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Today was supposed to be a normal day, Steve didn't expect things to go downhill so fast when he got a call from Fury early in the morning.
A mission.
Steve hasn't been on a mission since he got Bucky back. Bucky was very clingy and has trust issues. The few people he trust he considers family. Bucky likes to see his family together, but they can't always be together, especially when one was a criminal. Now Steve needed someone to watch Bucky.
Fury only gave Steve an hour to get himself and Bucky ready. But Bucky was in a deep sleep. Steve got up early and packed Bucky's bag. He made sure to pack extra diapers, clothes and snacks and paci. He found Lamby and looked at Bucky, he hated to wake him up but he didn't have a choice.
"Bucky, wake up baby." Bucky groaned but didn't wake up. Steve sighed, he didn't have time for this. Steve changed him despite him being a little fussy.
Then Steve's phone rang. It was Natasha.
"You got twenty minutes, Rogers."
"What about Bucky? Can Rumlow watch him?"
"Rumlow got sick." Last thing Steve needed was Bucky to catch a cold.
"Okay, what about Sam?"
"Sam is at the tower with Bruce, I'm not sure what they're doing, but it won't hurt to ask them about watching him." Steve sighed and looked at Bucky, who was still asleep. Steve hung up with Nat and called Sam.
"Look I know this is sudden, but can you watch Bucky?"
"Yeah, I'm with Bruce, we're just mediating."
"Thank you, Sam." He hung up and picked up Bucky. Bucky opened his eyes for a second, then fell back to sleep.
"You are not going to be happy today, I can already tell." Steve got Bucky's bag and put Lamby on his chest. Steve put him in the car and made his way to the tower.
At the tower, Sam greeted them. Steve got Bucky out of the car and put him in a quiet room.
"Okay, here's his bag. He's been changed. Also his tablet is in there and I'm going to give you keys to the apartment and keys to my car. Are you planning on doing anything today?"
"Not really, I'll work around what he wants to do."
"Alright, call me if he gets too fussy. I'll try to answer when I'm not getting shot at."
"Steve go, I've taken care of him once before, he'll be fine."
"Okay." Steve kissed Bucky's head then left. Sam closed the door and hoped Bucky wouldn't be too upset that Steve was missing.
He was very wrong.
Friday alerted Sam when Bucky started screaming for Steve. He ran upstairs, he could hear Bucky screaming.
"DADDY!" Sam opened the door and turned on the lights. Bucky was not happy. He had been crying and didn't know where he was.
"Good morning, Bucky. It's Sam, remember? The bird." Bucky settled down a little, but where was Steve and where was he?
"Daddy go?"
"He had to go on a mission today, he should be back before night time. Are you hungry or something?"
"Want daddy."
"Sorry kiddo, he had to go but he'll be back." Bucky started to cry, he hugged his Lamby. Sam sat on the bed and rubbed his legs.
"What's wrong?"
"Daddy leave me, not coming back."
"He'll come back." Bucky shook his head no, Sam didn't know why Bucky was refusing to believe that Steve would come back.
"Bucky, why do you think he won't come back?"
"Other daddy leave, not coming back."
"But you see Rumlow frequently, are you talking about the other ones before him?" Bucky nodded.
"Hey, Steve isn't like those people. He'll come back to you." Sam wiped Bucky's eyes. Bucky really wasn't satisfied with the answer, he really wanted Steve.
"How about we call him?" Bucky found his lamb's ear and put it in his mouth. Sam called Steve.
"Hello?" Bucky took lamb ear out and smiled.
"Daddy."
"Hey, did you sleep good? It's still a little early for you to be up."
"Daddy come back."
"I can't right now pal, I really wish I could. But I'll be back before midnight." Bucky whined and hit his head. Sam grabbed his arms and hugged him.
"I'm sorry I had to leave like that. But Sam is just as fun." Bucky turned to Sam.
"Sam, can I talk to you?" Sam took the phone off speaker.
"He's going to be in a mood today, waking up early usually sets him off. Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I guess I could use his moodiness to my advantage and show him how to control it."
"Sam, he kicks and bites. And nobody can restrain his arm expect Nat and I."
"Steve I got him. I will call if I have too much trouble with him."
"Okay, let me talk to Bucky." Sam put the phone back on speaker.
"Bucky, I know this is hard for you but try to behave please." Bucky whined and hit his face with metal arm, earning him a small cut.
"Bucky, really? He's hurting himself by hitting his head."
"Bucky, stop please."
"Want you here."
