A little bit more time at home, and then our boys are off to start their 7th and last year of school. With Kendall out of the way, hopefully things will get off to a good start.
(The title of this one is a line from the Christopher Eccleston Dr. Who episode, 'The Doctor Dances'.)
Most of their summer at home passed quietly, with only two major events taking place. The first was the announcement of Kendall's trial, set to take place in London at the beginning of August. Bucky and Steve each received letters from Phillips detailing how they would get there and what sort of questions they should be prepared to answer. Those letters were followed by two more cancelling the whole thing—Kendall was dead, and very violently so, murdered in his cell through some Hydra connection that had yet to be investigated. Steve was furious that Kendall wouldn't be facing justice, but, and it might have been wrong of him, but Bucky couldn't bring himself to feel too upset about it. After all the death that Kendall had caused, being murdered by his own people felt like its own kind of justice.
The second major event was far less relevant to the war effort, but had a great deal of impact on Bucky nonetheless. His ma came home from work at the post office one day and brought him a letter from Vicki. He'd gotten a couple from her over the course of the summer, but he knew she'd been busy setting things up after finishing school. According to this letter, though, she'd finally gotten her applications and test scores and everything squared away and had been accepted into a Healer training program. And she was…
"Whoa," he breathed, making sure he'd read the letter right. "Vicki's coming to New York."
"What?" Steve asked, looking up from his sketchpad.
Bucky tapped the letter. "She got top scores on her tests and got to pick which program she wanted to go into." He smiled. "She's coming to St. Clement's."
"Because she looooves him," Becky declared from where she'd evidently been hanging over the back of the couch and reading the letter over his shoulder. "I've missed you and I can't wait to see you!" she read in a weirdly frilly voice that was apparently supposed to sound like Vicki. "I—"
"Stop reading my mail," Bucky said, rolling up the letter and smacking her in the head with it.
She snickered and dropped onto the seat of the couch with a thump, rolling away as he swatted at her with the letter again.
"When does she get here?" Steve asked over the sound of Becky making kissing noises from the other end of the couch.
"Next week," Bucky said, throwing a pillow at his sister and hitting her squarely in the face.
"Hey, you should invite her to the dance at the church that weekend," Steve suggested.
"No, he shouldn't!" Becky protested, popping up from underneath the pillow.
"Why not?" Bucky wondered. "I thought you liked Vicki."
"I do, but you can't…It's the competition, remember? You and me are supposed to dance then. You can't bring a date," she complained.
"Aw, Munchkin, are you jealous?" Bucky teased.
"No," she huffed. "But I don't want you getting all tired from dancing with your girlfriend and then not doing good for the competition."
Bucky laughed and reached over and grabbed her ankle, dragging her back across the couch as she squeaked in protest. "Hey, I already told you I'd dance with you, didn't I?" She nodded. "So, don't worry about it. I'll dance with you first and we'll knock 'em dead. I'll dance with her after that."
"Oh. Well, okay, you can invite her, then."
"Thank you," Bucky said, still chuckling.
He did invite her to the dance, though as the evening got closer, he found himself a little nervous about it. He'd never actually danced with Vicki before. It wasn't as though there was much opportunity at school. The Yule Ball would have been his only option for it, but it had been canceled after the fighting started like a lot of things had. Not only was he going to get to dance with her for the first time, but…oh. Everyone was going to be there. Vicki was going to meet his parents. That was slightly terrifying for reasons he couldn't quite articulate. He swallowed nervously and adjusted his tie. It would be fine. Well, he amended as his sister's laugh drifted down the hall, it should be fine. Steve and Becky had better behave themselves.
Vicki met them at the church and greeted him with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. He introduced her to his parents and she smiled and chatted smoothly and politely and seemed much less worried about the whole thing than he did. Counting the other guys she'd dated, maybe she'd met boyfriends' parents before.
"So, what brought you to New York to study?" his ma asked.
"Well," Vicki said with a smile. "I'm hoping to go into Psychology with an emphasis on trauma care. Adriana Wilson is in charge of the program here, and she's one of the best Healers in the field." She smiled wider. "It didn't hurt that Bucky was here too," she added.
Bucky's ma laughed and Bucky felt his cheeks going red.
"I'm looking forward to seeing you dance," Vicki told him as he showed her to the seating area. "I've heard you're good. And if you move anything like you do on the Quidditch pitch…"
"So, no pressure, then," Bucky said with a grin.
