Chapter 24
Thea looked up from the book that she had been pretending to read for the past thirty minutes and said wryly, "Is it just me or have we joined a bizarre sort of travelling circus?"
Laughing in spite of herself, Mary-Claire replied, "Definitely. Two very petite women with no self-defence skills to speak of and four children under the age of three are hardly in need of this much supervision."
"Supervision. That is one word for it. We cannot even have regular nannies now. No, we have to have former spetsnaz to care for the children. I wonder where they keep their knives, don't you? In beside the nappies, likely as not. I hate this."
Mary-Claire grimaced. "Yes, but our last nanny was killed, you know. I have no doubts that these women would at least be able to defend themselves, in addition to the children. Sadly, that is the reality in which we find ourselves now, Thea. And then we have the Russian doom and gloom squad who are here to protect us from the soldiers. Of course, the soldiers are here to protect…well, I'm never quite sure if it is us or the rest of the world from us?"
"I don't think they are here to protect anything, Mary-Claire. They are here to enforce. If we seem as if we are thinking about not following whatever the latest requirement is, then the soldiers will make certain that we reconsider our options. I believe that Yasha was very clear with Vadik about what to do if it comes to that."
"I'm certain that he was, but I am not going to a part of some ridiculous battle royale. We are going to do whatever it is that we have to do to be there for Bucky and Steve, aren't we? We do still agree on this, don't we?"
Reaching out and patting her friend's arm, Thea replied with a sad smile, "Absolutely, dear. Yasha never does stop to consider that I'd rather stay with him under adverse conditions than live without him in the utter lap of luxury. It isn't as if I haven't been given multiple opportunities to take my children and return home to England with all rights and privileges returned and once even offered for a respectable fortune added to my bank accounts."
Mary-Claire nodded. "Bucky does seem incredibly determined to assume that you can't possibly love him like he does you. For everyone other than him, it is easy enough to see that, fortunately, he is quite wrong on that."
"That he is, but he isn't able to accept that yet. As frustrating as he can be, I do understand why he is this way. I don't think that Steve has any confusion on that point regarding you though, does he?"
"He'd better not! If he doesn't know how crazy I am about him by now, then he's dumber than a pile of dirt and blinder than a one-eyed bat."
Thea laughed. "I don't think that Steve is the slightest bit unintelligent, so we shan't worry about that. Just look round though, Mary-Claire. What on earth is going to happen when we get to New York? I really hope that no one gives Seryozha an opportunity to test out whatever weapon he strapped to his back there. I don't think that it would take much. Of all the men, he is most obviously afraid of upsetting Yasha."
"Maybe, but Vadik is the most devoted of the group and he looks bored enough to be willing to use any excuse to take offence on behalf of his beloved Starshina Soldat."
Looking warily over at Vadik, Thea muttered, "Oh dear." Then she glanced at both Gleb and Kostya and said, "Goodness. You are right. I think that I might need to intervene a bit." Then she looked at Mary-Claire with surprise and added, "You caught on to their new title for him, did you? It startled Yasha the first time that he heard it, but he's so pleased that he never corrected them. Of course, he always refers to himself as Zimniy Soldat when he talks to them."
Mary-Claire nodded sharply. "I wouldn't have noticed, but Steve mentioned it. He told me that Bucky intentionally played on his terrifying reputation in choosing only Russian mercenaries, in addition to his belief that they're better trained than most. But Bucky also told Steve that he never imagined that they'd have any loyalty to him personally."
"How very like him. Yasha just cannot see how special he really is, unfortunately. Thank goodness I am not alone. I do think that I ought to speak with Vadik, perhaps. Don't you?"
"I do. He looks twitchy."
Sighing exhaustedly and then smoothing out her dress, Thea turned towards Vadik and said succinctly, "Вадик, ты думаешь, что сможешь прийти и поговорить с нами кратко? (Vadik, do you think that you could come over and speak with us briefly?)"
The dour man quickly moved over to Thea's side and replied, "Да, конечно Феодора Вильяминовна. Чем я могу вам помочь? (Yes, of course, Theodora Vil'yamnova. How can I help you?)"
