Weeks later Bucky was standing in his bedroom looking up at a black suit that was hanging from the door frame. He'd finally got his court date and he was making himself look presentable. This morning he'd woken with the same head ace as before, it had become a reoccurring thing over the last few weeks.
With a heavy head Bucky slips into his trousers on and pulled his white shirt over his shoulders, he slides into the black blazer jacket then ties the laces on his smart shoes. Finally he picks up the tie that was on his bed swung it around his neck and walked out of the room. Steve was in the kitchen flipping pancakes; Bucky walked over to Steve and kissed his neck muttering good morning. Steve turned around and pulled Bucky in closely and kissed him, as they kissed Steve's hands moved up Bucky's chest and grabbed the tie, without even looking Steve tied a full Winsor knot around Bucky's neck. They broke apart and Steve ran his eyes from Bucky's feet to the top hair on his head.
Steve sighted happily "God you look sexy in that suit" both men chuckled together; Steve was in a grey three pieced suit with a pair of brown shoes and a red tie, of all colours. Steve turned back to the perfectly cooked pancake he picked up the frying pan and threw the pancake over his shoulder; the pancake whizzed across the room and landed perfectly flat on the plate that was on the dinner table. He looked at Bucky with a proud smile "breakfast is served"
"Clearly," Bucky walked over the table and put Nutella spread over his pancake and rolled it up taking a big bite. Steve sat across the table from Bucky taking the sugar and lemon juice and drizzled them over his pancake then folding it into quarters and used a knife and fork to cut bite sized pieces.
"So today it the big day" Steve said when he'd finished his pancakes.
Bucky smiled "It funny really, last time I went to court, they were trying to send me to prison but now they're forgiving me of the crimes that they found me innocent of." Bucky picked up his and Steve's plates and took them to the sink.
As Bucky was rinsing the dishes Steve came over and put his arms around Bucky's waist and placed his head on his shoulder for a moment the two relaxed in their snazzy suits and calm moods, thinking about how far both of them had come and both so overwhelmed that they found each other after such a bumpy road. However, like always, their moment was interrupted as Pepper walked into the kitchen, when she realised she had walked in on Steve and Bucky she tried to sneak out but Steve turned around.
"Pepper?"Steve said to her back.
"Sorry I didn't mean to intrude…" Pepper said apologetically.
Bucky looked at pepper and shook his head "no you're not intruding, what up?" he smiled at her.
"I just came in to tell you that it's time to go." Pepper said she was also dressed smartly, she was wearing a white fitted dress suit with a thin black belt, her strawberry blond hair was pulled into a neat pony tail, if Bucky wasn't head over heels for his precious Stevie and Pepper wasn't in a relationship with, of all people, Tony, Bucky would be attracted to her.
"Pep we have like three hours before it starts." Steve put his hands on his hips and stood in a very captain America-ish way.
"I wouldn't argue with her cap, that's a battle you will never win," Tony said coming into the kitchen putting his arm around pepper "trust me."
They left together and went down to the lobby as several shiny black cars pulled up. A man called Happy opened the door for Bucky and Steve; they got in and zipped down the streets toward where the Quinjet was parked.
The journey to DC only took an hour and they were sitting in the waiting room with an hour and a half to spear. Bucky didn't really understand why he was nervous, he was unaware that he was violently jumping his leg up and down until Steve put his hand on Bucky's thigh to stop him from shaking the chairs, Bucky put his hand on top Steve's and squeezed it lightly.
Seconds felt like hours, nobody talked because they didn't know what to say. They were all very pleased that Bucky was having the last weight of his past lifted off his shoulders and they knew that Bucky knew so there was no point in making pointless coverstation.
They were taken into a large court room and all Bucky's fellow avengers piled into the bench at the front, Bucky walked down the centre of the benches and through a little gate separating the witnesses from the judges area. Bucky stood directly in front of the judge then the whole court fell silent.
