When Steve had first come to to Stark Industries, his orientation had been a pleasant experience. He'd joined the company at the same time as two other women, and after pictures were taken for badges, they'd discussed the clearance and security system over a vanilla and strawberry layer cake. He was shown his first office, which he'd shared with three other people at that point, and told what was and wasn't allowed for decor. It was all pretty standard, and by the time lunch break was over, Steve was going over the presentation about company standards regarding dealing with customers. After he'd finished that, he was given a rather large gift basket of shirts, a coffee mug, and a few other Stark branded items that he'd struggled to take home on the bus, feeling like an idiot trying to hold everything on his lap. It had been a good first day, as first days went, though he had to admit he didn't feel like a member of "Team Stark" quite yet. He'd give it time though, this was a great job, he just had to give it one hundred percent. He had to give it a real chance.
Sitting in another cart, still holding his messenger bag against him, Steve was pretty sure he wasn't getting a cake and gift basket today. He hadn't realized until he got home and had a long time to think about this that it all seemed really weird. Stark Industries didn't deal with medical testing, so why would there be a patient here? And what had they done to him, exactly? He remembered Ms. Carr telling him that Bucky would tell him if he wanted to, but he felt awkward at the thought of asking someone what made them special. It didn't take long for him to decide that he wasn't going to let his curiosity get the better of him with this job.
"Mr. Rogers, hello," Ms. Carr said as she stepped over to meet Steve in the cart, once it parked itself. "Don't worry, you aren't going to have to take that a ride every day, I'm sure that would get annoying after a while. We're going to show you where your entrance is from now on so you can arrive and leave easier. You'll have an area there to park your motorcycle, or receive deliveries if you order food. Other departments use that door, so no one will question you at all."
"It's not such a bad ride...I think the motorcycle will be more fun, though," Steve said with a strained laugh, trying to be friendly even though he wasn't sure if he should be.
"I'm sure it will be," Ms. Carr said, her own smile lacking genuine feeling. "Please, follow me."
Steve straightened the strap of his messenger bag, following Ms. Carr through the doorway and into the hall they were in yesterday, though today they'd gone to the right instead, towards an elevator.
"We are going to be registering your retina scan and thumbprint once we get inside the elevator," Ms. Carr said casually as if she was just mentioning giving him a key for the place. "Like I said, you will be placed on red star clearance, there are only a small handful of people that have it, myself included. You must carry your badge at all times, you will need it to access Bucky's habitat. If you lose it, you must immediately contact me. Do you still have the phone I gave you?"
"Right here," Steve said as he took it out of his pocket where it lay next to his own phone. He half wanted to ask why they called it Bucky's habitat, it made him sound like a zoo animal. Though Steve didn't know what the kid was like, there was every possibility that he could be completely wild. "I meant to ask, should I continue wearing business casual? Is this job going to be physical at all?"
"You may wear whatever you want, Mr. Rogers, very few people will see you down here," Ms. Carr said as she pressed the button for the elevator, the doors opening immediately, closing once they'd stepped inside.
The first thing that Steve noticed about this elevator was that there were no buttons, and that it opened on both sides. There was what he recognized as a barcode reader, next to a round pad that glowed red, and underneath what he guessed was a camera of sorts. Opening his mouth to ask how they were supposed to get anywhere, he looked up to see another camera pointing down at them. That was definitely a security camera.
"Admin mode, Carr, Rebecca Anne, four eight zeta nine alpha four," Ms. Carr said, scanning her own pass, and letting her thumbprint and retina to be scanned before reaching into her bag to pull out another badge that was blank save for a small red star. Sliding it into the slot, she turned to Steve.
"I want you to put your left thumb on that pad, and you need to look into this camera without blinking," Ms. Carr watched as Steve's thumbprint and retina scan finished. "Now I want you to say your full name, surname first, when the red light appears. Be very clear."
"Rogers, Steven Grant," Steve said as the small red light on the card scanner illuminated and subsequently disappeared. He watched as Ms. Carr removed the card, attaching it to a metal chain, before holding it out to him.
"Put the card in the scanner again, as you put your thumb on the pad and look into the scanner. Then ask to go to the eighth lower level," Ms. Carr said, watching Steve with a polite smile on her face, and Howard Stark's voice in her ear. So far he was pleased.