Smiling sweetly up at Vadik, Theodora replied in a very soft, girlish voice, "Поскольку она нервничала, я объясняла Мэри-Клэр, как сильно мой муж доверяет твоя команда чтобы мы были в безопасности. (Since she has been feeling nervous, I have been explaining to Mary-Claire how much my husband trusts your team to keep us safe.)"
Vadik straightened his spine and held his shoulders stiffly, as if at attention, clearly showing his pleasure in the compliment. He replied gruffly, "Спасибо, Феодора Вильяминовна. Старшина Солдат и Капитан Америка сделали очень тщательные планы. Все мы полны решимости. Ваши семьи будут в безопасности. (Thank you, Theodora Vil'yamnova. Senior Sergeant Soldat and Captain America have made very thorough plans. All of us are determined. Your families will be secure.)"
Thea looked down at her lap, as if embarrassed, and then said demurely, "Спасибо, Вадик. Я знаю, что могу положиться на тебя, так как мой муж сказал так. (Thank you, Vadik. I know that I can rely on you, since my husband has said so.)"
Vadik nodded complacently. "Спасибо, Феодора Вильяминовна. (Thank you, Theodora Vil'yamnova.)"
Next, Thea glanced over at Mary-Claire and then again and Vadik as she asked, "Разве это сильно расстроило бы твои планы, если бы один из мужчин остался рядом с Мэри-Клэр? Я просто думаю, что так она будет чувствовать себя в большей безопасности. (Would it upset your plans very much if you had one of the men stay near Mary-Claire? I just think that she'll feel safer that way.)"
Shrugging heavily, as if being handed a horrible burden that he would be willing to bear for honour alone, Vadik answered seriously, "Я могу сделать это, если хотите. (I can do that, if you would like.)"
As if she were very flustered, Thea replied, "Это повлияет на план моего мужа? Естественно, я никогда не хотел бы отклоняться от плана Зимнего Солдата. (Wouldn't tying you to our side dangerously risk my husband's plan, however? Naturally, I would never want to deviate from the Winter Soldier's plan.)"
Vadik was unable to hide his relief, as he frowned in the direction of Seryozha and then said glumly, "Вы правы. Возможно Глеб или Сережа тогда. Их роли не сильно пострадают. (You are correct. Perhaps Gleb or Seryozha then. Their roles would not be much affected.)
With a warm, flattering smile at Vadik, Thea answered softly, "Я доверяю тебе, Вадик. Спасибо. (I trust you, Vadik. Thank you.)"
With clear approval at her attitude, Vadik bowed slightly and said, "Пожалуйста, Феодора Вильяминовна. (You are welcome, Theodora Vil'yamovna.)
As soon as Vadik had moved back to their other bodyguards to explain the situation, Thea looked back and Mary-Claire and winked.
Nodding with approval, Mary-Claire whispered, "Good job."
His senses started to come back to him piecemeal: first, via a strange series of clicks and tinny clangs, his hearing; then a burning, throbbing awareness of his arms and legs; and finally, his vision as he attempted to slowly open his eyes and was met by a glare from multiple surgical lights powerful enough that it was nearly impossible to see more than the wall beside him. The location in his neck where he'd been injected was still sore, but he no longer felt the intense burning in his veins from whatever drug he had been given. He was still physically incapable of getting up or defending himself in anyway. As best Steve could determine, he was sprawled across the floor of some sort of medical office.
It was strange, honestly, as he had expected they would move Bucky and him into isolated cells where they could more easily be tortured away from prying eyes and ears. This room seemed to be a strange place to choose, although Steve didn't have any foolish notions that he was going to avoid an 'enhanced' interrogation just because they'd brought him to a location that was unlikely to be soundproofed. Regardless of Bucky's concerns of his naivete, Steve was quite prepared for the horror of what lay ahead of him—even though he was dreading it with a terror that was difficult to mask.
