Chapter 8 – Deadline

Tony rubs a hand over tired eyes as he walks down the steps to the street, hoping the headache he can feel coming on could at least wait until he got home. Yet another time Ross had called him in to 'discuss' his latest report on Bucky; it was becoming increasingly obvious, almost embarrassingly so, that it was just an excuse to pull him away from helping the soldier.

Casting a look around him as he reaches the street he heaves a heavier sigh than he would have normally done in public. God he was going to be glad when everyone was back. As he turns to go to his car he notices something at the bus stop across the road. Or rather someone.

A beanie is pulled down over their hair and a pair of sunglasses covering their eyes, but Tony knows they've seen him. A small head gesture towards the park behind them and they start walking. Without a second thought Tony follows.

Dammit, he thinks as he enters the park and realises he's lost them already. Sneaky bastard. Sighing in resignation he takes a seat on a bench and leans back, letting the spring sunshine warm his face and taking a bit of pleasure in the outdoors for the first time in a while. Closing his eyes he contemplates letting himself doze off for a couple of minutes.

'Oh my gosh, you're Tony Stark, right?' an overly excitable voice pierces his thoughts. 'Can I, like, get your autograph? Please?'

He opens one eye and cracks a smirk. 'Nice get up. You here to save me from the evil government men, Agent Romanoff?'

Natasha scowls as she takes off her sunglasses. 'You really need to work on your undercover skills,' she grumbles, taking the offered seat on the bench next to him.

'Missed you too, sunshine. Now let me guess: Cap sent you to make sure I didn't get his best friend arrested?' he hopes he keeps the bitterness out of his last statement. It's not that he feels any kind of anger or jealously towards Bucky any more, the guy's become a good friend in the time he's been here. If he's honest with himself, which he is more often than people realise, he's upset that Steve hasn't been in touch.

She nods. 'He and T'Challa thought it was better to have one of us here in case everything goes south fast. Bucky told Steve in their last phone call that he was worried he wasn't going to make the deadline, but he said you weren't telling him exactly how long you have left.'

The last bit isn't a question, but he answers it anyway. 'Two weeks. And Ross is doing all he can to keep me away.'

'Yeah he mentioned that too,' Natasha says, 'and about how much you're doing to help him get through it all. Steve's confused as hell, T'Challa and I are finding it hilarious.'

'Bucky getting healed is hilarious?'

She laughs and shakes her head. 'No Steve being really confused about you is hilarious. Do you think you can keep to the deadline?'

'If anyone can do it, Bucky will.'

She fixes him with one of those looks. 'You two seem be getting along really well.'

'I'm not doing my own form of brainwashing to make him like me if that's what you think.'

She laughs again. 'I think Steve would find it easier to understand if that were the case. But no I don't. I'm just curious as to what happened, all things considered I wasn't expecting you two to get along as well as you are.'

Tony shrugs and looks away. 'We're more similar than people realise. I'm better looking, obviously, and not prone to murdering people or mind-control.' When he turns back he sees a confused frown on her face. 'We both have things we can be blamed for.'

Natasha's face softens with understanding and he realises just how much he misses her. She just gets things without you needing to go into long winded explanations.

'Well I better get back to Elsa before he and Rhodes plot my downfall. Introducing those two was the biggest mistake of my life, and it'll only get worse when Pepper comes round,' he says, standing quickly before he makes an idiot of himself.

'Take care of yourself, Tony,' she says, slipping the glasses back on, 'you're looking tired.'

'You know so many people are saying that recently I'm going to get a complex. If I start stressing over my good looks disappearing I'm sending you the shrink bill.'

'See you later, Tony,' she says with a smile and shake of the head.

'Nat? Tell our cat I may need him to catch a mouse,' he says as he leaves; Natasha, face serious once more, nods and walks in the opposite direction. It takes everything inside Tony not to look back as he leaves the park.


'There's only one memory left to see before we've seen all my kills,' Bucky mutters as he takes his seat in the chair. 'Do you think it's going to be enough to get rid of the mind control?' he asks Vision as the humanoid comes to stand on his left.

'We are making good progress,' he responds. 'After this all we are going to have left to do is to repeat the trigger words until we are able to remove all traces of the controlling elements from your mind.'

'And how long will that take?' he asks, Tony can tell Bucky is getting more worried as the days go by. It's been two days since his meeting with Natasha and they've all been working non-stop; Bucky and Tony have only had about five hours sleep each as they've stayed up talking while Wanda and Vision slept, going over the words one by one and trying to work out the reasons Hydra had chosen them. Vision had commented that his tired brain was easier to manipulate so they'd tried to keep on the edge of being productive. It was a good thing Tony had plenty of practise with little sleep, he didn't want the soldier to be left awake by himself.