The judge coughed, then she started to speak "Mr Barnes, I would like to formally apologise for everything you been through, I have toughly read the many extensive files about the past 70 years of your life. It deeply saddens me to read that, a man so loyal to his country and to be best friends of our hero Captain Rogers, could be so mistreated. It was wrong, the things you have done… the things you were forced to do is unspeakable and shameful that I wouldn't wish it on anyone. However this is not a guilt that you should have to bear. It is not for you to burden yourself with the shame of those who how have conflicted such suffering upon you. Today I have called you forward from your home in New York City, where you have recreated a life for yourself, to formally pardon you of all crimes you commented when under the influence of the organisation, Hydra." There was a small pause, the court was deadly silent "normally at this point I read out the list of crimes that your being pardoned for but given that there is 70 years' worth the of them, many we still don't know about and might never know about, the list is incredibly long and you most likely want to start life as a free man as soon as possible." The judge got up from her seat and got down from her podium "I don't usually get up from my seat because it's meant to show that I am the superior ruling in this court room to give out justice where I see fit but I feel that in this case justice has failed you, sir and as a result you suffered 70 years of hell without anyone noticing. For that I am truly sorry for what happened to you" the judge extended her right hand out, Bucky took her hand in his and shook it firmly.
Bucky was in shock.
The judge led Bucky to a table with a piece of paper placed on it, she handed him a pen and Bucky sighed on the dotted lines which followed by the judge signing underneath and then stamping the paper with a small official looking stamp.
"There, you are officially a free man." She smiled kindly at Bucky. She returned to her seat "is there anything you wish to say?"
"Um…" Bucky was speechless but he felt he had to say something "thank you, I went 70 years without anyone showing me a shred of kindness, I have spent my recent days since I was found by Steve being afraid of who I was and wheatear what Hydra did to me would permanently change me. I never expected anyone to want to forgive me but I will be eternally grateful that you did." Bucky had forgotten that there was whiteness behind him and he jumped when he heard everyone start clapping.
When everyone exited the court room Bucky made a beeline straight for Steve and pulled him into a tight hug planting his face deep into his neck in an effort to hide the embarrassing tears rolling out of Bucky's cheeks. 'It's over' Bucky whispered 'I'm free' he was overwhelmed with happiness.
Steve smiled trough his tears "let's go home"
They spent longer traveling to and from DC than they did in the actual court room. On the jet home everyone was buzzing, everyone had smiles on their faces. Bucky and Steve sat in the corner kissing, Steve pulled away and looked into Bucky's eyes "I've just got to talk to Tony, I'll be right back" Steve quickly jumped up then truned around "don't go anywhere I fully intend to continue when I return" Steve smiled then headed off in Tony's direction. Bucky leaned his head on the wall of the Quinjet behind him and closed his eyes. He felt someone sit down next to him; he opened his eyes and saw Bruce sitting next to him his elbows resting on his knees.
"You must be happy." Bruce said to Bucky, he sounded happy but he had this worried look on his face.
"Words can't even describe how happy I am." Bucky smiled to himself.
"That good, you deserve it." Bruce nodded "so… um how are those head aces you were telling me about?"
"What? Oh um yeah there okay" Bucky answered
"Are they gone?" Bruce asked
"Um... No" Bucky was a little confused.
"Are they every day?" Bruce asked.
Bucky frowned "I guess… what this is about?"
"Oh um…" Bruce scratched his head "I might be able to help"
Bucky got the feeling there was something Bruce wasn't telling him but Steve was heading back over towards him and he hadn't told Steve about the head aces and now was not the time to bring it up "cool, I'll pop round the lab later?"
"Sounds good, I'll see you then." Bruce got up and nodded at Steve who sat where Bruce had just been.
"What did Bruce want?" Steve said taking Bucky's hand.
"Just to say that he was happy for me" Bucky lied, and then they both leaned into one another and continued where they left off.
After some fondue back in the apartment Bucky remembered what he had told Bruce he was going to meet him.
"Why now, can't you go tomorrow?" Steve said lying topless on the bed.
