Cry of Rage

It has been two weeks since the group had left the country’s capital. Steve and Bucky were living on Gwen’s floor of the Avengers Tower for the time being. Sam had satied and had his own floor two floors below Gwen’s. Bucky was remembering more and more every day. He hadn’t had any falls backs into the Winter Soldier since DC. He was being more social with everyone. When he was in the room with anyone other than Gwen or Steve he wouldn’t look at the ground, he was actually engaging in the conversion. He had even let Tony take a look at his arm, there were a few minor breaks in it, but for the most part it was alright. What was an even bigger improvement was that he wasn’t hiding his arm under layers of clothing. He was wearing short sleeved shirts now instead of the his long sleeves and hooded sweatshirts.

Gwen was sitting on the grey couch in the living room watching The Fashion Police when Bucky walked in and stood in front of her line of vision.

“Hey. I’m watching that.”

“I want you to do something for me.”

She raised an eyebrow and turned her full attention to him.

“I want to cut my hair.”

“Your hair. Why? I like it how it is.”

“It isn’t me. It’s the Winter Soldier. Plus, it’s starting to get annoying.”

He said as he ran his left hand through his long and unruly dark hair. Gwen watched him and looked at his hair. She could see why it was getting annoying, it was growing longer and it did need a cut. She stood up from the couch and turned the TV off.

“I’ll go an make an app-”

“No.”

Turning her head around Bucky still stood there and looked at the floor. She frowned and fully turned towards him.

“What I mean is, can you do it?”

He asked looking up from the floor and into her eyes. She gave him a small smile and nodded.

“I’ll go get some scissors.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Just don’t move.”

Gwen instructed Bucky as stood in front of him. With a pair of scissors in one hand, she held strands of Bucky’s brown hair between her pointer and middle fingers. As she held the hair she glided the scissors across the hair above her fingers. The now free hair fell to the floor and Gwen took a step back and looked at her work. He looked like a new man. Bucky was right, it was the hair that reminded him of the Winter Soldier.

“Is it bad?”

Gwen didn’t say anything to his question. She just put the scissors down and looked at his hair some more.

“I like it.”

Bucky sat up from the chair and ran his hand through his hair. It was a strange feeling not having all of that hair on top of his head. Looking down at the floor around the chair Bucky saw all his hair and let out a long whistle.

“Go take a look, man!”

Gwen told him as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed the broom from the cupboard. Bucky chuckled and walked towards the bathroom down the hall. As he walked his hand would keep touching his hair, his fingers kept wanting to play with the long hair that was no longer attached to his head. When he walked into the bathroom the lights turned on when he stepped into the room, the first thing he saw when he walked into the bathroom was his face in the mirror.

“Wow.”

Bucky said to himself. He lifted his hands to his hair and run them around into his now short hair. He couldn’t take his eyes off of his hair, it has been so different from how it’s been for a long time. The last time he remembered having it like this was back in 1943.

“How is it?”

Gwen called from the kitchen. Bucky turned his head a bit to the side and looked out the door.

“It’s great.”

He called back as he ran his hand through his hair again.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Gwen sat in her office and looked over the file that Natasha had gotten for them and the flies that Tony was able to take off the internet about Bucky when he was in the hands of HYDRA. She would jot down a few notes on her yellow legal pad in English when she’d read across something she wanted to remember. She had been in her office for the past two days, only taking bathroom breaks. When there was a knock on her office door it made her jump off her chair.

“Gwen?”

Looking at the door she saw that Steve was poking his head inside.

“Come on in.”

Steve walked in and shut the door behind him. Gwen looked up from her work and saw that Steve was in his uniform.

“Me and Sam are leaving. We have a lead on HYDRA. We’ll be back in a few days.”

Gwen nodded and leaned back in her chair, she looked at the living legend in front of her.

“Be safe. Come back home.”

“I always do. Find anything new?”

“No. I’m just looking these over again.”

Steve looked at the mess that Gwen was working in. Papers were piled high and there were yellow pages and colourful post it notes all over the place.

“Don’t lock yourself in here anymore.”

Gwen groaned and got up from her chair. She stretched her limbs out as Steve still looked at her work. She walked over to him and gave him a quick hug.

“I’m serious. Be safe.”

“I will.”

Gwen pulled away from the super soldier and gave him a salute.