Steve did not know what nightmare they had in store for him, in fact, as he was already struggling to keep his focus off the pain from numerous large welts across his legs and chest that must have been burnt into his skin whilst he was unconscious, in order to better torture Bucky. Whoever the people were that had paid for Bucky and him to be interrogated here, they had sufficient intel to know that the best way to hurt Bucky was to harm the people he loves. Initially, Steve had not expected that degree of cleverness, but, as usual, Bucky had predicted exactly this scenario during their planning back at Arnwell. For perhaps the thousandth time, Steve silently uttered a torrent of curses onto the heads of those who were responsible for his best friend's innate, empirical personal understanding of the wide range of human torture.
"I will be with you in a moment, Mr Rogers. You have excellent timing, in fact. That secondary dose was just sufficient to keep you on ice until I was ready, wasn't it? And, despite my initial misgivings, the dosage of the paralytic appears to have been sufficient. You see, I have only just finished with Mr Barnes and it would have been most inconvenient to have you awaken too soon or be able to move those so famously powerful arms. This is most satisfactory, I must say. Now, I only need to finish resetting all of my equipment and then we shall begin."
Steve did not acknowledge the man's words. Bucky's admonitions were still fresh in his ears: reply only to questions and then with just his name, rank, and serial number. His eyes had now become slightly accustomed to the brightness of the lights that were directed onto the floor where he'd been placed. Therefore, he let his eyes roam the walls of the room, searching for both information and anything that he could use as a mental distraction once his own interrogation began. Unfortunately, the walls contained little on which he could focus, so he closed his eyes briefly to mentally compose himself. As every stitch of his clothing had been removed, the heat from the lamps was uncomfortable enough even on his undamaged skin, but it was actually baking the burns so he could feel each one independently and yet jointly as if they were joined into a body-wide, throbbing message: Do Not Give In. Do Not Forget.
Finally, he returned to perusing the bland room and, as he read the certificates behind the large desk that had been turned into a makeshift instrument bench for the torturer, Steve realised that he must be in the private office of the prison's chief doctor. Yet, he was quite confident that the very pale, blond man in front of him was not Dr Kenwarpreet Singh Brar. Precisely who the man was didn't really matter. The name of the person who was going to make his life a temporary burden to him was far less important than the fact that Steve could see with relief that the man had not succeeded with Bucky. The man's body language shouted anger and…interestingly…fear. So, that meant that They (Ross? HYDRA? Some other entity?) would not win if only Steve could be strong enough to last.
That was fine. It would be ok then, since Steve was never going to be tricked into giving away anything other than what he and Bucky had planned for him to say. The good thing about his enhanced body was that he could withstand significant torture without risk of permanent injury. Steve clenched his teeth as the man picked up a nasty, hooked looking device and walked towards him. (The worst thing about his enhanced body, however, was that he could withstand significant torture without risk of permanent injury.) He could do this. He could do this. Everything was at stake. He could not fail them now.
"Steve?"
He heard Bucky's tremulous query and immediately tried to sit up to face his friend.
As Steve involuntarily made a sound of deep pain, Bucky called out anxiously, "Careful, pal, they really did a number on you. You need to rest some more."
Several moments later, Steve had managed to haul himself into the upright position and was perched on the edge of the bed, as he asked worriedly, "You ok, Buck?"
Bucky's voice was low and angry as he muttered, "I will be anyway. That f***er didn't want to do enough damage to risk any serious injury. Apparently, the Army has 'concerns' about retaliation before the court-martial can be completed, so they got a medic and shrink comin' to check on me daily. So, from the outside, at least, I will look fine when the Army reps show up again tomorrow."
Groaning slightly as he made an inadvisable movement, causing his spine to scream in agony at him, Steve managed to reply, "Not sure I can say the same." Then he asked, "Wait, what do you mean 'again'? How long have I been out?"
Bucky frowned angrily. "Three days. They kept you in the infirmary. The guards were in such a panic about how torn up you were that they forgot not to talk where I couldn't listen in. Apparently, Dr Helgar didn't wanna stop working on you, since he had guaranteed success to his superiors. And, from what I could overhear, the Army ain't comin' to watch over you like they are me. They don't think there is any risk to Captain America, apparently. F***in' idiots still don't get it."
"S***." Steve gasped in pain, as the row of incisions along his backbone had not yet healed enough to permit him to move as quickly as he had tried to do. He took several shallow breaths and then managed to say thickly, "I guess that means that bastard is going to be given another opportunity."
