Not today, my friend."

She said with a laugh. Sam rolled his eyes and took another drink of his juice. After a while Gwen got up to go get dressed, leaving the boys alone once again. When her bedroom door shut Steve turned to Bucky and as him looking up from his hands.

"Is everything okay, Buck?"

Bucky's blue eyes look over at his friend and then back to his hands.

"Just had a bad night's sleep."

"We're going out for our run. Wanna come along? I think Cap here needs some competition for once."

Sam said when he put his now empty glass in the sink and walked over to Steve. Bucky looked over at the hallway then back at his two friends.

"Why not."

"Alright. We're leaving in five."

Steve told him with a small smile. Bucky nodded and hurried to his room to change into running clothes. After less than a minute he came out in dark blue basketball shorts and a grey long sleeve shirt. He walked over to the couch and lace up his running shoes then walked over to Steve and Sam.

"Ready."

Steve slapped his friend on the back as Sam pressed the elevator button.

"Ready to keep up?"

Bucky asked with a sly smirk when the doors opened. Sam let out a 'ohhh' and Steve shook his head.

"Jerk."

"Punk."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hey, Steve I was wondering... where you are?"

Gwen said into the empty kitchen when she came out from her room. Looking around she didn't see Sam or Bucky.

"Sam? Bucky?"

"Captain Rogers, Mister Wilson, and Sergeant Barnes left for a run a few minutes ago, ma'am."

"Rude. Thank you JARVIS."

"You're welcome, ma'am. Is there anything else you would like?"

"No, thank you. That will be all JARVIS."

"As you wish, ma'am."

Turning around Gwen walked back down the hall and to her office. Shutting the door behind her she walked over to her desk and sat down. Looking out at her now clean desk, she saw a picture of her and her parents. It was from when she first moved into the tower. They had come to help her move in and brought some of her things from back home. Gwen was sitting in the middle of her mom and dad on the couch. A glass of champagne were in each one of their hands and a smile on their faces. Then in the background Tony was photobombing making a weird face.

The next picture frame was of her darling little cousin, Kayden. He was six and was the son of Gwen's cousin Andrea, they lived in Minnesota. The picture was from Kayden's birthday last year when Gwen flew him and his family to New York. A huge smile was on his face as he looked up at Steve. For as long as Gwen could remember Kayden had idolized Steve, so she thought to give him the best birthday present ever. Kayden was wearing his Captain America hoodie and looked up at Steve with stars in his eyes. Gwen remembered that Kayden freaked out and started crying when he met Steve for the first time. His mom couldn't have been more happy for her son and thanked Gwen more times than she could count.

Then the last picture on her desk was from hours after the Battle of New York. It was of all the Avengers plus Gwen. She had taken the selfie with her phone while they were all out eating swarhama. Gwen had told everyone to look at her and smile. She had the biggest smile out of them all. Tony over dramatic serious look on his face and had his arm wrapped around Gwen's neck, Clint and Natasha were smiling as they held up their food, Thor had a big smile on his face, Steve was flashing his genuine overly innocent cute smile, and Bruce waved at the camera with a laugh on his face.

Gwen let out a laugh as she looked at the shawarma picture. Then she grabbed her phone off her desk. Unlocking it she looked for her mom's number. When she found the landline number for her parents she clicked call and brought her phone to her ear, and waited.

"Hello?"

Her mom's voice came through after four rings. Gwen smiled and leaned back into her office chair.

"Hey, mom."

"Oh, Gwen. How are you? We haven't heard from you in a while."

"Sorry about that. I took on a new client and I've never been so in dedicated to work. How are things back home?"

"That's wonderful, sweetheart. Everything is fine here. Your father has been asking me about you ever since what happened in DC."

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"What do you mean you're fine? You were there!"

Gwen's free hand hit her face. She didn't tell her that she was in DC.

"Yeah, I was called out to help Steve before everything went south. But don't worry, I'm fine."

"Gwendolyn Evangeline. You didn't tell your parents that happened? You could have been killed!"

"Mom, I'm serious, I'm alright."

