Sorry this came out so late ;_; Work hates me right now...
Anyways, hope this can hold you over till I find some time to pull up the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or its characters
It took some time, maybe a few minutes after Steve had disappeared from the bathroom before she finally had pulled herself together enough to come out of hiding.
Honestly, after she got over the initial hurt and pain that Steve's words sent through her, a small part of her couldn't blame him. What she had done in HYDRA was far from innocent. She knew that and she knew in some twisted way, she held some blame over her actions. In a way, she was conscious through the entire ordeal.
But still, his words still stung, deep down.
"Steve." Bucky whispered in relief at seeing his old friend now standing in front of him.
"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve asked on the defense, his arms straining to cross over his chest.
"Your mother's name is Sarah. You used to wear newspapers in your shoes." Bucky got this faraway look as he mentioned Steve's mother's name before he let out a breath of laughter at the mention of Steve's need to wear newspapers in his shoes to keep him warm. Steve's defense immediately fell at the man's words, his heart warming at the probability that maybe, just maybe, a part of 'his' Bucky was still in there somewhere.
"You can't read that in a museum." Steve teased with a soft smile, one that was returned by his friend.
"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam wasn't buying it on the other hand and continued to look at the one handed super soldier warily.
"What did I do?" Bucky immediately cut off Sam's accusation, knowing that something had happened to have led them here and no longer in cuffs.
"Enough." Steve commented offhandedly, walking over immediately to release Bucky's metal arm from its restraints. Bucky pulled his arm to his chest, clenching and unclenching his fist, listening to the familiar whirl of his plates shifting up to his shoulder.
"I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do is say the god damn words…." Bucky began to belittle him before his eyes shot open and over to Steve in realization.
"Sky…." Bucky whispered in a panic as Steve smiled softly at his friends concern for his fiancé and shook his head. Steve was about to inform Bucky of Skylar's location only for the woman in question to step in at that same moment.
It took some time for Skylar to pull herself together, best enough to get her out of that disgusting bathroom and down the hallway where Steve had disappeared with Sam. That's when she heard a familiar voice speaking just around the corner.
The hurt from Steve's words earlier evaporated as she listened to Bucky's familiar voice speak without any harshness, pushing her to go around the corner and into view just as he mentioned her name.
Hazels met steal blue orbs as she gazed at him sitting beside a machine just across the room. Bucky's eyes widened at her sudden appearance, taking in her various injuries while narrowing in on the bandage wrapped around her head, her silver hair stuck together and knotted.
"Sky." Bucky whispered in concern, her own orbs accessing his own injuries.
"You're okay." She smiled softly at him, taking a few steps towards him before feeling both Sam and Steve flank her, startling her as she stopped at the hold now on her wrist.
"He won't hurt me." Sky pressed Sam who had stopped her from stepping any closer to the man.
"We don't know that." Sam answered without pulling his eyes from Bucky's narrowed ones.
"Sam." Steve warned, seeing the way Bucky's metal arm was silently whirling up for the attack.
"It's alright Bucky. He's just being protective, a lot has happened in the last 24 hours." Sky immediately sensed the way Bucky wanted nothing more than to rip Sam apart and stepped up, wanting to calm him down, which seemed to do the trick. His steal blue eyes whipped over to meet her own in suspicion, wondering if she was being held against her will.
"You're hurt." He mentioned steely as she dryly laughed, lifting a careful hand up to touch her wound with a light wince.
"I'm fine, nothing to worry about. And you?" She then asked, feeling Sam's hand slowly release itself from its tight grasp around her wrist.
"I'm fine, who did that to you?" Bucky dodged her question, immediately diving in to ask who had hurt her which only melted her insides just a bit more. Ever the protective friend.
"Buck." Steve addressed as the man hesitantly pulled his eyes from her own and to the super soldier standing beside her.
"I never thought I'd get the chance to thank you, but thank you, for looking out for Sky while she was in HYDRA." Steve's arm slowly snuck around her shoulder, pulling her into his side though her heart ached as his words from earlier continued to haunt her. A small part of her wanted to pull away and take a step back from his side, but who was she kidding?
Bucky seemed to silently read Steve before looking back over to Sky who was still smiling in his direction.
"She reminded me a lot of you back in the 40's. Fragile yet tough as nails inside. She didn't have to say it but something told me she knew you. That and they always referred to her as 'Mrs. Captain America'. I knew if it were me, you'd do the same. Wasn't about to let your best girl go through that alone, not her. She helped me realize a lot of things in HYDRA and helped me to remember you, little by little." Bucky explained, softly chuckling as his eyes twinkled in a silent protectiveness over Skylar.
"She's amazing isn't she?" Steve teased, pulling her closer to peck her forehead proudly.