"No, I don't think so, Steve." Bucky was looking at him with agony-filled eyes as he explained further, "Helgar was screaming like a caged animal at the two prison officials who finally intervened. I've heard that tone of voice enough times to know that Helgar was terrified of what his failure meant for him. Not sure, but I have to guess that Helgar thinks that Ross isn't going to be able to pay off enough people to arrange a second chance for him to try. Getting this slipped in before we were fully processed was one thing. Now that we are in the system and being more carefully monitored, well, that's different. Not sure what is going to happen to Helgar, but from the degree of fear I heard, death is the nicer option."
"I wish that I still had faith enough to believe that." Steve rubbed his hands over the remnants of the burn welts that crisscrossed his torso. "However, every time that I hope that things are going to be fair and reasonable, that faith gets rent, crushed, burned, and drowned until I wonder why I keep allowing myself to have hope in the first place. I'm tired of this, Buck. Just so tired." Steve had to look away from Bucky, since he could see that his own condition was causing his friend intense pain. "We surrendered ourselves in good faith. We've complied with every reasonable and unreasonable and outrageous request that they've asked of us. Why do they need to treat us worse than dogs, too?"
Bucky cleared his throat and leant back into the cinderblock wall behind him, as he replied, "Because they hate us. It's that simple, Steve. They're afraid of what we are capable of doing. It don't have a d*** thing to do with laws and justice. They don't care that the Sokovia Accords have been suspended. It doesn't matter to them that HYDRA's trigger words have all been removed from my brain. They wanna make an example of us, so other enhanced—just like the mutants—know their place because we scare them now that they realise we have our own minds. There were a lot of people who grew up thinking of Captain America like some kind of mythological, perfect hero, Steve. They don't like being reminded that you're a man and they definitely don't like the reality that the Winter Soldier is a human either."
"Maybe. I don't know, Bucky." Steve sank back down onto the mattress and groaned in pain. Neither of them talked for almost ten minutes, as Steve kept his eyes closed and tried to find some semblance of his usual self-control. "Buck, you know that I agreed to Dr Erskine's experiment because I wanted to do good. I wanted to help my country and protect people who couldn't help themselves. But…now, I'm supposed to apologise for doing just that. It doesn't make any sense, Buck."
Steve could just hear Bucky quietly reply in his sad, deep voice, "No, it doesn't, pal. And it isn't fair, no matter what bulls*** they try to sell us. But this isn't the end, remember? You gotta stay with me, Steve. You got that?"
"I know. I know. It's just that I'm just so d*** tired. The last few years, it seems like everything I do gets turned on its head. And every time that I get something good, someone tries to rip it away. Do you know that the longest time that I have ever had with my boys was when we were staying at Arnwell, as we waited to be transported here to Rikers'?"
"I'm sorry, Steve. It isn't right, I know that. Especially as I got to be there with Jamie for his first year. There isn't anything fair about any of this. Unlike you, I never agreed to the serum that HYDRA gave me when I was captured. Or to anything they did afterwards to make me into their f***in' murder slave. But my lack of consent isn't enough to make people care, right?"
Steve snorted and then growled, "No."
"So, the only people to whom I am a human and not either a slave or a monster are you, Thea, and your wife. But s***, Steve, that is three more than I had on my side for seven decades. And you're still Captain America, pal. People do believe in you."
"No, Bucky, I was Captain America. Now, I'm just a disgraced former war hero. S***, Buck, did you see that some of the press was even pissed off to know that I'm not actually a captain anymore? Did they think that I wouldn't progress in rank for all this time? Apparently, I was misleading everyone by still calling myself captain, since they couldn't figure out that Captain America was my job, not my name. Regardless, now I'm just Colonel Rogers, liar and accused traitor."
Bucky made a noise of genuine anger and said fiercely, "Aw sez you, Rogers. What's with the f***in' pity party you're throwin' over there? So what if the press made an ignorant story out of your rank? That just shows you how hard they had to work to find anything to criticise you about, since your character is untouchable. Anyone who doesn't know how POW/MIA promotions work can ask the d*** Pentagon. Your updated rank is even attached to your name on the Medal of Honour list, which is public enough for anyone, isn't it? S***, even HYDRA was aware of it, Steve."
