Hello all!
Firstly, can I just say an almighty THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that reviewed! I couldn't get over it that people actually did bother to review! XD I wouldn't have updated have as soon only for them, so thanks so much for all the support!
Secondly, I'm hoping to have the next chapter up maybe by Halloween, because I'll have mid term exams with school and stuff so I'm sorry, I'll update when I can (it will be soon though!)
Finally, because school was so full on and everything (not that I'm making excuses or anything) but this chapter isn't the best so I'm really sorry about that! I'm hoping the next one will be better!
Right, thanks for reading this, and thanks for all the support, it means an awful lots guys!
Enjoy!
Cecy impatiently pushed a fresh curl out of her face and pinned it back into place. She looked into the mirror and straightened her tie. "I am the boss, I am the boss, I am the boss," she repeated furiously to herself, as she desperately tried to ignore the squirming sensation that had taken up residence in her stomach over the last few days, and was making its presence more and more known with each passing moment. The events of the last few days went around and around in her head like a blur, with only certain moments standing out. Most prominently, seeing Bucky's face from behind the glass as they laid him out on the bed to sleep off the sedatives. It bothered her conscience more that she thought it would; because once he woke up she didn't know would he ever be that peaceful again for a long time.
That was presuming, over course, that his brain hadn't suffered any damage from the ice.
She took deep steadying breaths and went over and over the information she had memorised. His place of birth, his family, his friends; both soldiers and civilians, his hobbies, what jobs he had, his past addresses, where he was stationed during the war... every aspect of his life that was documented, she had memorised. She just hoped she would be able to remember these things if he started to get violent. Don't think about that, she said to herself, that's what the panic buttons is for. If it worked for Mandy it will work for you. Slightly reassured by the thought of her sister, she exhaled slowly as she took a final look in the mirror when there was a familiar knock on the door.
"Come in," Cecy called. She knew who it was anyway.
Jemma slipped into the room. "The monitors show Barnes as approximately ten minutes away from regaining consciousness," she informed her. Cecy found she couldn't speak so she merely nodded, and swallowed hard.
Jemma put her hands on Cecy's shoulders. "You'll be fine," she assured her, "there's no one that could do it better."
Cecy could only nod in response; she seemed to have lost her voice.
Jemma hugged her tightly. "It'll be okay," she reassured her again. "If anything happens, we'll be right outside." She hugged her for another few moments, then let go. "Come on, we'd better go."
An eerie calmness stole over Cecy at that moment as they left Cecy's room and made their way through the maze of hallways to get to the hospital style room that Bucky was being held in. Cecy held her head high as she walked next to Jemma, choosing to ignore the obvious stares and mutterings of good luck from the other agents, but suddenly wishing that she had gotten changed in the locker room off the holding rooms, which was a lot closer to the phoney hospital. Her 1940's military uniform made her stick out like a sore thumb among the other agents that were either dressed in all in black, or with white lab coats or blue scrubs.
Bucky's fake hospital room was not like Captain America's. They obviously couldn't let him break out and see for himself that he was in the 21st century like Steve did, so the design was a little different. The room was more like a turn table, and the plan was the once Bucky was gone past the panic stage, they would show him the rest of headquarters instead of him breaking out and wreaking the place. Hunter did point out that he only had the one arm, but Coulson warned all of them not to underestimate the strength of a super solider. The rest of the team would be watching Cecy and Bucky from behind two sets of one way mirrors, and would be able to hear everything through Cecy's earpiece.
Jemma and Cecy entered the room where the rest of the team would see all the action. They were all there already, of course. Bobbi and Skye were monitoring screens, Fitz was fiddling with Cecy's earpiece and the rest were huddled in groups talking, or watching Bucky through the window. Once Fitz saw her he gave her an encouraging smile, before handing her the earpiece and the buzzer with the panic button and giving her a tight hug. Everyone else stopped talking. Jemma took Bobbi's place watching the screens as Bobbi gave her a quick hug too. "You look just like Mandy, honey," she whispered in her ear. Cecy grinned, "Thanks Bob," she replied.
Coulson came over and shook her hand. "Best of luck, Lewis."
"Thanks sir," Cecy smiled nervously.
"Get ready to go in, Cecy," Jemma called. "He's waking up."
Cecy took a deep breath, put her earpiece in and went out of the viewing room. She walked down the corridor and waited outside the door. She was suddenly acutely aware of a pulsing in her ears, and hoped that she would be able to hear Fitz through it. She took quiet, deep breaths and listened hard on the other side of the door. She could hear the baseball game playing on the radio, the same one that had been playing for Captain America. According to SHIELD files, that game was the last one that both the Captain and the Sergeant attended, before the latter was sent to England.