"I know, but hurting yourself isn't going to help anyone. Sweetheart, I gotta go, listen to everything Sam says. You behave and you'll get a reward. I love you." Steve hung up, Bucky whined and tried to hit himself again. Sam held his arms, Bucky started to cry.
"Hey, you wanna do something fun?" Said Sam. Bucky nodded.
"Let's go see what Bruce is doing and see if he can bandage that cut." Sam got his hand and his book bag, they went to the medical lab.
"Good morning, Bucky. How are you doing?" Bucky was not in the mood to talk.
"We need something fun to do and he needs a bandaid, he hit himself." Sam sat Bucky on the medical bed. Bucky didn't like the lab, too many objects that he wasn't allowed to touch. Then Bucky grinned.
He wasn't allowed to touch when daddy was there. And he didn't believe that Sam had authority over him. Not like his daddy or mommy and certainly not like papa. Bucky shuddered at the discipline that Rumlow gave him. It was usually good cop, bad cop. Steve was the nice cop and Rumlow was the bad cop. Nat was the one in between. But Rumlow had a rougher hand and he didn't like it.
"Bucky, can you hear me?" Said Sam. Bucky snapped out of his haze and looked at Sam.
"You zoned out a little, can I clean your cut and put a bandaid on it?" Bucky nodded. Sam cleaned the tiny cut and put his Paw Patrol bandaid on his forehead.
"There, now I think I found something fun we can do. Have you played with slime before?" Bucky shook his head. Bruce laid out a clear glue, contact solution, dye and baking soda.
"Alright, this is always fun to do. Can you pour some cornstarch in the bowl?" Bucky put the baking soda in the bowl, Sam filled a bowl of contact solution and clear glue.
"Okay, you're going to stir while I pour these in here." Sam handed him the wooden spoon. Bucky tried to stir the bowl but this was boring. Until Sam put the contact solution in, he watched as the mixture started to change.
"Alright what color do you want it?" Sam laid out blue, yellow, green and red. Bucky pointed to the blue. Sam put a few drops of the blue food coloring in the mix, Bucky gave the spoon to Sam. Sam mixed the items together, it started to become hard to mix.
"Okay now the fun part, can I see your hand?" Bucky held out his flesh hand, Sam gathered a ball and put it in his hand. Then it melted. Bucky tilted his head.
"I know, it freaked me out when I was a kid. But it's fun, just don't put it in your hair or eat it. Actually keep it away from your face. Play with that while Uncle Sam talks to Bruce." Sam got up, Bucky played with the weird thing, it was weird that it was a solid then a liquid when touched. But this was quite boring.
Bucky looked around the lab, there was way too many bright things. And his two year old mind had to touch something. Bucky got up and looked at the blinking lights.
"Bucky what are you doing?" Bucky looked at Sam, then back to the lights. He reached out his flesh hand and touched a few buttons.
"No, no you do not touch anything." Said Bruce. Bucky smiled and continued to push buttons. Sam got Bucky's hand, Bucky nipped him.
"Ouch, hey can you not?"
"Sir, I am programed to give Mr. Barnes a small shock if he is to misbehave." Said Friday.
"Give me a minute to relax him, Friday. Bucky, stop touching stuff or you're getting a timeout." Said Sam. Bucky walked away from him and found a wire.
"Do not." Said Bruce. Bucky nipped the wire, it shocked him. Bucky was frozen for a second then he cried.
"Steve is going to kill me." His crying turned to screaming. Sam was beginning to regret bringing Bucky in the one place that wasn't babyproofed. Bucky was having a full tantrum and nobody was really strong enough to handle a super soldier tantrum.
"Do you want your cup or your snacks?" Asked Sam. Bucky swung his metal arm out and knocked over a table. Bucky was becoming louder, then he started to bite his flesh arm.
"Bucky, please don't hurt yourself." Said Bruce. Bucky was drawing blood now, Sam was starting to think it was more than the shock causing Bucky to act out.
"Do you want to call Steve?" Asked Sam.
"NO!" He yelled.
Bucky became irritated and screamed at them. Bucky hit his head repeatedly, Sam tried to stop him but Bucky snapped his teeth at him.
"Kid, please. Bruce, any tips?"
"I'm not good with kids maybe sedate him."
"Bruce, really? Sedation? He's in distress and he won't relax."
Bucky got up, something was different in his demeanor. He wasn't the soldier or in his two year old state, it was someone scared but still ready to fight.
Bucky looked to Sam and Bruce. He growled and went to Bruce. He bite Bruce multiple times and hit him with his arm. Sam grabbed Bucky, but Bucky kicked him away.