Steve grunted with pain and sighed heavily. Gesturing angrily at his friend, Bucky continued, "Look, pal, Thaddeus Ross is a month-old half-digested piece of goat tripe. We know that he's out to get you because of his private agenda. But the thing about living s*** stains like him is that the stench eventually becomes noxious enough that they get taken out by the other people in power who aren't willing to lose what they got just to save a t*rdface like him. Steve, Ross has lied to enough people about what has really been going on that he's not going to be able to save himself this time. People like heroes and they like a good redemption story, so the regular American people are gonna come down on your side."
Now sighing with less misery and more acceptance, Steve shrugged and said seriously, "Maybe. But I'm more worried about you, Buck. They gotta see that you're innocent of all this. It wasn't your fault."
"Look, we got plenty of evidence that I was a POW. We got proof of what they did to me. We can demonstrate that the trigger words were removed, so I'm not a threat anymore. They cannot forcibly wake the Winter Soldier, so I'm just Bucky Barnes now. Guess we gotta wait and see what that means, huh? No point in worryin' about it right now, Steve. You gotta give yourself a break from all this agony you're puttin' yourself through, ya know? No sense in doin' all the work for them and torturin' ourselves, pal."
"Yeah, I know. You're right. But I have to know, Buck, if you're really ok. They didn't do serious damage to you?"
"Not too bad, so I'm fine. I've had sessions with HYDRA torture experts that would make that piece of s*** that Ross hired look like Florence Nightingale. Looks like you're the one who got the brunt of it, Steve."
"Yeah." Steve shoved his fingers into his hair and smoothed it back, as he said quietly, "Helgar really didn't hold anything back. At first, it was just external, but then he realised that I wasn't caving like he'd expected and that was when he began the drugs and…" Steve's voice dropped as he muttered, "brought out the scalpel and an acid injector."
Bucky roared with fury and miserably explained, "S***. S***. That means Helgar was HYDRA trained, Steve, since they developed that particular treatment on me. Я буду срать на их похожие на пизду лица, а затем я выкопаю их глаза, которые я буду кормить их. Я желаю им всего того ада, который они навлекли на тебя."
Shocked at Bucky's desperate response—especially the enraged, ugly Russian curse—Steve made a point of calmly replying, "Look, Buck, it is ok now. I'll heal. It isn't a big shock that Helgar is HYDRA, is it? I don't think that Ross would care if he knew, as long as he got the info he wanted out of me. Hopefully, whoever is gonna take over my interrogation under the aegis of the prison isn't gonna try to repeat what Helgar did."
"Nah, it takes practice to perform that procedure and, unless you're enhanced like us, it is always fatal. HYDRA loved to remind me of that."
Steve groaned as he laid himself down on the mattress once more and said exhaustedly, "D***. Hate those guys."
"Me too, pal. F***. Me, too."
Note: Cтаршина (Starshina) is a senior enlisted rank that was introduced during the Soviet era. It has different meanings depending on the branch of service. In this case, the title is being used to designate the Winter Soldier as their leader, not just their boss.
In reply to my guest review: Unfortunately, I am fairly certain that Bucky would reply that he would be curious to know a few statistics comparing the White Sox to his beloved Dodgers. After a quick Google search (just because SOME super-soldiers don't know how to use the world wide interwebs, that doesn't mean ALL of us are luddites, Steven), he would probably be relieved to know that the White Sox have managed 3 WS titles, 6 AL pennants in their 120 years, compared to the Dodgers' 5 WS titles, 23 NL pennants in their 137 years. Naturally, this will just be proof positive to him that the Dodgers (despite having left the greatest place on G-d's green earth and moved to Cali-freakin-fornia) are still the greatest team in baseball. But then, Bucky would be the first to tell you that he's pretty much a world-class jerk, so I hope that you, dear reader, will forgive his unnecessarily competitive reply. Personally, I think he's nuts. My favourite team has only won 3 WS titles and 17 NL pennants in its 149 years, yet it is clearly superior to the Dodgers, so what the heck does Bucky know about what makes a great team? :-)
