Steve pored over the files he'd collected in his office for the umpteenth time and huffed a sigh. This case wasn't making sense and he had combed the few statements they had taken and any files relating to the mysterious Hydra company they had on record for any clue or link he might have missed.
It turned out there wasn't much on Hydra at all, little more than a file on the date it was started and its founder and a couple of times it was listed as a donor to some larger companies. If it weren't for the anonymous tip they had found connecting the company to some shady dealings, the files would likely never have seen the light of day.
Finally, with a hand frustratedly running through his hair, Steve looked at the clock on the corner of the desk and dropped the pen he had been flicking distractedly. It was nearly 11pm. Hadn't it only been an hour or so since he'd waved a couple of cleaners out the office and told them he would lock up this floor?
He shuffled the papers into a rough pile, aware now of the complete silence in the building around him and planning which takeout he could pick up on his way home for yet another late dinner. His mobile rang and he jumped at the intrusive ringtone. Natasha's name was blinking on the screen.
"Rogers, I called you at home."
"Hey Nat, I got caught up with some…"
"Yeah, I know what you're doing. I was called to tell you there's something going on in the case and they need you to make a call on it."
Steve raised his eyebrows curiously but said nothing, hoping she would elaborate soon.
"So, if you can just come on upstairs." She said knowingly and Steve sighed. She knew him too well sometimes.
"Yeah, I'll be there in two minutes." He said wearily and hung up. She would be getting too much enjoyment out of knowing something before him and he wouldn't admit defeat by wheedling her for details. Not that it would work, she was the best interrogator in the FBI and, unfortunately for Steve, that meant she knew all the tricks of a good ploy for information.
So he made the papers into a neat pile, placed them at the edge of his desk and set off for the Head of their Department's office, 3 floors above where Steve worked in the FBI offices of New York.
He opened the door into his boss' office and quickly took stock of the people gathered there – Director Fury obviously, Natasha, field agent like himself and their resident computer whiz helping them on the case, Darcy Lewis. Darcy's ever present cap was perched on her head, completing the outfit completely at odds with the smart officewear everyone else in the room was wearing. He still had no idea why Fury would need his opinion to make a decision.
"Agent Rogers, glad you could make it…so quickly." Director Fury said and Steve caught the glint of humour in Natasha's eye. Apparently everyone knew exactly where he'd been. "Do you have any new information for us?"
"I'm afraid not, Sir. Unfortunately none of the paper files are showing any links we didn't know about and certainly none referring to any scams." He laid particular emphasis on the phrase paper files and looked over at Darcy, concluding that her presence meant she must have made some advancement in the case.
"I see. Perhaps your next move is to cross reference the company with the weapons files." Fury said nonchalantly and so managing to catch Steve off guard.
"Weapons, Sir?" He began but Fury gave him a look to cut him off. Then the Director turned his head towards Darcy, indicating it was her turn to speak now.
"Right, yeah, so I've been trying to find any of their systems and it turns out even that's hard to do. But I caught onto a little strand and I followed that and it took me ages but I think I have a lead. Maybe." She said, typically long winded. "I found another computer trying to get into their systems. Well actually they got on the systems, I couldn't follow them. What I mean is, this person's good. They know things I can't even figure out and…" She glanced nervously at Fury and then at Steve.
"And what…?" Steve prompted impatiently, at the same time getting an uneasy feeling that he knew where this was going.
"And we found out who he was and we want to contact him about helping us." Natasha said bluntly, meeting Steve's eyes as his face dropped into a frown.
"No." Steve said immediately
"Steve…" Natasha put a placating hand on his arm and he pulled away.
"No! Not in a million years. I'm not working with a hacker and we are not getting one in on a federal investigation. It's insane."
Natasha stepped forward again to place her hand on him. "Steve, the last, vague statement we managed to get from someone was 3 weeks ago. You've been sat in your office until midnight every night for the last 2 and a half." She quelled his contradictory argument with a glare and spoke over him. "We need to try something else."
"Then try something else. But not that. It goes against everything we stand for."
"We have tried everything else. We just don't have enough information to move forwards any other way." Fury said.
Darcy piped up from her seat at the computer "So, why are you so against this?"
"It's a long story." Natasha and Steve spoke in unison; Darcy raised both her hands in surrender and made a face at Director Fury.
"Steve, we've done what we can and our best isn't enough without help." Natasha said.
"Oh, no offense taken" Darcy interjected.
"Sorry," Natasha apologised, looking slightly confused and under other circumstances Steve might have laughed at her inability to deal with the always cheerful computer tech.
"No but really, I'll readily admit he is ten times better at hacking systems than me. That's what he does." Steve gave Darcy an unhappy look at that but conceded that their arguments were strong with a slight slump of his shoulders. They hadn't made any progress at all in weeks.
"So, who is this guy?" He asked, almost ready to admit defeat until he saw the look exchanged between Fury and Natasha. He regained his defensive posture as Natasha stepped closer to him again, hooking her arm around his. It was Fury that spoke.
"James Barnes."
