Hardwired
After the Christmas holiday at the Barton house it was clear his arm wasn’t working completely. There was a lag in the motor functions and it was making a grinding noise. He also noticed it felt like something was overheating in it. He finally decided to go to Tony when he woke up and it pretty much wouldn’t move.
When he approached the lab he could hear Tony's music blaring as he worked on god knows what. He knew after the week at the cabin during the summer they had an understanding but he also got the feeling that things weren’t completely settled. When he opened the door the music stopped and Tony looked at him. “Well I didn’t expect to see you down here what's the occasion?” He gestured to the arm. “It wont move.” Tony gleefully rubbed his hands together. “Finally I get a chance to see this thing.”
Before completely removing the arm he had the plates open looking at the wires inside. “I would have expected shurri to use better parts inside here what the hell.” He shook his head. She couldn’t, none of her parts would work. T'challa had to go back to Siberia and get my arm so they could make an exact copy. The only new thing is the casing. They never updated the hook up and I didn’t want to go through rewiring right now really ever if it can be avoided.” Tony was surveying the outdated gears and wires. “I might be able to replace some of these with slightly better parts but the wiring is a little iffy. I'm going to take the arm off a bit and see what I can see is that ok?” He hesitated but agreed.
Tony now had the arm removed and all of the parts pulled out and lined up on the table. He was digging through a cardboard box muttering to himself. He finally pulled out an arm. “What is that?” He turned and grinned. “This was a prototype I was working on for the hell of it before I met you. Kinda forgot about it but i think some of the parts might work here.” He began to disassemble the arm and compare pieces. After a while he had now replaced things and was working on the wiring.
He moved back over to place the arm and stopped. “What's this?” he was pointing to a connector near his shoulder blade. “Not sure. I think it's a connector for one of the pressure sensors but it hasn’t been hooked up as far as I can remember.” Tony surveyed the spot and ten the arm. “Do you mind?” He shrugged “Your funeral…” He stopped “Sorry. I just meant-”
“It’s ok I got it. Proceed with caution screw ups are all on me.” He carefully attached the connector between the arms and began to replace everything. “Ok go ahead and move around for me.”
He wiggled his fingers and bent his arm. “Seems normal.” Tony was watching him as he bent his arm around. “Ok range of motion can i get a big circle and a little circle forwards and backwards for each.” He stood up and made the little circles first no issue. He moved to the big circles and Tony could see the arm seize. Bucky let out a grunt but he could tell he was holding back something much louder. “Talk to me what’s going on? Something hurt?” He was now holding his arm as if he was afraid to let it move. He began shaking his head and panting. “Friday do a scan what's going on?”
“It would appear that you have activated a crudely made sensor connected to the spinal column and the brain stem. It appears there is more feedback coming in than Sergeant Barnes is capable of handling at one time.” He looked over at him. He was now on the floor his back pressed against the wall. “Shit. Friday I’m gonna need some help here is Rogers available?” A few moments later Steve was in the lab trying to hold Bucky Still long enough for Tony and now Peter to get his arm off. “What did you do?” There was a pop and then Bucky went limp. Peter was now holding the arm. “Mr. Stark what the hell?”
“He said I could hook it up. We figured if it was something he needed it should be attached. Nothing in Shurri's notes mentioned it.” Peter was looking at the skin near the connection. “Look at the track made on his skin from that. I bet that wire is stripped somewhere in there.” Tony nodded. “He won’t let us work on the internal stuff so for now it just stays disconnected.” He quickly ripped the wire from the arm. “I swear two steps forward and ten steps back. Don’t let him wake up here he might panic.”
Bucky woke up feeling hungover. He looked around and saw he was in Steve’s room. “Did I do something bad?” Friday answered his question. “Not at all James. Boss made a miscalculation when he attached that wire. It’s been removed but he and Peter think you really need to get the internal connections checked.” He got up to find everyone. “Not gonna happen Friday.” Steve was sitting on the couch waiting for him. “I can kill Tony if you need me to.”
“No I told him it was ok. How was I supposed to know I would flip out.” Steve looked visibly upset. “What were you doing?” He carefully held up his arm. “It wasn’t working and it's too heavy to carry without the assistance from the working parts. I didn’t have a real choice other than just taking it off.” He was now quiet. “Oh. I’m sorry. I would have gone down with you if you wanted.” He gave a weak smile. “I know you would have but I need to do some things on my own. That doesn’t mean I won’t need you anymore I just..need to be a little more independent.” Steve nodded. “Ok I can work with that but we are all here to help if you need it.”