'That will depend on how much we have managed to heal up by the time we get there. It could take anything from a few days to a few weeks. Possibly longer, but I wouldn't think that would be the case considering how well you've been responding to treatment already.'

Bucky fixes Tony with his eyes and the inventor can't quite place the emotion behind them. 'How long do we have left, Tony?'

Tony looks away and back at the screen in front of him. 'Let me worry-'

'No Tony,' Bucky's voice is close to shouting levels, and Wanda and Vision take a step back, looking between the two of them. It's the first time they've come close to an argument the whole time the soldier's been back. 'Tell me how long we have left.'

Tony sighs and rubs his temples with one hand. 'We have until next Friday,' he answers quietly. 'If we've made enough progress I may be able to convince them to give us another week, possibly two.'

'A week and a half?' he asks quietly. He looks back to Vision. 'Is it enough time?'

Vision looks between Bucky and Tony, then sighs. 'I don't know. It may be, but it possibly may not be.'

'Possibly or probably?' he asks. Vision pauses and Bucky gives a small laugh. 'Don't bother, Vision, that's answer enough.'

'We won't let them take you, Bucky,' Wanda says, placing a hand on his arm.

'T'Challa is prepared to extract you should the need arise,' Tony says, still not looking away from his screen. 'Nat's already in the US in case we have to move quicker than planned, and the training bots are poised ready to malfunction, needing the team to round them up.'

'You already had an escape plan?' Wanda asks. 'Why didn't you tell us?'

'The less you knew the less you could be accused of,' Tony explains, finally looking away from his screen. 'This way the only person who could be held accountable for planning Bucky's escape was me.' After a brief pause he adds. 'Now how about we stop wasting time talking and actually get on with doing something?'

'Tony,' Bucky pauses, then continues, 'are you sure you want to be here for this?'

'Gun and shooter remember, Elsa,' Tony replies, trying to think too much about what he's about to watch. 'Now let's get on with it.'

'Tony-'

'Bucky, come on. You've just heard how much time we have, we can't afford to waste any more. I want to be here and help you, alright? Now don't give me time to overthink things. Let's get started.' He turns the machine on before anyone can argue with him.

Bucky sighs and, after a moment's hesitation, gets himself set up in the machine. He casts one last look in Tony's direction then, taking a deep breath, starts the memory.

The room fades to night around them and Tony can see Bucky sitting on a motorcycle, in front of them lies a very familiar stretch of road. After a few minutes they can hear the rumble of a car engine, and a pair of headlights coming along the road. Wanda and Vision are already fast at work, red tendrils snaking from her fingers and the mind stone glowing brightly on his head. The car races past them and memory-Bucky pulls out, giving chase.

Tony watches as if in a trance as the tyres are blown and the car swerves off the road; only dimly does he hear his father's surprised question of recognition. When he sees memory-Bucky move towards his mother, however, he has to close his eyes. Yet through everything, even the sound of the gunshot that takes his mother's life, he stands just behind the soldier, a hand on his shoulder. As the memory fades around them Wanda and Vision continue to work.

'There, that's all we can do for now,' Wanda sounds drained and moves towards one of the chairs.

'There was a lot of recent and well as old scarring surrounding that particular memory,' Vision explains. 'Perhaps that will have sped up the process for when we try and neutralise the connections for the words themselves.'

'That's true,' Wanda muses. 'We've already weakened the connections through targeting the actions linked to the words, and with healing recent scarring as well as old it may have weakened the connections even more.'

'Tell you what,' Tony is surprised how steady his voice sounds. 'You two continue to have your little debate session, me and Elsa here are going to have a quick drink and then we'll be back. Alright? Everyone take five. Come on Elsa.'

He doesn't allow the soldier to argue, just leads him up the stairs, and hoping that no one notices as he wipes at the traitorous wetness on his cheeks.


'Tony I-'

'I swear you start apologising and I'm banning you from touching any and every bottle of alcohol in this facility. Including the hand gel.'

'Doesn't work on getting me drunk anyway,' Bucky mumbles as he takes a seat at the breakfast bar.

'No but you still enjoy drinking it,' Tony replies with a smirk. He pours them a glass each and then takes a seat the other side. 'Listen I'm not going to lie and say that wasn't fucking hard to watch, nor am I going to say I can ever forget that,' he sees Bucky wince and sighs, 'but I'd already forgiven you before you even got on that plane to come back, Bucky.'