"Eighth lower level," Steve said clearly, putting his badge around his neck, not sure if he'd need it again. This was definitely much tighter security than the metal detector at the front door.
"The doors open on both sides for each floor down to the sixth floor, but it only opens on this side on the eighth floor because of your clearance. If someone gets in the elevator with you and requests a floor, it will go straight to their floor and the door on the eighth won't open until you request your floor again with your badge and scans," Ms. Carr explained as the elevator descended, turning to exit through the back into a hallway lit only by emergency lighting. Leading Steve down a hallway of offices empty save for stacks of old boxes here and there, she stopped at the fifth room on the left. "Your pass works here as well, even if the scanner looks old, it works just fine."
"O-oh, alright," Steve said, holding his pass in his hand, pausing before he scanned it. "…is getting into the building at the door I'm supposed to use going to have security at this level?"
"No, you're going to be using the same type of entrance as you were used to, just at a different location," Ms. Carr said as she reached out for the door handle, pushing it open and stepping into a white room with neon lighting overhead. "Come, you can finally meet Bucky now."
Steve wasn't sure what he'd expected from all of this build up to come to this strange room. There were a few chairs along a desk facing a glass wall with a control panel on it, the rest of the room mostly empty aside from some medical equipment, a comfortable looking couch, and a desk with a monitor on it. The glass wall itself was quite long, about twenty feet or so, with a single door in the middle, and on the other side was another white room, brightly lit as well. There were a few pieces of exercise equipment on the far right, an exercise bike bolted to the floor, a yoga ball, and a couple small hand weights. On the left was a bathroom, a toilet, sink, and a clear shower stall, with a few bright red towels hanging from the walls. The middle was the largest section of room with a metal bed bolted down in the corner along with some bookshelves and a dresser. In the far corner from the bed was a television, a few consoles, and a case full of dozens of games. Sitting in front of it was a teenage boy with long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing a thick black hoodie and shorts, a black controller in his hands as he mindlessly continued with his game despite the people staring at him. It was something he was painfully used to.
"He looks…pretty normal," Steve said, realizing the boy was nothing at all like he'd pictured. He'd been imagining a medical experiment gone wrong or something, but Bucky seemed to be like any other teenager he saw around. He noticed that Bucky had a metal glove on, though, he wondered if he'd been too quick to judge Bucky as average, he hadn't taken to account how many afflictions were invisible. "I mean…I'm sure he is special, it's just not as obvious as I'd imagined."
"Believe me, he is," Ms. Carr said, gesturing down to the control panel on the desk. "Everything is labelled clearly, that's the button to lock the door if you've gone in and out, the switches to dim the lights are here. For any medical issues with Bucky, you press the blue button to summon his nurse, and you'll also be seeing her twice a day, one in the morning and once in the evening, so she can check Bucky's vitals. Now, you'll notice inside of his room there are red buttons, those are panic buttons. They neutralize him immediately and other red star clearance personnel will be notified to come to your aid."
"…neutralize?" Steve asked, that word seeming a little out of place. "How dangerous is he?"
"He's not overly strong, it's only a precaution, they've never had an incident," Ms. Carr said, knowing that Steve likely wasn't going to like the next part of their conversation. No one ever did. "Bucky has an implant in his neck that is triggered by the panic buttons, as well as the doorway itself. If he tries to leave, he will receive an electric shock strong enough to destabilize him."
Steve's jaw dropped open a little as his could only blink, his stomach feeling like it was in a knot. So there it was. He wasn't taking a job as a companion, he was taking the position of Bucky's jail guard.
"How much does it hurt him? Is that really necessary?" Steve asked, looking back at Bucky, feeling terrible for him. Even if he was special, he needed friends, and he didn't know if just him was going to be enough.
"We can't have him get out, it's for his best interests as well as ours," Ms. Carr said, having readied herself for some more difficult questions from Steve. It was inevitable when he realized exactly what this job entailed, she'd have been surprised if he'd just accepted it. "It's enough to incapacitate him, but cause any real damage. He hasn't tried to escape in years, it's only really a precaution."
"Years? How long has he been here?" Steve's eyebrows shot up, looking around the room Bucky was kept in, trying to picture growing up in there. This all seemed much more horrific than he was let on, he was starting to feel like he'd made a big mistake signing onto this. If they got caught keeping Bucky in this basement, what was going to happen to him if he knew about it and said nothing?
