Hello all!
This might be the fastest I've ever updated a chapter on a story!
I think this is one of the longest chapters I've ever done too! ;-)
Anyway, I think I changed how Bucky and the other soldiers got captured for the sake of the story, its only a small thing anyway in this chapter.
Hope you all enjoy!
A few days previous...
Bucky sat bolt upright, sweating all over and shaking. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his heads as he tried to remember where he was, until it all came back to him.
He was in the future.
All his friends, except Steve, were dead.
He took deep breaths and shivered again, feeling the coldness of the room even though his super solider skin. He tried to separate what had been real and what had been a dream. He still felt cold to the core, and knew he wouldn't warm up sitting alone in the room. He grabbed a hoodie from the wardrobe SHIELD had provided and set off down the hall.
Even though it was two in the morning, the corridors were teeming with agents in the night shift. For a half an hour he wandered through the halls, glancing into different rooms as he passed them, marvelling at the leaps in technology since he had been around last.
He came to a room with no windows at the side but the door was half open. Feeling a gust of warm air from the room as he passed, he doubled back and peeked in.
The room was empty except for a girl with her back to him at a laptop. She was sitting at what Cecy had called an "island" earlier, in a room that seemed like a kitchen to Bucky's eyes. He saw a kettle and, suddenly feeling hungry, went into the room to try to find something to eat. As he approached the island, he saw that the girl was indeed Cecy, and she had fallen asleep with her head resting on her hand, giving the illusion from behind that she was reading something on the screen. Bucky scanned the screen as he past. She was researching the Cold War and had a notebook and pen beside her, which she had written in how the Cold War and World War 2 were linked. Bucky chuckled quietly, realising that she was doing all this research for the next history lesson with him tomorrow.
Quietly he made his way around the kitchen, searching for something edible before slamming a cupboard door shut by accident as it slipped out of his hand. Cecy woke with a jump.
"M'up!" she declared, scanning the room dizzily before rubbing her eyes and yawning. She blinked hard a few times before her gaze landed on Bucky. She grinned sheepishly and blushed. "Caught in the act, I guess."
Bucky grinned with her. "You're not the first to fall asleep on duty. I used to do it all the time, it drove Steve crazy."
"I'm sorry we can't reunite you two sooner," Cecy apologised. "Protocol is a pain in the rear end sometimes."
"You're doing your best. Besides, it's not all bad. I get to catch up on what I've missed from a very intelligent and attractive teacher." He winked cheekily at her.
Cecy laughed. "You mean Fitz, right?"
"Obviously," Bucky retorted, and they both laughed again.
"What are you doing up anyway Sarge?" Cecy asked curiously, while closing up her laptop.
"I was feeling hungry," he replied, not looking at her. "You?"
Now it was Cecy's turn to be uncomfortable. "Much the same reasons as you," she admitted.
Bucky nodded while still staring at the ground.
"I'll put the kettle on," Cecy suggested, as she jumped up and filled it with water. "The solution to any problem is a cup of tea."
"Where did you hear that?" Bucky asked curiously.
"Fitzsimmons, and they're both British so they know all about tea."
"Fair enough," Bucky grinned. "Hey, Cecy," he said, suddenly curious, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why did you join SHIELD?"
Cecy shrugged. "My sister was the main reason, I guess. I idolised her growing up, and when these two men came to the door to recruit her I idolised her even more. She was sent to the operative's college and she graduated top of her class," she said proudly, as Bucky's stomach squirmed with guilt, Fitz's warning the only reason he kept his mouth shut. "They came for me a few years later, but I was sent to the science college, and I was recruited straight after graduation. I worked in the main headquarters until HYDRA was found, and when the new SHIELD was founded I was put working with Fitzsimmons. That was four years ago, and now here we are." She grinned at him and poured him some tea, and went to a cupboard to get some biscuits. She put her finger on a scanner next to the handle for the door and it scanned her fingerprint and opened it.
"I didn't realised people around here were so protective of their food," Bucky said, grinning.
"Oh, you should see it at Christmas," Cecy exclaimed. "It's like a battlefield. Fitz made the scanner so people would stop stealing our food, so we share this cupboard. Simmons has her own one though, she still doesn't trust him. He can still get into it and steals a biscuit or two sometimes, but she doesn't know that."
Bucky laughed. "I wouldn't like to get on her bad side."
"You and every other sensible person in the world." Cecy grinned. "So, are you going to tell me the real reason why you're wandering around at half past two in the morning?"
Bucky stared into his tea. "I had a dream about the fall," he said softly, "and after that I couldn't sleep."
Cecy bit her lip. He was still staring into his tea like it held all the answers to the universe. "My guess it wasn't pleasant."
Bucky bowed his head and nodded once.
Without thinking Cecy crossed the distance the island put between them and put her hand on his real forearm. "I'm sorry."
Bucky stared at where her hand was in confusion and she made to take it way, but he grabbed her hand with his and held it tightly. Cecy looked at his face. His lips were clamped together and his eyes were squeezed shut. Cecy slipped her hand out of his and wrapped both arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder, which she could manage since he was sitting down. For a split second his arms hung limply at his sides, and Cecy wondered had she crossed the line, after all they were a lot more aloof and into personal space back in the forties. But almost as soon as the thought entered her head he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tightly to him.