"You of all people would know that rude, besides I'll only be like twenty minutes" Bucky slipped a baggy t-shirt over his bare chest then leaned over Steve and kissed him and lingered for a few seconds then left for the lab.
As expected Bruce stood in the corner tapping away at the computer screen which showed a large diagram of brain when Bruce looked up and saw Bucky he minimised the brain and smiled warily at him. Bruce gestured for Bucky to sit down in a chair then pulled up a stool next to him.
"Thank you for coming." Bruce said, Bucky nodded once "so when you were here last, you told me that you were having head aces yeah?" Bucky nodded "and your still having them?" he nodded again
"They're just had ace right?" Bucky asked
"Well that's what I've been investigating," Bruce pushed his glasses up his nose "you see I've had a read about that chair you put you in and it's my understanding that the chair itself performs something similar to electroshock therapy but this version is so much more extreme. It affects all six lobes of the brain but mostly damaging to the temporal lobe where limbic system is located."
Bucky frowned "sorry, I'm not that good a science, lobes?"
"Sorry, um… section" Bruce pulled up the diagram of the brain and turned the screen so Bucky could see the screen clearly. He pointed to each section as he names them "the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, the occipital lobe, the insular cortex, the parietal lobe and the limbic lobe or system." Bruce looked back to Bucky who was nodding along "the damage to the parietal lobe had made it easier for hydra to control you. The parts that have sustained the most damage are the temporal lobe and the limbic system. These two areas of the brain cover visual memory and emotional memory respectively. The damage sustained here is why you didn't remember anything."
Bruce paused "what does this mean" Bucky was so confused.
"well due to the healing nature of your serum theoretically, you should make a full recovery but I don't hink that is what is happening, I've been keeping an eye on you since you got here and I thought everything was going okay and I wasn't going to worry you about this but then you said you started getting head aces and now…" Bruce was cut off.
"You need to dumb this down what does this mean." Bucky had grown tense.
"Okay…" Bruce looked up at the ceiling thinking of a way to explain that Bucky would understand "you're like a computer, when it's has an issue it tries to wire itself in order to fix the program but as it can't think for its self it usually programs wrong, it creates new programs, bad programs I think this is what your brain is doing."
"So I'm wired wrong, what does this mean for me?" Bucky said through his teeth.
"Well unless we can find a way of putting the wiring back in the right way, to put it bluntly, your brain will give up and shut down." Bruce looked gingerly at Bucky.
Before he knew what he was doing Bucky stood up looked around for something to break, a second later he turned to an empty lab table and flipped it across the room and screamed, his throat burning.
Bucky stood panting staring down at the table he's thrown, he sat calmly back down on the chair and looked at Bruce who had just ignored Bucky's outburst.
"I will not rest until I figured out how to help you, in the meantime is it okay if I bring Tony in on this discovery" Bruce said as if he hadn't just told Bucky he was dying. Bucky nodded.
"Whatever it takes, for Steve's sake." Bucky replied.
Bucky left Bruce to get started on his research. In the elevator back down to the apartment Bucky was desperately searching for word about what he had just found out, how was he going to tell Steve? When the elevator doors opened he walked into the apartment and saw Steve sitting in front of the TV screen half dressed.
"Ahh Buck, I need your help, I thought we'd have a movie night but I can't decide which film to watch, Pitch perfect or Monster ink?" Steve held up the DVD boxes.
"Monster ink." Bucky said with a sad smile.
"You utter life saver," Steve put the DVD in the player then got up and pulled Bucky to the sofa and kissed his cheek "honestly what would I do without you. You okay?"
Bucky sighed and smiled "yeah I'm fine." They both snuggled on the sofa and started the movie.
Author's notes: AHHHHHHHH NOOOOO I'm soooo sorry, I didn't mean to do that, I'm so mean! ;) Wow I wrote that chapter on Tuesday, Pancake Day (hence the pancakes). Sorry haven't posted very often I've been revising for my exams. I really like this chapter because there's a lot of drama and who doesn't like drama? Hope you guys like this chapter too :) happy reading.