chapter five
nightmares

nova didn't like to use her ability's often. she would use them during her training, when sam would throw something at her, and when her adoptive father had nightmares.

bucky barnes still had memory's from when he was under mind control. they most often showed up when he was sleeping. bucky slept in his bed or in the floor in the living room, those where the two places he could seek the most comfort.

tonight was different though, like some nights before. bucky barnes was an unpredictable man during his nightmares... some nights he would yell in his sleep and other nights he would thrash around and break things. he never meant to. it just happened.

when nova first experienced bucky having a nightmare, she freaked out. she knew bucky was the ex-winter solider that hydra had created, and she knew that he was free from hydra now — but no one had told her about the nightmares. it was a surprise to her and she had panicked and hit bucky in the face with a frying pan. it was definitely something bucky apologized for, even though it wasn't his fault, and something sam laughed at.

a metal hand reached out and wrapped its fingers around a dark haired girls neck. metal fingers squeezed and a hand reached out to claw at the metal.

it was a good thing nova was special, a good thing she was a human shield. now, you may be asking why? why is a seventeen-year-old girl who can produce shields from her hand, a good thing she was the way she is?

well, when bucky barnes suffered from his memory filled nightmares, no one really knew what was going to happen. nova didn't. bucky didn't. the poor objects around bucky at the time didn't either. most nights nova woke up to bucky doing something, whether it was a scream, or the sound of things being hit.

there was a small gasp and breathless pleads from the dark haired girl. her purple painted nails scratched as hard as they could, but it didn't do anything. why would it? purple nails against a metal arm.

nova crept silently as she moved away from her bedroom and out to the living room. when she made it to the living room she spotted bucky on the floor with a think blanket on him loosely.

this happened more than most people would think.

nova watched silently as buckys face scrunched up. she wasn't sure if it was from pain of a memory, or if it was some kind of pain he was reliving. whatever it was seemed to affect him.

"bucky?" nova asked, her voice was just above a whisper. that's what she did first, she called out his name before she did anything else. "james?"

there was no answer. no sign of hearing her.

the scratching turned into hitting. under either the metal arm was bruise forming. the dark haired girl screamed for help. she screamed for anyone to help her, to save her from what was going to happen. "bucky." the girl tried, hoping she could get through to him. but it didn't work, the fingers around her neck squeezed tighter. "james."

nova watched as her adoptive father seemed to shake. he shook his head and his breathing increased. there were beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

nova had two options — she could either leave him be, which wouldn't be very nice. or she could go closer to him and try and wake him, that seemed like the better idea.

so that's what she did. nova moved closer to bucky and produced a shield around herself so she couldn't be hurt. nova crouched down as stuck her cast clad arm out of her shield, she reached forward and layed her hand on buckys shoulder.

bucky didn't even think when he grabbed novas cast clad wrist. it was in the heat of the moment and bucky wasn't himself right then. his grip tightened and it caused nova to loss concentration on her shield.

her cast broke. bucky had broken her cast.

nova let out as gasp as bucky continued to squeeze her write harder. she could feel the fracture in her wrist worsen. it was re-breaking. "dad!" nova yelled loudly and the squeezing stopped.

the metal arm clutched harder, a sickening crack filled the air. the crack was followed by a scream. a pain filled scream. "dad!" the brown haired girl yelled loudly and the metal arm went slack. the call seemed to have broke through his walls and bucky, not the winter solider blinked at the girl.

"nova..." bucky looked up at nova with wide tearful eyes.

nova didn't reply as she scooted backwards away from bucky and placed a shield around herself. she wasn't so much scared, as she was panicking. it had never been this bad and nova didn't know how to handle it necessarily.

"nov." bucky sighed and got onto his knees, kneeling right outside of novas bubble.

bucky placed his hand on novas sheild, watching as she clutched her wrist to her chest.

"im so so sorry." bucky cried.

"it's okay." nova sniffled and removed the shield.

bucky didn't feel like this. he was supposed to be super strong and not show weakness, it was what he had been taught.

what he felt right now was something he hadn't felt much before. he felt sorry, and scared. he was sorry for what he had done to nova. he was scared of himself and what else he could do.

"a-are you okay?" bucky asked softly.

that was also something new. bucky didn't know soft. but he was trying to be soft for nova. he was trying to be better for her.

"im fine. it just scared me. that's all." nova told him with a smile.

"you sure? your wrist doesn't hurt?"

"no, no, it's okay. well have to get it recasted soon though." it was a lie, her wrist hurt so much.

"you sure? i can go grab you some medicine for it." bucky pointed out but nova just shook her head.

"no, no. im okay."

»

"have you been having any nightmares?" buckys therapist asked.

"no." bucky shook his head sternly, that was a give away.

"what was it about?" the therapist proceeded to ask. she knew he was lying.

"it started off fine, there was no problems. and then i was the winter solider. i had my original metal arm and in my dream i was choking her. the dream her pleaded and screamed for me to stop and i didn't. it wasn't until she called me dad that i broke through and woke up." bucky ranted.

"there's more."

"i had been squeezing her wrist so hard that her cast broke. i think i hurt her but she wouldn't tell me." bucky explained quietly.

"you didn't mean to do that. and she knows it."

"yeah..."