...Kit...
I spend the next few hours in a place between consciousness and pure terror. The pain serum they used on me was bad enough, but the fear... I can't begin to explain the feeling that one brings forth. It's like when you're a little kid and you're trapped in a nightmare, your heart is pounding and you can feel tears in your eyes, but you are afraid you will never wake up. But then you do, you wake up in your bedroom and your parents come in and comfort you and dry your eyes. The serum doesn't allow that reprieve. There is no waking up, there are no parents drying your eyes and calming your fears.
There is only all consuming terror; I cry without realizing the tears are falling down my cheeks. When there is finally a break in the fear, when I can begin to feel my head rising above the water, John is there asking me about the Stark compound and beating on me when I have nothing to say. Even if I wanted to give him the answers to his questions, I couldn't. I was at the Stark compound for such a short period of time I know virtually nothing about it. I don't really know where it's located, I have only a vague idea. So many people came and went while I was there I make no attempt to guess at who lives there and who doesn't. And when he begins to ask me about the technology that Stark has, I realize he doesn't expect me to answer these questions. He's just using it as an excuse to torture me.
But that's okay. Because I can feel my strength beginning to return. And John will pay heavily for what he's done to me today. Every time I am able, I strain against the ropes, not enough to fully break them, but enough for me to confirm that I'm growing stronger. I don't want to break them and tip John off before I'm back as close to 100% as possible. I don't want to give him the chance to dose me with whatever he used to stifle the super soldier serum, so I wait.
I am nothing if not patient.
...Bucky...
"You lost a super soldier?" I roll my eyes as Stark continues to berate me. Steve, Tony, and I sit around a long conference table within the compound.
"Technically, Tony, she left of her own free will," Steve adds in my defense.
"How do you lose an entire person? Barnes, she was your partner!"
"She went off without telling me. We didn't have any ops planned for the day. Other than just... whatever Reed gave us when we showed up at the office. Can you track her or no?" I'm beginning to lose my patience with Tony. We've been back at the compound for over an hour and he has done nothing but complain at me.
"Of course we can," he says flippantly.
"Then we should get on that. Since she probably needs help?"
Tony essentially ignores me and instead addresses someone behind me. I turn around and see that Pepper has entered the room. "Pep, can you send in Vision and Wanda? I want to go over some plans with them."
"Hey!" I slam my hand down on the table, drawing everyone's attention to me. "We have more pressing business to attend to here." No one reacts immediately, instead I stare Tony down for what feels like a lifetime before he presses a few buttons on the laptop sitting in front of him, never breaking eye contact with me. A hologram that depicts what I can only assume is the entire city of New York is cast across the table in front of us. There is a red highlighted building off to the side, the compound we sit in now.
"Friday? Can I get an update?"
"Of course, Mr. Stark. I have almost narrowed down Miss Evans location. I just need a moment to confirm it." I clench my jaw as I realize that Tony most likely set Friday to the task as soon as Steve filled him in and we have just been waiting on her to locate Kit. I finally break eye contact with Tony and glance over at Steve. If it was any other time, I'd probably tell him to drop the amused smirk he wears.
"Mr. Stark, I have located Miss Evans," Friday's voice comes back to us after two painfully silent minutes. A new building begins to glow bright red on the other side of the city.
"Perfect, thank you, Friday. Well Barnes, I'll send you guys the coordinates."
"Thank you," I say and it tastes like bile. I should apologize, I know I should. But the words won't come.
Steve and I both exit the room and he claps me over the shoulder. "Let me go grab my shield. I'll meet you out front."
Steve drives and I stare at the map on my phone as the little blinking light that indicates our position draws nearer to Kit's location. Wanda Maximoff sits just behind me and I focus as hard as I can on my cellphone in hopes of ignoring her as best as possible. Something about her makes me uneasy and I can't put my finger on it.
"You care for her," her soft voice startles me and I glance over my shoulder to see her staring intently at me. "Katherine. You care for her."
"Of course I do," I snap. "She's one of our only ties to our old life." I see Steve glance at me from the driver's seat.
