This is another one of those tasks that would be better performed by Katara. Sokka has the desire to help, and he does have some experience with tending to basic scratches and scrapes — it's an easy thing to do — but his approach is more about smearing on ointment and hoping that it's enough, rather than what it looks like Bucky needs right now. Gentle care, soft words, not — the impulse to make a stupid joke, which bubbles up inside of Sokka as a misplaced urge to make all this feel less...terrible. Not that a joke has that kind of power; it's just what Sokka would do, if the others were here. He wants to lighten this incredibly heavy moment.

But a joke would derail everything, and probably come across as insensitive, which Sokka is guilty of seeming at times. It's the easier route, but that doesn't mean it's the correct route, so he swallows it down as he holds Bucky's hand and dresses his wounds, following up the ointment with the bandages, which are probably overkill but at least his cuts won't get infected. There's no telling what's going to happen after this; if they end up needing to make a run for it, somehow, then it'll be better for his wounds to be covered.

He still thinks yes or no questions will be easiest for Bucky to answer. As he sets a bandage over one of the restraint marks. "Did the doctor want something from you?" In his mind, it's a valid hypothesis; if the doctor restrained Bucky, then let him go, maybe he got whatever he wanted.