Chapter 1

Summoned

Bucky had been working for SHIELD for about two years and had never once been on the Helicarrier. She had mixed feelings when she had been summoned on to it. She was excited to finally see the marvel, yet she knew it had to have been something very important for her to have to go there and she wasn't so excited about that part.

However, before the girl was to arrive at the Helicarrier, she was to meet Director Fury at a building down in Brooklyn, New York. Bucky lived in Brooklyn, though she had never been to the gym that she was meeting him at. She didn't even know why she was meeting him there. It wasn't like she was skipping her training or anything.

When she got the message, Bucky had been in school and had to leave early to go do what Fury wanted her to do. Bucky wasn't pleased she had to skip out on school again, but when they Director wanted, she did for the simple fact was he scared her. She didn't know what he was capable of.

Fury and Bucky both stood outside of the gym that night after Bucky had finished packing her belongings, the Director in his usual all black, SHIELD uniform while Bucky was wearing her Marine Class A's, something she didn't usually get to do. Before the girl was able to ask anything on what they were doing there, the Director of SHIELD spoke, giving her more questions than answers.

"Bucky, I want you to keep quiet and let me do all the talking, understand?" he ordered her.

"Yes Sir," Bucky replied. "Permission to speak, sir?"

"Granted," he replied.

"If you are to be doing all the talking, Sir, then why is my presence necessary?" she asked as they started to make their way into the main entrance of the gym.

The Director stopped and turned to the eighteen year old girl. She looked back up at him, her back straight to make herself look a little bigger than she actually was. Bucky was average height for her age, but when she the majority of the people she with were adult men, she had to make herself look a little stronger than she normally did, though she most likely could've kicked most of their asses with her hands tied behind her back.

"I want you to get a look at the man who helped us win World War II," he said.

"Sir," Bucky said, her voice displaying her shock. "We're confronting Captain Rogers?"

"Yes Private," he replied. He turned away from the girl and started to head into the gym.

He stopped inside the caged area, causing Bucky to stand beside him. However, she didn't worry about why they weren't just going in because she was too focused on what was going on before her. It was an amazing, yet a sad sight to see. The man she had heard so much about, Captain Steven Rogers, was standing off in the distance.

The man before her, she saw, was not just a person from stories that she heard. He was a real person, and he stood before her. Steven Rogers stood there, his dirty blonde hair sweaty, along with his white skin. He was stronger looking than she had imagined him to be. He was also wearing a simple white tee-shirt and a pair of light brown almost tan sweat pants. It was simple, she thought. And it suited him.

The small smile that had been on her face when she walked in fell as she saw the expression on his face though. Bucky could visibly see something was bothering him. He was remembering what it was like back in his time and how that was all ripped away from him. Bucky knew that look all too well. She had seen something very similar to it in the mirror every day. It wasn't exactly for the same reasons, but it was pretty close and she sure knew how he felt.

Captain America was whaling on a punching bag furiously as they stood there. All of his anger was being taken out on it and she knew that. That was what she did. That was why she worked out so much. It helped her get all of the built up anger she had out. For a short time, anyways.

Once the punching bag was sent across the gym, all of the content that was inside of it, spilling out and onto the floor, causing Bucky to watch him even more intensely, who placed another bag up onto the hook to replace the one he had destroyed. He started to beat on it once again. That was when Fury made his move. However, before doing so, Fury did hear the girl mutter under her breathe that she hated it when that happened. He brushed it off though and continued on with his mission.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury called out, getting the soldier's attention. He started to walk in, Bucky following right behind him. Her eyes fell back to the older soldier across the room from them though, not on her boss.

"I slept for seventy years, Sir," Steve started to say. "I think I've had my fill."

"Than you should be out celebrating, seeing the world," Fury said.

Captain Rogers started to walk away from the two unwanted guests, unwrapping his hands as he went. Fury and Bucky followed him while Fury looked at a paper in his hands. "I went under the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't way what we lost."