"Amazing doesn't begin to explain it but you are welcome." Bucky finally addressed his thank you and let the corner of his lip twitch in a smirk.
"Okay, not to break up the reunion but we have other things to worry about at the moment." Sam suddenly stepped in, breaking up the warm embrace that their reunion was giving her. She sighed, side eying Sam who only stared at the 3 in question.
"Buck, that man. Who was he?" Steve's arm around her tightened briefly as he sent the question over to Bucky who furrowed his brows in thought.
"I don't know." Bucky admitted slowly, his eyes continuing to furrow as if he was digging deep for answers.
"What about you Sky? Any answers?" Sam then turned that same question on Sky who sighed deeply, remembering the man's face briefly in her memories yet still, she shook her head. She had no recollection of who he was.
"I don't know either." She admitted, meeting Bucky's pained glance with her own.
"People are dead. The bombing. The set up. The doctor did all that just to get 10 minutes with you, with the both of you. I need you both to do better than "I don't know." Steve pressed seriously as his dry lips brushed across her wounded temple.
"He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept. – He wanted to know exactly where." Bucky's eyes squinted as he slowly began to remember what the man had been questioning him about before Skylar's eyes widened in realization to what those questions had been pertaining to.
"Siberia." She whispered in horror, remembering a darker part of HYDRA that she had remembered.
"What's in Siberia?" Sam asked in worry, Steve's concerned eyes casting down onto the woman in his arms.
"Why would he need to know that?" Steve then turned his hard eyes to Bucky who stared over at Skylar in regret.
"Because…we're not the only Winter Soldiers."
It was like a bullet went off in the warehouse. Everything was eerily still and tense after Bucky mentioned the fact that both Skylar and him were not the only 'Winter Soldiers' roaming around.
Shock and horror had shot through Skylar like a lightning bolt to the point that her legs had immediately gave up under her. Steve naturally caught her, shouting in a panic as her blank eyes stared into the distance. Skylar swallowed heavily, her shaky hands patting him, silently telling him that she just needed sometime to process yet another thing that had been wiped from her mind.
Sam now stood beside her as she was sat against the wall beside the doorway to the room, her knees to her chest, forehead planted atop them.
What the hell else had she had forgotten?
"Who were they?" Steve's stance made it obvious that he was not enjoying the new information, not the least bit.
"The most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history. – And that was before the serum." Bucky admitted as Skylar muttered curses under her breath, remembering a time when HYDRA had taken her to the Siberia compound to experience the group for herself. Dear god, how she wanted that specific memory to disappear once again. She was surprised she came out of that experience alive.
"They all turned out like you guys?" Sam then asked hesitantly as she snorted unintentionally at the question.
"Worse." She muttered softly, though everyone heard her.
"The doctor, can he control them?" Steve then asked, his footsteps taking him over to where his fiancé was sitting.
"Enough." Bucky fiddled with his hands in his lap as he answered, unable to meet their eyes.
"He said he wanted to see an empire fall." Steve then turned his attention to Sam who nodded in agreement.
"With these guys he can do it." Bucky confessed seriously as Skylar slowly lifted her head, her hazels meeting his blues.
"How?" Sam then asked, annoyance crossing his face.
"They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize." Skylar rested her head back against the stone wall as Bucky looked at her in guilt once more.
"They can take a whole country down in 1 night. You'd never see them coming." Bucky confirmed with a nod as Steve's eyes panned down to Skylar.
"Like you Sky?" Sam asked the question that had been slipping from Steve's lips just seconds after.
"Just about. Skylar was their beginning prototype on how far they could push us. Once they realized she could survive the tests and serum, they instantly began to do the same to the others. Not alot of them survived the operations." Bucky nodded slowly as Steve sighed, turning his back on Bucky to face the wall.
"This would be a lot easier a week ago." Sam muttered under his breath for the super soldier to hear, his eyes never leaving their newest addition.
"If we could….If we call Tony." Steve offered causing Skylar to stiffen at the man's name, her glare now directed up at him.
"He wouldn't believe us." Sam shook his head immediately as Skylar rolled her eyes.
"Even if he did." Steve added as Skylar narrowed her eyes on him further, almost daring him to call her cousin.
"You call him and so help me….." She hissed silently.
"Who knows if the Accords will let him help." Sam cut off her curse causing Steve to sigh, turning to glance over at Bucky.
"We're on our own then." Steve sighed again, watching the way Bucky and Skylar silently stared at each other.
"Maybe not. I know a guy."
"You hotwired a bug?" Sam continued to stand just outside the warehouse, staring at the small vehicle in a mixture of amusement and uncertainty.