"He's after sitting up and he's looking at the radio," Fitz informed her through the comms. "Now's the time, Cecy. Good luck."
Cecy swallowed hard and opened the door. Bucky was indeed sitting up, on the edge on the bed. His right hand was gripping the sheet on the bed in a tight fist, and he looked a bit unbalanced, like he was still adjusting to the fact that he no longer had his left arm. He looked up when she entered the room, and Cecy felt her heart break just a little. She only caught a glimpse of a frightened and vulnerable expression before he masked his emotions quickly. So he had put two and two together.
"Good morning." Cecy was surprised at how calm her voice sounded, "Or should I say, afternoon," she added, as she glanced at her watch.
"Where am I?" Bucky didn't look at her as he spoke, he looked straight ahead of him.
"You're in a recovery room, in-" Cecy faltered. If she lied now, he wouldn't trust her. So she told the truth. "In Alaska."
She heard a buzzing in her ears, which was Fitz muttering, giving out to her, but she ignored it.
"Alaska?" Bucky was momentarily thrown. "How-" He stopped himself as the radio cheered, and looked up at her with both hardness and pain in his eyes. "The game. It's from May 1941, I know because I was there. It was the last one I went to before-" he closed his eyes and stopped himself from talking. Cecy waited for him to break the silence, but he didn't.
Cecy felt her heart fill with pity. At least she had chosen this life, but from her research she knew that Bucky hadn't, he had been drafted. "I'm sorry, Bucky- I mean, Sergeant," she quickly corrected herself, but it wasn't quick enough.
"How do you know me?" He stood up angrily and faced her. Cecy had to crane her neck slightly to see his face, he was so tall. "Who are you? Where am I?"
Don't panic, Cecy thought in her head. You can do this.
"Sergeant Barnes," she spoke clearly and calmly, as she held her hands up, "I will tell you everything you want to know, but I would advise you to sit down first."
"Why?"
"Come on," Cecy sat down on the bed, and gestured for Bucky do the same, which he grudgingly did. "We thought it would be best to put you in familiar surroundings, we didn't want you to be distressed waking up, I'm sorry if we failed on that front," she explained to him, even though the fact that he realised that something was up was definitely a very good sign. Bucky looked at her, confused and still slightly angry, so she tried a different approach.
"Sergeant, what is the last thing you remember before you woke up here?"
The comms were completely silent, none of the team dared to make contact with her when she was in such close proximity to Bucky in case he could hear them too.
"Why do you want to know?"" Bucky was more confused than angry now. "Where am I, really?" He pleaded.
"Answer my question and I promise I will answer yours," Cecy promised him.
Bucky looked at her for a long hard moment, as if he was sizing her up, and Cecy stared right back at him, so he sighed.
"The last thing... we were fighting a HYDRA guy in a massive suit with weird weapons that had beams coming out of them, like the ones in the prison camp, but bigger," Bucky seemed to forget he was talking to her, and more like he was talking to himself, he was staring straight ahead again. "I used Steve's shield to protect myself as I was shooting at him, we shot him down but one of the beams hit off the shield, it threw me backwards out of the train. I hung on to the side but it wouldn't take my weight. Steve tried to get to me, but he couldn't." Bucky swallowed hard and got himself together before continuing, "I remember falling down, then I must have hit my head or something because after that all I remember was pain and this... coldness," he shuddered accordingly and put his head in his hands.
Cecy didn't know what made her do it, but she hesitantly reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she apologised again, though it was more for what she was about to tell him than from what he had said.
"You want to know where you are, Sergeant. You are in Alaska, but this room doesn't really look like this. Like I said, we wanted to put you in more familiar surroundings before we told you."
"Before you told me what?" Bucky asked, taking his head out of his hands and looking at her warily.
Cecy removed her hand from his shoulder and slipped the buzzer out of her pocket. "This is going to show you what the room really looks like. Are you ready?"
Bucky nodded, a look of disbelief creeping into his features as he looked at the tiny object with amazement.
Cecy pressed the reveal button, and the room transformed. The old fashioned dressers were swapped around, replaced with more modern shelving. The hard wooden chair in the corner was replaced by a fancier plush chair with back support and all. The wooden lockers at the side of the bed, the fan on the ceiling, the radiators on the walls, even the wall colour itself, were all changed and updated to more modern equipment. Bucky's mouth fell open in amazement, and Cecy looked at him sadly.
"Sergeant Barnes, you are in the international headquarters of SHIELD; the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division, formed after World War 2 by Chester Phillips, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, as a successor to the SSR."
"Wait, the war is over? How long was I out for?"
"Today's date is the 11th of March, 2016," Cecy told him sadly. "You've been asleep, Bucky, for over seventy years. I'm so, so, so sorry."
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