"None at all." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Good luck. And don't wear yourself out too much. You've got to save at least one dance for me."
The competition started, and after a final admonition from Becky to pay attention to his footwork and not his girlfriend, they got going. He and Becky had been practicing all summer, trying out some new, more daring moves, and it paid off when they were awarded the blue ribbon at the end.
"We did it, Jay, we did it, we did it!" Becky squealed, jumping up and down and hugging him tightly.
"You bet we did!" he agreed, hugging her back and kissing the side of her head. "Good job, Munchkin!"
After catching his breath and getting something to drink, he danced the rest of the evening with Vicki. She was pretty good too, and Bucky wished he'd gotten an opportunity to do this with her before now. It was pretty great.
He saw her a few more times over the summer—she was pretty busy with her program, but she could usually find time on the weekends for an afternoon out or dinner at the apartment. She enjoyed getting a chance to see his favorite places around town, and he enjoyed hearing about her work, even if he didn't understand all of it—she clearly was loving it, and that was great.
The end of the summer came up awfully quickly, and it hit Bucky with a jolt as he got on the train that he was entering his last year. He didn't…yeah, he was seventeen, but he didn't think he felt grown-up enough for that yet.
Classes picked up as usual, with the reminders from all of his teachers that they would be sitting their N.E.W.T.'s this year, so they needed to start off strong.
"We've been back in class for an hour," Steve complained. "And the N.E.W.T.'s have come up three times. This is gonna be even worse than our O.W.L. year."
Their first Potions class was before lunch, and they got to meet the new teacher Phillips had gotten lined up, an elderly woman named Professor Kane who sort of reminded Bucky of the few memories he had of his grandmother.
"So, what do we think?" Jim asked as they left the class. "Hydra agent?"
"Doubtful," Bucky replied. "Phillips had to have vetted the hell out of her."
"True," Jim agreed. "And she only assigned us two chapters to read tonight, so that's a plus in my book."
"You think Kendall gave us so much homework because he enjoyed seeing us suffer?" Steve wondered.
"Well, he couldn't kill us, so he had to do something," Peggy pointed out.
The next couple of days were fairly normal. People were still talking about Kendall, but at least they had stopped bothering the Howlies about it. Professor Marsh was back and teaching again, though she was now sporting an artificial leg.
"Guess Kendall got her pretty good, huh?" Gabe said with a growl. After Erskine had died, Marsh had taken over as the Ravenclaw Head of House.
"It's real hard to notice, though," Dugan said.
"Well, sure," Jim allowed. "She doesn't want people talking about it. That's probably why she didn't bring it up."
The talk turned then to more pleasant things, and when the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, Peggy reminded them all to keep on top of their homework, since they were hitting the ground running this term. There was a meeting on Wednesday just to get back into the swing of things, then a planning session the week after that and a new mission the following Friday—another factory run with the 107th and 89th. Bucky was looking forward to something straightforward for a change—just go in there and blow things the hell up. He was also looking forward to having the element of surprise back, and not having to worry about their cover being blown from the inside.
They apparated into the Netherlands on the day of the mission, and they had a little bit of a hike from the safe zone to get to the factory before dark. Recon showed standard defenses, no one looking like they were on the alert or expecting an attack. There were a couple of Dementors roaming the perimeter, but those had been pretty standard for a while now. The teams were ready for them.
"Aw, hey, look," Dugan said, pointing at the fence. "They're trying a new defensive spell. That's cute."
"Bless," said Patrick, the 107th's curse guy. He flicked his wand at the fence in tandem with Dugan and there was a faint popping sound. "They should get marks for trying, anyway."
"Jim, you good on your side?" Steve said into his radio. Jim was on the other side of the factory doing the same thing Dugan was.
"We're clear, Cap," he replied.
"Two minutes," Steve told him. He looked at the guys gearing up around him. "Colin, you feeling okay about your new guys?" he asked quietly. The Fifth-Year volunteers who'd signed up had been doing some intensive training over the summer, but this was the first mission they were going on.
"They'll do alright," Colin assured him. "I wouldn't've let them come, otherwise."
Steve nodded, and Colin turned back to his team to give some last-minute instructions. "Something up, Steve?" Bucky wondered.
Steve shrugged. "Just, you know, new guys. And they're all…" He looked them over. "They're all really little."
Bucky chuckled. "Steve, everybody looks little to you. And they're fifteen. Which is only two years younger than you, and remind me how old you were when you started this again?"
