"Y/n, you're not coming," Steve said using his 'captain' voice causing me to roll my eyes.
"Sorry, Stevie you can't stop me. I'm not letting you do this alone"
"It's too dangerous! I promised Bucky I wouldn't let anything happen to you!"
"During World War 2 Steve! We both know things are different now!"
"It doesn't matter...I just... I can't break that promise again, y/n" the anger left me with his words.
"Look I get it but I was serious about not letting you go alone. I can't lose you too..."
"Fine. But we are doing things on my terms" I nod my head in agreement knowing this is not a battle that I could win. "Ok come on then we are meeting up with a friend of mine"
I was sat at the table in Sam Wilson's house watching him roam around his kitchen making breakfast while Steve and Nat talked in the other room.
"You guys always go running to strangers when you're in danger or am I just special," he asks breaking the silence.
"Steve said he trusted you and for now strangers are safer"
"So what I'm hearing here is that I am... special" I let myself smile a bit shaking my head.
"Maybe" I answered walking into the kitchen to steal a piece of toast laughing at Sam's mock offense. "I get what he sees in you... don't turn on us Wilson" Sam faked a gasp.
"I earned two super soldiers trust?" I rolled my eyes at him and took a bite of my toast. "I'm going to let them know breakfast is ready," he said watching me sit back down at the table.
I picked at the remainder of my toast letting the story that Steve had told me about what had happened run through my head. Everything from Fury, Zola, and the Winter Soldier, whom I was hoping was just a bad dream, the name alone bring up fear from my days with Hydra. I was brought back to the present by a folder dropping into the table.
"What's this?"
"Call it a résumé" I moved to look over Nat's shoulder.
"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you? You didn't say he was a pararescue. " Steve took the picture from nat.
"Is this Riley?" He asked gesturing to the other man in the photo.
"Yeah"
"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use? A stealth chute?" Nat asked.
"No. These." Sam handed the folder to Steve.
"Holy shit!" I said with a laugh causing a smirk from Sam and a disapproving look from Steve
"You know I hate when you cuss," he said causing me to shrug and lean in a little closer to the photo. "And I thought you said you were a pilot"
"I never said pilot" Nat gave me a grin which I instantly mirrored.
"I can't ask you to do this Sam you got out for a good reason."
"Dude, Captain America needs my hell there's no better reason to get back in" Sam response was with zero hesitation and my grin grew.
"Where can we get our hands on one of these?"
"The last one is at Fort Meade. Behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall. "
"Shouldn't be a problem. Breaking into things is a talent of mine" I joke Nat to shakes her head and lightly elbows me. It wasn't just a joke, during my time in Hydra they spent years teaching me how to become their perfect thief. I never spent any time with the Winter Soldier he was just a threat that loomed over me in case I ever decided to run or disobey an order. Now I have a feeling I'm going to come face to face with the man I was taught to fear.
Nat, me, and one of Hydras not so finest were crammed into the back of the car. Talking about our next move when Sitwell is torn from the car. Nat quickly pulls herself to the front seat and a bullet grazes my side. The car is suddenly slammed to a stop and the man is thrown from the roof.
In no time the man is standing in front of the car and my heart stops in my chest. Before I had time to react or say a word another car slams into the back of us bring us staring toward the Winter Soldier.
The steering wheel is torn from the car and sam pulls me into the front as Nat starts to shoot. I can't even fully register what is happening before Steve is slamming us out of the car. I grab hold of the closest person to me and pray I don't hit the pavement. I bounce off the door along with Sam who quickly pulls me up once we stop rolling. Looking around I quickly find Steve who is almost instantly thrown from the bridge. I have no time to worry about him. Hydra is shooting at us and we are all quickly taking cover behind cars.
I let myself breath for a moment listening to the sounds of gin shots getting closer. I need a gun. Just one gun. A Hydra agent to get close enough to me so I can get one. I take a deep breath. Get a gun and protect Steve. I hear a couple of explosions from behind me and I take the opportunity to look for an agent. I find the one farthest for the soldier and start making my way to him. Once I'm there I just have to wait for something loud enough where they won't hear an agent hitting the ground. I take the opportunity once Nat starts firing at the soldier to pull the man underneath the car quickly stabbing him with the knife I pulled from my belt. Before I can take his gun another one of the agents spot me I quickly throw my knife at him stabbing him in the throat before I run and jump off the side of the bridge taking cover behind the bus so I can make it to Nat.
I make my way around the corner just in time to see Nat temporarily take out his arm before taking off. For a brief moment, I debate taking this time to fight him. To kill the monster that's been haunting my dreams. I can't I need to find Steve. I'm not here to kill the Winter Soldier I'm here to make sure my friends get out alive. So I run to catch up with Nat I finally make it to her when Steve reaches the Soldier. My hands are covered in a mix of her blood and my own as she reassured me that she's ok. She grabs one of the guns and fires it in the direction of the soldier and before we can make another move we are being arrested by 'S.H.I.E.L.D' agents.
