Cry of Rage

Walking out of her room Gwen stretched her arms out as she walked. Her bare feet hit the cool linoleum floor and she felt the hem of the long shirt hit the back of her legs. The light from the morning sun was shining through the windows of her floor of the Avengers Tower. Her and the boys finally arrived at the tower late in the night. All of them ended up sleeping on her floor, Steve took the couch in the living room, and Sam and Bucky took the two spare rooms. Gwen was happy to be back home. She was done living out of her suitcase, and she had forgot to pack her favorite sweatpants.

When she got into the kitchen she saw that Bucky was alone sitting at the island counter.

“Morning Bucky.”

She said when she saw him. Turning his head he saw her walking towards him. His face turned a very light shade of pink seeing what she was wearing. Gwen’s brown hair was all over the place from her sleep. She had on a over sized red t shirt and very short black shorts.

“Morning Gwen.”

Smiling Gwen walked to the fridge and glanced over at the couch not seeing Steve asleep.

“Steve and Sam went out for a run.”

Bucky answered before the question was even asked. She looked over at him and smiled.
“Have you had breakfast yet?”
He shook his head and looked down at the table. Gwen looked at Bucky again seeing that he was wearing a zip up sweatshirt over a plain white shirt. She hadn’t seen his metal arm since she first saw him in Pepper’s apartment.

“I’ll give you the best breakfast you’ve ever had.”

She stated with a smile on her face as she started to pull out everything for a breakfast extravaganza. Everything for pancakes, french toast, bacon, waffles, sausages, eggs, crepes, cinnamon rolls, anything you could think of she had it. Bucky just sat there and watched her make him breakfast. He couldn’t stop watching her make food, she buzzed around the kitchen doing almost doing four jobs at once. Every now and again his eyes would drift up to her neck to see the bruises that he had left on her. He was angry that he had done that to her, all she wanted to do was help him and he had done that in return.

“JARVIS?”

“Yes, Ms. Brewster?”

Bucky nearly jumped out of his seat when he heard the electronic voice echo around the room. Upon hearing Bucky jump Gwen’s eyes shot over to his and saw him looking around like a mad man. She was puzzled for a moment but then her face turned bright pink when she realized what had happened.

“Oh, my gosh. Bucky, I’m sorry.”

“What the hell was that?”

“I am JARVIS, Mister Stark’s artificial intelligence butler.”

Bucky looked up at the ceiling then back at Gwen.

“I am at your service Mister Barnes if you ever need anything. What was it that you needed Ms. Brewster?”

“Can you tell Tony and Pepper that I have come back and breakfast is about five minutes away.”

“Of course ma’am.”

Gwen flipped another pancake onto a large plate already piled high with pancakes. She took a quick glance at Bucky who was still a little on edge about JARVIS.

“It’s fine Bucky. JARVIS is here to help us.”

“Does he always do that?”

“Yes. You’ll get used to it. Just a heads up, Tony is very… well how do you say it… self absorbed. But he means well, if he’s an asshole to you it means he likes you. Just don’t take what he says too personally. If he gets too much for you to handle just call me over and I’ll kick him out.”

Bucky smirked as Gwen talked about her friend like that and pulled a big pan of bacon out of the oven.

“What about Pepper?”

“One of the sweetest people you'll ever meet, other than myself. She’s really easy to talk to and she’s very understanding. And again if it’s too much, just as the word.”

Bucky was about to thank her but a man’s voice who he’d never heard before rang throughout the kitchen.

“You got here last night and I just found out about it? What kind of person do you think you are?”

Gwen turned her head to see Tony and Pepper walking out of the elevator and towards her in the kitchen.

“A ‘hey Gwen it’s been a while. How are you? Are you okay? It’s good to see you’ would do just as well.”

She told the man as she closed the oven door and started to walk over to them. Tony smiled and let out a laugh.

“It was late and we were all tired. Plus, we’d be here in the morning.”

Gwen said as she reached Tony and Pepper giving Tony the first hug.

“Whose we?”

Tony asked. Gwen turned and pointed to Bucky who was still sitting at the island counter watching Gwen.

“This is Bucky. He’s a friend.”