That's war for you, though, Bucky thought.

"We've made some mistakes along the way," Fury said and then added, "Some very recently."

"You here with a mission, Sir?" Rogers asked.

"I am," he said. He turned his head and glanced at Bucky. She noticed him do that from her peripherals, but didn't take her eyes off of the man before her. He then added, "We are."

"Trying to get me back in the world?" Steve asked.

"Trying to save it," Fury corrected, holding out the file in his hands for the man to take.

Steve slowly did so, looking reluctant yet curious at the same time. Bucky didn't know what was in it for she didn't see the content, but once Steve spoke, she knew. "HYDRA's secret weapon," he muttered.

"Howard Stark fished the out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Fury said. "He thought what we think the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited, sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

Steve closed up the file and handed it back to Fury while asking, "Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki," Fury answered.

Who's Loki? Bucky asked herself. She really wished she had been debriefed before hand. She couldn't have been so confused and slightly lost. He's not from around here. People never tell me anything.

"He's not from around here," Fury added.

And what is that supposed to mean? He's Canadian?

"There's a lot we'll need to bring you up to speed on if you're in," Fury said.

There's a lot you need to bring me up to speed on and I already work for you, Buck thought.

"The world has gotten even stranger than you already know," Fury said.

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me," Steve said.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury bet. However, there wasn't really any amusement in his voice. It was as professional and strict as it usually was. Although, Bucky could have sworn that there was a little bit of sadness in there as well. "There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment." Steve walked over to his bag, picked it up and then grabbed one of the replacement punching bags that were on the floor to put away. As he walked away, Fury continued to talk. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

The only thing he replied with was, "You should've left it in the ocean." With that, he was gone into the storage room the put the equipment he had been using away.

While Steve was gone Fury yelled, knowing very well he could hear him, "I'll have the Private here give you a couple numbers to call, just in case you're in." He turned to Bucky and said quietly. "Give him Coulson's number and make sure he understands how urgent this is," he said. "Then meet me outside."
"Yes Sir," she answered. Bucky watched Fury leave as she pulled out Phil's card that she always carried around with her even though she already had it in her cell phone. She guessed it was a good things she still had it. She waited there for a couple minutes before the Captain came back out.

He nodded his head at the girl and said, "Private."

Bucky nodded her head as well and said, "Captain, if you are in, this man is the guy to call." Bucky wasn't able to hide the small smirk that was playing on her lips. She knew Phil would be so excited to get a call from his all time hero. Anything that had to do with Captain America he was interested in. Bucky knew that. Bucky handed him the card while saying, "His name is Agent Phil Coulson."

"Thank you, Private," he said. Before Bucky could excuse herself, Steve stopped her by asking her a question. "What is your name, Private?" He was continuing to pick up the bags on the ground to put away, now two at a time.

"Would you like some help with those, Sir?" she asked, getting off topic for a moment.

"If you think you can handle them, Private," Steve replied. He watched the girl as she picked up the last two bags. She picked up two, just as he had been doing and that seemed to impress him slightly. Bucky guessed he was still getting used to having woman as independent and strong as men, though Bucky was a special case. "You're name, Private?"

Bucky hesitated for a moment, knowing very well how he would take it. "Private Rogers, Sir."

Steve froze as the girl walked by him, placing the bags down in the room. He cleared his throat and asked, "Any relation, Private Rogers?"

Bucky knew he was asking if she were related to him. "I don't believe so, Sir," she replied. To be honest, she had no idea if they were related. She didn't think so, but really, the only family she knew about was her older brother, Jacob, and they were not on good terms at all. Bucky watched as Steve put his two bags away and once again, was about to get ready to leave, but was stopped.

"May I ask you a personal question, Private Rogers?" he asked.

"I'd have to say that depends, Sir, on what the question is," she answered truthfully. "But please, be my guest, Sir."