"It was the only thing that didn't have an alarm. I mean, I could have hotwired that BMW around the corner but no." Skylar grumbled as she climbed out of the driver's seat, pulling the hood of her stolen coat off.
"Couldn't you do your weird voodoo on it?" Sam then asked with overly dramatic hands causing her to glare over the top of the car at him.
"Why do I bother even talking to you?" She hissed irritated as Steve stepped out of the building, carrying a duffle bag with what provisions they could get their hands on without being seen.
"You we're careful right?" Steve then asked in concern as she sighed, tossing Sam the keys, startling the man who hadn't been expecting her to do that.
"Yes 'honey', checked the cameras and everything. I'm a ghost." She answered in irritation, slipping into the backseat from the driver's side of the car, Bucky doing the same from the other side.
Skylar couldn't help but watch in slight amusement as the behemoth of a man slipped into the tiny compartment better known as the backseat, all awhile trying to get comfortable as Sam immediately took the opportunity to push the seat back as far as it could go, almost pushing Bucky's knees into his chest.
Really. How was she going to survive this car ride with these 3?
"Got enough leg room back there snowflake?" Sam took on Tony's sarcasm as he slipped into the roomy front seat, slamming the door shut with a chuckle.
"Got enough wing room up there pigeon?" She countered Sam's taunt on Bucky's behalf knowing he was not enjoying the man's constant need to banter with him.
Sam on the other hand, gasped at the nickname, turning in his seat as far as allowed, looking at her as if she just shot his puppy.
"Leave him alone." She warned with a click of her tongue before she sat back in her seat, getting comfortable before feeling a set of eyes on her. Slowly turning, she met Bucky's blues and smiled.
"What? You looked over me my entire time with HYDRA, just returning the favor with these idiots." She muttered embarrassed at her own words, turning to look out the window just as Steve slipped into the car. What she didn't see was the adoring smile Bucky sent her when she wasn't looking. Skylar and Steve were really a match made in heaven.
"We're meeting someone a few blocks from here then we'll find somewhere to lay low for the night then meet up with Barton in the morning." Steve announced to the car as she sat forward, glancing at him from behind his seat.
"Who?" She asked in question as both Sam and Steve exchanged quick looks causing her eyes to narrow.
"The blonde?" She growled out as Steve started up the car quickly, wanting to avoid this particular conversation.
"She has our gear, that's all doll." Steve promised as she rolled her eyes, having nothing to say as she sat back again with a soft hmph.
"Who?" Bucky whispered unsure as Sky sighed, peering up at him.
"This blonde who hit on Steve while I was with HYDRA. I didn't know or find out till a few days ago, now she seems to be popping up everywhere." She hissed the last part under her breath as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"She almost blew up the hotel room we were staying in when Cap decided to be the 40's gentlemen he is famous for and walk said 'blonde' back to her hotel." After the week they had, Sam was enjoying this small moment of entertainment at Skylar and Steve's expense.
"Wait, you didn't tell me she almost blew up the hotel room? Doll!" Steve made to scold her through the rearview mirror as her eyes flashed dangerous between hazel and violet.
"And you didn't tell me about her hitting on you so guess we're even now!" She spat back defensively, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared out the window silently.
"Still don't know how to talk to women." Bucky commented off-handedly as Sam broke out laughing, enjoying the fact that that part of Steve had always been the same.
"Shut up jerk." Steve glared half-heartedly as his friend through the rearview mirror before taking a quick glance at Skylar's upset form before eyeing the road once again.
20 minutes later and the 4 were trotting down a dirt road that led under a busy highway bridge. Skylar sat up from her rest spot and peered over Steve's shoulder, noticing the black car in the distance, a familiar blonde leaning against the trunk.
"There she is." She mumbled irritate as Bucky glanced down at her briefly, his hand unconsciously grabbing her own in a sign of comfort. Having not expected it, her eyes whipped down to the contact and then up to the man who belonged to the arm.
"It's alright." Bucky whispered, his lips twitching to pass her an awkward smile which caused a short and soft laugh to bubble up her chest. Tightening her grasp on his metal hand, she passed him a grateful smile.
"Be right back." Steve cut the engine, climbing out of the car and towards the blonde.
"If she makes even the slightest movement at him, they'll be scraping her remains off these walls for years." Skylar couldn't help it, she wanted to like this woman, wanted to find something in this woman to like, but her natural ego wouldn't allow her to. She hit on her fiancé, when she wasn't around nonetheless. She had to have known he was off the market for some time before that, everyone in SHIELD had known. At that thought, a darker part of Skylar couldn't help but feel defense against the woman.
"I'm' not sure you understand the concept of a getaway car." Sharon commented jokingly as Steve smiled.