Things would probably go by better if Steve and Nat were here and probably if Rumlow wasn't sick, Sam thought. Then he heard a groan. His attention went to Bruce. It was like he was struggling. Struggling to keep the Hulk down.
"Bucky, STOP NOW!" Bucky was about to go in for another attack, then there was a yell and it didn't sound human.
Then it happened, Bruce started to turn green. Bucky froze at the sight of the green monster.
"Bruce?" Sam trembled. Bucky cowered underneath a table, Hulk threw the table away, Bucky was frozen in fear. Sam could only watch in horror as Hulk grabbed the soldier from the floor and held him.
"Good Hulk." The soldier was shaking, Hulk petted his head. It was weird and scary. The soldier started to cry.
"DADDY!" Yelled Bucky. Now they were seeing the two year old, a very scared two year old. He struggled to get away, he tried to bite the Hulk but he wouldn't let go.
"No biting, Hulk snuggles." As friendly as Hulk was being, Bucky was terrified of him. Bucky stopped screaming but he was trembling.
"Baby okay?" As Hulk.
"Let him down." Said Sam. Hulk set Bucky on his feet, he crawled towards Sam and covered his head.
"Are you going to behave?" Asked Sam. Bucky nodded and watched as the Hulk shrunk back to Bruce. Bruce quickly got a lab coat to cover himself.
"Sorry, I was hoping he wouldn't do that. Are you okay?" Asked Bruce. Sam nodded and looked at Bucky, he really needed Steve right now.
"Bucky?" Yelled a voice.
"Daddy." Steve came in and observed the damage, then he was tackled by Bucky. Bucky cried into his suit.
"What is going on?"
"I'll explain once he's calm down." Said Sam. Steve carried Bucky out of the room and helped him clean up. Something bad must have happened for Bucky to have bite marks, cuts on his head and for Hulk to come out.
Later in the evening, Steve settled Bucky with an ice pop and his long forgotten paci. Steve cleaned most of his cuts and tried to find out what happened. Bucky wasn't in the mood to talk anymore, he was tired and just wanted to snuggle with Steve. Also he could tell he most likely was going to get punished for his behavior.
"Hey guys. How is he doing?" Asked Sam coming in with Bruce.
"Unnaturally quite, what happened?"
"Well, we started with playing with slime, he was fine. Then he decided to go off on his own and push buttons around the lab. We tried to stop him, he bit at us and he found a wire and got shocked. Something must have snapped or something, cause he was like not the two year old and not the soldier but he was just scared. So we tried to calm him down and he continued to fight, he went after Bruce and that's when he Hulked out."
"Oh my goodness, then what?"
"He tried to get away from Hulk and Hulk picked him up and snuggled him. He kind of calmed down, but I think he was overwhelmed."
"With what?"
"You leaving suddenly, him waking up early, the amount of stuff in the medical lab and the Hulk situation. Also I think he was trying to push his limits with me cause I don't do punishments like you, Nat and Rumlow."
"I get it. Bucky, take this out and look at me." Bucky took out his paci and slowly looked up at Steve. He didn't like where this was going.
"I told you to behave and to listen. If Sam told you not to touch something, it's for a reason not to test his authority. Why did you misbehave today?"
"Wanted you."
"Bucky that's not a reasonable excuse. You're calm with Rumlow and Nat when I'm not there. Why couldn't you do that for Sam?" Bucky really didn't know what Steve wanted to hear. He knew he messed up, kind of. But it wasn't his fault.
"Sam not you."
"You're very clingy and I understand why. But you do not bite or attack Sam or Bruce because you miss me. You're lucky Hulk wanted to help you, not hurt you. Look at what you did to yourself, Sam and Bruce." Bucky's flesh arm was wrapped up because of his biting and Sam had band-aids and Bruce was sporting an ice-pack to the head. Now Bucky felt guilty.
"Sowwy."
"It's alright kid, next time just tell us what's wrong." Said Sam and Bruce agreed.
"It's alright now, but you are not going unpunished. Tomorrow, twenty minutes in the time out corner after breakfast." Bucky sighed, he hated that corner. But he really couldn't argue with Steve.
"We're going home now. I'm sorry guys I really wish he didn't act out like that." Said Steve. Sam told him it was okay, everybody has their days including two year old's. Once Steve and Bucky left, Sam and Bruce crashed on the couch and sighed. Today took a lot out of them, Bucky was usually easy to handle, today just didn't seem to be his day. Sam and Bruce both agreed they needed another place to entertain Bucky, the medical lab was definitely not a child-friendly place.