Steve sat down on the bench in the room and motioned for the girl to take a seat. She hesitated, but sat down anyways. Fury would have to wait a little longer. She wasn't about to pass up a chance to talk to the man who unknowingly changed her life forever. Whether or not it was a good thing or bad was debatable, but she wasn't going to give the chance up. He was a hero, what she wanted to be like.

"You're a Marine," he stated. The girl nodded her head, waiting for him to continue. She knew that wasn't his question. "Yet you work for SHIELD." He wasn't looking at the girl. His was leaning forward with his elbows resting on top of his legs, his hands clasped together. That was where his eyes were.

"Yes Sir," she replied. "I'm a liaison. I work for SHIELD and they tell me what information I can hand over to the military. It works the same way for the Marines," Bucky explained. However, she felt as if she weren't finished. She needed to add, "However, though I work for SHIELD more than I do the Marines, I am a Marine first and foremost, Sir."

Captain Rogers looked up at the girl, but didn't change his posture. "Why did you join the Marines?"

"Sir, the Marines are best at what they do," Bucky said, a smirk on her face. "There is a pride in the soldiers in the Marine Corps and they fight to the end no matter what the cost. My role model was, er, is like that and thou he wasn't a Marine, I want to be just like that." Bucky glanced over at the Captain and saw that he was still looking intently at her. She could tell he liked the response he got from her, but she could tell that wasn't exactly what he wanted to here.

"Why did you want to join the military, Soldier?" he pressed.

Bucky sighed and let her posture settle a little; making her look a little less professional, but Steve didn't hold that against her. It was a personal thing he asked. Bucky stared at the floor as she started to answer his question. It wasn't just because it was Captain America that she as uncomfortable talking about it, she would have been with anybody. She didn't really have a definitive answer to it, but she wasn't going to not give an answer.

"The military's the only thing I've ever really known, Sir," she said. "I grew up in an unusual place and I was drilled with tactics this, strategy that. There isn't really anything else I'm good at. I was given a single path to go on for most of my life and straying from that was too difficult and different.

"It's not that I don't love what I do," she said. "I do, Sir, honestly I do. It's just that, I wish I could have grown up differently. That I could've learned my own skills, talents and hobbies. Instead, I was given on things and that was all. When I got out of there, I was offered something that allowed me to stick to what I know, but also allowed me a little more normalcy. But, that didn't mean they didn't want me to fill the shoes left for me."

"I'm sorry," Steve said. "I don't completely follow you, Private."

"That's understandable, Sir. You don't know my life story," she said. "Most people don't and I don't expect you to take an interest in it. I'm just a soldier."

"There is no such things as 'just a soldier,' Private," Steve said.

"Yes Sir," she replied with a soft smile. "I apologize for going off like that, Sir. It wasn't very professional." Bucky stood up and saluted the soldier before her before saying, "I should take my leave now, Captain. Director Fury is waiting for me outside."

"Of course, Private," he replied. He stood up and held out his hand for the girl to shake. She did so with a small smile. "It was a please meeting you, Private Rogers."

Bucky started to take her leave, but stopped at the door to the storage area and turned around to face the Captain. She hesitated before asking, "Permission to speak freely, Sir?"

"Be my guest, Private," he said.

"Sir, I think you should take the job," she said. "The world really could use a hero like you."

Steve hesitated before saying anything. Bucky was about to give up and take her leave when he finally replied. "I'll take that into consideration. Thank you, Private." He rubbed the back of his neck before asking, "Are you going to be on this?

"Yes Sir," she replied. "I do believe so."

"Thank you," he said. "You are despised."

"Yes Sir," she said once more before leaving.

Bucky headed out of the building and met Director Fury by the car. "You were in there a while," he said, with that smirk of his that she always got annoyed with. "How did he seem when you left?"

"I believe he'll take the job, Sir," she said.

"That's not what I meant, Bucky," he said.

Bucky sighed once more before retorting, "How would you feel if everything you knew had changed. Everyone you knew had died?"

They both left it at that.