"That's not what I mean. You're very hard to read, James. But I can feel it." Her Sokovian accent isn't as thick as it used to be.
"Don't try to read me at all," I shoot back. Rolling my shoulders, I try to brush off her words. Care for Kit more than a friend? I scoff to myself. But as we drive on, I think about how she has completely consumed every thought for the last few weeks.
Of course she has, I rationalize. We've been stuck with only each other in that tiny ass apartment.
It's more than that though. Even before now she consumed me. From the time we were young. When Steve first started bringing her around she was an absolute nuisance.
She was fifteen and we were about to be eighteen. We felt worlds apart. That didn't stop her from tagging along everywhere we went. "She doesn't have anyone except for us," Steve had said. I had rolled my eyes and tried my best to shake this kid when we were out. It wasn't until the year I was drafted that I saw her in a different light. I hadn't seen her in well over three years and had barely thought of her. Steve gave me updates occasionally, but I rarely paid any attention.
I was 25 and walking around the Stark Expo after Steve had left me and the two girls I'd brought for our double date. I was walking through the crowd, my arms draped over the girls' shoulders when we almost ran directly into Kit. At first I didn't even recognize her, she had grown up in the few years I hadn't seen her. Her dark hair was pulled away from her face in delicate rolls at her hair line and long curls draped over her shoulders. Brown eyes that looked almost black in the dark expo were lined thinly with dark pencil. She wore a bright red lipstick and when she smiled at me, I noticed the pink hue to her cheeks.
"Well if it isn't James Barnes," she had said, her voice raised over the chatter of the crowd. Before I had time to react, she had slipped her arms around me, breaking me away from the other two girls and squeezed me tightly. "It's good to see you, Bucky."
"You too," it was all I could muster, the sight of her had floored me. We walked around the expo together for hours catching up, I couldn't even tell you what happened to those other two girls if I wanted to. By the end of the night she had weeded her way into my brain and she hasn't left since.
I never told Steve about that night, and I doubt I ever will. In the side mirror I catch a glimpse of Wanda in the backseat. She's sitting against the back seat, staring right at me with a smug smile as she crosses her arms. I heave a sigh and reposition in my seat so that I can't see her anymore.
"Okay, we don't know what to expect when we get in there. We don't know how many people are in there or what they're armed with. So with that in mind, Bucky and I will go in first, and Wanda you can follow us."
"What's she here for anyways?" I ask as I double and triple check my guns.
"Wanda is a very strong asset to have in case this goes sideways." Steve slides his arm through his shield and nods at me to take position. We march towards the door and stop just outside.
"What's the plan? Get in quietly-" My line of questioning is broken off by the door being ripped clean off the side of the building. The steel frame grinds loudly as it glows bright red and is flung into the gravel parking lot behind us. Wanda shrugs. "So not quietly then."
We move through the building, passing closed doors and clearing the rooms as we go. It's a small building with only one floor, so by the time we reach the last door, we've only been here for about ten minutes total and I'm beginning to wonder if Friday was wrong about this location.
"They have to be in here," Steve says as if reading my thoughts. We each take up position on either side of the door and stare across at each other. On the count of three, Steve kicks in the door and slides into the room; I follow immediately and run into his back.
"What-"
"Kit?" Steve asks as if confused. I step around him and see what caused him to come to such an abrupt stop. In the center of the room is a chair that is falling to pieces. Frayed rope hangs off of it and the legs are laying at awkward angles. Kit is standing just in front of us, her hair unkempt and eyes wild. There is blood everywhere. I holster my gun and shove Steve out of the way completely and stride over to Kit, grasping the sides of her face in my hands.
"Kit? Are you hurt?" I begin to look over her body, running my hands across her arms and over her abdomen looking for any wounds.
"No," she says, her voice dreamy. "This blood isn't mine." She shakes me off and points behind her. "It's theirs."
In my haste to get to Kit, Steve had surveyed the rest of the room. "It's John Teller. And... I don't have an ID on this guy. Not that I'd be able to anyways. Kit, what happened?"