"Shut up," Steve complained. "I just—"
"I know what you meant," Bucky said. "Yes, they do feel young, but Colin was right, they had to earn their way here. And we'll keep an eye on them." It did make Bucky kind of uneasy, thinking about the new Fifth-Years being here. They just seemed so young, even though he knew he'd been right where they were two years ago. But there wasn't much they could do but keep an eye on them.
"We'll make sure they're alright," he assured Steve. "But you don't spend all your brain power worrying about them. Keep your head in the game."
"Right," Steve agreed. He drew in a deep breath and squared back his shoulders. "You ready to raise a little hell?" he asked with a smirk.
Bucky grinned. "Say the word, Captain."
They burst through the fence like a tidal wave, the Howling Commandos living up to their name, and Bucky had to smile a little bit when he noticed a couple of the 107th guys joining in. The Hydra guards around the perimeter had clearly not been expecting anything, and, oh, it felt good to be back in the driver's seat for these things! The 107th soon had a path cleared for them across the yard, and he and Steve and Dugan met up with the rest of the team and the 89th guys coming from the other side. Rather than fight their way through the door where enemy soldiers were lined up waiting for them, they took out a chunk of the wall instead, taking a few Hydra guys down in the process and regaining the element of surprise.
Like most of the other factories, they split up on the work floor—the 89th off to rescue prisoners, and Dugan, Monty and Jacques running off to lay explosives. Gabe and Jim hit the administrative level looking for intel, and Bucky and Steve stayed on the ground floor to fight off any trouble.
He and Steve fought back to back, making sure all angles were covered that way. Bucky could hear the almost musical pinging sound of spells bouncing off Steve's shield, accented by the occasional sharp snap of a bullet. By now, Bucky was familiar with the soft whining noise those Tesseract guns made before they fired, and he grabbed Steve's arm and spun him around so that they switched places. Steve didn't fight the turn, just kept his shield up, and it blocked the wave of deadly energy that Bucky's shield spell wouldn't have. The shield spell was good for the bullets and spells still coming from the other side, though, so Bucky kept it up, and extended it when he heard Steve grunt and fling his shield off in the direction the energy had come from.
"You get him?" he asked when he heard the shield smack back into Steve's hand.
"Yep," Steve replied. "Left around the compressor." He spun off to the right and Bucky spun off to the left, rounding the large compressor unit and catching seven guys between him and Steve at the other end. He shot a couple of spells into the melee, then flung out a hand as Steve's shield came ricocheting back and forth between the walls of machinery, catching two of the Hydra soldiers in the head as it went. Bucky knew better than to try to catch the thing, but he snagged one of the leather straps that went around Steve's arm, spun in a tight circle that would've knocked 'em dead at the swing dance competition, and sent the shield flying back to Steve. They'd been practicing that, and the goal was just to return the shield to Steve, but Bucky managed to nail another Hydra guy with it too.
"Nice!" Steve yelled, snatching the shield out of midair and shooting Bucky a thumbs-up before bringing that arm back with a crunch that Bucky could hear into the face of the guy trying to sneak up on him.
When they cleared that row, they were back out on the floor, and Bucky took a quick scan of the room to make sure no one was sneaking up on Dugan and Jacques and Monty. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Steve grunt and double over as something caught him in the midsection, and he jumped to cover him. "You okay?"
" 'm good," Steve said, taking a second, but straightening back up. "Just winded me." Bucky nodded and waited until Steve had his shield back up before dropping his.
They fought and they punched and they cursed and hexed and kicked and spun, and what with the last couple terms and all, it had been such a long time that Bucky had felt like they were winning anything that this felt pretty great.
"We're heading for the yard, Captain!" Ethan's voice came over the radio.
"Monty, how we doing?" Steve called.
"Two more to set—start clearing everyone out!" came the reply.
Steve caught Bucky's eye and nodded at the door. "Go. I got it."
The end of the mission was always the messiest, like the Hydra soldiers got more desperate once the prisoners started getting out. Bucky was supposed to go cover the escape and help the guys in the yard out, and he hated to leave Steve here on his own, but Gabe and Jim were coming down to join him now, and somebody had to keep an eye on all the new little guys outside.