They stayed hugging each other for a while before Cecy asked softly, "Do you want to talk about it?" She pulled back and looked at him though he still had his arms around her. "I've been told I'm a good listener."
Bucky sighed. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."
Cecy held her hand out. "Deal."
They shook hands, and Bucky sighed again, before looking around at the door. "How likely is it that someone will walk through that door?"
"Not very, but you never can be sure with this place," Cecy admitted. "Look, my room is warm and I have more food there, and a TV. Plus there's a lot less of a chance of being walked in on than there is here." She nodded towards the door. "If you want to."
"Sure," Bucky agreed. "Lead the way."
Cecy packed up her laptop and made her way to her room, Bucky falling into step next to her. She opened the door to her room and held it open for him. Bucky surveyed the room with interest.
There was a double bed in the middle of the room, with a TV mounted on the wall opposite. There was a table and two chairs near the window, with at the moment was showing the view of the Grand Canyon. Cecy put her laptop down on the table and opened the door of her beside locker, and tossed Bucky a bag of marshmallows. "I hate them," she explained, "But Jemma thinks I like them so she keeps getting them for me. So if you could dispose of the evidence that would be great." She plopped down on her bed and gestured for him to do the same.
It was a lot warmer in here than it was in his room, Bucky noted, as he sat down.
"So," Cecy said, as she opened a packet a chocolate biscuits and offered him one. "Whenever you're ready, Sarge."
Bucky accepted a biscuit and began. "It started off with me and the guys planning an attack," Bucky started, "We were going to seize what we thought was a disused HYDRA facility and we were prepared for a few odd soldiers hiding there. We didn't know it was fully operational." Bucky shuddered. "We didn't stand a chance, and we had to surrender."
Cecy knew this part of the story. How Barnes and his team were captured was one of the first things about him she had memorised.
"Then everything got messed up. I remember being injected with this stuff in one of the torture chambers and suddenly feeling really, really cold. Next thing I know I'm falling off a train, and I split my head off something and I wake up, freezing."
Cecy guessed this was an abridged version of events but let it go. "Was it cold in your room, Bucky?"
Bucky nodded. "When I woke up it was."
"It must be that bloody timer; I'll get Fitz to look at it tomorrow. That room isn't used to having people in it so the heating is turned off at twelve." She grabbed a pen and scribbled heating-Fitz on the back of her hand. "The cold must have been a trigger of some kind," she explained. "I'm really sorry, Bucky."
"Thanks," he said, smiling, "but it isn't your fault. And what about you anyway? What's your reasoning to be up at this crazy hour?"
"I'm not a big fan of sleep, strangely enough," she grimaced. "So I try to avoid it as much as possible, unless I'm super, super tired, then I can't help it."
"Why?"
"Being in the lab with Fitzsimmons is great, but some of the stuff we've had to analyse over the past few years...,"she squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered. "Some of it comes back to me when I'm asleep."
Bucky still looked puzzled.
"Some of the weapons HYDRA has developed over the years are designed to kill people in the most painful ways known to mankind," Cecy explained, "and we've had to analyse the body count. I've seen friends, good agents, hit with guns that burned them from the inside out, some who've have limbs sawed off by axes, been burned alive," she twisted her hands into her hair in frustration. "The brain doesn't let you forget stuff like that easily."
She bit her lip again and Bucky cautiously put his arm around her. "Have you ever anyone about this?"
"Yup," she grinned, "just now," before changing the subject. "Want to watch a movie? You have missed some great leaps in cinema during your time in the ice, my friend."
oOo
From some reason, the memory played in Bucky's mind as he watched Cecy get wired up to go meet her sister. "I don't like this," he said to Steve, "I don't like this at all."
"Don't worry," Steve assured him, "She'll be okay."
Bucky ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "It just feels like how it did when we tried to take the HYDRA base. Something big is going to go down, I can feel it." He turned to Steve, "And you're certain no one can go with her?"
"Are you sweet on her?" Steve asked suddenly.
"What? No!"
"Bucky."
"I'm just worried," he said, "She was the first person I met when I woke up, and she's been nothing but kind and helpful to me, and I'd rather not see her killed."
"You're still a really bad liar Bucky," Steve said, grinning. But the grin slipped quickly from his face as he took in Bucky's determined one. "Director Coulson," he walked over to where Coulson was in deep conversation with May, worry clear on both their faces.
"Yes Captain?" Coulson looked up in surprise.
"Are you sure that no one can accompany Agent Lewis to see her sister? Bucky's worried about her, and he has a hunch something big is going to happen. I've learned to trust his hunches, he's usually right."
"I wish I could say yes, Cap," Coulson said, sighing, "But Ward knows every single one of our agents, and if he's with Amanda he'll know something's up. Same with the Avengers"
Steve frowned. Coulson was right. He looked around the room, and watched as Bucky spoke to Cecy, before he reached forward and hugged her tightly. A light bulb went off in Steve's head.
"Sir, what if we let Bucky go? No one knows he's alive except for the Avengers and SHIELD."
"It's risky," Coulson hesitated, before he looked over Steve's shoulder and saw the two. "But, there's safety in numbers, I guess." He put a hand to his forehead. "Get him wired up."
"Thanks sir." Steve went over and clapped Bucky on the back. "Suit up, man," he said. "You're going with her."