Tony and Pepper looked over at Bucky.

“Bucky, huh? Why does that seem familiar? Are you her boyfriend or something?”

Gwen’s face turned beet red at Tony’s words. They couldn’t see it but Bucky’s face turned another colour as well.

“No. He’s not- I’m mean we’re not- No. he’s well… it’s a long story.”

“I was friends with Steve in the 40s. I was frozen by the government and they found me.”

Pepper was the first to say something to Bucky.

“It’s nice to meet you, Bucky. I’m Pepper. Were you given the super soldier serum as well?”

“You could say that.”

Gwen smiled at him. And then looked over at Tony who was still looking at Bucky like he had two heads or something.

“Tony, this is Bucky. Say ‘hi Bucky. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Tony.’”

The older man glared at her and looked back at Bucky and walked over to him.
“Tony Stark.”

He said putting out his left hand for Bucky to shake. Bucky didn’t do anything other just stare at Tony’s hand. Gwen watched him and waited for him to do something, but he just looked up from Tony’s hand to her face.

“Tony, could you come get this?”

She called over to him. Tony turned his body away from Bucky to look at Gwen who was pointing to some plates. He took one last look at Bucky before walking over to Gwen and the food. Gwen hurried over to Bucky and covered his left hand with her’s. He looked up at her to see her giving him a reassuring smile.

“You don’t have to tell them, if you don’t want to. I could if you’d like?”

“Thank you, Gwen.”

She smiled again and leaned forward, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Go on and sit at the table.”

She told him then she turned around to grab more of the food. Bucky just sat there and looked at her. After everything he had done, she treated him this way. Compassion was something that was completely foreign to him.Why was she being like this to him?

“It smells good in here.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to see Sam and Steve walking out of the elevator together. They were dressed in running clothes, the only difference was that Sam’s had dark marks from sweat and Steve’s didn’t.

“You boys are just in time. Come and sit.”

Gwen said as she walked over to the dining table with glasses in her hands. Bucky walked over to the table and sat down next to Gwen. Everyone else walked over and sat down, greedily looking at the food that sat before them. There were waffles, crepes, bacon, sausage, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, orange juice, and apple juice.

“Dig on in, everyone.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

After breakfast Gwen stood in the kitchen washing up the dishes. Pepper walked over to her and pulled her away from the sink.

“Go sit down. You made this for us. Let me clean up.”

Gwen laughed and rolled her eyes at the older woman. She stood off to the side and watched Pepper start to clean the dirty dishes.

“So, what’s with Bucky?”

“What do you mean?”

Pepper looked over at Gwen with a look at she knew all too well.

“He’s my newest client.”

Pepper nodded and went back to washing the dishes. Gwen looked away from the red haired woman and to the living room. Everyone was in there sitting on the furniture talking. She couldn’t hear what it was about, but she watched as Tony never looked away from Bucky.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“What’s with the arm, Buck?”

Tony asked as he took another drink of his orange juice. Both Bucky and Steve looked at the millionaire and said nothing.

“Come on. Why are never using it? Is it broken or something?”

Bucky looked at Tony then to Steve. Steve wasn’t too sure on what Bucky should do.

“Buck.”

Bucky looked from Steve to into the kitchen at Gwen, but she was talking to Pepper. Looking down at his left arm he let out a sigh. With his right hand he pushed up the sleeve of his left arm, showing Tony his metal arm. Feeling someone next to him, Bucky looked up seeing Tony sitting next to him on the couch looking at his arm.

“This is amazing. Who built this? The craftsmanship is incredible.”

He stated looking at his arm, his fingers wanted to touch it, but Tony could tell that Bucky wouldn’t be too keen on that happening.

“Whoever it was, is long gone. I got this arm back in 1945.”

“Incredible. Do you think it needs to be fixed? I’d love to do work on it-”

“It’s fine. Thank you for the offer.”