“Captain.”

“Doctor.”

Steve gave her a smile at her, then turned and left her office. Letting out another groan Gwen walked over to her desk and placed her hands on the edge of it, looking at her work. Her eyes looked at a black and white picture of Bucky and the rest of the Howling Commandos. She grabbed the picture off the tabletop and looked at it again. This picture was in a textbook from high school.

“Captain America and his Howling Commandos. The group was made up of Dum Dum Dugan, Jim Morita, Montgomery Falsworth, Gabe Jones, Jacques Dernier, and Bucky Barnes.”

Gwen looked down at her textbook on her desk and saw a black and white picture of the seven men all standing together. Guns were strapped to them, they looked like they had been through hell, but all of them had a smile on their face.

“Raise your hand if you have heard of any of these men before?”

The teacher asked and about half of the class put their hands in the air.

“For the next week these men will be the topic of your short essay. You pick which Commando you want to write about.”

Her teacher handed out a green piece of paper that had the rubric of the essay on it. When Gwen had it in her hands she quickly read it over and then looked at the picture again. Her brown eyes went straight to the man standing on Captain America’s left, Sergeant Bucky Barnes.

“Please, spare me from beating my head against a wall, and not all of you write this about Captain America.”

“Why not? He’s clearly the only one worth learning about.”

A boy two rows in front of Gwen said loudly for the whole class to hear.

“What are you even talking about. All of them are worth learning about.”

The boy turned around in his chair and looked back at Gwen with a smug look on his face.

“Really? Why is it that Captain America is the only one that is a national hero?”

“All of them are. If they didn’t do what they did, we wouldn’t be here arguing about it.”

“Gwen, I’m taking it that you aren’t going to write your’s on the Captain. Who can I expect to read about from you?”

Her teacher asked moving from his spot up front, leaning against the table, and now he stood up straight in front of her row.

“Sergeant Barnes.”

“You do realize he’s the one that pussied out and died, right?”
The boy said, not taking his eyes off of her. Gwen glared up at her classmate and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Excuse me? How does that even make sense? Barnes gave his life for the protection of his country. He paid the ultimate price to keep the world save.”

“Whatever.”

The boy said turning back around and sinking into his chair. The teacher cleared his throat and looked at his class.

“Gwen, I can’t wait to read your essay. Now on Friday when his essay will be do, I will pick one paper to be read from each Commando. Please, not everyone pick the Captain. I want you to venture out and pick the one you feel will have an interesting story. Gwen, I’m going to want you to read on Friday.”

She nooded and looked back down at her textbook at the Commandos.

“You have til the end of the period to get a start on your essay. Good luck.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Third period on Friday finally came. Gwen had finished her paper the night before. She stood in front of her class with the typed out copy in her hands, waiting for the class to quiet down.

“Settle down class.”

The room slowly quieted down and eyes founded their way up at Gwen. She looked back at her teacher who just nodded, telling her she could begin. Letting out a breath Gwen looked down at her paper and started to read.

“Entering the United States military in June of 1943, James Buchanan Barnes was ready to head overseas to fight the German enemy. He left his best friend since childhood, Steve Roger, who later would join his friend in the battlefields in Europe, but today wasn’t that day. Arriving in Europe, Bucky would quickly raise up in the ranks and by October of that year he had made it to the rank of Sergeant. Him and the men of the 107th were captured by the rouge Nazi science division, HYDRA. Sergeant Barnes and the other 500 or so men were rescued by America’s new hope, Captain America, but Bucky knew him as Steve Rogers. After Azzano Rogers put together a team, it consisted of men from the 107th. Over the next year Rogers and his Howling Commandos went through Europe, their goal, to wipe HYDRA off the map. In 1944 something happened that not any of the Commandos were ready for. While capturing doctor Arnim Zola in the Alps, Bucky never made it out. He was reported missing in action. Still to this day that is said about Bucky Barnes, because his body was never found the military has him still reported missing. At the end of the war the remaining Commandos mourned the death of two of their fallen brothers in arms. They have said that out of all of them Bucky was the best shot out of all of them, even the Captain. Gabe Jones said that Bucky had saved all of their lives more times than he could show you on his two hands. He had also said that Captain Rogers wishes that he could have gone back and would trade his life for Bucky’s. He knew that going overseas could have ended like it did, but he was never really ready for it.”

