It took a few weeks for Nora to recover fully and during that time, they had been working from either Steve's apartment or Sam's house. Most of the time it was Steve's place because Nora had all but invited herself to stay in Steve's guest room, not that he minded. Whilst Steve was sleeping, Nora was in the living room with a cup of coffee, hunched over a map. She had little red pins for every hydra base that Bucky had attacked recently. She called in a favour with an acquaintance of hers, Daniel, to check the sites out considering nurse Steve had her on strict bed rest.
Daniel had described the aftermath multiple times. It was a pretty similar pattern. Blood, bones, gun shells, stab wounds. One or two bases were blown up afterwards.
Barnes had taken down five bases so far and Nora would be lying if she said she wasn't impressed. She could do it much faster, of course, but for an average guy he wasn't doing too bad.
"Why are you still awake? Go to bed!" Steve ordered in a sleepy voice. He only left his bedroom to get a glass of water and he found his new roommate sprawled over to floor in his, their, living room.
"It doesn't make sense, Rogers. He took down a hydra base in Denmark, then he took down a base in Kazakhstan, then he circled back to Sweden. Sweden isn't even an hour flight from Denmark, why not go there first and then Kazakhstan?" Nora muttered and Steve ran a hand through his hair. He checked the clock in the kitchen, it was 3:30 am. Do assassins sleep at all?
"I don't know, maybe the attacks are random" it was a crap answer, Steve knew that but it was way too late, or should he say too early, to be worrying about this. He was assessing the danger he would be in if he knocked Nora unconscious and tied her to the bed and forced her to get some rest. The risks weren't worth it.
"What if they're not? He knew there was a base in Sweden but he didn't touch it. Barnes- Bucky must have learnt something in Kazakhstan about the Swedish base that made him circle back. It's the only explanation. Call Sam, and get dressed" Nora ordered, jumping up and chugging down the rest of her cold coffee.
"Why?" Steve regretted asking the question as soon as the words left his mouth.
"We're catching the next flight to Sweden" Nora shouted from her self appointed room in Steve's apartment. She slept there, ate there, had a gun stash in the kitchen, bathroom and closet, and she even had all of her clothes there. It would be too much hassle to move out.
"Your friend said that Bucky destroyed everything he could find in every base. What makes you think there's anything left in Sweden?" Steve asked, pulling a clean shirt over his head. There was no point arguing with her on this, he was to tired protest and Nora was too energetic to listen to his protests. He was saving time, really.
"Because he circled back! There are tons of hydra bases in Russia, and it's right next to Kazakhstan. So something important was happening in Sweden otherwise Bucky would just save himself the energy by going through Russia to Sweden instead of skipping over it" Nora explained like it was an answer given by God himself.
"Maybe he was feeling funky, decided to switch things up, throw us off track" Steve was just brainstorming ideas at this point. He really didn't want to go to Sweden at unholy times of the morning.
"Steven, stop talking. You say you have morals and then you start killing my innocent brain cells" Nora snarked and Steve glared at the back of her head as they left the apartment.
"Yeah because your brain is so innocent" Steve scoffed and Nora didn't even look at him, she just flipped him off and kept walking.
"Have you called Sam?" Nora asked and Steve nodded.
"I didn't call him, I texted him asking him to meet us at the airport" Steve grumbled, he was tired and hungry. He suddenly hated the pushy, self obsessed woman in front of him with a passion. The pair climbed onto Steve's motorcycle.
"I don't have a helmet" Steve said, he'd probably survive a crash but Nora might not. Then again, she's taken more bullets than he has beatings and that's saying something considering she's still alive and kicking.
"Just drive, Rogers. The airport is less than an hour away" Steve realised that he probably shouldn't be driving when he is half asleep but the sooner they get to the empty base in Sweden, the sooner he could rub it in Nora's face and come home and go to bed. Steve is positive that Bucky will have obliterated the base. Nora's friend Daniel didn't find anything out of the ordinary, why should they?