"Is this a sick joke?" He looked between the serious and slightly apologetic expressions on both Director Fury's and Natasha's faces, then the blatantly confused look on Darcy's. "James Buchanan Barnes?"
Fury didn't quite meet the righteous fury in Steve's eyes as he said "You see that our situation is dire. We wouldn't even suggest it if we hadn't hit every brick wall."
"Do you know how long I spent trying to make sure that scumbag was taken down?" He ignored Darcy's gasped "Oh" as she understood.
"2 years until I finally had enough on him. And the so-called "Winter Soldier" practically got away with a warning."
"Hardly." Natasha tutted but Steve was having none of it.
"I wouldn't let that man near this case without…"
Fury interrupted, his voice just starting to sound threatening. "Of course you realise the decision is not yours."
"So nothing I say will warn you against this?"
"You were asked for consult only so I could see how willing you would be, and if you weren't, to give you warning."
Steve glared at Fury for a moment longer, incensed and unable to find words to express it. Finally he turned on his heel, dislodging Natasha's still conciliatory touch and walked out the room.
"Think about it Steve. He should be here tomorrow." Nick called down the corridor as Steve strode furiously towards the elevator.
Steve came back into the office still in a bad mood. He had walked straight out of the building last night, grabbing only his jacket and so his office and notes were still in the untidy state he had left them the previous evening.
Instead of sorting the actual case files out he went into his filing cabinet and searched for the much larger file on the case that had got him promoted into the FBI from police captain before he had managed to solve it. The face of the man was taped at the front. Steve had actually only met him twice; once when he'd brought him in; once before when he had questioned him but didn't have enough evidence for an arrest, something that the smug bastard had known only too well.
He flicked through the pages of his own scribbled notes, statements and complaints from victims of the hacker. He had evaded Steve for two years and had flown under the radar before that for who knew how long. That was part of the reason the computer genius and scam artist extraordinaire had managed to get away with nothing more than a fine and a sentence of house arrest.
The charges had included fraud, criminal impersonation, credit scams and an instance, unproven although Steve was almost certain it was the Winter Soldier, of hacking into the White House security and doing nothing more than changing the wi-fi password.
By looking at the files Steve only reinforced his memory of the man as a sneaky, dangerous thief who couldn't be trusted. Yet here was Nick Fury, director of the National Security department, welcoming him in with open arms. Fury who, Steve realised, had not come to see him or otherwise check on him today.
Finally, around lunch time, Natasha came in with a sandwich and coffee peace offering from the deli she knew he liked. They sat quietly eating for a few minutes until she broke the silence.
"So, what are you thinking?"
He looked up at her and she nodded down at the file still open on his desk that he had been absentmindedly glancing back to.
"I don't like it." He said quickly and at her raised eyebrow he shook his head. "No really, I don't trust him and I don't think I can work with him."
"You know Nick was hoping you would go along with this easily. He really believes this will work out."
"He didn't study the guy's movements for over a year. Just wait until this guy has hacked into the system and taken who knows how many of our secrets."
"That won't happen. We have…measures in place."
"Yeah, and he can beat them." He finished his sandwich and threw the wrapper at the bin. "I just don't like it. I don't like him." He snapped the folder closed for emphasis and reached for his coffee before freezing, fingertips just shy of the cup.
"But you hardly know me!" The voice came from the doorway to his office. Natasha spun around to follow Steve's gaze and see Fury and Darcy standing on either side of the new arrival. His dark hair was longer than when Steve had last seen him but otherwise he looked just as he remembered, right down to the bold smirk on his face.
"I thought I might find you both in here. James Barnes, I'd like you to meet our lead agents on the Hydra case, Natasha Romanov and, ahh,"
"We've met." Steve said brusquely.
Barnes gave a small nod of his head to Natasha and Steve, the courtesy slightly ruined by his mischievous look, "Please, my friends call me Bucky."
Steve gritted his teeth, "We're not your friends."
Barnes frowned briefly, "Okay, everyone calls me Bucky. I don't know who this James is."
"Just another name you pretend to be." Steve muttered under his breath. Natasha shot him a look but luckily Director Fury didn't seem to have heard. He promised himself he would never call this man Bucky.
"Okay, Mr Bucky, you understand the conditions of this agreement?" Fury asked when the silence from Steve and Natasha might have become too long.
"Oh, they were made perfectly clear."
"So, how did you get into their system? How far did you get?" Darcy blurted out, obviously waiting until the barest of pleasantries had been exchanged before she got to find out the juicy details.
"Well, I got all the way but getting in then wasn't the problem."
"What do you mean, there were more encryptions?" Darcy pressed.
"I wasn't hacking them. I worked for them." Steve shot Barnes a piercing look, followed by quickly looking at Fury, who he noticed wasn't meeting anyone's eye. Natasha was looking at Fury too so Steve couldn't judge her reaction. Barnes only seemed to be enjoying the effect he'd had.
"Oh this just gets better and better." Steve threw his hands in the air after the sudden quiet. Then, leaving them in his own office, he got up and walked out for the second time in as many meetings.