"It's low profile." He shrugged, briefly meeting Skylar's eyes from over the drivers seat.
"Good, cause this stuff tends to draw a crowd." Sharon unlocked her trunk, popping it open to show the 4's gear and weapons.
"Can you move your seat up?" Bucky's voice pulled Skylar from her attempt to eavesdrop.
"No." Sam immediately rejected his question sending Bucky growling in irritation.
"Sam, stop being a douche." Skylar scolded, her eyes flashing violet as she shot his chair forward enough that his knees bumped the dashboard sending said man squealing in surprise as he barely caught himself from bashing his face against the windshield.
"Was that really necessary!?" Sam whipped around, glaring at her as she snorted.
"All you had to do was move your seat forward, was that really necessary?" She immediately retorted only pushing Sam to lip a few curses over at her.
"He's a grown ass man, stop babying him!" Sam turned with an hmph, clearly having finished the argument though Skylar wasn't one to easily bend over.
"You're a grown ass man, act like one!" She shot back as Sam froze before muttering more curses under his breath.
"You know, he kind of tried to kill me, well both of them." Sharon nudged her head in the direction of the car sending Steve's eyes glancing over in the same direction to see Bucky closely watching Skylar as she adjusted the head band around her wound.
"Sorry, I'll put it on the list." Steve apologized for the two, turning to meet her blues again.
"You know, if you want to blame anyone for what happened between Cap and her, you should blame Fury." Sam's words confused her as she looked up from her engagement ring, one that she had been showing to Bucky.
"What?" She asked with furrowed brows as said man turned in his seat to face her.
"Fury was the one that sent Sharon to guard Cap when you went missing. He said he was worried Cap would go off the deep end of the pond with how serious his depression was at the time." Sam went onto explain as her eyes widened, she hadn't heard about this, not at all.
"Guard?" She then asked unsure as Sam sighed and nodded.
"Fury moved her into the apartment across the hall from Cap's. Wanted her to keep a close eye on him until they could find you. That was about the time Snowflake here came into the picture." Sam gestured over to Bucky who only blinked before realization set in.
"It's not like she meant to fall for Cap, I mean, he's charming, handsome, the complete package, I'm more surprised Romanoff hadn't shagged off with him…" Sam began to ramble as Sky's eyes darkened dangerously as his tease immediately cutting the words from her tongue.
"Anyways, the point is, people fall for people all the time and technically, from what I heard, she didn't know about you. Your situation was kept on lock and key, only for those who needed to know, to know. Fury didn't want just any agent knowing about what had happened, good thing too, there were a lot of HDYRA agents hiding out in SHIELD." Sam explained into further detail, watching the way Sky's eyes slowly began to soften.
"Plus, she risked her life trying to stop the carriers from taking off, giving us enough time to do what we had planned to stop them before they could set out to do what they were made for. She's not all that bad and I'm sure she had no ill intentions against your relationship with Cap, had she'd known."
Greeeeeeat. Now she felt completely terrible about everything she had said and done to the woman. Thanks to Sam.
She stared at the pair talking quietly outside the car and groaned, burying her face into the back of the Steve's chair.
"Great. Now I feel like complete shit. Thanks Sam." She muttered sarcastically as Sam chuckled, reaching back to pat her shoulder only for Bucky to slap his hand gently away.
"Geez, keep your granny panties out of a twist Snowflake, I was just gonna pat her back." Sam grumbled as he held his hand to his chest protectively.
Ego be damned, now she felt like she needed to apologize for everything she said about the woman. She rolled her eyes into the back of her head and groaned a bit louder, fighting against herself to get out of the car and actually converse with the woman for the first time since she met her. Maybe even pass on her condolence for the first time. Shit. Fuck. She didn't want to do this but if she didn't, she felt like her mother would roll over in her grave at her terrible show of manners.
Gah damn it.
"Sam, mind pushing the chair forward so I can get out." She moaned in defeat, reaching between Steve's chair and the car, opening the door as Sam made quick work leaning over the middle console to fold the chair forward enough to allow her out.
"I'll be right back." She reassured Bucky once she recognized the look of hesitation growing across his features. Patting his metal arm, inwardly happy that he had yet to flinch away from her touch to his metal arm, though he still did it with Steve and Sam, before she slipped out of the car, stumbling a bit when she was able to stretch her legs.
Almost getting to the great battle! Almost there! Just a few more chapters and some personal interactions then we'll be there!
I wanted to ask a favor from all my readers, as the official Civil War plot comes up, do you all want to see Skylar stay and fight with the group or fly off with Bucky and Steve to Siberia? Just an interest on what people think because honestly I don't know where to send her. Let me know.
See you next week~