Bucky nodded and ran for the door, hopping up a stack of boxes and landing lightly on the roof of a shed. He pulled his rifle off his back and lay down—he had a great view of the yard from up here. Nothing was happening over by the door the prisoners should be coming out of, so he kneecapped a guy fighting with Colin and took out one more that was fighting one of the new guys that might have been named Chris before returning his attention to the door.
Ethan and Michael appeared, Ethan taking up a position by the door and Michael leading the prisoners toward the break in the fence. Bucky watched them as they went, firing at anyone who made a move to stop them. He watched for several seconds more after the last of them disappeared into the darkness, then pulled back to reload and turn back to the big fight.
He rolled to the side and hunched down on the roof as a bullet came whizzing past his head, then he heard a rough, heavy tumbling sound and a thump as a Hydra guard fell off the main roof of the factory above him, landing in a lifeless heap on the ground below. Bucky's eyes darted back in the direction the bullet had come from, and he saw Ethan lowering his gun. Bucky nodded in thanks and Ethan grinned and shot a salute at him before vanishing into the dark after the prisoners.
Bucky turned back to the fight, and, you know, it was a good thing these new guys were little, because he could shoot right over their heads and get a headshot nearly every time on the Hydra soldiers. It took a couple of shots to take down the absolutely massive guy that appeared from behind a truck. He was even bigger than Steve, and who the hell had let that little Fifth-Year he was fighting in here, because Bucky was pretty sure Becky was taller than that kid. The big guy went down, and Bucky turned his attention to the crowd ganging up on Roland and Colin, but between every shot his eyes kept going back and trying to find that little guy. He seemed to be holding his own, but Bucky kept checking, and he felt his mouth drop open when some kind of green fire came flying out of the little guy's wand, sending four Hydra soldiers flying through the air and crashing back down into motionless heaps on the ground. The little guy punched the air, and Bucky could hear his triumphant crow from here.
"Not bad, little fella," he said with a grin.
The kid turned back to the fight and so did Bucky, and then Steve was yelling through the radios for them to clear the yard. Bucky stayed up on the roof a few seconds longer, covering the 107th as they retreated, then slid down and darted after them.
He joined up with Steve and Gabe, watching their six as they headed for the fence. "Everybody out?" Steve called into the radio. Unit leaders all called back that they were clear, and Steve yelled, "Light it up!"
The moonless night was awash in orange firelight as the explosion shook the air. Someone off in the trees—probably Dugan, because it was usually Dugan—started howling, and the rest of the Howlies joined in. Bucky cupped his hands around his mouth and joined the cacophony, and even Steve let out a couple of quick howls.
"Alright, regroup and count up," Steve ordered once the noise had died down. Everyone had reported clear of the building, but they still needed a headcount. "I want a full count—casualty, wounded and walking—before anyone starts transporting. Security, give us a perimeter, and medics, check in with your leaders and then get to work."
Everyone got to work, and Bucky took over taking headcount while Steve coordinated with Security. The Howlies were all present and accounted for, and Michael reported that the 89th had several wounded, but no casualties. "107th, what you got?" Bucky asked, walking over to where Colin's team was gathered.
"Eight wounded, still counting," Colin said. "Charlie's patching people up, but, listen, you know about those Coleman guns, yeah?"
After Paris, the S.S.R. had tried to track down as many of Eric Coleman's hybrid guns as they could, but black marketeers tended not to keep the most accurate of records, and they knew there was no way they'd gotten them all. There had been missions reporting seeing them crop up since.
"Yeah, I mean, a little," Bucky replied. "Why? Were there some here?"
"I saw at least two in action tonight, and I think that's what this third one was that got Alfie. Can you have a look?"
"Sure," Bucky said, though he didn't really know what he'd be able to do. "Aw, man," he breathed, stepping into the firelight. Alfie turned out to be the little guy with the green fire—he must've gotten caught on the way out—and he was clamping his teeth down hard on the strap of Charlie's medical bag and trying not to scream.
"Nothing's working," Charlie told Bucky. He'd been promoted from back-up medic since Donovan left and was looking a little harried. "Have you seen this one before? It's like his leg is on fire."
A little bit of the sick knot in Bucky's stomach untwisted and he smiled reassuringly, because, no, he didn't know how to fix it, but he at least knew how to make it stop hurting. "Yeah, I got it. Sine Sensu," he said, and the kid almost fell over as he sagged down in relief.
"Thanks," Alfie breathed.
"No problem," Bucky told him, clapping a hand to his shoulder. He looked over at Charlie. "You'll need a Healer to get that out, but he'll be okay until then."