"Okay I can accept the fact that you're dragging me over to Sweden, maybe you're right-"
"I'm always right"
"-maybe something did come up. But we couldn't have done this in the morning?" Steve asked, ignoring the interruption. The road they were travelling on was quiet, dead almost.
"It is morning, Rogers" Nora replied and Steve huffed.
"I meant after sunrise" Steve elaborated but Nora shook her head.
"You were awake anyway" Nora said and Steve tightened his jaw. Apparently he wasn't the only one who got cranky without enough sleep.
"We don't even have the money to buy plane tickets" Steve realised after a few minutes of tense silence.
"We won't need it" Nora snapped and Steve raised his eyebrows. What was she going to do? Hold a gun to a persons head and demand three free tickets?
"How are we going to get to Sweden? Steal a plane" Steve suggested jokingly and the humour died when he didn't receive a response. She must be joking.
"We are not stealing a plane!" Steve shouted and he couldn't see her considering she was behind him on the bike, but Steve knew, he just knew that she was rolling her eyes. She had informed him on several different occasions that he had 'too many morals' and they would 'never get him anywhere'. Because apparently to be successful you need to lie and cheat and kill people. Stark certainly didn't become a billionaire and an icon by playing by the rules.
"No, we're not. We're going to steal a helicopter" Nora said and Steve's hands tightened on the bars to try and steady himself after what he had just heard. Was she insane?
"We're what?-"
"Jesus Christ Rogers, calm down. I was kidding. Daniel is waiting for us in the airport with his own private helicopter, he was a fighter pilot for the French army back in the day" Nora explained and Steve calmed considerably. She was lying about the helicopter, and about Daniel being a pilot for the French. He actually used to be a fighter pilot for Hydra, he flew her brothers and herself to different countries several times for missions. But what Steve didn't know would only piss him off when he finds out.
"Oh, that's fine then" Steve said, feeling himself relax a little bit. Sure he has stolen cars before but never a helicopter, and not just because of the fact that he didn't know how to fly one. The only pilot experience he has was when he put the plane in the water in 1945. Steve shuddered slightly at the memory, it still gave him nightmares. He didn't wake up that morning because he wanted a glass of water...
"What if we get to Sweden and we don't find anything?" Steve asked and Nora was silent for a few moments, contemplating her answer.
"Then we'll make a map of the bases that Bucky has already hit and try to predict where he'll be going next" Nora said and Steve nodded. Or maybe it would be better to just let Bucky get it all out of his system and wait for him to find his own way home. If he even knew where home was anymore. Maybe Steve should try to prompt him, get an apartment in Brooklyn. Surely if Bucky sees the streets and the buildings it might trigger something in his brain.
The rest of the ride was carried out in silence until the airport. Neither of them had anything to say but it was a comfortable silence. The kind of serene silence that you would expect at nearly five am.
The pair of them stood in front of the helicopter, waiting for Sam. Daniel was already in the pilot seat, ready to take off at any moment.
"Are you sure you're ready for this, Steve?" Nora asked, almost gently, and Steve had to hide his shock. She called him by his first name for the first time, he thinks.
"You called me Steve" he blinked, trying to register this. It's funny how one little thing can send him into a state of shock.
"That's your name isn't it?" Nora drawled, talking to him like he was a child. Steve couldn't help it, he smiled.
"Yeah, I'm ready for this. I've been ready for this since I first saw Bucky on the bridge" Steve answered, watching as Sam's car pulled up.
"I mean it, Rogers. If you're not prepared for what we might come across, you can turn back and I'll track him down on my own" Nora rested her hand on his arm and Steve wondered if it was her lack of sleep that was making her compassionate. She'll be back to her charming self tomorrow, he's sure.
"I can't do that, who will be there for you when Bucky shoots you again?" Steve joked and Nora pulled her hair over one shoulder and grinned up at him.
"Please, his fingers won't even have time to twitch towards his gun. I'm on my top game this time around, he won't stand a chance"
"That's awful big talk considering he shot you multiple times and beat you so hard that you were in the hospital for days"
"Like I said, I'm at the top of my game. If he tries to kill me again I won't just put him in a hospital bed, Rogers, I'll put him in a coffin"