"He's been here since he was four, his family died in a car accident, and he was dying as well. We were able to bring him here and save him, and he's been here since," Ms. Carr said, trying to still seem pleasant as Howard Stark told her to keep him there no matter what. Lying outright wasn't going to work because Bucky could correct him later. They couldn't be made to seem like they were lying on top of everything else. "It was different before, he had a nanny, he had more nurses, a tutor, and every toy he could ever want."
"Am I the only one to come down here and spend time with him now though? I haven't seen anyone else around here, why is he alone now?" Steve's heart ached for Bucky, just wanting to go in the room and give him a hug. This wasn't the way for anyone to live.
"Now that we're getting closer to him being moved, we had minimized the staff and were relying on your predecessor to keep him company. After his death, there has been a short period of time where Bucky has been alone more often, he's not always up to socializing with me or some of the others. He was very attached to his last companion," Ms. Carr said, knowing just how attached his companion was getting to him, which was why they'd had to get rid of the man. He hadn't given them any other choice, really. "He's taken it very hard, and he's nervous about the move, we thought it would be best not to stress him with lots of new people, I think you're going to be enough for him to swallow for now."
Steve looked at Ms. Carr with a frown on his face, feeling torn about what to do here. He wasn't stupid, this wasn't a small company, he was well aware of the hammer that would come down on him if he was to go straight to the police. They had high power lawyers who could stall things until Bucky could be whisked away. They would have to have protocol in place for someone going to the authorities, an operation this secret and illegal wasn't going to exist without a solid backup plan.
Like staging a car accident.
As a feeling like ice water ran down his back, Steve took a slow breath in, looking back down at Bucky as he realized just what he'd got himself into. And, as if he could hear him, Bucky took that opportunity to look up at Steve, their blue eyes meeting through the clear glass.
"f you want to talk to him, you can talk to him through the microphone on the computer, it's fairly easy to figure out, the application is on the desktop. For now, you can go in though, say hello. I'm sure Bucky's eager to meet you," Ms. Carr said, watching as the two of them got their first good look at each other, pleased with how things were going. Reaching over, she pressed the blue button that unlocked Bucky's room, holding the door open so that he could step inside.
Nodding at her, Steve stepped slowly into the bedroom, not surprised how much it smelled like cleaning solution. Everything in the room was spotless, except for the bed which was unmade and obviously well slept in. All the books and video games on the shelves were organized, the walls empty except for a few shelves with neat little toys on them, and the floor bare everywhere but where Bucky sat, a large flat pillow underneath him. The only thing that Steve couldn't begin to explain was a single picture on the wall of Tony Stark, Howard Stark's son and heir to Stark Industries, that raised a lot more questions than he felt comfortable asking right now.
"My name is Steve Rogers…you can call me anything you want, Steve, Steven, Mr. Rogers, whatever makes you comfortable…" Steve said, deciding to give the kid a bit of choice in his otherwise captive life. He felt both guilty for Bucky and frightened for himself, but he wasn't going to let Bucky down if he could help it. If everyone else was going to make his life hell, maybe he could be a spot of relief. "I don't know what you want me to call you, I know th-"
"Bucky. My name is Bucky," the boy said as he looked up at Steve again, their eyes meeting without the glass between them this time. "You don't want this job, quit now while they'll let you."
"It can't be that bad…" Steve said, trying to sound more positive than he was feeling. "You seem nice enough."
"I'm not the one you work for," Bucky replied without a pause, turning back to his game, and taking out another zombie.
"Why don't we give Bucky some space, this was a lot for today," Ms. Carr said with a fake smile, wanting to break up this conversation before it could get started, touching Steve's arm to catch his attention and lead him out of the room. "I'm sure Steve will come back tomorrow, Bucky. The nurse will be here soon for your check up, she's bringing your dinner."
Bucky ignored Ms. Carr, though there was anger in his expression now as he shot a group of undead Nazis. He didn't look up as Steve stepped from the room.
"See you tomorrow, Bucky…" Steve said softly, not expecting to hear anything more from Bucky as Ms. Carr began to close the door.
"Bye, Steve," Bucky replied, looking up from his game again for a moment before turning back to it.
"Yeah…" Steve said as he gave Bucky a weak smile, turning with Ms. Carr to leave the room. Bucky's pale blue eyes haunting him all the way down the corridor as his words echoed in Steve's mind.
Exactly who was he working for?