Charlie nodded, shooting him a grateful smile. "Thanks."
"Um, am I not meant to be able to move it?" Alfie asked quietly.
"Yeah, sorry, that's the only way I know how to make it stop hurting," Bucky told him. "But don't worry. Same thing happened to me, and I'm walking again. You'll be alright."
A relieved smile flitted across Alfie's face. "Okay, good. Thank you."
"You're welcome," Bucky replied. He grinned. "And I saw that thing you did with the green fire back there. Hell of a spell, man!"
"Told you the new lads could look after themselves," Colin told him proudly. "When I saw that in training, he was the first one I picked." Alfie blushed, but was smiling.
"You're gonna go places, kid," Bucky told him. "You good if I leave you here? I've got to finish counting people."
"I'll be alright. Thank you, Sergeant."
Bucky smiled. "Call me Bucky."
"Wow, really?" The kid was beaming. "Thank you, Bucky."
Bucky nodded, a little thrown off by the enthusiasm, and moved away to finish counting. "Oh, come on," Colin said as they walked away. "Don't act all surprised. You're Bucky Barnes of the Howling Commandos." He bumped Bucky with his elbow. "You're nearly as famous as the good Captain."
He winked and chuckled and moved away, and Bucky decided to just finish counting people and not worry about how weird someone thinking he was famous was.
He was smiling when he got back to Steve. "You got a count?" Steve asked.
"Yeah," Bucky said. "Twenty-three wounded on the teams, a hundred and seventeen wounded out of three hundred and sixteen prisoners, but there's no fatalities." He grinned. "Steve, nobody died."
Steve blinked. "Nobody died?"
"We're all here," Bucky told him. There hadn't been a zero-fatality mission in, well, thanks to Kendall, in quite a while.
"We're all here," Steve repeated. He laughed, then grabbed Bucky and hugged him. "We're all here!" he said again.
"Ha!" Dugan crowed from behind them. "Take that, Hydra!"
They were a jubilant group that returned to Hogsmeade. Phillips met them in town, like he usually did after factory runs, to help get the prisoners figured out. Though he seemed less than impressed by the boys' enthusiasm, Bucky still caught a twinkle in his eye.
Since it was still fairly early in the evening, once the wounded were seen to, several of them stayed down at the Three Broomsticks to celebrate. Music was playing, and some of the tables were cleared out of the middle to make some room to dance. There weren't a lot of girls around to dance with, but people were still having a good time. Bucky endured some good-natured ribbing after declining to join the other guys who were of age in a celebratory drink—the smell of the alcohol still turned his stomach. He grabbed a couple of sodas and sat at one of the remaining tables with Steve, who had also taken some teasing after the face he made when he tried a sip of Firewhiskey.
Bucky smiled. "Good job tonight, Stevie," he said, clinking his bottle against Steve's.
"You too," Steve replied. He grinned. "We really all made it out."
"We really did," Bucky agreed, still a little awed by the fact.
It was a loud and cheerful evening. Bucky found himself dragged into a dance-off against Monty and Jim, and Monty was no competition, but Jim gave him a run for his money. He bowed to the round of applause he received when it got to midnight and Phillips declared that all the students needed to head back up to school, whether they were of age or not.
Peggy had come down at some point with Phillips, and she was walking back up with Steve now, holding hands in the starlight and talking softly. Bucky didn't want to crash their evening, so he hung back with Jacques until Steve told Peggy goodnight at the stairs leading up to her dorm.
"Didn't see you out there on the floor tonight, Steve," Bucky said, nudging his friend's arm as they walked back to the dorm.
Steve shrugged. "Yeah, well, I…I don't really know how to dance, you know?"
"I doubt Peggy minds," Bucky said.
"No, I know, I just…" He shrugged again. "Okay, maybe it sounds dumb, but I don't want our first dance to be me messing up and stepping all over her feet with all those people watching."
"No, that's fair enough," Bucky agreed. "You want me to teach you how sometime?"
Steve considered. "Yeah," he nodded. "Sometime. I think that would be a good idea." He smiled, blushing a little. "I would like to dance with her someday."
Steve and Peggy did always take things slow. Bucky smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, we'll fix your footwork up, and then someday you will."
Hope you guys have a great week! I'll see you Friday! In the meantime, I'd love it if you stopped and dropped a note to let me know how you're enjoying the story.