Bucky told him and pushed his sleeve back down over his arm. Tony looked up at Bucky’s face and saw him looking away from him and down at the floor. Standing up Tony took the last drink of his orange juice and walked over to the kitchen. Bucky stood up and walked away from Steve and Sam as well, he didn’t walk into the kitchen like Tony, he walked down the hallway he saw Gwen walk out of this morning.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Where’d Bucky go?”

gwen asked Tony, looking past him and into the living room. Tony looked back and saw that the other super soldier wasn’t there. He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to Pepper, giving her his empty glass.

“He’s in the guest room, Ms. Brewster.”

“Thank you JARVIS.”

She walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway. She turned to face the first door on her right. The door was closed. She knocked on the metal door and waited for a response, but nothing came.

“Bucky? It’s Gwen.”

She said into the door. Hearing footsteps on the other side of the door, she waited a few seconds, then the door opened to Bucky.

“Are you okay?”

Gwen asked as she looked up at him. He was looking at the floor, this was something she found him doing a lot. She reached her right hand out to touch his left arm, but he ripped his arm away from her reach.

“Bucky. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”

He lifted his eyes and and looked at Gwen. Again she smiled at him, reaching her hand out for a second time, she tangled her fingers with his metal ones. Bucky looked down at their fingers and he couldn’t look away. No one had ever done this to him before.

“Did something happen?”

“Can we talk about it later?”

“How about I go change and you can met me in my office? I’ll be ten minutes. My office is at the end of the hall, on your left.”

He nodded as he continued to look down at their intertwined fingers. Slowly Gwen pulled away and the warmth of her hand left his. She walked down the hall to her room and shut the door. The guest room door shut itself, leaving him alone again in the room. He looked at what he was wearing and thought he should change his clothes as well. He changed from the black baggy sweatpants and white shirt that Gwen had found for him the night before, and into the same pair of jeans he wore yesterday and a dark brown shirt. He kept the black zip up hooded sweatshirt and looked at the clock on the bedside table. He still had time before Gwen told him to met her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Gwen pulled her hair back with a white hair tie and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes weren’t looking at her simple cozy outfit, they were looking at the bruises on her neck. They had gotten worst then when she went to sleep. Now the skin wasn’t just deep purple, it was turning more black with bits of green. She had seen Pepper and Tony looking at her neck ever since they saw her, but both of them had said nothing about it, hopefully they never will. She happy that she had found her grey sweatshirt that had a very high neckline, the top of it was more like a built in scarf. Knowing that it was mid March and the weather was only going to get hotter, this meant that she couldn’t wear her big wool scarves to cover up the brieses. She just hoped that they would heal fast.

Walking out of her bedroom she saw Bucky was standing next to her office door, waiting for her.

“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting.”

“It’s alright.”

He told her has he pushed a few strands of his hair behind his ear. Gwen went to open the door, but Bucky beat her to it and opened it for her.

“Ladies first.”

She smiled at him and walked into her office. It was a medium sized room. It had a floor to ceiling window that looked out over the city, one of the many reasons Gwen had chosen this room for it. A large ‘L’ shaped dark cherry wood desk sat along the wall of the office, behind the desk sat a large black leather chair, and in front of the desk were two light grey arm chairs. The solid walls of the office were painted a very light blue colour, it was very calming to the eyes. Pictures frames hung with her degrees inside, some had pictures of beautiful landscape. The office itself was very clean, but the desk was another story. Open files, papers, pens and pencils. and yellow legal pad covered the table top of the cherry desk.

“Sorry of the mess. I’m not usually this messy.”

She said as she walked over to her desk, trying to pick up some of her mess. Bucky walked over to a shelf that was on the wall that the door was on. On the dark wood shelf there were books, pictures, and random little nick nacks. What Bucky was looking at were the pictures.

The first one he looked at was of Gwen in a black graduation cap and gown. She was holding her degree in her hand and standing in between an older looking couple. The woman was a few inches taller that Gwen and had curly dark brown hair that had strands of silver grey in it. Her face reminded him a lot of Gwen, she had the same caring smile that she has. The man was taller, about six foot. He had very light blonde thin hair and a pair of glasses outlining his brown eyes. These were her parents.