"I'm serious Gwen. Does this mean you don't have a job?"

"I never worked for SHIELD directly. I'm an independent therapist."

"Well that is good. Anything else I should know about?"

Then in the background on the other line Gwen heard her dad yelling at his wife.

"Is that Gwen?"

"Yes, Harris. It's your daughter."

"Ask her if those aliens are coming back!"

Gwen rolled her eyes at her father's question.

"Your father-"

"I heard mom. Tell him that just because SHIELD is gone, doesn't mean the aliens are coming back. Everything is fine."

Janis yelled back at her husband what Gwen had said and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you and dad coming for Macey's wedding in August?"

"We won't miss it for the world, sweetheart. We just sent the RSVP in the other day. Will you be bring a plus one to the wedding?"

Letting out a groan Gwen hit her head on the back of the chair while her mom laughed.

"You're not getting any younger dear."

"I know mom."

"Well are you?"

"I might. It's still up in the air right now."

"Does that mean you have some in mind?"

"Yes, mom that's not why I called."

"Oh, Gwendolyn. I'm your mother. I have the right to know these things."

"Mom!"

“Darling, I worry that you are into your work that you’ll pass the opportunity to get married.”

“I’ll get married mom, don’t worry your pretty little head. I have to go. I love you guys.”

“We love you too, dear. Thank you for calling. See you in August.”

“Bye mom.”

“Goodbye Gwen.”

Hanging up her phone Gwen smiled and looked back at her picture frames on her desk. She had a feeling that her mom was right. If she was this invested in her work she didn’t have time to go out into the dating scene. What was she going to say? I work as a therapist for the Avengers and sometimes I get shot by my patients, but everything is okay. Yeah, no guy ever went for that. The more she thought about that’s why she got with Rumlow. He understood what she did and was okay with her being in danger. She knew that he would be able to protect her if the time ever came. Now she wished that he wasn’t part of HYDRA and alive.

Groaning Gwen put her head on the desk.

“Why do all the good ones die.”

But then her thoughts went to Bucky. Honestly she had no idea what was going on with the two of them. Were they a couple? She felt like they were but they way he acted to her this morning didn’t have her feeling that way. Were they not going be the way they were while Steve was here? Then she started to think about the age gap that was between them.

Grabbing a postit note and a pen Gwen wrote down both of their birthdays at the top of the piece of paper: March 10, 1917. November 21, 1985.

Then she put Bucky’s date of the first time he was put into cryo freeze: December 5, 1944.

She started to count the years between them and all the time that Bucky spent in cryo freeze were subtracted. At the end Gwen wrote her age of 28 and Bucky’s two ages, 97 and 29. She circled the 28 and 29. In the scheme of things Gwen and Bucky weren’t that far apart in age, he his had the body and mind of a 29 year old man, not a 97 year old man. Then she wrote down Brock’s age of 41.

Sighing she dropped her pen and picked her phone back up. She went to her pictures and clicked on the album that said ‘Brock’. Clicking on the first picture, it popped up and showed the two of them out at a fancy restaurant in DC two years ago. Her hair was longer than it was now and in perfect beach curls. She wore a royal blue long sleeve and low cut, tight dress. Brock was dressed in a expensive light grey suit. They were both smiling in the picture. Brock’s right arm was wrapped over Gwen’s shoulders and her left hand was resting on his thigh. Gwen flipped through the rest of the pictures and let out a sigh. This was how she wanted to remember Brock, a nice, super sweet, and amazing guy. Not a HYDRA agent who was going to have her killed.

Then she came to the last picture in the album. It was taken from when Brock surprised her here in New York. It was a selfie that Gwen took of the two of them out on the balcony with the skyline of New York behind them. Brock’s arms were wrapped around Gwen and his chin rested on her shoulder.

Gwen just hoped that if her and Bucky were really a thing that they would be able to do stuff like this. Go to dinner, go on dates, be comfortable with taking pictures together, people not judging them. That’s what she was mostly worried about was people judging them. With the weird gap, metal arm, and the fact she’s his therapist. People would judge them.

“Why does my life have to be so complicated.”

Notes