dietitian
It had taken months for them to find a nutritionist that would more or less make house calls but they finally found one. Bucky had gotten better with food but it was still a struggle to get him to eat enough. Tony met the man in the lobby and brought him up to the room. Friday had alerted him that they were arriving so Tony left the man at the door and went on with his day. Bucky opened the door and immediately moved to close it but he was already inside.
"Sergeant Barnes this is such an unexpected surprise. Take a seat. Please, we don't want this to be difficult. Now my file says you are struggling with your required calorie intake. We know all about fixing that don't we." Bucky was repeatedly asking Friday to listen in but it was clear something was jamming the connection. "How did you even make it this far?" He croaked. The man only laughed and pulled out a piece of paper. "It is a good thing we rescued this page from your book. Perhaps you need a reminder of what happens when you don't take care of yourself."
Hummingbird
Snowstorm
School day
Bucky struggled to move towards the door his feet refusing to move as each word tumbled out.
Holiday
Boat
Canine
He sunk down to the floor. No one could help him. They had trusted this man. They had no reason to check on him. They weren't aware that a page was missing from the book. He stood over him. "I think we should take a walk. Get up, soldier." He had no choice but to move into the elevator. Steve wasn't there to stop him. Tony was in his lab and Friday acted like he didn't exist.
They had just gotten to the lobby when Pepper and Happy had walked in. She looked at them. "Dr. Webber? Where are you two going?" He smiled. "I am taking James for a field trip. A little hands on learning." She took a step forward. "Well we should give Steve a call to make sure he is ok with that." The man shook his head."No need Mrs Stark I have already asked Captain Rogers and he was fine with the idea." Happy had been watching Bucky the whole time.
"Barnes you good? You seem kinda quiet." He looked up with dead empty eyes. "Just peachy." The tone wasn't right. Happy looked at Pepper. "Friday lock down" Dr. Webber looked as all exits were blocked. Tony and Wanda were quickly in the Lobby. Pepper held her breath waiting for the order to be given for Bucky to attack but it never came.
"What's the deal Pep?" He looked around and saw the issue. "Barnes? You home? Talk to me." He turned his head slightly. "Just peachy." He walked over to them. "Barnes let's take a walk Happy, wanda, take care of Dr. Webber here. Find out what's going on." He was startled at how easily Bucky followed him to the elevator. He took him back down to the lab and sat him on the chair. "What's the word Barnes? What's going on?" He looked up at him. "Just peachy" He had no clue how to break him out of this trance. He figured he would just wait it out.
Happy called down a while later to tell him Pepper was coming in. He was barely off the call when she came in. "We accidentally hired an ex red room agent." Tony looked at her. "Webber? He passed every background test, how?" She shrugged. "I have no idea. We found two pages in his coat pocket presumably from the book. The good news he's in custody the bad news, He won't tell us what they do." Tony felt awful. They worked so hard to rebuild trust in doctors and then this happened. He pulled a bag of trail mix out Bucky suddenly walked over and took it and began to eat.
"Well that's weird." Pepper walked over to Bucky. "James are you hungry?" He looked at her but said nothing. By the time Steve got back that evening Bucky was still the way they found him with Dr. Webber. He only seemed to respond to food which they gave him but they were not going to keep feeding him. Steve sat down next to him. "Buck? Come on snap out of it." He looked at him. "S..steve?" Tony let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding in. "What happened Buck?" His head dropped and his shoulders sagged. "Webber...worked for the Red Room. His job...they brought him in..because I wouldn’t...I couldn't eat. Hydra mismanaged dietary in the 10 years before I was passed on to the red room."
Pepper laid a hand on his shoulder. "James I'm so sorry." He shook his head. "You couldn't possibly know. It's not like it was in the file. Pretty certain that creep gets his rock off force feeding people." He shuddered clearly recalling something he wasn't ready to talk about. "Did you get the pages from him?" Pepper nodded. "Good then burn them and don't ever call someone in to help me eat better." Tony took the pages and looked them over quickly memorizing the words before incinerating them in the sink.
Over the next week Bucky avoided meals. They tried everything but he refused. Natasha finally convinced him to have some soup which she personally made for him. Knowing that Nat didn't cook for anyone was a pretty convincing factor. "I'm sorry I wasn't here. I should have looked over those files." He rested his head on her shoulder. "You don't need to be sorry. You trusted your team. No one knew how the red room got me to eat and I didn't tell anyone." She smiled and grabbed his bowl filling it back up. "I can't let you leave till it's gone." He put his feet up on the couch. "Then we are gonna be here a while." She sat at the end "As long as you need,I'm gonna be here."