Gwen looked up from her paper and looked back at her teacher.

“Do I keep going?”

“How many pages is it?”

“Six.”

“Nerd.”

Gwen’s brown eyes shot over to the boy that sat in the front row. He was the same one who she had the argument with earlier that week.

“Evan.”

Their teacher said with a stran tone of voice.

“Gwen, thank you for reading.”

The class clapped and she placed her stapled essay on the front table. As she walked back to her seat she could hear Evan talking about her to his friends that sat around him. When she sat down Gwen sank down into her seat and wanted to sink into the floor.

Her teacher walked to the front of the room and picked up her paper.

“Caleb. You did you write about?”

“Jones.”

“Come on up, son.”

He told his student as he walked back to his desk in the back of the room. When he sat down he started to read the rest of Gwen’s essay. Class went on and when the bell rang everyone bolted out of their seat and left the classroom. Gwen slowly packed her things up and as she was about to leave her teacher called her name. Turning around Gwen walked over to his desk and put her hands in her pockets as she stood.

“I read the rest of your paper Gwen. It has been the best paper I have read on this topic and I have had students writing his essay for five years. You really seemed to capture who Sergeant Barnes was.”

“Um, thank you.”

“I hope you know that you are one of my favorite students. You are one of the only ones who take this class seriously and reading your essays make me feel that there is hope for your generation.”

Gwen laughed at his words and removed her hands from her jean pockets.

“You will do great things with your life Gwen. Don’t let assholes like Evan get in your way.”

The bell for fourth period rang over head. Gwen laughed again at her teacher and smiled.

“Thank you. I know I shouldn’t let Evan get to me.”

“Here’s a note. Who is your fourth period?”

“Ms. Alley.”

He quickly wrote a note on the back of a blue hall pass, then handed it to Gwen.

“Just remember, you can do whatever it is you want. You choose.”

Gwen smiled down at the picture. She put it back down on the table, then she walked out of her office. When she was in the hallway she heard the sound of the TV in the living room. Walking down the hall she saw that Bucky was sitting on the couch looking up at the TV.

“What are you watching?”

“I’m not sure. I can’t pick anything.”

He said putting the remote down. Gwen walked over to the couch and sat down next to him.

“JARVIS?”

“Yes ma’am?”

“Can you have Seinfeld played on the TV.”

“Which episode ma’am?”

“The first one.”

“Right away ma’am.”

Gwen smiled and brought her feet to her chest as she got ready to watch her favorite show of all time.

“What is this show about?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Yes.”

“What do they do?”

“It’s a sitcom about a comedian played by the brilliant comedic mind of Jerry Seinfeld. It’s about trying to be a writer for NBC and it’s just about his life, you know.It’s just like life. You eat, you go shopping, you read… you eat, you read, you go shopping.”

“They read on the show?”

‘Well, I don’t know. We can see if they read. It’s the greatest show that has ever graced cable television.”

Bucky chuckled and looked over at Gwen.

“A show about nothing is the greatest show ever?”

“Just wait. You’ll see.”

She said turning to look at the man next to her. He just shook his head and then the TV switched over to Seinfeld.

“How many times have you showed this to Steve?”

“I haven’t.”

“You haven’t shown him this?”

“No. You’re lucky Barnes.”

Gwen said as she leaned to her left, lightly resting her head on Bucky’s arm. Bucky looked down at his arm seeing her head resting on him.

“Shh, it’s starting.”

She said with a giddiness in her voice. Bucky chuckled at her again and looked at the TV and watched Gwen’s favorite show in the whole world.

~*~*~*~*~*~

That night Gwen and Bucky watched the first three seasons of Seinfeld. At first Bucky wasn’t really into it, he was just happy watching Gwen enjoy herself. But after watching more of it Bucky started laughing and getting into the show.

“I told you, you’d like it.”

“Whatever.”

Gwen looked at her watch and saw that it was five minutes till midnight.

“I’m going to head off to bed.”

She said getting up from the couch.

“Night Buck.”

She said giving him a lazy sleep filled smile. Bucky chuckled and said good night. Gwen exited the living room and made a slowly beeline for her bedroom. When she finally laid down in bed she let a sigh come from her lips as she closed her eyes, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Notes