I was trying to focus on what Steve was saying but nothing was working. Bucky was the Winter Soldier. This whole time it has been Bucky. Not my Bucky but this shell. A man with no memories of who he used to be. With no memories of Steve. With no memories of me. No memories of the life we had or our dreams. My heart was breaking for Steve... for me but mostly for Bucky and I became filled with this need to help him to show him that this is not who he is. Even if he never returned to the Bucky of the past he deserved to decide who he was and he is not the Winter Soldier.
I'm broken from my thoughts when one of the agents start to attack the other one before taking off their helmet.
"That was squeezing my brain," Agent Hill said shaking her head a little "who's this guy?" A small laugh of shock left me as I let my head fall back against the wall behind me and started to feel a small glimmer of hope bubble up inside me. We were going to defeat Hydra and we were going to save bucky. No matter what.
Sam was helping me walk while Hill let us to a room. When she pulled back the curtain Nick Fury turned his head to look at us.
"About damn time" the small sliver of hope was growing and when I looked to Steve I knew that he could feel it too.
I stood on the bridge letting memories from the life I used to live wash over me. Dances, dates, late night walks and talks, schoolyard games. All of my favorite memories had Bucky. I closed my eyes taking a moment to relive it
"So, what do you say Doll? Are you going to dance with me or not" Bucky asked pulling out his Brooklyn charm that he knew would make me go soft this man knew just how to talk to get me to do anything he wanted and I trusted him enough to never push me into something I truly didn't want to do.
"I'll always dance with you Bucky. " I answered giving him my hand. He pulled me into him and I places my hands on his shoulders as he put his on my hips and we gently swayed together in the middle of his living room. As the time went on we slowly moved in closer to each other our foreheads pressed together as we danced. "Can you promise me something, James?" I asked finally breaking the silence smiling softly when his cheeks turned a little pink at the use of his name.
"What is it, Doll?"
"Just... say this is going to be our last dance" I started to fight back tears as the words left my mouth. His hand moved up to my chin so he could have me look at him.
"I will do everything I can to come back to you," he said gently brushing away the tears that had begun to roll down my cheeks "ok?" I nodded softly and brought my hand to the back of his neck so I could pull him closer to me once more. His nose brushed mine softly before he leaned in to kiss me. The kiss was filled with promises from both of us. Ones that we never got the chance to keep. As it always is with these memories it all felt so far away.
I allowed myself to be pulled from my thoughts when I saw Steve walking over to me.
"Hey, we're heading out. Are you ready?" He said studying my face. I nodded not trusting my voice to be strong enough not to give my thoughts away.
"You know you're a lot heavier than you look," Sam said as we walked together on the last helicarrier.
"I had a big breakfast" before Sam had time to reply Steve was body slammed by Bu-Winter Soldier.
"Steve!" We both yelled and Sam moved to fly over the edge after him. The soldier grabbed one of his wings and tossed him away from the edge. During their fight, I hopped over the side to help pull Steve back up.
"It's just me and you now kid. Sam's grounded."
"I hate when you call me 'kid' Cap." I joke trying to hide how nervous I truly was.
Just down the way from us was The Soldier. Now that I was this close to him all I could see was Bucky. I had to fight back the urge to run to him. To hold him.
"People are going to die, Buck" Steve spoke breaking me from my internal battle. "I can't let that happen. Please don't make me do this" I let out a broken breath when he didn't move or even react to the words that Steve had said. Steve moved to throw his shield and I prepared myself for what I knew had to happen.
The fight was happening so fast half the time I was running on pure instinct. Save Steve. Don't hurt Bucky. A bullet grazed Steve's side and I tore Bucky away. As I did he pulled out his knife and sliced into the of my upper arm. I didn't have time to think about that. I had to focus on distracting Bucky so Steve could bring down the helicarrier. His metal arm made contact with my ribs and he dropped me before moving to pull Steve away.
Bucky's screams pulled me off the ground and over the railing to join him and Steve. My goal once again became to distract him so Steve could take down the helicarrier. Between punches to me, The Winter Soldier shot in Steve's direction and out of the corner of my eye I saw him fall. No! He had to be ok! I needed him to be ok! I tackled Bucky and the gun slid across the floor. In my earpiece, I heard "Charlie lock" and I let out a sigh. A moment of distraction the soldier used to stab me and kick me off of him my back slammed into the ground and for a moment my vision when blank.
When I came to the helicarrier was being destroyed around me. I vaguely heard the sounds of screaming around me as I fought through the haze. I crawled my way to where Steve was lifting a bar off of Bucky. Using all of my strength to save the man I love and my best friend I helped him pull the bar up enough to let Bucky slide out and once again my vision went black.
"You're my mission!" Each word was punctuated with a punch to Steve's face.
"Bucky! Please" my voice broke as I lowered myself to my knees trying not to seem threatening. His fist paused in the air before connecting with Steve's face again. He whipped his head in my direction as if he forgot I was there. "Please" our eyes locked and I could no longer hold back my tears. He only looked away when Steve touched his arm.
"Then finish it because I'm with you till the end of the line" with these words everything seemed to freeze with these until suddenly the ground gave way beneath us. The glass I was kneeling on shattered around me before I could grab hold of anything. I didn't have time to think of something to do before my back hit the ice water my head smacked against a piece of debris causing my vision to go black. And for the first time in years when I closed my eyes, Bucky didn't feel so far away.