He pauses and takes a drink then continues, staring down at the liquid in the glass as he swirls it with one hand. 'In a way it's kind of a relief to finally know. Car crash just never sat right with me. I mean, Dad was the lead in technological advances, his cars were always fine-tuned and they never broke down. And, okay he wasn't the best at handling a car at high speeds, but he was always more careful with Mom in the car. So for it to be a car accident?' He shakes his head and takes another drink. 'Plus, at least this way I know there really was nothing I would have been able to do to stop it.'

'You couldn't have anyway,' Bucky points out, voice quiet.

'No, see with a car accident I could have. Dad and I are technological geniuses remember? All these years of 'If only I'd checked the car before they went' I now know is irrelevant. I mean, yeah Dad was a prick, but Mom didn't deserve it.'

'Neither of them did,' Bucky takes a long drink, nearly finishing it in one.

'You obviously haven't seen the media footage from the time of the accident. At first it was all sympathy and what a great man he was. Then it was 'Well if he wasn't dealing in weapons maybe he wouldn't have ended up like that'. The kind of crap I imagine they pulled when I was taken in Afghanistan.'

'You've really forgiven me haven't you?' there's a tinge of awe in the soldier's voice.

'I thought it was taking you a while to catch on. Now come on, Elsa, we've got more work to do.'

'I really hate that film,' Bucky mutters has he follows the inventor out. When Tony had first used the nickname he hadn't understood the reference so Tony and Wanda had forced him to watch Frozen. It still made Tony smile at just how painful Bucky found the whole experience. The nickname was most definitely staying.


Tony watches as the soldier continues to vent his frustration on the gym's punching bag, occasionally turning to get some better form of satisfaction by taking it out on a poor unsuspecting chair. Luckily none of them came flying his way.

It was Friday. They had one week before their deadline was up but since they watched Bucky's memory of killing his parents they hadn't made any progress. Vision said it was as if Bucky's brain was fighting back against them. They couldn't get further than the third trigger word before his body would start reacting and he'd lash out. Tony had a black eye and split lip to prove it. He'd just got back from one of Ross' summons and had had a lot of fun trying to convince the council his injuries were due to an accident during training with one of the bots going a bit haywire.

Laying the groundwork for his distraction to get Bucky out should the need arise. Which was looking more likely.

Knew things were going too well, Tony thinks as Bucky finally exhausts himself and slides down a wall to the ground, his head in his hands.

'I swear Tony you say make one joke and I'll give you another black eye,' he growls as the inventor takes a seat next to him. He sighs as Tony makes a zipping motion over his lips and grins. 'We're not going to be able to manage it.'

'Sure we-'

'Tony, please. Just- let's talk realistic for a change.'

Tony sighs. 'I don't do realistic very well, you should know that after I made an arc reactor in a cave.'

'Yeah well I'm not a genius. I can't fix…this' he gestures to his head, 'and at the moment it doesn't look like you can either. At least not in the time we have left.'

That's what it all came down to: time. If Tony is honest he has contemplated trying to get Doctor Strange to help, but he'd rather not owe that man a favour. He's annoying enough as it is.

'Tony I know I don't have any right to ask but-' Bucky pauses and, for the first time ever, Tony sees him fidget. 'Can we go and visit your parents? Their graves I mean, I… I'd like to say I'm sorry in person before I have to go back.'

His voice finishes so small and insecure that Tony doesn't even think before responding. 'Of course, we'll go tomorrow.'


A/N: Hi everyone. I hope you're still enjoying this story. Please let me know what you think – I'd really appreciate some feedback so I know whether I really am on the right track or not!

I'm finding Tony and Bucky's relationship quite interesting to write; from what we see of Bucky before he goes off to war he seems like the kind of guy that would get into mischief with Tony, and although he's been through a lot which has changed him since then, I think some of that would come out around Tony. I imagine once they actually got to know each other and had worked out their differences they'd become good friends. But I don't think they could do this with Steve around.

Like I said let me know what you think I'd be interested to hear what your ideas on how Tony and Bucky's relationship would be.

L x

Here's your sneak peek at Chapter 9:

He's never been known for his self-preservation instincts so it's no surprise they don't decide to kick in now. Before he can consider any other course of action Tony begins walking forwards and saying a sequence of ten Russian words that he knows are now going to be forever etched in his memory.

Bucky tenses. 'Tony, what the fuck are you doing?' he shouts, scrambling to his feet.

Tony gets a gauntlet on, sedative dart ready, but doesn't raise it yet and just continues with the sequence.

'Tony please,' Bucky pleads, falling to his knees and gripping his head in his hands. 'Stop, I don't want to hurt you. Please.' But Tony ignores him and, eventually, he reaches the end of the ten word sequence.

He waits, the silence stretching out then, taking a deep breath he says: 'Soldier?'