Another picture of Gwen that he looked at was of her and another girl with dark red hair. They standing on a beach and were hugging each other and had goofy looks on their faces. Gwen was dressed in blue jeans, a orange rain jacket with the hood over her head, and a pair of grey boots. Stands of her brown hair were coming out from the hood and blowing in the wind. The other girl had on a large dark blue sweatshirt that went down a few inches past her hips, a pair of black leggings, and bright pink tall rain boots.

Bucky felt someone standing next him, he looked down and saw Gwen standing there looking at the pictures. She saw that he was looking at the picture of her on the beach and laughed. She grabbed the frame and held it.

“This was about three years ago. That’s one of my best friend’s Ronda. We were staying up at one of my friend’s beach house in Oregon.”

Bucky looked back up at the picture of her and her parents. He grabbed it and took a closer look at it.

“Are these your parents?”

“Yeah. That’s my mother Janis and my father Harrison. That was when I graduated from Harvard with my Ph.D a few years ago.”

Bucky smiled down at the picture, he placed it back on the shelf and looked back at Gwen. She put the picture of her and Ronda back up and she looked over at her desk.

“What do you want to talk about?”

She asked as she turned her head back to Bucky. He looked away from the collection of pictures and down at her.

“I showed Tony my arm.”

She just nodded and stayed quiet to see if he had anything else to say.

“He wants to work on it… I don’t… when HYDRA would, after they would…”

“Bucky. Tony would never hurt you. He’s not like that. He’s just a grease monkey.”

Bucky nodded and looked at his arm.

“Did you know that Tony isn’t ‘normal’ too?”

He looked back at her with a confused look on his face.

“Here.”

She walked over to her desk and grabbed her laptop and opened it. Bucky walked over to the desk and stood in between the two chairs and watched her type and scroll through her computer.

“Four years ago Tony was in Afghanistan to promote his new missile for the military. While he was over there he was kidnapped by a terrorist group known as The Ten Rings. When he was kidnapped he was hit with shrapnel in the chest. He was held there for three months and was forced to build them one of his new missiles. He ended up building a suit and escaped. When he came back from overseas he became Iron Man. The shrapnel in his chest was still there, that’s why he made the ARC reactor. It stopped the metal from hitting his heart. It’s a part of him. Just like your arm is apart of you.”

Gwen turned her laptop around and show Bucky the picture file she was looking for, pictures she had Tony. They ranged from pictures of him in his Iron Man suits to him wearing his normal clothes and you could see the blue glow from the ARC reactor in his chest. She flipped through the pictures and Bucky couldn’t take his eyes from the screen.

“I also have another friend who isn’t the world’s standard of ‘normal’.”

Gwen said turning the screen back to her and she looked for another file.

“Bruce Banner. He is a brilliant scientist, one of the smartest persons I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He has been on of the many to try and replicate the serum that made Steve into a super soldier. However, there were some complications. When he was injected with the serum he became something different. A large green monster. Whenever he is angry he loses control of his human self and turns into the Hulk. At first he didn’t have control when he was the Hulk, but as time passed and the more he tried Bruce is now able to control the monster that is living within him.”

Turning the screen back around Bucky saw pictures of Bruce and the Hulk.

“Why are you showing me this?”

“Because Bucky, your arm isn’t something to be ashamed of. It makes you who you are. Now, Tony and Bruce hasn’t had people in their minds telling them what to do, but they have used what they have been dealt. They help people, they have saved the world.”

Gwen put her laptop down and walked around her desk to standing in front of Bucky. She took both of his hands into her’s and looked up at him.

“It wasn’t your choice to be put back together and made into a weapon. But that is the beauty of what is happening right now. You can choose for yourself. What you did in your past, it wasn’t Bucky, it was the Winter Soldier. Because of this arm you aren’t destined to be a weapon. You don’t have to be anyone’s soldier. You are who you choose to be. You choose.”

Bucky looked down into her eyes, she had meant every word that had come out of her mouth. This woman was risking her life to help him. He had almost killed her multiple times already, but here she stood, standing in front of him without fear.

“I choose Bucky.”

Smiling Gwen dropped his hands and wrapped them around his torso. He was taken back by her actions, but he knew he had to learn that Gwen was going to do things like this.

“Good. I choose him, too.”

Notes